The modulation2 of a soul, at first stagnant3, then plunged4 into the gulf5 of hopelessness, and at last catching6 a glimpse of light, is most clearly expressed by Leo Nikolaievitch in his Resurrection. That by throwing yourself again into the mire7 you may atone8 for early transgressions—the muddy sins of your youth—is one of those deadly ideas born in the crazed brain of an East Indian jungle-haunting fanatic9. It possibly grew out of the barbarous custom of blood sacrifices. Waiving10 the tales told of [Pg 69] his insincerity by Frau Anna Seuron, we know that Tolstoy wrestled12 with the five thousand devils of doubt and despair, and found light, his light, in a most peculiar13 fashion. But he is often the victim of his own illusions. That, Vogüé, a great admirer, pointed14 out some years ago. Turgenieff understood Tolstoy; so did Dosto?evsky, and so does latterly the novelist Dmitri Merejkowski.
Turgenieff's appeal to Tolstoy is become historic, and all the more pathetic because written on the eve of his death.
Dear and beloved Leo Nikolaievitch: I have not written to you for a long time, for I lie on my deathbed. I cannot get well; that is not to be thought of. But I write in order to tell you how glad I am to have been your contemporary, and to make my last earnest request. My friend, return to literary work. This talent of yours has come from where all else comes. Oh, how happy I should be could I believe that my entreaty16 would prevail with you. My friend, our great national writer, grant my request.
This may be found, if we remember aright, in the Halperine-Kaminsky memoir17.
Turgenieff, who was the greater artist of the pair, knew that Tolstoy was on the wrong path with his crack-brained religious and social notions; knew that in his becoming the writer of illogical tracts18 and pamphlets, Russia was losing a great artist. What would he have [Pg 70] said if he had lived to read the sad recantation and artistic19 suicide of Tolstoy: "I consign20 my own artistic productions to the category of bad art, except the story, God Sees the Truth, which seeks a place in the first class, and The Prisoner of the Caucasus, which belongs to the second." Also sprach Tolstoy in that madman's book called What is Art? a work wherein he tried to outvie Nordau's abuse of beautiful art.
The Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, Hamlet, Macbeth, Dante, and Goethe, are all consigned21 to the limbo22 of bad art; bad because not "understanded of the people." The peasant, the moujik, is to be the criterion of art, an art which, in that case, ought to be a cross between fireworks and the sign-writing of the Aztecs. Vogüé declared that Tolstoy had, like an intrepid23 explorer, leaped into an abysm of philosophical24 contradictions. Even the moderate French critic Faguet becomes enraged25 at the puerilities of the Russian. He wrote: "Tolstoy, comme créateur, comme romancier, comme poète épique, pour mieux dire26, est un des quatre ou cinq plus grands génies de notre siècle. Comme penseur, il est un des plus faibles esprits de l'Europe."
Not all that, replies Remy de Gourmont; Tolstoy may be wildly mistaken, but he is never weak-minded. We think it is his strength, his intensity27 that sends him caracoling on a dozen different roads in search of salvation28.
[Pg 71] How a man lacking the critical faculty29 may be misled is to be seen in What is Art? To master his subject the deluded30 novelist read all the essays, disquisitions, and works he could find on the theme of ?sthetics. This as a preparation for clear thinking. It reminds one of that comical artist Pellerin, in Flaubert's L'Education Sentimentale, who devoured31 all the ?sthetic treatises32, ancient and modern, in search of a true theory of the beautiful before he painted a picture; and he had so thoroughly33 absorbed the methods of various painters that he could not sit down at his easel in the presence of his model without asking himself: Shall I "do" her à la Gainsborough, or, better still, in the romantic and mysterious manner of M. Delacroix, with fierce sunsets, melting moons, guitars, bloodshed, balconies, and the cries of them that are assassinated34 for the love of love?
Tolstoy reaches, after many hundred pages of his essay, the astoundingly original theory that art "is to establish brotherly union among men," which was better said by Aristotle, and probably first heard by him as a Socratic pearl of wisdom. It remained for Merejkowski to set right the Western world in its estimate of Tolstoy as man and artist. In his frank study, the facts in the case are laid bare by a skilled, impartial35 hand. What he writes is well known among Russians; it may shock English-speaking worshippers, who do not accept Tolstoy as a great artist, but as the prophet of a new dispensation—and [Pg 72] it may be said, without beating about the bush, he rather liked the niche36 in which he was placed by these uncritical zealots.
