To the dearest memory of my father Ivan
Mikhaïlovitch Saraskin
Preface
Twenty
years ago, when I was a student at the Literature department, I first read The Possessed, the novel that although
it has been reedited after a ten years break, still had a steady stigma of
being “reactionary” and “ideological sabotage”, I could never think that I
would some day write a book about it.
I, as many of my contemporaries, thought that the
system of “the grandiose intellectual cheating” in which lived the country, the
people and the culture, was there forever; it seemed that the ideological
monolith that weighed down the Russian culture but compelled to “allow” Pushkin
and Tolstoy and did not trust Dostoïevski – would remain for the ages of ages.
People
say that the man in order not to perish has to find “his own kind”.
The novel Bessy became for me this literary speaking ecological niche where one could live, freely breath and feel as a human being: this book, read in a good moment, built my consciousness, determined choices of my life, helped to survive without being seduced neither by the mirage of official hierarchy nor by the pride of the underground.
By the end the novel brought me to my own kind.
In this book are assembled writings on The Possessed, written long time ago and
recently: the “harmless” chapters about the poetics of the novel were conceived
at the end of seventieth, “oriental” chapters at the beginning of eightieth,
the third, “political” part came together during the last year. Sometimes I
felt like giving a broader artistic context of the Dostoïevski’s world, going
beyond the limits of one novel – this explains the presence of chapters that
exceed the limits of the Possessed itself.
The desire, however, to understand the most debatable, the most long-suffering
and, according to my deepest convictions, the most important novel of
Dostoïevski, demanded many different efforts: to go into the depth of the text – being lead by a line or a word,
a date or a name; go from the text
–toward artistic analogies and associations, sometimes completely unexpected;
to go toward the text and, grown wise
with the experience of the real history, to return again to its central idea.
This
book certainly does not pretend to close the topic. The real talk about the Possessed only begins: main intellectual
shocks and emotional conclusions are still ahead.
For such is the destiny of this great prophetic
novel of Dostoïevski: everybody has to learn its lessons starting from zero
point. Get even a half-step closer to what Dostoïevski expressed in The Possessed is an enviable lot for the
reader and sometimes a real life chance.
I hope that I also have such a chance: after the
first reading of the Possessed, in
the context of momentary and current issues, in other words from the position
of political and social cataclysms, should come the understanding of the Possessed from the point of view of the
eternity, as Dostoïevski understood it, from the position of the Christian law.
“The law of human existence consists only in the
ability of the man to always worship infinitely great. If people are deprived
of infinitely great, they will not live and dye in despair”, with these words
on his lips dies Stepan Trofimivich Verkhovenski. “Every man, whoever he is,
needs to worship what is the Great Idea, infinite Idea! …[1]
“I…I will believe in God”, scrims the unfortunate,
doomed Shatov, the victim of the possessed.
“Listen: this man was the greatest on earth, he is
what it exists for, solemnly declares the hymn for Christ Kirillov one minute
before his suicide. There are no Dostoïevski’s heroes without the search for
God as a goal of existence, of man and of a nation. Even Stavrogin, “the
hero-sun” in the Possessed represents,
according to the author’s definition a social type of man who although idle, is
nevertheless “conscientious and making desperate, convulsive efforts in order
to renew himself and to start to believe again …This is a man who does not
believe the faith of our believers and who asks for a faith that is full,
perfect, other…”
“Do you believe or do you not believe” –this a most
important, eternal “Dostoïevski’s” question that demands sooner or later from
every man a self-determination, and gives to the Possessed truly Dostoïevskian dimensions.
It is a novel about painful search for God, about
ordeals of faith and love, about afflictions of the rebellious spirit – this
seems to be the future reading of the Possessed.
I feel a
heartfelt, sincere gratitude to my long-term interlocutors, specialists on
Dostoïevski with whom I had a chance to discuss momentary as well as eternal in
Dostoïevski’s houses of St. Petersburg and Staraja Russa.
I would like to express special gratefulness for his
help and support to Y.F. Karjakin whose experience on Dostoïevski is highly
instructive.
The World of the novel.
Chapter 1
In the context of the exact time.
(The Possessed, the calendar of the fiction)
What
is time? Time does not exist;
Time
is the relation of being to non-being.
F.M. Dostoïevski
In
January 1871, in full swing of the work on the Possessed, Dostoïevski wrote to A. Maïkov: “Have you read Leskov’s
novel in “Russian vestnik”? A lot of lies, a lot of devil only knows what, as
if it was happening on the moon” (29, book I, 172).
There is
steady opinion that has already become a prejudice, that in works of
Dostoïevski, with their “fantastic” realism, everything is if it was on the
moon: instead of cosmos there is a chaos, instead of order –consecutive
disharmony, instead of concrete time and space – eternity in the middle of the
universe, instead of developing characters – unchanging images and pulled out
of ages moments of their existence, instead of a strict thoughtful construction
of a plot and composition – neglect of artistic fiction.
These
prejudices are old: Dostoïevski’s contemporaries already had them. “I have
completely different ideas about reality and realism than our realists and
critics …”, wrote Dostoïevski at the end of 1868. “Tell intelligibly what we,
Russians, experienced in our spiritual development in the last ten years ¾ our realists will scrim that this is a
fantasy! Nevertheless it is an indigenous, true realism! This is realism but
deeper because their realism is superficial …With their realism one cannot
explain one hundredth of real facts that took place. And we, with our idealism,
even predicted facts. It happened.” (28, book II, 329)
One year
after Dostoïevsli started to write the Possessed
– the novel that suffered from realists and critics more than all other
works of Dostoïevski all together. Attentive, concentrated reading of this
particular novel demolishes, however, many habitual stereotypes and refutes old
and new-fashioned prejudices.
As
actors who come to theatre before a show, characters of the Possessed come one after another to the
provincial city where main events of the novel will take place. Shatov returned
from abroad one year and a half before these events. Two months before came to
the province new governor of the town Lembke, officials Blum and Shigalev and
returned from Switzerland general’s wife Stavrogina. Three weeks before the
Lebjadkins and Fed’ka the Convict appeared in town, two weeks before came
Drozdov family and Daria Shatova, one week before ¾ Yulia Mikhaïlovna and her relative, the
writer Karamazinov. Five days before arrived Kirillov and the day when opens
the novel-chronicle, main participants, Stavrogin and Petr Verkhovenski,
reached the town. Arrivals become more rare later: miss Virginskaja comes from
St. Petersburg and ends up, as well as Erkel, at the meeting of “ours”,
book-peddler appears in town, young suicide makes a swift pass and Maria
Shatova finds her husband.
Let’s take a good look, let’s think about this
“meeting” with its unprecedented, even for Dostoïevski, number of characters
(22!). What made them take a road? What was their purpose and why did they
gather there?
Let’s remember: right after his arrival to Russia
Shatov buried the illegal typographical press and sent to Switzerland the
letter-declaration where he announced his complete rupture with “Society”.
Kirillov returned from abroad in order to perform, on the signal of Petr
Verkhovenski, an act of free will ¾ the suicide. Brother and
Sister Lebjadkin await from Stavrogin the decision of their fate. Karamazinov
is in a hurry selling his property before trouble begins so he can definitely
leave Russia. Drozvovs return to their family nest after many years of absence.
Lembke couple dreams of accomplishing a brilliant administrative career in
their new life. Maria Shatova came to the tiny room on the Bogojavlenskaja
Street in order to give birth to the child of Stavrogin. Petr Verkhovenski
intends to get money for his property, kill Shatov, gain power over Stavrogin
and start “the universal appraisal”. For some mysterious reason that we will
try to comprehend, arrives to the town Stavrogin, “terrible new idea is
struggling with him too”.
The main
thing is clear: the chronicle described the events of the final act of a
tragedy first acts of which were played far behind the scene. Characters’
destinies are presented in the last, decisive turn: they will finally have to
pay off their old scores.
Results
of this show-meeting are truly tragic: thirteen characters die by the end of
the chronicle, it means one third of all speaking characters of the Possessed and therefore one third of the
novel’s universe.
“As a matter of fact reader-spectator is allowed to
witness only the denouement …wrote Anna Akhmatova about Dostoïevski’s
novels-tragedies. “Everything: love, hate, betrayal or friendship had already
taken place somewhere, beyond limits of the given novel.” Time and space of the
novel are filled with mysteries of old encounters
and separations, enigmas of intentions and
decisions, puzzles of situations and actions that happened sometime before.
What had happened sometimes vaguely glimmers, sometimes clearly oozes and
sometimes powerfully invades the present, illuminating pages of the novel with
a transparent, ominous light. Expositions of the chronicle, impregnations “from
the past” are the heralds of the future catastrophe: an unavoidable, inevitable
reckoning for the past.
This past, whether removed or very recent, is far
from being always clear and obvious, sometimes it has bearly distinguishable
features, and sometimes you do not even suspect the fact of its existence.
Special efforts are needed in order to reveal and interpret this “underwater”,
invisible part of the whole.
The Past: 1849-1869
Narration of the novel-chronicle contains a great number of temporal
marks that indicate year or month, day or hour, minute or instant. These marks
register age of characters and events of their past, fix duration of episodes
and intervals between them, determine pace, rhythm, speed and direction of time,
keeps account of it.
Logical
cause and effect relationships of “temporal marks” are so carefully thought out
that the possibility to calculate dates of almost all events strictly according
to calendar is perfectly realistic. Actually, combined chronology of the Possessed “works” in a way that reader
can relay on its almost absolute precision: each event in the novel has only
one, unique time and place and does not allow any approximate, “by eye”,
definitions.
Chronicle does not fix time in general, past or
current, but first of all the exact time. Actually characters themselves
passionately search for this exactness. They want to know exactly all the terms
in the “temporary” as well as in “eternal” time.
Kirillov affirms that he discovered that he was
happy “last week …Wednesday…at night …it was two thirty seven in the morning”.
Liputin counts “for sure” when “phalanstera” will happen in the province,
Karamazinov inquires Petrusha about the same and the latter reveals the secret:
“It will start about the beginning of the next May and everything will be over
by St. Peter’s day.” Even the end of the world should start, according to
Shigalev’s plans, sometime the day after tomorrow, exactly at ten twenty five.”
Eternal
chronology of the Possessed with its
numerous and insisting “signals of the exact time” forms an orderly and
finished calendar.
Chronicle of the novel contains three main temporary
levels. First of all it is the pre-narrative past where developed the
prehistory of the events; second it is narrative time itself where take place
actions of the novel; third, the post-narrative time that lies between the end
of the narrative action and the appearance of the text written by Chronicler.
The most expressively the past appears in the life
description of the most respectful Stepan Trofimovitch Verkhovenski.
Chronicler informs that “right at the end of
forties”, he [Verkhovenski] “returned from abroad and made a brilliant display
as a lecturer at the university”. His university career ended, however, because
his poem was arrested in Moscow, and “some huge, anti-natural and anti-state
society that counted about thirty people and had almost shaken the social
edifice” was discovered in St. Petersburg.
Therefore Stepan Trofimovitch’s hour of triumph coincides
with the most important event in Russian life of “the late forties”: the arrest
of Petrashevski’s group in April 1849. Here appears and consolidates the first
basic date, the beginning of the story in the Possessed, that is distant from it by twenty years.
By confronting this key date with temporary marks in
the text we get practically all calendar chain of the prehistory of the
chronicle as well as its final link which is the suggested time of the novel’s
events: 1869.
In 1849
not only social nut also private life of Stepan Trofimovitch drastically
changed: he became the tutor of the son of Varvara Vsevolodna and settled for
good in her house. All further details of the biography of Stepan Trofimovitch
are narrated in a precise connection with real events in the Russian history.
Therefore we learn that in May 1855, on his way to Crimea, to the army
forces, died general Vsevolod Nikolaevich Stavrogin, father of Nikolay
Vsevolodovich. This event marks the first big argument between Stepan Trofimovitch
and his protectress.
“Once, when came the first rumors about the
liberation of peasants and when the whole Russia suddenly rejoiced and was
preparing for the revival, precisely in the Fall of 1856, a very important St.
Petersburg baron who “was very close to the affair” visited Varvara Petrovna.
In this memorable day happened another tiff between Stepan Trofimovitch and
Varvara Petrovna”.
“At the
end of fifties”, what means, we can be sure, during the winter 1859-1860,
Stepan Trofimovitch and Varvara Petrovna went to Moscow and St. Petersburg
hoping to “join the movement and show their strength”. “Toward the Lent”, in
other words in Spring 1860, everything “blown up like a rainbow soap-bubble”,
and, as soon as back home from two capitals, Varvara Petrovna “sent her friend
abroad”. Stepan Trofimovich came back to Skvoreshniki the same Fall.
As we
see, cited facts in this life description are not so important and therefore
Chronicler calls them “anecdotes”. They are not, however, told without purpose.
“The trifles of life” that are precisely related to the real historical time
allow to define circumstances much more important and essential.
Information about the first spouse of Stepan
Trofimovich who “died in Paris after being separated from him for three years
and left him a five years old son” allows to ascertain that little Peter was
five years old in 1847 since in this year died his mother. Therefore the young
Verkhovenski should be 27 years old in 1869. These facts from the father’s past
date and unobtrusively draw a line of the history of the son, the ill-fated
Petr Stepanovitch Verkhovenski.
In the
novel itself he is an inveterate rogue and swindler, ambitious political dealer
and murderer. In the prehistory of the chronicle, however, he is an unfortunate
orphan who knew neither his mother nor father and who, since he was a baby,
lived with “aunts” somewhere in the remotest depths of the provinces; the child
“sent by mail” by his father in order to keep him out of sight and robed by his
own father as well. It is rather significant that Stepan Trofimovich, who
brought up Stavrogin, Dasha and Lisa and guided his young friend Chronicler,
never took any part in the education of his own son and saw him only twice in
his life.
“Hidden” in Stepan Trofimovich’s biography,
childhood and adolescence of his son give to the biography of the latter a new,
dramatic nuance and show who had become ten years later a sensitive and
God-fearing boy from the “casual family”.
An other
episode from the Fall 1860, when Stepan Trofimovich, after his travel abroad,
complains to the Chronicler-his confident about his fate as a sponger, seems to
be without importance. However, precisely this episode allows to date the first
and the earliest in the chronicle conversation of the Chronicler with his elder
preceptor.
All
details connected with Chronicler are especially precious since the narrator of
the Possessed talks very seldom and
little about himself; he is the only one character of the chronicle whose age
is not indicated at all. Chronicler is sometimes perceived as an “figurative
something”, “a specific narrative style dressed by Dostoievski in frock-coat
and trousers”.
Anton Lavrentjevich G-v, the narrator of the Possessed has, however, a biography as
well but it seems to be overshadowed by the events of other lives.
“I
wasn’t born then yet” (it means during the youth of Stepan Trofimovich) says
Chronicler about 1849 when the preceptor appeared at the general’s wife house.
