his wife to emigrate. In his correspondence Gorky claimed that it was not granted. In September of 1921, after several
previous unsuccessful attempts, Sologub’s wife committed suicide by flinging herself off a Petrograd bridge. Sologub was utterly
crushed and he plunged into even deeper isolation. Nevertheless, he managed somehow to integrate himself partially into the
new world of the Soviet Union. He served in various administrative capacities on literary bodies until his death in 1927.
He was even the recipient of a number of more or less ritual honors. After the Revolution, for reasons that are apparent,
Sologub confined himself mainly to translation and administrative duties. While his “Impossible Dream” might have fallen on
deaf or coarsened ears before the Revolution, it would now have been drowned by the cacophony of revolutionary thematics and
aesthetics. Those who desire a simplistic metaphor, but perhaps an apt one, might be tempted to say that Aldonsa, that vulgar
wench of reality, now reigned over the ephemeral and exquisite Dulcinea. And, Sologub, who had emerged out of obscurity bespectacled,
balding, slightly ridiculous and improbable, departed from whence he came.
Although Soviet critics willingly concede Sologub a place in the hierarchy of Russian literature for
The Petty Demon
, they have not hastened to publish his work. Too talented to ignore, too problematic to accept unequivocably, Sologub’s works
have made but fleeting appearances on the Soviet literary scene since the Revolution. With the exception of Sologub’s inclusion
in various anthologies, the only works to be reprinted since his death in 1927 are
The Petty Demon
(1933; 1958) and two anthologies of his verse (1939; 1975, reprinted 1978). Yet his literary legacy consists of seven novels,
almost eight stories, several novellas, half-a-dozen plays and more than a dozen books of poetry.
From the accounts of Sologub’s wife, we know that
The Petty Demon
was begun in the early 1890’s and was completed in 1902. Only after an effort of several years was Sologub then able to get
it published (in incomplete form) in the journal
Questions of Life
(1905, Nos. 6–11). In 1907 the first complete and separate version appeared and this was rapidly followed by
five
reprintings. The novel was prepared for the stage and travelled about Russia, playing to enthusiastic audiences. Almost overnight
Sologub became the toast of Russian letters and joined the popular troyka of Gorky, Kuprin and Andreyev. To this very day
The Petty Demon
is considered to be one of the great classics of Russian literature. The novel appealed to pre-revolutionary and Soviet critics
alike and for very similar reasons: it was a masterful sociological exposé of provincial manners in Tsarist Russia, unmasking
the hypocrisy, the bigotry and the philistinism that was symptomatic of Russian provincial society and officialdom. Most critics
immediately seized upon what they perceived as the obvious affinities between
The Petty Demon
and Gogol’s nineteenth-century masterpiece,
Dead Souls
. In his foreword(s) to the novel, Sologub himself seemed to insist that his depictions of provincial society were drawn with
fidelity, that they had been based on first-hand experience. Most critics were prepared, for the moment at least, to overlook
the other suspect themes in Sologub that touched on eroticism and sado-masochism. Furthermore, most readers were unaware of
any deeper meanings in the novel because their appetites were satisfied by what they believed to be “naturalistic detail”.
Sologub did try to indicate in at least one interview that the novel could be read as a generalization and that Peredonov’s
madness was a reflection of something else: “Peredonov’s madness is not a chance occurrence, but rather a general malady and
it represents the daily life of present-day Russia.” 16 But, unlike the ponderously significant novels of
previous unsuccessful attempts, Sologub’s wife committed suicide by flinging herself off a Petrograd bridge. Sologub was utterly
crushed and he plunged into even deeper isolation. Nevertheless, he managed somehow to integrate himself partially into the
new world of the Soviet Union. He served in various administrative capacities on literary bodies until his death in 1927.
He was even the recipient of a number of more or less ritual honors. After the Revolution, for reasons that are apparent,
Sologub confined himself mainly to translation and administrative duties. While his “Impossible Dream” might have fallen on
deaf or coarsened ears before the Revolution, it would now have been drowned by the cacophony of revolutionary thematics and
aesthetics. Those who desire a simplistic metaphor, but perhaps an apt one, might be tempted to say that Aldonsa, that vulgar
wench of reality, now reigned over the ephemeral and exquisite Dulcinea. And, Sologub, who had emerged out of obscurity bespectacled,
balding, slightly ridiculous and improbable, departed from whence he came.
Although Soviet critics willingly concede Sologub a place in the hierarchy of Russian literature for
The Petty Demon
, they have not hastened to publish his work. Too talented to ignore, too problematic to accept unequivocably, Sologub’s works
have made but fleeting appearances on the Soviet literary scene since the Revolution. With the exception of Sologub’s inclusion
in various anthologies, the only works to be reprinted since his death in 1927 are
The Petty Demon
(1933; 1958) and two anthologies of his verse (1939; 1975, reprinted 1978). Yet his literary legacy consists of seven novels,
almost eight stories, several novellas, half-a-dozen plays and more than a dozen books of poetry.
From the accounts of Sologub’s wife, we know that
The Petty Demon
was begun in the early 1890’s and was completed in 1902. Only after an effort of several years was Sologub then able to get
it published (in incomplete form) in the journal
Questions of Life
(1905, Nos. 6–11). In 1907 the first complete and separate version appeared and this was rapidly followed by
five
reprintings. The novel was prepared for the stage and travelled about Russia, playing to enthusiastic audiences. Almost overnight
Sologub became the toast of Russian letters and joined the popular troyka of Gorky, Kuprin and Andreyev. To this very day
The Petty Demon
is considered to be one of the great classics of Russian literature. The novel appealed to pre-revolutionary and Soviet critics
alike and for very similar reasons: it was a masterful sociological exposé of provincial manners in Tsarist Russia, unmasking
the hypocrisy, the bigotry and the philistinism that was symptomatic of Russian provincial society and officialdom. Most critics
immediately seized upon what they perceived as the obvious affinities between
The Petty Demon
and Gogol’s nineteenth-century masterpiece,
Dead Souls
. In his foreword(s) to the novel, Sologub himself seemed to insist that his depictions of provincial society were drawn with
fidelity, that they had been based on first-hand experience. Most critics were prepared, for the moment at least, to overlook
the other suspect themes in Sologub that touched on eroticism and sado-masochism. Furthermore, most readers were unaware of
any deeper meanings in the novel because their appetites were satisfied by what they believed to be “naturalistic detail”.
Sologub did try to indicate in at least one interview that the novel could be read as a generalization and that Peredonov’s
madness was a reflection of something else: “Peredonov’s madness is not a chance occurrence, but rather a general malady and
it represents the daily life of present-day Russia.” 16 But, unlike the ponderously significant novels of
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