The Petty Demon
Page 54
4. Although rigid periodization of Sologub’s work is difficlut, World War I may be seen to constitute his second period, while his third phase is represented by the post-revolutionary span of 1919–27. The child is rarely encountered during the latter phase.
5. The sole exception, where it is the child who is the hero, is Sweeter than Poison. Significantly, this novel was an extension of an earlier story, “Shania i Zhenia,” which Sologub published in 1897.
6. R. Ivanov-Razumnik, O smysle zhizni (St. Petersburg, 1908), p. 36.
7. For a brief discussion of children in some of Sologub’s stories, see Murl Barker’s “Introduction” to The Kiss of the Unborn and Other Stories by Fedor Sologub (Knoxville, 1977), pp. xiii–xxxvi.
8. Early critics insisted on the predominance of lifeless elements in Sologub’s portraits of children, and one in particular berated him for his “wandering among abstract musings.” See A. Volynskii, “Novye techeniia v sovremennoi russkoi literature—Fedor Sologub,” Severnyi vestnik, 1896, no. 12, p. 238.
9. M. Dikman (ed.) Fedor Sologub—Stikhotvoreniia (Leningrad, 1975), p. 27.
10. A. Gornfel’d, “Fedor Sologub,” in S.A. Vengerov (ed.), Russkaia literatura XX veka, 1890–1910, 3 vols. (Moscow, 1914–16), II, 56.
11. Ibid.
12. The Petty Demon is the only work of Sologub’s prose which has been reprinted in Russia since the revolution. The latest edition appeared in 1958 and was published in the small city of Kemerovo. Only in the West has the novel received sustained critical attention, although even this has been insufficient. The most recent study of the novel, which treats its mythical elements is G.J. Thurston, “Sologub’s Melkiy bes,” Slavonic and East European Review LV, no. 1 (January 1977), 30–44.
13. F. Sologub, Melkii bes (Letchworth, Hertfordshire, 1966), p. 250. All subsequent citations are from this reprint of the 1933 Moscow edition and are noted in parentheses in the text.
14. For several interesting ideas on some similarities between Dostoevsky’s and Sologub’s “collisions,” see Dikman, p. 25.
15. Ibid.
16. The question of which world ultimately predominates in Melkii bes Peredonov’s or Lyudmila’s—has engaged critics since the book’s publication. See particularly A. Gornfel’d, “Nedotylcomka,” in Knigi i liudi (St. Petersburg, 1908), pp. 32–40, and A. Blok, “Melkii bes,” in Sobranie sochinenii v vos’mi tomakh (Moscow, 1960–63), V, 124–29.
17. The phrase “spring’s awakening” is particularly appropriate since it is the title of a play (1891) by the German dramatist, Frank Wedekind, the Russian translation of which (1907) Sologub edited and supervised and which his wife, the critic A, Chebotarevskaya reviewed. There is no question that, in Chebotarevskaya’s words, Wedekin’s “picture of that upheaval, of that psycho-sexual tragedy which occurs in children at the dawn of their lives,” had considerable influence on Sologub. See Russkaia mysl’, 1907, no. 10, pp. 196–99.
18. Anton Chekhov was also interested in child psychology, although the overall role of children in his fiction is not as extensive as it is in Dostoevsky’s or Sologub’s. For an informative survey of this topic, see Iu. Aikheval’d, “Deti u Chekhova,” in Siluety russkikh pisatelei, 2 vols. (Moscow, 1914–17), II, 211–26.
19. V. II’in, “Fedor Sologub—Nedobryi i zagadochnyi,” Vozrozhdenie, no. 158 (1965), p. 61. This suggestive observation has failed to attract the critical scrutiny it deserves.
20. L.N. Tolstoi, Sobranie sochinenii v 20 tomakh (Moscow, 1960–65), I, p. 143 (emphasis in ‘the original).
21. See W. Rowe, Dostoevsky: Child and Man in His Works (New York, 1965), p. 71.
22. The name “Pylnikov” is derived from the Russian word for anther, “pyl’nik.” Names in The Petty Demon generally carry symbolic import much as they do in Gogol’s earlier vision of a vulgar world of poshlost’, Dead Souls.
23. R. Maguire, “Macrocosm or Microcosm? The Symbolists on Russia,” in Russia: The Spirit of Nationalism (New York, 1972), p. 133.
