Envy

Synopsis

&“To read [this] triumphant short novel is . . . to behold man&’s heroic confrontation with the monsters of his own creation.&” —The New York Times Andrei Babichev is a paragon of Soviet values, an innovative and practical man, Director of the Food Industry Trust, a man whose vision encompasses such future advances for mankind as the 35-kopeck sausage and the self-peeling potato. Out of kindness, he rescues from the gutter Nikolai Karalerov, violently tossed from a bar after a drunken and self-destructive tirade. But instead of gratitude, Babichev finds himself the subject of an endlessly malignant jealousy, as Kavaelrov sees in him a representative of the new breed of man who has prevented him from realizing his true greatness. A scathing social satire, Envy is a concise and incisive exploration of the paradigmatic conflicts of the early Soviet age: old versus new, imagination versus pragmatism, and the alienation of the romantic artist in the age of technology. One of the signs of the book&’s universality is the fact that it has been claimed by nearly every school of critics and interpreted as everything from a submerged homosexual story to a twentieth-century Notes from the Underground. &“Poetic and satiric and quite an achievement, it is a novel everyone should read.&” —Flavorwire &“Vladimir Nabokov had a low opinion of almost everything produced in Russia after his departure, but he admired Olesha&’s writing.&” —Columbus Dispatch &“Olesha writes about the clash of two worlds, but with a wry, half-defeated yet touchingly affectionate irony that seems entirely his own.&” —Irving Howe, Harper&’s magazine

Copyright:

1975

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

120 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781590209417

Related ISBNs:

9780882330914

Publisher:

ABRAMS, Inc.

Date of Addition:

02/19/25

Copyrighted By:

Ardis

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Literature and Fiction, Humor

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.

Introduction by:

T. S. Berczynski