By Fables Alone

“By Fables Alone is a welcome English version of Andrei Zorin’s 2001 groundbreaking volume containing a number of expert and imaginative examinations of ideological models produced during Catherine II’s, Alexander I’s, and Nicholas I’s reigns. Zorin, a leading scholar of Russian literature and culture of the period, begins, in Chapters One to Four, with the incisive discussion of the so-called Greek Project masterminded by Catherine the Great; moves, in Chapters Five to Nine, to the analyses of several politically significant cultural developments in Alexander’s time; and ends, in Chapter Nine, with a brilliant examination of the central ideological formula of Nicholas I’s reign, “Orthodoxy—Autocracy—Nationality,” conceived and articulated by Sergei Uvarov. Equally at home with literature, culture, and politics of the time, Russian as well as Western, Zorin moves effortlessly between these fields to explain the formation of Russian cultural myths, some of which are relevant even today. Expertly translated by Marcus C. Levitt, the book is a fascinating read for any scholar interested in the process of formation of cultural symbols serving ideological purposes.” ~Irina Reyfman, Columbia University

“Informed by archival discoveries, by a daunting range of scholarship, and by the author’s mastery of more than one European literary canon, By Fables Alone is a brilliant interdisciplinary study. Focusing on the hidden ideological agenda of Russian foreign policy, Zorin triumphantly demonstrates the importance of literature in Russian political culture, highlighting both the literary foundations of politics and the political subtext of literature.” ~Simon Dixon, University College London

“Rendering Zorin’s unique style and rhetorical ethos in English is a tall order, but Levitt’s and Monnier’s translations almost always get it right, and their rendition of Zorin is spot on. . . . This is an excellent and sorely needed translation of an important book. Though it has long since become part of the scholarly discourse in Russian literary and cultural history, Zorin’s book could and should have a role in other disciplines as well. Levitt is to be commended for opening a window for it to the wider world. This book will be greeted with particular enthusiasm by faculty who teach Russian literary and cultural history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to undergraduates or novice graduate students whose Russian is not yet sufficient to enjoy Zorin in the original.” ~Joe Peschio

“. . . Zorin commands a broad range of literary and historical literature and his essays give depth to the selected themes concerning the reigns of Catherine II and Alexander I. . . . [T]he difficult translation is generally skillful and it makes available for Anglophones a more profound examination of historical events discussed.” ~Carrol F. Coates, Independent Scholar

"The work—a collection of Zorin’s writing about the intersection of state ideology and literature in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Russia—was hailed as a crucial text in Russian literary and historical studies upon its initial publication in 2001. Since then it has become required reading for students of Imperial Russian history and culture. . . .The careful translations ably preserve the nuances of the original Russian—no small feat, and one that speaks volumes about its translators. This English edition will bring Zorin’s work to a broader audience, enabling more researchers and students to engage with his seminal discussion of the Russian state’s ideological models and their transformation into cultural symbols during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.” ~Katherine Bowers, University of British Columbia, Slavic and East European Journal vol 60.2 (Summer 2016)