Friday. April 20,1962
University Daily Kansan
Page 3
Gogol, Dickens, Hawthorne in New Paperbacks
DEAD SOULS, by Nikolai Gogol (Signet Classics, 60 cents); THE POSSESSED, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Dell Laurel, 95 cents); RESURRECTION, by Leo Toiloty (Doubleday Dolphin, $1.45); TENDAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD, by John Reed (Vintage, $1.45).
Russia. The word conjures up numerous pictures, usually pictures today that relate to communism and the Red leaders of recent years. The reader of Russian literature recalls other pictures, but these are by no means dissociated from that of communism.
One might say that a common theme is that of repression. This even marks Gogol's delightful "Dead Souls," that wild satire that sends an opportunist named Chichikov across the Russian countryside buying up dead serfs so he can become a man of property before the next census is taken.
IT IS MORE MARKEDLY a theme of the other books. In "The Possessed" we see the ugly young men in revolt against their time, and we see the fruits of their revolt. In "Resurrection" we see a peasant girl unjustly condemned to Siberia. In "Ten Days That Shook the World" we see the 20th century culmination of 19th century Russia, and the Russia of the centuries that went before.
"Dead Souls" has moments of wild hilarity, and one doesn't have to believe it could happen to believe in the portraits of avaricious villagers and selfish land-owners and people anxious to impress a person of seeming importance—like the "inspector general" of Gogol's equally funny play.
"The Possessed" is like a nightmare. It deals with the Nihilists of late 19th century and is Dostoyevsky's cry of protest against them, for he sees them as the possessed swine that are described in St. Luke.
Seldom in literature can a reader find a darker and uglier character than Pyotr Stepanovitch, leader of a revolutionary group that spreads terror and hatred throughout a Russian community. It is a grim tale, seldom lightened by humor, frequently confusing, almost always shocking.
"RESURECTION" APPEARED late in Tolstoy's life, when he was burning with Christian principles. His story is that of Nekludoff, who serves on a jury that convicts a peasant girl she had loved and seduced years before. Because he feels himself responsible for her plight, he follows her to Siberia vowing that he will marry her. His attempt to obtain absolution for his sins leads him to become a reformer, a man busily doing good for the convicted, an outspoken critic of the prison system.
"Ten Days That Shook the World" is recognized as the best first-hand account of the Russian Revolution, John Reed was an Oregonian, a Harvard graduate, classmate of T. S. Eliot and Walter Lippmann. Burning with liberalism, converted to socialism, he participated in the revolution and when he died was buried in the Kremlin. The Bolshevik Revolution to Reed was adventure, "one of the most marvelous mankind ever embarked upon, sweeping into history at the head of the toiling masses, and staking everything on their vast and simple desires."—CMP
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THE MYSTERY OF ERWIN DROOD. by Charles Dickens, Signet Classics, 50 cents. OLIVER TWIST. by Charles Dickens, Doubleday Dolphin, 95 cents. HARD TIMES. by Charles Dickens. Doubleday Dolphin, 95 cents.
If one reads Dickens today (unless one is required to read Dickens), there probably has been some motivating reason. As one who is no Dickens scholar, but who does enjoy Dickens, I step forth to say there are two good reasons: (1) the character portrayals and (2) the portraits of life in the England of 100 years ago.
Here are three books that have little relation to each other. "Edwin Drood" is best known as a great unfinished work, and people
are still speculating about what happened to Edwin and who was responsible for whatever it was having happened. "Oliver Twist" is a sociological tale of the sweetest little chap this side of Gene Stratton Porter and all his troubles with the thieves and robbers of old England. "Hard Times" is a satire of misunderstood Utilitarianism, but it also is sentimental, like "Oilver Twist."
A TRIP THROUGH three Dickens novels shows us, most of the time, the worst of people. Edwin Drood himself is an arrogant young man who represents no great loss to society. John Jasper, the choirmaster who probably did the evil deed, is a dark and ugly character who spends much of his time in opium dens.
Everybody knows about the evil "my dearing" Fagin, who trains boys to be pickpockets, and Bill Sikes, who so brutally murders his mistress, Nancy. "Oliver Twist is full of knaves, all contrasted with the kindly Oliver and his many benefactors.
And "Hard Times" has its knaves, too. Old Gradgrind, who teaches only "facts" to his pupils, finally turns out all right, but there is his worthless son, who is tagged by Dickens as the "whelp." Bounderby, the self-made banker, is a bad guy all the way. Poor
old Steven Blackpool, the man of the working classes, is placed in contrast to Bounderby.
* *
THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE,
by Nathaniel Hawthorne. THE MARBLE FAUN, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both Doubleday Dolphin, 95 cents each.
