The Flight

9 hrs. 41 min.

Romance & Prose

Language Russian

Author Gaito Gazdanov

Narrator Evgeny Ternovsky

Description

In the first half of his career, Gazdanov moves from depicting a static character (“Evening at Claire’s”) to portraying its development, dynamics, and the mechanisms that govern human character (“The Story of One Journey,” “Flight”). At first, his work is deeply personal and autobiographical; later he turns to questions of human nature and to a generalized portrayal of reality (the finale of “Flight,” “Night Roads,” “Pilgrims”), while keeping an enduring interest in the inner world of the person.

“Flight,” Gazdanov’s third novel, stands out from his general body of work. It becomes, in a sense, his first attempt to attain independence from lived experience. What he began to do here—moving toward fiction and aiming at the future—will be reflected in his later novels—“The Ghost of Alexander Wolf,” “Pilgrims,” and “Awakening.”