Novel
Pelēkais jātnieks
Not translated into English
Aleksandrs Grīns · 1938
Synopsis
First part of the Saderinātie trilogy, devoted to the Great Northern War. Peter the Great, Catherine, then Marta Skavronska, Charles XII of Sweden and Augustus II of Saxony and Poland cross paths in it, and the book tells of the tragic fate of the Latvian people caught in their war. The grey horseman of the title is famine, the first of the three apocalyptic figures that name the volumes, before war and plague, and the story is mingled with visions in a manner close to magic realism.
Context
The novel appeared in 1938 and opens Saderinātie, the Fiancés: Sarkanais jātnieks follows the same year, Melnais jātnieks in 1940. Marta Grimma reviewed it as early as July 1938 in the journal Sievietes Pasaule. Aleksandrs Grīns received the prize of the Chamber of Writing and Arts in the winter of 1940, after several prizes from the Cultural Fund. Under the Soviet occupation, a 1952 list from the literature directorate demanded the withdrawal of all his works, which were banned until 1991.
Who it is for
A large historical novel, the first of three. It helps to know that this war pitted Sweden against Russia and its allies from 1700 to 1721.
Prizes and reception
First part of a trilogy that shared the fate of its author's entire body of work: banned for nearly half a century.
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