Product Description

Set on a remote country estate, the story concerns a household completely under the sway of the despotic charlatan and humbug Foma Fomich Opiskin. The owner of the estate, the retired Colonel Rostanev, is a meek, kind-hearted giant of a man, cruelly dominated by Opiskin. With deftly controlled suspense and brilliant comic interludes, the novel builds up to a confrontation between these two characters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #864680 in Books
• Published on: 1995-12-01
• Original language: Russian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

Customer Reviews

Delightful reading
This is a great family novel. The individual characters form an interactive community of relations and others, and the setting is essentially in a great house. An interesting device used by Dostoevsky is that events are commented on by everyone present, so the reader gets several interpretations of what has happened in a scene. The suspense of the plot is heightened by the characters vicissitudes of fortune; even when they seem to be winning, the reader must wonder if some occurence might topple their luck. How much the reader comes to care about the characters can be found out in the concluding chapter where Dostoevsky reveals each character's future.

Gogol-lite but good
The Village of Stepanchikovo is indeed a very strange work for those familiar with Dostoevsky's works. His psychological novels inform our understanding of Russian society and, at the same time, his works transcend their cultural boundaries to reveal truths of human nature. One could go on and on about how great a writer Dostoevsky is. That being said, the Village of Stepanchikovo is an odd book indeed. One could consider this novel his homage to Gogol, a stab at comedy. Although not entirely successful in and of itself, the novel is an important early sketch, raw material to be used in building his masterpieces. In addition, the story moves at a great pace and is never boring. Overall, I found it to be quite entertaining. The novel probably is not a classic but rather quite an enjoyable story.

Recommended only for die-hard Dostoevsky fans
This is the third book of Dostoyevsky I've read in the ongoing immersion experiment. Before starting, I strongly suggest that anyone interested in Dostoyevsky should read Joseph Frank's masterly five volume biography/literary criticism/russian cultural history immediately. I owe all of the background presented here to Frank's "Years of Ordeal" (why ... is it out of print?).

Thomas Mann had claimed that the dominating personality in the book, Foma Fomich Obispin, is "a comic creation of the first rank, irresistible, rivalling Shakespeare and Moliere." Now I read this book, and that was not at all my evaluation. Mann's comment obliges me to delve a little deeper into the text and circumstances.

Synopsis: Sergey, a young stugent, goes to visit his uncle's estate. He thereby stumbles into a total Bedlam; he sees that his extremely meek and kind-hearted uncle, Colonel Rostanev, is held in thrall both by his fatuous and vain mother and most of all by Foma the charlatan. There he learns that Foma had acted the buffoon for a now deceased general but now he relishes tormenting his benefactor, the Colonel, by playing the part of a morally righteous man. Foma's theatrics erode the patience of both Sergey and his uncle until it explodes with a surprising denouement.

Foma can be best described as a Gogolian Tartuffe in a Dickensian setting. The Gogolian parentage in Foma is apparent in his name (Obispin means a "slip of the pen"). He is also a parody of Gogol himself and his works. Like Moliere's Tartuffe, he is a moral charlatan, expounding lofty principles that he himself flouts. Dostoevsky was definitely familiar with some Dickens, and the generally one-dimensional cartoon-like nature of most characters gives an unmistakeably Dickensian feel.

No one will doubt that these are excellent ingredients, but is this '3' better than '1'+'1'+'1'? I don't think so. I'm not familiar enough with Gogol or Moliere's oeuvre to comment in detail, but at least in comparison to Dickens, the sum total seems to me watered down. I think Rostanev can be thought of as a more gullible Russian Pickwick (a bit forced), but comparison with the "Pickwick Papers" comes out to Dostoevsky's disadvantage. More damning is the fact that both Avsey, the translator who wrote a good introduction here, and Frank, in "The Years of Ordeal", more or less rate this book highly because it points to possibilities in Dostoevsky's future masterpieces. In other words, the work by itself cut off from possibilities is not as interesting. This is telling.

So why is it inferior to "Pickwick"? My opinion is this: escapism. Stepanchikovo is a little too idyllic, the people are by and large too simple, and there is something of a poised unwillingness to confront the nastier side of life. Shouldn't Dostoevsky have expounded on Nastenka's poverty and plight (or would this weaken the novel)? What about the psychology of Mizhinchikov who will blossom into an evil flower called Svidrigailov in "Crime and Punishment"? It is very unkind to suggest this, but considering the very trying circumstances in which this book was written - most notably marital dissatisfaction - perhaps Dostoevsky's wish for a more fulfilling life got the better of his superb psychological skills.

Some defence is necessary. The psychology of Tatyana is well-explored. A woman whose mind is so benighted in self-aggrandizing romance that when she finally emerges from poverty to newfound riches is unable to shake them off - this is classic Dostoevsky.

But in summary I would recommend this book only to the die-hard Dostoevsky fans. I notice nothing flagrant in the translation (NOTE: I know no Russian), so it is not the fault of the translator. So if you really want to see the middle stage in the evolution of a great author, you should read this. Otherwise, just go tackle "Crime and Punishment". In fact, EVERYONE should tackle "Crime and Punishment"!