Binyon's _Pushkin_?

[Alexandra Ioannidou]

I have read it and I do not share your opinion. I found the work splendid,
whereas I believe that the distinction between man and poet wasn't anyway
clear particularly in 19th century Russia. Additionally I think that the
deacades lasting perception of Pushkin as THE country's national poet both
in pre-revolutionary and in soviet time did not allow us a modest view on
his life. This, I think, is one of the biggest earnings out of reading this
book - the poet as a boheme of his time and not as the always misunderstood
genie and at last the assasinated martyr of Russia.(This perception lasts
since Lermontov!) I could write more about it, but don't forget also one
detail: Usually we read a poet's biography after we have read her/his poetry
or because we have read her/his poetry. Also: Why should we seek the
arguments for reading a work of literature in an author's/poet's biography?
Alexandra Ioannidou
University of Macedonia
Thessaloniki, Greece

----- Original Message -----
From: "pjs" <pscotto at MTHOLYOKE.EDU>
To: <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 10:24 PM
Subject: [SEELANGS] Binyon's _Pushkin_?


> Has anybody out there read Binyon's _Pushkin_? Seems to me he's done a
> fantastic job sorting out the facts (as it were) of Pushkin's "as a
> man," but having read it through, I got no idea of his life "as a poet".
> (If you will allow me to make those distinctions.) By the end I had no
> idea of why anyone would even want to read Pushkin, and felt throughly
> beaten down.
>
> Just an idle question.
>
> Peter Scotto
> Mount Holyoke College
>
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