Novel
Кюхля
Not translated into English
Yury Tynyanov · 1925
Opening lines
Вильгельм кончил с отличием пансион. Он приехал домой из Верро изрядно вытянувшийся, ходил по парку, читал Шиллера и молчал загадочно.
Wilhelm finished boarding school with distinction. He came home from Werro having shot up considerably, walked in the park, read Schiller and kept an enigmatic silence.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from archive.org
Synopsis
Wilhelm Küchelbecker, a sensitive and romantic young man from a poor German Protestant noble family, enters the lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo, where he becomes a friend of Pushkin but endures the cruel mockery of his classmates. The novel follows this clumsy, passionate poet and seeks what led a man with no soldier's temperament to revolution: in December 1825, he is found on Senate Square, among the insurgents.
Context
The author's first novel, the book appeared in 1925. A philologist, the author had devoted studies to Pushkin, to Griboyedov and to Küchelbecker, and he put this knowledge at the service of the novel. The book brought him success and opened a series of novels devoted to poets of the Romantic era, including Griboyedov and Pushkin. The French translation by Lily Denis appeared from Gallimard under the title “Le Disgracié”.
Who it is for
A historical novel of about three hundred and fifty pages, which assumes some knowledge of Pushkin's lycée and the December 1825 uprising.
Prizes and reception
The book that launched its author as a novelist and that has been constantly reissued in Russia ever since.
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