Selected Stories by A. F. s> Veltman James J. Gebhard (review)

Abstract

3I8 SEER, 79, 2, 200I Pechorin,it isvaluableto knowwhatDostoevskii,Solov'evand othersthought, but we no longer need to seek to refute, or even demolish them. It is extraordinaryto read suchremarksas 'Solv'ev(i 90i) is even more categorical andjudgemental andprovidesthe followingmoralizingcomment on Lermontov 's tragic fate' (p. I97, n. 2). Elsewherewe read that 'No less a figurethan Wilhelm Kiukhel'beker,the well-known writer and Decembrist was himself fooled by Grushnitskyas a characterand Marlinskyas a writer' (p. I4,)' while Marlinsky himself is the subject of what might be called a character assassination, during which he receives the grotesquely anachronistic appellation , 'the "Teflon Decembrist"'! More recent critics, including those still alive, do not receive much better treatment. Bakhtin, who does not feature centrally in Golstein's thinking, is accorded this curt dismissal: 'This scholarly dogma owes much to the carnivalesque utopia of Bakhtin, and was further developed by scholars in search of some kind of alternative to the hierarchical and oppressive systems they found objectionable' (p. 62). Lotman is similarly belaboured, while a quotation from Gary Rosenshield is followed by the dismissive one-line paragraph: 'Nothing could be further from the truth' (P. 12I). In addition to this, there are significant gaps in his reading. Susan Layton's important book on the literary Caucasus is missing, while West European scholarship is especially lacking: Wolf Schmid and Age Hansen Love have written very important work on Pechorin, but Golstein ignores this, as well as some of Robert Reid's contributions. Recent critical theory is coinspicuous by its absence. In particular, no-one who had absorbed the insights of femininism could have made some of these assessments of Pechorin. All of this is a great pity. Vladimir Golstein has done Lermontov studies a favour in pursuing his researches along some unusual paths. Sadly, what he has discovered there is rather overshadowed by some of this book's more egregious faults. SchoolofLanguages JOE ANDREW heele l niversitv Veltman, A. F. Selected Stories.Translated with an introduction by James J. Gebhard. Studies in Russian Literature and Theory. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL, I 998. I 90 pp. Notes. $59.95; $1 7.95. READERS or reviewers not intimately familiar with the oeuvresof Aleksandr Fomich Vel'tman (i800-70) are likely to scurry to the reference books to refresh their memory of the literary career of this idiosyncratic stylist. Here they will be reminded, for instance by Victor Terras, that 'Veltman, next to Bestuzhev[-Marlinskii], was the most popular prose writer of the I830s and continued as a leading writer through the I840s', whereupon 'his fame [- . .1 quickly faded'; Sterne and Jean Paul are seen as his models: A Histop ofRussian Literature(New Haven and London, 1991, p. 248). Useful survey essays may be located byJohn Goodliffe (Reference GuidetoRussianLiterature, London I 998) and Brian J. Horowitz (DictionaryofLiterary Biography, vol. I98, RussianLiterature in theAge of Pushkinand Gogol. Prose,Detroit, I998). There have been at least four American dissertations on Vel'tman but little in the way of specialist REVIEWS 3I9 publications. In biographical terms, in addition to being a prose writer and poet, he was an army officer, assistant-directorthen director of the Kremlin Armoury(succeedingin thispost the olderhistoricalnovelistM. N. Zagoskin), and a noted antiquarian.The words most commonly attachedto his writings would seem to be 'prolific','readable','playful'and 'punning'.He is generally associated with Russian romanticism (at least, until his late period of the I86os)and his main themes (andgeneric inclinations)includehistory,folkore, fantasyand travel.His principalromanticfeaturewould seemto be the mixing of styles and this, together with his verbal dexterity and wide variation in register,no doubt makeshim difficultto translate. Earlier separate publication of two of the works included here apart, Vel'tman now makes his debut in English in a collection of five stories. Its listing in the Northwestern 'Studiesin Russian Literatureand Theory' series may seem slightly incongruous - particularly since the accompanying apparatus, while adequate, is not over-generous. The stories here provided may perhaps best be described as curiosities of minor interest, rather than wvorks of obvious fundamental significance, and they are presented in what approximates,to thisreaderatleast,to a descendingorderof quality.'Erotida' is a provincial military and society tale, with a bizarre...