Swans of the Kremlin: Ballet and Power in Soviet Russia

Galina Ulanova and friend watch a student perform

By Christina Ezrabi, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012

An academic text about the role of ballet in the early days of Soviet Russia.  The Mariinsky (later Kirov) and the Bolshoi troupes where the only ballet companies with imperial status, and after initial suspicion, the Soviets tried to co-opt the glory of pre-revolutionary culture to their own ends.  The Soviet regime worked to dispel Russian "backwardness" by promoting "kul'turnost," making bastions of high culture available to the common worker.  They argued that Soviet citizens read more books than any other people on the planet and had access to superb ballets.  This book helped me to understand the "Russianness" of  Mariinsky and Bolshoi dancers today: the emphasis on character dances, the history of the drambalet, their enduring mastery of ballet cannon such as Swan Lake, and the role of the Vaganova Ballet Academy.  

Old Morality

Henry Raeburn, Sir Walter Scott, 1822

By Sir Walter Scott, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009

A story of 17th century war between Tories and Whigs in Scotland.  A critical introduction, notes, and a glossary made this a much richer reading experience than my earlier attempt at reading Sir Walter Scott.

The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov

Set design for the Ballets Russes

By Paul Russell, Berkeley, CA, Cleis Press, 2011

A wonderful novel about Nabokov's younger, gay brother set in Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Paris.  The story offers a whirlwind tour of early modernism with Diaghilev, Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, and Alice B. Toklas all making appearances.  This book is great fun and captures the heady parade of early 20th century European culture.

Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition

Sir Thomas Lawrence, Margaret, Countess of Blessing, 1822

By Jane Austin, ed. by Patricia Meyer Spacks, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2010

Ah, what a glorious edition of Pride and Prejudice!  This is a richly illustrated and lavishly annotated edition of a novel that is, by now, almost too famous for its own good.  I am so familiar with the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy through movies and the novel itself that I wasn't sure what I could gain from rereading Austin's tale.  Spacks is a wonderful companion for the reader.  The notes summarize scholarly debate without losing site of what may interest the general reader.  It was a real pleasure to read P&P slowly and carefully with Spacks as my guide.

The Bride of Lammermoor

Natalie Dessay in The Met's Lucia di Lammermoor

By Walter Scott, s.l., s.n., no date

Lucia di Lammermoor is my favorite opera, and I couldn't wait to read the novel behind the performances that I've loved so well.  What's better than Lucia's Mad Scene?  Big mistake.  I bought a horrible edition from Amazon without an introduction, textual notes, or anything to aid the reader.  The narrative is in standard English, but I don't read Scots!  I could get the gist of what occurs in any given scene without being able to decipher the individual words, but geez.  The narrative gallops along, and I tried to immerse myself in the Romeo and Juliet story of Lucia and Lord Ravenswood.  I did a little online research to better understand the political dynamics of 17th century Scotland, the setting of the story, but without the necessary context, this novel was a slog.