The fate of the engineer hoist37 by his own petard is Tolstoy's. The peasants of his country understand him as little as they understand Beethoven, that Beethoven he so bitterly, so unjustly assailed38 in The Kreutzer Sonata39. (Poor Beethoven. Why did not Tolstoy select Tristan and Isolde if he wished some fleshly music, some sensualistic caterwauling, as Huxley phrased it? But a melodious40 violin and piano sonata!) Tolstoy may go barefoot, dig for potatoes, wear his blouse hanging outside, but the peasantry will never accept him as one of their own. He has written volumes about "going to the people," and the people do not want him, do not comprehend him. And that is Tolstoy's tragedy, as it was the tragedy of Walt Whitman.
Curious students can find all they wish of Tolstoy's psychology41 in Merejkowski's book. One thing we cannot forbear dwelling42 upon—Dosto?evsky's significance in any discussion of Tolstoy. Dosto?evsky was a profounder nature, greater than Tolstoy, though he was not the finished literary artist. All that Tolstoy tried to be, Dosto?evsky was. He did not "go to the people" (that pose of dilettantish43 anarchy)—he was born of them; he did not write about Siberian prisons from hearsay44, he lived in them; [Pg 73] he did not attempt to dive into the deep, social waters of the "submerged tenth," because he himself seldom emerged to the surface. In a word, Dosto?evsky is a profounder psychologist than Tolstoy; his faith was firmer; his attacks of epilepsy gave him glimpses of the underworld of the soul, terrifying visions of his subconscious45 self, of his subliminal46 personality. And he had the courage of his chimera47.
Tolstoy feared art as being too artificial, and, as Merejkowski shows: "From the dread48 mask of Caliban peeps out the familiar and by no means awe-inspiring physiognomy of the obstinate49 Russian democrat50 squire51, the gentleman Positivist of the sixties." He never took writing as seriously as Dosto?evsky; in Tolstoy there is a strong leaven52 of the aristocrat53, the man who rather despises a mere15 pen worker. Contrast Dosto?evsky's attitude before his work, recall the painful parturition54 of books, his sweating, remorseful55 days and nights when he could not produce. And now Tolstoy tells us that Uncle Tom's Cabin is greater than Shakespeare. Is it any wonder Turgenieff remonstrated56 with him? Is it any wonder if, after reading one of his latter-day tracts, we are reminded of The Washerwoman of Finchley Common, that classic in the polemics57 of sniffling piety58? The truth is that Tolstoy, a wonderful artist in plastic portraiture59, consciously or unconsciously fashioned the Tolstoy legend, as did Richard Wagner the Wagner legend, Victor Hugo the Hugo [Pg 74] legend. Men of genius and imagination are nearly all play-actors in matters autobiographical.
It is to Dosto?evsky, once the despised outcast, that we must go for the human documents of misery60, the naked soul, the heart of man buffeted61 by fate. If you think Resurrection strong, then read Dosto?evsky's The House of the Dead. If Anna Karenina has wooed you—as it must—take up The Idiot; and if you are impressed by the epical62 magnitude of War and Peace, study that other epic63 of souls, The Brothers Karamazov, which illuminates64, as if with ghastly flashes of lightning, the stormy hearts of mankind. Tolstoy wrote of life; Dosto?evsky lived it, drank its sour dregs—for he was a man accursed by luck and, like the apocalyptic65 dreamer of Patmos, a seer of visions denied to the robust66, ever fleshly Tolstoy. His influence on Tolstoy was more than Stendhal's—Stendhal whom Tolstoy called his master.
Tolstoy denies life, even hates it after having enjoyed it to the full. His religion in the last analysis is nihilism, and if carried to its logical conclusion would turn the civilised world into a desert. Our great man, after his family was in bed, sometimes ate forbidden slices of beef, and he had been seen enjoying a sly cigarette, all of which should endear him to us, for it proves his unquenchable humanity. Yet that roast-beef sandwich shook the faith of thousands. No—it will not do to take Tolstoy seriously in his attempts at evolving a parody67 [Pg 75] of early Christianity. He is doubtlessly sincere, but sincerity11 is often the cloak for a multitude of errors.
His Katusha—Maslova, as she is more familiarly known in Resurrection—is a far less appealing figure than the street-walker Sonia in Dosto?evsky's Crime and Punishment. The latter lives, while poor Maslova, a crude silhouette68 in comparison, as soon as she begins the march to Siberia is transformed into a clothes-horse upon which Tolstoy drapes his moral platitudes69. She is at first much more vital than her betrayer, who is an unreal bundle of theories; but in company with the rest of the characters she soon goes up in metaphysical smoke. Walizewski asserts that all Tolstoy's later life was a regrettable pose. "But this is the usual price of every kind of human greatness, and in the case of this very great man, it is an atavistic feature of the national ... education, which in his case was originally of the most hasty and superficial description."