Chronicler wasn’t either the witness of the already
discussed events of 1855-1856. Therefore he could become the confident of
Stepan Trofimovich between 1856 and 1860 or precisely around 1858. This date
comes from the following temporary points: in the Fall of 1855 Nicolay
Vsevolodovich entered the Lyceum and came home for vocations during the first
two years (1856 and 1857). Chronicler, however, saw him only in 1856 when the
latter returned home after his St. Petersburg adventures (This time I could see
him for the first time, I had never seen him before”). Therefore Chronicler
became close to the general’s wife’s household only after her son’s
arrival in 1857 and before Stepan Trofimovich’s departure to St. Petersburg and
then abroad during the winter 1859-1860. Most likely Chronicler finished
gymnasia around 1858: according to the novel he was “a young man of classical
education and with connections in the highest society”, had a position (“I
serve”) and joined a group of liberal intelligentsia meeting under Stepan Trofimovich’s
wing. Hence can be defined the age of Chronicler: in the year of graduation
from gymnasia he could be seventeen years old and therefore at the moment when
begins the novel (ten years after) he is twenty seven years old, the classical
age of “conspirator” according to Dostoievski.
Chronicler, however, is not a conspirator. He is the only one among
young people in the novel who is not involved in Peter Verkhovenski’s
machinations and one of those few who bravely and openly condemn him. By trying
to notice, learn, remember and register everything he achieves a great feat,
per haps the work of his life. From this point of view “The Chronicle”
represents the truly heroic deed of Chronicler: inquisitive, honest and
searching for truth “Russian boy”.
Dostoievski wrote to his brother from Peter
and Paul Fortress on December 22 1849: “When I look back to my past and think
how much time I had wasted, how much time was lost in delusions, errors,
idleness and inability to live; how I did not value it and how many times I
sinned against my heart and my spirit, my heart is bleeding” (28, book I, 164).
Chronicler, who managed not to waist his time, seems to “correct” “delusions
and errors” of young Dostoievski. By looking from the “present” into the “past”
the writer felt especially strongly the sense and prize of each and every lived
minute since his desire not to waist time represents for him the highest thirst
for life.
1865, 1969: two encounters.
Prehistory of the novel represents twenty years (1849-1869) during which
the “professor” gradually sank;
general’s wife consolidated her fortune; “children”: Petrusha Verkhovenski,
Stavrogin, Lisa and Dasha grown up; governors changed in the city and
sovereigns in the country; the Crimea war, the great reformation, the Polish
uprising and peasants movements took place.
Real
historical events as well as Stepan Trofimovich’s biography, complete and
consecutive, form a chronological basis that enables to gather and date
dispersed and distant details in the text and in biographies of all main
characters of the novel.
From
this point of view the biography of Nicolay Stavrogin is the most
representative: chronology allows to reconstruct an uninterrupted succession of
the most important events of his life.
Let’s enumerate them (omitting technical methods of
date-determination): 1840 is a year of Stavrogin’s birth; in 1849 begins his
home education; from the fall 1855 to the December 1860 he studies in St.
Petersburg Liceum; year 1861: military service in Guards and success in the
highest society; 1862: duels, court and degradation from the military; 1863:
participation in the Polish campaign, promotion to officer and resignation from
the army; 1864: St. Petersburg “corners” and the acquaintance with Lebjadkin,
Petrusha Verkhovenski and Kirillov; June 1864: the “accident” with Matrjosha;
March 1865: the marriage with the Lame; June 1865: his mother’s arrival; Spring
1866: departure from Russia; 1866-1869: life abroad; August 1869: return to
Russia.
As we
can see the pre-narrative episodes of Stavrogin’s life are put in the context
of the concrete space and into strict frame of time: while student in St.
Petersburg Liceum from 1855 to 1860, Nicolay Vsevolodovich could have had
concrete classmates and his colleagues in St. Petersburg Guards from 1860 to
1861 should have been officers known by their names.
Stavrogin’s prehistory becomes richer and tenser as we get closer to the
beginning of the chronicle.
After
Nicolay Vsevolodovich left abroad in 1866, he traveled all over Europe, made a
journey to Egypt, stood eight hours vespers and matins in Aphon, worshiped holy
places in Jerusalem, visited Iceland as a member of some scientific expedition
and attended lectures at universities in Germany.
In
Summer 1867 Stavrogin bought in Frankfurt a portrait of a girl resembling
Matrjosha but forgot it in some hotel; in his confession Nicolay Vsevolodovich
admits that he only then remembered the “accident” with Matrjosha for the first
time. In the Fall of the same year he commits with Shatov and Kirillov another,
this time intellectual sacrilege. Seeing the moral crime first of all in the
fact of corrupting two disciples with opposite ideas, one of “neophytes” will
accuse him later: “During the same time when you implanted in my heart god and
fatherland…per haps during the same days, you poisoned the heart of this
…maniac Kirillov. You affirmed in him lie and calumny”. At the end of 1867
Stavrogin’s “experiments” exceeded limits of his personal entertainment as he
takes part in the reorganization of Petrusha’s “society” according to a new
plan, and writes regulations for it.
The
reconstructed calendar of last months preceding the chronicle allows to make
even more important semantic discoveries.
In May
1868, after the sinister dream about Matrjosha, Satavrogin begins having
horrible hallucinations that gave rise to the idea of penitence and confession.
At the end of 1868 he changed citizenship and secretly bought a house in the
canton Uri (Switzerland). The events of 1869, that directly lead to the
confession, line up in the following way: January ¾ affair with Maria Shatova in Paris;
March-April ¾acquaintance with Lisa;
middle April ¾ encounter with his mother
and Dasha in Paris; May-June ¾ their trip to Switzerland;
beginning of July ¾ passion for Lisa and plan
of bigamy; middle July ¾ rapprochement with Dasha
and rejection of the “rapacious” plan; end of July ¾ urgent departure. These are circumstances of
this departure according to the Stavrogin’s confession: “I felt a terrible
temptation for the new crime …but I run away on the advice of another girl whom
I told almost everything” (11, 23). It appears that right after his oral
confession to Dasha and escape, on her advice, to Switzerland, the written text
of the document was created, circulated and brought to Russia at the beginning
of August.
The story
of the poor girl who managed, in a short period of time of her being “at the
water-cure”, to bring a “great sinner” to repentance and confession after
series of crimes and sacrileges, is worth the most careful attention. The
reconstruction of Daria Shatova’s biography in the context of Stavrogin’s
prehistory gives to the “past” new and unexpected sense.
In 1869
Varvara Petrovna’s ward, orphan and daughter of a house servant and former serf
of Stavrogin’s family is twenty years old. Eight years ago, in 1861 when she
was twelve years old, she had been taken to the general’s wife house, exactly
during the period when Nikolay Vsevolodovich, after he had graduated from the
Liceum, served in St. Petersburg and did not visit his mother during four
years. This period was “quiet” in Skvoreshniki; during four years (1861-1865)
teachers and governess came to the girl, she received good education and became
her patroness’s confident. During exactly these four years Stavrogin had
serious trouble: duels, trials and degradation. Naturally Dasha, his mother’s
confident, knew about her affairs, efforts and worries.
Stavrogin’s arrival to his mother in July 1865 (when Dasha saw him for
the first time) reveals its real meaning only if we know that three months
before that (in March 1865) he secretly got married. The fragment from his
confession gives an exact idea about his frame of mind at this period: “I was generally
very bored of living back then, almost in the state of stupor. In the same
manner as I forgot all what happened then, I would completely forget, as soon
as danger was over, the accident in Gorokhovaja street (in other words
Matrjosha’s death) if I did not angrily remember for some time how scared I
was. I took my anger on everybody. In the same time, but without any specific
reason, I got an idea of ruining my life as disgustingly as possible. For about
a year I thought about the suicide; a better opportunity presented itself.
Once, when looking at the lame Maria Timofeevna Lebjadkina, who was sometimes
serving in rooms and was not yet insane but simply a gushing idiot secretly
crazy about me (as ours have told me), I suddenly decided to marry her. The
idea that Stavrogin would marry this lowest creature excited my nerves. One
could not imagine anything more hideous” (11,20).
It is
clear that Stavrogin’s outrages in the provincial town where “the beast had
shown his claws” must have taken place before Dasha’s eyes since she
permanently lived in his mother’s house. Even if the novel does not mention it
at all, their encounter and close acquaintance are inevitable according to the
plot’s logic and are as plausible as the facts from the past specifically
mentioned by the Chronicler.
Imperceptibly for the reader and as if by accident, Chronicler put
Stavrogin and Dasha under the same roof. For half a year they live in the same
house and eat at the same table. It seems that it is during this time that was
born the love of the sixteen years old girl for a man standing on the verge of
disaster: love-pity and love-sacrifice.
The
encounter in Switzerland turned to be a continuation
of the old acquaintance: Nicolay Vsevolodovich knew to whom he confided and to
whose advice he listened. Stavrogin will write to Dasha in his death letter:
“You are this tender and generous creature that I have discovered!”
Therefore the chronology of the novel helps to find episodes lost in its prehistory, liquidate “white spots” in the Chronicler’s story, reconstruct characters’ biographies and line up all the events in their true causal order.
Narrative function of the chronology of the Possessed corrects to the great extend a common idea about the
organization of fictional time in Dostoievski’s works. Thus M.M. Bakhtin, who
believed that the main categories of Dostoievski’s vision are “not
progression but coexistence and interaction”, and
who perceived Dostoievski’s world as unfolded “mainly in space and not in time”,
denied the functional importance of the “past” in characters’ lives. “His
characters do not remember anything, they do not have biography in a sense of
the past and truly lived experience …Therefore in Dostoievski’s novel there is
no causality, no genesis, no explanations from the past, milieu influence,
education and so on”. The concrete analysis of the fictional chronology of the Possessed reveals that biographies of
all main characters of the novel have to be reconstructed in a way that the
distant past emerges as a causal factor of the recent, and the present appears as
a direct consequence of the past.
Conclusions of those researchers who try to apply Bakhtin’s conception
to the novel the Possessed do not
confirm either: “Stavrogin’s character does not have a biographical time … the
information from Stavrogin’s “biography” given to the reader represents only
“moments” and do not compose a whole and one biographical time”.
Continuity of Stavrogin’s biography, brought to light with each and every
important life event in it (birth, study, service, marriage, travels and so on),
not only exists in the novel but can be exactly dated and thus witness in favor
of the narrative importance of the chronology in Dostoievski’s novels. On the
other hand this continuity also enlightens “times connection” in the novel
where critical and crucial time does not exclude the chronological and
sequential one as it is often suggested: “In Dostoievski’s novels detailed
chronological back ground (the calendar plan with exactly indicated boundaries
between sequences) is actually fictitious, it does not influence the
development of events and does not leave any traces. Chronological
progressiveness is practically depreciated in the name of the decisive
self-exposure of characters.”
To the great extend our calculations are
directed to discern the traces that indicate the movement of the chronicle from
its prehistory (“the past”) to events of the “present” with all complications
and paradoxes this movement implies.
September 12th: the
day of amazing coincidences.
Right before the beginning of main events of
the chronicle, the calendar does not count years and months anymore but rather
weeks and days; and the atmosphere of expectation thickens.
Chronicler begins the narration of the
novel’s closest prehistory by a special notice: “I will start with the
description of this partly amusing incident with which my chronicle truly
begins. At the very end of August Drozdovs finally returned.” Let’s verify
Chronicler’s word and take his indication “at the very end of August” literary,
as the last day of the month, August 31. Lets line up the chain of events from
this date.
“This
very day” Varvara Petrovna found out from “Drozdikha” about her son’s tiff with
Lisa and wrote a letter asking him to come as soon as possible. “To the
morning”, in other words on the 1 of September, her project of match-making
Daria and Stepan Trofimovich has matured and she informed both of them in the
same day. Dasha agreed immediately but Stepan Trofimovich asked for delay until
tomorrow. “Tomorrow”, that is on September 2, he gave his consent; engagement
has been scheduled for his next birthday and the wedding two weeks after that.
“A week after” (that is on September 9th) Stepan Trofimovich was in
a state of confusion and “the next day” (September 10th) he received
a letter from Varvara Petrovna that defines calendar dates of the event. “The
day after tomorrow, Sunday, she asked Stepan Trofimovich to be at her place precisely
at twelve o’clock”.
Therefore, if the calculation is correct, this Sunday has to be
September 12th. Here our arguments obtain a “documentary” proof. The
calendar of the year 1869 clearly confirms that the supposed Sunday falls on
September 12th. Exactly at this date calendar of the “past” and
calendar of the “present” cross and confirm each other. Some sort of a “lock”
is formed: “the fatal” Sunday can only be September 12th and
September 12th falls on Sunday precisely in 1869.
Chronicler informs: “This same Sunday when Stepan Trofimovich’s fate had
to be irrevocably decided was one of the most important days of my chronicle.
This was a day of surprises, the day of denouements of the past and beginnings
of the something new, the day of sharp explanations and even more confusion.”
The fact
that instead of two especially invited witnesses of the supposed engagement
there were ten uninvited guests seems to be a pure coincidence. “Completely
unexpected arrival of Nicolay Vsevolodovich who we expected probably in a
month, was strange not only because of its surprise but precisely because of
somehow fatal coincidence with the present minute”, defines Chronicler the main
event of “the day of amazingly gathered coincidences.”
Are
these “accidents” so accidental, “surprises” so surprising and “coincidences”
so unexpected from the point of view of the chronicle’s exact calendar?
Yet in
Switzerland Nicolay Vsevolodovich promised his mother to come in November. On
August 31 Varvara Petrovna begged her son “to come at least one month before
the fixed date”. When, however, she saw her son this September Sunday she was
very surprised: “I did not expect you at all before one more month, Nicolas!”
Therefore Stavrogin’s pre-term appearance is not engendered by his mother’s
letter but by something else.
Calendar
helps: on September 4th Stepan Trofimovich sent a letter to his former pupil in
which he had informed him about his future engagement. Stavrogin left St.
Petersburg right after he had received the news (he had just enough time) and
appeared in his mother’s salon knowing exactly time and place of the gathering.
Petr Verkhovenski, another “unexpected guest”, also appeared there on the
instigation of his father: “Leave everything and fly to save me”. The whole
gathering is not altogether so unexpected as it seems. The project imposed by
Varvara Petrovna on her wards is corrected by reality because it involves
interests of all there present.
In the
same time the number of guests masks the truly dramatic situation, governed,
imperceptibly for others, by two of the “surprisingly” arrived: Stavrogin and
Petr Stepanovich (Verkhovenski). The hidden tension of the scene consists
precisely in the fact that its accidental (but in fact especially invited)
visitors turned to be its play-writers, producers and main actors.
Break
the engagement at any price and ruin this marriage in order to keep Dasha for
himself ¾ these are secret motives of
Stavrogin’s arrival. Petr Verkhovenski’s game is, however, even more
complicated and casuistic. Suspecting plot of Stavrogin he watches his every word or gesture and, as soon as he
grasps their meaning, immediately takes up Nicolay Vsevolodovich’s party,
captures the conversation and leads the scene toward the desired result: the
engagement is scandalously broken, the bride is compromised, the groom is
disgraced and the hostess is cruelly hurt and insulted.
Victims
and witnesses of the intrigue begin to suspect that something was wrong only
afterwards: “They are clever; on Sunday they have arranged things…”
The
secret plot, however, never existed! The mainspring of Sunday’s intrigue was
really known only to Petr Stepanovich: by decoying Stavrogin in the trap of
profitable for both of them scandal, he seems to accumulate material for
blackmailing. Later Petrusha (Verkhovenski) will show his cards: “I acted
exactly so you would notice the whole spring; I tried so hard primarily for you
because I wanted to catch and compromise you. I wanted first of all to know to
which degree you are afraid”.
