American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages

Stories from Modern Russia by C. P. Snow; Pamela Hansford JohnsonReview by: Julius M. BlumThe Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Summer, 1964), pp. 204-205Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European LanguagesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/305302 .

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204 Slavic and East European Journal

rublja mo'no" is translated into the flat "I could buy a new one like that from a jeweler for a ruble and a half" ( p. 9).

The introduction to the translation abounds in inaccuracies and over- simplifications. Itis asserted, for example, that "the only distinction" of Dostoevskij's father was "the rigorous discipline with which he ruled his family" (p. vii). Dostoevskij himself, however, considered the distinctive feature of his father to be his "advanced and progressive character" (<<Eiorpa'is, nIcbLMa H 3aMeTICI 1/13 3anrICHOl ICHMICXK (D. M. aLocToeBIcKO>> [C nI 6., 1883], CTp. 26). According to the introduction Dostoevskij's interests were " slightly effeminate" (p. vii); he "frequently deserted his wife for other women" (p. x); his fatherwas "an unloving man" and "a member of the unimaginative lower middle class" who placed "irrational demands" on his wife and hoped that his sons "would learn to be the same kind of uninspired human being that he was" (p. viii). All these and many other statements lack justi- fiable foundation. One of the most egregious statements is that " per- haps the only real benefit that he [Dostoevskij] derived from.... his Siberian imprisonment.... was a long period of contact with the worst forms of criminality and brutality to be found among his fellow prisoners " (p. ix). Was not Dostoevskij's rediscovery of Christ, about which he speaks so eloquently in his letter to Mme Fonvizin (A. H. LOJIHIHHH, peg., <<(ThCTOeBCIcI4K"4: 1rhcLMa1832-1867 > [M.,JI., 1928], I, 141- 144). Furthermore, Dostoevskij saw that among convicts there were "wonderful people" (Dolinin, I, 139) and that they were "the strongest and, in one way or another, the most gifted of our people (4). M. aoc- ToeBcKHI4 <<Co6paHIe COMI4HeHI4M>>[M. , 1956], III, 701). It was pre- cisely this great discovery which made Nietzsche an ardent admirer of Dostoevskij. Illustrative of the remaining inaccuracies is the reference to Dostoevskij as "the great favorite of all time in Soviet publishing" and the suggestion that "there are innumerable editions of his works" in the Soviet Union (p. xii). In fact, quite the opposite is the case- apart from the occasional printings of some half-dozen individual titles, only three multi-volume sets of Dostoevskij's works have been published in the USSR.

In view of the overall competence of Mr. Scammel's translation, it is unfortunate that the introduction to the translation is so weak.

Temira Pachmuss University of Illinois

C. P. Snow and Pamela Hansford Johnson, eds. Stories from Modern Russia. (Winter's Tales, 7.) New York: St. Martin's Press, 1962. xxi, 265, $4.95.

The six short stories in this anthology were all published since the end of WW II, some by young, comparatively unknown authors, and some by authors whose literary reputations were solidly established as early as the twenties. Several of the stories, e.g., "One Man's Life" and "The Telegram, " have been available in previous anthologies.

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Reviews 205

From a structural point of view, "The Stovemakers, " first published in 1958, is the most interesting. Tvardovskij uses stoves and stove- makers merely as the pretense, the motivation for probing, developing, and exposing the characters of the three main actors, one of whom (the narrator) is a Professor of Russian Language and Literature. Written in the first person, the narrative is loaded with trenchant references to such litterateurs as Majakovskij, Lermontov, and Pus'kin while, at the same time, it abounds with local color. The parallelism of structure is strik- ing as Tvardovskij constructs the old Russian stove, adding layer of brick and tile to layer, while progressively revealing character by re- moving layer after layer.

The confrontation and opposition of characters, and the love for hu- manity, warmth, and sympathy embodied in Egor Jakovlev, artist as well as artisan, are reminiscent of the craftsmanship and characterization of the sympathetic and noble peasants portrayed in Turgenev's Zapiski oxotnika. There are no political commitments in this story nor is there evidence of efforts to accomplish the "ideological remolding and re- educatibn of the toiling people in the spirit of Socialism. " But it is saturated with the flavor of rural Russia, about which Tvardovskij, a poet of peasant origin, is so well qualified to write.

The others represented are Paustovskij ( "The Telegram"), Zalygin ( "Bob"), Soloxov ( "One Man's Life"), Evdokimov ( "Light From Other People's Windows"), and Tendrjakov ( "Potholes").

Regrettable is the lack of even the most rudimentary scholarly appara- tus, such as bibliographical data regarding the stories as originally published, and a brief bibliography of the more important criticism of the authors and works represented. The introduction will fail to satisfy even the general reader because of the lack of basic identifying data.

Regarding the quality of translation, a distinctive British flavor pre- vails, with free rendering and no suggestion of Russian syntax. To the non-speaker of Russian, this should not matter, although the specialist may be somewhat dissatisfied with the result, particularly in the case of Soloxov's "One Man's Life" (previously translated as "The Fate of Man. ")

What is important is that several additional samples of Soviet prose literature have been made available to readers not familiar with Rus sian.

Julius M. Blum Washington, D.C.

Ren6 Wellek. Essays on Czech Literature. (Slavistic Printings and Reprintings, XLIII.) The Hague: Mouton and Co., 1963. 214 pp., 23 Dutch Guilders.

On the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America has presented Ren6 Wellek with this collection of his essays on Czech literature. All but one are republished from scholarly journals, though several have been revised and expanded for the present volume. The separate articles include: "The Two

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