In As the Hague Ordains70, the anonymous71 author attacks "our great reformer and humbug," Count Leo Tolstoy. She claims that there was hardly a village in China so abounding72 in filth73 and ignorance as the Tula village of Yasnaya Polyana, beside Tolstoy's country home.
"I wonder," she writes, "why the procession of foreign visitors who go to Yasnaya Polyana, who lavish74 adulation and hysterical75 praises upon that crass76 socialist77 and mischief-maker of his [Pg 76] day, never think to look around them and use their reasoning powers. Would it not be the logical thing for Yasnaya Polyana to be the model village of Russia? Something cleaner than Edam or Marken? A little of his magnificent humanitarianism78 and benevolence80 poured upon that unsanitary village on his own estate would be more practical, it seems to me, than the thin treacle81 of it spread over the whole universe. Talk is cheap in Yasnaya Polyana, and the Grand Poseur82 plays his part magnificently. Every visitor goes away completely hypnotised, especially the Americans, with their frothing about equality and the universal brotherhood83 of man. Universal grandmother! All men are just as equal as all noses or all mouths are equal. The world gets older, but learns nothing, and it cherishes delusions84, and the same ones, just as it did in the time of the Greek philosophers. Leo Tolstoy might well have lived in a tub or carried a lantern by day, like the most sensational85 and theatrical86 of the ancients. He is only a past master of réclame, of the art of advertising87. The Moujik blouse and those delightful88 tableaux89 of a real nobleman shoemaking and haymaking make his books sell. That is all. And, under the unsuspecting blouse of the humanitarian79 is the fine and perfumed linen90 of the dandy. Leo Tolstoy, the Beau Brummel of his corps91 in my father's day—the dandy in domino to-day."
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1
saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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modulation
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| n.调制 | |
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stagnant
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| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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atone
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| v.赎罪，补偿 | |
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fanatic
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| n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的 | |
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waiving
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| v.宣布放弃( waive的现在分词 )；搁置；推迟；放弃（权利、要求等） | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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wrestled
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| v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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memoir
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| n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录 | |
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tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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consign
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| vt.寄售（货品），托运，交托，委托 | |
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consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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limbo
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| n.地狱的边缘；监狱 | |
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intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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deluded
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| v.欺骗，哄骗( delude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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treatises
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| n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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assassinated
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| v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏 | |
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impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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hoist
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| n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起 | |
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assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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sonata
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| n.奏鸣曲 | |
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melodious
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| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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dilettantish
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| adj.半吊子的；半瓶醋似的；一知半解的；业余爱好的 | |
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hearsay
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| n.谣传，风闻 | |
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subconscious
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| n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的) | |
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subliminal
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| adj.下意识的，潜意识的；太弱或太快以至于难以觉察的 | |
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chimera
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| n.神话怪物；梦幻 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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democrat
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员 | |
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squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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leaven
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| v.使发酵；n.酵母；影响 | |
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aristocrat
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| n.贵族，有贵族气派的人，上层人物 | |
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parturition
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| n.生产，分娩 | |
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remorseful
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| adj.悔恨的 | |
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remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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polemics
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| n.辩论术，辩论法；争论( polemic的名词复数 )；辩论；辩论术；辩论法 | |
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piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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portraiture
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| n.肖像画法 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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buffeted
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| 反复敲打( buffet的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续猛击； 打来打去； 推来搡去 | |
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epical
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| adj.叙事诗的，英勇的 | |
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epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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illuminates
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| v.使明亮( illuminate的第三人称单数 )；照亮；装饰；说明 | |
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apocalyptic
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| adj.预示灾祸的，启示的 | |
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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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parody
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| n.打油诗文，诙谐的改编诗文，拙劣的模仿；v.拙劣模仿，作模仿诗文 | |
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68
silhouette
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| n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓 | |
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platitudes
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| n.平常的话，老生常谈，陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 )；滥套子 | |
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70
ordains
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的第三人称单数 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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71
anonymous
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| adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的 | |
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abounding
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| adj.丰富的，大量的v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的现在分词 ) | |
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filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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crass
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| adj.愚钝的，粗糙的；彻底的 | |
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socialist
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| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
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78
humanitarianism
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| n.博爱主义；人道主义；基督凡人论 | |
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79
humanitarian
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| n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者 | |
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80
benevolence
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| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
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81
treacle
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| n.糖蜜 | |
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82
poseur
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| n.装模作样的人 | |
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83
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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84
delusions
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| n.欺骗( delusion的名词复数 )；谬见；错觉；妄想 | |
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85
sensational
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| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
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86
theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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87
advertising
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| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
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88
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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89
tableaux
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| n.舞台造型，（由活人扮演的）静态画面、场面；人构成的画面或场景( tableau的名词复数 )；舞台造型；戏剧性的场面；绚丽的场景 | |
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90
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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