330 SEER, 82, 2, 2004 calling in Russian society, a point taken up in some detail by Marina Kostalevsky in her recent excellent book Dostoevsky and Soloviev:7The Art of Integral Vision (New Haven, CT, I997). For an understanding of Solov'ev's Christian-rooted aesthetics the essay BeautyinNature (i 889) is especially important. Solov'ev has long and quite misleadingly been saddledwith the image of a religiousphilosopherwholly immersed in contemplation of the Divine realm, a quasi-Gnosticscorningor, ignoring as far as possible, realities of the material world. His essay Beautyin Natureprovides a clear corrective to that image: with its detailed analysis employing specific visual and acoustic examples of aesthetically appealing phenomena in nature, this is manifestlya workwrittenby a Christianthinker who 'takes matter seriously'. In the choice of other writings on aesthetics Wozniuk has been very discerning, for the essays included in the collection show Solov'ev'sattitudeboth to utilitariantheoriesof art, so prominent in his day, and to argumentsin favourof 'artfor art'ssake'.His attitudetowardsthe latter arguments is far more critical than one might have expected to find (PP. 137 and 140). The three general essaysBeauty inArt,TheUniversal Meaning of Art and A First Steptowardsa PositiveAesthetic (of I889, I890 and I894 respectively)express many of Solov'ev's dominant preoccupations:the inner coherence or All-Unity of existence, the discrepancybetween 'that which is' and 'that which ought to be', human creativity, the transformative and essentially'prophetic'role of art. Even the subjectof historyis never farfrom Solov'ev's mind when he writes on aesthetics, for human creativity is, unavoidably, located and realized, or made possible, within the course of history, however much aesthetic values may, in themselves, be a-historical. Possibly the feature of Solov'ev's thought which most marks him out as a thinkershaped by the nineteenth century is his enduring preoccupation with history.All of thesemattersarenow setout forthe Englishreaderin Wozniuk's fine translations. Alongside the new abundance of English translationsof Solov'ev'sworksit is worth noting the existence of recently published Dutch translations(2001) and Dimiter Mirchev's Bulgariantranslationsof 7heDramaofPlato'sLifeand of one of Solov'ev'smost substantialworks,J0usti/cation oftheGood. Romanian translationsof certainworkshave also appearedin recentyears. UniversityofLeeds JONATHAN SUTTON Heinonen, Jussi. 'Eto' i 'to' v povesti 'Starukha' Daniila Kharmsa.Slavica Helsingiensia, 22. Department of Slavonic and Baltic Languages and Literatures, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 2003. 23I pp. Notes. Bibliography. C25.00 (paperback). Jussi HEINONEN'Smonograph seeks to demonstrate the profound formal, structural, topographical, philosophical and religious integrity of Daniil Kharms's Starukha (7he Old Woman). It is the first full-length study of this demanding and elusive text. The starting point for Heinonen's analysis is a philosophical tract, 'On existence, time, space' ('O sushchestvovanii, o vremeni, o prostranstve') REVIEWS 33I writtenby Kharmsin the early 1930s. The treatisecontainssome 6o postulates which include the assertionthat existence comprisesthree elements:'this'(eto), 'that' (to)and the 'impediment' (prepriatstvie), which is 'neither this nor that'. The impediment should not be considered a barrier that divides this from that, but rathersomething that bindsthem. It is Heinonen's assertionthat this hypostatic unity provides Starukhawith its structural and philosophical integrity. Heinonen characterizesetoas the physical, 'real'world which can be seen in the references to Leningradof the era, to work, bodily functions, drinking, sex, and so on. In contrast to is concerned with fantasy, dreams, mystery, fantasy, the absurd or the 'Other' all of which abound and which make interpretation problematic. These categories are not, however, mutually exclusive or indeed stable, for what after all is the timeless figure of the Old Woman doing with a clock, albeitwith no hands? Kharms's narrative unites etoand tonot simply in the text but also in the sub-text. Heinonen's exhaustive exploration of links between characters, images, symbols, locations, sources and archetypes reveals a densely plotted and crafted work. Using the categories of to and etoas an heuristic device allows him to reconcile the apparently chance references to religion and explain the curious ending to Starukha, featuringthe narrator'sovert recognition of God, in termsof what precedes it. FollowingIakovDruskin,Heinonen regardsStarukha asprimarilya religious work. While he acknowledges the inter-textual links of Kharms's work with nineteenth-century Russian classics(notablyDostoevskii'sIdiotand Pushkin's Queen ofSpades), it...