Alice Poon's Blog - Posts Tagged "russian-classics"

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I had expected this novella to be all dark and depressing. But it turned out to be dark with a silver lining. Through telling a story about the life of a Russian judge, who falls ill at the height of his career and life accomplishment, Tolstoy leads the reader into the inner struggles of the protagonist as he is confronted with the threat of death. The writing is simple and calm but has an intimacy and immediacy about it that it rattles one's nerves and fibers. The questions raised about life and death will haunt the reader probably for as long as he/she lives, but there is still a glimmer of hope and salvation.



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War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This is the second major prose work by Leo Tolstoy that I’ve read (the first being Anna Karenina, which got 5 stars from me). I would’ve given this war novel 6 stars if it weren’t for the author’s slightly repetitive ramblings in the Epilogue about how historians’ method of recording history is flawed. Not that I disagreed with him, but only that after absorbing 1,200 pages of text in a limited time span (three weeks of library loan time with no renewal), my brain was starting to feel a little sated. That said, I’m giving this novel 5 well-deserved stars.

I guess probably all the merits of this masterpiece have already been well expounded on by other reviewers. Be that as it may, I’d still like to record my own thoughts and feelings in a proper review for future reference.

The edition that I read is the 2007 Knopf translation version by the renowned husband-wife translating team – Richard Pevear (American) and Larissa Volokhonsky (Russian). I don’t speak or read any Russian and therefore am in no position to comment on the quality of the translation as a competent Russian-English bilingual, but I find the English translation to be very fluid and lucid throughout, and that in appropriate places the translators appear to have tried to let Tolstoy’s poetic side shine through by not over-translating. Just to demonstrate by two quick examples: (1) in a description of rainy scenery - “Drops dripped.”; (2) in describing a sea change in emotion - “Love awoke, and life awoke.”). One particular feature of this edition of War and Peace is that many of the dialogues and letters are shown directly in French, the reason being that it was fashionable to speak and write French in Russian aristocratic society during that time period (Catherine the Great had made French the language of her royal court). English translation of such dialogues and letters are displayed in the footnotes. For me, it was like taking a refresher course in French.

Tolstoy is known to have said that War and Peace was not a novel, even less an epic poem, still less a historical chronicle. Richard Pevear thinks that Tolstoy wanted to “speak the truth as perceived by his eye and his conscience” about the period 1805 – 1812 of Russian life. For the literary world that came after the birth of this extraordinary work, it is a precious piece of Russian literary legacy. For me as a lover of historical fiction, it is a rich gem of a novel that weaves together the humanistic chronicling of various Napoleonic wars against Russia in the seven years from 1805 to 1812, their impact on civil and military Russian lives, in particular on two aristocratic households (the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys), the author’s existential doubts in face of Christian values as expressed through the thoughts of Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, romantic love and betrayal, loyalty between friends and familial bliss and tragedies.

Parallel with the main narrative run Tolstoy’s own prolix but nonetheless valid arguments (in my view) against the conventional method of chronicling history. He insists that history is never determined, as experience shows, by the will or talent of any one or several key personnel in power, but rather, by the collective and haphazard movement of all those who participate in an event at a given time. In other words, he believes that history is governed by the law of predetermination.

"Indeed, each time conquerors appeared, there were wars, ..... but that does not prove that the conquerors were the cause of the wars, or that it is possible to find the laws of war in the personal activity of one man."

For the description of the battle scenes, of which there are many, Tolstoy lends much of his own experience while serving in the army from 1852 to 1856, especially his military experience in the Crimean War. Those battles that were fought prior to Napoleon’s entry into Moscow included: the battle of Schongraben, the battle of Austerlitz, the battle of Friedland, the battle of Smolensk, the battle of Shevardino and the deciding battle of Borodino in which the Russian army stood their ground despite heavy losses and which unexpectedly lifted the army spirit (Tolstoy termed it a “moral victory” for the Russians). On Napoleon’s retreat from a burned down Moscow, the battle of Tarutino and the battle of Vyazma were fought among other partisan wars. The battle of Vyazma completely broke the spirit of Napoleon’s remnant army.

Tolstoy’s leading characters, be they fictional or real, carry depth with their multi-dimensional facets, complete with believable emotions and thought processes. The dialogues faithfully mirror the social customs, etiquette and morals of the various social classes of the time and place.

Finally, Tolstoy delivers a clear ethical message through the spiritual transformation of Pierre Bezukhov, which results from his experiences in a major battle and his captivity as a prisoner of war. The message is that spiritual happiness varies in inverse proportion to material opulence.




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Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



After an intriguing start, this novel leads you into a tunnel of darkness, desolation and despair, where you will see no light until you reach the final Part. Once you are there, you will get your cathartic relief with the denouement of a simple but suspenseful plot. I am so glad that my Goodreads friends encouraged me to keep going when, at one point, I was on the verge of quitting, as some parts were particularly difficult for me to read. Indeed, it was definitely worth reading to the end. I’m giving the novel 3.5 stars.

It is in the main a story of an abjectly deprived, 23-year-old student’s agonizing psychological journey from the moment he commits two murders based on a wild theory that he divines, right through to the time of his confession to police. Through his internal debate, the reader is made to ponder the philosophical questions raised: do geniuses like Napoleon have the right to destroy things or people they consider as obstacles? Do such extraordinary individuals have the right to make laws for the rest of mankind, that is, ordinary folks, for the greater good? Even in the early days of imprisonment, the protagonist still obstinately believes that his theory has nothing wrong. We, as readers, can’t help but wonder too.

“Of course, many of the benefactors of mankind who snatched power for themselves instead of inheriting it ought to have been punished at their first steps. But those men succeeded and so they were right, and I didn’t, and so I had no right to have taken that step.”

Throughout the novel, the reader is made aware of the fact that the protagonist is by nature a kind-hearted and compassionate man who loves his family and friends and who cares for the destitute and the weak. He is also made out to be a learned intellectual who has an acute sense of right and wrong. The reader is thus constantly put through the dilemma of whether to sympathize with him or condemn him outright for the cold-blooded crime. The author’s skill at characterization is quite beyond question, although personally I would’ve have liked the long-winded dialogues cut short a tad. But the emotional ending more than makes up for that little flaw.

My final verdict: Do I think Dostoyevsky is a brilliant author? Yes, definitely. Did I enjoy reading this novel? It’s not exactly my cup of tea.





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