Chronicler narrates circumstances of the “fatal” Sunday as an average
witness, “not knowing the matter”: “We did not know anything back then and
naturally several things seemed very strange to us”. The story of “the day of
surprising coincidences” is like a report of the witness from the place and
“from the moment” of the event. Chronicler will have four months, however, to
think over the facts and, having the final knowledge, elucidate them from the
new temporal point of view. Besides the temporal point “then” appears the point
“now”: “And now, having described our enigmatic situation …when we did not know
anything yet, I will begin to describe the following events of my chronicle
with, so to say, knowledge of the matter as it all was revealed and explained
now.” The narration from “then” mixes with the story from “now”; “yesterday”,
“today” or “tomorrow” meet and cross, the experience of the latest knowledge
bares the nerve of the past moments.
Indeed,
these narrative zigzags, anticipations, stops and returns to the past compose
the chronicle of the Possessed ¾ this astonishing building made of the
living, multidimensional and irrevocable time.
From September 12 to October
11
Thirty
days from the first day of the chronicle, September 12th, when
arrives its main character Nicolaj Stavrogin until his death dated by October
11th, constitute the main fictional time of the Possessed.
Here are
dates of main events in the chronicle:
¾ September 12, “fatal Sunday”
¾ night from 20 to 21
September, Stavrogin’s night visits.
¾ September 28th,
Petr Verkhovenski’s bustles, the meeting with “ours”; the scene
“Ivan-tzarevich”;
¾ September 29th,
the search at Stepan Trofimovich’s house, Stavrogin’s visit to Tikhon; public
confession about the marriage with Maria Lebjadkina;
¾ September 30th,
governess’ festivities, the fire and the murder of brother and sister
Lebjadkin;
¾October 1, Stepan
Trofimovich’s departure, Lisa’s death, Stavrogin’s departure and arrival of
Maria Shatova;
¾ October 2, birth of Maria
Shatova’s child and Shatov’s murder;
¾ night of the October 3rd,
Kirillov’s suicide;
¾ October 3rd,
Petr Verkhovenski’s departure and also departure of Varvara Petrovna looking
for Stepan Trofimovich;
¾ October 8th,
death of Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovenski;
¾ October 11th,
Stavrogin’s suicide.
Enumerated days are marked by special intensity of the described events.
None of other days of this month, however, is excluded completely from the
narration: some event, even only briefly mentioned, falls on each of them. It
is even possible to find out what happened in any of these days to each of the
main characters, but this information is dispersed and literary dissolved in
the text. What is amazing is that if we put all these microscopic pieces of
being together, compose individual chronologies and connect them, “point of
time” of each character will find its place in the combined picture of events
without any slips or discrepancy.
Lets not
tire the reader with details of calculations and abundance of dates, but just
affirm that any facts fixed in time are firmly hooked between themselves by the
temporal break and assembled in the general framework of chronology. All
information concerning days and months is as exact and reliable as the
information concerning years.
Here is
an especially interesting relationship between two events. Calculating from
September 12th we get the date of 29th, in other words
the last day of the month, as the date of the search at Stepan Trofimovich’s
house. Memory does not betray the Chronicler: “I remember the weather that
morning: it was cold, clear but windy September
day”. The same calculation concerning the moment of Shatov’s murder gives
us the date of October 2. We read in Kirillov’s death letter: “I, Alexej
Kirillov …declare that today …October, at night, around eight o’clock, I killed
the student Shatov”. It can be easily proved according to the text that these
facts (search and murder) are separated by no more than two days and two other
important events: festivities for governess’ (the next day after the search)
and Lisa’s death (the next day after festivities). It can be concluded that the
search could only take place between 28 and 30th September and
Shatov’s murder from 1 to 3rd October. Our calculations starting
from September 12th receive therefore sufficiently exact
confirmation. Temporal marks “September day” and “of October” form another
chronological lock.
Threads
of time between episodes of the novel interlace in the whole and one tissue.
Information about the moment of event, all these numerous “two days after”, “in
one day” and “next morning” that sometimes seem even redundant, are actually
always necessary. Chronicler’s narration includes the calendar that naturally
contains all capricious curves of time.
It is
noticed long time ago: “The starting point is always known. The calendar of
events is extremely carefully composed and hours are verified”. A modern
researcher reasonably supposes: “Dostoievski had a mechanism of internal
feeling of time that assured proportionality between axis of action and axis of
time. This sort of mechanism almost automatically corrects temporal
distribution of events”.
Other questions, however, are also rightful:
“What for the author needs so much exactitude and accuracy, why “explosive”
moments have to by measured by a sort of chronological machine that counts
hours, minutes, even seconds”? What for the writer needs an illusion of
complete authenticity of action? It appears that marks of exact time in
Dostoievski’s work give the opportunity to reconstruct the exact synchronic picture of events, which does
not entirely reveal itself in consecutive narration. Synchrony is not always
obvious for some events and episodes: some of them seem to completely fall out
from narration and can be reconstructed only after analyzing the whole context.
Since
characters of the Possessed live in a
unified time system, the system of exact
time, the combination of their individual chronologies may give surprising
semantic effects and reveal the hidden context, in other words a complementary
meaning as if it was hidden in folds of time.
It seems
that the phenomena of hidden context is an obligatory attribute of this sort of
narrative systems where chronology is, first, exact, second, multidimensional
and third, universal, as we observe
in the Possessed. Synchrony of events
and therefore complementary meaning do not appear if one of these attributes is
missing.
…According to other
calendars.
Based on
the synchronic principle, even brief confrontation of chronology in the Possessed with chronologies in other
famous works of Russian literature reveals important differences.
Pushkin
wrote in his comment to Eugene Onegin:
“We dare to believe that in our novel time is calculated according to the
calendar”. In Pushkin’s novel action continues for five and half years and
events are dated with precision of year and month to the point that it is
sometimes possible to determine an exact day of the event. Containing, between
dates, important breaks without any event, the internal chronology of Pushkin’s
novel, however, connects temporal points as if they belonged to different
characters: July 1821, beginning of Onegin’s travel; Summer 1821, Olga’s
marriage; end of January-February 1822, journey of Tatjana and her mother to
Moscow; Fall 1822, Tatjana’s marriage. Since Eugene Onegin does not contain any detailed individual chronologies
one cannot synchronize events happened to different characters.
Lermontov’s novel Hero of our time
that investigate “history of human soul” is constructed, as it is known, in
defiance of chronology. Concentric composition of the novel does not reproduce
events in their temporal succession but in other, more important for the author
order. Hero of our time practically
does not have any past; it is not exactly known why he left St. Petersburg and
happened to be at water cure. Author was not interested in Pechorin’s
formation: it is not known what Pechorin was doing in St. Petersburg during
five years after his return from Caucus and before his new arrival to
Vladicavcas. Time does not seem to change him: he remains the same in Taman where he was twenty five years old
and in Maxim Maximych where he is
thirty. None of Pechorin’s life events (except his meeting with smugglers or
episode with Vulich) has an exact date or corresponds to the real chronology.
It is only possible to determine the season where such or such episode takes
place (It is Winter in Fatalist;
April and May in Bella) and its
duration (around one month and a half in Princess
Mary). Therefore temporal factor plays no important role in creation of
historically authentic character of 1830.
There
are only few approximate indications of time of event in Gogol’s poem The dead souls. We read in the first
volume of Gogol’s novel: “As the matter of fact it is necessary to remember
that all this took place shortly after the glorious expulsion of French”; this
detail allows to place these events twenty years earlier relatively to the date
of creation of the novel (1842), in the reign of Alexander I. Officials and
residents of the provincial town N where arrived Chichikov, were absorbed in
reading of Moscow Gazette and Sons of the Fatherland looking for
political news and fearing debarkation of Napoleon from St. Helen’s island
(Napoleon died in 1821). “Chamber president knew by heart Jukovski’s Ludmila that still was back then a fresh
novelty”; Jukovski’s ballad was written in 1808.
In the
same time marks of Alexander I epoch coexist with traits of completely
different time: all background, way of life, the collision itself (the practice
of pawning serfs in bank) and the preponderance of officials-bureaucrats proves
that Chichikov travels in Russia of Nicolas the I.
Traits
of the epoch of Alexander I placed in the context of the forties turn out to be
an intentional improbability; events form not historical but phantasmagoric
picture.
Action
of the novel War and Peace begins in
July 1805 and ends in December 1820. Fifteen years of life of Tolstoy’s
characters unfold against background of universal historical events with which
they are most closely connected. This connection actually determines the
internal chronology of the novel: all episodes connected with wars, battles and
other historical events are dated exactly, literally up to an hour. When,
however, the narration deals with characters’ personal lives the chronology can
be sufficiently approximate: “in the middle of Winter”, “in Summer”, “in the
beginning of Fall” and so on.
The
calendar is sometimes intentionally imprecise. Here is one of the “peace”
episodes: having lost in cards to Dolohov forty three thousand rubles during
Christmas holidays (in the text it is indicated even more precisely: two days
after the third day of Christmas, in other words on December 29), Nicolay
Rostov “spent two more weeks in Moscow …and …having sent, finally, all forty
three thousand and having received Dolohov’s receipt, he left in the end of November in order to catch his
regiment.”
Chronology is sometimes respected only in relation to one particular
character but does not correspond to life circumstances of other characters.
For example a surprising appearance of Andrey Bolkonski, whom everybody
considered dead, at his father’s house in this very night from 19 to 20 March
1806, when his son will be born and his wife will die, is almost a miracle. Princess
Mary is afraid to believe this miracle: “No, this cannot be, this would be to
incredible”. Prince Andrej, seriously wounded in the battle of Austerlitz
around twentieth of November 1805 was left to the care of local residents. Four
months that took his recovery and the old prince’s search for his son
considered missing seem to be a realistic period of time and in this sense the
date of prince Andrej’s return is not surprising. The author had to go against
the low of nature, however, in order that his character had time to arrive at
such an important moment. We remember that the little princess, Andrej
Bolkonski’s wife, was heavy and clumsy, wearing a special dress and not going
out “because of her pregnancy” already in July 1805 in the salon of Anna Pavlovna
Sherer. She gives birth nine months after, in other words in March 1806. It
would mean, however, that the condition that was supposed to prevent princess
Lisa from going out could not yet be so noticeable and important.
The
consecutive chronology of War and Peace
as well as of Eugene Onegin is
composed of events that happen consecutively to one or another group of
characters. The time seems to follow from Sherer’s salon to the prince Andrej’s
house, from there to the apartment of Anatol Kuragin, then to the Rostov’s
Moscow house and the villa of Pierre Besuhov. Therefore, November-December
1805, for example, are “given” to events that happened to Pierre, Spring 1806
to Bolkonski’s affairs, Summer and Fall 1806 to Rostovs, 1807 and 1808 are
practically missing, 1809 is devoted to Andrej Bolkonski and so on.
Cases of
synchronization of events in War and
Peace are always specifically underlined by author: while Anna Mihailovna
Trubetzkaja goes to visit the dying old Besuhov, countess Rostov, while waiting
her girl-friend’s return, prepares money for her son’s uniform. Natasha
Rostova’s explanation with her mother about Denisov’s proposition of marriage
takes place at the same time as the explanation of Nicolaj Rostov with his
father about his loss in cards. Or: “While sixth English dance was danced at
Rostov’s house …” There is even more synchronization between peace events on
one side and war events on the other; however, combinations of “peace” episodes
with ones of “war” are almost always conventional because dating of peace
events is mostly approximate. Thus, while the prince heroically battled near
Austerlitz, Pierre Besuhov inherited huge fortune and married Helene. There is
Pierre’s calendar: “ in the beginning of winter 1805-1806” he was invited by
Anna Pavlovna Sherer to the party where he felt that he was strongly
recommended to Helene. “One month and a half after” the engagement took place
and after another “month and a half” the wedding. According to indicated in the
text temporal breaks between episodes of acquaintance, engagement and wedding,
the wedding itself should be dated by at least end of Winter, by February 1806.
Prince Vacilij, however, comes to Bolkonki’s house in order to arrange his
son’s marriage with princess Mary already in December 1805. He comes before
Helene’s fate was decided. The whole match-making, however, from the beginning
to the end, was his own handiwork and it is underlined in the text.
Conventional character of Tolstoy’s “peace” chronology will appear even
more obvious if we add that on March 3rd 1806, during the dinner in
honor of the prince Bagration (to this moment Pierre would just have time to
marry) Dolohov insults Pierre as a clumsy husband of a beautiful woman. It
turns out that in March 1806 Dolohov, having returned after military campaign
and living in Pierre’s house (in spite of the fact that Pierre is supposed to
live still in prince Vasilij’s house) already felt quite at home and seduced
Helene (in spite of the fact again that during Dolohov’s visit she could not
yet be countess Besuhov).
There
are many other cases of time discordance in Tolstoy’s novel but it is not the
quantity that matters: chronological principle of War and Peace assures the exactitude of temporal coordinates of
historical (mostly military and historical) events only. “Peace” calendar that
seems to be coordinated with real chronology is in reality deprived of exact
authenticity. Narrative time accelerates or slows down according to author’s
will, against its natural course and fulfilling auxiliary functions depending
on composition; therefore it has its own, different from real speed and
duration. Subservient role of time and lack of coordination in chronology
eliminates the question about the objective synchrony of events. When the
novel’s author needs such a synchrony he would “arrange” it himself by
underlining the fact of synchronization but without any care about the
proportionality of time and action.
We
observe a completely different way of time representation in the Turgenev’s
novel Newness (???) that is especially
interesting for us because of it closeness to the Possessed by its theme,
atmosphere and time of creation. Newness
action takes place at the precisely indicated time. From this point of view the
beginning of Turgenev’s novel looks in every detail very much “à la
Dostoievski”: “…..”
Detailed textual indications of characters’ age, temporal breaks between events as well as basic dates coordinated with reality give the opportunity to compose, without any effort, the precise internal chronology of the novel.
There
are, however, essential differences between time representations in Newness and the Possessed. In Turgenev’s novel time is one-dimensional, it flows as
one stream in a strictly defined channel as if it was flowing from one point to
another. If the author, having described a scene in a city house, transfers the
action into the garden or to country side, nothing, in spite of the fact that
some characters would remain in the city house,
is going to happen anymore: the time seems to freeze
there. Time flows at every given moment only in the described place as if
following “wondering point in space”, like thread after the needle, and it
completely depends on change of decorations. It stops at the abandoned point of
space like in enchanted castle and returns to life only when the castle becomes
again the place of action. In Newness time
flows only at the point where action takes place, in the Possessed time flows everywhere.
If both
novels can be represented as two film studios the one for Nova would only need
one camera in order to film turn by turn scenes that are discussed in the next
episode of narration. Hidden cameras installed in the abandoned by the
narration places would have nothing to film: there it would be neither light
nor action. In the Possessed, on the contrary, it would be necessary to have as
many cameras as there are places of action and the film would size plenitude of
life everywhere where there are people.
