Iurii Trifonov, Starik [The Old Man]

David Gillespie (University of Bath)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.2.00: Post-1917 Writing and Culture in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, 1917-present.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1978

Places

Russia (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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The Old Man

(

Starik

) was published in the March 1978 issue of

Druzhba narodov,

the Moscow-based monthly periodical where Trifonov published his fiction from 1976 until his death, and which continued to publish his works posthumously in the 1980s (as well as his diaries and notebooks in the 1990s).

The Old Man

, indeed, is Trifonov’s last published work of fiction before his death in March 1981, and also his most ambitious. The novel successfully marries both of the writer’s main concerns since the mid-1960s: recent Russian history, especially the Civil War of 1918-20, and contemporary Moscow city life.

Set in 1973, the novel centres on the eponymous “old man”, Pavel Letunov, a veteran of the Civil War living out his retirement at his country dacha, estranged from his son and

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1849 words

Citation: Gillespie, David. "Starik". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 September 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12780, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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