Translated with Critical Essays by Clarence Brown.

Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938) was not only one of the preeminent Russian poets of the twentieth century but also an accomplished and distinctive prose writer. Suppressed in the Soviet Union, his prose remained little known until Clarence Brown published The Prose of Osip Mandelstam in 1965. Since then, Mandelstam has gained widespread recognition and become an essential figure in modern Russian literature. This expanded edition includes five major prose works: The Noise of Time, an impressionistic autobiographical account of his early years in St. Petersburg; The Egyptian Stamp, a short story influenced by Gogol and Dostoevsky; Theodosia, a memoir of the Crimea; and two additional works, Journey to Armenia, a travel journal with subtle political overtones, and Fourth Prose, a powerful response to the Soviet state's campaign against the author. Translated by Clarence Brown, the volume is accompanied by critical essays that place Mandelstam's writings within the context of his life and literary achievements. As Guy Davenport observed, Brown's translation gives English readers not only the greatest twentieth-century Russian stylist but also represents "one of the finest examples ever of the translator's art: a miracle of accuracy, tone, and feeling of period.