eBook The Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories (Dodo Press) epub

The translation herein was completed by Constance Garnett and published in 1899.

This is a collection of a few stories published separately from each other and then condensed into a collection. Within are seen the recurrent Turgenev themes of love lost, love forlorn and a woeful sense that love, and thereby happiness, will never be had. Despite its ever-presence it is always just out of reach, or blindly missed. In many aspects there exists a sadly realistic existentialism in which an individual suffers alone and prolonged, often thwarted by his own hand and an extended failure to recognize that isolation and loneliness are prime facets of the human condition. Love is heavy and it is hard, unbearable, Turgenev might say.

In this edition:
1. The Diary of a Superfluous Man (1850)
2. A Tour in The Forest (1857)
3. Yakov Pasinkov (1855)
4. Andrei Kolosov (1852)
5. A Correspondence (1864)

SPOILERS:

The Diary of a Superfluous Man: In Sheep’s Springs we meet Tchulkaturin, the author of the diary and a man whom has discovered that he is upon his final two weeks amongst the living. Oscillating between telling the story of his life, up-bringing, familial affairs and experiences he finds these endeavors to be simply irrelevant to where he is currently at, and instead opts to tell the story of his meeting the Ozhogin’s. Falling in love with the youngest daughter, Elizaveta Kirillovna, he finds ‘My whole life was lighted up by love, the whole of it, down to the paltriest details…’ (194) Tchulkaturin notices a perceptible change in Liza’s behavior and attributes it, for a period of time, to himself and his influence upon her feelings. Soon, however, Prince N. is welcomed to town and made a regular guest by the Ozhogin’s. Defaming Prince N. at a ball Tchulkaturin soon finds himself dueling w. the prince. In this incident Tchulkaturin fires a shot which grazes the Prince’s face, and the Prince, showing his leniency and humanitarian judgment fires his weapon to the air. He, in this manner, secures Tchulkaturin to Liza’s disdain for him, for though his own act had ‘…became an object of universal indignation and loathing, a monster, a jealous bloodthirsty madman.’ (581) Soon the Prince departs and imparts that he has no intention of marrying Liza. She is deeply wounded by this news and Tchulkaturin wishes to speak his part in her favor. He is however, beaten to the punch by Byzmyonkov. In all, Tchulkaturin lasts about 13 days so that he may relay this one, exemplary story of superfluousness.

A Tour in The Forest: Heading to Svyatoe with the elder Yegor and his son Kondrat our narrator is being expressed an example by the father and son. The key quotation resounds as: ‘the man who from his own fault or from the fault of others is faring ill in the world – ought, at least, to know how to keep silence.’ (1053) – If one were to do the math that would be every sufferer in existence. At the end our narrator has it revealed to him that Yegor’s last cow died the previous night, to which he claims ‘That man knows how to bear in silence’ (1058)

Yakov Pasinkov: Being shown a packet of letters belonging to Asanov, our narrator realizes that they are from the same girl whom has also shown him interest! Breaching the topic with her, he finds that he has been scorned and trods off miserably. Soon his friend, Pasinkov goes to smooth out the matter, so that her honor is preserved and his ability to visit the house remains intact.

Fast-forwarding seven years, our narrator has relocated and severed ties with his old company. Here he encounters Pasinkov’s attendant whom informs him that Pasinkov ‘is not long for this world’ (1368) Upon his deathbed Pasinkov admits his own love for Sophia (the young woman in question), and the manner in which he held her as an ideal, and also how crushed he was by Asanov’s role in her life.

Then another year and a half passes and our narrator finds himself at Sophia’s door. He relays the story of Pasinkov and himself states ‘what pains me, what wounds me, is that such a man, with such a loving and devoted heart, is dead without having once known the bliss of love returned…’ (1562) And here, another twist in the story, as Sophia relays that her sister, Varia, was madly in love with Pasinkov but would have never uttered a word.

A story with a lot of convolutions, but many salient, poignant and relevant points of Turgenev’s nature as it relates to ‘love’.

