Author Description

"Yury Olesha's Envy, a humorous look at the individual's struggle with an increasingly industrialized society, shows up in almost every survey course on Soviet literature. This critical companion aims to acquaint the reader with the history, biographical context, critical reception, and interpretation problems related to the novel. It also helps the first-time reader decipher the text's difficult features, including its shifting narrators and fluid boundaries between dream and reality."--BOOK JACKET.