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Dedalus Books of Decadence #6
The Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence: Perversity, Despair and Collapse
The sensationalism and morbid pessimism that characterized French decadence in the late nineteenth century quickly attracted converts throughout Europe, including Russia. The Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence: Perversity, Despair and Collapse brings together horrifying, dramatic and erotic short stories and poetry, most of which have never before been translated into English, by the most decadent Russian writers. It includes scandalous writings by the well-known authors Valery Briusov, Leonid Andreyev, Fedor Sologub and Zinaida Gippius and acquaints English-speaking readers with the forgotten writer Aleksandr Kondratiev. These writers explore the darkest depths of the unconscious, as their characters experience sadism, masochism, rape, murder, suicide, and, in a story by Gippius, even passionate love for the dead. Briusov, the self-proclaimed leader of the Russian decadent movement, describes revolution or the spread of madness leading to the collapse of highly advanced but decadent civilizations that indulge in refined pleasures and ritualized orgies as they await the final hour. Andreyev portrays the collapse of all moral values on a personal level in his famous story "The Abyss," which caused an uproar when it was first published. Femmes fatales lure men to destruction, but the most seductive enchantress in the anthology is death itself, particularly in the work of Sologub, who is Russia's most decadent writer of all. This collection will certainly provide a reprieve from everyday life, with page after page of cruelty, corruption, sensuality, desperation and death.
346 pages, Paperback
First published July 18, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 23, 2017
Interesting installment in Dedalus' ongoing series of Decadent writing anthologies (Will there be an AMERICAN volume? James Elroy Flecker fans want to know!), THE DEDALUS BOOK OF RUSSIAN DECADENCE: PERVERSITY, DESPAIR AND COLLAPSE is of a different flavor than preceding volumes. Whereas the french writers accentuated sex and dissolution, and the Germans seemed drawn to sadomasochism, the Russians encapsulated Decadence through a focus on madness, despair and suicide.
So, there's some pretty heavy going here. I'm not enough of a poetry fan to comment on the poems, although some of them are interesting (Alexander Blok's "On The Eve Of The Twentieth Century", Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov's - also in Goodreads as Valery Bryusov and Valery Bruisov - "We Are Not Used To Bright Colors").
Bryusov's "The Republic of the Southern Cross" is an early science fiction classic, documenting the near-future history of a vast network of cities in Antarctica that succumb to some form of communicable madness (it would make a great film!) that ends in mass destruction (I presented this as an episode of Pseudopod, my weekly horror fiction reading podcast - at this link). His "The Last Martyrs" is an interesting tale of a mystic sex-cult facing social revolution, with some amazing descriptions of mob violence. "Now That I'm Awake" plays out a familiar story from the horror genre (but this may have been one of the first attempts) as a madman becomes convinced that he is asleep and dreaming and so his actions have no consequences. This story has a strange, Edgar Allan Poe-like quality.
Fyodor Sologub, the real star of this volume along with Brusov, gives us the immensely sad "The Sting Of Death: The Story Of Two Boys" a rural meditation on juvenile delinquency, absent parents, moral collapse and suicide, it's one of the most moving, sorrowful stories I've ever read. "Light and Shadows" is the tale of a boy who becomes obsessed with making hand shadows on the wall (a metaphor for masturbation, perhaps?), something originally frowned upon by his mother until she too becomes ensnared.
"Moon Ants" by Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius, the only female writer in the volume, is a meditation on despair as the narrator becomes fascinated with a city's rash of suicides that have no obvious cause. He muses on what this plague-like drive for self-destruction can mean, eventually striking on an idea inspired by H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon and the lunar ant-men, the Selenites, that the explorers discovered there.
Leonid Andreyev's infamous "The Abyss" caused a stir when originally published, shocking many readers. An evening's stroll goes horribly awry for a young, naive couple when they walk too far into a bad area of countryside. This reads like a 19th century version of the infamous exploitation film "The Last House On The Left", and I presented a reading of it on my weekly horror fiction podcast Pseudopod (to be found here). Andreyev's "In the Fog" is also quite good, if depressing. In fact, most everything here is depressing, fulfilling a Russian literature stereotype, but always in an interesting way. In fact, the only non-depressing work are the erotic fables by Alexander Kondratiev (on goodreads as Aleksandr Kondratiev), which are quite fun, reminding me of Angela Carter at times.
A book well worth reading, but don't expect the febrile sex or dissolute suffering of other countries' take on decadence. Decadent Russia is a dark, cold, lonely place like the Steppes, with a hungry wolf howling somewhere not far enough away, because it's actually deep in your mind.
