Leskov is not the considered most of the great Russian novelists of the nineteenth century. At this probably contribute two aspects: his being a particularly outstanding novelist in a land and a river of time novelists and poets burning, and most apparent lightness of the themes.
Priests of Stargorod - Chronicle (whose original title would sound an even more dry, "Preti," Always with this caption: "news") is perhaps his most famous novel, which I think can do justice to its author. On the one hand it highlights the limitations - if this is necessarily limits - of Leskov: How novel is it shows heterogeneous, its parts do not appear to apparently lacks cohesion and balanced narrative that seems to perfectly describe subtitle Chronicle, more news story that (re) invention of literature, analysis of reality. But in the folds of these limits - or better dandosi cura di leggere con attenzione il romanzo – se ne scorge il superamento per altre vie.
Il romanzo appare disarmonico ed eterogeneo perché indubbiamente lo è, sin dalla sua genesi: le sue parti vennero infatti disparatamente pubblicate nel corso di un decennio circa. Ma proprio la sua natura cronachistica permette a Leskov di volgere in pregio questo difetto: I Preti di Stargorod finisce con l’essere una somma di racconti, e di racconti nei racconti, terreno sul quale l’autore si muove con grande sicurezza grazie all’abilità di sintesi che mostra nello schizzare i caratteri, nel tratteggiare in economia una psicologia completa, the emotional force that knows how to give brief glimpses of lyric that weave the narrative: at the end of the novel is a masterly description of the storm that hits the campaign Tuberozov father, archpriest of the loss in front of the grandeur of nature, and there is felt in so thin but full of foreshadowing the death that will take the old religious there, not much.
But a sum of short stories is not yet in a novel. A first element unit, labile, can be traced unambiguously in the spirit that animates the entire novel, suspended between a sense of impending death of a vitality el'erompere very Russian and very arrogant; ambiguity is resolved in the natural cycles of life. For the clergy Stargorod had reached an era of complete renovation : Leskov thus concludes the novel. A chronicle ending, if it should start a new one. In a season it happens another.
A second unit, it even decisive, are the same figures of the priests City Stargorod. At least two of which the economy of this novel dispersed and anarchic play as central, close to those of real actors (and in any case these are the only people likely to be seen as actors): the priest and deacon Tuberozov Achilles.
Although the first part of the novel - which alone occupies nearly a third - and the second are choral and a gallery exhibit extraordinary human variety and subtlety of representation, even if often takes precedence over the sketch big picture, they are already in the deacon el'arciprete stand apart, the author focuses on the exterior of their actions and deeds, if not their soul and deep thought.
In the first part, the long recognition of the archpriest of the diary to show us a fiery spirit and pure, but still superficial Leskov tells us too, and as often happens when the author takes the place of his character ends by telling us too much: to tell instead of show. It 's definitely the weaker of the work sequence. It will be the fourth part of the novel, when he will leave Tuberozov whole field, that the great soul of the archpriest we will prove in his actions and thoughts, but told no more left to our attention of readers. He will be here that the great complexity of the personality of the archpriest will reveal its hidden simplicity that let you see his bitterness against the honesty willing to sacrifice everything, and that the obtuseness of the pope, grattatane the surface will emerge all the love of truth - very rare - a Christian. Ultimately this is where the simplicity of his father Tuberozov back to show the full complexity of his literary figure and suffered a spirit incapable of compromise, and that has always placed before the genuine respect for the law (God's) respect for hierarchies (earth). You may not agree with the priest, but one can not but admire it.
Even Achilles, the huge, exuberant, excessive deacon is not yet fully apparent in the first two parts of the novel. His (mis) adventures, the real mischief, take the fork by the mutual enemies "intellectuals" such as anti-clerical professor Varnava Prepotenski (a stunning figure complete idiot) - all still in the size of the color: Achilla embodies, in a schematic way and even stereotypical, the earthy element and blood. It will be the fifth and final section of the novel that will have relevance Achilla final. The special relationship of affection which united the deacon el'arciprete it is clear from the outset: the elderly father Savieli Tuberozov, the deacon is the son that his beloved wife Natalia was unable to give him, and his love for him is that for a wayward child, simpleton, turbulent, but which recognizes an unconditional kindness. Just as the love of Achilles for the priest mixes the son's father, the star of the simplest of its system of reference of the dog to its owner. When his father died Savieli, crashed from an Achilles pain take upon himself the task of preserving the memory, running against his own death, a presentiment that the colossus. For Achilla had failed his security, both in its physical strength when the villain Termosiesov hit him with treachery; nell'arciprete, sottrattogli from death and before dall'interdetto Archbishop, perhaps in the same religion, which unfairly punishes Tuberozov first and then replace it after his death as if nothing had happened with a new dean. In life itself, ultimately, that with his continuing quiet about his desperation he is to break up the grid of certainty within which the deacon had identified their existence.
But even the figures of two men, at first partially reduced by the choir of the other characters and then free gigantic development, too little cohesive elements remain to "make novel." It would be enough the significance of two other figures: Termosiesov, absolute protagonist of the third section of the work and Nikolai Afanasievic, whose presence is apparent here and there over the whole work.
The third part of The Priests of Stargorod is almost a story in itself, is the force of character Termosiesov that because he and his superior Bornovolokov are only here, and at most mentioned in passing later. Even if it is to assume the role of Termosiesov crusher balance (albeit unstable) of Stargorod, triggered by his deceptions, frauds and crimes several events that ultimately result in the death of his father Savieli and Achilles.
With Termosiesov Leskov gives us a figure of formidable villain. The size of a novel, was a character worthy to appear next to a Uriah Heep. Here it becomes the absolute protagonist of a story in the story, splashed in a few bars and very effective portrait emerges of a truly amoral. The wickedness of Termosiesov is instinctive, feral, nonchalant. Even when he studied and applied in the execution of an action likely to cause harm to someone free, the first motive that emerges is that he acts because può farlo. Perché forse è divertente. E perché ne ricava un vantaggio, certo. Ma la netta impressione è che soprattutto si diverta: a ingannare donnette credule e vanitose; a tenere in pugno individui fragili e abietti come il principe suo superiore; a far del male a persone migliori di lui come padre Savieli; a sfidare il buon diacono perché potrà sempre sgambettarlo confidando nell’ingenuità di questi. Quel che perde in profondità nel ritrarre questo suo avventuriero, Leskov lo guadagna in vigore e colore del racconto. Nel gioco verbale.
Nikolai Afanasievic, il piccolo uomo, il nano servo della gleba della boiarda Plodomasova è invece tutt’altro personaggio. Attraverso di lui Leskov pare quasi voler fare un riassunto di quello che egli ritiene sia il carattere del suo popolo: mite, semplice, rispettoso di chi considera superiore a sé; ma anche determinatissimo, fedele all’amicizia fino alla morte, saggio. Il santino è però rischiarato dalla grande umanità che Leskov vi trasfonde. La tessitura degli eventi che lo coinvolgono, le sue parole e quelle degli altri personaggi su di lui sono sempre così sincere e genuine che il piccolo Nikolai perde la falsità che una figura del genere potrebbe finire con l’assumere e si riveste di un lirismo dolce e soffuso che lo rende uno dei personaggi indimenticabili di questo romanzo.
If all men and women who revolve around the life of Stargorod are less significant and decisive, including the third of the priests, that mild and colorless father Zacharia Benefaktov which the author concedes, however, making him the last word after the brothers die , as a seal of the Chronicles of Stargorod it is no less true that all Leskov gives the space of a short-illumination, a glimpse at the narrative in a few lines which presents us with a man or a woman, especially a soul. From that Varnava Prepotenski believed a modern intellectual and is a poor fool, its all worth Biziukina friend, the tragic figure of Danilka, between the village idiot and moved to modern, and will be indirect cause of death of Achilles, the marshal of the nobility Tuganov, that beneath the apparent cynicism and disregard for all shows a great generosity, from the portrait, at once ruthless and very human to that of the landed gentry with the figure of Marfa Plodomasova that has great affection for Nikolai but humiliates him without even realizing it, the wife of the postmaster of Stargorod, including all its pettiness of petit bourgeois.
It 'hard to find their way in this mass of humanity, in this heterogeneous humanity. Difficult to trace a common thread that leads to an identity of the novel, which may represent the watermark de Priests of Stargorod . Yet it is this plurality of voices and pictures, this variety to represent something of a unifying element of cohesion. These are really the Chronicles of Stargorod, this epitome of the whole imaginary city Russia. And are the chronicles of his clergy. So human, so far from being a model, so impervious to reality that makes its way into the myth of a Russian property, but also so sweet, so good, so loving. So far from the church bureaucracy. Even Savieli father, who in some way should be an intellectual figure, takes on real body when we see the emergence side in a way more childish than pure stubbornness, pristine, pure impulse that led him to refuse to compromise with the authorities to seek absolute integrity without deviating from their belief. And the sorrow that will bring in the tomb in any way for not being able to reconstruct, in his small district, the schism with the "Old Believers", two centuries-old schism with that part of the population that remained attached to a medieval piety , the worship of icons.
Chronicles, and therefore the simple story of life. And the rest is exactly what Leskov ago, tells of lives as they take place. Introduces us to the protagonists of these lives. And we do love them. And it could not succeed without the sharp wit all the work that vein, dissolve even the most dramatic junctures.
humor round, flavorful, straightforward. Sometimes macabre. Indeed, especially macabre. The stupidity of Varna is revealed to us in an absurd subplot of the skeleton of the drowning. A "scientific purposes", Varna obtained by the mayor and local doctor to be able to dispose of the corpse of a drowned man, it melts the flesh in the boiler in order to have the clean bones in order to study the skeletal structure. What follows, with the professor's dispute with the elderly and pious mother and abusive deacon is an anthology of laughter. It would all be very serious if the "martyr of science" had only one gram of brain instead of a turkey dressed up. Even more gruesome is the tone of black comedy in which the novel ends with that last episode of the "devil" who terrorize the citizens of Stargorod. The devil is none other than a Danilka starved comminatogli exile, who disguises himself with sheepskins, cow's horns and hooks from work to rob the unwary. Despite appearances, the one least of all believe in the farce it is Achilles, who will capture the "devil", but it will take such a cold to go to another world.
are wasted in the middle episodes where this spirit is apparent, and in the history of Marfa Plodomasova who wants to marry a midget with Nikolai Finnish quietly comes to cruelty. Non-collegiate, therefore, wise but I would say. There is a profound wisdom in humor Leskovar, in ' understatement counterpoint with which to light the lives of its priests, men and women of Stargorod. Lightness in bad times, life is like.
Maybe not a perfect novel Priests of Stargorod , but the verve report Leskov, the emotional impetus that brings in its pages and characters, the plot is so thick and colorful lives that says - all converge to create a work that exceeds its flaws and is beyond its merits, to present something that is much more than a slice of Russia in the nineteenth century: a cross-section of humanity through time.
Well, that's what makes a classic.
