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the dostoevsky journal 19 (2018) 1-46 brill.com/djir Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement to The Citizen (Grazhdanin) and Dostoevsky’s Later Works of the 1870s Irene Zohrab Victoria University of Wellington [email protected] Abstract The aim of this article is to study some possible intertextual links between Tom Brown’s Schooldays (Shkol’naia zhizn’ Toma Brauna. Rasskaz byvshego uchenika) by Thomas Hughes (1822–1896) and the later works of Dostoevsky: The Adolescent (Podrostok), The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (Son smeshnogo cheloveka) and Brothers Karamazov (Brat’ia Karamazovy). Hughes’s novel of 1857 was translated into Russian as a special Supple- ment to The Citizen when Dostoevsky was its editor and intended for distribution “no later than May 1874” to all subscribers for 1873 and 1874 free of charge. We propose to consider constitutive intertextuality in relation to tbs and some discursive features in Dostoevsky’s later works, as well as inter-connections in specific cases on the plot- composition level, subject matter, characterisation, use of individual motifs and sym- bols, and various other literary devices. Keywords F.M. Dostoevsky – The Citizen (Grazhdanin) – Tom Brown’s Schooldays – Podrostok (The Adolescent) – The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (Son smeshnogo cheloveka) – Brothers Karamazov (Brat’ia Karamazovy) – Thomas Hughes – Thomas Arnold – biblical imagery – “poetic image” (poeticheskii obraz) Tom Brown’s Schooldays: History of Publication of Russian transla tion by The Citizen (Grazhdanin) during Dostoevsky’s Editorship On 1 October, 1873 (os), an editorial notice to subscribers appeared on the front page of the St. Petersburg weekly Grazhdanin, (The Citizen), edited by © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/23752122-01901001Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 11:11:32PM via free access <UN> 2 Zohrab F.M. Dostoevsky and published by Prince Vladimir P. Meshchersky, announc- ing that all subscribers for 1873 would receive, by the end of May 1874, a novel translated from English entitled Toma Brauna shkol’nye dni (Tom Brown’s Schooldays), in two parts and free of charge. The editorial notice was repeated in subsequent issues of The Citizen, including the first issue for 1874 with the assurance that all annual subscribers for the year 1874 would also receive a free copy of the novel.1 However, the very first advertisement about the proposed publication of certain books as a special supplement, including “the English novel Tom Brown’s Schooldays” in translation, had appeared on 27 November, 1872.2 That was the time the last instalment of Dostoevsky’s novel Besy (The Possessed) was in the process of going to press in M.N. Katkov’s monthly journal Russkii vestnik (Russian Herald). Dostoevsky had become acquainted with Meshchersky in the autumn of 18713 and at the end of 1872 had offered to take up the editorship of The Citizen, since its current editor G.K. Gradovskii had informed Meshchersky that autumn that he wished to resign. (xxi, 175–176) Dostoevsky’s application to the General Directorate of Press Affairs (Glavnoe Upravlenie po delam pechati) (gudp), assuming all obligations for the publication of The Citizen as its editor, was delivered by him on 15 December, 1872, and a notice authorizing Dostoevsky to edit The Citizen was sent by the gudp to the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee (Sankt-Peterburgskii tsenzurnyi komitet) (SPTSK) on 18 December, 1872.4 The English novel was published as a separate book supplement to The Citizen in early 1874 with the title Shkolnaia zhizn’ Toma Brauna. Rasskaz byvshego uchenika (The School Life of Tom Brown: The Story of a Former Pupil), but in the editorial notices its title is Toma Brauna shkol’nye dni (Tom Brown’s Schooldays).5 Henceforth the version published by 1 ‘Ot redaktsii. Podpiska na 1874 g.’, Grazhdanin 40 (1873): 1059–1060; 42 (1873): 1111–1112; 52 (1873): 1387–1388; 1(1874): 1–2. The advertisement declared that “by the end of May 1874 The Citizen (Grazhdanin) would send all 1873 subscribers a copy of Toma Brauna shkol’nye dni, translated from the English, in two parts, and not just at a reduced price, but FREE OF CHARGE. All new annual subscribers to The Citizen for 1874 would also receive the novel free of charge.” 2 ‘Ot redaktsii’ Grazhdanin, 27 November, 30 (1872): 398. 3 F.M. Dostoevskii, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v 30 tt. (Leningrad: Nauka, 1972–1990) xxi, 164. Hereafter cited within the text as pss, followed by volume and page number. 4 Iu. G. Oksman, ‘F.M. Dostoevskii v redaktsii ‘Grazhdanina’. (Po neizdannym materialam),’ in Tvorchestvo Dostoevskogo 1821–1881–1921. Sbornik statei i materialov, pod red. L.P. Grossmana. (Odessa: Vseukraiskoe gos. izd., 1921), 63–82; 64–68; 66; pss, 29(1), 375–6, 542; Letopis’ Zhizni i tvorchestva Dostoevskogo: v trekh tomakh, 1821–1881, i–iii (Sankt-Peterburg: Akademicheskii proekt, 1993–95); 2, 1865–1874, 324–325. 5 Shkol’naia zhizn’ Toma Brauna. Rasskaz byvshego uchenika, 2 ch. Per. S angl.: S pril.: 1. Ust’ Vara. Rasskaz N.B-va. 2. Odin iz nashikh starykh znakomykh. Ocherk K.S.B. (Sankt-Peterburg, tip. i lit. A Transhelia, 1874), 319s. the dostoevskyDownloaded journal from Brill.com09/26/2021 19 (2018) 1-46 11:11:32PM via free access <UN> Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 3 The Citizen will be cited within the text as ShzhTB. Since there appear to be only three copies of this edition of the novel remaining in the research libraries of Russia, it will be necessary to quote in Russian at length from this particular edition,6 since that is the version that Dostoevsky would have been familiar with. Since this version is not accessible to our readers, we are also providing English translations of the passages quoted in Russian from the 1869 English edition of Tom Brown’s Schooldays, republished by oup in 1989 (2nd edition 2003) indicated in the text as tbs. The aim of this article is to provide an introduction to the topic and to consider possible intertextual links between ShzhTB/tbs, as source-text or pre-text and the later works of Dostoevsky: The Adolescent (Podrostok), The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (Son smeshnogo cheloveka) and Brothers Karamazov (Brat’ia Karamazovy).We propose to demonstrate constitutive intertextuality in relation to some discursive features7 in Dostoevsky’s later works, such as genre and form, as well inter-connections in specific cases on the plot-composition level, theme, characterisation, the use of individual motifs and various other literary devices. In many cases, Dostoevsky’s intertextuality is of a mixed type, invoking a complex network of texts rather than one pre-text. Hughes’s schoolboy novel has never been mentioned before as having had any impact on Dostoevsky and his works (apart from some earlier brief considerations by the present author).8 Dostoevsky never referred to Hughes or his novel, but that is not surprising, since the novel was not a well-known classic work, familiar to his readers, like for instance the works of Dickens, Shakespeare, Schiller, Heine, Goethe, Hugo, etc., to which he openly refers to in later writings. In the first instance we shall continue with our discussion of the history of its publication and some essential literary-historical background, as well as authorial intentions. The novel was first published in England in 1857, as written “By An Old Boy”, with the name of the author unidentified. Five editions were sold out in Britain in seven months, and by 1890 almost 50 editions of the novel, and its sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford (1861), had appeared. After the second edition, the author’s name, Thomas Hughes (1822–1896), appeared on the title page. Hughes himself had attended Rugby School in Warwickshire from 1834 to 1842, where 6 http://spravcoll.ru/index.php/Шкoльнaя_жизнь_Toмa_Бpaунa:_Paccкaз_б._ учeникa:_B_2_ч.:_Пep._c_aнгл. C пpил.: 1. Уcть-Bapa: Paccкaз … (1874). 7 Norman Fairclough, Discourse and Social Change (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992) 117. 8 Irene Zohrab, ‘Public Education in England in the Pages of The Citizen (1873–1874) during Dostoevsky’s Editorship’, Dostoevsky on the Threshold of Other Worlds. Sarah Young and Lesley Milne, eds. (Ilkeston, Derbyshire: Bramcote Press, 2006) 98–109. the dostoevsky journal 19 (2018) 1-46 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 11:11:32PM via free access <UN> 4 Zohrab the action takes place. The novel depicts the adventures of Tom Brown and other pupils at this ‘public school’ for boys aged 11 to 18, when its headmaster was ‘Doctor’ Arnold, whose prototype was Thomas Arnold (1795–1842), regard- ed as the greatest educator of England.9 In the first advertisement cited above, the publication of two additional novels was also announced by The Citizen: One of our Bismarcks (Odin iz nashikh Bismarkov) by Meshchersky, and B.M. Markevich’s The Forgotten Ques- tion (Zabytyi vopros). But The Forgotten Question had already been published by the editor-publisher of the Russian Herald (Russkii Vestnik), M.N. Katkov (1818–1887), in the first four issues of his monthly journal for 1872, and this novel was never brought out as a separate book-length supplement to The Citi- zen. It is possible that, while placing an editorial notification on 27 November, 1872, Meshchersky had held preliminary talks with Katkov about his plans to reprint The Forgotten Question, since the statement ends in an ambiguous phrase: “As to the exchange of editions with editors who have proposed or are in a position to propose such, we agree”.10 In this case, Meshchersky probably also discussed with Katkov the planned translation of ShzhTB. Katkov was very knowledgeable about English novels because he had published translations of them in almost every issue of the Russian Herald.

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