From Peter the Great to Putin- this is an unforgettable epic history of three centuries of St Petersburg, one of the most magical, menacing and influential cities in the world.
Cultural historian Jonathan Miles has a personal engagement with St Petersburg and its people that dates back to the Soviet era. Born in a trunk, Jonathan has been travelling ever since and currently lives in Paris. Having taken a first from University College, London, he received his doctorate from Jesus College, Oxford. Early books include studies of British artists Eric Gill and David Jones. Most recently, Medusa, The Shipwreck, the Scandal and the Masterpiece, a voyage through the artistic, political and moral clashes of Restoration France, and Nine Lives of Otto Katz, the tale of a flamboyant Soviet spy, were both published to international acclaim.
'This extraordinary book brings to life an astonishing place.
Beautiful prose renders brutality vivid.'
*The Times - BOOK OF THE WEEK*
So fluent, so textured is Jonathan Miles’s ease with prose and
argument that his vivid dissection of 300 years of St Petersburg’s
history should be devoured in captive sittings... Investigating the
artistic life of St Petersburg, he also explores the melodrama and
blood on the streets and the effects of continuing political
disarray and corruption on ordinary people. This is a storyteller
entranced with his subject, who makes its brilliant portrayal look
deliriously easy.
*Guardian*
[A] lively and entertaining biography... full of sparkling
storytelling and well drawn characters... a delight.
*The Sunday Times*
Jonathan Miles’s cinematic telling of the 300-year history of ...
St Petersburg shows how the drama, the absurdity, the splendour and
the squalor of the imperial capital all found their way into
Russia’s finest s, operas and paintings... Miles peels back the
layers of myth in which the city is swaddled, while never losing
sight of its haunting grace.
*Observer*
Recently there has been a plethora of new books on Russian history
in all its guises, … so why more? Jonathan Miles’ narrative is a
lot of more, … His history has a substantial foundation, but what
makes it special is the sheer inescapable momentum of Miles’s
prose, powered by the captivating intensity of his attachment to
his subject. This is a story told by a writer enthralled – and
disillusioned, as he sees no redemption in sight... A dazzling
history of a dazzling city.
*The Arts Desk*
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