An
exclusive importance of time factor in Dostoievski’s “Chronicle” even if
compared with his other works (and this is the topic for a special research)
can be comprehensively revealed only by larger comparison of this novel with
other works of Russian and world literature, especially with those of them that
are “pregnant” with time, where time is full of political, ideological and
esthetic meaning. From this point of view the comparative analysis of the
Possessed with other “chronicles” can be the most promising since there, by
virtue of the genre, irreversible and all-conquering run of time is transformed
into the organizing principle of the plot. Fictional time in the Possessed,
however characteristic of the genre of chronicle, also displays qualitative
originality. Exactitude, volume and multidimensional character of the time in
this novel contains mysteries and offers surprises.
Surprises of
Chronology.
The
narration of the Possessed that alternates temporal points of the perception of
the happening (“now” and “then”) is intentionally incomplete: Chronicler, even
when describing events with “the knowledge of the matter”, cannot seize whole
manifest and secret meaning of the past moment. We know that during the same period
of time different things in different places happen to characters of the
chronicle and the meaning of these things is truly revealed only if their
synchrony and symbolic correspondence are taken into account. Sometimes the
fact itself is not as important as its synchrony with an other fact; the key
for the comprehension of the whole is found precisely in these coincidences.
Pages of
the Possessed that describe Shatov’s murder are one of the most terrifying in
the novel. All horror of the committed crime can be grasped, however, only if
we realize that Shatov perished taken unawares, while hoping for suddenly
shining for him happiness.
The
whole plot of the preparing crime is directly confronted with truly miraculous
appearance of Maria Shatov and the birth of her child. The melody of an
extraordinary, inspired and delirious encounter of former spouses and of their
gleaming hope for future is accompanied by the obtrusive and every time more
and more threatening motive of the diabolic chorus of “ours”. Every narrative
moment concerning mother and baby has chronological analogy in the plot of
murder. The following events take place synchronically: Maria Shatov’s arrival
and the meeting with “ours” (October 1 “around eight o’clock”); troubled dream
of sick Maria and Erkel’s visit to Shatov (nine thirty); Shatov’s taking care
of his wife and the visit of Verhovenski and Liputin to Kirillov (“after ten
and a half”); preparations for delivery and Petrusha’s [Verhovenski] secret
plans (night of October 2); birth of the child and the murder of Fed’ka the
Convict (early morning October 2). Here we see central points of comparison:
precisely in these happy moments when “everything seems to be as if reborn” and
when Shatov’s talked about their future life “again and forever” comes Erkel,
as an angel of death. “This is the very last step! After that there is a new
way and never, never we will think about the old horror!”, in this mood Shatov
went to meet his death. The very moment of the murder seems to fix the moment
of non-being: it is excluded from the successive chronological order and
minutes when the crime took place do not have any temporal parallel.
In the
beginning of this fragment Chronicler insistently underlines chronological
connection between two lines of events by measuring exact time of most
important episodes: Chronicler especially indicates that Maria Shatova arrived
“around eight o’clock (precisely in the same moment when ours gathered at
Erkel’s place, waited for Petr Stepanovich, were outraged and nervous)”.
Later
chronological correspondences become rarer and rarer and finally disappear:
tens of pages separate events that took place in the same time and Chronicler
ceases to expose their correspondences. Nevertheless, independently from his
story, the hidden context of events leads the melody and the accompaniment up
to the last, the most sinister accords; the rhythm is given and the reader can
himself confront the events: at the same early morning hour panic-stricken
Maria, with her new-born in her arms, rushes outside looking for Shatov and
Petr Verhovenski departs to St. Petersburg; in the same day Maria Shatova dies
and Petr Verhovenski escapes abroad.
Sometimes the calendar of the chronicle helps discovering the hidden
context of the most mysterious circumstances.
Why
Maria Lebjadkina appeared at the church during the mass thus distorting the
whole order of Varvara Petrovna’s meeting? The meeting of the Lame with
general’s wife, that had some extraordinary consequences, has no explanations
in Chronicler’s story and is therefore perceived as one of the “fatal”
coincidences of the ill-starred Sunday. The chronology, however, shows the
following: Maria Timofeevna (The Lame) left her house at this very moment when
Stavrogin arrived there, directly from the train, from St. Petersburg, what she
could not possibly know, arrived to this Philippov’s house where brother and
sister Lebjadkin as well as Kirillov rented their places. Obeying, as it seems,
her momentary intuitive move and having a presentiment of the danger resulting
from her encounter with her husband, she purposely goes to the church in order
to seek protection and help from her mother-in-law.
When the
last and decisive for Stepan Trofimovich’s fate rendez-vous between him and
Varvara Petrovna took place in Skvoreshniki? This very rendez-vous “that she
planned a long time ago and announced to her former friend but somehow canceled
until now”?
Can such
a seemingly unimportant detail actually matter? Lets, however, be cautious in
our judgements.
As the
chronology shows this rendez-vous took place on September 26, in other words in
exactly two weeks after the failed engagement, before this very Sunday
September 12. Two weeks, this is the period of time that was supposed,
according to Varvara Petrovna’s definition, separate the engagement from the
wedding: “It will be soon your birthday …And the wedding two weeks after …”
Varvara Petrovna decides to invite Stepan Trofimovich for the final explanation
where and when the wedding should have taken place. Reproaches, offences and
accusations accumulated during twenty years, argument and rupture in stead of
wedding ¾ this is how the rancorous
Varvara Petrovna took vengeance on her old friend for his light-mindedness and
his too precipitous readiness to marry.
There
are even more coincidences, this time according to the evil and tragic irony of
fate. This day, September 26, Varvara Petrovna decided to “give a special
fiesta here in Scvoreshniki and so invite the whole city again”. Three days
after, which means on September 29 she determines the date of the future ball:
in two weeks. Two weeks after, however, on October 11th, her son
will commit suicide in Scvoreshniki and a day before that she will bring there
the body of her poor friend.
This is
the result of four holidays in the novel the Possessed: the engagement had
turned into the scandal, the ball into the murder and fire, the wedding into
the argument and rupture, another “special holiday” into funeral and suicide.
Why
Nicolay Vsevolodovich, usually so calm and imperturbable, looked so strange in
the after-noon of September 29th in the salon of governor’s wife ,
right before his public declaration of his secret marriage? Let’s remind: “
It
appears that Stavrogin came to the house of Julia Mihailovna Lembke directly
from the monastery, from the staretz. Here is the beginning of the chapter “At
Tifon’s place”: “
This night is this very night from 28 to 29 of
September that came after the meeting with “ours” and Petrusha’s ravings about
Ivan-tzarevich.
The succession of events that took place after the
sleepless night, that is during the morning and the night of the 29th
of September can be traced literally up to an hour. Around seven o’clock in the
morning Nicolay Stavrogin fell asleep while still seating on the couch; at nine
thirty he was waken up by the old servant Alexej Egorovich; around ten he left
home in a hurry and met in the street Spigulin’s delegation (Stepan Trofimovich
met the same delegation on his way to governor where he was going in order to
complain on the official who made a search in his house); around ten thirty he
reached the entrance of the Bogoroditzki monastery.
The
reading of the text of the confession began around eleven and “lasted around an
hour”. Stavrogin left Tihon “around noon” and appeared at Julia Mihailovna’s
place around one o’clock, at this very moment when all the company returned
from Scvoreshniki as well as Stepan Trofimovich and the Chronicler gathered at her
house. Yet at Tihon’s place Stavrogin forsees the moment that will provoke his
confession: “
The
terrible provocation and the desperate determination of Lisa who publicly
demanded Stavrogin to spare her from the obscene letters of “some captain Lebjadkin”
and from “some sort of mysteries”, became this vengeful moment: Nicolay
Stavrogin immediately used it and fulfilled his “underground” desire.
The
failure of the confession at the staretz’s cell had fatal consequences: all
further Stavrogin’s essays will invariably turn into evil and lead to new
catastrophes.
Stavrogin’s confession of his secret marriage, made with a pride and
“infinite arrogance”, provoked Lisa to flee to Skvoreshniki and gave a free
hand to Petrusha. The second confession, made in the morning after the
Lebjadkins’ murder( ), pushes Lisa on
the street, into the crowd and therefore toward an avoidable death; again,
Stavrogin “did not stop murderers”. Stavrogin’ sudden departure and in reality
his complete capitulation in the moment when a lot could still be saved, turned
to be the next terrible signal: precisely in this day another meeting of “ours”
took place, the meeting where Shatov’s (as well as Kirillov’s) fate was
decided. Stavrogin knew, for the third time, but did nothing to stop the
murderers (even if only ten days ago he warned Shatov about the danger and only
three days ago announced to Petrusha: “I will not let you have Shatov”).
During
one month of Stavrogin’s time in the novel, he, to whom, it is true, “everything
has already happened somewhere before”, lives, however, the whole life: between
his intentions, decisions and actions lies the gap of hopes, doubts, “essays”,
disillusions and final catastrophe. Every Stavrogin’s step in the novel is
conditioned and sometimes even produced by something that happened long time
before; every moment of the actual catastrophe and every point of the crisis
are loaded with the past and inseparably linked to it. Even the desire to
liberate himself from his hateful memories-hallucinations through confession
and penitence (the new idea of Stavrogin) inevitably brought Nicolay
Vsevolodovich into the rest of “essays”. Therefore the novel livens up all of
Stavrogin’s past and not only separate key episodes of it. Phases of Stavrogin’s
evolution from the horrible crime (Matrjosha) until “the new idea” (the
confession) and from “the new idea” to the suicide are precisely registered by
the calendar of the “present” and authentically elucidated by the calendar of
the “past”. The confession is only the culmination point of Stavrogin’s search,
it is also the most important temporal moment of it. Without the chapter about
the confession, without the text of the confession itself and without this fact
that Stavrogin was never able to “put to shame his pride and his devil”, that
he lost and left the battle field, the whole bacchanal of crimes in the novel
would look like almost like a natural disaster.
And yet
another strange question. What kind of destiny was prepared for Stavrogin’s
confession, or more precisely for its edition, in other words for these three
hundred copies that Stavrogin brought to Russia from abroad?
The
interest for the edition of the confession and for its traces may appear out of
place since Dostoievski had to exclude the chapter about the confession from
the novel. Here, however, comes the following question: did Dostoievski exclude
only the chapter about the confession or the fact of existence of the
confession as a leitmotif of Stavrogin’s being in the novel?
Let’s
indicate some particularities of this document. First of all the confession is
not an imagined but completely real text: “….”. This text physically exists:
Stavrogin, on his way to Tikhon, “….” Second, “pieces of paper” had the precise
destination: “ …” Third, the document was supposed to circulate in one way or
another. “…” ¾ this Chronicler’s comment
accompanying the text of the confession testified, voluntarily or not, that the
publication of this document was a fait accompli. This “now” means four months
after the events, in other words the moment of creation of the chronicle.
Therefore the public proclaiming of the confession (if we judge according to
the chapter “In Tihon’s cell”) had to take place shortly after Stavrogin’s
death and did not depend on the result of Stavrogin’s conversation with Tihon.
In spite
of the fact that the chapter “In Tihon’s cell” is not included in the novel and
that the writer had to make changes in parts of the text where there were
allusions about Stavrogin’s visit to the staretz, the spirit and the concept of
the Stavrogin’s “new idea” remained in the Possessed. At the moment when it was
decided to eliminate this chapter two third of the novel was already published.
There Stavrogin lives and acts with the idea of the confession on his mind,
with its text in the pocket and with its edition in the hiding- place.
Therefore the whole plot with the confession lines up in the following
logical raw: the failure of the confession and all connected with it consequences;
Stavrogin’s death; circulation of the document during four following months;
Chronicler includes the document in the chronicle.
Lets’
reconstruct time and context of events that caused Stavrogin’s abrupt departure
from the town. In the evening of September 29th, after the visit to
Tihon and the scandalous confession about the marriage, he “went directly to
Scvoreshnike, without even seeing his mother”. The next day, September 30th,
right after the literary lecture on the governess’ feast, in other words right
after four o’clock after noon, Petr Verhovenski brought Lisa to Skvoreshniki,
to Stavrogin. Their rendez-vous lasted until the morning of October 1 and the
same day, already knowing about Lisa’s death, Stavrogin departs with the twelve
o’clock train without saying good-bye to anybody.
Lets’
ask ourselves this question: in case if the text of the confession (its
complete edition) existed among the novel’s data, what Stavrogin must have done
with it in the moment of his departure? He must certainly have taken it with
him. We know that Nicolaj Vsevolodovich will think over his life for 10 more
days (from the first to 11th of October) while living “at the sixth
station” with post-master known to him from times of his St. Petersburg binges.
There will come news about dimensions of the catastrophe that stricken the
town. If the text of the confession really existed it would be with Stavrogin
during these last days of his life.
Indubitable traces of this text and even the direct allusion about it
are found in Stavrogin’s death letter to Dasha: “…”Therefore there is something
that contains everything and Nicolay
Vsevolodovich announces his last will to his confident Daria Shatova. Therefore
Dasha knows not only about the fact of existence of this mysterious everything
but also about the place where it is hidden. Nicolaj Vsevolodovich’s letter
ends with “I join the address”.
After
Stavrogin’s suicide the post-master’s address was the last and the only one
thread that could lead the way to the document. If we take into account that
the text of the confession became known to Chronicler soon after Nicolaj
Vsevolodovich’s death, we should think that Dasha has used the address and
published the confession thus fulfilling the will of the deceased.
The
thought about after death penitence constantly tempted Stavrogin, he thought
about it when he was with Kirillov: “…” This idea is like the escape from the
place of crime to another planet: “…..”
Nevertheless neither the escape from the city, to the sixth station, nor
the canton Uri did help; he succeed neither in spiting upon “those from there”,
nor “upon those from here”. Stavrogin could bring himself to confess to people
only after eliminating himself: only dead he was not afraid of the “ugliness”
of the penitence.
“Every
introduction into the sphere of the meaning passes only through the entrance of
chronotopes” thought M.M. Bakhtin. This assumption made by the researcher with
no relation to Dostoievski’s work can be applied literally, as we could see, to
the Possessed. What is more, the content and the meaning of time and space in
Dostoievski are directly proportional to their definition and change.
This
fact is still underestimated by researchers. Even Bakhtin wrote about
Dostoievski’s chronotope: “…” The researcher, however, added right away: “..”
As we
saw in the Possessed, moments of being are not pulled out of the time context,
on the contrary, they make one and whole fictional calendar. This makes a
perfect sense since the genre of chronicle itself represents a narration with
the description of events that are precisely defined in time. Bakhtin himself
underlines precisely this dependence of a genre on the chronotope: “…”
“I know
for sure, wrote Dostoievski in August 1870, that if I had two or three years
for this novel as are used to have Turgenev, Goncharov or Tolstoj, I would have
written such a thing that people would still talk about it 100 years after.”
Destiny offered him these two-three years: first chapters of the
novel-chronicle were sent to the editorial office of “Russian vestnik” in
October 1870, the last ones in November 1872. “The whole year I only torn and
changed”, writes Dostoievski to N. Strahov on 2 (14) December 1870. “I covered
with writing such tons of papers that I even lost the system of reference. I
have changed the whole plan not less than 10 times and I wrote the first part
over again”.
