Konstantin Paustovsky was the standard-bearer for the liberal tradition in Russia and an outspoken critic of Soviet repression at the time of his death in 1968. Set amidst the bloody turbulence of the First World War, the Russian Revolution and Civil War, The Story of a Life, Paustovsky's epic autobiographical masterpiece, captures with rare lyrical beauty and power the writer's humane vision and his abhorrence of violence in all its forms. In a review of Douglas Smith’s new translation, the Spectator observed that “A more gloriously life-affirming book is unlikely to emerge this year.” Now, at this dark hour in the history of Russia and Ukraine, Paustovsky’s voice is needed more than ever.
Join Douglas Smith, translator of the new edition of Paustovsky’s masterwork The Story of a Life, and Rachel Polonsky, author of Molotov’s Lantern, for a fascinating discussion on one of the forgotten greats of twentieth-century literature. This is an online-only event.
Described by The Telegraph as 'Outstanding... A sparkling, supremely precious literary achievement', the new translation of Paustovsky’s sadly underappreciated memoir brings it to life for a new generation.
Konstantin Paustovsky was born in Moscow in 1892, but spent his childhood in Ukraine, being schooled at Kiev's First Gymnasium. After serving as a paramedic in World War I, Paustovsky worked as a journalist until he began to write the novels, short story collections and critical essays that would earn him his place as one of the most admired and respected figures among Russia's contemporary writers. Paustovsky began work on his autobiography, The Story of a Life, in 1943, parts of which first appeared in English translation in 1964, four years before he died.
Paustovsky was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1965. In Russia he remains a household name to this day, and his shorter works have been studied by schoolchildren for decades. However, he is remarkably unknown in the English-speaking world. The Story of a Life shines with artistic talent and remains a stark testament to the chaotic Revolutionary period in Russian history.
Rachel Polonsky and Douglas Smith will discuss Paustovsky’s life and work, the inception of this new translation, and why The Story of a Life still resonates today.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Douglas Smith
Photo credit: Robert Wade
An award-winning historian and translator, Douglas Smith is the author of six books on Russia. His works have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Douglas has taught and lectured widely in the United States, Britain, and Europe and has appeared in documentaries for National Geographic, the BBC, and Netflix. He is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including a Guggenheim fellowship.
His book Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy was a bestseller in the UK. It won the inaugural Pushkin House Book Prize in 2013, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and was chosen Book of the Year by Andrew Solomon in Salon. His 2016 biography Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs was a finalist for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Dr Rachel Polonsky
Photo credit: James McMillan
Rachel is Vice-President of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, and Fellow in Slavonic Studies. She has also written for Prospect, The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, and The Spectator, among other publications. Rachel's scholarly interests include nineteenth and twentieth century poetry, fiction, and memoir, often with a comparative emphasis, and the place of Russian literature in the overlapping contexts of cultural, intellectual, and political history.
She is the author of Molotov’s Magic Lantern (Faber and Faber, 2010) (Faber and Faber, 2010). It was published in the US in 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and has so far appeared in Dutch, French, Polish, Chinese, and Italian.