Sofia Petrovna (European Classics)
Editorial Reviews
From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister
Sofia Petrovna is an unusual book - one of the few novels about Stalin's purges written soon after they occurred. It was almost published in the Soviet Union in 1963, but, after receiving sixty percent of her royalty advance, Lydia Chukovskaya was told that the work contained "ideological distortion" and would not go to press. In response, she sued for the rest of her advance - and won. Two years later, the work was published in Paris. The novel opens with Sofia Petrovna, a mother who has recently discovered the joys of a paying job as a typist. Sharing her apartment with several other families or attending mandatory meetings at work - all are simply parts of her daily life as a Soviet citizen, as unquestioned and necessary as brushing one's teeth or washing dishes. When the purges begin and the director of her office is taken away, even after her own son is arrested, she tries to believe in both the government and in the innocence of people she loves. But as Sofia Petrovna stands in line after line - attempting to gain information, pass along money, plead for her son - she slowly loses her innocence and her sanity. Sofia Petrovna is not Lydia Chukovskaya, but the emotion and experience for the book came from the author's life, including the arrest and murder of her husband. In this slim novel Lydia Chukovskaya was determined to describe, through the life of an ordinary woman, "an educated society driven to loss of consciousness by lies." -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian
Sofia Petrovna (European Classics),Lydia Chukovskaya,Aline Werth,Northwestern University Press,0810111500,1925-1953,Fiction,General,Historical fiction,History,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Soviet Union,Fiction / Literary
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