Join us for a conversation marking the launch of two enlightening new books on Russian culture from distinguished historians Lesley Chamberlain and Rosamund Bartlett - Arc of Utopia: The Beautiful Story of the Russian Revolution and The Russian Soul: Selections from A Writer's Diary by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Lesley Chamberlain's Arc of Utopia: The Beautiful Story of the Russian Revolution offers a fresh look at the German philosophical origins of the Russian Revolution and links the final upheaval of October 1917 with an astonishing period in art, street drama and poetry. The Russian Soul: Selections from A Writer's Diary, introduced by Rosamund Bartlett, is a new anthology of a remarkable but still little-known work by Dostoevsky in which the writer engaged with his readers about issues concerning Russia. A unique journalistic enterprise incorporating art and politics, it is also eerily prescient of global preoccupations in the twenty-first century.
The authors will discuss their latest work and share their thoughts on the origins and outcomes of the seismic events of 1917. Signed copies of each book will be available to purchase at a discounted price.
Lesley Chamberlain, a novelist and historian of ideas, lived and worked in Communist Russia and has been writing about Russian history and culture for forty years. Her books include Motherland: A Philosophical History of Russia (2004) and The Philosophy Steamer (2006).
Rosamund Bartlett is a cultural historian with expertise in Russian literature, music, and art. Her books include Wagner and Russia and biographies of Chekhov and Tolstoy, whose works she has also translated for Oxford World’s Classics.