A novel of composer Dmitri Shostakovich's life under Stalinist terror, and the compromises art makes to survive tyranny.
Books mentioned in The Noise of Time (12)
Macbeth by William Shakespeare: “If it all began elsewhere, and in the minds of others, then perhaps he could blame Shakespeare, for having written Macbeth.”
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov: “"Or Leskov for Russifying it into Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk." (named as Leskov's literary act, the story that was Russified from Shakespeare's Macbeth and later became the opera's source)”
The Nose by Nikolai Gogol: “He might have set not just 'The Nose', but the whole of Gogol.”
The Portrait by Nikolai Gogol: “Or at least 'The Portrait', which had long fascinated and haunted him. It was the tale of a talented young painter called Chartkov, who sells his soul to the devil...”
Sonnet 66 by William Shakespeare: “The fifth song was Shakespeare's Sonnet number 66: 'Tired with all these, for restful death I cry ...' ... When Pasternak read Sonnet 66 in public...”
Hamlet by William Shakespeare: “Yes, he loved Shakespeare; before the war, he had written the music for a stage production of Hamlet... So Hamlet was banned for a long time; Stalin loathed the play almost as much as he loathed Macbeth.”
King Lear by William Shakespeare: “Was there a greater portrayal of the shattering of human illusions than King Lear? ... That moment when Lear awakes from madness to the sound of music.”
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare: “And that moment in The Merchant of Venice where Shakespeare says that the man who doesn't like music isn't trustworthy; that such a man would be capable of a base act, even murder or treason.”
Hamlet (poem) by Boris Pasternak: “'Life is not a walk across a field': it was also the last line of Pasternak's poem about Hamlet. And the previous line: 'I am alone; all round me drowns in falsehood.'”
Mozart and Salieri by Alexander Pushkin: “Pushkin had put the words into Mozart's mouth: Genius and evil / Are two things incompatible. You agree?”
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: “...when people started returning from the camps, and when One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was published, how could men and women fail to hope?”
Career by Yevgeny Yevtushenko: “Each morning, instead of prayer, he would recite to himself two poems by Evtushenko. One was 'Career', which described how lives are led beneath the shadow of Power.”