The Masquerade: A Poetic Drama in Four Acts - Softcover

The Masquerade, a treasured four-act play by Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov, is a classic work of Russian romanticism.

In 1830s St. Petersburg, aristocrat Arbenin and Nina, his wife, attend a masked ball. In a tragic case of mistaken identity, Arbenin convinces himself that his wife is romantically involved with Prince Zvezdich. Arbenin is tragically blinded by jealousy and pride, and then a disaster happens...

A celebration and examination of a classic work from the Golden Age of Russian culture, the first poetic translation by Russian American professor Alfred E. Karpovich brings The Masquerade to a new, English-speaking audience. A work of great importance, this drama examines the collision between true love and the societal prejudice of honor and dignity. In translation, it casts an inquisitive eye at the state of human dignity in the twenty-first century.

Translator Alfred E. Karpovich earned his advanced degrees in Moscow and taught and performed linguistic research in Leningrad and New York. He worked as a translator for the Soviet Foreign Relations Department and his translation work has been widely published. He retired in 2000. Playwright Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov (1814-1841) was one of Russia's greatest poets and writers. He was homeschooled, later attended boarding school with the sons of nobility, and continued his education at Moscow University, where he started to write poetry under the influence of Lord Byron.