Akhmatova's Petersburg

About the Book

In the poetry of Anna Akhmatova the 19th century myth of Petersburg, the “accursed,” “unreal” city, is filtered through the vision of a poet born in Imperial Russia and destined to confront the terrors of Soviet rule. The city that emerges embodies loss and dislocation, continuity and miraculous survival. This “scholarly and imaginative study” (New York Review of Books) “convincingly demonstrates that a good part of Akhmatova’s verse could never have been written but for the Petersburg environment.”(Russian Review).

“An extremely productive new approach…jargon-free, highly recommended for specialists and informed readers.”
—Library Journal

About the Author

Sharon Leiter earned her Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan and has taught Russian Literature at the University of Virginia. She is the author of a poetry collection, The Lady and the Bailiff of Time, and a winner of a Virginia Prize for Fiction. Her poems and stories have appeared in major literary quarterlies.