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Elena : a story of the Russian Revolution by Egan, Judith is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is Elena : a story of the Russian Revolution about?

Egan has based this graceful and resonant account of an aristocratic young woman's ordeal during the Russian revolution (mainly from 1916-1922) on interviews with Elena Shatagina, who lived in New York from 1928 and died here in 1978. "You don't comprehend the destruction of a social order when you are a part of it; you stumble, you struggle, and you look back." Yet far more grievous than the obliteration of trappings, or even the ethic of class, is the corrosion of hope and brave spirits, the severing of loving ties: "When the family circle breaks you can't mend it--you've lost something." The story begins before the Revolution when Elena's parents--her thoughtful father, a Finance Ministry official, and her gentle blueblood mother--both oppose Elena's marriage to Captain Ivan Shatagina, grandson of a serf; but they capitulate in order to keep the obdurate Elena within the family's enclosure of love and loyalty. Then come the turmoil, dislocation, and terror during the collapse of the regime and civil war--as Elena's family joins packs of ragged refugees inching ahead of slaughter. Ivan becomes more distant and withdrawn as he ponders the choice that has placed him apart from the

Author

Egan, Judith

Publisher

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Published

1981

Language

EN

ISBN

9780002216791

Subjects

Literary Fiction, Fiction, Humanities