So, there's some pretty heavy going here. I'm not enough of a poetry fan to comment on the poems, although some of them are interesting (Alexander Blok's "On The Eve Of The Twentieth Century", Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov's - also in Goodreads as Valery Bryusov and Valery Bruisov - "We Are Not Used To Bright Colors").
Bryusov's "The Republic of the Southern Cross" is an early science fiction classic, documenting the near-future history of a vast network of cities in Antarctica that succumb to some form of communicable madness (it would make a great film!) that ends in mass destruction (I presented this as an episode of Pseudopod, my weekly horror fiction reading podcast - at this link). His "The Last Martyrs" is an interesting tale of a mystic sex-cult facing social revolution, with some amazing descriptions of mob violence. "Now That I'm Awake" plays out a familiar story from the horror genre (but this may have been one of the first attempts) as a madman becomes convinced that he is asleep and dreaming and so his actions have no consequences. This story has a strange, Edgar Allan Poe-like quality.
Fyodor Sologub, the real star of this volume along with Brusov, gives us the immensely sad "The Sting Of Death: The Story Of Two Boys" a rural meditation on juvenile delinquency, absent parents, moral collapse and suicide, it's one of the most moving, sorrowful stories I've ever read. "Light and Shadows" is the tale of a boy who becomes obsessed with making hand shadows on the wall (a metaphor for masturbation, perhaps?), something originally frowned upon by his mother until she too becomes ensnared.
"Moon Ants" by Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius, the only female writer in the volume, is a meditation on despair as the narrator becomes fascinated with a city's rash of suicides that have no obvious cause. He muses on what this plague-like drive for self-destruction can mean, eventually striking on an idea inspired by H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon and the lunar ant-men, the Selenites, that the explorers discovered there.
Leonid Andreyev's infamous "The Abyss" caused a stir when originally published, shocking many readers. An evening's stroll goes horribly awry for a young, naive couple when they walk too far into a bad area of countryside. This reads like a 19th century version of the infamous exploitation film "The Last House On The Left", and I presented a reading of it on my weekly horror fiction podcast Pseudopod (to be found here). Andreyev's "In the Fog" is also quite good, if depressing. In fact, most everything here is depressing, fulfilling a Russian literature stereotype, but always in an interesting way. In fact, the only non-depressing work are the erotic fables by Alexander Kondratiev (on goodreads as Aleksandr Kondratiev), which are quite fun, reminding me of Angela Carter at times.
A book well worth reading, but don't expect the febrile sex or dissolute suffering of other countries' take on decadence. Decadent Russia is a dark, cold, lonely place like the Steppes, with a hungry wolf howling somewhere not far enough away, because it's actually deep in your mind.
July 28, 2016
Subtitled "Perversity, Despair and Collapse", this is really for those who want to fill the gap in their knowledge of Russian culture - late nineteenth century Western decadence tended to elide into pessimism, despair and gloom as it got closer to Moscow. It also tended to be very derivative of Western forms and preoccupations.
It might be far too easy to read predictions of Revolution in what is, mostly, a rather predictable melange of adolescent lust, late nineteenth century misogyny and bourgeois confusion at the social requirements of a very slowly modernising society.
However, there are two discoveries that make this book worth acquiring. The first is Valery Briusov's imagination.
His "The Diary of a Psychopath" is Poe recast, well before its time, for the world of virtual reality. "The Republic of the Southern Cross" can stand alongside Verne and Wells and offers an interesting cultural precursor to the apocalyptic tradition in Hollywood horror.
"The Last Martyrs" is more classically decadent but less impressive - and it falls into the classic trap of period publication. Like other decadent works, it demands the sort of pornographic detail that can only be implied because of what is permitted socially.
As a result, Briusov, far from appearing truly decadent, seems, at these times, repressed and Victorian - showing his metaphorical willy and running away giggling as a naughty little boy who wants to be chastised. This is a problem with all 'naughty' literature in repressed times - it cannot really say what it means.
The second, more solid discovery, is Leonid Andreyev, already better known in the West in recent years, whose three representative stories take the time to delve into the dark side of adolescent disturbance without the weakness of romanticism.
The final tale by Andreyev in this book, 'The Story of Sergey Petrovich', with its odd mix of inner disturbance, peer pressure and ideas inadequately understood, could be read with profit while watching YouTube for signs of the next teenage gunman.
Andreyev is a not-so-minor master and makes the other tales in the book look mannered (though the woman writer Zinaida Gippius almost reaches Andreyev levels of insight with 'The Moon-Ants'). As for the poetry, well let us just be charitable and say that it might be better read in the Russian.