“System of reference” continues to upset the writer
two years later: “I will have to work terribly a lot in St. Petersburg. I
demanded from them my old manuscripts in order to look them over … awfully a
lot needs to be changed and this work is so slow”.
Fictional calendar of the Possessed,
its internal, scrupulously precise chronology full of mysteries and surprises
represents one of indubitable proves of immense work of the artist who created
a master-piece of grandiose dimensions and filigree details. The writer needed
a perfectly organized and faultless memory almost on the verge of human capacities
as well as a powerful imagination in order to assemble hundreds of isolated
moments and thousands of separated and torn threads-signals in one, mobile and
living tissue of time. What a great sense of rhythm, measure and harmony he
must have had in order to create, undiscernibly and imperceptibly, lives of his
characters in this clot of time and to keep for each of them the individual
temporal stream caring all its separate drops. He must have had a virtuosity in
mastering lows of time in order to discern profound meaning in the disordered
chaos of events and behind single impressions and to find a key for “the
revealing of invisible things”.
“To do it so …”
(rough copies)
It
exists the great happiness of the researcher: that is when it becomes possible
to verify your perception of the work with the idea of the artist contained in
materials outside of the work itself. Preparation materials for the novel The Possessed that reflect main stages
of the writer’s work on the novel, contain not only variations of scenes and
episodes, characters and circumstances as well as development of plot,
composition, and intrigue but also multiple nota bene, special notes and
indications and original keys for the author’s “secrets”. These materials allow
us to see how, according to which internal lows, artistic thought is
transformed into the word, plot’s schema into fiction, indications into scenes
and images and plans into the novel.
One of
Dostoievski’s notes about the character of Petr Verhovenski expresses one
fundamental quality of narration in the Possessed:
“The whole description and the whole development of Nechaev consists in the
fact that reader cannot see anything
in the beginning but some strange and amusing features. Not to do like other
novelists, it means not to declare from the beginning that this is an unusual
man. On the contrary, to hide him and open him only gradually and by strong
artistic lines.”
In his rough copies made for himself Dostoievski scrupulously developed all subtleties and stratagems of the intrigue and all nuances of human relationship; there he has no mysteries and no coincidences because all accidents and surprises are carefully thought over and weighted on the most precise, pharmaceutical and jewelry balance. Only after having weighted and measured he hides everything under the cover of the mystery. “The most important, wrote Dostoievski, is the special tone of the story, then everything is saved. This tone consists in the absence of explanations about Nechaev and the Prince (that means Petr Verhovenski and Stavrogin). Nechaev begins with slanders and banalities but the Prince opens up gradually in actions and without any explanations. There are always explanations only about Stepan Trofimivich, as if he was a hero”. “Lets readers themselves make an effort”, this is how Dostoievski defines the principle of writer-reader co-creation in his “Notebooks”.
“This
special tone of the story” defined the evident, confused the unclear and
suspected mysteries everywhere. Honest and objective chronicle, however,
contained exact references for any investigations, researches and discoveries:
this was the developed by Dostoievski manner of narration in the novel the Possessed.
If the
calendar is so precise, the chronicle so irreproachable and if everything
“matches” in the text it is only because this “special” narrative tone with its
“faking” intonation and “well made” negligence was preceded by the immense
preliminary work of time calculation. It appears that the exactitude and
detailed description of temporal references and Dostoievski’s rare sense of
time manifested in the Possessed are
the result of author’s special efforts. In February 1870 the writer already
thinks over the chronological schema of the Possessed:
“Chronology. The action takes place in September …The Prince came to town the
day the novel begins.” (11, 94-95. Here it is, the 12 of September!).
Therefore Dostoievski deliberately chose the time of novel’s action, it
was himself who set up the time clock, fixed its work and controlled possible
dysfunction. All dates of the chronicle are strictly bound by the author to
concrete episodes. As soon as situation changed, in other words as soon as one
of fictional elements would fall out or appear in the plot, time moved as well.
The
content of Notebooks written for the Possessed proves that Dostoievski’s
creative process represents the least of all “black magic”, “mystics” and
“alchemist experience”.
Dostoievski combines exceptional sense of time and artistic intuition
with preliminary calculation of all “what”, “how”, “where”, “when”, “why” and
“what for”. Thus time and place, causes and effects, motives and resolutions
are interdependent and thought over in all minutest details; fatal coincidences
and mysterious circumstances are especially prepared. For example we remember
that the fact of the first encounter of Dasha and Stavrogin, logically ensuing
from their biographies, is not indicated in the novel. Why? We may think that
the author did it on purpose. In the rough copy of February 26 1870 we read:
“To do so that the Prince would never an explanation with the Ward. Never. Even
as a child he was always excessively proud… He knew long time ago, however, that
she loved him” (11, 114).
“To do
so that” is a formula-signal indicating a conscious literary device.
Dostoievski tries the most important scenes and repetitions of the plot in tens
of variations; he examines and discusses qualities of each element of the
intrigue. In rough copies author’s plan is completely uncovered and secret
springs that will be hidden in the novel, are clearly defined. A notice about
Stavrogin’s (now Swiss citizen) trip to Russia represents such an example: “The
Prince went to the Archbishop. He only comes to Russia in order to publish his
confession. If he cannot make this decision, then Uri” (11, 153).
The goal
of Stavrogin’s unexpected appearance on the “fatal” Sunday is clearly defined
as well: “The Prince to the Ward: “I came in order to stop it, I did not want
you to marry him. Wait for me, I will tell you later”. And she obediently
waits.” (11, 174).
The
motive of Stavrogin’s death letter-confession to Dasha is also revealing:
“Forgive me. Per haps I am actually crazy. I am leaving you everything” (11,
135). According to Dostoievski’s plan Dasha, as we can see, really became
executor of Stavrogin’s will and inherited “everything”.
In final lines of the rough copy of novel’s last chapter (“Epilogue”) there are lines later taken out by the author: “Some writings nobody knew about were found after Nicolaj Vsevolodovich. I am looking for them very hard. (Per haps I will find them and then, if it is possible…Finis”) (12, 108). It is obvious that the fate of Stavrogin’s writings after their author’s death remains in writer’s field of vision: it is according to his plan that these “writings” were supposed to finally get to the Chronicler who would bring the whole affair to the conclusion. By including “this document literally” in the chronicle Chronicler could assure its widest publication.
Preliminary materials for the Possessed
clearly refute not only the myth about Dostoievski’s “black magic” but the myth
about his “artistic neglect” as well. Time in the Possessed becomes the main and the most reliable witness: causes,
motivations and underlying reasons of events are kept in its hiding-places. The
exact chronology of the novel-chronicle and hidden in it “additional”
information reveal how eloquent time can be.
Commune of Paris …in
1869?
Lets
come back, however, to the events of thirty days in the chronicle.
We tried
to show (and the text of the novel provides enough proves for this) that the
action of the Possessed (from
September 12 to October 11th) is connected to the real historical
time, that means to the calendar year 1869. What other year could Dostoievski
take as the reference for the action of his novel if he started to work on it
in January 1870 and reflected there the events that only recently took place?
It is obvious that for the first readers of the Possessed the action of the
novel about the political murder was naturally connected with the events of
1869.
Nevertheless there are, all of the sudden, some facts that dismiss this
apparently harmonious and accomplished chronological construction.
1.
During
the visit to governor Lembke (September 28) Petr Verkhovenski explains the
origin of the poem entitled “Pure man” in the following manner: “…” Obviously
Petrusha’s words are nothing but flagrant and gross lie but one detail attracts
attention: where “deceased Hertzen” comes from? In September 1869 Hertzen was
still safe and sound and died only on 9 (21) January 1870 after being ill for
three days. Does it mean that novel’s events actually correspond to latest
September, precisely to September 1870?
2.
In the same day, after the visit to
Lembke, Petr Verhovenski came over to the “great writer” Karmazinov and asked
him one very interesting question: “…” Karmazinov came to the town one week
before the beginning of the chronicle, in other words in the beginning of
September. Precisely in September not of 1869 but of 1870 French capital was
enduring a siege, it in the middle of the Franco-Prussian war. Germans
surrounded Paris already on September 19th and during next few
months (Winter 1870-1871) cold, famine and epidemic raged the city. Therefore,
according to the logic of historical calendar, the arrival of Karmazinov fearing epidemic in French capital, cannot
take place in Fall of 1869, it can only be possible in the Fall of 1870 ¾ neither earlier, nor later.
3.
During one of the meetings in the salon of
Julia Mihailovna Lembke that took place on September 24th, Ljamshin
performed a musical play, supposedly his own, with funny title “Franco-Prussian
war” where formidable sounds of “La Marseilles” oddly mixed with bourgeois
German waltz “My dear Augustin”. Chronicler describes his impressions of last
sounds of the play in the following way: “…”
In September of 1869,
however, Franco-Prussian war has not even started yet. The government of
Napoleon III officially declared war to Prussia only on July 19th
1870 and on September 19th during negotiations with Bismark, French
minister Jules Favres proposed to make peace in exchange of the territorial
unity of France.
As we know, Bismark declined this proposition and Prussian
troops made a siege of Paris. Piece treaty was only signed in May 1871 and it
was Bismark’s treaty according to which Prussia got Alsace, Eastern Lorraine
and a huge contribution. Therefore “Jules Favres could not cry of Bismark’s
chest and give up “everything, everything” before the Spring 1871, thus the
September when Ljamshin plaid his musical improvisation about European events
has to be moved from 1869 or 1870 to 1871.
4.
While
giving a speech during literary lectures at governess’ feast day (September 30th),
Stepan Trofimovich Verhovenski pronounces inspired words about beauty,
Shakespeare and Raphael. In polemic ardor against “utilitarian” “esthete”
Stepan Trofimovich wittingly asks: “…” Lets leave aside the essence of the
polemics which has a long prehistory, and pay attention to just one word
“petroley” (this is a Russified form of French word “petrole” meaning oil or
gasoline). What is gasoline doing here and what can this pan “Raphael or
pertoley” possibly mean? In the context of 1869 such a comparison is
meaningless and certainly witless. “Petroleishiki” (gasoline people) was the
name used in Russian and Western European press for members of the Commune of
1871 who were accused of burning the residence of the emperor Napoleon III,
Tuileris Palace, which really burned down in May 1871 during street battles
between commune’s partisans and the army of Tiers’s government.
Therefore historical horizon of the Possessed characters’ included events exceeding limits of 60,
absorbed facts and realities of European tragedy: Franco-Prussian war and Paris
Commune, and was based on sources of information related to the beginning of
new decade, in other words to 70.
In many
aspects characters of the novel-chronicle actually are people of seventies. One
of them, theoretician and nihilist Shigalev declares it directly himself: “…”
In addition we have to say that the novel which has hundreds of various
temporary marks lacks a direct indication of the year ¾ Chronicler remains silent about this date
replacing it every time by some very precise but indirect references.
Therefore, if the chronology of the “present” in the Possessed is limited by Fall months of
1869, how the reality of the latest period, events of Russian and European life
of the beginning of seventies, could penetrate into the text? How to connect
the main date of the chronicle resulting from calculation of the calendar time
with historical facts exceeding its limits? Even if we doubt the year 1869 as
the date when the novel’s action took place, we would not be able to transfer
this date either to 1870, or to 1871 since when one event could only happen no
later than September 1870 another could only happen no earlier than September
1871. An attempt to interpret the calendar of The Possessed according to the real historical chronology
inevitably leads to the dead-end, into the trap and in some sort of a “time
machine”.
Indeed,
novel’s characters who come to a middle Russian provincial town in September
already knowing about Hertzen’s death, beginning and end of Franco-Prussian war
and declaration and fall of Paris Commune have been traveling in Europe, still peaceful Europe, only few weeks
before! Varvara Petrovna Stavrogina with Daria Shatova, Drozdov’s family,
Nicolaj Vsevolodovich and other travelers and adventurers cross, without any
difficulty, borders of European countries that
are not yet in war. Amazing paradox: in the beginning of the novel
Karmazinov arrives from Europe where there is no trace of war but in the middle
of the novel, while being in Russia, he talks about possible historical
consequences of war and political crisis.
What kind of mystery is hidden by these strange “anachronisms” and these amazing journeys in time?
Shadow of the future.
Lets’
turn again to the history of creation of the Possessed. When Dostoievski, captivated by the subject of ideological
murder that just has taken place, began to systematically work on the novel
(January-February 1870) he counted to finish it very quickly. In spring 1870,
however, his certainty about finishing quickly transforms into anguish and
doubts and in summer his intention changes radically and instead of political
pamphlet Dostoievski creates a novel-tragedy.
According to the primary agreement Dostoievski was supposed to present
the large part of the text to “Pusskij Vestnik” already in June 1870. Precisely
the first part of the text was the most difficult for Dostoievski. Only in
Fall, on 7 (19) October 1870 the first half of the first part of the novel
(first chapter “Instead of preface” and the second chapter “Prince Harry.
Engagement”) where it is the question of characters’ traveling abroad and their
return to Russia, was finally sent to Katkov. Precisely these two “historical”
chapters contained main chronological references connecting present to past.
The biggest part of these chapters’ text was already written in August 1870 and
even if the war has just started in Europe the action of the novel and its
atmosphere, defined yet before the war, were naturally based on September
before the war ¾ this is why characters of
the Possessed return home from the peaceful
Europe.
Dostoievski’s hope to quickly finish the novel for “Russkij vestnik”
have not been realized. Writing and publishing took three long years during
which many things changed in the world as well as in the life of the writer
himself. Turning points in European and universal history, Dostoievski’s return
to Russia after a four years long absence, new Russian impressions and
Nechaev’s trial (that opened on July 1871, one week before Dostoievski’s
arrival), all these events became part of the cognizance of the creator of the Possessed and the reality of the novel
that examines the most crucial issues of modern times.
Dostoievski’s letters of this period strike by the intensity of
spiritual work interpreting processes that take place in the world and by quick
and extremely uneasy reaction on these processes. Openly sympathizing with
France Dostoievski lives in Germany where he sees what Prussian military spirit
is all about and where he rebels against the vandalism of even the most educated
Germans: “One completely white as snow and very influential scientist screamed
the other day: “Paris muss bombardiert sein!” (29, book I, 162).
In
spite of his intensive work on the novel, in spite of being in a hurry and in
spite of endless modifications of its text Dostoievski is nevertheless
“receptive” to all events in Russia and Europe. “It is been already three years
that I am assiduously reading all political newspapers, in other words the
majority of them” (29, book I, 146), sais Dostoievski. Another citation: “I
read three Russian newspapers per day and I also receive two journals (29, book
I, 115). Everything that interested Dostoievski in current politics and social
life and that he could find in the latest issues of newspapers would immediately
go into his letters and note-books and would be reflected in the novel.
For
example the murder of the landlord von Son in St. Petersburg den took place in
the beginning of 1870 and was discussed in January newspapers. Already in the
end of January the fact about von Son is included in the plan of one of the
monologues in rough copies. Rough copies contain the writer’s reactions to many
other “latest” (relatively to the action time in the novel) events: Victor
Hugo’s speech on the opening of Peace Congress in Losagne (September 1869),
Vatican ecumenical council that declaring infallibility of Pope (December 8th
1869-October 20th 1870), events and consequences of Franco-Prussian
war and Paris Commune ¾ for Dostoievski all these
subjects are the most burning, the most vital and the most “damned”.
