Georgian historical realities in Julier Chevalier’s «Noah’s Grandchildren»

Abstract

A novel “Noah’s Grandchildren” by Julier Chevalier – an American writer of the first part of XX century, has made an outstanding contribution not only in the field of literature, but in history as well. The novel, however, by far surpasses many well-known facts taken from the history of our country and focuses attention on the legends of historical value. Because of not having had the novel translated hardly ever been accessible to the people who have deep interest in it, “Noah’s Grandchildren” has remained inaccessible not only to the masses of readers but its slipped specialists’ attention too. In the novel, the action takes place at the beginning of XX century. The novel centers the events depicting the major economic-political reality in Democratic Republic of Georgia. To a certain extent Georgia fights its way against Soviet Russia, which ends in annexation of our country by Russian invaders. Furthermore, it leads to the emigration of government of Democratic Republic of Georgia etc. The American writer narrates impressive episodes from the history of our country (Christianization of Georgians by St. Nino, origination of the Georgian alphabet, etc). The description of the living conditions of Georgians and ethnographic traditions is given specific significance here.