This is not only a new translation of one of the most exciting and enigmatic works created in the USSR in the 1920s;Michael Comenetz's extensive philological and philosophical commentary to Krizhanovsky's novel reveals in the Baron's new adventures a true encyclopedia of references to European cultural heritage, ranging from ancient Greek and Roman thinkers to Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Marx, and Einstein. Thanks to this deeply-layered commentary, Krizhizhanovsky's slim novel, with its witty puns and cerebral paradoxes, opens up as an all-encompassing philosophical critique of modernity. It is a critique of a legacy seemingly obliterated by the theory of improbability, or a new kind of history (time) detected by the wandering Baron in Soviet Russia. Seen through Michael Comenetz's commentary, Krizhizhanovsky's Munchausen emerges as a version of Benjamin's angel, blown by the hurricane of history, moving from the future. Munchausen's (or rather, Krizhizhanovsky's!) philosophic critique of modernity becomes an ironic monument to what is doomed to be eradicated. This astonishing book not only reconstructs the cultural affluence of the Soviet 1920s, but also profoundly resonates with the current moment and our new sense of destructive history.
Dr. Mark Lipovetsky, Columbia University, author of Charms of Cynical Reason
In his shrewd, meticulously annotated new translation of Krzhizhanovskys 1927 Munchausen tale, with commentary twice as long as the fictive text, the mathematician and polyglot Michael Comenetz treats us to erudite backstories and sidestories that would delight the Baron himself. But this edition is more than a Nabokovian conceit. Roughing up the English to reflect Krzhizhanovskys angular, cubist prose, Comenetz offers brilliant etymologies and insights into Kant, Hegel, Quixote, Gulliver, Gogol, Kafkaesque structure, hyperbole subordinated to scienceand his heros ultimate failure to out-fantasticate Soviet reality. A tour-de-force tribute to phantasms and the fertility of the printed word.
Dr. Caryl Emerson, Princeton University
Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky is one of the most interesting Soviet-era authors to be rediscovered after 1991. This intriguing short novel, The Return of Munchausen, mixes the fantastic elements with then-contemporary Soviet reality in ways that might remind the reader of Mikhail Bulgakovs classic Master and Margarita. Translator and scholar Michael Comenetz strives to render the authors spiky writing style in English, and the abundant commentary will be useful both for teaching the original alongside the translation and for unlocking all the mysteries of the text.
Dr. Sibelan Forrester, Swarthmore College
This new translation and intriguing commentary by Michael Comenetz enable both Munchausen and Krzhizhanovsky to leap off the page and become three-dimensional figures once more. Comenetz meticulous research reveals the warp and woof of the complex tapestry of philosophical theories, literary references and linguistic play out of which Krzhizhanovsky wove his novella about the legendary master of prevarication. Filled with unexpected associations and discoveries, this book will both provide a guide for students of Russian to decode the quirks of Krzhizhanovskys prose and allow the casual reader to understand why Munchausens tale captivated Krzhizhanovsky and continues to inspire our imaginations.
Dr. Karen Rosenflanz, The College of St. Scholastica
