A01=Alexander Fomich Veltman
Alexander the Great
aphorisms
Author_Alexander Fomich Veltman
Bulgaria
Byron
Category=FBC
Category=FU
epigraphs
eq_bestseller
eq_classics
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
fantasy
Gogol
historical fiction
literature in translation
maps
metafiction
Moldova
multilingualism
nineteenth-century imperialism
Orientalism
Ottoman Empire
poetic fragments
postmodernism
Pushkin
Romania
Russia
Russian Empire
Russian literature
Russo-Turkish War
Sterne
travel narrative
travelogue
Ukraine
Xavier de Maistre
Product details
- ISBN 9780810149038
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 15 Nov 2025
- Publisher: Northwestern University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The first English-language translation of an eccentric, unclassifiable classic
An unnamed narrator embarks on a rambling journey across the diverse borderlands of the Russian and Ottoman Empires - all without leaving his divan. Drawing on his own experiences in Bessarabia during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29, A. F. Veltman describes our Romantic narrator poring over a map and traversing distant, contested regions - at once imperial backwaters and cosmopolitan crossroads - where Romanians, Ruthenians, Jews, Bulgarians, Germans, and Turks comingle.
Meandering and motley in form and language, this lost classic of the early nineteenth century deploys metafictional innovations that anticipate postmodernist literature. The novel is speckled with dictionary entries, multiplication tables, philosophical digressions, and love poetry as Veltman swings from Gothic horror to antiquarian commentary to burlesque comedy. Past, present, and fantasy blend together, as Alexander the Great, Ovid, and Augustus join the narrator on his daydreamed journey of self-discovery.
Hugely popular in its day, The Wanderer is a remarkable tale that depicts the extraordinary places and peoples that met along the fault lines of once-great empires.
An unnamed narrator embarks on a rambling journey across the diverse borderlands of the Russian and Ottoman Empires - all without leaving his divan. Drawing on his own experiences in Bessarabia during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29, A. F. Veltman describes our Romantic narrator poring over a map and traversing distant, contested regions - at once imperial backwaters and cosmopolitan crossroads - where Romanians, Ruthenians, Jews, Bulgarians, Germans, and Turks comingle.
Meandering and motley in form and language, this lost classic of the early nineteenth century deploys metafictional innovations that anticipate postmodernist literature. The novel is speckled with dictionary entries, multiplication tables, philosophical digressions, and love poetry as Veltman swings from Gothic horror to antiquarian commentary to burlesque comedy. Past, present, and fantasy blend together, as Alexander the Great, Ovid, and Augustus join the narrator on his daydreamed journey of self-discovery.
Hugely popular in its day, The Wanderer is a remarkable tale that depicts the extraordinary places and peoples that met along the fault lines of once-great empires.
Alexander Fomich Veltman (1800 - 1870) was a popular and influential writer in his own time whose experimental works range from prose to poetry and realism to fantasy, including time-travel fiction. He was a friend of Pushkin, and his novels were praised by both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. His Selected Stories are also published by Northwestern University Press.
Stephen A. Bruce is an associate professor of Russian translation at the Defense Language Institute.
Stephen A. Bruce is an associate professor of Russian translation at the Defense Language Institute.