Dostoievski was especially anxious about Russian news. In May-June 1870
the first in Russia massive strike of workers of St. Petersburg paper factory
took place ¾ precisely this strike would
become the prototype of “Spigulin’s affair”. Documents of Nechaev’s trial
published when half of the novel was already written, became the most important
source of Petr Verhovenski’s character as well as of characters of his
myrmidons.
The
novel not only absorbed impressions of political events, it is full of latest
literary news as well. On the top of usual and stabilized impressions from
Pushkin, Gogol, Hertzen, Chernyshevski, Turgenev, Nekrassov and Tshedrin the
novel contains reminiscences from just read, just published books, articles and
publications. For example the novel of Victor Hugo “The man who laughs”
published in 1869 is lying on the table of Stepan Trofimovich (Verhovenski).
“History of one city” by Saltykov-Tshedrin published in 1869-1870 and concluding
the Glupov’s epic, effectively functions in Chronicler’s story about his
province’s leaders: “…”
Sometimes, in case when the new impression is not determined yet, the
response to the reading is hidden and disguised. Petr Verhovenski criticizes the
novel of governor Lembke that he just
has read: “…” Something very familiar appears in this judgement. What sort of
novel did Lembke write?
The
context of the time when The Possessed
were created would gives an answer: the novel’s author just read War and Peace
since Tolstoy’s epic was published in December 1869. Dostoievski’s impression
from Tolstoy’s great work was enormous but nevertheless the author of the Possessed, while arguing with literary
critic Strahov, refuses to declare War
and Peace “new word” in literature: “…all this is a landlord’s literature.
It already said everything it had to say” (29, book I, 216).
“The
“more” and the more consciously Dostoievski wanted to respond to Tolstoy,
“less” conspicuously would he do it and more hidden whould be his respond”,
suggests a researcher who studied cross-lines between The Possessed and War and
Peace.
It seems
that in this manner certain part of Dostoievski’s respond to Tolstoy, the part
we are interested in, happened to be so hidden that had remained unnoticed
until now. Petr Verhovenski reproduces Dostoievski’s reasoning in his polemics
with Strahov (about landlords’ literature) and slightly parodies them when
criticizing the novel of governor Lembke that strongly resembles, in Verhovenski’s
brief retelling, Tolstoy’s Childhood. According to Verhovenski-literary critic,
Lembke’s novel is full of poetic atmosphere and happiness of childhood, family
and everyday life of aristocratic residences and from this point of view seems
to imitate already known literary examples.
The
speed of Dostoievski’s reaction to current events is sometimes simply
incredible. At the very end of the first part of the novel, in the scene when
Shatov slaps Stavrogin in the face, Nicolay Vsevolodovich is compared to the
Decembrist Lunin who “…” It is known now that the source of this characteristic
of Lunin was “The rebuff” of Decembrist Svistunov that had been published in
the February issue of “Russkij arhiv” in 1871. This scene from the end of the
first part of The Possessed was
however already published in the forth, that means April issue of “Russkij
Vestnik” of the same 1871 and was sent for publication even earlier ¾ in the third part of March.
That
means that Dostoievski, who received the February issue of “Ruskij arhiv” in
the beginning of March, has already read it in the middle of the month, noticed
an interesting article and in couple of days could use it in one of the most
dramatic scenes of the novel.
Lets
talk about something else for a while and look at the spatial references of The Possessed. The duel between
Stavrogin and Gaganov takes place in Brykovo, in the small suburban grove
situated between Stavrogin’s estate Scvoreshniki and Shpigulin’s factory.
Scvoreshniki had its topographical prototype ¾ the estate of the Moscow
Agrarian Academy with its big park, three ponds and a grotto where, according
to Nechaev’s order, was killed the student of this academy I. Ivanov (in the
novel Shatov). Spigulin’s factory was in reality St. Petersburg cotton mill and
the real Brykovo was a small birch wood behind the grove in Dostoievski’s
parents’ estate near Moscow that the writer remembered from his childhood
impressions: family members actually called this little wood “Fedia’s grove”.
Also, if we take into account that the prototype of the provincial city where
the action of the Possessed takes
place was Tver’, then it appears that just one scene of the duel combines at
least four real landscapes: Moscow, Moscow suburbs, Tver’ and St. Petersburg.
Fictional space made of various fragments (like a portrait made with
features of different faces) is however an ordinary maneuver in literature. The
reader may actually ignore “prototypes” of spatial references as well as
details of the montage ¾ in this case ignorance
would not disturb the general perception of the novel.
That is
a quite different matter when it concerns paradoxes of time. The reader should
realize that the exact and detailed chronology of the Possessed does not fix the real, historical time but conventional
and fictional one. This is why characters of the novel take freedom to cross
the borders of September-October 1869 and respond to events of three following
years, exactly those years when the novel was created. Dostoievski, who
scrupulously verified almost every instant of the novel’s episodes according to
clock, courageously transgresses temporal limits and, almost unnoticeably for
the reader, fills them up with the new reality, with current events and latest
news.
Therefore
the historical experience of characters of the novel The Possessed and of its first readers coincided completely: they
had an unique opportunity to comprehend “future consequences of the current
events”.
Three
years of Dostoievski’s life full of events of universal importance fully
entered the novel: its characters (and readers!) lived all these years together
with the author. New knowledge and new experience, personal as well as
historical, illuminate the tiny “piece” of time in the novel The Possessed.
“Life is
a gift, life is happiness…”Dostoievski realized this truth already in 1849,
precisely in this day of December 22 when he was standing on the Semenovski
square: “I have already been dead, I have lived three quarters of an hour with
this idea, I was near this last moment and now I live for a second time!” (28,
book I, 163). Precisely at that moment came to Dostoievski this great dream
about an era when “each minute could be a century of happiness”. Having reached
the limits of the last moment when he had no more than one minute left
Dostoievski experienced, while still in this life, the condition “when time
will be no more”. It appears that the new understanding of time came to
Dostoievski during these last moments: “Now, by changing my life I am reborn in
a new form” (28, book I, 164). Here we find the source of Dostoievski’s
personal and philosophical attitude toward time: Time is the relation of being
to non being” (7, 161).
This is
why limits of the passing, fixing moment are too narrow for Dostoievski and his
natural desire is not to stop the run of time but to break the limits of the
already outworn day.
The
fictional time in the Possessed fixes
not only the present action ¾ the future shadows it as
well. Therefore the novel attached to current events and appealing to the
“today” that has not yet become the past, appears as “timeless”.
While
working on the Possessed in May 1869
Dostoievski shared with A.N. Majkov his dearest dream “to reconstruct …all
Russian history by marking in it those of its points and moments where this
history would appear as concentrated and as if all of the sudden expressed as a
whole. In thousand years there are probably ten of these “all expressing”
moments. Grab these moments and tell …everybody
and everyone but not as a simple
chronicle, no, but as a loving poem … Tell, however, without selfishness,
without personal commentaries but
naively, as naively as possible, so
that only the ardent love for Russia would spout and nothing else …I would not
stop at any fantasy”, affirms the writer.
Everything amazingly blends in The
Possessed, in this chronicle of twenty years and thirty days: the chronicle
of the historical epoch and the loving poem, naïve story telling and the ardent
love for Russia, boiling fantasy and the strict historicity of thought. The
moment of time represented in The
Possessed appeared to Dostoievski as one of these “all representing”
moments. Therefore it is no coincidence that precisely this novel (more than
any other work) earned (glued to it now) the definition the “novel-warning” or
“the novel-prophecy”.
Fictional Calendar of the
novel The Possessed
Part One
Chapter one. Instead of the preface: some
details 1849-1860
from the biography of the very respected Stepan
Trofimovich Verhovenski
I. [His failed career] 1849, 1869
III. [Quarrels]
1849-1869
IV. [Two stories] 1855, 1856, 1866, 1869
V. [Black melancholy] 1849, 1869, 1859
VI. [In St. Petersburg] Winter 1859-1860
VII. [Abroad] 1860: May, June,
July and August.
VIII. [The lull] 1860-1869
IX. [The circle of liberals] 1860-1869;
1861; 1864 and 1868
Chapter two. Prince Harry.
The marriage proposal
I. [General’s wife’s son] 1849-1865: 1849; 1855; 1860; 1863
II. [The beast showed his claws] December 1865-January 1866
III. [Explanation. Delirium tremens] January 1866-April 1866
IV. [Dreams about Nicolas] April 1866-April 1869;
April-July 1869
V. Stepan Trofimovich’s presentiments. July-August 1869
VI. [Project] August 31-September 1
VII. [Unexpected proposal] September 1, morning
VIII. [Special circumstance] September 2, morning
and evening
Chapter three. Sins of others.
I. [The unfortunate week] September 2-9
II.[The meeting with the writer] September 10, at 11
III.[Three notes] September 10, morning
IV. [Visitors] September 10, morning
V. [Liputin’s rumors] September 10, morning
VI. [Liputin’s rumors –2] September 10, morning
VII. [Horse-woman] September 10, morning
VIII. [At Kirillov’s place] September 10, around
8 p.m.
IX. [Hymn for the Amazon] September 10, 9 p.m.
X. [“Noble” letters] September 10, from 10 to 12 at
night.
Chapter four. The Lame woman.
I. [At Drozdov’s place] September 11, noon
II. [Literary affair] September 11, 12.30 after noon
III. [Lisa’s request] September 11, 12.30 after noon
IV. [At Shatov’ place] September 11, around 8 p.m.
V.[Mademoiselle Lebjadkina] September 11, 8 p.m.
VI. [Tail-coat of love] September 11, 10 p.m.
VII. [Fatal Sunday: in the church] September 12, 11-12 after noon.
Chapter five. The wise serpent September 12, Sunday
I. [At the cup of coffee] September 12, 12.15 after noon
II. [Drozdov’s Praskovja] September 12, 12.20 after noon
III. [“The whole truth”] September 12, 12.30 after noon
IV. [Lebjadkin’s allegory] September 12, 12.40 after noon
V. [The terrible question] September 12, 12.45 after noon
VI. [Petrusha helped] September 12, 12.50 after noon
VII. [Inappropriate congratulations] September 13.00 after noon
VIII. [The slap] September 11, 13.15 after noon
Part Two
Chapter one. The night
I. [Rumors and gossips] September 12-September 20
II. [Petr Verhovenski at his father’s place]
September 15 and September 16
III. [New tactics] September 20, 7 p.m.
IV. [“For the good deeds”] September 20, 9.30 p.m.
V. [Tea at Kirillov’s place] September 20,
10-10.40 p.m.
VI. [Shatov’s frenzy] September 20, 10.50-11.10 p.m.
VII. [Shatov’s frenzy 2] September 20, 11.10-11.40 p.m.
Chapter two. The night.
I. [At the bridge] The night of September 21,
12.15 at night.
II. [The reprimand to Lebjadkin] The night of September 21,
12.45
III. [Anathema] The night of September 21, 1 in the morning
IV. [The knife] The night of September
21, 1-1.45 in the
morning.
Chapter three. The duel
I. [Before the duel] September 21, 2 p.m.
II.[Empty shots] September 21, 2.15 p.m.
III. [“Not a strong person”] September 21, 2.30 p.m.
IV. [The nurse] September 21, 3 p.m.
Chapter four. Everybody is
waiting
I. [At the marshal of the nobility wife’s place:
worldly visits] September 22 and
23
II. [The curse] September 23
III. [A.A. Lembke]
September 24 and 25
Chapter five. Before the feast.
I. [Pranks in the intimate circle] September 25 and
27
II. [God’s fool]
September 26
III. [The rupture]
September 26
Chapter six. Petr Stepanovich busy.
I. [Administrative mistakes] September
27, morning
II. [The novel of the governor Lembke]
September 28, morning
III. [Seditious leaflets]
September 28, morning
IV. [Blum]
September 28, morning
V. [At Karmazinov’s place] September 28, morning
VI. [Preparation for the meeting]
September 28, after noon
VII. [At Stavrogin’s place] September 28,
6 p.m.
Chapter seven. With ours
I. [Virginski’s guests]
September 28, 7 p.m.
II. [“Affiliations”]
September 28, 7.30 p.m.
Chapter eight. Ivan-Tzarevich
September 28, 8-9 p.m.
The chapter “At Tihon’s cell”
September 29: night from
28 to 29, 7-9.30
a.m.
I. [Conversation]
9.30-10.30; 11 a.m.
II. [“Reading of the “leaflets”]
11-12 a.m.
III. [Damned psychologist] 12-12.30 after
noon
Chapter nine.
Inventory at Stepan Trofimovich’s place September 29, 8-11 in the
morning
Chapter ten. Filibusters.
The fatal morning.
I. [The factory uprising] September 29, 10.30-11.30 in
the morning
II. [Apologies] September 29,
noon
III. [Salon conversation. Stavrogin’s confession]
September 29, 12.30
Part three
Chapter one. The feast. Section one.
I. [Subscription for governess] One week before
the feast, 22-30 of
September
II. [Literary morning] September 30, 12-4 p.m.
III. [“Merci”] September
30, 10 p.m.
IV. [Stepan Trofimovich’s hour of triumph] September 30, 2-4 after noon
Chapter two. The end of the feast.
I. [“All finished”] September 30,
4-4.15 after noon
II. [The catastrophe with Lisa] September
30, 4-6 p.m.
III. [ The ball] September 30, 10 p.m.
IV. [The fire] Sun rise
of October 1
Chapter three. The novel is
finished
I. [The last illusions] October 1, 5 a.m.
II.[The wooden barge to be scrapped] October 1, 6 a.m.
III. [Lisa’s death] October 1, 7 a.m.
Chapter four. The last
solution
I. [“The collective business”] October 1, 2 p.m.
II. [Liputin feels offended] October 1,
10 p.m.
III. [The surprise with Fed’ka] October 1, 10.40
p.m.
IV. [The passport on somebody else’s name] October 1, 11 p.m.-October 2
11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Chapter five. The traveling
woman
I. [Marie] October
1, 7-10 p.m.
II.[“It has started…”] October 1, 11 p.m.
III.[Preparations] The night of
October 2, 1 a.m.
IV. [Preparations 2] October 2, from 1 to 2
a.m.
V. [“It will be no time”] October 2, 4-5
a.m.
VI. [Childbirth] October 2, 6
a.m.
Chapter six. The very difficult night.
I. [Shatov’s murder] October 2, 6-7 p.m.
II. [Kirillov’s suicide] The night
from 2 to 3 October,
at 1 a.m.
III. [The departure of Petrusha Verhovenski] October 3, 5.50 a.m.
Chapter seven. The last
journey of Stepan Trofimovich
I. [On the journey] October 1,
6 a.m.- 2 p.m.
II. [The illness]
October 1, the rest of the day
of October 2, the whole day of
October 3
III.[The death] From
3 to 10 of October
Chapter eight. The Conclusion October
10 and 11,
October 3, 4,6,10,11,13 and 18
[Stavrogin’s death] October 11
[The investigation about the affair of “ours”] October-January
Chapter 2
The story of one journey or Stavrogin in
Island
(following the chronicle)
“In
every word there is a infinity of space; every word is as unbounded as a poet”.