Andrei Kolosov: Sitting about discussing ‘remarkable men’ the narrator alludes to and the relays the tale of his youth with a man named Kolosov. Kolosov had fallen for a young woman (Varvara Ivanovna) and he needed our narrator to play cards with her father, Siderenko, so that he may have her attentions apart from him. Gradually Kolosov’s love cools and the narrator attempts to reunite them, to speak sensibly to Kolosov who soon states that she should be told ‘what has been will not be again. (1939 – Pushkin). Thus our narrator attempts to usurp Kolosov’s place in Varia’s life, attempts to win her affection and even proposes. At the end, after the hassle, he simply disappears and never encounters Varia again. Kosolov, at the end achieves his claim as a remarkable man, as justified by Turgenev in that ‘the man who leaves a woman at that great and bitter moment when he is forced to recognize that his heart is not altogether, not fully, hers, that man, believe me, has a truer and deeper comprehension of the sacredness of love’ (2070)

A Correspondence: This is a series of letters posted between Alexy Petrovitch and Marya Alexandrovna. The latter, an ‘old maid’ at 26 is sought by the prior so that he might bear his soul and escape his loneliness in a confidant. 15 letters across the span of roughly 2 years where each places their confidences and insecurities in the other, a presumably burgeoning affair until, as Petrovitch describes it – he falls in love with an unspectacular woman, who then unceremoniously abandons him. His later letter is posted from his death-bed and he seeks only to send a positive message to Marya and to keep his remembrance alive.

Quotes:

‘Oh, what have I done! My lips involuntarily murmured in a bitter whisper. O life, life, where, how have you gone without a trace? How have you slipped through my clenched fingers?... Or, perhaps, happiness, the true happiness of all my life, passed close by me, smiled a resplendent smile upon me – and I failed to recognize its divine countenance.’ (908)

‘In our family we know how to suffer in silence.’ (1573)

‘Our life is not in our own hands; but we all have one anchor, from which one can never, without one’s own will, be torn – a sense of duty.’ (1639)

‘All German women, as we know, very quickly lose those indispensable ornaments of the human frame.’ (1671)

‘Germans – as is well known – are always glad to weep.’ (1952)

‘The word ‘tomorrow’ was invented for irresolute people, and for children; like a baby, I lulled myself with that magic word.’ (2060)

‘I have been my own spider! And, at the same time, I cannot greatly blame myself. Who, indeed, tell me, pray, is ever to blame for anything – alone?’ (2185)

‘Have patience, struggle on to the end; and let me tell you, that, as a sentiment, the consciousness of an honestly sustained struggle is almost higher than the triumph of victory.’ (2342)

‘Love, indeed, is not a feeling at all, it’s a malady, a certain condition of soul and body.’ (2504)

‘…in love, one person is slave, and the other master; and well may the poets talk of the fetters put on by love.’ (2508)

Despite my rather short acquaintance with the author's work --i'm trying to remedy this shortcoming by having ordered and planning to plunge headlong into the entire Delphi anthology rightaway--I find this series of short stories challenging and thought-provoking.. I'm so happy to have been given the precious chance to read some of the Russian classics to my delighted heart's content. Amazon's work---making so much wonderful literature so easily available to the reading world--is TO ME PERSONALLY the closest thing to a true miracle,

The stories in this book are stories of men and women trying to find connections and meaning in life before their deaths. I enjoyed the philosophical thoughts of the time and the existential reverence for life and making the most of if before we die. It seems they all have regrets at the end of life. I wonder if that's true for all of us? Well worth the read.

I'd been looking for Turgenev's short story 'Clara Milich' which I'd read a long time ago and which, in my view, remains one of the best short stories ever, when I downloaded this collection. Very readable, the main story is in diary form, giving detailed and vivid insight into the character of the diary's author. He is 'the son of fairly well-to-do landowners', a terminally ill man who decides to write the story of his unhappy life. It's full of little gems like the miniature of his mother: 'a woman of character ... a very virtuous woman. Only, I have know no woman whose moral excellence was less productive of happiness. She was crushed beneath the weight of her own virtues ...' His father, a weak gambling man, dies in his childhood and 'all except one village' has to be sold to pay his debts. More light on social structure: 'Ozhogin was a man of property. ... He was the owner of four hundred peasants ...' Surprising the Russian Revolution didn't happen far earlier. The diarist falls in love, loses the girl to another, and the reader has just decided he's a hypochondriac nursing an imaginary ailment, when he dies. His diary is read by another, who, with wonderful inconsequence, scribbles some rubbish at the end of it.

Clever genius. Witty penetrations into the mental machinations of an obsessed mind. The extent to which ordinary goes to become noteworthy is here entertaining. Could hardly put it down.