24. This comment is attributed to Prince Myshkin in the Idiot. Not surprisingly, the clearest incarnations of the beautiful ideal in both writers exhibit child-like qualities. Regarding Myshkin, we recall his Swiss doctor’s claim about the young man: “A child, absolutely a child!”
25. F. Sologub, “Iskusstvo nashikh dnei,” Russkaia mysl’, 1915, no. 12, p. 44.
26. Quoted in K. Mochul’skii, Dostoevskii: Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo (Paris, 1947), p. 535. Dostoevsky noted this comment in his notebooks to The Brothers Karamazov.
27. F.M. Dostoevsky to N.D. Fonvizin, March 1954. Quoted in Letters of Fyodor Michailovitch Dostoevsky to His Family and Friends, trans. by E.C. Mayne (New York, 1961), p. 71.
* Pisarev, Dmitry Ivanovich (1840–1868). A radical intellectual and critic of the 1860s. Prominent figure among the Russian nihilists. He was arrested in 1862 for being involved in the underground press and spent four years in prison. Died of drowning in 1868. Famous for making the statement that a good pair of boots was worth more than a Shakespearean tragedy. Very critical of Pushkin as a poet lacking in sufficient social consciousness. Pisarev held very utilitarian views about the purpose of art.
* Kutiya is a pressed cereal pudding made variously from barley, millet or rice together with watered-down honey and raisins. It is usually brought to church at funeral services and then served afterwards at the wake.
* “Durman” (Latin datura stramonium) is a member of the nightshade family (Solanacae). In England it is known as “thorn apple” and in North America as “jimsonweed.” It is a big, hardy annual with large attractive white, trumpet-like flowers. Throughout North America, Europe and Russia it has been known for centuries as a narcotic and poisonous plant. Herbalists have attributed various powers to it, including madness, convulsions and blindness. It has also been recognized as an aphrodisiac.
* Zakuski are generally savory cold dishes (meat, sausage, fish, pickled mushrooms and vegetables, etc.) that Russians will eat especially when drinking alcoholic beverages. The Russian word suggests something which is at once more substantial, and perhaps less delicate, than hors d’oeuvres. It is more common to eat sweet pastries with tea. The fact that Peredonov is frequently depicted as mixing sweets and vodka probably shows not only his sweet footh, but his utter lack of good taste as well.
* Notes of the Fatherland (1839–1884) was one of the most important literary and political journals of nineteenth-century Russia. Published in St. Petersburg, it represented throughout its long and varied history many of the liberal and progressive tendencies in Russia, including Westernism and Populism. Belinsky, Herzen, Turgenev, Saltykov-Shchedrin. Nekrasov, Pisarv, Uspensky and Mikhailovsky were but a few of the most prominent writers to be connected with the journal. It was shut down in 1884 for censorship reasons.
* Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855) is the national poet of Poland and was active in the Polish national independence movement. He was forced to live in exile outside of Poland in Russia where he became familiar with both the Decembrists and the works of Alexander Pushkin. Mickiewicz and Pushkin admired each other’s work. For reasons both aesthetic and nationalistic, there has always been a critical and emotional debate as to which of the two poets, so similar in many ways, was the greater, and which poet had the greater influence on the other:
* Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich (1596–1645). The first of the Romanov dynasty to rule Russia.
* The “table of ranks” was established by Peter the Great in 1722 and consisted of 14 ranks or grades (with the 1st Class being the highest). There were three types of ranking: military, civil and courtly. The “table” was removed after the Russian Revolution. A State Councillor was the fifth tank.
* Herzen, Alexander Ivanovich (1812–70). One of Russia’s foremost philosophical and socialist thinkers. He was an essayist and writer with strong revolutionary leanings. Forced to leave Russia, he eventually settled in England where he established a Russian press. Beginning in 1857, together with N.P. Ogaryov he publish
ed a free Russian weekly newspaper, The Bell. It was regularly smuggled into Russia where it was read widely.
* The more fashionable environs of the capital, St. Petersburg
* See introduction
* Intellectual déclassés not belonging to the gentry in the nineteenth century.
* This is probably a reference to Peter the Great (1672–1725) who spent six months in Holland, learning about shipbuilding and European civilization which he later forcefully and autocratically introduced into Russia against serious opposition. For the traditionalists in Russia he was seen as the Antichrist.
* Evtushevslcy, Vasiliy Andrianovich (1836–1888). A Russian pedagogue and editor of the journal Narodnaya shkola (Public School). Developed a methodology for teaching arithmetic and numbers. Author of widely distributed textbooks in the 1870’s and 1880’s.
