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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

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.

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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.

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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. It is even possible that for some reason he was unable to publish the novel in the Russian Herald and offered it to Meshchersky. Katkov promoted the advancement of the English form of education in Russia11 and founded the Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrov- ich Lyceum, which was modelled on English ‘public’ schools, such as Rugby.12 There cannot be any doubt that Meshchersky at the very least would have had to consult Dostoevsky in the latter’s capacity as editor to confirm the under- taking of the translation and publication of ShzhTB. According to censorship regulations, responsibility for the content of publications in periodicals (and

9 Edward C. Mack and W.H.G. Armytage, Thomas Hughes: the Life of the Author of Tom Brown’s Schooldays (London: Benn, 1952) 15. 10 ‘Na obmen izdanii s redaktsiiami predlozhivshimi i imeiushchimi predlozhit’ takovoi redaktsiia—soglasna.’: ‘Ot redaktsii.’ Grazhdanin, 27 November, 30 (1872): 398. 11 Katkov, Mikhail Nikiforovich’, Russkii biograficheskii slovar’ A.A. Polovtsova, (SPb.: Tip. I.N. Skorokhodova, 1897) 8, 548–560. 12 The Lyceum was founded at the expense of M.A. Katkov and Professor P.M. Leont’ev in 1868 and named the “Moscow Lyceum of the Tsarevich Nicholas” (son of Alexander ii, who died in 1865). Until 1872 this private, and subsequently state lyceum was run by the Ministry of Public Education. It was designed as an exemplary educational institution, an example for other Russian gymnasiums and universities.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 5 supplements) lay with the editor, as the “main culprit” (glavnyi vinovnik) behind the publication.13 Dostoevsky’s first acquaintance with ShzhTB probably took place in 1858, when the journal Library for Reading (Biblioteka dlia chteniia)14 featured several issues on education and child-rearing in England by Dr. L.A. Wiese. Wiese also translated and adapted Hughes’ novel into German. The translation of an extract into Russian by the journal’s editor A.V. Druzhinin and based on Wiese’s adaptation, was published with no signature in the last issue of the series, under the title Dr. T. Arnold (Addendum to the letters of Dr. Wiese), (Doktor T. Arnold [Pribavlenie k pis’mam Vise]).15 The translator of the version done for The Citizen is not named and we have not been able to determine who it was, although the translation is completely different from the better known one by F. Rezener, which was based on a German version by S. Vagnerova and published the following year (1875) by the M.O. Vol’f Press.16 In the only modern edition of the novel (2006) translated by Julia Glek, the earlier translation is cited as the one by Rezener and the translation published by The Citizen is not mentioned at all. The original edition of ShzhTB used as a text for the translation in The Citizen was probably the popular sixth edition of 1869, published with a long foreword from the author, with 57 illustrations and dedicated to the widow of the former Rugby School headmaster, Mrs. Arnold. The Citizen’s version of the novel was published in A. Transhel’s Printing House, and type-set by M. A. Alexandrov (who was also the compositor for The Citizen) and was undoubtedly proof-read there. It is likely that the process was overseen by Dostoevsky. The text ran to just 256 pages and two short stories that seemed to have no logical connection with the novel were published at the end of the second part: Ust’ Vara signed with the initials of N. B-va and One of our old acquaintances (Odin iz nashikh starykh znakomykh) signed K.S.B. As a result the total number of pages in the book went up to 319, which meant that its total size was more

13 N. G. Patrusheva, Periodicheskaia pechat’ i tsenzura Rossiiskoi Imperii v 1865–1905gg. Sistema administrativnykh vzyskanii. Spravochnoe izdanie (Sankt-Peterburg: Russkaia natsional’naia biblioteka, 2011) 369. 14 ‘Pis’ma o vospitanii v Anglii (Doktora Vise)’, Biblioteka dlia chteniia, Toм cxlviii Otd. iii–iv (1858): 121–155; cxlix, Otd. ii, No. 5 (1858): 116–206. 15 (A. V. Druzhinin), ‘Doktor T. Arnol’d (Pribavlenie k pis’mam D. Vise)’, Biblioteka dlia chteniia, cxlix Otdel ii, No. 5 (1858): 206–217. 16 Shkol’nye gody Toma Brauna, opisannye prestarelym pitomtsem Rugbi. Povest’ izo- brazhaiushchaia nyneshnee vospitanie vysshikh soslovii Anglii. Sochinenie T. Giuksa. S Vagnerovoi nemetskoi obrabotki. Perevedeno F. Rezenerom. (Sankt-Peterburg, Moskva: Izd. Knigoprodvtsa Mavrikiia Osipovicha Vol’fa, 1875).

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6 Zohrab than 20 signatures.17 According to the Censorship Regulations of April 6, 1865, all translations of at least 20 signatures were exempted from preliminary censorship but, if they broke the law, they were liable to prosecution.18 Most likely, it was expected that the novel would reinforce The Citizen’s established editorial policy, as expressed in its official program and by the journal’s general ideological direction. The novel depicts an education based on the study of classical languages and literature and was thus consistent with the government policy of the Russian Empire, which supported the classical model of education in secondary schools which stemmed from the reforms of the Education Minister, D.A. Tolstoy, in the early 1870’s.19 Since the subject of education and the church is identified with the journalism of The Citizen, and the journal supported the spread of education based on religious instruction, the publication of the novel was assured. English publications containing the latest research in the field of child- rearing and education, such as those by Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), were followed in European intellectual circles, and this perhaps was another factor behind the interest in English education in Russia in the 1870s. Thomas Arnold’s merits, who was appointed headmaster of Rugby in 1828 and assumed the role of school chaplain in October 1831, were known to educated Russians, including Dostoevsky, and during his editorship in 1873–74 The Citizen stated “that in Arnold (unlike the example set in St. Petersburg!) vital and truly democratic convictions are united with deep religiosity and adherence to classicism”.20 Such was Arnold’s popularity that, when the Dean of Westminster, Dr. Arthur P. Stanley (1815–1881), visited Russia in early 1874, on Queen Victoria’s appoint- ment, to perform the Anglican marriage ceremony for her son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and the Grand Duchess Marie, daughter of Alexander ii, he was mentioned in The Citizen by K.P. Pobedonostsev as “a pupil of the famous Arnold” (Vospitannik znamenitogo Arnol’da).21 Stanley had published a two-volume biography of Dr. Arnold, which was known in Russia, and had

17 A signature sheet serves to calculate the volume of the printed publication and is equivalent to an author’s sheet, or to 40 thousand printed characters, or 700 lines of poetic text. See: Knigovedenie. Entsiklopedicheskii slovar (Moscow: Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia, 1982) 319. 18 Patrusheva, Periodicheskaia pechat’, 359. 19 The Charter of 1871 that established classicism existed, with minor changes, until 1901. 20 ‘Moskovskie zametki’, Grazhdanin, 8, (1873): 223. 21 ‘Sochineniia o vostochnoi tserkvi’, Grazhdanin, 5, (1874): 138–141. Dean Stanley was present at the meeting on 31 January O.S. of the St. Petersburg Society of Spiritual Enlight- enment. He was welcomed with a speech by K.P. Pobedonostsev, member of the State Council and a contributor to The Citizen.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 7 contributed to the advancement of the English form of education in Russia.22 During 1873 the newspaper Moscow News (Moskovskie Vedomosti) under Kat- kov’s editorship published a series of articles on Arnold, which were based on Stanley’s two-volume biography (the series was also mentioned in The Citizen).23 It is likely that Pobedonostsev also knew of and approved of the planned publication by The Citizen of ShzhTB, since he was a regular, though anony- mous contributor of translations from English works and articles to the journal. An apparent promotion of the ‘discourse of Englishness’ was conducted in the journal in 1873, (perhaps to detract from Russia’s campaign on and capture of Khiva that did not please the English), but also in connection with the engagement of the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna and Prince Alfred of Great Britain, which was formally announced on 23 Jul, 1873 (os according to Gregorian calendar) in The Citizen.24 It continued throughout the early months of 1874, in anticipation of the arrival of foreign visitors in Russia and during their presence at the wedding celebrations in the two capitals of the Empire. A marriage ceremony in accordance with the Russian Orthodox and the Anglican Church ritual took place in St. Petersburg on 11 January, 1874 (os). In April of that same year Alexander ii visited England to see his daughter and stayed at Windsor Castle for a week as a guest of Queen Victoria. Thus, this was an ideal time for the publication of a translation of the popular British schoolboy novel, which was scheduled to appear no later than May. The moral values embodied in ShzhTB and reflecting the author Hughes’ firm patriotism, devotion to reform and social harmony, commitment to the ideals of service and practical activity, and his simple, sincere approach to ‘Broad-Church Christianity’25 were similar to the moral values that were

22 Stanley, Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold, D.D. Late Headmaster of Rugby School, and Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford, by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of University College, Oxford. 2 vols., (London: B. Fellowes, 1844). 23 Moskovskie vedomosti Nos. 17, 19, 20, 23, 27, 28 (1873). Cited in Grazhdanin. 24 ‘Po povodu pomolvki Eia Imperatorskogo Vysochestva Velikoi Kniazhny Marii Aleksan- drovny s Ego Korolevskim Vysochestvom Printsem Alfredom Velikobritanskim’, Grazh- danin, 30, 23 July os (1873): 819–821. In the British Times news of the forthcoming Royal engagement appeared already on 14 May, 1873, (ns according to the Julian calendar), while the official notice appeared on Saturday, 12 July, 1873 (ns): “His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh”, The Times, Saturday, July 12, 5 (1873): issue 27740. This was more than three weeks before the announcement in The Citizen. 25 ‘Broad Church’—a church of toleration in faith allowing for deviation from dogma within the bounds of the Anglican Church, supporting a liberal interpretation of doctrine. F.W.

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8 Zohrab upheld in the pages of The Citizen in the context of autocracy and Orthodoxy. Hughes also reflects the spirit of Dr. Arnold and creates unforgettable images of English pupils at Rugby School in the process of their development from boys to adolescents and young adults. Like the first English edition, the Rus- sian translation in The Citizen makes no reference to the author’s name on the title page.26 An additional reason for this could have been the desire not to attract the attention of St. Petersburg censors, since Hughes was known as a liberal and a Christian socialist and was identified by many readers in Britain with Tom Brown. Following his time at Rugby School, Hughes entered Oxford, where he is said to have distinguished himself more on the sports field than in his legal studies. By the end of the 1840s he was associated with the founders of the Christian socialist movement, spreading their ideals of social reform. Hughes married Frances Ford in 1847 and subsequently fathered nine children. As a Liberal member of parliament, he became a spokesman for the aspirations of the working classes and one of the founders of the Working Men’s College, of which he was principal from 1872 to 1883. Hughes considered himself a ‘Democrat’ and, in a speech in Birmingham in 1872, he called himself a ‘Radical’, summarizing his political credo as “the greatest good (not happiness) of the greatest number.”27 His novels about Tom Brown reflect many of the beliefs he popularised, such as the importance of physical development and the belief that games and team sport promoted democracy. In the novel, the boys at Rugby School are depicted regularly playing cricket and rugby football, competing in ‘hares and hounds’, and enjoying other types of physical activity like, for instance, fist fights, hunting for birds, poaching fish, gambling on horses (some of which were banned). It can be said that the sports minded Tom Brown personifies Hughes’ doctrine of what has become known as “muscular Christianity”, which “has hold of the old chivalrous and Christian belief, that a man’s body is given

Cornish, The English Church in the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols (London: Macmillan, 1910), Vol. 1, 186–96, 299–316; Vol. 2, 201–44; F.L. Cross, (Ed.) The Oxford Dictionary of the Chris- tian Church (London: Oxford University Press, 1957) 199. 26 According to the regulations on censorship: “60. On presentation of a manuscript or book for censorship, no petitions or notes are required from the presenting party. The name of the author, translator or publisher does not need to be indicated on the book, in accordance with his discretion, but the publisher must be known to the press entrusted with printing.” Sbornik postanovlenii i rasporiazhenii po tsenzure s 1720 po 1862 god. (SPb.: Tip. Morskogo ministerstva, 1862), 315–396. Vlast’ i pressa v Rossii: К istorii pravovogo regu- lirovaniia otnoshenii: (1700–1917) Khrestomatiia (Moscow: Izd-vo rags, 1999). 27 Thomas Hughes, The Old Church. What shall we do with it? (London: Macmillan, 1978) 45. Quoted in E.R. Norman, The Victorian Christian Socialists (Cambridge: cup, 1987) 87.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 9 to him to be trained and brought into subjection, and then used for the protection of the weak, the advancement of all righteous causes, and the subdu- ing of the earth which God has given to the children of men.”28 The chivalric aspirations embodied in the novel have been interpreted as analogous to the “revival of various chivalric or pseudo-chivalric values … with the aim of making the Victorian gentleman a modern-day knight.”29 It is aligned with the literary form of ‘romance’, which projects the ideals of the age and is marked by its “persistent nostalgia, its search for some kind of imaginative golden age in time and space.”30 These aspirations were consonant with Dostoevsky’s interests, as he himself had attempted in the past (and would do so again in the future) to depict elements of chivalry (for example, the boy in Little hero (Malen’kii geroi), Prince Myshkin in The Idiot, Arkady in The Adolescent and Alesha in Brothers Karam- azov), as well as the quest for an imaginary Golden Age. Dostoevsky would have also probably sympathized with Hughes’ Christian socialist convictions, since he himself never completely abandoned his earlier Utopian socialism. The first significant socialist movements in Europe began in England in the early century on the basis of ideas put forward by Robert Owen (1771–1858), with which Dostoevsky was familiar, as he was with Chartism, since he published the work of Elizabeth Gaskell in his journal Vremia in 1861 and 1863.31 British Christian socialism was also partially influenced by the early French socialists Henri Saint-Simon (1760–1825) and Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1772–1837). Supporters of Christian socialism (besides Hughes) included F.D. Maurice (1805–1872), J.M. Ludlow (1821–1911) (who knew Fourier), Charles Kingsley (1819–1875), and Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881). Dostoevsky probably heard about some of their publications, especially in French translation, and in the articles of the Revue des deux Mondes (published since 1829), which Dos- toevsky read intermittently throughout his life.32 Hughes, like other Christian socialists, believed that the Christian doctrine contained answers to social

28 Thomas Hughes, The Manliness of Christ (London: Macmillan, 1879) 25. Quoted in Nor- man, op. cit. 89. 29 Charles Ferrall and Anna Jackson, Juvenile Literature and British Society, 1850–1950 (New York and London: Routledge, 2010) 4–5. 30 Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton: Princeton up, 1971) 186. 31 A. P. Miliukov, ‘Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevskii’, Dostoevskii v vospominaniiakh sovre- mennikov (M.-L.: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1964), 1, 179–200; 185. Elizabeth Gaskell’s works were published in Vremia, 1861, Nos 4 -9, and in 1863, No. 4. 32 M. Alphonse Esquiros, ‘La vie religieuse dans les villes. L’angleterre et la ville anglaise’. Revue des deux mondes, November (1865). ‘Charles Kingsley’, Nouvelle biographie générale, mdccclviii (1858).