Hawthorne wrote but four novels. "The Scarlet Letter" and "The House of the Seven Gables" have classical stature. "The Bilthedale Romance" and "The Marble Faun" are not so well known, but they deserve readings, and not just by students in American literature.
The first is a tale not so obsessed with matters of sin and guilt as are most Hawthorne stories. It is best known as the only novel to come out of Brook Farm, where Hawthorne labored briefly and unrewardingly. It also is known as the novel that gives us a picture of Margaret Fuller-Zenobia in the novel—though Hawthorne is careful to introduce the name of Miss Fuller in another context.
HAWTHORNE IS THE HERO,
Miles Coverdale, who becomes swept up in the affairs and fortunes of the beautiful and exciting Zenobia, a frail girl of mystery named Priscila, and a fanatical ex-
blacksmith who has a reformer's dream of rehabilitating convicts. He also is swept up in the workday problems of Blithedale, working in the fields, discussing matters of the day, contemplating Fourierism and Transcendentalism and all these imply.
Though "The Blithedale Romance" comes to a conclusion startling in view of its normally placid form, it is essentially a quiet and un-dramatic tale. "The Marble Faun" has more violence, considerable incident, and is as ambitious per se as anything Hawthorne attempted.
This is Hawthornian allegory, transferred to the complex form of the novel. There are four central characters—Kenyon, an idealistic American sculptor; Hilda, a frail and ethereal American girl who must have inspired the later heroines of Henry James; Miriam, a beautiful lady of mystery, and Donatello, a spirited and ingenuous young Italian who has formed an attachment for Miriam.
These fanciful folk believe they see in Donatello a virtual reincarnation of Praxiteles' statue of the marble faun, even to conjecturing on his possibly furry, pointed ears. But Donatello does not remain a woodland sprite for long, for violence enters the tale, Donatello murders a mysterious man who
has been haunting Miriam, and
Hilda witnesses the crime.
SO COMES THE QUESTION OF sin, guilt, and corruption. Through knowledge of his sin, Donatello is allowed to become a penitent and to achieve real stature, Miriam finally vanishes, and Hilda obtains absorption through the offices of the Catholic confessional—though she is a good New England "heretic."
Hawthorne has used "The Marble Faun" to give us a beautiful guided tour of the Italy of 100 years ago. He betrays that curious 19th century paradox of accepting nudity in art as long as it is labeled "Greek Slave" or "Venus," but considering it vile if it represents a naked woman of the 19th century. He tells an absorbing story, and even though he tells it with the flowery language that already was departing from American literature, it remains a novel well worth reading—CMP.
* *
A DISTANT TRUMPET, by Paul Horgan (Crest-Fawcett, 95 cents)—a long and vivid novel about Apache warfare in the Southwest. The time is the 1880s; the characterizations go beyond standard two-dimensional interpretations of the American West.
THE PELICAN SHAKESPEARE
'Pelican seems to me the best of all editions: the notes are where they belong, the texts are excellent and the format is attractive.'
-COLLEGE ENGLISH
Tragedies
Edited by Maynard Mack ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Harry Levin CORIOLANUS
Willard Farnham HAMLET
S. F. Johnson JULIUS CAESAR
Alfred Harbage KING LEAR
Alfred Harbage MACBETH
Gerald E. Bentley OTHELLO
John E. Hankins ROMEO AND JULIET
Charlton Hinman TIMON OF ATHENS*
Jonas Barish ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL$^{\textcircled{1}}$
Ralph Sargent AS YOU LIKE IT
Robert B. Heilman CYMBELINE$^{\textcircled{2}}$
Alfred Harbage LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST$^{\textcircled{3}}$
R. C. Bald MEASURE FOR MEASURE
Brents Stirling THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
Fredson T. Bowers THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR$^{\textcircled{4}}$
Madeleine Doran A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Josephine Waters Bennett MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Richard Hosley THE TAMING OF THE SHREW$^{\textcircled{5}}$
Northrop Frye THE TEMPEST
Virgil Whitaker TROILUS AND GRESSIDA
Charles Prouty TWELFTH NIGHT
Baldwin Maxwell THE WINTER'S TALE
Histories and Poems
M. A. Shaaber HENRY IV, PART I
Allan Chester HENRY IV, PART II
Louis B. Wright and V. Freund HENRY V
Irving Ribner KING JOHN*
Matthew Black RICHARD II
G. Blakemore Evans RICHARD III
Douglas Bush THE SONNETS
*In preparation
50c and 65c per volume
Penguin Books, 3300 Clipper Mill Road, Baltimore 11, Maryland