Russian Comedy Of The Nikolaian Era

Lensky's i Her First Night /i was an immensely popular vaudeville which held the stage for years; Kozma Prutkov's i Fantasy /i is a parody of vaudeville which was banned after one night. Turgenev's i Luncheon with the Marshal /i is a comedy of manners about provincial life, and Saltykov-Schedrin's i Pazukhin's Death /i is a satire of greed and corruption so savage that it was forbidden during the author's lifetime. br This collection constitutes a remarkable comic spectrum which will assist in enlarging the English language repertoire with a set of newly available and hightly stageworthy scripts. br These four Russian comedies were written during the reign of Nicholas I, a period of considerable repression and censorship. They represent the most popular genres of the period.