Early thirteenth-century Georgian had as many speakers and readers as English in Shakespeare's day, and medieval Georgian literature is important in terms of world cultural history, representing a bridge between classical and oriental worlds. Donald Rayfield analyses the literature in the context of Greek, Persian, and Russian influences, and presents its hitherto overlooked, rich and unique artistry.

In 1225 the Mongols broke up the Georgian state and crippled its culture: Rayfield describes the dormancy of literature until an eighteenth-century Renaissance, and the subsequent flourishing artistry of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when, under the auspices of symbolism and futurism, Georgian poetry and prose achieved real originality. The world-class poetry of Vazha Pshavela, Galaktion Tabidze, and Paolo Iashvili is discussed here, as are the Soviet period novelists Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Grigol Robakidze, and Mikheil Javakhishvili, writer of the much acclaimed Kvachi Kvachantiradze.

The History ends with a study of living writers, the novelists Otar Chiladze and Chabua Amirejibi, and poets such as Ana Kalandadze and Lia Sturua. A major contribution to an area of growing interest, this concise but thorough history combines clarity and accessibility for the non-specialist, with a wide breadth of cultural reference.

This is the first comprehensive and objective history of the literature of Georgia to be written in any language. The literature is revealed to be unique among that of the former Russian empire in its combination of quality and length of literary tradition.

Beginning with the first, overwhelmingly religious texts of the fifth century, Donald Rayfield charts the development of Georgian literature under Byzantine tutelage to the 'golden age' of medieval literature, which culminated in Rustaveli's great poetic work The Knight in the Panther's Skin. The second half of the work deals with the diverse literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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