Black Snow Author:Mikhail Bulgakov A new edition of Bulgakov?s blistering satire about the great Russian director Stanislavski, inventor of ?Method acting,? part of Melville House?s reissue of the Bulgakov backlist in Michael Glenny?s celebrated translations. — In 1926, a play based on Mikhail Bulgakov?s novel The White Guard premiered at the prestigious Moscow Arts Theatre and it... more » was an immediate and long-lasting success that laid the ground for the rest of Bulgakov?s career as a playwright and novelist.
But it was not an entirely positive experience, and this novel, written near the end of Bulgakov?s life, skewers the theatrical fraternity he had been a part of for many years, and the Stalinist system of censorship that suppressed his work.
Black Snow is the story of Maxudov, a young playwright whose play is chosen, almost at random, to be performed by the legendary Independent Theatre, and the chaos that ensues. The two co-directors of the theater, modeled after Stanislavski and his co-director, battle to control the production, star actresses throw daily fits, and with each rehearsal the chances of the play ever being ready to perform recedes. The ultimate backstage novel and a brilliant satire from one of the greatest modern Russian writers.« less