This statement of Gogol about Pushkin’s language can be perceived as a formula
of the authenticity of the literary work where everything, from the paragraph
to the period has its own sense and importance. We often lack, however,
patience and imagination necessary to believe “spirit and letter” of this
formula and feel “the infinity of space”, the air, the immensity and the depth
of the word-image. How often even a very attentive gaze glides over the lines
of a text missing marks, signals and indications without which the directions
of reading and comprehension will remain incomplete and false.
While
commenting Dostoievski’s novel “The Possessed” for the foreign publisher I
tried to look at it with the eyes of a foreign reader who, naturally, does not
know many historical, literary, traditional and national realities of the
Russian life. This new perspective organized my perception of the text in a
very special way; slow reading allowed to notice details that seemed
unimportant but suddenly were coming to life, regaining sound, discovering
mysteries of the author’s conception and illuminating the process of creation
of the image.
Now I
would like to talk about just one, short, unnoticeable and seemingly occasional
line in Dostoievski’s novel and about the discovery toward which lead “the
investigation” that this line has provoked.
The longing for the
vagabond life
After
years of dark and criminal life in St. Petersburg the main character of The Possessed Nicolay Vsevolodovich
Stavrogin departs for the long journey abroad. There is nothing unusual in it:
biographies of Russian nobility of the last century as well as biographies of
Russian novels are full of descriptions of travels and journeys. Traveling is
in the spirit of times; “crook and beg” became a voluntary or involuntary lot
of many “travelers” of Russian literature. Radishev, Karamsin, Groboedov,
Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Herzen, Turgenev and Dostoievski traveled a lot at
their leisure or “by duty”. Following them, Tchazkij, Onegin, Petchorin,
Hlestakov, Ivan Karamazinov and other “Russian boys” “exploit the world”, run
from their problems or visit “dear tombs” thus appearing before the reader only
in a short period between two journeys.
Lets
remember, however, destinations of these voyages. The beaten truck between two
capitals, St. Petersburg and Moscow, became a main road of Russian literature
of the 18th century. After the 1812 war Russian travelers discover
the Western Europe. Even if Eugene Onegin travels only in the limits of the
Russian Empire (Moscow ¾ Nijniy Novgorod¾ Astrakhan’ ¾ Georgian military road ¾ Northern Caucasus ¾ Crimea ¾ Odessa ¾ St. Petersburg) and Petchorin stays in
Caucasus, Russian nobility very quickly feels at home in France, Germany,
Italy, Switzerland and England that become their familiar and habitual places
to stay and even live.
Exotic countries
and unbeaten trucks represent quite a different matter. They appear on the
Russian literary map only when tidily connected with some concrete, rare and
unusual events and names. For example Griboedov died in Teheran and Petchorin
died on his way from Persia. Count Fiodor Ivanovich Tolstoy (1782-1846),
debaucher, gambler, duelist and, according to Lev Tolstoy, “an extraordinary,
criminal and attractive person” received, thanks to an incredible story, the
nickname American. It is known that in August 1803 he went on the around the
world journey with the expedition of the admiral Krusenstern; because of his
uproarious and completely ungovernable behavior Krusenstern left Tolstoy in
Kamchatka or on some Aleut island where Tolstoy lived several months between
the natives. These sort of journeys were memorized and became legends.
Lets
return to the Stavrogin’s journey.
“He really visited Iceland”
All
Nicolay Vsevolodovich’s travels are precisely known. Here is the text of the
Chronicler, the narrator of the Possessed:
…..
Here is the fragment of
Stavrogin’s confession: …
Obviously Stavrogin was an unusual traveler. The geography of his
journeys would honor the most zealous pilgrim. Even if it was quite rare to
meet Russain barin in the East, however pilgrimages to holly places were in the
order of things. In any case this part of Stavrogin’s journey can be
interpreted. But Iceland? What for did Stavrogin go there and what did he do in
Iceland? It is one thing to attend lectures at German universities or even to
do a pilgrimage to Christian sacred places in Jerusalem (devotions were quite
usual for European travelers), another is to go to the far northern country in
the Arctic ocean, to this mysterious Ultima Tulle what means “the most removed
limit of the earth in the North” as ancient historians used to call it. How
should we interpret this impolite, almost disdainful remark of the Chronicler
“…”What should we think about the statement of the traveler himself “I was even
in Iceland’ as if he was stressing, with this even, the unbelievable extend of his voyage? Per haps, according to
perceptions of Dostoievski who “sent” Stavrogin to Iceland, this island of
frozen lava represented the metaphor of the end of the world and in this regard
any other remote from beaten trucks geographical point would do as well?
It seems
that this was the attitude of commentators of the Possessed toward Stavrogin’s Iceland: it is a fact that Nicolay
Vsevolodovich’s mysterious journey was never commented in any edition of the
novel. The line itself “and he really visited Iceland” does not represent a key
line in the novel and looks as a simple establishment of the fact.
Yet,
there is never occasional details in Dostoievski. The most alien of his
characters
live, suffer and struggle with “eternal” existential
questions in the habitual, real and authentic atmosphere; the action of his
novels takes place in very familiar interiors (lets remember the property of
Fiodor Pavlovich Karamazinov which is an exact copy of Dostoievski’s house in
Staraja Russa) and on the background of easily recognized urban landscapes,
streets, yards and gateways. Even the unimportant geographical names sometimes
travel from the writer’s life to pages of the novel. The fictional space of the
writer is always created from the familiar and real elements.
Based on
the principles of Dostoievski’s poetics we can suppose that Iceland is not an
occasional and involuntary detail in the Possessed;
it should be related with some concrete impressions of the writer and thus
demand a serious commentary.
New
questions emerge still and all. If Stavrogin “ “ and this fictional expedition had a real prototype, what was
it? Where? If it really was a scientific expedition, from which sources could
Dostoievski learn about it? Finally, why, between so many scientific
expeditions leaving from Europe (and Stavrogin goes to Iceland precisely from
Europe and not from Russia what significantly complicates our research) toward
different parts of the world choose precisely Iceland?
The
attempt to find an expedition prototype would guide our research.
Atlantic Hermit
There is
a special reason that the name of Iceland appeared and remained in literature
devoted to this amazing country.
During
many centuries (since 1262-1264) Iceland suffered from foreign invasions: first
Norwegian, then Danish ¾ this was the era of
stagnation and decadence. Natural disasters: volcanoes, earthquakes and
epidemics many times ruined and destroyed the country, arctic ice blocked
sea-coast and the land was unfit for farming. Icelanders were miserable,
starved and died. There were no cities at all. Even in the beginning of the 20th
century the country was mostly agricultural and economically very
underdeveloped. There were no bridges, no roads, no industry and no ports. The
first and the only city Reykjavik was nothing but a small town of wooden cabins
with the population of six thousand men.
Two facts from Iceland’s history are
specifically important to us. It appears that before 1854 the island was open
only to Danish who held the monopoly of commerce: if the native peasant dared
to do commerce with not Danish but any other foreign merchant he was put in
prison as a criminal. Only in 1854, as a result of the obstinate and long
struggle for independence, Iceland recovered its right for the free commerce.
Only twenty years after, in 1874, during the celebration of one thousand years
of the first settlement, Iceland received its first constitution.
Therefore the land of fire and ice, the island of sagas was the place
not only mysterious bur also closed and isolated from the civilized Europe.
During twenty years in which we are interested Iceland remained difficult of
access for foreign travelers. Only in 1870, for the first time after two
hundred fifty years of Danish monopoly, English and Scottish ships appeared in
Iceland’s waters. The names of those who visited Iceland in 18th and in the
first part of the 19th century can be counted on one’s fingers; it
is even easier with written testimonies of these journeys.
The
journey of Nicolay Vsevolodovich Stavrogin happens to be precisely in the
middle of these twenty years period, in 1866-1869. For the Russian nobleman
Iceland remains a very unpopular geographical object ¾ it is hardly known and unwillingly studied.
In 1860 there were two Russians who knew Icelandic language: O.I. Senkovski
(baron Brambeus) who learned it by his own initiative and S.K. Sabinin
(1789-1863), the priest of the Russian mission in Copenhagen who wrote, in
1849, The grammar of Icelandic language
but had never been in Iceland.
Even if
we suppose that in sixties of the last century the unknown to us scientific expedition
of explorers, ethnographers, folklorists and volcanologists left from Central
Europe, lets say from Germany or Switzerland, and this information became known
to Dostoievski, still, why to “send” Stavrogin there? While in the East, in
Aphon, he staid eight hours long vespers testing himself with the prayer and
penitence. What kind of devotional acts could he accomplish in Iceland “….”?
It seems
that the research of the unknown expedition, even if successful, would not give
an answer to our questions. Reasons why Stavrogin becomes one of the first
Russians visiting Iceland seem to remain incomprehensible.
The most amazing journey of the 19th
century
When the search for the hypothetical expedition reached a
deadlock and even specialists of Scandinavia were only shaking their heads
knowing nothing about its existence, an unexpected help suddenly changed the
direction of out search. The writer Davidov, the author of historical novels
about sailors, scientists, travelers, revolutionaries and adventurers, gave me
a happy idea to look into Jules Verne, in his novel The journey to the center of Earth since it is precisely about
Iceland. The writer’s intuition turned to be exact to the point.
Jules Verne’s novel The
journey to the center of the Earth was written in 1864, two years before
Nicolay Vsevolodovich’s departure from Russia. This chronological coincidence
immediately allowed us to consider the novel of the famous French author as a
possible source of “Icelandic topic” in the Possessed.
Among one hundred fifty science-fictional and geographical novels of Jules
Verne that talk about different countries, continents, mountains, seas,
Southern and Northern poles, lost and found islands in all known oceans, The journey to the center of the Earth
is the only one that takes place in Iceland.
The novel’s main character, professor of mineralogy from
Hamburg Otto Lidenbrock, eccentric enthusiast, by chance finds some codified
runic manuscript. Mysterious letters written in ancient Icelandic language
inspire the scientist and his nephew to begin, as they say, “the most amazing
journey of 19th century”. Through the crater of the sleeping volcano
Sneifedls in Iceland they penetrate into an amazing underground world where they
see seas, forests, ancient plants and animals from the very remote geological
eras.
It is rather interesting that Jules Verne who traveled a lot
in Scandinavia, who was in Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland and Scotland,
crossed Northern and Baltic seas never visited Iceland and collected bits and
pieces of necessary information in geological, historical and geographical
publications. Even the idea itself about The
journey to the center of Earth did not come from his Scandinavian
impressions but from the discussions with the famous geologist Charles
Saint-Claire De Ville. Considering the Earth the cold body the scientist tried
many times to penetrate craters of sleeping volcanoes and once even committed a
desperately courageous act: he penetrated the volcano Stromboli during the
eruption. Jules Verne was inspired by the subject of scientific research of
bowels of the earth, by the problem of volcano’s eruption and by the character
of the fanatical scientist who risks his life in the expedition.
Accel Lidenbrock, the
scientist’s nephew, narrates the story with all chronicle details; all
adventures of the expedition are so exactly dated and the events are so
scrupulously related to the real life and a real calendar that they create a
complete illusion of reality.
If we imagine that some Russian man really went in 186… to
Iceland, thus following the steps of Jules Verne’s characters, in order to get
there he would have to take a Dutch ship (that leaves Copenhagen once a month),
get with a lot of efforts the permission to visit the island, arrive in
Reykjavik and be invited to talk with the governor of the country. The Russian
guest would see the city of two streets, the cabin looking governor’s house,
miserable, severe and sad peasants, fantastic contours of mountains and empty
roads.
Therefore Jules Verne’s novel The journey to the center of Earth appeared to the reader
contemporary to Stavrogin, as the only popular, accessible and interesting
guide for this country where our protagonist decided to go.
From the history of literary struggle.
As we already said, the novel of Jules Verne was published in
the end of 1864 and already one year after, in 1865, Russian translation, or
actually an adaptation, appeared in St. Petersburg, in “The library for all
ages” (editors Lihacheva and Suvorina) accompanied by popular article about the
origin of Earth and drawings representing ancient plants and animals. This is
where the most interesting things begin.
The first Russian edition of the novel The journey to the center of the Earth appeared in the center of
critics’ attention and became the pretext of the sharp conflict between two
journals: the democratic journal “Sovremennik” [The contemporary] published by
N.A. Nekrassov and I.I. Panaev and the liberal journal “Golos” [The voice]
published by A.A. Krajevski. “Sovremennik” welcomed the novel (1865, # 12) with
the positive and favorable review specifically emphasizing its value for young
and adolescent reader. “We rarely speak about books of this kind, underlines
the reviewer, because the efforts of literary criticism remain practically
fruitless and sometimes pretty silly books continue to be published and bought
by an undemanding public. The young generation grows consuming all this
intellectual garbage and later remains the product of this kind of preparation
since not everybody can succeed in finding for himself the truly useful and
educating reading in our modest literary reserve.
For a long time already in our country children’s literature
became an object of condolence of all sensible people because this literature
contains things truly disgraceful. This is the reason why we welcome with a
great pleasure children’s books that distinguish themselves, by certain
qualities of their content or style, from the mass of empty and simply bad
books.
Verne’s story is as fantastic as the story about the travel to
the center of Earth can
be …The fantastic character
of the novel appears obvious even to the most inexperienced reader of Verne but
in any case this character does not remain fruitless because behind it there is
certain positive content”.
“Golos” reacted in a quite a different manner. In an extremely
angry review published in the issue of 7 (16) March 1866 The journey to the center of the Earth was declared a very harmful
and doubtlessly dangerous book. “While reading the fantastic tale about an
impossible journey, children, as some people pretend, learn about volcanic
eruptions, the existence of underground rivers and figures of plesiosaurs …
Yes, warns the author of the review, this is not just tales of our
underdeveloped nannies; here we deal with conscious stories of educated
citizens who understand importance and influence of natural sciences, who are
grown by Fokht, cherished by Bokle and nourished by Lewis …We can just
recommend The journey to the center of
Earth to everybody who wishes to educate their children in the spirit of
Basarov, Lopuhov and so forth”.
We have all reasons to believe that Dostoievski was not
ignorant about the polemics around Jules Verne’s novel. First of all
Dostoievski was interested in the problem of popular literacy and education.
Precisely in 1860 Dostoievski stands for the popularization of sciences and
scientific discoveries in his journals “Vremja” [Time] and “Epoha” [Epoch]:
made in the West and planted in the Russian sole these discoveries would be,
according to Dostoievski, the justification of wanderings of noble
intellectuals in “foreign lands”. “We do not have to worry about science, wrote
Dostoievski, it is an eternal and highest force proper to everyone and
necessary for all. It is the air that we breath. It will never vanish and will
always find its place everywhere.” (20, 209).
The journal “Vremja” carefully watched the educational
activity of Lev Tolstoy in Jasnaja Poljana and accepted as just its main
motivation: the right of the people to demand and expect the education that
they need. By the way, it is precisely while working on his ABC-book that
Tolstoy noticed Jules Verne’s work and showed a great interest for his Extraordinary journeys that later
entered for good the system of home education of the youngest generation of
Tolstoy’s family.
