The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre: An Actress, a Writer, and the Creative Life in the Silver Age of Chekhov

Combining history and biography, The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre focuses on the intimate relationship and professional collaboration between two creative women in Russia's Silver Age (1880s–1920). The actress Lidia Yavorskaya and the writer Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik overcame moral and social boundaries to assert themselves as successful artists. Their lives intersected with practically all the major theatrical entrepreneurs and artists of the period in Moscow and St. Petersburg, most notably Anton Chekhov.

The opening in the 1880s of private theaters in Moscow and St. Petersburg resulted in an extraordinary flourishing of the dramatic arts, exposing theatergoers to the latest works by both Russian and Western European playwrights. In The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre, Yavorskaya and Shchepkina-Kupernik serve as guides to this remarkable artistic and literary world. Serge Gregory shows how their success in fashioning independent careers reflects the emergence of the theater as one of the few professional paths available for educated women in nineteenth-century Russia who wished to escape the constraints of traditional family life.

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The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre: An Actress, a Writer, and the Creative Life in the Silver Age of Chekhov

Combining history and biography, The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre focuses on the intimate relationship and professional collaboration between two creative women in Russia's Silver Age (1880s–1920). The actress Lidia Yavorskaya and the writer Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik overcame moral and social boundaries to assert themselves as successful artists. Their lives intersected with practically all the major theatrical entrepreneurs and artists of the period in Moscow and St. Petersburg, most notably Anton Chekhov.

The opening in the 1880s of private theaters in Moscow and St. Petersburg resulted in an extraordinary flourishing of the dramatic arts, exposing theatergoers to the latest works by both Russian and Western European playwrights. In The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre, Yavorskaya and Shchepkina-Kupernik serve as guides to this remarkable artistic and literary world. Serge Gregory shows how their success in fashioning independent careers reflects the emergence of the theater as one of the few professional paths available for educated women in nineteenth-century Russia who wished to escape the constraints of traditional family life.

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The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre: An Actress, a Writer, and the Creative Life in the Silver Age of Chekhov

The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre: An Actress, a Writer, and the Creative Life in the Silver Age of Chekhov

by Serge Gregory
The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre: An Actress, a Writer, and the Creative Life in the Silver Age of Chekhov

The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre: An Actress, a Writer, and the Creative Life in the Silver Age of Chekhov

by Serge Gregory

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Overview

Combining history and biography, The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre focuses on the intimate relationship and professional collaboration between two creative women in Russia's Silver Age (1880s–1920). The actress Lidia Yavorskaya and the writer Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik overcame moral and social boundaries to assert themselves as successful artists. Their lives intersected with practically all the major theatrical entrepreneurs and artists of the period in Moscow and St. Petersburg, most notably Anton Chekhov.

The opening in the 1880s of private theaters in Moscow and St. Petersburg resulted in an extraordinary flourishing of the dramatic arts, exposing theatergoers to the latest works by both Russian and Western European playwrights. In The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre, Yavorskaya and Shchepkina-Kupernik serve as guides to this remarkable artistic and literary world. Serge Gregory shows how their success in fashioning independent careers reflects the emergence of the theater as one of the few professional paths available for educated women in nineteenth-century Russia who wished to escape the constraints of traditional family life.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781501780431
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
Publication date: 04/15/2025
Series: NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 330
File size: 4 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Serge Gregory is the author of Antosha and Levitasha. He has contributed chapters for two books: Chekhov's Letters and Chekhov in Context.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Prologue: Korsh's Private Theater
1. "Ma Petite Sappho"
2. "I Spent Two Weeks in SomeSort of a Daze"
3. "In Paris Things Don't HappenSo Quickly"
4. "Don't Forget the One Who LovesOnly You"
5. The Dream Princess
6. Princess Baryatinskaya
7. Reconciliation
8. Sons of Israel
9. The New Theater
10. Marriage
11. 1905 Revolution
12. The Wandering Star
13. English Debut
14. "I Don't Need a 'Happy Life,'I Need the Stage"
15. "A Princess in Real Life, but in theTheater a Queen"
16. Anna Karenina
17. Divorce and Revolution
18. "Out of the Bolsheviks' Clutches"

What People are Saying About This

Carol Apollonio

Gregory offers a vivid tour through the Russian artistic milieu during this key period. This superb book should be required reading for anyone interested in Russian theater and literature; the role of women; the mutual influences between Russian and Western drama; and the place of theater in Russian politics.

Douglas Smith

With The Sirens of the Hotel Louvre, Serge Gregory has written a book certain to delight fans of Russian culture. It has it all—theater, literature, unforgettable personalities of the Silver Age, and plenty of sexual drama and passion. History to stimulate the mind and the senses.

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