Random House Publishing Group
Search
Expand Mobile Menu
The White Guard

The White Guard

Introduction by Orlando Figes

About the Book

Bulgakov's brilliant novel, first published in 1925, portrays his beloved city of Kiev as it is torn apart during a few crucial weeks in 1918, seen through the eyes of a family fleeing the Russian revolution.

With cinematic vividness, Bulgakov puts us on the streets of a gracious, historic city as it is successively besieged by invading Germans, Ukrainian nationalists, the Red Guard of the Bolsheviks, and the White Guard loyal to the recently executed tsar. The Turbin siblings, once wealthy and secure in Russia, have fled to Kiev to escape the ongoing civil war, but find themselves surrounded by chaos and danger. As Bulgakov depicts their devotion to a doomed cause and the surreal horrors they face, he provides a view of history that is both grandly panoramic and movingly intimate.  

Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.
Read more
Close

Praise for The White Guard

“Bulgakov’s love for Kiev burns in every chapter of The White Guard.” —The Guardian
 
“Infused with a passion for the old city and for its people that catches the reader up in its sweeping intensity.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“A portrait of a population under siege . . . Bulgakov’s novel evokes the suffering of [the Russian Civil War] and the still greater horrors that lay ahead.”  —The Wall Street Journal
 
“Bulgakov unfurls great fictional canvases conjuring up the atmosphere and beauty of his beloved Kiev like Pushkin . . . But beneath the effulgent lyricism there sounds a chuckle of cynicism . . . His irony is both broad and finely honed.”  —Newsweek
 
“A writer of fantastic genius.” —The Sunday Times (London)
Read more
Close

Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series

I Write to Find Out What I Am Thinking
In a Yellow Wood
The Patrick Melrose Novels
A Farewell to Arms
A Room of One's Own
End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland
Waiting
Motherless Brooklyn; The Fortress of Solitude
The Fire Next Time; Nobody Knows My Name; No Name in the Street; The Devil Finds Work
The House on Mango Street
View more

About the Author

Mikhail Bulgakov
MIKHAIL BULGAKOV (1891-1940) was born and educated in Kiev where he graduated as a doctor in 1916. He rapidly abandoned medicine to write some of the greatest Russian literature of this century. He died impoverished and blind in 1940 shortly after completing his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. More by Mikhail Bulgakov
Decorative Carat

About the Author

Orlando Figes
Orlando Figes is the prizewinning author of A People’s Tragedy and Natasha’s Dance. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New York Review of Books. More by Orlando Figes
Decorative Carat

About the Author

Michael Glenny
Orlando Figes is the prizewinning author of A People’s Tragedy and Natasha’s Dance. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New York Review of Books. More by Michael Glenny
Decorative Carat

By clicking submit, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and understand that Penguin Random House collects certain categories of personal information for the purposes listed in that policy, discloses, sells, or shares certain personal information and retains personal information in accordance with the policy. You can opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information anytime.

Random House Publishing Group