In the Preface, Richard Pevear (who, with Larissa Volokhonsky translated this collection) *, makes reference to the idea that Dostoyevsky discovered The Underground when he wrote Notes From Underground , and that this was the turning point for his fiction, where it went from good to Great. ** Pevear refers to this discovery / shift as a peripeteia... which I had to look up.
peripeteia
noun
peri·pe·teia ˌper-ə-pə-ˈtē-ə -ˈtī-
: a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation especially in a literary work
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peripeteia
So there's that.
* This duo also translated Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1990), Crime and Punishment (1992), Notes from Underground (1993), Demons (1994), The Idiot (2002), The Adolescent (2003), The Double (2005), The Gambler (2005), and Notes from a Dead House (2015). They're the new Constance Garnett.
** (1864) Notes from Underground, (1866) Crime and Punishment, (1867) The Gambler, (1869) The Idiot, (1870) The Eternal Husband, (1872) Demons (also titled: The Possessed, The Devils), (1875) The Adolescent, and (1880) The Brothers Karamazov.
Day 1 (DDRD 2,219) November 28, 2023
Read to page 66. Which was the end of the first story.
But I actually started reading the Preface on Sunday (DDRD 2,217). And btw, XXVI + 349 = 375 pages long. Walk in the park, man.
Speaking of said Preface...this one was actually quite good. Instead of summarizing the stories (as most Prefaces do, which irritates the hell out of me), this one takes A View From a Height, and it was very interesting.
Story the First: "A Nasty Anecdote "
At one point in this story, the main character (Ivan Ilyich) steps into a "galantine." 🤷♂️
Oh, look, it's Wikipedia to the rescue:
"In French cuisine, galantine (French: [galɑ̃tin]) is a dish of boned stuffed meat, most commonly poultry or fish, that is usually poached and served cold, often coated with aspic. Galantines are often stuffed with forcemeat, and pressed into a cylindrical shape. Since boning poultry can be difficult and time-consuming for the novice, this is a rather elaborate dish, which is often lavishly decorated, hence its name, connoting a presentation at table that is galant, or urbane and sophisticated. In the later nineteenth century the technique's origin was already attributed to the chef of the marquis de Brancas."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galantine
No Public Domain pictures available, but it looks exactly like olive leaf to me. 🤮
Strange thing at the end (pp. 65-66) of this story:
"Akim Petrovich obviously wanted to skip away quickly. decided to speak himself out definitively. Apparently inspiration had come over him again."
Huh?
So I checked in with Constance. She said:
"Akim Petrovitch evidently wanted to slip away as quickly as he could. But in a rush of generous feeling Ivan Ilyitch determined to speak out. Apparently some inspiration had come to him again."
So clearly a line (the underlined one) got dropped between pages 65 and 66. Sloppy work, Bantam.
BTW, I didn't really mean to read so much today. Part of it was that I took Jacqueline to choir practice this evening, and thus had an extra hour and a half on my hands. But once I got going, I was really drawn along by this story. It wasn't great, but it was intriguing.
Day 2 (DDRD 2,220) November 29, 2023
Read to page 103.
Story the Second: "The Eternal Husband"
178 page story...so half of this book, and pretty close to being novel length.
The first line of Chapter III reads, "The man as if froze on the spot." (88)
Say what?
So I went to Project Gutenberg, where I found a translation (entitled "The Permanent Husband," which seems a bit awkward) by one Fred Whishaw. Fred had the line as the much mire sensible "The crape-man stood rooted to the spot dumb with astonishment."
I'm starting to get a bit suspicious of these Richard and Larissa folks. Not to mention Bantam Books, which clearly needs a good editor. (I'm available, by the way. Just sayin', sir.)
Also: I stopped by the library today and happened to see Constance's translation of these lines, which go like this:
I'm starting to sing, "C is for Constance, that's good enough for me. "
Meanwhile...
On pages 103 to 104, Dostoevsky defines eternal husband:
"The essence of such husbands lay in their being, so to speak, "eternal husbands," or, better to say, in being only husbands in life and nothing else. "Such a man is born and develops solely in order to get married, and having married, to turn immediately into an appendage of his wife, even if it so happens that he happens to have his own indisputable character. The main feature of such a husband is--a well-known adornment. It is as impossible for him not to wear horns, as it is for the sun not to shine; but he not only never knows it, but even can never find it out by the very laws of nature."
Day 3 (DDRD 2,221) November 30, 2023
Read to page 139.
Sometimes the wording in this version is so awkward that I have to stop and check it against another translation. Case in point:
R&L say, "Going up the narrow, slopped, and very filthy stone stairway of the wing to the second floor, where those rooms were, he suddenly heard weeping." (108)
Did R&L really mean "slopped"--as in washed, possibly with less than clean liquids? Or was this another Bantam cock-up, and " sloped" was meant? I was pretty sure it was the latter, but I slipped over to see what Fred Whishaw had to say.
"Mounting the dirty and narrow stairs indicated, as far as the third storey, he suddenly became aware of someone crying."
Well. They're on different floors, for one thing. But other things, too. And no slope or slop for Fred. I'm thinking that I'm going to avoid R&L in my future Dostyevsky readings...assuming there are any.
Less than a page after the bit quoted above, R&L have this to say: "'See what fun he has!' she bassed in a half voice and went past him to the stairs." (109)
What the fuck does "bassed" mean? Neither Merriam- Webster nor I know of bass as a verb. Fred?
"'He appears to be amusing himself in there!' she said, and proceeded downstairs."
Hmm. No bassed. And it seems to me that every time I check an awkward bit in R&L against another translation, the other one is clearer and not awkward.
Fuck these guys, man. I want my $3 back. But I'm halfway in now, so I'll continue to read this book...with appropriate bitching along the way.
Another:
R&L: "Besides, Liza is also waiting for you very much."
Who the hell says that? Not Fred: "“Besides Liza expects you anxiously—I promised her.” Which is actually how human beings talk.
P.S. Read a bit more while waiting for Joe to get off work--to page 163. Pretty close to the halfway point.
This bit when Velchaninov was thinking about his child hit me hard:
"No one has had or ever could have a higher purpose! …If there are other purposes, none can be holier than this one! ...my whole stinking and useless life would have been purified and redeemed; instead of myself, idle, depraved, and obsolete -- I would have cherished for life a pure and beautiful being, and for this being everything would have been forgiven me, and I would have forgiven myself everything." (162)
This feels very vivid and real to me.
For one thing, because I love my kids so much and would do pretty much anything for them. And have done many things for them that I didn't want to do. Like go to New York City 6 times. Like go to see The Nutcracker 12 times. Like drive to Gravel Switch, Kentucky. Like stay subscribed to DIRECTV when I really want YouTube TV. Etcetera.
But more than that. I am pretty sure that all of my major romantic relationships have ended because of my children. Because I have refused to neglect them. Because they take a lot of time and work. And more than that, I've even had a hard time keeping up with friendships because there's just. So. Little. Time.
And that's fine with me. The way I see it, I inflicted life on these three, and I owe them. Life is harsh and even horrible sometimes, and it's my sacred duty to see them through it for as long as I'm able to do it. Does loving them "purify" me? I don't know. Sheer plod makes plow down sillon shine, after all.
Day 4 (DDRD 2,222) December 1, 2023
Read to page 204.
Here's a little something to go with the Preface comments on Dostoyevsky's Underground:
So Underground is grouped with Depraved and Vile. But why? Maybe it's kind of like the idea of Original Sin, the belief that we are all essentially damned creatures, so immersed in sin, so selfish, so unconcerned with the welfare of others, that we are essentially mere animals. Or worse, since animals are not vile or depraved. Hmmm.
Day 5 (DDRD 2,223) December 2, 2023
Read to page 244.
B&L: "You'll get tired, I suppose, Mr. Velchaninov, that you may not have to go." (206)
Cue the Fred: "Very well, but you'll soon get tired. You need not go away, I think, Mr. Velchaninoff.”
Any questions?
I hit my tipping point, had to write a Goodreads review of this thing.
The Pevear / Volokhonsky translation...or, at least, this printing of it...is just wretched. There are nonsensical lines which I had to check against other translations in order to understand, there are missing lines, and there is an overall awkwardness which is not present in, for instance, Constance Garnett or Fred Whishaw's versions of these stories. For some specifics, see https://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2023/11/ddr-eternal-husband-and-other-stories.html
but the short version is AVOID THIS TRANSLATION. If you already love Dostoyevsky, this will be a disappointment. If you don't yet love Dostoyevsky, this will only discourage you from finding that love.
Just sayin', sir.
So...98 pages to go...said pages divvied up between three stories (22, 41, & 35 pages, respectively). So three more days ought to do it.
"The Eternal Husband" had some miments, but either it or I pooped out at the end, as I felt like it kind of flats lined after The Stabbing. In part because I didn't understand what was behind the whole 🗡 bit. Maybe ill go back and gave another look at it tomorrow. That's it for now, though. 😪
Day 6 (DDRD 2,224) December 3, 2023
Read to page 268--all of the third story. Which was pretty interesting. It mainly consists of dead people in a cemetery talking, so a bit more "fantastic" than the other Dostoyevsky stuff I've read. I liked it. However...
From "Bobok": R&L say, " And a stupid man even cannot respect."
C says: "And indeed a stupid man is incapable of feeling respect."
Makes you wonder if English was the first language for R&L. There's an unnatural stiffness to their diction and syntax that really throws sand into the gears when you're trying to ride a story. Lets see what Wikipedia has to say about heir origins.
"Richard Pevear was born in Waltham, Massachusetts .... Larissa Volokhonsky (Russian: Лариса Волохонская) was born into a Jewish family in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg...."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pevear_and_Larissa_Volokhonsky
So you'd think R would be there to smooth things over...but maybe he's the non-confrontational sort. At any rate, even if it is L's probkem, I still blame the Bantam cock.
Meanwhile... since "Bobok" was only 24 pages, I decided to nibble at the next story, "The Meek One."
P.S. Read to 279.
Day 7 (DDRD 2,225) December 4, 2023
Read to page 317--the end of "Кроткая."
So...in "The Meek One" (Кроткая), the girl is 16 and the pawn broker she marries is 41. Hmmm. When she was 18, my soon to be second wife (and soon to be second ex-wife) came after me. And I was 43. 25 years difference in both cases. So I have some experience of this kind of thing. But the pawn broker is not nearly as nice to his young wife as I was, I hasten to note. And there is at least some difference between 16 years old and 18. Still, I found this story discomfiting pretty much from the get go.
"But in bringing her into my house, I thought I was bringing a friend, and I needed a friend so very much." (300)
That REALLY stung. The innocence, the naiveté of it... so much like me, and it makes me feel ashamed of myself. It's Samson at the pillars, and my whole house comes crashing down as I think of all the times I've suffered small and large humiliations at the hands of women, all the times I've compromised or sacrificed, and realize that it was all foolhardiness, that I was the rube guessing which shell the pea was under.
Day 8 (DDRD 2,226) December 5, 2023
Read to page 349, aka The End.
"I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of people." (341)
And that's pretty much the whole shebang, isn't it?
“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
And as a matter if fact, I'm NOT ready to stop reading Dostoyevsky yet. Though I am finished with Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky...which might be a problem, since they seem to be the soup du jour when it comes to Dostoyevsky these days.
Пока мы не встретимся снова
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
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