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April 29, 2005
Final hurdle
I am speed-reading my way through Goncharov's Oblomov for my Great Russian Novel exam (my last ever) on Wednesday. Just how boring is it possible for a novel to be? I'm also rereading Anna Karenina for maybe the seventh time in my life, and can confirm that even on the seventh reading I am finding new things to be irritated by. When I was younger, I think I was merely bored by Levin, but these days my blood boils.
Excerpts from a pleasant day in the fields, mowing for shits and giggles with one's indentured servants (yes, I know that serfs had been liberated by this point, but it's not as though they were suddenly upwardly mobile) :
The scythe cut of itself. These were happy moments. Still more delightful were the moments when they reached the stream where the rows ended, and the old man rubbed his scythe with the wet, thick grass, rinsed its blade in the fresh water of the stream, ladled out a little in a tin dipper, and offered Levin a drink."What do you say to my home-brew, eh? Good, eh?" said he,
winking.And truly Levin had never drunk any liquor so good as this warm
water with green bits floating in it, and a taste of rust from
the tin dipper.
(Oh, how humbly lyrical. How appetising: tetanus kvas.)
The old man crumbled up some bread in a cup, stirred it with the handle of a spoon, poured water on it from the dipper, broke up some more bread, and having seasoned it with salt, he turned to the east to say his prayer."Come, master, taste my sop," said he, kneeling down before the
cup.The sop was so good that Levin gave up the idea of going home.
(Mmmmm, sop. This must be the most plausible passage ever.)
Prince Stepan Arkadyevich takes Levin to dinner at the Angleterre:
"Well, then, how if we were to begin with oysters, and so change the whole program? Eh?""It's all the same to me. I should like cabbage soup and
kasha better than anything; but of course there's nothing like
that here."
(Spare me.)
These are just silly examples of the brain rash this whole book gives me.
(Oh, sorry, I cut and pasted from an online version which doesn't give the translator's name. This is very bad policy. What would Lawrence Venuti say?)
Posted by michele at April 29, 2005 2:01 PM
Comments
You may find much more interesting a reading in Goncharov's travel notes collected under the title "Fregat Pallada". I enjoyed his notes on visiting Hong Kong, flirting with Macau girls, and puzzlement by japanese cousine.
Posted by: GweiLo at April 30, 2005 11:37 PM
I checked, it's in the library, I'll give it a go. It turns out Oblomov's not so bad after all.
Posted by: Michele at May 2, 2005 11:26 AM