Songs of the Women TrouvèresAleksandr Nikitenko, descended from once-free Cossacks, was born into serfdom in provincial Russia in 1804. One of 300,000 serfs owned by Count Sheremetev, Nikitenko as a teenager became fiercely determined to gain his freedom. In this memorable and moving book, here translated into English for the first time, Nikitenko recollects the details of his childhood and youth in servitude as well as the six-year struggle that at last delivered him into freedom in 1824. Among the very few autobiographies ever written by an ex-serf, Up from Serfdom provides a unique portrait of serfdom in nineteenth-century Russia and a profoundly clear sense of what such bondage meant to the people, the culture, and the nation. Rising to eminence as a professor at St Petersburg University, former serf Nikitenko set about writing his autobiography in 1851, relying on his own diaries (begun at the age of fourteen and maintained throughout his life), his father's correspondence and documents, and the stories that his parents and grandparents told as he was growing up. He recalls his town, his schooling, his masters and mistresses, and the utter capriciousness of a serf's existence, illustrated most vividly by his father's lurching path from comfort to destitution to prison to rehabilitation. Nikitenko's description of the tragedy, despair, unpredictability, and astounding luck of his youth is a compelling human story that brings to life as never before the experiences of the serf in Russia in the early 1800s. |
Other editions - View all
Songs of the Women Trouvères Eglal Doss-Quinby,Joan Tasker Grimbert,Wendy Pfeffer,Elizabeth Aubrey Limited preview - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
3rd-pers ameir amin amis amor Amours anthology attribution avoir Bartsch beloved biaus Bibliothèque Nationale bien Boogaard boscage c'est chansons de femme Chastelain de Couci Chaucie composed courtly cuer d'amour Dame Maroie dialectal Dieus Diex doit dous droit Duchesse de Lorraine Dyggve ED-Q RR Edited by ED-Q emended English translation estre fait female feminine fin'amors French translation Gace Brulé Gennrich genre Gillebert de Berneville Gosnai grant Grossel heart j'ai Jeanroy Jehan Bretel jeux-partis joie lady Långfors lover lyric m'en male manuscript medieval melody missing Mölk monophonic motet Nationale de France neume Occitan Old French Paris Picard plainchant poets polyphonic polyphony preservation of final puet qu'il Raynaud refrain riens Rokseth rondeau Rosenberg and Tischler Rotrouenge sing song stanza sweet Switten tenor Text tout triplum trobairitz troubadours vait voice woman women trouvères