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Samuel Koteliansky (1880-1955) fled the pogroms of Russia in 1911 and established himself as a friend of many of Britain's literati and intellectuals, who were fascinated by his homeland's more civilized side: the Ballets Russes, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov. Kot, as he was known, soon became an indispensable guide to Russian culture for England's leading writers, artists, and intellectuals, who in turn helped introduce English audiences to Russian works.
Galya Diment's A Russian Jew of Bloomsbury looks at the remarkable life and influence that an outsider had on the tightly knit circle of Britain's cultural elite.
The following is excerpted from The Times Literary Supplement:
For her part, Diment attributes Kot's mental instability, which caused a nervous breakdown in 1936 and a suicide attempt (with a safety razor) in 1947, chiefly to the violent treatment of Jew in Tsarist and Civil War in Russia and in Nazi Germany. This, she suggests, was too much for Kot's imagination to bear, even though he and most members of his extended family managed to escape prosecution. She also hints that Kot's loneliness (he seems never to have has a lover) may well have been the result of his (repressed?) homosexuality. However, his behavioural patterns generally point to an attention deficit disorder, whose true causes probably derived from his childhood and may never be fully established. By Galya Diment's own admission, Samuel Koteliansky's troubled spirit "is probably wandering still. I do not think my books will put him to rest either."
Read the full review in the print edition of the latest Times Literary Supplement.
To learn more about A Russian Jew of Bloomsbury, or to order online, click here.
To arrange an interview with the author, contact MQUP Publicist Jacqui Davis.
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