** Ushinsky, Konstantin Dmitrievich (1824–1870). One of Russia’s most famous pedagogues and one of the principal founders of pedagogical methodology in Rusia’s public school system. Author of numerous texts for beginners. These textbooks were used for many decades by millions of school children.
* Nadson, Semyon Yakovlevich (1862–1887). One of the leading poets representing social consciousness in Russian literature at the end of the 19th century. His emotional “civic idealism” was extremely popular among the liberal intelligentsia and he influenced youthful Russian idealists with his lamentations on social injustices.
* In the Russian school system grades are assigned from a high of “five” (excellent) to a low of “one” or “zero” (failure).
* Rusalka is a water-nymph, usually mischievous or even wicked, and frequently encountered in Russian folklore.
* A paraphrase of a famous line from A.S. Griboedov’s play Woe from Wit (1822–24)
* * Kantemir, Prince Antioch Dmitrievich (1708–1744). Chiefly known as Russia’s first satirist and a leading figure in literary classicism of 18th-century Russia. He was also responsible for important stylistic innovations in the development of the Russian literary language.
* This would be Khripach’s corresponding military rank.
* Ivan Andreyevich Krylov (1769–1844) was Russia’s most famous author of fables. “The Liar” concerns a traveler who is constantly boasting about the many marvellous things he has seen in other lands. One of his listeners tells him of a local curiosity in his town, namely a bridge that is reputed to dump all liars into the river. The traveler is afraid to cross the bridge and chooses to ford the river.
* In Russian the words for “bathing” or a “bathhouse” (“kupan’e” and “banya”) are jokingly used to refer to a masquerade.
* These are famous lines taken from the Romantic poem “The Demon” by Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov (1814–1841).
* Reshetnikov, Fyodor Mikhaylovich (1841–1871). A novelist of the 1860’s with strong democratic views and a follower of Belinsky, Chernyshevksy and Dobrolyubov. His best-known novel was The People of Podlipno (1864) which dealt with the depressed and exploited lives of the peasantry and Lumpenproletariat.
* Slowacki, Juliusz (1809–1849). A Polish poet and dramatist whose early works depicted the romantic image of the solitary and disenchanted hero. Much of his work was written and published abroad (Paris). Together with A. Mickiewicz he belonged to the foremost representatives of Polish revolutionary romanticism. Obviously he could have had no influence on Byron (1788–1824), whose works preceded those of Slowacki’s.
* Foma Gordeyev (1899) was the title of Gorky’s first important novel. The hero of the novel, Foma Gordeyev, is the young son of a rich Volga merchant. He is disenchanted by the lack of spiritual values in both his father and the entire merchant class. When he tries to resist the traditional autocratic and undemocratic ways of his class, he is eventually destroyed. The novel was praised for the starkness and brutality of its portrayal of the merchant world.
* A reference to Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818–83), one of the great triumvirate of 19th-century Russian novelists that included Tolstoi and Dostoevsky.
* These are probably names of brothels in St. Petersburg
* These are probably names of brothels in St. Petersburg
* In Russian the bird is a “sirin,” which is both a small owl-like bird and a mythological bird from ancient Russian folklore that has the face and breast of a young girl.
* Nadson, Semyon Yakovlevich (1862–1887). Perhaps the most famous and inspirational of the democratically-minded “civic” poets. He died prematurely of tuberculosis. However, to the romantically-inclined, his death came as much from spiritual causes (disenchantment, sorrow and painful sensitivity) as from physical.
** Nekrasov, Nikolai Alexeyevich (1821–1878). Perhaps the most famous poet of the mid-nineteenth century in Russia and the leading representative of the realist-democratic tendency in “civic” poetry. In 1846 he gained control of the journal The Contemporary, which, until its suppression in 1866, was the leading journal in Russia, publishing both Turgenev and Tolstoy, as well as the civic critics like Belinsky, Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov. In 1867 he took over another influential journal, Notes of the Fatherland, which he published until his death. Minayev, Dmitri Dmitrievich (1835–1889). A translator and minor Russian poet who belonged to the Nekrasov school. He worked in various democratic journals of his day, including those owned by Nekrasov. Famous for his parodies, epigrams and puns on topical subjects.
* Salieri, Antonio (1750–1825). An Italian composer who lived in Vienna after 1766. He was reputedly insanely jealous of Mozart and a legend circulated that he had poisoned the great composer Pushkin utilized that legend in his “little tragedy” entitled “Mozart and Salieri.”