A New Word on 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Robert Louis s> Jackson (review)

Abstract

128 SEER, 83, I, 2005 Reticence on the part of Tolstoi is equally tantalizing. A large number of references to Dostoevskii appears in the index of names, but hardly any of them fall within letters penned by Tolstoi: despite frequent mentions of the writer and his works by Strakhov,Tolstoi is rarely drawn to comment. The notable exceptions are, of course, Tolstoi's expressionof grief at the death of Dostoevskii, and his measured response to Strakhov'spersonal attack upon his deceased collaboratorand erstwhilefriend. These well-known statements notwithstanding,it is intriguingto see that Tolstoi chose to say so little to his most valued correspondentabout Dostoevskii, when it might have produced an interestingperspectiveon many of the issuesdebated between them. This is where the value lies in being able to see both halves of the correspondence, because it is clear that the unwillingness to discuss Dostoevskii was not apparenton both sides. Other names appearing in the index, however, are testament to the wideranging nature of the interestsof both men, and their abilityto drawout and interlinkideas fromthe most diversesources.Given the easinessof navigation around the volumes, it is as equally rewarding to focus on one figure, for example Schopenhauer, and see how both Tolstoi and Strakhovengagedwith his philosophy, as it is to read severalconsecutive letters and watch the tone shift from the mundane and conversational to the lofty and abstract, or to chart the highs and lows of Tolstoi's emotional strength and witness the supportStrakhovlent him. The correspondence ended with Strakhov'sdeath in I896. We can only guessat what might have passedbetween them regarding,say,the publication of Resurrection, the creation of Whatis Art?,or Tolstoi's excommunication in I90I, had Strakhov lived longer. Tolstoi must have felt the absence of his friend most keenly at these moments. The last letter in the collection, written by Tolstoijust a few daysbefore Strakhov'sdeath, and which the latternever received, is annotated with Tolstoi'sreaction to the sad news in his diary:'Ia zhiv, no ne zhivu. Strakhov. Nynche uznal ob ego smerti' ('I am alive, but lifeless.Strakhov.Today I learntof his death')(p. 1029). This bleakstatement is, remarkably, the only expression of grief Tolstoi permitted himself in writing: there are no outpourings of feeling either in his letters around this time, or even furtheron in his diary.This fact goes unmentioned in Donskov's essay and would perhaps have merited some analysis, especially when compared to Tolstoi's reaction to the death of Dostoevskii, a man he never met. Here is where the value of a collection of letters can be most fully appreciated: when we catch a glimpse of the life beyond those parts documented on paper, of the essentiallyunfinalizableindividual. Department ofRussian andSlavonic Studies S. F. HUDSPITH University ofLeeds Jackson, Robert Louis (ed.).AJNew Word on'TheBrothers Karamazov'. Studiesin Russian Literature and Theory. Northwestern University Press, Evanston , IL, 2004. Xii + 26I pp. Notes. $79.95. THE essays in this fine new collection edited by Robert Louis Jackson demonstratethe healthy state of contemporaryDostoevskiistudies.As Robin REVIEWS 129 FeuerMiller states in her lively introduction, many of the contributionsoffer refreshing new approaches to TheBrothers Karamazov, typically focusing on hithertorarelyconsideredmoments and motifsin the text. Forexample, Kate Holland'sexamination of 'thelegend of the ladonka' and Horst-JurgenGerigk's discussion of the door in Fedor'shouse on the night of the murder both crucial to Dmitrii's trial and conviction -introduce questions about the status of narrativewhich unite these seemingly minor details to the fabric of the novel as a whole. Particularlyevident is the profound and positive influence of recent work on the religious bases of the author's oeuvre by Russian scholars,which has opened up many new modes of analysis. Gary Saul Morson writes on the opposition of the 'eschatologicalhopes' of pure faith and 'the belief in small, prosaic acts of goodness' (p. Io8). Susanne Fussorelatesmasturbatorymotifs from A Raw Youth to Alesha's ecstatic response to his vision of the marriage feast at Cana, to suggest his achievement of spiritual manhood. Maxim D. Shrayer links Liza Khokhlakova's anti-Semitic anecdote about the crucifixionof a child to the incident with Captain Snegirev,to reconfigurethe latteras a scapegoat, and contextualize his son's revenge. Elsewhere, Donna Orwin...