Beschreibung
Translated from the Russian and Rewritten by Anna Mueller, Nee Svertchkoff. Translation by author's niece. Dust jacket complete. Cream cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine, gilt illustration on upper cover. Colour map end papers. Previous owner's inscription on half title. Colour and b/w plates. Fold out colour plate. 269 pages clean and tight. Preface, "I believe that every person who translates a book, or any other literary work, has a definite motive for doing so. The fact that "Alexandrite" was written by my uncle had undoubtedly played a role in my desire to translate it. However, this was not the only reason. But first about the author. Dimitri Svertchkoff was born in St. Petersburg in 1873. The family Svertchkoff belongs to the old Russian nobility dating back to the beginning of the Seventeenth Century, with its roots in the provinces of Tver and Mogilev. At the age of nine, Dimitri was sent to the Polotskiy Cadet School and later on went to the Nikolaevskiy School for Military Engineers in St. Petersburg. Having completed his studies, he joined the 16th Engineers Battalion in Vilna and was later transferred to St. Petersburg. My uncle Dimitri was always interested in the progress of his country and particularly in the aviation which, at the turn of the century, was just beginning to acquire its wings. While serving with his regiment in St. Petersburg, he attended the Aviation School in Gatchina. At the same time, he also studied at the Archeological Institute and graduated from this Institute. He fought during the Russo-Japanese war and was a member of the Staff of Adjutant General Oskar von Grippenberg. During the first part of World War I, he fought on the Turkish front and was cited for bravery. Later, he was assigned to the "Jeleznodorozniy Polk", the regiment whose officers accompanied the Czar and the Imperial Family on Their travels. Into his exile, after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he had taken with him love for his country and warm affection for everything Russian. In this book, full of emotional drive, he gives us a picture of people taken from all walks of life in pre-revolutionary Russia. All of his characters appear real in their relation with each other, as they move through the pages of the book. From Count Ropshin, a Russian nobleman, and his mother, the old Countess, to Ivan Sukonnikov, son of a simple merchant in Kostroma, the beautiful enigmatic Dora and Kate, a young American girl who came to visit a friend in St. Petersburg. Most of the episodes, especially those during the Russo-Japanese War and World War I, were taken from actual life. And now comes the other reason. In our time, there is a marked tendency not only in literature but also in the theater, cinema and television, in short everywhere, to bring out strange, often abnormal types of human beings, placing them in equally strange situations, often dramatizing these situations to the detriment of the story itself. So many books now written either deal with people with heavy psychological problems or are filled with descriptions appealing to sensuality. The publicity in general is based mainly on sex. We know all this, and many find it rather disquieting in view of the growing youth. Most of us attribute this unhealthy and unnatural trend to the restless manner of life we are leading and the general insecurity prevailing in the atmosphere. Many, looking for an excuse, cover it all with just one word "modern", as if a label could give an explanation to a situation as complex as this one. We argue, we take sides, but unfortunately do not go any further. We all seem to be always too busy, always running somewhere, probably away from the problem instead of facing it with courage and conviction. The people you will meet in Alexandrite had their problems too, big and small, and the story tells you in a simple and unornate way how they were able to meet and cope with the many difficulties life had put in their way. I sincerely hope t. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 137008
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