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10 Zohrab issues and encouraged the brotherhood of man, in contrast to individualis- tic laissez faire. He considered some precepts in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, as cornerstones of Christian socialism. Hughes’ defence of the working classes also bore some similarities with Dostoevsky’s defence of the peasantry, especially his post-Siberian veneration of the Russian narod. Hughes’ promotion of producer co-operatives (as opposed to capitalist indus- try), where workers would be taught to work in cooperation and brotherhood, also coincides with elements of Dostoevsky’s ideals of brotherhood amongst all men and his earlier support for Chartism and later for peasant communes. But since ShzhTB was one of the most popular publications in Britain, Dos- toevsky’s likely interest in the novel was probably related not exclusively to Hughes’ beliefs and his representation of Thomas Arnold as the mentor figure to the school boys, but also to the means used by the author to attract his Vic- torian readers’ interest and maintain it throughout the narrative. Undoubtedly, Dostoevsky paid attention to popular European ‘bestsellers’ of the time with the intention of creating similar ‘bestsellers’ in the Russian cultural setting.

Dostoevsky’s Quest to Create a Poetic Image of the Mentor-Teacher

As we have seen, ShzhTB is mainly about the topic of education and upbring- ing, one that Dostoevsky himself was very concerned about throughout his work as a journalist-editor on the journals Time (Vremia), Epoch (Epokha), and especially The Citizen. This is confirmed by the predominance of articles on education published in The Citizen during his editorship.33 Dostoevsky recognized the importance of dedicated teachers as, for example, in the issue A Writer’s Diary, entitled Dreams and Reveries (Mechty i grezy) and in The Citi- zen (xxi, 91–96; dw, 234–240). With the support of Meshchersky, he intended to write a short story on this topic for The Citizen.34 In an 1872 notification, it

33 In an anthology of articles on education in The Citizen the editor republishes 12 examples of articles, including sections from Dostoevsky’s A Writer’s Diary: Potriasenie ili ‘Prosveshchenie.’ Stat’i iz “Grazhdanina” F.M. Dostoevskogo, V.A. Viktorovich ed. and comp. (Kolomna: Liga, 2011). In the chronological description of the contents of The Citizen, the compiler-editor identifies dozens of articles on education: Zohrab, Irene, ‘Appendix i.’ ‘The contents of The Citizen during Dostoevsky’s editorship: Uncovering the authorship of unsigned contributions. Dostoevsky’s quest to reconcile the “flux of life” with a self- fashioned Utopia. Part i,’ The Dostoevsky Journal, 5 (2004): 47–216. 34 Ibid., Zohrab. See also: V. A. Viktorovich, ‘Povest’ F.M. Dostoevskogo ob uchitele: rekon- struktsiia zamysla’. In Pedagogiia F.M. Dostoevskogo, (Kolomna: Kolomenskii gos. ped. inst. 2003), 119–149.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 11 was promised that “During the year 1873, the editors hope to publish a new work by F.M. Dostoevsky in The Citizen.”35 The notice was repeated in later advertisements in other journals.36 However, this plan was not fulfilled until Dostoevsky began preparatory work on The Adolescent and, later, on Brothers Karamazov. Hughes’ recreation of Thomas Arnold in ShzhTB as the headmaster of Rug- by may have been an incentive to Dostoevsky to carry through his own search to create a poetic image of the dedicated mentor-teacher in a Russian setting. In his earlier plans to write Life of a Great Sinner (Zhitie velikogo greshnika), Dostoevsky considered the learned and stern Tikhon Zadonsky37 as a possible prototype, also reflected in the character of Bishop Tikhon in the banned chapter in Besy (The Possessed). Yet Dostoevsky did not cease his search for the ideal prototype, who would embody the qualities he believed essential in a teacher, such as teaching as a vocation, rather than as a result of learning and scholar- ship.38 A mentor teacher needed to have the moral authority to provide ethical and spiritual guidance to his pupils, as Arnold did, encouraging in them a love of Christian values, leading to harmonious individual development or ‘personhood’ (tselostnost’ lichnosti). Such a teacher needed an almost charismatic per- sonality like Arnold to be able to have the confidence of his pupils and guide them towards an understanding of the higher meaning of life. It is significant that while the preparations for the publication of ShzhTB as a Supplement to The Citizen were drawing to completion in early 1874, Dostoevsky appeared to make it his first priority to represent in his forthcoming fiction mentors respon- sible for the spiritual welfare of their young charges, and to depict children in their process of ‘maturation’, who would play a major role in the composition. This is reflected in the early Notes to The Adolescent. Consequently, in The Adolescent Arkady’s ‘legal’ father, Makar Dolgoruky, a peasant pilgrim, embodies for Arkady, as J. Frank has summarised it, “a secure conviction of the ultimate goodness of God’s creation and a profound sense of wonder and awe at the transcendent mystery both of human existence and of life after death.”39 In the Brothers Karamazov, the elder Zosima is the

35 Grazhdanin, 27 November, 39 (1872): “V techenie 1873 goda redaktsiia nadeetcia v zhurnale Grazhdanin pomestit’ novoe proizvedenia F.M. Dostoevskogo.” 36 Voice (Golos), No. 8(1873); Stockexchcange Gazette (Birzhevye vedomosti) No. 5 (1873). 37 N. F. Budanova, “I svet vo t’me svetit.” K kharakteristike mirovozzreniia i tvorchestva pozd- nego Dostoevskogo. (SPb.: Petropolis, 2012), 406. 38 Viktorovich, ‘Povest’ F.M. Dostoevskogo’, 119–149. 39 Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky. The Mantle of the Prophet 1871–1881 (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2002) 185.

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12 Zohrab spiritual mentor of the youngest Karamazov brother, Alesha, who is introduced to the reader as ‘our hero’. After Zosima’s passing, Alesha becomes the mentor to the ‘boys’. This is similar compositionally to the mentoring theme in ShzhTB. To illustrate the intertextual relationship that exists between ShzhTB and bk one needs only to consider the episode where ‘our hero’ Tom senses his connection with “mysterious human relationships” while mourning at the grave of his mentor, the Doctor, and feels the “bond which links all living souls together in one brotherhood.” (tbs, 376) He is illuminated with an understanding of “the glory of his birthright” and with “the knowledge of Him. … forever and ever in perfect fullness”. (tbs, 376): “… впepвыe oзapил eгo луч пoзнaния нeбecнoгo пpoиcxoждeния души, гдe пoнял oн кaкoe звeнo cвязывaeт бpaтcкими узaми вecь poд чeлoвeчecкий, и у мoгилы тoгo, кoтopый пpивeл eгo к этoму пoзнaнию и cмягчил душу к вocпpиятию этиx уз.” (ShzhTB, 254) Tom’s illumination is echoed in the scene “Cana of Galilee” in bk, when Ale- sha after the death of his mentor Zosima similarly experiences a mysterious sense of universal connection: “It was as if threads from all those innumerable worlds of God all came together in his soul, and it was trembling all over, ‘touch- ing other worlds’. He wanted to forgive everyone , and to ask for forgiveness, oh, not for himself! But for all and for everything”. (bk, 362) (“Кaк будтo нити oтo вcex этиx бecчиcлeнныx миpoв бoжииx coшлиcь paзoм в душe eгo, и oнa вcя тpeпeтaлa, ‘coпpикacaяcь миpaм иным’.”) (xiv, 328) Both Tom and Alesha weep, as Tom kneels down and Alesha throws himself to the earth, as they sense “the bond which links all living souls together” or the “threads from all those innumerable worlds of God”. These interconnections suggest that the relational roles of the elder Zosima and Alesha are analagous to those of the ‘ideal’ headmaster, the Doctor in ShzhTB and his pupil Tom. The Doctor saw his primary task as instilling into the boys’ lives an acceptance of the sovereignty of God, as evidenced in the life of Christ, and a sense of moral earnestness and significance embodied even in seemingly minor school incidents. When his Christian teaching has borne fruit, the boys are shown leaving the school as manly Christians endowed with a moral conscience, a sense of honour, and the virtues of courage and self-reliance, as well as having formed life-long friendships that enrich their emotional and spiritual lives. Similarly, Alesha is shown leaving the monastery to “sojourn in the world”: “He fell to the earth a weak youth and rose up a fighter, steadfast for the rest of his life.” (bk, 363) On encountering the episode in Part 1, Ch. 7 (especially important for Tom in retrospect as a remembrance), when the boys at Rugby School experience listening to the first sermon of the Doctor, who has taken over the duties of the school chaplain (an episode that Dostoevsky probably first read in 1858 in the journal Library for Reading), readers of the Russian translation are likely to

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 13 recall the scene in the Epilogue of Brothers Karamazov—Alesha’s ‘Speech at the Stone’ (xv, 195–197) directed at twelve boys who listen attentively to him. Both translations of the scene capture its significance (especially the translation of Druzhinin in 1858, but also that of 1873–74). Having by this time assumed the responsibility entrusted to him by the elder Zosima, his late spiritual mentor, to remain in the temporal world, Alesha tries to protect the boys, like the Doc- tor, as their companion, instilling in them a fraternal sense of being. In both novels, the healing motive of the memory of childhood, leading to brotherly forgiveness, promises to bring the boys to salvation. In their future lives, the sermons of the Doctor will appear to them “vividly, brightly and clearly” and serve as their protection. The mentors in both novels teach the boys how to live, by not forgetting the present moment uniting them in love and community, so that they can develop towards assuming their brotherly duties and responsibilities. The narrator of ShzhTB shows surprise at the following:

Ho чтo-жe, oднaкo, oвлaдeвaлo этими тpeми coтнями мaльчикoв, чтo удepживaлo иx, зacтaвляя быть внимaтeльными вoлeю или нeвoлeю, в пpoдoлжeнии двaдцaти минут пo вocкpecным вeчepaм? … Пoлoвинa тoгo, чтo гoвopилocь былa нeдocтупнa для нac. Mы нe влaдeли ни пoзнaниeм cвoeгo coбcтвeннoгo cepдцa, ни пocтopoнниx cepдeц, и имeли вecьмa мaлo вepы, нaдeжды, любви, пoтpeбныx для этoгo. Oднaкo, мы cлушaли, кaк вce мaльчики будут cлушaть, в xopoшиe минуты чeлoвeкa, кoтopый, мы этo чувcтвoвaли, бopeтcя вceми cилaми души и cepдцa c тeм чтo низкo, нeдocтoйнo, нeпpaвeднo, в нaшeм мaлeнькoм oбщecтвe … Итaк, paзумнo, ocтopoжнo, иcпoдoвoль, нo впoлнe нaдeжнo и твepдo, впepвыe былo дaнo пoнятиe мaльчикaм o знaчeнии иx жизни, o тoм, чтo oнa нe paй глупцoв и лeнивцeв, в кoтopый пoпaдaют нeвзнaчaй, нo изcтapи уcтaнoвлeннoe пoлe битвы, зpитeлeй в кoeй нeт, caмыe мoлoдыe дoлжны избиpaть мecтo в pядax, a cтaвкaми в нeй cмepть и жизнь. Toт-жe, ктo пpoбудил в ниx этo coзнaниe, кaждым cлoвoм пpoизнocимым c кaфeдpы, и cвoeю eжeднeвнoю жизнью, укaзывaл cпocoб вecти битву и пpинимaл в нeй учacтиe, тo тoвapищeм нapяду c ними, тo пpeдвoдитeлeм вoйcкa … Eгo нeпoкoлeбимocть и нeумoлимaя бoдpocть дуxa, вepнee вceгo пpoчeгo, пpoлaгaли eму путь к cepдцaм бoльшинcтвa из тex, кoтopым oн дaл жeлaeмoe нaпpaвлeниe, зacтaвил иx cнaчaлa увepoвaть в ceбя, a пocлe и в Tвopцa cвoeгo. (ShzhTB, 95–96)

[But what was it, after all, which seized and held these three hundred boys, dragging them out of themselves, willing or unwilling, for twenty minutes, on Sunday afternoons? … We couldn’t enter into half that we

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14 Zohrab

heard; we hadn’t the knowledge of our own hearts or the knowledge of one another, and little enough for the faith, hope, and love needed to that end. But we listened, as all boys in their better moods will listen (ay, and men too for the matter of that), to a man whom we felt to be, with all his heart and soul and strength, striving against whatever was mean and unmanly and unrighteous in our little world … And so, wearily and little by little, but surely and steadily on the whole, was brought home to the young boy, for the first time, the meaning of his life—that it was no fool’s or sluggard’s paradise into which he had wandered by chance, but a battlefield ordained from of old, where there are no spectators, but the youngest must take his side, and the stakes are life and death. And he who roused this consciousness in them showed them at the same time, by every word he spoke in the pulpit, and by his whole daily life, how that battle was to be fought, and stood there before them their fellow- soldier and the captain of their band … but it was this thoroughness and undaunted courage which, more than anything else, won his way to the hearts of the great mass of those on whom he left his mark, and made them believe first in him and then in his Master. (tbs, 142)]

This unforgettable impression of the Doctor’s sermons and the influence he had on the boys comes to life in Tom’s memory a few years after he has left Rugby, when he is already studying at Oxford and is shocked to hear of the Doctor’s death. But the narrator explains that boys learn by such losses that:

душa чeлoвeчecкaя нe дoлжнa пoлaгaтьcя ни нa кaкиe oпopы в этoм тлeннoм миpe, кaк бы cильны и пpeмудpы и coвepшeнны oни нe были, инaчe Toт, Кoтopый oдин тoлькo мoжeт быть eя ocнoвaтeлeм и oпopoй, oтнимeт вce пoдoбныe пoддepжки Cвoими вceиcпoвeдиными и милocepдными путями, тaк чтo, нaкoнeц, нe знaя ни кудa cтупить, ни нa чтo oпepeтьcя, пpибeгнeшь к Heму, Пpeдвeчнoму Утecу, eдинcтвeннoму твepдoму ocнoвaнию и oпope душ чeлoвeчecкиx.(ShzhTB, 250)

[the soul of man cannot stand or lean upon any human prop, however strong, and wise, and good; but that He upon whom alone it can stand and lean will knock away all such props in His own wise and merciful way, and until there is no ground or stay left but Himself, the Rock of Ages, upon whom a sure foundation for every soul of man is laid. (tbs, 370)]

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 15

Compositionally, the function of the death of the mentor, Dr. Arnold, in the plot and action of the novel is equivalent to the death of Makar, the mentor in The Adolescent, and that of the elder Zosima, the mentor in Brothers Karam- azov. The mentors’ influence and subsequent departure, and the memory of them are shown to have a decisive impact on the development to adulthood of their disciples (Arkady and Alesha) that determines the plot and action. It goes without saying that Dostoevsky consciously creates Russian ‘types’ or models of mentors to represent them in a hagiographic manner.40 Unlike Hughes, Dostoevsky did not have in the first instance a definitive living prototype for one or other of his mentors in his later works. Nevertheless, a number of possible prototypes have been suggested especially for the elder Zosima. (xv, 456–58) Dostoevsky had visited Oprina Pustyn’ (following the death of his young son) and met with Father Amvrosy in 1878. Cutomarily, Dostoevsky’s creative process appears to have been stimulated initially by ideas engen- dered by world literature (such as, for instance, Hughes’s novel), and as these ideas matured his quest was to combine them with native folk sources, creating an ideal poetic image. This creative process corresponds to the advice he gave Russian artists in his Writer’s Diary in The Citizen No. 13:41 “… more scope should be given to the idea, and the ideal should not be feared. … The ideal is also reality, after all.” (“нaдo дaть пoбoлee xoду идee и нe бoятьcя идeльнoгo … Идeaл вeдь тoжe дeйcтвитeльнocть.”) (xxi, 75–76; wd, 214)42 This advice of Dostoevsky’s also corresponds to the comments he made at other times regarding the creation of inspirational figures. For instance, in the 1860s in his series of articles in Time on Russian literature, Pedantry and Literacy. First Article (Knizhnost’ i gramotnost’. Stat’ia pervaia), he states that the images of Pimen in Pushkin’s Boris Godunov and Achilles in the Iliad are truthful, even though they never existed. He defends the Russianness of Pimen against accusations of him being a “fictitious, invented character”:

Heужeли в нeм (Пимeнe) нeт элeмeнтoв pуccкoй жизни и нapoднocти, пoтoму чтo oн иcтopичecки нeвepeн? A пoэтичecкaя пpaвдa?

40 It is possible that the sermons of the Reverend Arthur Penrhyn Stanley published in Grazhdanin influenced Dostoevsky’s creation of the character of Father Zosima: I. Zohrab, ‘Redaktorskaia deiatel’nost’ F.M. Dostoevskogo v zhurnale “Grazhdanin” i religiozno-nravstvennyi kontekst “Brat’ev Karamazovykh” (k istorii sozdaniia romana)’, Russkaia literatura, 1 (1996): 55–77. 41 ‘Po povodu vystavki’, Dnevnik pisatelia ix, Grazhdanin, 26 March, 13 (1873): 423–426. 42 ‘Apropos of the Exhibition’, A Writer’s Diary. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Vol. 1, 1873–1876. Lantz, Kenneth, trans. and ann., (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1994) 214. Hereafter referred to within text as wd.

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16 Zohrab

Cтaлo быть, пoэзия игpушкa? Heужeли Axиллec нe дeйcтвитeльнo гpeчecкий тип, пoтoму чтo oн кaк лицo, мoжeт быть, никoгдa и нe cущecтвoвaл? Heужeли «Илиaдa» нe нapoднaя дpeвнeгpeчecкaя пoэмa, пoтoму чтo в нeй вce лицa явнo пepecoздaнныe из нapoдныx лeгeнд и дaжe, мoжeт быть, пpocтo выдумaнныe? (xix, 9)

[Does he (Pimen) really lack the elements of Russian life and nationality because he is historically untrue? And what about the poetic truth? Is not Achilles a true Greek type because he perhaps never existed as a person? Is not the Iliad a national ancient Greek poem because all the characters in it are quite obviously re-creations of national legends and perhaps even simply invented?]43

Dostoevsky’s views do not appear to have changed since in the late 1870s he created in a similar manner a ‘truthful’ though ‘invented’ Russian character, the spiritual mentor in the Brothers Karamazov, the elder Zosima. Combin- ing his ‘idea’ with the ‘ideal’, he created his “poetic image” in accordance with his observations both of contemporary monasticism and ancient Russian and apocryphal writings. This actuality is confirmed by Dostoevsky himself when he admits in a letter to his publisher in relation to his chosen authorial title to Chapter 6, in which the elder Zosima is presented as a “Russian monk” (“Russkii inok”), that “the title is audacious and challenging” (“нaзвaниe дepзкoe и вызывaющee”). (xxx (1), 102) Dostoevsky hoped that he would do a “good deed: I will force the admission that a pure, ideal Christian is not an abstraction, but a graphically real, possible, and demonstrably prospective entity.” (“дeлo xopoшee: зacтaвлю coзнaтьcя, чтo чиcтый, идeaльный xpиcтиaнин—дeлo нe oтвлeчeннoe, a oбpaзнo peaльнoe, вoзмoжнoe, вooчию пpeдcтoящee.”) (xxx (1), 68) Although there is ongoing research on the possible prototypes for Dosto- evsky’s mentors, Dostoevsky’s letters to his publisher and his publicist state- ments corroborate our suggestions regarding his creative method: it appears to have been stimulated by ‘ideas’ appropriated from European literature that were then poetically and ideologically reimagined, and combined with his concept of the ‘ideal’. His next step was to seek historical grounds in Russian reality to justify the created poetic image, enhancing it with genuine folk speech borrowed from ancient Russian sources to make that poetic image conform to reality (deistvitel’nost’). Hence for Dostoevsky, the process of endowing his

43 Dostoevsky’s Occasional Writings, Selected, Translated and Introduced by David Magar- shak (London: Vision Press Ltd., 1963) 144.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 17 fictional characters with life, virtually in a Godlike fashion, was an essential element of his work, even if these characters did not exist in Russian reality, as Pimen and Achilles “had never existed”. And by doing so, he hoped that he would promote and encourage the possibility of the appearance of such characters in the midst of Russian reality (hence the ‘tag’: ‘Godlike’). In relation to the poetic image of Makar, the mentor in The Adolescent, Dos- toevsky’s Preparatory notes to the novel show that he searched for a relatively long time before settling on the figure of the itinerant peasant preacher and pilgrim (xvi, 121–2, 128, 137). Makar embodies the influence on the adolescent of traditional native Orthodox religion (with some Old Believer overtones) (in parallel to the role of Doctor Arnold in ShzhTB, who imparts Christian teaching within the framework of ‘Broad Church’ Anglicanism to his pupils). Makar’s way of expressing himself through popular speech, using folk expres- sions, is also similar to the popular English dialect of Tom’s old companions and childhood carers: Benji, Noah, and the ‘sage’ Ives—all aspects of Tom’s childhood mentoring. (See section below on “tbs echoes in The Adolescent and bk”) Dostoevsky eventually found the Russian model of such folksy prayerful speech that he needed in the writings the Monk Parfeny (Ageev) in his The Tale of the Journey of Monk Parthenius (Skazanie o stranstvovanii inoka Parfe- niia). (xvi, 137–138; 247)44 Dostoevsky’s notebooks for the bk show the connection between the roles of mentors or teachers in both The Adolescent and bk, demonstrating that his ‘idea’ to create a poetic image of a teacher-mentor persisted and matured.45 As a consequence, in bk we have what has now become “a graphically real, possible, and demonstrably prospective entity”, the monumental figure of the native Russian elder Zosima. After the death of the learned elder Zosima, his pupil Alesha Karamazov, (who is presented to the reader as ‘our hero’, just as Tom was introduced), continues the legacy of Zosima’s mentoring. Without wishing to be controversial, it must be noted that Dostoevsky’s ‘poetic images’ of his mentors embody elements of non-conformist religious beliefs that were frowned upon by the official Russian Orthodox church at the time. Could the prevalence of nonconformism and dissidence among some sections of the Protestant religion have had some impact (perhaps on the unconscious level) on Dostoevsky’s views on Christian believers outside the official church? As editor of The Citizen Dostoevsky published a series of articles on various religious doctrines and sects in Britain: “Russian Leaflets

44 I. D. Iakubovich, ‘K kharakteristike stilizatsii v “Podrostke”, Dostoevskii’. Materialy i issledovaniia, (Leningrad: Nauka, 1978) 3, 136–143. 45 ‘Rukopisnye redaktsii’, pss, xv, 199–374; 199–200; 204.

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18 Zohrab from Abroad” (Russkie listki iz-za granitsy) that had been contributed by K.P. Pobedonostsev, now considered to have felt sympathy towards some traits of Protestantism.46 In one of these articles “itinerant free preachers” and vaga- bondage were associated with dissident sects. According to The Citizen it was the dissenting movements that arose out of the established Anglican Church in protest against its exclusiveness and formality that constituted a dynam- ic and spiritual force active amongst the English: “Heльзя нe пoдивитьcя нeoбычaйнoй дeятeльнocти, кoтopую пpoявляют aнглийcкиe диcceнтepы нeкoтopыxъ тoлкoв.” (“It is impossible not to marvel at the extraordinary activities undertaken by English dissenters of some persuasions.”)47 Dostoevsky may have (mistakenly) interpreted in ShzhTB the narrator’s address to the reader on the propensity for vagobondage of the English: “Bпpoчeм я нe cтaну ocмeeвaть бpoдяжничecтвo мoиx зeмлякoв. Mы cтaли тeпepь бpoдячим нapoдoм, xудo -ли, xopoшo -ли, a этo тaк. Я и caм бpoдягa, я oтлучaлcя из дoмa нe мeнee пяти paз в пpoшлoм гoду.” (ShzhTB, 13) (“Yet why should I after all abuse the gadabout propensities of my countrymen? We are a vagabond nation now, that’s certain, for better, for worse. I am a vagabond: I have been away from home no less than five distinct times in the last year.”) (tbs, 19) In the Citizen’s article by Pobedonostsev cited above it states that “England is full of itinerant free preachers, who move from place to place and may start preaching anywhere, in a square, at a market, on a highway: on occasion there may be no audience at all, but sometimes a crowd gathers and the sermon makes an impression. . . He spoke about sin, about repentance, about Hell, and not without some talent.” London is described as a milieu “frequently chosen as a field of operations by preachers of various sects and private individuals inspired by a fervent wish to bring light into the dark world of the outcast. There are plenty of examples of such activity.” Could these impressions perhaps have encouraged Dostoevsky to depict a counterpart itinerant preacher in a Russian setting, such as Makar? Dostoevsky identifies Makar with members of a dissident sect of Old Believers in his Preparatory notes to the novel, but would not have been able to refer to this too explicitly in the final text because of censorship. In his Notes Dostoevsky states: “Uchenie bespopovtsev” (“the doctrine of the Bespopovtsy”) (xvi, 137) “Bespopovtsy’ were a dissident sect of

46 A. Iu. Polunov, ‘Protestantism i Katolichestvo v otsenkakh “Russkogo Torkvemada”: K vo- prosu o religioznykh vozzrenii K.P. Pobedonostseva’, Vestnik pstgu. Serial 1: Bogoslovie. Filosofiia.Religiovedenie. Vyp. 5 (17) 2016: 24–32. 47 ‘Russkie listki iz-za granitsy. viii. Vorovskoi uzhin.’ Grazhdanin 36 (1873): 974–976, 974. These articles were contributed by K.P. Pobedonostsev. See Zohrab, ‘The contents of The Citizen during Dostoevsky’s editorship’, 122.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 19

Old Believers. The elder Zosima has also been considered as displaying some non-conformist characteristics (xiv, 293; xv, 570). Although Arnold is the main mentor after Tom’s arrival at school, the novel presents other forms of mentoring, especially with regard to Tom’s early childhood. In The Adolescent various types of education or mentoring are also represented. In the beginning, the adolescent is not sure whether Versilov’s mentoring is real or pseudo-mentoring. Versilov is another version of a ‘vagabond’ or ‘wanderer’, an upper class one, who has travelled and resided in Europe, though the Russian word used is skitalets and a gentilhomme russe et citoyen du monde: “Heт cвoбoднee и cчacтливee pуccкoгo eвpoпeйcкoгo cкитaльцa” (xiii, 380) (There is no happier and freer man than a Russian European itinerant wanderer/pilgrim.) The mentoring in ShzhTB is polemically transformed and used to voice a folk spirit. The image of Tom’s mother is reincarnated in Sophia and the adolescent’s aunt, Tatiana Pavlovna. Arkady’s teacher in Moscow, Ivan Semenych, represents a variation in mentoring from the viewpoint of the author himself, for Dostoevsky was forced in the novel’s finale to present readers and critics with a ‘raisonneur’, to clarify the author’s intentions and to moderate his criticism of the nobility. Similarly, in Part ii ch. 8 of ShzhTB, at the end of the final term when almost everyone has left for the year including the Doctor, the ‘raisonneur’-like figure of a teacher, ‘the master’ appears, explaining to Tom and the reader the main reasons underlying the Doctor’s practice of teaching. The final quest of Dostoevsky and Hughes would seem to be, as the adolescents’ personalities form, to present their process of self-knowledge, which ultimately leads them to achieve their own understanding of self-mentoring leading to self-improvement.

Echoes of ShzhTB in The Adolescent and BK

In this section we shall provide an overview of the novel ShzhTB for readers unfamiliar with it. ShzhTB is by genre an autobiographical novel of growing up and becoming an adult (Bildungsroman, or Erziehungsroman): the narrator is a young man, a former pupil of Rugby School. The fictional character Tom Brown is largely based on the author’s memories of experiences and those of his brother at the school. Tom arrives at Rugby at the age of 11 in the middle of the term and studies there for eight years. In narrative terms, the text comprises asides to the reader, dialogues, confessions, and direct speech. The narrator’s point of view sometimes shifts from character to character. The first-person narration is reminiscent of

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20 Zohrab the one in The Adolescent, which is also an educational novel and a Bildungsro- man, its narration shaped by memories, a new departure for Dostoevsky. He depicts Arkady’s gradual formation or becoming as an individual, the process of transition to manhood that has been described as “the representation of a pu- bescent mind in the midst of its possible ways of development.”48 According to Bakhtin, Dostoevsky’s novels are all “sharply etched novels of trial” (also translated as ‘ordeal’ [ispytanie]).49 However, the idea of testing (i.e. trial) lacked within itself the necessary means to deal with a man’s ‘becoming’ (stanovlenie): “Testing begins with an already formed person and subjects him to a trial in the light of an ideal also already formed.”50 In several of its forms the person experiences crisis and rebirth, but not “development, becoming, a man’s gradual formation,” akin to Arkady’s development through writing down his recollections of certain events. Bakhtin goes on to say that the theme of becoming and the theme of testing are by no means mutually exclusive: “within the confines of the modern novel … they may enter into a profound and organic union.”51 In the first chapter of tbs, the narrator introduces the hero’s forebears, a long line of Browns, as staunch as Tom ‘our hero’, who have lived for centu- ries “conquering the earth” in most parts of the British Empire “on which the sun never sets”. Like the nineteen-year-old narrator Arkady in The Adolescent, the narrator in tbs, a former Rugby pupil, undermines his credibility with the reader as a storyteller from time to time as he discusses his narrative:

So, having succeeded in contradicting myself in my first chapter, (which gives me great hopes that you will go on and think me a good fellow not- withstanding my crotchets,) I shall here shut up for the present, and consider my ways; having resolved to ‘sar’ it out’, as we say in the Vale, ‘holus bolus’, just as it comes, and then you’ll probably get the truth out of me. (tbs, 20)

The narrator of tbs writes his narrative over the course of a year, explaining to the reader that he started his manuscript the previous year, and it never occurred to him “how vividly many an old scene, which had lain hid away for years in some dusty old corner of my brain, would come back again and stand before me as clear and bright as if it had happened yesterday”. (tbs, 342)

48 H.-J. Gerigk, Versuch über Dostoevskijs „Jüngling“. Ein Beitrag zur Theorie des Romans. (München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag 1965) Forum slavicum 4,17. 49 M. M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination, Michael Holquist ed., Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist trans. (Austin and London: Texas up, 1981) 391. 50 Ibid., 392. 51 Ibid., 393.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 21

Arkady, too, writes an account of his life, focusing on events following his arrival in Petersburg a year earlier, but compressed into some twelve days from a period of six months. The narration incorporates dialogues and multivoiced intertexts, including “various combinations of discursive techniques and tacit presumptions”, whose meanings by and large escape the adolescent’s compre- hension and which are “sensed by him indistinctly, misinterpreted and placed in a very puzzling context”.52 There are flashbacks to memorable episodes in his life and retrospective events narrated with a determination “to adhere to the facts” that were instrumental in bringing him to the point he finally reaches: “I have suddenly become aware that I have re-educated myself through the process of recalling events and writing them down.” (pripominania i zapisyva- niia) (xiii. 447) The narration in tbs also reaches a point when Tom finishes his school years “now slipping out of sight behind him, and hopes and resolves for the next stage upon which he was entering with all the confidence of a young traveller.” (tbs, 67) The narrator is openly moralistic and ideological in defending the ordinari- ness and courage of the Browns, using biblical citations, mostly from the Old Testament, and intertextual allusions to British literature, history and folklore. This creates a fundamental subtext that extols faith, tradition and patriotism, although the action of this school novel is set in modern times, and this is emphasized by numerous references to the realia and realities of the modern world. The first three chapters describe the almost idyllic childhood of Tom, the son of Squire Brown, the rural J.P. of White Horse Vale, the area in which the ‘Blowing Stone’ is located. In addition to his caring family, especially his mother, Tom is surrounded by old servants, 70-year-old Benjamin (Benji) and 90-year-old Noah, rustic boys with whom he plays (Job, Jacob, Harry, etc.), and local residents such as the ‘sage’, the old farmer and animal healer Ives. Tom grows up in close connection with the land, the soil and the community, in an area where the parish celebrates the traditional ‘Eternal’ holiday, the an- niversary of the illumination of the temple—a kind of amusement like a fair, with games and competitions in which all residents participate, regardless of class: “the holiday was also the day of general reconciliation (primirenie)” (tbs, 28–9). In the fourth chapter, his father takes Tom to Rugby School. Chapters five through nine depict his troubled years at Rugby, where he endures adver- sity and, with his friend Harry East, breaches various school rules, for which they are punished by flogging and Tom is almost expelled.

52 Nina Perlina, ‘Rethinking Adolescence’, Celebrating Creativity: Essays in Honour of Jostein Bortnes, Knut Andreas Grimstad and Ingunn Lunde, eds. (Bergen: University of Bergen, 1997) 216–226 (217).

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22 Zohrab

As a junior schoolboy, Tom must ‘fag’ for the older pupils, who are called preposters. It is expected of the elders that they will serve as a good example for the younger boys, but this does not always happen. Tom suffers bullying, and intimidation, when he is ‘roasted’—held in front of an open fire by the bully Flashman. Tom becomes more self-willed and is subjected to a sort of ‘test’. In part ii, with the support of close friends and through the application of methods associated with the Christian formation of character, he overcomes obsta- cles, and continues his path to maturity. So, having passed through the process of becoming (to use Bakhtin’s terminology), Tom emerges as a young man with a sense of honour and a certain awareness of ‘personhood’ and self-actaliza- tion, achieving the relatively modest goals that he set for himself when his little friend Arthur made him formulate them. The narrator intends that Tom’s goals inspire in the reader affection and some amusement, similar to Dostoevsky’s intentions in The Adolescent “to make the reader grow to love the Adolescent” (“Zastavit’ chitatelia poliubit’ Podrostka”). (XVI, 86) Thus Tom declares:

I want to be A1 at cricket and football, and all the other games, and to make my hands keep my head against any fellow, lout or gentleman. I want to get into the sixth before I leave, and to please the Doctor, and I want to carry away just as much Latin and Greek as will take me through Oxford respectably. There now, young un: I never thought of it before, but that’s pretty much about my figure. Ain’t it all on the square? What have you got to say to that? (tbs, 313)

Throughout Tom’s sense of independence and directness is emphasised, as is the egalitarianism of his family and community.To endear Tom and his family to the readers and amuse them, the narrator mentions that Tom’s father, Squire Brown, has very similar hopes for Tom. This is reflected in the father’s thoughts on what to say to Tom at parting when he takes him in a carriage to Rugby school:

To condense the Squire’s meditations, it was somewhat as follows: “I won’t tell him to read his Bible, and love and serve God; if he don’t do that for his mother’s sake and teaching, he won’t for mine. Shall I go into the sort of temptations he’ll meet with? No, I can’t do that. Never do for an old fellow to go into such things with a boy. He won’t understand me. Do him more harm than good, ten to one. Shall I tell him to mind his work, and say he’s sent to school to make himself a good scholar? Well, but he isn’t sent to school for that – at any rate, not for that mainly. I don’t care a straw for Greek particles, or the digamma; no more does

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 23

his mother. What is he sent to school for? Well, partly because he wanted so to go. If he’ll only turn out a brave, helpful, truth-telling Englishman, and a gentleman, and a Christian, that’s all I want,” thought the Squire, and upon this view of the case he framed his last words of advice to Tom, which were well enough suited to his purpose. (tbs, 73–74)

In addition to correspondences between ShzhTB and The Adolescent, there are many correspondences between tbs and those episodes in bk which focus on the group of schoolboys, who are first briefly encountered by Alesha in Part 2, reappear towards the end of the novel in Part 4, Book 10, and dominate the Epilogue. Its final chapter ‘Little Iliusha’s funeral’ is like the final chapter, ‘Finis’, in Part 2 of tbs. The ‘Speech at the Stone’ is both a summation of the novel and an epiphany, as well as a preamble to Dostoevsky’s intended sequel, where the boys are likely to have played a significant role. The main part of the novel about the Karamazov family can be classed in Bakhtinian terms as one of ‘trial’, while the episodic parts mainly Part 4, Book 10, and the Epilogue about the local boys can be identified with the novel of ‘becoming’. In accordance with Bakhtin’s interpretation of Dostoevsky’s poetics, the writer’s perception of “multileveledness and contradictions” in the ob- jective social world made the polyphonic novel possible.53 As well as that, in tbs the boys grow up not only under the influence of Arnold, but also under that of their school friends and each other, as this is the specific aim of the Rugby school system. Not for nothing do Tom and the narrator both refer to Harry East as a mentor or ‘cicerone’ soon after he greets Tom at Rugby (tbs, 91), because East, being older, tells him about the school, explains its rules and customs. This gives the narrator an opportunity to introduce the school to the reader from East’s viewpoint when Tom first arrives at Rugby. In the aftermath, Tom’s nickname for his best friend East is fidus Achates, which means ‘faithful friend’ and comes from the name of Aeneas’s loyal companion in Virgil’s Aeneid. (tbs, 257) Arkady, too, is initiated into his experiences in St Petersburg, including transgressive ones, by his companions and former school mates, such as Lambert. Tom is surrounded by many other boys, whose relationships or character traits are sometimes shared by the younger characters in Dostoevsky’s later novels, as well as their exploits. For example, Tom’s fight that dominates chapter five is echoed in the fight of Iliushechka that Alesha has to break up. The characterisation of the scientifically-minded Ivan in bk is reminiscent of

53 Mikhail Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. Trans. By R.W. Rotsel (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1973) 22–23.

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Martin, the ‘Madman’ in tbs. According to the narrator, a suitable school could have made Martin a “a natural philosopher. He had a passion for birds, beasts and insects … He was also an experimental chemist … and had made unto himself an electric machine.” (tbs, 250) At Rugby, older boys who are popular or outstanding at sport are considered heroes, whom the younger boys worship (metaphorically) in a way that is reminiscent of Kolia Krasotkin’s ascen- dancy over Iliusha and the other boys in bk.The bullying tactics of Flashman in tbs are echoed in Kolia’s dominance, and also in that of Ivan over Smerdiakov. However, school friendship is the main theme of tbs. It is generally accepted that the religious ideology adopted in the school environment creates ideals of eternal friendship. It is this type of friendship that exists between Tom and East, and between Tom and Arthur. According to modern understanding it is believed that “Drug darit drugu vozvrashchenie k sebe, k svoei sushchnosti, svoemu ‘theion’, i v dar on zhdët takogo zhe—svoego ‘theion’.” (“A friend gives a friend a return to his own self, to his essence, his theion, and as a gift he awaits the same in return–his own theion.”)54 This intimacy is reflected in some dialogues between boys who are very close on the spiritual level, revealing their innermost thoughts to each other, which recalls some intimate dialogues between the brothers in bk. According to Bakhtin: “The true life of the individual is only accessible to the dialogical penetration into it, to which it responds and freely reveals itself.”55 The general features of the plot of The Adolescent have some similarities with that of tbs. The Adolescent’s concealment of a ‘document’ sewn by him into his pocket, which is for him a ‘matter of conscience’ and frightens Katerina Akhmakova, is suggested in general outline in tbs: Tom also hides copies of the so-called ‘vulgus’ (i.e. documents containing dozens of themes and short exercises in Greek or Latin verse on given subjects) that enable him to cheat at school. Under the influence of Arthur, Tom eventually abandons cheating. The use of the space-time continuum in both novels depends on seasonal changes throughout the year based on the Christian calendar. The school year is di- vided into school terms and summer and winter vacations in the same way. Both authors use similar methods to carry the action forward and depict the growing maturity and formation of their heroes’ personalities. Tom’s transformation begins when the Doctor decides to entrust him with responsibility for a young new boy, George Arthur, whose late father was a chaplain and a Chartist (Arthur’s prototype is Arthur Stanley during his studies at Rugby). Arthur is not a strong boy, very reserved and pious, accustomed to reading the Bible every

54 O. A. Sedakova, Moralia, iv, (Moscow: Universitet Dmitriia Pozharskogo, 2010) 41. 55 Bakhtin, (Tr. Rotsel), Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, 48.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 25 day and praying in the evenings. Tom protects him from bullying by other boys and, as if challenging them, begins praying himself, along with his friend East, as well as reading The Bible. Tom overcomes his own cowardice, which was preventing him from praying in the morning on his knees by the bed, in front of all the other boys in his dormitory. He forces himself to sink to his knees:

At last, as it were from his inmost heart, a still, small voice seemed to breathe forth the words of the publican, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!’ He repeated them over and over, clinging to them as for his life, and rose from his knees comforted and humbled, and ready to face the whole world … and he went down to the great School with a glimmering of another lesson in his heart – the lesson that he who has conquered his own coward spirit has conquered the whole outward world; and that other one which the old prophet learnt in the cave in Mount Horeb, when he hid his face, and the still, small voice asked, ‘What doest thou here, Elijah?’ that however we may fancy ourselves alone on the side of good, the King and Lord of men is nowhere without His witnesses; for in every society, however seemingly corrupt and godless, there are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” (tbs, 228)

The quotations from the Old Testament by the characters and the narrator of ShzhTB throughout the novel are consonant with Dostoevsky’s use of biblical allusions. The quotation above may have elicited a special response in Dos- toevsky as he had an interest in the prophets Il'ia (Elijah) and Enoch, whose names appear in the Preparatory Notes to the novel. (xvi, 357, 363) Arkady in The Adolescent similarly begins his transformation for the better after he un- dertakes the responsibility of helping Arinochka, a baby abandoned in a bas- ket. (Part 1, Chapter 6, xiii, 80) Despite his intention to accumulate money and become a Rothschild, he is ready to pay for the maintenance of the baby at 8 rubles a month. This proves to him “that no ‘idea’ has the power to distract (me at least) from stopping suddenly in front of some crushing fact and instantly sacrificing to it everything I have done over years of toil for the ‘idea.’” (xiii. 81) In The Adolescent, Arkady’s ‘conversion’ from a self-confessed egoist, “wilful and proud”, with the ‘idea’ of amassing a fortune and becoming a Rothschild with power and dominance, is a gradual one, though the crucial ‘ascent’ begins at sunset, that is also related to the ‘ascent’ of Arthur in tbs (See next section). Arkady meets with many temptations and almost succumbs to some, including gambling and blackmail for sexual submission, using an incriminating document. As Arkady comments in his narrative: “It always has been a mystery and I have marvelled a thousand times at that faculty in man (and in the

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26 Zohrab

Russian, I believe, more especially) of cherishing in his soul the loftiest ideal side by side with the most abject baseness, and all quite sincerely.” (xiii, 307) However, Arkady is saved because he accepts Makar as his true father, protec- tor and guiding light. His conversations with Makar take place in the first five chapters of Part 3, prior to the older man’s death in Chapter 6, Section 2, but his presence is felt during Arkady’s later encounters with his old schoolfellow Lambert and the effeminate Trishatov with his side kick Andreev, nicknamed le grand dadais. Tom likewise feels the presence of the Doctor after the latter had passed. The hagiographic tone of Dostoevsky’s representation of the mentor figure of Makar, his attempt at a Russian version of the righteous man, similar to Ar- nold’s role in tbs, is closer to the philosophical-ideological level of the English schoolboy novel than any other element of The Adolescent. This does not make The Adolescent a monological novel, reflecting Dostoevsky’s ideas, but merely gives his ‘ideas-images’ equal value, along with the opposition to them of many other voices and consciousnesses, especially that of Versilov. A similar intention underlies the hagiographic representation of the mentor figure of Father Zosima in bk, whose ideas become dialogized and enter into “the great dia- log of the novel on completely equal terms with other idea-images (the ideas of Ivan Karamazov and others).”56 In both of Dostoevsky’s novels the ‘idea- images’ of the mentors, Makar and Father Zosima, are conveyed through the consciousness of the narrators, Arkady, who recalls their conversations after Makar’s death, and Alesha, who writes down the precepts of his teacher Father Zosima after the latter’s death, which is incorporated into the narrator’s account. This has some similarity with the narration in ShzhTB, since it is the autobiograohical ‘author’-narrator who recalls and relates the Doctor’s influence on Tom and the other boys over the eight-year period of their schooling, culminating in the last chapter as Tom sits at the altar by the Doctor’s grave and his thoughts are intertwined with those of the narrator. The presence of the narrator’s voice in tbs is powerful and personal, especially when he addresses the reader about the actual writing of his manuscript. It may have encouraged Dostoevsky to have his novel narrated by Arkady, who also constantly refers to his manuscript, but introduces conflicting views and changing perspectives.57 Both authors use the device of delirium in a symbolic way to bring about change within the protagonist and his associates. Tom’s transformation accel- erates when his little friend George Arthur falls victim to the fever spreading

56 Bakhtin, (Tr. Rotsel), Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, 75. 57 Ingunn Lunde, ‘Verbal experiments in Dostoevskii’s A Raw Youth’, Slavonic and East Euro- pean Review 79, 2 (2001): 264–289.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 27 around the school and almost dies, but awakens to relate his vision to Tom, who, according to Arthur, made him stay alive. Arkady’s epiphany in The Ad- olescent also begins on the fourth day, when he regains consciousness after a febrile illness, when he lies in bed and foresees that an oblique ray of sun will strike directly into the corner of his wall and hears Makar’s voice. (xiii, 283–284 Part Three, Chapter 2) Similarly, the illness and death of Ilyiusha in bk takes the action forward and affects the development of the characters.

Arthur’s Dream and Dostoevsky’s The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

Arthur’s dream is portrayed metaphorically and is built around Biblical images from the Old and New Testaments; it alludes to Ezekiel 1: 24; 5–28; Isaiah 38: 18–19, Revelation of John the Divine, 9: 4; Job 13: 15; Psalm 115: 17; Luke and other biblical motifs. The dream depicts Arthur’s descent into spiritual dark- ness, akin to Christ’s descent into the realm of the dead before the Resurrec- tion, until Arthur sees that the inhabitants of Heaven are working across a river (apparently, the Jordan). Like dreams in The Adolescent and bk, Arthur’s vision plays an important role both in the compositional and ideological plan of the novel. Its echoes in Dostoevsky’s later works warrant some detailed scrutiny. Arthur tells Tom how it all happened:

Cнaчaлa, кoгдa мeня пocлaли в лaзapeт и я пoнял чтo у мeня cдeлaлacь гopячкa, я ужacнo пepeпугaлcя. … Умиpaть нe уcпeв иcпытaть бopьбы, нe пoтpудившиcь, никoму нe пoжepтвoвaв cвoeю жизнью былo для мeня тяжким бpeмeнeм. Tepпeниe измeнилo мнe, я poптaл нa Гocпoдa зa нecпpaвeдливocть … cepдцeм мoим oвлaдeвaл тяжeлый, oцeпeняющeй тpeпeт, гoвopя: ты мepтв, мepтв, мepтв. И я вocкликнул: “живыe, живыe вocxвaлят Teбя, Гocпoди; мepтвыe нe мoгут вocxвaлять Teбя. B мoгилe нeт paбoты, никтo нe мoжeт paбoтaть вo тьмe. Ho я мoгу тpудитьcя. Я мoгу coвepшить мнoгoe. Зaчeм xoчeшь Tы умepтвить мeня?” Taким oбpaзoм я бopoлcя и пoгpужaлcя вce глубжe и глубжe, и, нaкoнeц cпуcтилcя нaживo в тeмную мoгилу. Taм я лeжaл oдин нe имeя cилы ни дeйcтвoвaть, ни мыcлить; глaз нa глaз c caмим coбoю; внe вcкягo cooбщecтвa чeлoвeчecкoгo, внe пoмoщи Xpиcтoвoй, кaк думaл я, в мoeм тяжeлoм cнe. (ShzhTB, 213)

[At first, when I was sent to the sick-room, and found I had really got the fever, I was terribly frightened … To die without having fought, and worked, and given one’s life away, was too hard to bear. I got terribly

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impatient, and accused God of injustice … a heavy numbing throb seemed to take hold of my heart, and say, ‘Dead—dead—dead.’ And I cried out, ‘The living, the living shall praise Thee, O God; the dead cannot praise thee. There is no work in the grave; in the night no man can work. But I can work. I can do great things … Why wilt though slay me?’ And so I struggled and plunged, deeper and deeper, and went down into a living black tomb. I was alone there, with no power to stir of think; alone with myself; beyond the reach of all human fellowship, beyond Christ’s reach, I thought, in my nightmare. (tbs, 316–7)]

Considering that Tom is “brave and bright and strong,” Arthur asks Tom to pray to the Lord that he may never experience the agony of that condition. Arthur continues to talk about his vision:

… кoгдa я кaзaлocь лeжaл в этoй мoгилe, думaя чтo ocуждeн нa вeчнoe oдинoчecтвo, чepнaя, глуxaя cтeнa pacceeлacь нa двoe и я был пoднят и вынeceн в cвeт кaкoй-тo вeликoй cилoй, кaким-тo живым мoгучeм дуxoм. Toм, пoмнишь ты видeниe кoлec и живoтныx в Иeзeкийлe? Boт c чeм мoжнo этo cpaвнить. “И я cлышaл шум кpыльeв иx, кoгдa oнe лeтeли, кaк шум oбильныx вoд, кaк глac Bceмoгущeгo Бoгa, и кoгдa oнe шли, тo звук peчeй иx был кaк шум пoлчищ, и кoгдa oнe ocтaнaвливaлиcь, тo кpылья иx oпуcкaлиcь и кaждoe из ниx шлo пpямo впepeд. И кудa шeл дуx, тудa шли и oнe, и идя нe oбopaчивaлиcь”. И мы нecлиcь пo cвeтлoму вoздушнoму пpocтpaнcтву, в кoтopoм кишилa тьмa живыx cущecтв и ocтaнoвилиcь нa бepeгу бoльшoй peки. И cилa пocтaвилa мeня тaм, и я дoгoдaлcя чтo peкa мoгилa и чтo тут oбитaeт cмepть; нo нe тa cмepть кoтopую видeл я в тeмнoм cклeпe,—этa, я чувcтвoaл пoкинулa мeня нa вceгдa. Ha дpугoм бepeгу бoльшoй peки я увидeл мужчин, жeнщин и дeтeй, выxoдящиx oчищeнными и пpocвeтлeнными; глaзa иx ocушaлиcь oт cлeз и oни вoccтaвaли в cлaвe и cилe, бoлeзни и пeчaли нe кacaлиcь иx бoлee. Eщe пoдaлee былa тьмa людeй, кoтopoй нe пepeчecть чeлoвeку, и вce oни были зaняты кaким-тo вeликим дeлoм; тe жe, кoтopыe выxoдили из peки, пpиcoeдинялиcь к ним. Bce oни paбoтaли, вcякий cвoим oтдeльным oбpaзoм, нo дeлo былo у вcex oднo. Я тaм видeл oтцa и мнoгиx из oбывaтeлeй из нaшeгo cтapoгo гopoдa … и вce имeли oдну пeчaть нa лбу. » (ShzhTB, 213–214)

[… as I seemed to lie in that tomb, alone, as I thought, for ever and ever, the black, dead wall was cleft in two, and I was caught up and borne through

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 29

into the light by some great power, some living, mighty spirit. Tom, do you remember the living creatures and the wheels in Ezekial? It was just like that. ‘When they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host; when they stood, they let down their wings’ ‘And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.’ And we rushed through the bright air, which was full of myriads of living creatures, and paused on the brink of a great river. And the power held me up, and I knew that that great river was the grave, and that death dwelt there, but not the death I had met in the black tomb. That, I felt, was gone forever. For on the other bank of the great river I saw men and women and children rising up pure and bright, and the tears were wiped from their eyes, and they put on glory and strength, and all weariness and pain fell away. And beyond were a multitude which no man could number, and they worked at some great work; and they who rose from the river went on and joined in the work. They all worked, and each worked in a different way, but all at the same work. And I saw there my father, and the men in the old town … and the seal was on the foreheads of all. (tbs, 318)]

Arthur explains to Tom that he wanted to join those people on the other bank of the river, but could not do so. And then Arthur saw myriads on his side of the river and they too worked and he knew that it was the same work; and the same seal was on their foreheads. And the desire to learn the essence of their work grew more and more within him. (ShzhTB, 214; tbs, 319) Looking closer, he saw his mother, sisters, the Doctor and Tom and hundreds of others familiar to him, and at last he saw himself: “и я тpудилcя и иcпoлнял нeзнaчитeльную чacтичку вeликoгo дeлa.” (ShzhTB, 214) “And I was toiling and doing ever so little a piece of the great work.” (tbs, 319) When the doctor came and gave him the Sacraments, Arthur told him that he should get well. Arthur’s dream also depicts an idyllic afterlife or life in another dimension than the earth, where a lot of people all labour “in their own individual way, but it was all the same business.” The vision is based on biblical teaching, as well as on classical mythology. From the perspective of plot composition, the dream is very close to the story Dream of a Ridiculous Man from the Diary of a Writer, 1877, (xxv, 104–119). The Ridiculous Man also dreams that he is in a cold grave, completely alone, but suddenly the grave was “cleft asunder” (“razverzlas’”) and he was taken by some unknown creature, and they were already fly- ing far from the earth in “dark and unknown spaces” (“тeмныx и нeвeдoмыx пpocтpaнcтвax”). (xxv, 109–110)

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30 Zohrab

The unusual image of the opening grave razverzlas’, alluded to in Matthew 27: 51–53, is used by the author of ShzhTB in the penultimate chapter, in which Tom recalls fallen friends and imagines that, “кaк в пaмяти мoeй oживaли дaвнo пpoшeдшиe coбытия, c ними вмecтe oживли и лицa дeйcтвoвaвшиe в ниx; нe oднa мoгилa в Кpыму и oтдaлeннoй Индии кaк бы paзвepзлacь (razverzlas’) и ocвoбoдилa пoкoйникa лeжaвшeгo в нeй, кoиx гoлoca, лицa, пpивычки кocнулиcь cлуxa, пpeдcтaли пepeд глaзaми, кaк в былыe шкoльныe дни.” (ShzhTB, 231) (“As the old scenes became living, and the ac- tors in them became living too, many a grave in the Crimea and distant India … seemed to open and send forth their dead, and their voices and looks and ways were again in one’s ears and eyes, as in the old School-days.”) (tbs, 343) Like Arthur, the Ridiculous Man finds himself seemingly on another planet: “in the bright light of a sunny day, magnificent as heaven” (“в яpкoм cвeтe coлнeчнoгo, пpeлecтнoгo кaк paй дня”). He sees and recognizes the people “of this happy land” (“cчacтливoй зeмли этoй”). He understands that “it was a land undefiled by the fall in grace.” (“Этo былa зeмля, нe ocквepнeннaя гpexoпaдeниeм.”) (xxv, 112) Similarly, in The Adolescent, in Versilov’s dream about the Golden Age, some of the motifs encountered in Arthur’s dream are also repeated. Versilov sees the earthly paradise of humanity: “O, тут жили пpeкpacныe люди! Oни вcтaвaли и зacыпaли cчacтливыe и нeвинныe”. (“What wonderful people lived here! They rose from their beds and went to sleep happy and innocent.”) (xiii, 375) But Versilov, being a modern Russian progressive and a “vile St. Petersburger” (“гнуcным пeтepбуpжцeм”) (xxv, 113), like the Ridiculous Man would hardly have quoted The Bible like Arthur. It is not surprising that Versilov’s dream is transformed into an almost parodic vision in which “the great notion of immortality had disappeared and had to be substituted.” (xiii, 379) As Versilov sees it, having lost the idea of immortality, people “would work for one another, and each would give everyone what he had and through that alone be happy.” (xiii, 379) The motif of collective work, or toil, between the people in the respective dream-visions links Versi- lov’s dream with Arthur’s. In addition to the loftiness of its religious imagery, which is not directly invoked by Dostoevsky in either Versilov’s dream (or its forerunner the banned Stavrogin’s dream – see next section) or in The Dream of the Ridiculous Man, since the dreamers were atheists, Arthur’s dream promotes the ideology of the Victorian work ethic and personal responsibility. These virtues were instrumental in upholding the moral values of Victorian culture and the economic wellbeing of the British Empire. The resolution of Arthur’s dream is somewhat similar to the unexpected conclusion in The Adolescent, when Arkady’s future life is being discussed. Tatiana Pavlovna, who, Arkady finally realizes, is his

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 31 sincere and beloved friend, wants him to enter the university and offers him money for this. Arkady initially objects to her that he does not even now have the right to study “because I need to do work” (“пoтoму чтo дoлжeн тpудитьcя”). (xiii, 451) In the first part of the novel Versilov considers that the “delights of labour have been imagined by idle people, naturally from the ranks of the virtuous. This is one of the ‘Geneva ideas’ from the end of the last century” (“Этo oднa из жeнeвcкиx идeй кoнцa пpoшлoгo cтoлeтия”). (xiii, 87) Ivan Semenych, Arkady’s former tutor, agrees with Tatiana Pavlovna. This conclusion appears to confirm that it is the process of constructing mundane reality through the action of writing his Diary that guides Arkady towards solv- ing his own dilemmas through the ethics of work.58

Victorian Sun Imagery in ShzhTB and in Dostoevsky’s Later Works

The setting sun is a common motif in Victorian art, especially for the artist Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) for whom: “The Sun is God.”59 The leitmotif of the setting sun has evolved in British literature since the end of the eighteenth century and was employed by poets, writers and artists. It is encountered in the poems Wordsworth and Byron, and the prose works of Scott and Dickens, which Dostoevsky was familiar with. The correspondences between its use in the works of Dickens and Dostoevsky have been discussed in a number of studies. Dostoevsky embraces the image of the setting sun beginning with his earliest works,60 such as his feuilleton The Petersburg News (1847), his early fiction such as White Nights, The Landlady, Uncle’s Dream, Humiliated

58 P.I. Berger and T. Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (ny: Anchor Books, 1966). 59 E.T. Cook & Alexander Wedderburn, The Works of John Ruskin, Vol. xii: Lectures on Ar- chitecture and Painting, Ruskin, John, ed. (Edinburgh, 1853). With other Papers 1844–1854 (London/New York: George Allen/Longmans, Green, and Co., 1904) 490; John Gage, ‘J.M.W. Turner and Solar Myth’, in The Sun is God: Painting, Literature and Mythology in the Nineteenth Century, J.B. Bullen, ed., (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 39–48. 60 S.N.Durylin, ‘Ob odnom simvole u Dostoevskogo’ Dostoevskii. Sbornik statei. (Moscow: Trudy gosudarstvennoi Akademii khudozhestvennykh nauk. Literaturnaia sektsiia, 1928) 163–199; H. Walsh, ‘The Permutations of a Complex Metaphor: Dostoevskij’s Sunsets’, Slavic and East European Journal, Vol 27. No. 3. Fall (1983): 293–301; T.A. Kasatkina, ‘Dva obraza solntsa v romane v romane “Podrostok”, Roman F.M. Dostoyevskogo “Podrostok”: vozmozhnosti prochteniya (Kolomna: Kolomenskii gos. ped.i nst., 2003), 53–63; N.A. Tara- sova, ‘Obraz zakhodiashchego solntsa v romane “Podrostok”: Dostoyevskii i Dikkens’, Russkaia literatura, No. 1 (2012): 124–132.

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32 Zohrab and Injured and so on, and continues employing sun imagery, although in his last novels it acquires some new connotations. The depiction of the sun in ShzhTB comes from several different perspectives: there is the warm sun of the day, sunrise at the break of dawn, the bright mornings when “the sun gets up and the mist shines like silver gauze”. These images are linked with life, hope and activity. There is also the universal and what seems like a very egalitarian sun, one that shines on everyone wherever they might be: “amongst any nation under the sun”, whether it’s “under the Indian sun”, or the British Empire “on which the sun never sets”. It intrudes into the boys’ eyes as they play cricket or have fist fights; it indicates what time it is and mingles with the boys’ activities, determining tasks such as lock up time. There is also the recurring image of the setting western sun of the dusk and evening, which is connected with death, immortality and eternity, i.e. a sug- gestion of ‘other worlds’. The motive of the setting sun reverberates in ShzhTB like an accompaniment to the passage of time and intimations of immortality. In Part ii it occurs at decisive and defining moments within the action, moments of truth, such as recovery following a fever near death, the final evening of Tom’s schooldays, the death of the mentor, Doctor Arnold, who is identified with the sun. In the latter episode Tom acknowledges the loss of the Doctor when he returns to Rugby and visits the chapel where the Doctor preached, where he now lies buried under the altar: “New men and new methods might do for other people: let those who would, worship the rising star; he (Tom-iz) at least would be faithful to the sun which had set.” (tbs, 374) Memories of eight years “were all dancing through his brain, and carrying him about whither they would; …. The rays of the evening sun came solemnly through the painted windows above his head, and fell in gorgeous colours on the opposite wall, and the perfect stillness soothed his spirit by little and little.” (tbs, 374) (“Лучи зaxoдящeгo coлнцa тиxo пpикpaдывaлиcь cквoзь pocпиcныя oкнa нaд eгo гoлoвoй.” (ShzhTB, 253) Tom recalls all his schoolmates and, by the end of this scene, the narrator finally leaves him: “… и нe лучшe-ли вceгo пpocтитьcя c ним у пpecтoлa у кoтopoгo впepвыe oзapил eгo луч пoзнaния нeбecнoгo пpoиcxoждeния души, гдe пoнял oн кaкoe звeнo cвязывaeт бpaтcкими узaми вecь poд чeлoвeчecкий, и у мoгилы тoгo, кoтopый пpивeл eгo к этoму пoзнaнию и cмягчил душу к вocпpиятию этиx уз?”) (ShzhTB, 254) In The Adolescent sun imagery plays a major symbolic role and is used in a more complex and dualistic way than in his earlier works, at times acquiring parodic connotations. The mystical atmosphere of the setting sun is likened by one character to a ‘riddle’ (zagadka) and also expands to focus on the radiance

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 33 of ‘rays’(luchi) associated by the adolescent with the blagoobrazie and the ‘radi- ant gaze’ (luchistyi vzgliad) of the mentor Makar. This is reminiscent of the way Tom in ShzhTB perceives the Doctor as the ‘Sun’. However, at the beginning of the novel the adolescent associates solar imagery indirectly with the cooling of the sun and earth, and the rotation of planets through icy deserts of space (xiii, 49) (according to theories of W. Thomson and R. Clausius depicted in the works of C. Flammarion). (xvii, 376)61 Could it be that owing to Dostoevsky’s concern over the publication of ShzhTB as a separate book supplement to The Citizen, Dostoevsky while reading and possibly even correcting the proofs of the text found ample validation that his own favourite image of the rays of the setting sun was an effective literary device? Perhaps this endorsed his at- tachment to the image and motivated him to experiment with its use over and above its usual Victorian application? In general, the sensation of the sun in the adolescent’s consciousness initially is a negative one. (xiii, 291) Arkady’s ‘conversion’ is a gradual one, though the crucial ‘ascent’ towards insight or Epiphany begins at sunset. Having experienced the ‘crisis version’ of a dream Arkady is watching the rays of the setting sun, associated with fateful changes in the consciousness of the protagonists, as he hears the voice of Makar Dolgoruky, peasant pilgrim and his ‘legal’ father, intoning: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon us”. (xii, 284) As Arkady ma- tures, Makar’s ‘moral goodness’ (blagoobrazie) begins to influence him, and his consciousness of the sun becomes more positive. Versilov’s dream related to sun imagery is based on Claude Lorrain’s painting “Acis and Galatea” (which he identifies with the Golden Age), which hung in the Dresden Gallery. Although the metaphor of the setting sun in combination with the picture by Claude Lorraine initially occurred in the banned chapter of The Possessed, “In Tikhon’s cell”, Dostoevsky’s reuses it here with some major modifications and inferences. The exhibits at the Dresden Gallery were known to almost all Russians traveling to Europe, as they had to go through Dresden. This is probably why Dostoevsky chose this particular painting rather than other sets of paintings (or engravings) of the Golden Age that he could have seen in Europe, at the World Exhibition in London in 1862, or, perhaps, in Paris or Florence. Apparently the Dresden Art Gallery was also well known to the English, for the narrator in ShzhTB reproaches his English readers, who can travel thousands of miles in a year, yet not know their own birth-places: “You all patter French, more or less, and perhaps German; you have seen men and cities, no doubt, and have your opinions such as they are, about schools

61 See also Liza Knapp, The Annihilation of Inertia: Dostoevsky’s Metaphysics (Evanston, Il- linois: Northwestern University Press, 1996) 137, 270. Kasatkina, ‘Dva obraza solntsa’, 54.

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34 Zohrab of painting, high art, and all that; have seen the pictures at Dresden and the Louvre, and know the taste of sour crout. All I say is, you don't know your own lanes and woods and fields.” (tbs, 6) This is every similar to what Dostoevsky complained about and accused the Russian gentry of doing. The image of the Golden Age that appears at the end of the novel in the Part 3, Chapter 7 of The Adolescent must have been in the depths of Dosto- evsky’s mind from the very beginning of the preparatory work for the novel, since the name of his hero, Arkady embodies the idea of the Golden Age. The name Arkady is also associated with the destruction of paradise. Dostoevsky borrowed the name of his hero from European culture. The site of the original Golden Age was the pre-Christian Arcadia, represented as a paradise in Greek and Latin poetry, in Virgil and Ovid. The Golden Age depicted in the “Meta- morphoses” of Ovid was marked by peace and harmony. Tom in ShzhTB is also obliquely associated with Greek and Latin poetry. The meaning of Arkady’s name associated with Utopia is in a paradoxical relationship with his advent from an ‘accidental family’. (See last section regarding the significance of Arkady’s surname ‘Dolgoruky’.) Arthur’s dream is also combined in Tom’s memory with the painting of “the brush of some German artist that he saw” (ShzhTB, 206) (tbs, 307) and with the quietly dying rays of the setting sun. The mythical motif of the idyllic golden colour repeats itself in the illumination of Arthur’s golden hair and the comparison of his appearance with the image of an angel. This scene occurs after Arthur has told Tom his dream and reassured him about it, and is lying on a sofa

у oткpытoгo oкнa, в кoтopoм тиxo дoгopaли лучи зaxoдящeгo coлнцa, ocвeщaя eгo блeднoe лицo и зoлoтиcтыe вoлocы. Toму пpишлo нa пaмять изoбpaжeниe aнгeлa, киcти кaкoгo-тo нeмeцкoгo xудoжникa, кoтopoe oн видaл. … пoтoм oн (Apтуp) oпять cтaл cмoтpeть в oкнo, кaк бы нe жeлaя ни нa минуту oтopвaтьcя oт coлнцa, лoжившaгocя зa вepшины oгpoмныx paзвecиcтыx вязoв, нaд кoтopыми, кpичa, кpужилиcь гpaчи, cтaями вoзвpaщaяcь c вeчepниx пoиcкoв зa кopмoм. Bязы шeлecтили лиcтьями. … чиpикaли вopoбьи, тo ccopяcь, тo миpяcь мeжду coбoй … cтук кoлoтушeк o мячи дoнocилиcь дo ниx c низу, cмягчeнныe oтдaлeниeм. (ShzhTB, 206)

[by the open window, through which the rays of the western sun stole gently, lighting up his white face and golden hair. Tom remembered a German picture of an angel which he knew … and then [Arthur] looked out of the window again, as if he couldn’t bear to lose a moment of the

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 35

sunset, into the tops of the great feathery elms, round which the rooks were circling and clanging, returning in flocks from their evening’s forag- ing parties. The elms rustled, the sparrows … chirped … quarrelling and making it up again … and the sweet click of the cricket-bats came up cheerily from below. (tbs, 307–8)]

The version of the dream motif caused by fever, in combintion with the rays of the sun, and accompanied by other-worldly distant sounds (birds, wind, etc.), creates an aesthetic perception in the mind of the reader. Moreover, represen- tations of dreams or the approach of death in combination with biblical allusions, or mythological images, sometimes accompanied by the motif of the setting sun, are also to be found in English literary works of the Romantic and Victorian periods. Tom’s memory of the German artist’s picture in combination with the setting sun and fever not only creates a mood, but also carries the action forward and depicts the development of the characters, which is what happens in Dos- toevsky’s novels—with variations. Apart from the scene cited above in which Arthur initiates Tom into the secrets of his inner life, conveying his prophetic vision to him, some other significant scenes in ShzhTB also involve the evening sun setting in the west, the breeze, and distant sounds. The setting sun shapes the episodes in the three final chapters of ShzhTB, for instance, when Tom leaves school forever and, in the finale, returns from Oxford to bid farewell to the late Doctor. On the eve of the farewell cricket match there is dancing on the meadow: “Длинный pяд шкoльныx здaний зaдумчивo взиpaл нa ниx c выcoты cвoeгo вeличия; вce oкнa eгo были зaлиты cвeтoм дoгopaющиx лучeй зaxoдящeгo coлнцa, peзкиe кpики гpaчeй paздaвaлиcь нa вepшинax oгpoмныx вязoв: oни жecтoкo вoлнoвaлиcь, кaк бы cбиpaяcь cocтaвить кaдpиль пpoмeж ceбя; бoльшoй флaг мeдлeннo cвивaлcя и paзвивaлcя, вздувaeмый лeгким зaпaдным вeтepкoм.” (ShzhTB, 233) “with the last rays of the western sun and the rooks clanged about in the tops of the old elms, greatly excited, and resolved on having their country dance too; and the great flag flapped lazily in the gentle western breeze.” (tbs, 346) Similar motifs are also found in the Brothers Karamazov and related to the idea of ‘other worlds’. In Part iv, Book 10, in the scene of Iliusha’s evening walk with his father from the gate to the large stone lying on its own in a beauti- ful and deserted place. “Beтepoк тoгдa нaчaлcя, coлнцe зaтмилocь, oceнью пoвeялo, дa и cмepкaлocь уж <…>. Дoшли мы, вoт кaк тeпepь, дo этoгo caмoгo кaмня, ceл я нa кaмeнь этoт, a нa нeбecax вcё змeи зaпущeны, гудят и тpeщaт, змeeв тpидцaть виднo. <…> A тут вeтep вдpуг зaгудeл, пoнecлo

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36 Zohrab

пecкoм … <…> Hиктo нac тoгдa нe видeл–c, Бoг oдин видeл, aвocь мнe в фopмуляp зaнeceт–c.” (xiv, 189–190) “A breeze then started up, the sun dark- ened over, there was a breath of autumn, and dusk was already setting in <…>. We reached our destination, like now, reached this very stone, I sat down on the stone, and in the heavens kites kept going up, whirring and crackling, about thirty of them <…> At this point the wind suddenly began to roar, there were grains of sand in the air … <…> Nobody saw us at that moment, God alone saw us; perhaps he will record me in his register.” (xiv, 189–190) The motif of the stone, Iliushechka’s stone, may have been inspired by the image of the stone in ShzhTB in White Horse Vale, where Tom was born and grew up, and where the ‘Blowing Stone’ is located. Iliushechka’s stone is connected in bk with the theme of the transfer of moral values and memory, and with moral education encompassing mentoring, which is the main theme of bk, Book 10, The Boys (Mal’chiki), and the Epilogue, as it is of tbs. But Dostoevsky parodically transforms the motif of the dying rays of the setting western sun in The Adolescent, perhaps even as a challenge to the Victo- rian tradition, by integrating it intertextually with other texts, even earlier ones than in ShzhTB. In Versilov’s dream, the picture of the Golden Age through the prism of his consciousness represents the setting sun of the first day of European civilization. (xiii, 375) But after he wakes up, he actually sees in it the setting sun of the last day of European civilization. (xiii, 375, 378–379) For Versilov, the dream signifies the political situation in Europe: “Toгдa ocoбeннo cлышaлcя нaд Eвpoпoй кaк бы звoн пoxopoннoгo кoлoкoлa.” (xiii, 375) “Then the toll of the funeral bell was heard especially over Europe.” (xiii, 375) Readers, who have been accustomed to responding to the aesthetics of the metaphor of the setting sun in Romantic and Victorian literature, are jolted out of their comfort zone when Dostoevsky has Versilov identify it with the devastation of the Revolution of 1848 and the destruction of humanity leading to the concept of ‘the last man’. Versilov is better-read than all the other characters in The Adolescent and therefore Dostoevsky is justified in having Versilov allude to the motif of the “пocлeдний дeнь чeлoвeчecтвa”, “last day of mankind”, a familiar theme in European literature of the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth cen- turies, as well as in painting. Apart from ShzhTB the disguised pretext used here by Dostoevsky (as far as we know, this has not been mentioned hitherto) appears to be the secular-apocalyptic work The Last Man (Le dernier homme) in ten Cantos, by author Jean-Baptiste Francois Xavier Cousin de Grainville (1746–1805), ordained in 1766.62 The work was reprinted by Charles Nodier

62 Jean-Baptiste Francois Xavier Cousin de Grainville, Le Dernier Homme, Ouvrage post- hume: Par M. de Grainville, Homme de Lettres. Tome I (Paris: Chez Deterville, Libraire,

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(1783–1844) in 1805, and was also published in English translation in 1806. Later it served as the original source text (also described as the geno-text or ur-text) to many subsequent similar works of the nineteenth century, such as that of K. Flammarion (one work of Flammarion’s was in Dostoevsky’s library).63 The pattern of borrowing (or intertextual strategies) used by Dostoevsky is to appro- priate a concept, more often than not disguised, from Western cultural sources, as for instance from ShzhTB, and then to transform the concept, including by using parody and the burlesque,64 and in the process discredit the original source of the image used. As mentioned, Versilov’s dream incorporates Stav- rogin’s dream from the banned chapter in Besy (The Possessed) “At Tikhon’s”, though in it there are no allusions to the “last day of mankind”. Instead it is associated with Stavrogin’s rape of Matryosha. But Dostoevsky deliberately transforms it into Versilov’s dream in Part iii, chapter 7, section 2, who politi- cises it to represent the end of Western European civilization, and in section 3 the preeminence of the Russian cultural type. Hence, in Dostoevsky’s understanding, that dream will never be associated with Matryoasha’s rape again. Significantly, Versilov’s ‘Golden Age’ account is placed towards the end of the novel, which has the effect of undermining the sun imagery that has preceded it, especially the allusion to Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop. Although Dosto- evsky’s many intertextual allusions are hidden, in some cases he brings them to the surface, especially if the source text is well known, as in the episode in The Adolescent, in which Arkady’s friend, Trishatov recalls the setting sun in Dickens’ novel The Old Curiosity Shop (1840–41): “Ax, Дoлгopукий, читaли вы Диккeнca Лaвку дoeвнocтeй? … < > … И вoт paз зaкaтывaeтcя coлнцe, и этoт peбeнoк нa пaпepти coбopa, вcя oблитaя пocлeдними лучaми, cтoит и cмoтpит нa зaкaт c тиxим зaдумчивым coзepцaниeм в дeтcкoй душe, удивлeннoй душe, кaк будтo пepeд кaкoй-тo зaгaдкoй, пoтoму чтo и тo, и дpугoe, вeдь кaк зaгaдкa—coлнцe, кaк мыcль бoжия, a coбop, кaк мыcль чeлoвeчecкaя… нe пpaвдa ли?” (xiii, 353) “Ah. Dolgoruky, have you read Dickens’s Old Curiosity Shop? … < > … And here we have the sun setting, and this child in the cathedral porch, all bathed in the last of the sun’s rays, standing there and looking at the sun with the quiet, pensive contemplation of a child’s soul, a stunned soul, as if facing a riddle because both the one and the

1805). The Last Man or Omegarus and Syderia, A Romance in Future. In Two Volumes. (London: Printed for R. Dutton, 1806). 63 Biblioteka F.M. Dostoevskogo. Opyt rekonstruktsii i nauchnoe opisanie. N.F. Budanova ed., (Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka, 2005) 196. 64 See for instance, K.A. Barsht, O sosude s eleem Isaii Otshel’nika i neprednamerennom burleske kapitana Lebiadkina, Voprosy literatury, No. 2 (2013): 439–463.

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38 Zohrab other are like a riddle—the sun like the mind of God and the cathedral like the mind of mankind … isn’t that right?” This intertextual strategy of Dostoevsky’s prepares the reader familiar with Dickens to respond to an allusion about the last rays of the setting sun with an exalted feeling—until it is dissipated when, thirty pages later, when Versilov parodies the image by dividing the reader’s consciousness when he identifies it with the last day of European humanity. Shortly after, the family icon is split by Versilov in Part 3, Chapter 10 (xiii 13, 407–410). Dostoevsky’s decision to include the episode of the splitting of the icon would have made him consider his position vis-à-vis censorship. He is likely to have known that it would en- tail either him or his editor N.A. Nekrasov of Notes of the Fatherland (Otechest- vennye zapiski) offering explanations and concessions to the journal’s censor and made Versilov’s mental derangement at the end of the novel inevitable.65 Interestingly, it happens to be Trishatov who quotes Dickens’s novel The Old Curiosity Shop. This friend of Arkady’s is presented to the reader as a ‘pretty’ (khoroshen’kii) boy, who is attached to Arkady: “И вдpуг oн cклoнил cвoю xopoшeнькую гoлoвку мнe нa плeчo и—зaплaкaл. Mнe cтaлo oчeнь, oчeнь eгo жaлкo.” (xiii, 353) “And suddenly he rested his sweet head on my shoulder and wept.” Lambert explains that he is a general’s son, the family is ashamed of him—and Lambert rescued him from court and saved him (из cудa вытянул и cпac). (xiii, C.348) The ShzhTB narrator gloomily hints at a similar boy character, believing that some relations between older and younger pupils do not provide a good example:

Oн был из чиcлa тex плoxeнькиx, кpacивeнькиx мaльчикoв c бeлыми pучкaми и вьющимиcя вoлocкaми, избaлoвaнныx и изнeжeнныx нeкoтopыми из вocпитaнникoв cтapшeгo клacca, пиcaвшиx зa ниx cтиxи, нaучaвшиx иx пьянcтвoвaть и упoтpeблять нeпpиличныe выpaжeния в paзгoвope и дeлaвшиx вce, чтo тoлькo мoжнo, чтoбы cгубить иx в нacтoящeй и будущeй жизни. (ShzhTB, 157)

[He was one of the miserable little pretty white-handed, curly-headed boys, petted and pampered by some of the big fellows, who wrote their

65 Negotiations with censors usually involved a bargaining element: the censor’s approval (even after the Regulations of 1865), with certain concessions, was sought at the expense of the author’s agreement to reject other, unacceptable, elements in the text, or converse- ly to strengthen those elements which the censor approved of. It is no coincidence that almost everything connected with the West was ultimately discredited in The Adolescent. That included the many negative characters of foreign origin, who appear in that novel, such as Lambert and Alphonsine.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 39

verses for them, taught them to drink and use bad language, and did all they could to spoil them for everything in this world and the next. (tbs, 233)]

The narrator adds in a footnote that, although “cущecтвoвaлo нe мaлo чecтныx, дpужecтвeнныx cвязeй мeжду cтapшими и млaдшими вocпитaнникaми, нo я вычepкнуть пapaгpaфa нe мoгу, мнoгиe вocпитaнники дoгaдaютcя пoчeму я eгo ocтaвляю.” (ShzhTB, 157) “there were many noble friendships between big and little boys; but I can’t strike out the passage. Many boys will know why it is left in.” (tbs, 233)

Similarities in Narrative Devices such as Biblical and Literary Allusions, and Stylistics

In relation to the poetics of both writers, there are similarities in tthe formal organisation of the discursive practices of narrative discourse and the creation of narrative style, including the prolific use of allusions. On reading Hughes’s novel Dostoevsky would have been convinced that his own manner of writing was in tune with that of popular Victorian literature both in form and content. Hughes’ novel abounds in biblical allusions, quotations and images, as well as literary allusions and intertexts, as do Dostoevsky’s novels,66 especially the later ones, distinguished by the prolific use of biblical and literary allusions. In The Adolescent and in the Preparatory Notes to it one encounters, along with Pushkin, who is generally Dostoevsky’s most revered writer, also the names of L. Tolstoy, Karamzin, Griboedov, Gogol, Turgenev, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Les- age, Rousseau, Goethe, Heine, Dickens, etc.67 These are overt allusions, while there are also hidden ones, such as those to ShzhTB, to Byron, Gray, Scott, Bal- zac and so on. In bk there appear to be even more both overt and hidden literary allusions.68 In relation to Biblical allusions we find that the author of ShzhTB refers more often to the Old Testament than the New Testament. In Dostoevsky’s writings before 1875 (i.e. prior to The Adolescent and Brothers Karamazov), there are more often than not references to the New Testament, but following Dostoevsky’s period of editorship on The Citizen Dostoevsky’s references to the

66 S.A. Kibal’nik, Problemy intertekstual’noi poetiki Dostoevskogo (spb: “Petropolis”, 2013) 431. 67 There is a great deal of literature on this topic, summarised in the Notes to the pss. 68 Victor Terras, A Karamazov Companion: Commentary on the Genesis, Language, and Style of Dostoevsky’s Novel (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1981).

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40 Zohrab

Old Testament increase markedly.69 Hughes’ allusions to the Old Testament in ShzhTB include: Genesis, Numbers, 1 and 2 Kings (in the Russian Bible Kings 4 and 5.70), Job, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. References to the New Testament include Matthew, Luke, John, Romans and Revelation. Both novelists depict scenes in which The Bible is being read and interpreted, (especially in bk), contain biblical imagery used symbolically and employ recurring motifs that are ‘persuasive’ in relation to Christianity. One associates these devices with the tradition of ‘persuasive’ Victorian fiction embodied in Hughes’ schoolboy novel. Hughes also addresses a variety of literary texts from the British cultural world in their totality, creating a motley ‘patchwork’ of intertextuality, re- ferring, sometimes fleetingly and sometimes repeatedly, to works by poets, writers, bards and balladeers. The novel develops to the accompaniment of the poetry of Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892), especially “In Memoriam A.H.H.” (1850), an elegy to the memory of a dead friend and to friendship, and “Mari- ana”. It serves as an epigraph to Part ii of the novel, when the opening stanza of Section 1 is quoted. Lines 15–16 from Section li from “In Memoriam” are cited within the text of Part 2, Chapter 8, and in Part ii, Chapter ix the third stanza of Section cxxix is invoked (although the translation does not include all the epigraphs that head each chapter and are predominantly in verse). Hughes’s emphasis on the theme of remembrance is reflected in Dostoevsky’s exploration of memory in The Adolescent and bk. The poetry of William Word- sworth (1770–1850) receives commendation from Hughes’s narrator right from the first chapter, and almost assumes the primary role within the subtext to the novel. Wordworth’s one-line epigraph to his poem ‘Intimations of Im- mortality from Recollections of Early Childhood’: ‘The child is father to the man’ becomes the main theme of this novel about the school life of boys, an education that launches them into adult life with responsibilities that include sacrifice and inevitable death, albeit with the promise of an afterlife, at least in the memories of the living. The poetry of Hugh Clough (1819–1861), a former pupil of the school, is quoted repeatedly, especially from his volume Ambarva- lia (1849). Among the cited authors of prose are Thomas Carlyle (1795–1885), especially his work on “Heroes and the worship of heroes.” Allusions to other

69 V.N. Zakharov, ‘Dostoevskii i Evangelie’, Evangelie Dostoevskogo, 2 vols, (Moscow: Russkii Mir, 2010) 5–35; B.N. Tikhomirov, ‘Otrazhenie Evangel’skogo Slova v tekstakh Dostoevsk- ogo, Issledovaniia. Materialy k kommentariiu’, Evangelie Dostoevskogo, Idem., 63–469; I.D. Iakubovich, ‘Poetika vetkhozavetskoi tsitaty i alliuzii u Dostoevskogo: bytovanie i kontekst’, Dostoevskii. Materialy i issledovaniia, (Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka, 2005) 17, 42–60. 70 Different religious groups include different books in their biblical canons, in different order, and sometimes share or unite books.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 41 authors include Joseph Addison (1672–1719); Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), Charles Dickens (1812–1870); Thomas Gray (1716–1771), Charles Kingsley (1819– 1875); James Sheridan Knowles, (1784–1862) James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), Frederick Marryat (1792–1848); John Milton (1608–1676), Alexander Pope (1688–1744), Walter Scott (1771–1832); John Sterling (1805–1844), William Shakespeare (1564–1616), W.M. Thackeray (1811–1863); Johann David Wyss (1743–1818), author of The Swiss Family Robinson. Classical writers such as Homer, Virgil, Euripides and characters from classical mythology are also an important presence. A huge number of songs and ballads are cited. Histori- cal events and characters are evoked, as are famous battles and command- ers, (even the boxing champion Tom Cribb, who boxed before the Emperor of Russia in 1814). Actual details from the 1830s fill every page: the names of race- horses, factory brands of cigars and matches, geographical places, travellers, railway stations and routes, postal coaches, taverns and inns, hotels, exhibi- tions and even references to Russia, albeit not always commendable, since the novel was written right after the end of the Crimean War, when many former Rugby pupils perished in battle.

Differences in Authorial Intention and Choice of the Adolescent’s Name: Dolgoruky

The most important difference between Hughes’ compositions and Dosto- evsky’s later writings is that Dostoevsky intentionally portrays his younger characters and their fathers as having experienced psychological and physical traumas, in most cases serious ones. In contrast, most of the English boys represented in ShzhTB had been spared traumas (with a few exceptions, such as Arthur, who had lost his father). The boys had grown up in stable environ- ments, reflecting a special class character, in caring families and surrounded by a close community, with an innate sense of place and roots, and a conviction of their inevitable duty and obligation to serve the British Empire. In most cases, they were not, as indicated in ShzhTB, deprived of families who would help them “чepeз любoвь, пpeдaннocть и чиcтoту мaтepeй, cecтep, жeн, чepeз твepдocть кpeпocть дуxa и мудpocть oтцoв, бpaтьeв и нacтaвникoв… пpийти к пoзнaнию Toгo.” (ShzhTB, 253–254) “through the love and tender- ness and purity of mothers and sisters and wives, through the strength and courage and wisdom of fathers and brothers and teachers … come to the knowledge of Him ….” (tbs, 376) But Dostoevsky, in the second half of the 1870s, was not interested in de- scribing such stable families in the Russian context. Much has been written

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42 Zohrab on Dostoevsky’s views on Russian society in this post-Reform period,71 an era that he characterised as one of fragmentation (obosoblennost’; vse vrozn’), general disorder and confusion (besporiadok), lacking in a general guiding idea (nedostatok obshchei rukovodiashchei idei). (xvi, 44; 50; 68; 80) As Dostoevsky openly declared in his Diary of a Writer for January, 1876, he intended in The Adolescent to represent the offspring of an “accidental family” (sluchainoe se- meistvo), which, in his opinion, had arisen in the “disorder” (besporiadok) and moral chaos of modern life in Russia. Such families had been ignored by other writers, such as Tolstoy and Goncharov. He called The Adolescent his “first attempt” at the idea of composing a “poem” (poema) about “Fathers and Sons.” In The Adolescent:

дитя ужe вышлo из дeтcтвa и пoявилocь лишь нeгoтoвым чeлoвeкoм, poбкo и дepзкo жeлaющим пocкopee cтупить cвoй пepвый шaг в жизни. Я взял душу бeзгpeшную, нo ужe зaгaжeнную cтpaшнoю вoзмoжнocтью paзвpaтa, paннeю нeнaвиcтью зa ничтoжнocть и “cлучaйнocть” cвoю и тoю шиpoкocтью, c кoтopoю eщe цeлoмудp eннaя душa ужe дoпуcкaeт coзнaтeльнo пopoк в cвoи мыcли, ужe лeлeeт eгo в cepдцe cвoeм, любуeтcя им eщe в cтыдливыx, нo ужe дepзкиx и буpныx мeчтax cвoиx,—вcё этo ocтaвлeннoe eдинcтвeннo нa cвoи cилы и нa cвoe paзумeниe, дa eщe, пpaвдa, нa Бoгa. Bcё этo выкидыши oбщecтвa, “cлучaйныe” члeны “cлучaйныx” ceмeй. (pss. xxii, 7–8. 1876, January, ch. 1, I.)

[But here the child had already passed his childhood and appeared only as an unprepared person, timidly yet boldly wanting to take his first step in life as quickly as possible. I took a soul that was sinless yet already tainted by awful possibility of vice, by premature hatred of its own insignifi- cance and “accidental” nature; tainted also by that breadth of character with which a still chaste soul already consciously allows vice to enter its thoughts, cherishes it and admires it in shameful yet bold and tempestu- ous dreams—and with all this, left solely to his own devices and its own understanding , yet also, to be sure, to God. All such are the miscarriages of society, the “accidental” members of “accidental” families. (wd, 302)]

71 Gerigk, Versuch über Dostoevskij’s Jungling; V.L. Komarovich, ‘Genezis romana Podrostok’. Literaturnaia mysl’: Al’manakh. (Leningrad: 1925), Kn. 3, 366–386; A.S. Dolinin, Poslednie romany Dostoyevskogo. (M.; L.: 1963), 35–37; L.M. Rozenblium, Tvorcheskie dnevniki Dos- toyevskogo. (M.: 1981), 197–199; Frank, Dostoevsky The Mantle of the Prophet 1871–1881, and others.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 43

This applies to the boys in both The Adolescent and in bk, in which the theme of “Fathers and Children” is developed and, also according to Dostoevsky, that of the “miscarriages of society” (vse eti vykidyshi obshchestva). In bk Dosto- evsky depicts the progeny of more than one accidental family, the “miscarriages of society”. Why then did Dostoevsky decide to write about accidental families and social disorder, unlike Hughes for instance? Although critics have provided explanations, none have come up with specific answers. In our view Dostoevsky was disturbed and fully aware that, since the beginning of the 1870s, there had been many rumours in Russian society and abroad about the immoral behav- iour and family relationships of some members of the royal family, including the Grand Dukes, brothers and nephews of the tsar. It was known that many of them had mistresses, illegitimate children, and unofficial second families.72 The rumours concerned Tsar Alexander ii himself. Many knew about this, especially those who served at court. Dostoyevsky probably took the risk of de- ciding to write obliquely about these widespread concerns, since in the society which he was frequenting after he became acquainted with Prince Meshcher- sky and his entourage, everyone knew about the ‘taboo topic’: the relationship between Emperor Alexander ii and his mistress Ekaterina Dolgorukova. The Emperor’s closest family members disapproved of this liaison, including his eldest son, the future Alexander iii, with whom Meshchersky corresponded at intervals from 1863 until 1878.73 The liaison began in 1866 after the tragic death of the eldest son and heir of Alexander ii, Nikolai Alexandrovich (1843– 1865). Catherine Dolgorukova was thirty years younger than Alexander ii and, by the time Dostoevsky began preparatory notes towards the novel The Ado- lescent, they already had two illegitimate children.74 Perhaps the fact that the surname of the illegitimate adolescent Arkady Dolgoruky is very close to the name Dolgorukov, the mistress of Alexander ii, is not just a coincidence, but a deliberate, though risky, decision on the part of Dostoevsky, although the name Dolgorukov was a very common one amongst the Russian upper classes and also conjured up the notorious figure of the émigré P.V. Dolgorukov. The

72 Iu.A. Kuz’min, Rossiiskaia imperatorskaia familiia 1797–1917. Bibliograficheskii spravoch- nik (Sankt-Peterburg: Dmitry Bulanin, 2005); I.A. Soboleva, Velikie kniaz’ia Doma Ro- manovykh, (SPb: Izd. “Piter”, 2010). 73 V.P. Meshcherskii, Pis’ma k velikomu kniaziu Aleksandru Aleksandrovichu, 1863–1868. N.V. Chernikova, (predislovie, kommentarii). (M.: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2011), 664 pp.; V.P. Meshcherskii, Pis’ma k velikomu kniaziu Aleksandru Aleksandrovichu, 1869–1878. N.V. Chernikova, (predislovie, kommentarii) (M.: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2014) 731 pp. 74 Iulia Safronova, Ekaterina Iurevskaia. Roman v pis’makh (Sankt-Peterburg: Evropeiskii Universitet v Sankt-Peterburge, 2017) 71.

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44 Zohrab

“foreign guests”, who visited or were officially sent to Russia in early 1874 for the wedding of Alexander ii’s daughter, Grand Duchess Marie and Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, son of Queen Victoria, knew about the Tsar’s second family. Queen Victoria did not wish this union to take place precisely because she considered the Romanovs to be unprincipled.75 This liaison of Alexander ii was apparently hinted at indirectly by the Dean of Westminster Abbey, Arthur Stanley in his sermon, “Christian Suretyship”, delivered in the Chapel at Windsor Castle on March 8, 1874, on the first Sunday after the arrival of Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh in England. This sermon was published in Russian translation in The Citizen, March 25, No. 12, 1874, and edited by Dostoevsky himself:76

Haши пpимepы xудыe или xopoшиe пpивoдятcя тaм кaк oпpaвдaниe пopoкa или пooщpeниe к дoбpoдeтeли. Cмpaд или блaгoуxaниe нaшeгo дуxa или зapaжaют или oчищaют, кaк чacтo виднo, вecь нижний тoк нapoднoй жизни. Oшибки и пaдeния, кoтopыя oтнocитeльнo мoжнo бы извинить тeмнoму пpocтoлюдину, тeм бoлee вpeдны, чeм вышe мы пoднимaeмcя пo oбщecтвeннoй лecтницe. C дpугoй cтopoны, дoбpыя дeлa, кoтopыя из caмaгo cкpoмнaгo угoлкa дaлeкo бpocaют лучи cвoeгo мaлeнькaгo cвeтильникa «в этoт миp пopoкa”, eщe дaлee изливaют cвeт cвoй, и пoтoму eщe бoлee дocтoйны уcилий, кoгдa cвeт этoт иcxoдит oт выcoкaгo cвeтильникa, нe мoгущaгo укpытьcя и ocвeщaющaгo paзнooбpaзныя oбитeли и дaжe шиpoкий гopизoнт цeлoй нaции.

75 “Principles in Russia are very loose; this Empr’s Sons, Sisters & brothers are no exception to this rule,” she wrote to her secretary, Lord Grenville, on 10 February, 1873. See Public Records, Grenville, 31. But there was nothing favourable in what Alexander ii said about Queen Victoria when he wrote to Ekaterina Dolgorukova from Windsor Castle during his visit in April 1874, namely, that she was “even more hideous than in her portraits”, and also that he had seen her favourite, the “celebrated Brown” (not that the Queen’s favourite had anything in common with the Browns in Hughes’ novel). Idem., Safronova, Ekaterina Iur’evskaia. Roman s v pis’makh, 203. 76 Christian Suretyship. A Sermon Preached in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle, 8 March, 1874, being the Sunday after the arrival of Their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster (London: Printed by Command, 1874). ‘Khristianskoe poruchitel’stvo. Propoved’ proiznesennaia v sobstvennoi chasovne Vindzorskogo zamka 8-go marta 1874 g. v pervoe voskresen’e posle pribytiia Ikh Korolevskikh Vysochestv Gertsoga i Gertsogini Edinburgskikh, Arturom Stenleem, dekanom Vestminsterskogo abbatstva’, Grazhdanin, 12 (1874): 348–350.

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Tom Brown’s Schooldays as a Supplement 45

[… the well-doing or the ill-doing, even of our sacred ways, are not un- seen or unknown to them. Our examples, good or bad, are quoted there as sanctions of vice or as incentives to goodness; the odour or fragrance of our characters (smrad ili blagoukhanie nashego dukha) corrupts or quickens as the case may be, many an undercurrent of national existence. Faults and failings which may be comparatively excusable or innocent in the ignorant or obscure peasant become less and less excusable, and more and more mischievous, the higher we ascend in the social scale; and, on the other hand, the good deed, which from the humblest station throws far the rays of ‘its little candle’ into ‘the naughty world’, casts its light still further, and therefore is still worthier of being achieved, still better worth the effort, if it comes from a lofty candlestick which cannot be hid, and which illuminates the manifold chambers or the wide hori- zon of a whole nation. (Original wording in sermon)]

The importance of setting a good example was recognized and noted in Vic- torian England, both in sermons and in fiction. At the end of the First Part of, ShzhTB, Chapter 9, the Doctor considers expelling Tom, because he might set a harmful example for the younger pupils. But by the end of the second part of the novel it is confirmed that staying at Rugby school has been to Tom’s benefit. After the Doctor’s death, Tom longs to see him again and tell him what he owes him, and that with God’s help he will follow his “example in life and death.” (ShzhTB, 253) The narrator comments on destructively bad examples: “Can we blame us, boys, for following the example of our betters?—at any rate we did follow it.” (tbs, 180) For Dostoevsky example also plays an important role. In The Adolescent, Aunt Tatyana Pavlovna continually hisses at Arkady, scolds him, and presents to him, as he says, as an example, “some other fantastical boys, acquaintances and relatives of hers, who all seemed to be better than me.” [“дpугиx фaнтacтичecкиx кaкиx-тo мaльчикoв, ee знaкoмыx и poдcтвeнникoв, кoтopыe будтo бы вce были лучшe мeня” (xiii, 20)] If Arkady had followed the example set by Versilov, his natural father, he would probably have become just like Versilov: “without any religion, but ready almost to die for something undefined, which he is unable to name, but in which he passionately believes, following the example of a multitude of Russian European civilisors from the Petersburg period of Russian history.” (xiii, 455) [“бeз вcякoй peлигии, нo гoтoв пoчти умepeть зa чтo-тo нeoпpeдeлeннoe, чeгo и нaзвaть нe умeeт, нo вo чтo cтpacтнo вepуeт, пo пpимepу мнoжecтвa pуccкиx eвpoпeйcкиx цивилизaтopoв пeтepбуpгcкoгo пepиoдa pуccкoй иcтopии”].

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46 Zohrab

Setting an example is important, especially in bk; the elder Zosima notes the importance of a good example in the process of moral education, since much of learning is achieved through example and memory. “And what is the use of Christ’s words without example?” he asks rhetorically. (xiv, 267) His brother Markel had set an example for him, while Zosima’s moral integrity set an example to the “mysterious guest” Mikhail. The life and teachings of Zosima are an example for Alesha, while Alesha himself becomes an example for the schoolchildren. On the other hand, a bad example was set by Smerdyakov to Iliusha, resulting in the episode when a safety pin was fed to the dog Zhuchka. In his notes to Book 6 Dostoevsky also stresses the importance of the clergy setting a good example to their flock: “Chto za slova Khristovy bez primera? A ty i slova-to Khristovy emu za den’gi prodaesh’.” (xv, 253) Within the framework of this article, it is not possible to study all the correspondences and links between ShzhTB as a pre-text to the late works of Dosto- evsky The Adolescent, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man and bk. But we hope that we have at least suggested some possible connections that could be explored further. One must take into account that the specific requirements of censorship in the Russian Empire would have influenced Dostoevsky’s writing and, over time, also conditioned his responses and attitudes. Hence the production of his artistic texts was driven not solely by spontaneous literary creation and aesthetic considerations, but also by ideological and political determinants. This would have reflected on the way he approached ShzhTB and largely gov- erned the parameters of his reception of the English novel.

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