Abstract
The article is devoted to the issue of reception of the poems about Catholic Church written by A.N. Maykov, a close friend of F.M. Dostoevsky, in his novel The Brothers Karamazov and, above all, in The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor. We are talking about the poems - The Queens Confessions. The Legend of the Spanish Inquisition, Sentence. The Legend of the Constance Council and The Legend of the Clermont Council. It is The Queens Confessions which led Dostoevsky to make Seville the setting for the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor. The main character of the Sentence, Cardinal Hermit, became the prototype of the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevskys novel, and the main character of The Legend of Clermont Council, the Pilgrim Hermit, in many ways became the prototype of the unrecognized Christ from the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor. The article presents significant textual parallels between Maykovs poems and The Brothers Karamazov .
Highlights
June 4, 2021 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the poet Apollon Nikolaevich Maykov, a friend of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
The main character of the “Sentence”, Cardinal Hermit, became the prototype of the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s novel, and the main character of “The Legend of Clermont Council”, the Pilgrim Hermit, in many ways became the prototype of the unrecognized Christ from the “Legend of the Grand Inquisitor”
For the first time Dostoevsky told Maykov about the idea of the novel Atheism, from which The Brothers Karamazov (1878–1880) grew, in a letter dated October 11, 1868: “Here I have a huge novel on my mind the name of it is «Atheism», but before starting it, I need to read almost a whole library of atheists, Catholics and the Orthodox” [1
Summary
June 4, 2021 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the poet Apollon Nikolaevich Maykov, a friend of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky This friendship is reflected in Dostoevsky’s last novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Echoes of some of Maykov’s poems are found in The Brothers Karamazov and, first of all, in “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor” – an insert parable in the form of Ivan Karamazov's story about his poem in the 5th chapter of “The Grand Inquisitor” of the 5th book “Pro and Contra” of the 2nd part of the novel. This parable is a counterpoint to The Brothers Karamazov
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