Dostoevsky by Richard s> Freeborn (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 945 Gogol"s longing for a lost harmony. As Holquist puts it: 'The tyranny of difference,the homesicknessthat covets a returnto an all-embracingoneness is the absolutehallmarknot only of Gogol"slife, but of hisworkaswell. There is an alienation built into the very poetics in which he chose his genres, since they all explore the very edges of the forms they purportto be' (pp. I 27-28). It is surelythis homesicknesswhich led to alienation, which led to a quest for wholeness, which constitutesboth the fascination (and modernity -or postmodernism !)of Gogol"swork, aswell as the painfullygrotesquetragedyof his last ten years, and his gruesome death. Also of profound interest, albeit for rather different reasons, is Iurii Lotman's'The TruthasLie', dictatedjust a month beforehe died. This begins and ends in arresting fashion. Its opening sentence is: 'Gogol was a liar' (p. 35), while Lotman concludes with his own last word: 'Gogol was actually not a writer, but a social thinker. He expected from his works by no means only literarysuccess, but, firstand foremost, the transformationof life; this is an essentialtraitof Russian literaturein general. Fromthe early Middle Ages to very recent times [the I99os: JA] the writer tacitly assumed that the transformationof life was the only justification for literary activity' (p. 53). These are weighty words indeed and, more broadly, this is a seriousvolume which deserves to take its place as an importantpoint of reference in Gogol' studies. School ofLanguages JOE ANDREW Keele University Freeborn,Richard.Dostoevsky. Life &Times. Haus Publishing,London, 2003. I64 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Chronology. FurtherReading. Index. ?8.99 (paperback). INDostoevskii studies the concept of 'life and works'has perhaps reached its climax inJoseph Frank'sfive-volumestudy.Although othershave compressed the genre into less space, Richard Freebornhas given us a concise, yet fully adequate account in, what (allowingfor inserts)must be, some one hundred pages. Dostoevskii's life in itself has the quality of a novel: overnight acclaim as genius; arrest and mock execution, followed by penal servitude in Siberia; epilepsy; wandering through Europe; uncontrollable gambling; and final apotheosis at the Pushkin celebrations at the end of his life. Freeborn sees many of these experiences as influencing the writing, and he follows more recent thinkingin suggestingthe death of Dostoevskii'sfather(ofwhich Freud made so much) not as murderby peasants, but a naturaldeath from epilepsy, thus opening up the possibilityof an inheritablecondition. A recurrent motif in Freeborn's critical approach to the writing is the concept of thematic anticipation. In the early story TheDouble(I846) he already sees two featuresthat will markout the later work:the chronological compression of events; and the 'scandal scene' (p. 26), whereas the postSiberian 7he Villageof Stepanchikovo and its Inhabitants (I859) prefigures the ideological interest and plot complexity of the later novels (p. 44). Although 946 SEER, 82, 4, 2004 notspecifically stated,thedivisionofhumanityinto'bulls'and'mice'(p.6o) by theheroofNotesfrom Underground (I 864)seemsto anticipate Raskolnikov's theoryin Crime and Punishment (i866).In Crime and Punishment itself,hepointsto Marmeladov's earlyexpressed viewofGod'suniversal forgiveness andclaims: 'theendingof thenovel,in termsof itsmoral,is anticipated on theveryfirst day'(p. 69).Moretraditionally, of course,artisticintentionsandprojections arederivedfromthewriter's letters,andwithrespectto themesin thenovel TheDevils(I871-72) Freeborn quotesat lengthfroman interesting letterto Apollon Maikov(pp.98-I oo). More controversially, however,given the story'sobviousretrospective idealism(eventhepossibility thatit is complete fiction),Freebornat the beginningof his studyhad identified'the finger coveredin soil' of the eponymouspeasantMarei with the beginningof Dostoevskii's philosophy of'thesoil'(pochvennichestvo) (p. I 3). Asisobvious,dueweightisgiventominorworksandshortstories.Indeed, Freeborn hashighpraiseforthenovellaTheEternal Husband (I870), whichin 'stylisticmaturity',he claims,outshineseven Turgenevand HenryJames (p. 94) high praise,indeed,froman acknowledged experton one and admirer ofboth. Of themajornovels,in TheIdiot (i868) epilepsyis seenas a metaphorfor thehero'sdestiny(p.89),andthereaderhasto accept,asDostoevskii insists, that the novel'smeaningis in the climax(p.86). Ratherdisappointingly, however, Freeborndemotes the strongpulse of humour in the novel to a mere vein of attractive whimsy (p. 9I), and it may be said as a general comment that this studybarely addresseshumour, although it is a characteristicfeature of almost all Dostoevskii'swriting. It is present, for example, throughoutthat otherwise grim novel TheDevils,which according to Freeborn 'can be said to contain some of the most brilliant scenes of quasi-philosophical dialogue Dostoevskiieverwrote' (p. I 02...