"This is the first systematic historical anthology of Russian women's writing to appear in any language." "At a time of growing interest both in the West and in Russia itself, the Anthology provides a radically new sense of the dynamic development of Russian women's writing - poetry, prose, and drama - over the last 200 years. Including important texts by well-known writers such as Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Elena Shvarts, and Olga Sedakova, the Anthology also introduces outstanding works by lesser-known writers such as Sofya Soboleva, Olga Shapir, Mariya Shkapskaya, Anna Barkova, and Vera Merkureva. All translations have been commissioned for this volume and poetry is presented in the original Russian as well as in English." "A companion volume to Catriona Kelly's History of Russian Women's Writing, 1820-1992 (also available from OUP), this is an indispensable source for readers and students of women's writing, and for all those concerned with women's history, the history of feminism, and Russian literature in general."--BOOK JACKET.

Includes index.

Poetry, prose, and drama; poetry is in original Russian and English translation.

Invocation, from Heroides, Dedicated to the Muses (poem, 1777) / Ekaterina Urosova 'Though poverty's no stain' (poem, 1813) Conversation between Me and the Women (poem, 1818) / Anna Bunina To Diana (poem, before 1824) / Elisaveta Kulman The Dream: A Letter (story, 1829) / Zinaida Volkonskaya The Unfinished Sewing (poem, 1839) / Evdokiya Rostopchina The Crone (ballad, 1840) 'Life calls us' (elegy, 1846) At the Tea-Table (story, 1859) / Karolina Pavlova Pros and Cons (story, 1863) / Sofya Soboleva Autobiographical Response from a Provincial Wasteland (poem, c.1865) / Elizaveta Shakhova The Settlement (story, 1892) / Olga Shapir After the Great Hunger (extract from 'Round the Villages: A Doctor's Memoir of an Epidemic', 1896) / Valentina Dmitrieva The Seamstress (poem, 1901) The Wedding Ring (poem, 1905) Incantation (poem, 1905) / Zinaida Gippius Lizards (prose poem, 1902) Elsa (prose poem, 1902) / Anastasiya Mirovich The Woman Question (one-act play, 1908) Walled up (story, 1910) / N. Teffi Spring (poem, 1907/1910) 'Silent, draped in the garments' (poem, 1910) My Loves (essay, 1913) / Adelaida Gertsyk 'Sister, I have come to take your place' (poem, 1912) Solitude (poem, 1914) 'Fear turns objects over' (poem, 1921) Memories of Aleksandr Blok (essay, 1965) / Anna Akhmatova Long-Barrow Princess, ii (poem, 1912)

Ruth (poem, 1916) / Elizaveta Kuzmina-Karavaeva The Grandmother of Russian Poetry (poem, 1918) / Vera Merkureva No Dream (narrative poem, 1919) / Mariya Shkapskaya The Substitute Lecturer (one-act play, 1919/1930) / Olga Forsh 'I shall not lie' (poem, 1923/4) 'A childhood memory' (poem, 1927) Through a Window-Light (poem, 1928) / Sofiya Parnok Staircase (narrative poem, 1926) / Marina Tsvetaeva Womenfolk (story, 1927) / Ekaterina Strogova Lomonosov (poem, 1928) The Bronte Sisters (poem, 1939/1946) On Guard and on Town Gardens (story, c.1935) / Anna Prismanova A Soviet Madonna and Child (extract from The Flying Start - novel, 1947) / Anna Karavaeva From my Diary, iii (1937) The Omnibus (poem, 1938/1954) / Vera Bulich A Few Autobiographical Facts (poem, 1954) Tatar Anguish (poem, 1954) / Anna Barkova Male Bonding Sessions (extract from Zhenya: The Wonder of the Twentieth Century - novel, 1962) / Tatyana Esenina Lines Written during a Sleepless Night in Tbilisi (poem, 1969) / Bella Akhmadulina How the Cadres were Broken in (memoir, 1970s) / Mira Linkevich Sale of a Historian's Library (poem, 1970s) / Elena Shvarts Cassandra (poem, 1986-8) / Elena Chizhova Words (story, 1988) Medea (story, 1989) / Lyudmila Petrushevskaya Frozen (one-act play, 1989) / Nina Sadur Journey to Kashgar (story, 1973/1989) / Bella Ulanovskaya Fifth Stanzas (poem, 1992) Appendix: Russian text of the poems.