Spring 71/Dead Souls
Spring 71/Dead Souls by Arthur Adamov is a collection published by Bloomsbury Academic on April 1, 2007. This edition features 94 pages and is presented in English. The book includes two significant works by Adamov, known for his avant-garde style and political themes, which are often associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. The translations by Peter Meyer, originally commissioned by BBC Radio, bring forth Adamov’s unique perspective on life and society.
Readers will find a rich exploration of societal issues in both plays. In Dead Souls, Adamov adapts Gogol’s novel, presenting the character Tchitchikov as he navigates a world rife with paranoia and corruption through his peculiar business dealings. Spring ’71 offers a nuanced portrayal of the Paris Commune, blending satire and historical context to illustrate the interplay between individual lives and broader historical movements. This volume provides insight into Adamov’s views and the complexities of human experience during times of upheaval.
Official synopsis Publisher
Born in Russia, Arthur Adamov was educated in Geneva and Paris and wrote in French. His avant-garde and often political plays were grouped with the Theatre of the Absurd, but he felt that they were about life, and that life, while often difficult, was never absurd. This volume brings together his two major works in stunning translations by Peter Meyer, originally commissioned by BBC Radio.
Dead Souls is Adamov’s dramatisation of Gogol’s blackly comic novel. Mysterious entrepreneur Tchitchikov approaches the landowners and bureaucrats of a provincial town with the proposal that he will buy the ‘dead souls’ of deceased peasants, and in the process exposes a society filled with paranoia and corruption.
Motivated in part by his own communist sympathies, Spring ’71 reflects Adamov’s view of the Paris Commune in 1871. A rich and complex depiction of a city in the throes of major upheaval, it interweaves satire, history and tragedy to show how the stories of normal people influence- and are influenced by – the onward march of history.
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