All in all, a book of a particular time and a place but, if this edition is taken as evidence of Russian culture at the turn of the last century, then the gloom and depression of Russian youth and of the aesthetic wing of its intelligensiya suggests that, while revolutions are never inevitable, the loss of will to go on amongst the Russian bourgeoisie may be a factor in the rise of radical modernism in Russian culture and the initial welcoming of a clean Soviet break.
August 14, 2008
Until I picked up The Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence I had very little idea that a literary decadent movement even existed in Russia. But exist it most assuredly did. The book features selections, prose and poetry, from seven Russian decadents, dating from the early 1890s to around 1910.
While their writing has much in common with decadent literature from western Europe, it does have some peculiar features of its own, especially in the work of the self-proclaimed leader of the movement, Valery Bruisov. At times his work is close to science fiction, and there’s also a more ovetly political slant compared to western European decadents. The most effective of his stories, though, is Now That I’m Awake, a tale about a man who can gain control over his dreams and use them to satisfy his darkest desires.
Fyodor Sologub’s poetry deals extensively with themes of sadomasochism, and like all the other writers in the collection also shows a considerable obsession with death. Zinaida Gippius, a woman writer, contributes a wonderful story about a woman who falls in love with a dead man, a man she knows only from his grave marker (her father is in charge of the graveyard).
Alexander Kondratiev’s stories are erotic tales based on Greek mythology while Leonid Andreyev’s are obsessed with death and sexual shame.
A fascinating collection, and well worth checking out.
While their writing has much in common with decadent literature from western Europe, it does have some peculiar features of its own, especially in the work of the self-proclaimed leader of the movement, Valery Bruisov. At times his work is close to science fiction, and there’s also a more ovetly political slant compared to western European decadents. The most effective of his stories, though, is Now That I’m Awake, a tale about a man who can gain control over his dreams and use them to satisfy his darkest desires.
Fyodor Sologub’s poetry deals extensively with themes of sadomasochism, and like all the other writers in the collection also shows a considerable obsession with death. Zinaida Gippius, a woman writer, contributes a wonderful story about a woman who falls in love with a dead man, a man she knows only from his grave marker (her father is in charge of the graveyard).
Alexander Kondratiev’s stories are erotic tales based on Greek mythology while Leonid Andreyev’s are obsessed with death and sexual shame.
A fascinating collection, and well worth checking out.
October 19, 2023
This was a first-rate anthology that brought together some very interesting stories that (mostly) can't be found elsewhere.
I had read Bruisov's "Republic of the Southern Cross" before, and it is a very powerful story, but "The Last Martyrs," which opens the anthology is just outstanding and shattering.
I had only read one story by Fyodor Sologub before, and that didn't prepare me for how powerful a writer he could be. The atmosphere of impending doom in "The Sting of Death" is nearly unbearable, "The Poisoned Garden" put me in mind of "Rappacini's Daughter" but had its own identity, and "Light and Shadows" should be known as a horror masterpiece. The works by Leonid Andreyev were very good, but I like some other Andreyev works better. I had never heard of Alexander Kondratiev before, but his myth-based stories were most enjoyable.
A superb anthology, one of the best Dedalus has brought out.
I had read Bruisov's "Republic of the Southern Cross" before, and it is a very powerful story, but "The Last Martyrs," which opens the anthology is just outstanding and shattering.
I had only read one story by Fyodor Sologub before, and that didn't prepare me for how powerful a writer he could be. The atmosphere of impending doom in "The Sting of Death" is nearly unbearable, "The Poisoned Garden" put me in mind of "Rappacini's Daughter" but had its own identity, and "Light and Shadows" should be known as a horror masterpiece. The works by Leonid Andreyev were very good, but I like some other Andreyev works better. I had never heard of Alexander Kondratiev before, but his myth-based stories were most enjoyable.
A superb anthology, one of the best Dedalus has brought out.
