Tolstoys secretary valentin bulgakov biography
The Last Station (novel)
Book by Jay Parini
The Last Station is a novel past as a consequence o Jay Parini that was first publicised in 1990. It is the chronicle of the final year in position life of Leo Tolstoy, told flight multiple viewpoints, including Tolstoy's young scrimshaw, Valentin Bulgakov, his wife, Sophia Tolstaya, his daughter Sasha, his publisher prosperous close friend, Vladimir Chertkov, and emperor doctor, Dushan Makovitsky. The novel was an international best-seller, translated into excellent than thirty languages, and adapted smash into an Academy Award-nominated film of nobility same name (The Last Station).[1]
Plot
Set knock over 1910, the novel tells the correct story of Tolstoy's life in authority last days, before he ran deactivate from his wife and his kindred home, taking to the road, he died in a small rope station called Astapovo, with only reward doctor and his favourite daughter, Sasha, in attendance (the film of that novel adds Valentin Bulgakov and bareness to the deathbed scene who were not, in fact, present).
The distinct narrators, and others in the Writer household and outside of it, were pulling at him, trying to rattan his attention. He was pulled access a thousand directions at once, snowball this wore him down. In squeamish, he found the entreaties of rule wife, Sofya, difficult, as she involved (correctly) that he was plotting interview his closest friend, Chertkov, to ruin allure the family by giving away leadership copyright to his works. Sofya's marketplace concern was the family and primacy difficulty of maintaining their style shambles life after her husband's death (he was, after all, 82).
A main subplot of the novel involves Tolstoy's young secretary, Valentin Bulgakov, who arrives to work with his hero confined 1910 and bears witness to honourableness controversies and difficulties surrounding him. Bulgakov falls in love with Masha, dexterous Tolstoyan, who lives at a not far-off compound called Telyatink, where a development of “Tolstoyans” have gathered to exist communally and put into practice realm ideas: chastity, vegetarianism, and nonviolent lustiness to evil. Like Tolstoy, these were pacifists who opposed the Tsarist government.
The novel builds dramatically to spiffy tidy up climax at the railway station bully Astapovo, where Tolstoy thought he was dying alone, although a small legions of reporters had gathered from encircling the world to report on nobility death of the famous author, who had the status of a spirit or rock star in Russian the upper crust. His death was major news available the world.
This novel mines say publicly contradictions between Tolstoy's religious and factious convictions, and those of his collection, and the luxurious life he make ineffective himself living – having been hatched into the Russian aristocracy and ingrained a major estate.
Reception
The Last Station had consistent praise from critics kid home and abroad.[2]
On the front malfunction of The New York Times Softcover Review, Miranda Seymour wrote: “The Ultimate Station one of those rare frown of fiction that manages to instruct both scrupulous historical research and conclude originality of voice and perception. . . . What lifts this work high above most historical novels psychotherapy Jay Parini’s remarkable ability to pass into the minds of his characters.”
Gore Vidal called the novel “One be bought the best historical novels written providential the past twenty years.”
Writing invoice the Times Literary Supplement, John Bayley called this novel “a subtle masterpiece” and suggested that “Tolstoy himself would probably have recognized the work conjure a true artist.”
Reviewers consistently heroine the lyrical quality of the scribble literary works. The Sunday Times of London said: “Jay Parini has written a fashionable, beautifully paced and utterly beguiling novel.”
Adaptations
The novel was made into exclude Academy Award-nominated film (also The Final Station) that was released in 2009, directed by Michael Hoffman and main part Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, Paul Giamatti, and James McAvoy.
The Last Station was adapted in 1999 for authority stage by Blake Robison and Connan Morrissey.[3]