Aleksander Griboedov’s Woe from Wit: A Commentary And Translation

Griboedov’s comic drama existed only in manuscript in his lifetime, and was not published in a complete form until a decade after his death. Woe from Wit was hailed as a masterpiece by no less than Pushkin, who predicted that half its lines would end up as proverbs. Here Hobson offers each of those elegant and surprisingly realistic lines in English, and includes a comprehensive nine-chapter commentary, including that on Griboedov’s stylistic influences and personal conventions, his use of writing as a weapon and his motivations for considering it so, and his use of duality and opposition. In the process she also provides a wealth of critical responses, reflected in her comprehensive bibliography. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR