The Birth of the Body — Russian Erotic Prose of the First Half of the Twentieth Century: A Reader

Description

This concise reader/anthology of Russian and Soviet erotic prose written between 1900 and 1940 consists of three parts: Silver Age writings, interwar émigré literature, and early Soviet fiction. It was not the author’s intention to select the most accomplished works dedicated to the theme of sexuality and eroticism. Rather, the choice for the most part fell upon texts previously unavailable in English and thus less known to readers who do not read in Russian. In addition, these works give a good idea of how the “birth of the body” in Russian literature and culture actually happened and of the laborious, difficult nature of this birth. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Translator and Editor’s Foreword Part One Erotic Silver Age (1900–1922) Vasilii Rozanov Selected Excerpts Leonid Andreyev In the Fog Aleksandr Kuprin Seasickness Fyodor Sologub The Tsarina of Kisses Part Two Inheriting Silver Age in Émigré Writing Vladislav Khodasevich About Pornography Georgii Ivanov The Decay of the Atom Part Three Early Soviet Erotic Fiction Panteleymon Romanov Without Bird Cherry Vikentii Veresaev Isanka Recommended Further Reading