REVIEWS 535 studywithout mentioning the copious and often quirky illustrations.By far the oddest show in gloriously simplistic, stilted fashion moments of high drama likely to delight all readers who may have pored over old copies of Ivanhoe or Lorna Doom as children. L?ndon Richard Freeborn Grimstad, Knut Andreas. Styling Russia:Multiculture in the Prose of Nikolai L?skov. Slavica Bergensia, 7. Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen, Bergen, 2007. 256 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. NOK 150: $27.00: ?14.00: 19.00. Patriotism is a topic fraughtwith ambiguity. Tolstoi understood the concept as relating purely to militarism and believed it to be incompatible with Christianity. Lermontov declared that reason could not fathom his love for his homeland; he wrote of steppes, forests, villages by night, the harvest and celebrations in country taverns, all floating on a fine mist of alcohol. Akhmatova appeared to closely identifyher love ofRussia with her love of the language. Patriotism has again become a matter of concern in Russia today. Sociological research indicates that there is a distinctweakening in the ties of the population at large with their native land. The military claims to detect that young people would no longer be willing to fight for their country; vested interestsdemand the reintroduction ofmilitary training in schools. To instilpatriotism has ever been an explicit aim ofRussian education, since the age of Ivan theTerrible. It has been a persistent theme inRussian society and culture for a very long time. Can a studyofLeskov throw lighton thisquestion? Knut Andreas Grimstad quotes well-known views of Leskov as the 'most quintessentially Russian of writers', 'the most Russian of Russian writers', 'a native force', 'Russian through and through', coming 'from the very heart ofRussia', and the like. At the same time, Grimstad warns us that Leskov's picture of Russia is immensely complex; he rejects, or at least accepts only very warily, these opinions, while describing Leskov as a ferventpatriot. At one point he refers toLeskov's 'so-called [sic]Russianness' (p. 13). It is clear thatLeskov's Russi anness deserves scrutiny in order to lead us to a closer understanding of his art. Grimstad does this 'by combining key concepts frommodern literary theory and semiotics, as well as from anthropology and the theory of culture' (p. 7). The traditionalist reader of Leskov need not, however, be put off, as what this boils down to is thatGrimstad subjects the text of five Leskov works, Sobonane, Ocharovannyistrannik, ^apechatlennyi angel, Na Kraiu sveta,and Detskie gody, to intense analysis, almost to thepoint of overkill, achieving a high quality of discussion. The lateAmerican Leskov scholarWilliam Edgerton commented in rela tion to Leskov's writings, both fictional and non-fictional, that the viewpoint of the author or the narrator (real or implied) was equivocal. Grimstad elicits time after time that the superficial, apparently immediately obvious message 536 SEER, 88, 3, JULY 20I0 of the text isnot the real message. That Leskov used his fiction as well as his publicistic works to convey a point of view is not in doubt; this is especially true of his view of religion. What has been described as Leskov's most Orthodox story,The Sealed Angel, is ? one might even say ? subversive of Orthodoxy. CathedralFolk raises similar questions. The ostensible author of non-fiction works such as Schism inHigh Societyand The Jews inRussia (not discussed by Grimstad in thisbook) is a committed Orthodox; the real author flatters conservative readers by appearing to share their prejudices and then skilfullyattempts tomanipulate them away from anti-Protestantism and antisemitism. It is Russian Orthodoxy which is the dominant subject of Grimstad's analysis. As crucial for the religious as well as the national theme he sees the multicultural aspect of these works. They abound in Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, British and others who illuminate Russianness and Orthodoxy through contrast, and the significance of theRussian characters' relationship with these people is shown to be vital.What emerges is a dual impression: Russia as she is and Russia as Leskov would like her to be. This, I take it, is what the author means by the slightlyodd tide 'Styling'Russia: representing her, recreating her inhis own image,making her appear subt?ydifferentfrom what she...