Elena, the Russian girl, is the central figure of the novel. In comparing her with Turgenev’s other women, the reader will remark that he is allowed to come into closer spiritual contact with her than even with Lisa. The successful portraits of women drawn by men in fiction are generally figures for the imagination to play on; however much that is told to one about them, the secret springs of their character are left a little obscure, but when Elena stands before us we know all the innermost secrets of her character. Her strength of will, her serious, courageous6, proud soul, her capacity for passion, all the play of her delicate idealistic nature troubled by the contradictions, aspirations7, and unhappiness that the dawn of love brings to her, all this is conveyed to us by the simplest and the most consummate9 art. The diary (chapter xvi.) that Elena keeps is in itself a masterly revelation of a young girl’s heart; it has never been equalled by any other novelist. How exquisitely10 Turgenev reveals his characters may be seen by an examination of the parts Shubin the artist, and Bersenyev the student, play towards Elena. Both young men are in love with her, and the description of their after relations as friends, and the feelings of Elena towards them, and her own self-communings are interwoven with unfaltering skill. All the most complex and baffling shades of the mental life, which in the hands of many latter-day novelists build up characters far too thin and too unconvincing, in the hands of Turgenev are used with deftness11 and certainty to bring to light that great kingdom which is always lying hidden beneath the surface, beneath the common-place of daily life. In the difficult art of literary perspective, in the effective grouping of contrasts in character and the criss-cross of the influence of the different individuals, lies the secret of Turgenev’s supremacy12. As an example the reader may note how he is made to judge Elena through six pairs of eyes. Her father’s contempt for his daughter, her mother’s affectionate bewilderment, Shubin’s petulant13 criticism, Bersenyev’s half hearted enthralment, Insarov’s recognition, and Zoya’s indifference14, being the facets15 for converging16 light on Elena’s sincerity17 and depth of soul. Again one may note Turgenev’s method for rehabilitating18 Shubin in our eyes; Shubin is simply made to criticise19 Stahov; the thing is done in a few seemingly careless lines, but these lines lay bare Shubin’s strength and weakness, the fluidity of his nature. The reader who does not see the art which underlies20 almost every line of On the Eve is merely paying the highest tribute to that art; as often the clear waters of a pool conceal21 its surprising depth. Taking Shubin’s character as an example of creative skill, we cannot call to mind any instance in the range of European fiction where the typical artist mind, on its lighter22 sides, has been analysed with such delicacy23 and truth as here by Turgenev. Hawthorne and others have treated it, but the colour seems to fade from their artist characters when a comparison is made between them and Shubin. And yet Turgenev’s is but a sketch24 of an artist, compared with, let us say, the admirable figure of Roderick Hudson. The irresponsibility, alertness, the whimsicality and mobility25 of Shubin combine to charm and irritate the reader in the exact proportion that such a character affects him in actual life; there is not the least touch of exaggeration, and all the values are kept to a marvel26. Looking at the minor27 characters, perhaps one may say that the husband, Stahov, will be the most suggestive, and not the least familiar character, to English households. His essentially28 masculine meanness, his self-complacency, his unconscious indifference to the opinion of others, his absurdity29 as ‘un pere de famille‘ is balanced by the foolish affection and jealousy30 which his wife, Anna Vassilyevna, cannot help feeling towards him. The perfect balance and duality of Turgenev’s outlook is here shown by the equal cleverness with which he seizes on and quietly derides31 the typical masculine and typical feminine attitude in such a married life as the two Stahovs’.
Turning to the figure of the Bulgarian hero, it is interesting to find from the Souvenirs sur Tourguenev (published in 1887) that Turgenev’s only distinct failure of importance in character drawing, Insarov, was not taken from life, but was the legacy32 of a friend Karateieff, who implored33 Turgenev to work out an unfinished conception. Insarov is a figure of wood. He is so cleverly constructed, and the central idea behind him is so strong, that his wooden joints34 move naturally, and the spectator has only the instinct, not the certainty, of being cheated. The idea he incarnates35, that of a man whose soul is aflame with patriotism36, is finely suggested, but an idea, even a great one, does not make an individuality. And in fact Insarov is not a man, he is an automaton37. To compare Shubin’s utterances38 with his is to perceive that there is no spontaneity, no inevitability39 in Insarov. He is a patriotic40 clock wound up to go for the occasion, and in truth he is very useful. Only on his deathbed, when the unexpected happens, and the machinery41 runs down, do we feel moved. Then, he appears more striking dead than alive — a rather damning testimony42 to the power Turgenev credits him with. This artistic43 failure of Turgenev’s is, as he no doubt recognised, curiously44 lessened45 by the fact that young girls of Elena’s lofty idealistic type are particularly impressed by certain stiff types of men of action and great will-power, whose capacity for moving straight towards a certain goal by no means implies corresponding brain-power. The insight of a Shubin and the moral worth of a Bersenyev are not so valuable to the Elenas of this world, whose ardent46 desire to be made good use of, and to seek some great end, is best developed by strength of aim in the men they love.
And now to see what the novel before us means to the Russian mind, we must turn to the infinitely47 suggestive background. Turgenev’s genius was of the same force in politics as in art; it was that of seeing aright. He saw his country as it was, with clearer eyes than any man before or since. If Tolstoi is a purer native expression of Russia’s force, Turgenev is the personification of Russian aspiration8 working with the instruments of wide cosmopolitan48 culture. As a critic of his countrymen nothing escaped Turgenev’s eye, as a politician he foretold49 nearly all that actually came to pass in his life, and as a consummate artist, led first and foremost by his love for his art, his novels are undying historical pictures. It is not that there is anything allegorical in his novels — allegory is at the furthest pole from his method: it is that whenever he created an important figure in fiction, that figure is necessarily a revelation of the secrets of the fatherland, the soil, the race. Turgenev, in short, was a psychologist not merely of men, but of nations; and so the chief figure of On the Eve, Elena, foreshadows and stands for the rise of young Russia in the sixties. Elena is young Russia, and to whom does she turn in her prayer for strength? Not to Bersenyev, the philosopher, the dreamer; not to Shubin, the man carried outside himself by every passing distraction50; but to the strong man, Insarov. And here the irony51 of Insarov being made a foreigner, a Bulgarian, is significant of Turgenev’s distrust of his country’s weakness. The hidden meaning of the novel is a cry to the coming men to unite their strength against the foe52 without and the foe within the gates; it is an appeal to them not only to hasten the death of the old regime of Nicolas I, but an appeal to them to conquer their sluggishness53, their weakness, and their apathy54. It is a cry for Men. Turgenev sought in vain in life for a type of man to satisfy Russia, and ended by taking no living model for his hero, but the hearsay55 Insarov, a foreigner. Russia has not yet produced men of this type. But the artist does not despair of the future. Here we come upon one of the most striking figures of Turgenev — that of Uvar Ivanovitch. He symbolises the ever-predominant type of Russian, the sleepy, slothful Slav of to-day, yesterday, and to-morrow. He is the Slav whose inherent force Europe is as ignorant of as he is himself. Though he speaks only twenty sentences in the book he is a creation of Tolstoian force. His very words are dark and of practically no significance. There lies the irony of the portrait. The last words of the novel, the most biting surely that Turgenev ever wrote, contain the whole essence of On the Eve. On the Eve of What? one asks. Time has given contradictory56 answers to the men of all parties. The Elenas of to-day need not turn their eyes abroad to find their counterpart in spirit; so far at least the pessimists57 are refuted: but the note of death that Turgenev strikes in his marvellous chapter on Venice has still for young Russia an ominous58 echo — so many generations have arisen eager, only to be flung aside helpless, that one asks, what of the generation that fronts Autocracy59 to-day?
‘Do you remember I asked you, “Will there ever be men among us?” and you answered, there will be. O primaeval force! And now from here in “my poetic60 distance” I will ask you again, “What do you say, Uvar Ivanovitch, will there be?”
‘Uvar Ivanovitch flourished his fingers, and fixed61 his enigmatical stare into the far distance.’
This creation of an universal national type, out of the flesh and blood of a fat taciturn country gentleman, brings us to see that Turgenev was not merely an artist, but that he was a poet using fiction as his medium. To this end it is instructive to compare Jane Austen, perhaps the greatest English exponent62 of the domestic novel, with the Russian master, and to note that, while as a novelist she emerges favourably63 from the comparison, she is absolutely wanting in his poetic insight. How petty and parochial appears her outlook in Emma, compared to the wide and unflinching gaze of Turgenev. She painted most admirably the English types she knew, and how well she knew them! but she failed to correlate them with the national life; and yet, while her men and women were acting64 and thinking, Trafalgar and Waterloo were being fought and won. But each of Turgenev’s novels in some subtle way suggests that the people he introduces are playing their little part in a great national drama everywhere around us, invisible, yet audible through the clamour of voices near us. And so On the Eve, the work of a poet, has certain deep notes, which break through the harmonious65 tenor66 of the whole, and strangely and swiftly transfigure the quiet story, troubling us with a dawning consciousness of the march of mighty67 events. Suddenly a strange sense steals upon the reader that he is living in a perilous68 atmosphere, filling his heart with foreboding, and enveloping69 at length the characters themselves, all unconsciously awaiting disaster in the sunny woods and gardens of Kuntsovo. But not till the last chapters are reached does the English reader perceive that in recreating for him the mental atmosphere of a single educated Russian household, Turgenev has been casting before his eyes the faint shadow of the national drama which was indeed played, though left unfinished, on the Balkan battlefields of 1876-7. Briefly70, Turgenev, in sketching71 the dawn of love in a young girl’s soul, has managed faintly, but unmistakably, to make spring and flourish in our minds the ineradicable, though hidden, idea at the back of Slav thought — the unification of the Slav races. How doubly welcome that art should be which can lead us, the foreigners, thus straight to the heart of the national secrets of a great people, secrets which our own critics and diplomatists must necessarily misrepresent. Each of Turgenev’s novels may be said to contain a light-bringing rejoinder to the old-fashioned criticism of the Muscovite, current up to the rise of the Russian novel, and still, unfortunately, lingering among us; but On the Eve, of all the novels, contains perhaps the most instructive political lesson England can learn. Europe has always had, and most assuredly England has been over-rich in those alarm-monger critics, watchdogs for ever baying at Slav cupidity72, treachery, intrigue73, and so on and so on. It is useful to have these well-meaning animals on the political premises74, giving noisy tongue whenever the Slav stretches out his long arm and opens his drowsy75 eyes, but how rare it is to find a man who can teach us to interpret a nation’s aspirations, to gauge76 its inner force, its aim, its inevitability. Turgenev gives us such clues. In the respectful, if slightly forced, silence that has been imposed by certain recent political events on the tribe of faithful watchdogs, it may be permitted to one to say, that whatever England’s interest may be in relation to Russia’s development, it is better for us to understand the force of Russian aims, before we measure our strength against it And a novel, such as On the Eve, though now nearly forty years old, and to the short-sighted out of date, reveals in a flash the attitude of the Slav towards his political destiny. His aspirations may have to slumber77 through policy or necessity; they may be distorted or misrepresented, or led astray by official action, but we confess that for us, On the Eve suggests the existence of a mighty lake, whose waters, dammed back for a while, are rising slowly, but are still some way from the brim. How long will it take to the overflow78? Nobody knows; but when the long winter of Russia’s dark internal policy shall be broken up, will the snows, melting on the mountains, stream south-west, inundating79 the Valley of the Danube? Or, as the national poet, Pushkin, has sung, will there be a pouring of many Slavonian rivulets80 into the Russian sea, a powerful attraction of the Slav races towards a common centre to create an era of peace and development within, whereby Russia may rise free and rejoicing to face her great destinies? Hard and bitter is the shaping of nations. Uvar Ivanovitch still fixes his enigmatical stare into the far distance.
EDWARD GARNETT
January 1895.
January 1895.
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1
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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4
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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diagnosis
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| n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断 | |
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courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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aspiration
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| n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出 | |
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9
consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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10
exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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deftness
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supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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petulant
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| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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facets
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| n.（宝石或首饰的）小平面( facet的名词复数 )；（事物的）面；方面 | |
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converging
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| adj.收敛[缩]的，会聚的，趋同的v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的现在分词 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集 | |
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17
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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rehabilitating
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| 改造（罪犯等）( rehabilitate的现在分词 )； 使恢复正常生活； 使恢复原状； 修复 | |
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criticise
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| v.批评，评论；非难 | |
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20
underlies
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| v.位于或存在于（某物）之下( underlie的第三人称单数 )；构成…的基础（或起因），引起 | |
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21
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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22
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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25
mobility
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| n.可动性，变动性，情感不定 | |
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26
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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derides
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| v.取笑，嘲笑( deride的第三人称单数 ) | |
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legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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35
incarnates
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| v.赋予（思想、精神等）以人的形体( incarnate的第三人称单数 )；使人格化；体现；使具体化 | |
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36
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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automaton
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| n.自动机器，机器人 | |
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38
utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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inevitability
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| n.必然性 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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42
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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43
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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44
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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45
lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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46
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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47
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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48
cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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49
foretold
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| v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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51
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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52
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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53
sluggishness
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| 不振，萧条，呆滞；惰性；滞性；惯性 | |
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54
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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55
hearsay
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| n.谣传，风闻 | |
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56
contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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57
pessimists
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| n.悲观主义者( pessimist的名词复数 ) | |
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58
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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autocracy
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| n.独裁政治，独裁政府 | |
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60
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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exponent
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| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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63
favourably
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| adv. 善意地，赞成地 =favorably | |
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64
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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66
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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67
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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69
enveloping
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的现在分词 ) | |
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70
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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71
sketching
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| n.草图 | |
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72
cupidity
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| n.贪心，贪财 | |
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73
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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74
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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75
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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76
gauge
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| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
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77
slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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78
overflow
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| v.(使)外溢，(使)溢出；溢出，流出，漫出 | |
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79
inundating
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| v.淹没( inundate的现在分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付 | |
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80
rivulets
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| n.小河，小溪( rivulet的名词复数 ) | |
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