Introduction
1: Modern Worlds, Simple Lives
Interchapter 1: The Whitechapel Group
2: Aspects of the Novel: The English Review, the Anglo-Russian
Convention, and Impressionism
Interchapter 2: 'The New Spirit' in Theatre
3: War Work: Propaganda, Translation, Civilization
Interchapter 3: Modern Languages
4: Against the Machine: Imagists, Symbolists, Journalists,
Diplomats, and Spies
Conclusion: A Different Modern
Rebecca Beasley is Associate Professor in English at the University
of Oxford, and Fellow of The Queen's College. She is the author of
Ezra Pound and the Visual Culture of Modernism (Cambridge
University Press, 2007), and Theorists of Modernist Poetry: Ezra
Pound, T.S. Eliot and T.E. Hulme (Routledge Critical Thinkers,
2007), and editor, with Philip Ross Bullock, of Russia in Britain:
From Melodrama to Modernism (Oxford University Press,
2013). She has also published articles on modernism and
translation, periodical culture, the British 'intelligentsia', and
the history of comparative literature.
Rebecca Beasley's new book emphasizes the important role that
Russian writing played in the debates that shaped the very
definition of modernism as it follows the course of the battle
between French and Russian influences.
*Tatiana Kuzmic, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Harvard University, SEER*
I have nothing butvadmiration for the scope and ambition of Rebecca
Beasley's study, as well as for the meticulous and exhaustive
research that lies at its foundation.
*Galya Diment, The Wellsian*
...the book offers a broad overview of the period and a discussion
of specific pivotal literary events in Russo-British
relations...Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and
above.
*J. W. Moffett, Kentucky State University, CHOICE*
... this densely argued book exudes warm commitment and unflagging
intellectual energy. [...] Dr Beasley is a worthy successor to an
illustrious line of specialists in English literature who have made
inspired contributions to Russian studies: the names of John
Bayley, Donald Davie, and Henry Gifford spring immediately to mind.
The seventy-plus-page bibliography that rounds out her book, and
the punctilious undergirding of footnotes that it documents, give
detailed evidence of a formidable feat of assimilated
documentation, a good proportion of it in Russian.
*G. S. Smith, Essays in Criticism*
In addition to the contribution of this reading against the grain
to the history of British modernism, the book will be appreciated
for the great richness of this plunge into always complex and
intense debates.
*Delphine Rumeau, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès [Translated from
French]*
Full of intriguing detail, Russomania is so complete a history that
it seems greedy to want more. [...] Beasleys meticulous footnotes
and bibliography offer the reader all the information needed for
further investigation.
*Pilgrimages: A Journal of Dorothy Richardson Studies*
many a Russianist would find numerous rewarding insights in
Russomania ... Beasley offers many more analytical examples that
uncover routes of multidirectional cultural exchange in the
modernist age. Her account of the British fascination with Russia,
both positive and negative ... reveals important aspects of what
"Russianness" meant in early twentieth-century Britain. In turn,
this knowledge will likely be indispensable for understanding not
only European modernism, but in addition, later developments in the
British-Soviet cultural dialogue.
*Roman Utkin, Russian Review*
Rebecca Beasley's great achievement in Russomania is to trace the
evolution of opinions, arguments, and personal connections through
these contested and interlocking literary channels. She skillfully
deploys her clearly exhaustive knowledge, gleaned from both
archival sources and later academic criticism, making a complicated
period in the British reception of Russian culture both legible and
fascinating for any reader with even a passing interest in British,
Russian, or European modernism.
*Muireann Maguire, University of Exeter, Modern Philology*
![]() |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
![]() |