From the Preface
“Though partly based on Pasternak on Art and Creativity, this book differs from it at all points: translations are thoroughly revised; there are no excerpts from Doctor Zhivago, but twenty-four new texts have been added – 9 prose pieces and 15 poems; Introduction, Commentaries and final essay on Zhivago are all wholly new.”
Angela Livingstone
Review
“This new volume, which revises and extends [A.L.]‘s earlier survey of Boris Pasternak’s prose (Pasternak on Art and Creativity, 1985) includes all the early prose and short stories, as well as his major autobiographical piece ‘A Safe-Conduct’ (1931) and a full selection of speeches and articles, some of which make very clear the tightrope the poet walked throughout his public career in the Soviet Union. Lucid and full commentaries are interspersed between the pieces, making this an indispensable volume for any student of Pasternak or of early twentieth-century Russia.”
Sasha Dugdale, Times Literary Supplement, May 8th, 2009