After numerous scandalous and unreliable biographies of Anna Akhmatova that have appeared recently, you are wary of any next book about her life. However, in the case of the work of the well-known critic Alla Marchenko, such distrust is obviously in vain.
After numerous scandalous and unreliable biographies of Anna Akhmatova that have appeared recently, you are wary of any next book about her life. However, in the case of the work of the well-known critic Alla Marchenko, such distrust is obviously in vain. Exploring the facts of Akhmatova’s biography through the prism of her poems, the author retains an intonation that is far from both academic dryness and frivolous curiosity. What feelings, what relationships, what realities of Anna Andreevna’s life are reflected in her immortal lines — Marchenko writes about all this cleverly and delicately, reconstructing not so much her private life as the very personality of the great poetess and outstanding woman.