Two Worlds (drama)

Two Worlds is a tragedy in verse by Apollon Maykov first published in February 1882 issue of The Russian Messenger. It represents the final part of the poetic cycle dealing with the conflict between paganism and Christianity. In 1882 Two Worlds won its author the Pushkin Prize for literature and was hailed as his most prominent work to date.

History

After the 1857 publication of Three Deaths Maykov continued to investigate the moral and the ethical aspects of the original clash between Ancient Rome and early Christianity. In 1863 he published "The Death of Lucius", but was dissatisfied with the result. The piece called "Death of Lucius. Part 2" proved to be the basis of the Two Worlds. "The Death of Lucius", radically re-worked, has found its way into it too, first as the second and then as the third part, in 1882, when it was published by The Russian Messenger and received the prestigious Pushkin Prize.

Reception

The Two Worlds was widely discussed and favourably reviewed by contemporary critics. Most of them agreed that with it the poet reached his artistic peak. "The poem of Maykov is so maturely conceived and meticulously executed, that we have to regard it as one of those gains our literature should be very proud of," Yakov Grot declared on 19 October 1982, speaking at the Russian Academy of Sciences meeting.