more Turks, and those who are above all Shi'ite Muslims may feel that they are Iranians. There also looms in the background the almost unmentionable fact that the largest number of Azer- baijanis live in Iran. A reader might well be forgiven for experiencing a sense of unreality after reviewing devet- opments in these two countries since their independence. Led by their Europeanized elites, Ar- menia and Azerbaijan have fought an interminable war for nationalterritorial objective, at a time when Europe prides itself on entering the post-national age. The Karabagh War increasingly as- sumes the character of a religious-cultural conflict, which the Soviet-bred secular leaders are loath to admit. Nor can this eiite in Azerbaijan preside over the country's return to its Middle Eastern roots. On the Armenian side, the easy victories on the battlefield may well temporarily raise national spirits; but to secure 5 percent of the enemy territory it was necessary to occupy some 20 percent, a formula for dangerous overextension in the face of an adversary with twice as large a population and incomparably greater economic potential. The solution will have to come from Russia, a power in the process of reducing its imperial commitments, even if it re- mains eager for profits from the Near Abroad. Both books are stimulating and informative, even more so when read jointly. It is not the fault of either of the authors that a reader ends up with a touch of pessimism for the short-term future, until the hostility runs its course in mutual exhaustion. A longer view into the past helps to recall the happier days of the harmonious coexistence of these neighboring peoples.

Tadeusz Swietochowski Monmouth University

Donald Rayfield. The Literature of Georgia: A History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. xvi, 360 pp. $94.50 Cdn. Distributed in Canada by Oxford University Press, Don Mills, Ontario.

A tiny country at the strategic threshold linking Europe, Russia, and the Near East, Georgia offers a rich literary tapestry that has been overlooked by most Western scholars. The ambi- tious work by is an important step toward addressing this oversight, and his survey of Georgian literature is both informative and readable. In the preface to the work, Ray- field establishes the importance of understanding Georgian literature for Byzanti nologists, histo- rians of Eastern Christianity, Iranologists, and for those formerly called Sovietologists. However, after long eclipse under the Soviet mantel, Georgia recently has captured new international at - tention, partly because of its economic potential with prospective pipelines from major oil re- serves in the Caspian Sea and partly because of its troubled internal politics and efforts to find new relationships with countries like Russia. Ironically, while Georgian writers are little known in the West, Eduard Shevardnadze - current head of Georgia - is possibly better known in the West than any other leader of a post-Soviet state next to president El'tsin. The book is divided into six parts, which range chronologically from the foundations of a Georgian literature through the early post-Soviet era. From ancient manuscripts in other lan- guages and the first inscription in Georgian (AD 430) found in Jerusalem, Rayfield turns toward • an impressive range of Georgian authors and works, including reference to a draft of a novel by Amirejibi partially completed in 1992. The book provides a bibliography that includes translations of Georgian literature into English, indices in English and in Georgian, and a translit- eration chart of the unique Georgian alphabet. Important, too, in the course of the survey the author provides translations (primarily his own) of short excerpts of Georgian works under dis - cussion. In contrast, however, to his practice of providing the titles of literary works in both the Georgian alphabet and in English translation, the translations do not include parallel texts in Georgian. The work further provides no notes on select words or phrases which may carry special meaning in Georgian. C The history of Georgia and its literature reflects a complex interplay between the classical and oriental worlds. In his discussion, Rayfield deftty identifies Persian, Hellenic, and Georgian follcoric- threads in Georgian writing. He also presents Georgian literature as a vital repository preserving otherwise lost documents of ancient times. Rayfield begins his work with an exami - nation of hymnography, homilies, hagiography, chronicles, and the emergence of a secular lit- erature. While attempting to piece together a yet unclear literary history, Rayfield's commentary on Georgia's monumental :�nigh,t in the Panther Skin by Shota Rustaveli addresses both Rus- taveli's originality and his affinity to the Persian Visramiani. Rayfield then surveys the role of Georgian kings who were poets and many of whom wrote in exile. He describes Georgia's lit- erary Enlightenment in the eighteenth-century, and profiles three great poets of the Golden Age, including the ashug Sayat-Nova, who wrote in Georgian, Armenian, and Azeri Turkish. Rayfield touches upon interrelations of Georgian culture with other cultures of the northern and southern , for the dynamic confluence of cultures is crucial to understanding the arts of the re - gion. In this regard and others, the book could have benefitted from the addition of historical maps. A little more than half of the book focuses on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Exam- ination of Georgian romantic and civic literature of the nineteenth century is set against the many complexities of a people being drawn into the Russian sphere. Commentary in cludes recognition of the pivotal roles of Aleksandr and later . In an overview of the threshold to the twentieth century, Rayfield offers a particularly compelling portrait of Vazha- Pshavela and the rediscovery of Georgian folk roots. Rayfieldis commen try on the twentieth- century modernists of the Blue Horn and H2S04 offers a complement to recent Western stud- ies of the Russian and Georgian avant-garde in . His discussion of the twentieth century establishes the strong interest in Georgian works by Russian writers like Pasternak. The survey also includes brief reference to the individuality of Blue Horn poet Valerian Gaprindashvili, whose poetics he called "neck-wrapping"; and a discussion of the talent and courage of writers like Mikheii )avakhishvili. In addition to a look at the young Jughashvili (Stalin) as a poet of some promise, the book includes writers and political figures important to the more recent po- litical scene, such as Jaba loseliani as well as Konstantine Gamsakhurdia and his son Zviad, first president of newly-independent Georgia. Although the book provides much objective information about Georgian writers (male and female) and writing, the opinions of its author are strong and unmasked. While the position of the author clearly colors his estimation of various writers and works, it also adds bite to his haunting account of Beria and the horrors of the Stalinist era. Acknowledging the role of the subjective in his study, the author himself comments in the preface that since his last visit to Georgia "opinions may have changed." (p. x) While Rayfield describes the special place of Georgian literature in world culture, the book jacket inaccurately claims that Georgian literature is "unique among that of the former in its combination of quality and length of literary tradition."