September 27, 2023
The Last Martyrs •Valery Brusov ⭐⭐
Now That I'm Awake • Valery Brusov ⭐⭐
The Republic of the Southern Cross • Valery Brusov ⭐⭐
The Sting of Death: The Story of Two Boys •Fyodor Sologub ⭐⭐⭐
The Poisoned Garden • Fyodor Sologub ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Light and Shadows •Fyodor Sologub ⭐⭐⭐
The Living and the Dead (Among the Dead) • Zinaida Gippius ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Moon Ants • Zinaida Gippius ⭐⭐
The Abyss •Leonid Andreyev ⭐⭐
In the Fog •Leonid Andreyev ⭐⭐
The Story of Sergey Petrovich •Leonid Andreyev ⭐⭐
Orpheus • Alexander Kondratiev ⭐⭐⭐
In Fog's Embrace •Alexander Kondratiev ⭐⭐⭐
The White Goat • Alexander Kondratiev ⭐⭐⭐
Now That I'm Awake • Valery Brusov ⭐⭐
The Republic of the Southern Cross • Valery Brusov ⭐⭐
The Sting of Death: The Story of Two Boys •Fyodor Sologub ⭐⭐⭐
The Poisoned Garden • Fyodor Sologub ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Light and Shadows •Fyodor Sologub ⭐⭐⭐
The Living and the Dead (Among the Dead) • Zinaida Gippius ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Moon Ants • Zinaida Gippius ⭐⭐
The Abyss •Leonid Andreyev ⭐⭐
In the Fog •Leonid Andreyev ⭐⭐
The Story of Sergey Petrovich •Leonid Andreyev ⭐⭐
Orpheus • Alexander Kondratiev ⭐⭐⭐
In Fog's Embrace •Alexander Kondratiev ⭐⭐⭐
The White Goat • Alexander Kondratiev ⭐⭐⭐
October 10, 2022
Valery Briusov starts this collection of Russian Decadence with The Last Martyrs, a war story with a war ending. Various poetry follows throughout this selection between stories. Now That I'm Awake delves into leaving your body when your sleeping, this sleeper loves nightmares. Fyodor Sologub also has short stories as well as poetry. The Republic of the Southern Cross is about Star City on the South Pole that mined metal devoid of any other life, but the people who worked the metal and received a hefty pension, unable to leave. " Contradiction" became a disease that puts people in the psychiatric wards....The Sting of Death by Sologub is about two young boys, one good looking with a good heart the other not so good looking and with a cruel heart and a hunch back and ill intensions for his good hearted friend. The Poisoned Garden speaks of a beautiful woman who is poisoned, exhales poison and is poison to every man who seeks her legendary exquisiteness. Light and Shadows are addictive as a boy and his Mother make shadow puppets of their hands. The Living and the Dead by Zinaida Gippius tells of Charlotte who falls in love with a dead man she never knew. In Moon Ants a man obssesses about suicides. The Abyss is what two youths find when they lose track of where they are in the forest. The Story of Sergey Petrovich is about a young man who looks like every other person and has no interests nor can do anything with a love or a passion. In the Fog by Andreyev Pavel has now changed and has not told his parents about his experience with women, though his Father has just found out. Orpheus is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice re-told and in In Fog's Embrace a goddess tells tales of mythical Amphitrite. In The White Goat by Kondratiev Artemis lazily dozes on the green grass resting from the hunt.
August 14, 2013
A brave and useful anthology. Lodge has done a fine job of collecting and translating this grim, poisonous assemblage.
Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence... presents short stories and poetry, all exploring death, despair, depression, self-loathing, decay, and so on. Some tales revisit Greek myth for satirical purposes. Others develop the 19th-century Russian theme of useless intellectuals.
It's a fine dive into a mindset in Russian history. This deepens our understanding of prerevolutionary and revolutionary intelligentsia.
It also reminds me of contemporary and subsequent decadent movements, from French Gothic tales to 1970s punk.
The only downside is that the accumulation becomes repetitive over time. We grow so accustomed to tales of personal decline and collapse that their emotional impact declines. It's easy to become not depressed so much as disengaged, even clinical.
Recommended as a reference, to be taken in small doses.
Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence... presents short stories and poetry, all exploring death, despair, depression, self-loathing, decay, and so on. Some tales revisit Greek myth for satirical purposes. Others develop the 19th-century Russian theme of useless intellectuals.
It's a fine dive into a mindset in Russian history. This deepens our understanding of prerevolutionary and revolutionary intelligentsia.
It also reminds me of contemporary and subsequent decadent movements, from French Gothic tales to 1970s punk.
The only downside is that the accumulation becomes repetitive over time. We grow so accustomed to tales of personal decline and collapse that their emotional impact declines. It's easy to become not depressed so much as disengaged, even clinical.
Recommended as a reference, to be taken in small doses.
December 23, 2014
As much as I dislike "decadence, perversity, despair and collapse," I enjoyed this anthology for its presentation of a diverse array of authors and poets who were all united by a similar, fatalistic outlook. I especially enjoyed the short stories by Zinaida Gippius.
February 6, 2016
some interesting things! It's nice to get a better sense of that time. It also reminded me that I need to read The Fiery Angel at some point.
March 18, 2021
Included in this book is more short poetry than I've normally seen in the decadence genre. Most of the stories are a few pages. Some are okay and others are quite good.
January 25, 2010
Not everything was to my taste, but overall an excellent antho.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews