Aleksandr Pushkin: Life and work

A Talk with Readings by Graham Fawcett

Thursday 9 February 2023 7.30pm, doors 6.30pm. Hot snacks, soup and bar open.

Tickets: £12

“Do go; these are very special occasions.” Bridport Review

“A complete delight of an evening.”

“A fascinating lecture. People were enthralled and totally engaged.”

Phone 01308 459511 to book now! 

Aleksandr Pushkin by Vasily Tropinin, 1872

ALEKSANDR PUSHKIN

Aleksandr Pushkin life and work

A talk by Graham Fawcett

Thursday 9 February 7.30pm. Doors at 6.30pm hot snacks available.

Russia’s most famous poet, Pushkin is revered in the West (via Tchaikovsky) as the creator of Eugene Onegin, one of the great love stories of all time. In this talk Graham Fawcett describes Pushkin’s dramatic life – one in which passionate love, a beautiful wife, outspoken political views, exile and a duel brought trouble and retribution worthy of his own writings. Fawcett conveys the extraordinary quality of Pushkin’s poetry and the range of his works that are less well-known (in the West) but arguably every bit as brilliant, innovative and transcendent.

Born into one of Russia’s most famous noble families, Pushkin’s poems are Romantic in their subject matter, particularly the celebration of personal freedom. His concise, spare style and use of metre however was innovative and original to him.

Eugene Onegin is verse novel whose virtuoso poetic performance is fired by the ingeniously sprawling 14-line rhyming stanza Pushkin devised for it and whose insights into romantic love are wonderful.   But then there are his song-like poems, his chamber drama with a vast backdrop, ‘The Gipsies’, and his gripping swan-song masterpiece, ‘The Bronze Horseman’, perhaps the greatest legend ever to come out of St Petersburg.

Dostoyevsky said that although there had been other men, like Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Schiller, whose genius had been “of enormous greatness, show me just one of those great geniuses who possessed such a capacity for universal empathy as did our Pushkin”.

Please call 01308 459511 to reserve a ticket now.

Pushkin performs his poem for Gavrila Derzhavin during the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum exam on 8 January 1815 by Ilya Repin

“Thank you for a sensational evening of Pushkin- a great performance … I had read that it can sometimes be difficult to fully appreciate Pushkin in translation. Both your rendering, and the translations that you chose, proved that Pushkin is most accessible and hugely enjoyable.” Sue Hicks, Farnham

GRAHAM FAWCETT has lectured or led workshops at literary festivals throughout Britain on reading and writing poetry. A highly entertaining lecturer, writer and educator, he was a tutor for The Poetry School from 1997 when it began until 2015. He wrote and presented radio programmes about literature and music on BBC Radio 3 for many years.

Graham Fawcett’s talks explore leading poets, their lives, the political and cultural environment in which they wrote and, most of all, their work. At Sladers Yard we are lucky to have him present a poet every other month. Come join his loyal band of poetry enthusiasts. The programme is two 45 minute halves with an interval. This November Graham will be talking about Ezra Pound here for the Bridport Literary Festival.

Phone 01308 459511 to book your tickets now.

“Graham Fawcett is very good indeed. He has a marvellous knack of opening up a poet’s life and instantly taking you on a colourful voyage through their life and work. Very illuminating.”

James Crowden

“Presented with immaculate complexity by a master of ceremonies par-excellence.”

Elaine Beckett

“Thank you again. Thank you for keeping us all sane.”

Richard Gaskell, London 2021