Chekhov: Scenes from a Life, Simon and Schuster, 2004 - Moscow Times Biography of the Year, 2004


‘Rosamund Bartlett takes an impressionist approach to Chekhov’s life, and it pays off, making for a hugely enjoyable book which is far more interesting than a conventional biography and much more moving.  You end up wondering again at Chekhov’s astonishing greatness - man and writer’ David Hare


‘I know of nobody writing on Chekhov today who has [Bartlett’s] understanding and acuity and sympathy’ Brian Friel


‘A wonder...more informative about Chekhov the man than a conventional biography, and more instructive about the roots of his work than dry literary criticism… this is a remarkable biography about an inspirational artist.’ Sunday Telegraph


‘An excellent new biography, in fine Chekhovian style, by a writer with a deep knowledge of Russian culture and nature.’ Evening Standard


Literary Russia: A Guide, co-author with Anna Benn, new edition, Duckworth, 2007 (originally published by Picador, 1997)


‘A lovely book.  There can be no one who, having allowed his or her imagination to be captured by so much as one page of Dostoevsky or the shortest of Chekhov’s short stories, will not be enchanted by this most unusual of guidebooks.’ The Observer


‘An intelligent, multifaceted guide for armchair reader and intrepid nomad alike.’ Literary Review

Victory over The Sun: The World’s First Futurist Opera, co-edited with Sarah Dadswell, University of Exeter Press/University of Chicago Press, 2012


‘This project brings the highest possible standard of scholarship to bear on avant-garde cultural production.’ Maria Gough, Professor of Modern Art, Harvard University

‘This collection opens fascinating and enriching views into a brief but powerful explosion.’
Times Literary Supplement

‘Without doubt, it will be rewarding reading for anyone interested in Russian modernism.’ Slavic Review

Shostakovich in Context, Oxford University Press 2000


‘Regardless of the reader's level of musical expertise, there is much to be learned here about this immensely significant twentieth-century composer. Bartlett's interdisciplinary approach will hopefully draw an even wider audience to the ranks of ardent enthusiasts.  It should – this collection is an example of the best in current Shostakovich scholarship.’ Russian Review


‘This collection makes a very worthwhile contribution to Shostakovich studies, for the brilliance of some of the contributions, for the new information, and for the excellent photographic illustrations.’

Slavonic and East European Review

Wagner and Russia, Cambridge University Press, 1995; paperback edition: 2007


‘Impressive … well-researched survey of the impact of Wagner in Russia.' BBC Music Magazine


‘This fine study traces Wagner's music and ideas in Russia from 1841 to 1991, detailing his reception and performance history, the factors that shaped them, and his admirers and detractors.’  Slavic Review

Tolstoy: A Russian Life, London: Profile, 2010; NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011

Longlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction


‘Rosamund Bartlett's new life of Tolstoy is a splendid book -- immensely readable, full of fresh details, and often quite brilliant in its perceptiveness about the greatest of Russian writers, and one of the stars in the western firmament. This biography has the sweep and vividness of literature itself, and I strongly recommend it’ Jay Parini


‘Bartlett is thorough and even-handed in her treatment of Tolstoy’s marriage, and of all other aspects of his representative life. Her epic and astutely indexed biography is so good that I shouldn’t be surprised if, for the edification of Tolstoy’s direct cultural descendants, it were translated into Russian.’ Washington Post


‘The extraordinary character of the giant is captured better by Bartlett than by any previous biographer ... She is very good at expounding the novels and completely fair to all parties when the marriage turns into a battleground. Superbly well written.’  A. N. Wilson, Spectator Books of the Year


‘Superbly readable and, in contrast to some earlier biographies, treats the great novelist’s sometimes strange enthusiasms and obsessions sympathetically and seriously. It also brilliantly traces how Tolstoy was read in the Soviet era, and how his depiction of simplicity and compassion attracted people in the face of state opposition and harassment.’ Rowan Williams, Mail on Sunday Books of the Year