Entertaining Tsarist Russia

Entertaining Tsarist Russia

Tales, Songs, Plays, Movies, Jokes, Ads, and Images from Russian Urban Life, 1779-1917

by Louise McReynolds, James Von Geldern

394 pages· 1998· ISBN 9780253334077
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About
Annotation This unique anthology introduces readers to Tsarist Russia's emerging popular and commercial urban culture and the individuals and groups that produced and consumed it. The selections -- many translated by the editors expressly for this volume -- illustrate in colorful detail how the experiences and composition of Russian society and culture evolved in response to economic, technological, and political changes from the late 18th century through the 1917 revolution. Fortune-telling and etiquette manuals, thieves' tales, children's literature, popular songs, war stories, women's novels, satires of life in America, and vaudeville skits are just a few of the genres represented. A companion audio CD features contemporaneous performances of around 30 popular songs and vaudeville skits by some of the most famous singers and comics of the day. Russian texts of many of the songs and skits are included in the book.

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