We can say that in the literary polemics about Jules Verne’s
novel Dostoievski took “Sovremennik”’s side: the position of Nekrassov’s
journal in the area of education basically coincided with the program of
journals “Vremja” and “Epoha”.
It is doubtful that “Sovremennik”’s review could be unknown to
Dostoievski: 111 volume of this journal of 1865 contained, besides the review
on Jules Verne’s novel, another highly interesting publication. It was Victor
Hugo’s novel “The last day of the contemned to death” the translation of which
was placed next to the review.
It is clear that Dostoievski, who considered this
novel as a master piece and “ the most realistic and truthful work written by
him [Victor Hugo] (24,6), as he enthusiastically declared in his preface to The meek, could not ignore, could not
not turn over the pages and not read this volume of “Sovremennik”.
Dostoievski could not miss the scandalous article of “Golos” either.
Dostoievski’s hostility, almost hatred toward A.A. Krajevski, literary
businessman and exploiter, is well known. Precisely in the middle of 1860
Dostoievski makes public his sharp and extremely sarcastic opinions about
Krajevski and his journal “Golos” that the writer considers “disgusting” and
“the most typical incarnation of unprincipled, cynical and chameleon like Russian
liberalism”. Already in 1864 Dostoievski placed in his journal “Epoch” a
disdainful and humiliating article “Puns in life and in literature” directed
against “Golos” and its editor; Dostoievski’s attitude toward the hateful
journal and its master remained unchanged until the end of his life and is
reflected in The Possessed as well as
in The writer’s journal.
The
insulting remark of “Golos” about Basarov and Lopuhov must irritate Dostoievski
even stronger since these two literary characters, as well as works of Turgenev
and Tchernyshevski, were objects of his constant and painful reflections.
Dostoievski who understood Basarov as a tragic character, “the great heart”,
must have been outraged by this cynical and angry remark that appeared as a direct
political denunciation.
Dostoievski did not take part personally in the literary struggle around
Jules Verne’s novel. In March 1865 appeared the last February issue of the
journal “Epoch” and Dostoievski journal ceased to exist. Left in 1866 (precisely
the year when this polemic actually took place) without the press organ where
the writer could express himself as a critic as well as a publicist,
Dostoievski entirely concentrated his efforts on the novel Crime and Punishment.
Gan the Icelander
At the
end of 1868- beginning of 1869 Dostoievski was thinking about the novel
entitled Kartusov that was never written. The main character of the novel, the
captain Kartusov, was later transformed into another character ¾ captain Lebjadkin in the novel The Possessed. Although Kartuzov and
Lebjadkin have a common feature: they are both in love with an inaccessible
beauty (in the Possessed with Lisa
Tushina) and compose ridiculous poems (it was Kartuzov who wrote the poem about
a cockroach and “The beauty of the beauties” inherited later by Lebjadkin),
nevertheless Kartuzov, funny, pretentious and clumsy man, is an honest and
noble knight. By the way, according to Dostoievski’s idea the whole novel could
have a title “The story about one clumsy man”. In rough copies of the novel we
find the detailed description of the character, acts, physical appearance,
behavior and “little words and expressions” of Kartuzov who, like Don Cichote,
while defending the honor of his lady finds himself in the most ridiculous and
comical situations. The following remark about Kartuzov seems especially
amazing: “Kartuzov’s character, as it was described. He is taciturn, dry,
polite, naïve and trusty. All of the sudden starts to express his ideas. Most
of the time he does not say anything and turns red, he is not eloquent. He is
chaste. He trusts me. He comes, remains silent, sits, asks about statues, goes
away and smokes. He is Han the Icelander” (11, 49). This Dostoievski’s remark
about “Han Icelander” seems to show an associative connection that Dostoievski
makes between the character of “the clumsy man” and some Han Icelander. In the
existing commentaries to rough copies of Kartuzov we find that Han Icelander
was the character of the early (1823) novel of Victor Hugo with the same title
belonging to the “thundering” school of the French literature. What, however,
an inoffensive funny captain could have in common with a thorough villain Han
who lived in Drontheim (Norway)? Han, murderer and incendiary, born in
Clipstadur in Iceland, grand-son of the famous villain Ingolph the Killer whose
descendants terrified Iceland and Norway for four centuries, committed many
horrible crimes and was almost a fantastic creature resembling rather a wild
beast, ferocious, clever and blood-thirsty, how could he remind the clumsy
captain in love? “He can direct storms, throw rocks on villages, his will makes
fall walls of underground caves and his breath blows guiding lights on the top
of rocks”, that was Victor Hugo’s Han Icelander. “Taciturn, dry, polite, naïve
and trusty”, this is Dostoievski’s Kartuzov.
Then
comes a seducing idea. Can it be that Dostoievski’s incomprehensible
association reflected his impression not only of the Icelander from this early
novel of Victor Hugo but also of another Icelander, the one from the recently
published novel of Jules Verne? It turns that the name of one of the characters
of The journey to the center of the earth,
precisely of the third participant of the expedition, the Icelandic guide was
also Han (or Hans in the Russian translation of the novel). This Icelander is
precisely a simple-hearted, taciturn, shy, serious, reserved and thoughtful man
that remains Kartuzov described in the earlier cited rough copies. What purpose
served the association of Kartuzov with Jules Verne’s Han (Hans)? It seems that
it brought more common and realistic tones. Dostoievski’s main idea concerning
his work on the novel about Kartuzov may be interesting in clarifying this
matter. “From the first time on to present Kartuzov’s character to the reader
in the most comical, mysterious and
interesting way. All violent and romantic moments, although truthful and real,
should be caught in nature in the
comical way”. (11, 44) Per haps the internal irony and the comical effect of
the novel would be reached precisely by the fact that a very common person (as
Jules Verne’s Hans) imagines himself a romantic hero, displays “fatal passions”
as well as wild and extravagant impulses.
Even
though we do not have any formal proves that Dostoievski’s remark about “Han
the Icelander” means the double association, however, one fact leaves no doubt:
solely Hans Bjelke, the Icelander from Jules Verne’s novel, and not the
fantastic character of Victor Hugo, was for the Russian reader, Stavrogin’s
contemporary, the only known representative of this far away country.
Saga about the labyrinth
The
action of Jules Verne’s novel begins on May 24 1863 in Hamburg, and already ten
days later protagonists reach Iceland. To this moment Nicolay Vsevolodovich
Stavrogin already had a solide record of wrong doings: he killed two persons in
duel, lead the life of a debauchee, went through jail, was degraded to soldier,
lost all his rights and was sent to one of the infantry regiments. It is
precisely in 1863 that he distinguished himself during the Polish campaign and
could recover his officer rang and retire. The two following years of
Stavrogin’s life represent his “essays” of vice and crimes interchanged with
moments of boredom, spleen, anger or new “amusements”.
With
his departure in April 1866 begins the era of Stavrogin’s wondering that will
result in his confession, a turning point of his destiny, written right before
his return to Russia, in July 1869. The search for “last hopes and illusions”,
for this miraculous remedy that would be able to keep him from “the edge”,
brought Stavrogin back to Russia where he made an attempt to transform “the
great idea” into the great heroic act that ended up in a fiasco. This idea,
however, was maturing abroad, under Italian and Egyptian skies, on roads of
France and Switzerland and in German universities, in other words in all these
places where Russian upper class traveled and learned about the world.
From
this point of view Stavrogin’s journey abroad is profoundly symbolic. By
achieving this extraordinary itinerary of hundreds and thousands miles from
Jerusalem to Iceland, Stavrogin went through different circles of contemporary
culture, penetrated into depths of intellectual and spiritual life of East and
West and experienced many of world’s temptations.
By
sending Stavrogin to Iceland, in the tracks of the characters of Jules Verne’s
novel, that Stavrogin could have read, to Iceland, where just recently took
place an extraordinary and fantastic journey to the center of Earth,
Dostoievski seems to offer to Nicolay Vsevolodovich one more very serious
chance. On this land that later scientists from all over the world will call
“an eldorado for researchers” the Russian “barin”, away from his native sole
and his people, could work for the science’s sake, serve the goal of knowledge
and become one of those “Bazarov, Lopuhov and so forth” who devoted themselves
to the work in “the universal workshop”. This is precisely the reason why
Stavrogin went to Iceland not as a tourist but as a member of the scientific
expedition. This could be a gift of destiny for a devastated and disillusioned
man! Dostoievski’s character, this “great sinner”, comes to the place where
humans just discovered the underground world, the hell itself, in order to
explore and understand it and see the most profound depths of the Earth and its
center. Here is the true grandeur and the real deed! It seems that here, at the
foot of the volcano Sneifedls, came together all references: faith and atheism,
the most daring fantasy and the most calculated scientific knowledge.
Thus,
according to Dostoievski’s complicated association, Iceland becomes one of the
allegories of Stavrogin’s spiritual search. “…”
There is
an ancient Icelandic saga about an outlaw man who once got lost in one of the
caves. He had wondered for a long time in a absolute darkness of underground
labyrinths until he finally found a little slit in the wall. When he came out
he found himself in the completely different part of the country and he saw
that his shoes were full of golden sand. In exchange of gold the outlaw man
could regain his freedom.
The
protagonist of The Possessed could
never find the exit from the labyrinth.
Chapter 3
Searching for the word ( writers in Dostoievski’s
works)
Citations 1. “The village Stepanchikovo and its
inhabitants”
2. “Poor people”
These
naïve and simple-hearted words addressed to his beloved, Varenka Dobroselova,
the character of the first novel of Dostoievski Poor people Makar Alekseevich Devushkin.
Dostoievski’s literary debut at the age of twenty four took place in
1845 and thus his dearest wish of literary vocation, cherished since his young
age, came true. In imagination of the pupil of the School of Engineering poetry
and creative writing represented “the feast in paradise”. “The poet, in his
inspiration, can see God, that means that he fulfills the mission of philosophy
…Poetical ecstasy is the ecstasy of philosophy … Philosophy itself is poetry
but of a highest degree” (28, book I, 54) declares seventeen years old
youngster Dostoievski to his brother. He can only imagine his life, his destiny
and his freedom in connection with literature and literary work. ( “Freedom and
vocation are the greatest of all things. I dream of and about it again as I did
before but do not remember when. The soul becomes bigger in order to understand
the greatness of life.” (28, book I, 78).
Passionate and absorbing reading as well as the persistent interest for
the world of literature revealed not only the curious intellectual and
bibliophile but the real vocation. Once felt this vocation demanded the
expression and was transformed into the tireless urge toward creativeness. The
desire to become an author and writer first was perceived by the young
Dostoievski as a means , as “a holy hope” rather than a goal. He was not even
eighteen yet when he defined “the greatest goal” of his future: “My soul is
inaccessible to the former stormy urges. Everything is still in it as in the
heart of a man who hides the profound
mystery; I am rather good in learning about “man and life”; I can study
characters from other writers with whom I spend the best part of my life
joyfully and freely; I will say no more about myself. I am self-confident. The
man is a mystery. This mystery ought to be solved and even if you have spent
all your life solving it do not say that you wasted your time; I am studying this
mystery for I want to be a man”. (28, book I, 63)
Literature, books and experience of other writers gradually ceased to be
sources of romantic ecstasy, sweat tears and golden dreams and little by little
became a rather prosaic but real help for his own creativity. In a full swing
of the work on his first novel Poor People Dostoievski wrote in his letter to
his brother: “Per haps you know very well what I do when I do not write ¾ I read. I read awfully a lot and the reading
affects me in a strange manner. I would reread something read long time ago and
I would feel all my strength, would
apprehend everything, understand everything clearly and then I would extract
from it the knowledge for creation of my own work” (28, book I, 108).
“Extract
the knowledge for creation” ¾ this was the new direction
of the young Dostoievski-reader: the reading from the point of view of the man
who writes and who is learning the mastership from his teachers-follow writers.
The work on the novel Poor people, the novel that the author first finished in
November 1844, then “decided to change completely and actually changed it and
rewrote it” (December 1844), then “began again to clean, smooth over, add and
cut” (February 1845), then “decided to correct it one more time and this time
really for the best” (May 1845), this work, complemented by the extensive
reading, accomplished the process of
transforming Dostoievski-the reader into Dostoievski-the writer.
“Brother, regarding literature I am not
the same person I was two years ago. Then it was only infantile nonsense.
Two years of learning brought a lot and took away a lot too” (28, book I, 108).
The
birth of the writer from the reader represents one of the mysteries of
psychology of creativeness that equals only the miracle and mystery of the
birth of a new life. The fact that the so much desired transformation could
have not occur, that the writer potentially present in each reader could have
never come true adds to this mystery a special attractiveness. The appeal and
the temptation of creativity and the burning urge of self-expression that each
reader sees precisely in writing represent, most of the time, a rather painful
pass not very comforting by the end, the pass that brings more sorrows than
gains; this Calvary of literary ambition and literary claims was, without
doubt, one of the strongest impressions experienced by the author. It is also
unquestionable that this impression entered the “blood and flesh” of his first
novel.
In this
regard Poor people confirm the truth
of Makar Alekseevich Devushkin: “as literature the first Dostoievski’s novel
was a picture and a mirror …..” Especially a document because the urge of
literary creativity, this passionate hope for the literary vocation and finally
this heroic effort of the young author are reflected in Poor People in a documentary way, in the form of “somebody else’s
manuscripts”.
The
characters of the novel Makar Devushkin and Varenka Dobrocelova are placed in
the most unrestrained and the most ecstatic field of writing ¾ the epistolary one; for each letter one
needs long hours and it represents a difficult literary work in the full sense
of this term. Their correspondence represents not just the need to communicate,
the little piece of friendship, love and compassion but also the test of pen.
Simple-minded Makar Alekseevich admits that descriptions of nature, images and
dreams in his letters are borrowed ¾ “I took it all from the
book”. He is attracted to the literary circle of his neighbor the clerk Ratazjaev
who “speaks about Homer, Brambeus and other different authors” and organizes
literary parties. “Today is the meeting; we will read literature”, informs
enthusiastic Devushkin his correspondent and goes on describing “literature” of
the first in his life met writer: “…” Devushkin carefully observes the mode of
life, customs and habits of his literary neighbor, sincerely believes in
sensational royalties and in the seductive attractiveness of this vocation:
“….”
With a true inspiration and enthusiasm of the real
fun of literary talent Makar Alekseevich copies for Varenka fragments of
Ratazjaev’s work: in this manner in text of Dostoievski’s novel appear the
fragments of three works of another author: “Italian passions”, “Ermak and
Zulejka” and “Ivan Prokofievich Geltopuz”.
Itis interesting, however, that in his passion for
literary circle Devushkin does not lose the critical point of view; more than
that, everything he sees actually becomes the material and the topic for his
letters: “…” He does not only observe the enviable vocation but, and this is
crucial, sometimes tries it on himself: first with terror, then with a hidden
hope. It is amazing indeed how the attitude of Makar Alekseevuch toward this
perspective changes during five month of the correspondence, how he personally
grows gaining the human dignity and how strengthens and matures his pen. “…” He
endlessly lowers and belittles himself: I cannot, I do not have any education,
I should not, I do not have a right: “…” Complains are constantly repeated on
every occasion but involuntarily Devushkin reveals himself: “…” He tried (here
it is, the hidden biography of Makar Devushkin!) but “…”