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A review by sbbarnes
Arabesques by Nikolai Gogol
3.0
Way less fun than Abende auf einem Weiler bei Dikanka. Almost no devil and folktale influences. Very much the standard Russian St. Petersburg is the best ever even though everyone there is miserable forever. Also what is it with Russian authors and talking about ladies' little white feet?
Rundown of stories
Kapitel aus einem historischen Roman - essentially just a disjointed chapter of a destroyed project. Had some folktalelike bits in it, follows a guy going to someone's house out in the countryside. That person tells him a horror story about a tree where some maybe Sinti and Roma? hard to tell? killed a preacher and now the tree is haunted.
Das Porträt - straight-up horror story about a portrait of a creepy moneylender that ruins the life of everyone who touches it. Main character is an artist who buys it, it makes him rich, and then he starts doing society portraits and loses all his talent and integrity. Probably my favorite in this book.
Das Leben - super abstract story about various famous areas of the world like Greece, Rome etc. looking at the poor people on the Russian plains.
Der Newskijprospect - someday I have to see this street everyone keeps talking about it. Tons and tons of general description, and then after about ten pages a story about two dudes who decide to creepily stalk two strange ladies home. The sensitive guy follows the beautiful brunette. It turns out she is a prostitute. He runs away and dreams of her every night and gets an opium habit so he can dream about her more, then he offers to marry her and she turns him down because she likes prostitution so he kills himself. The other guy stalks a blond lady home, turns out she's married and kind of dumb so he keeps following her around and acting to her husband like it's nbd. He tries to force himself on her and her husband and his friends beat him up and he acts like he's the wronged party. NOT MY FAVE STORY IN TERMS OF GENDER ROLES AND STUFF.
Der blutige Banduraspieler - weird historical segment. Not really sure where this was going. Bandits steal a monastery's basement to torture some guy they kidnapped, but it turns out it's his wife. She immediately breaks under torture, but someone calls to her to not talk, so she doesn't. Turns out it's a skinless bandura player.
Aufzeichnungen eines Wahnsinnigen - ah yes, mental illness in the 19th century. The russian bureaucracy machine drives another minor player insane as he falls in love with his boss's daughter and also thinks he hears dogs talking and he is the king of spain. He ends up being tortured in an institution. It's real fun, both in terms of totally unrealistic representation of actual delusional states and in terms of how terrible people were about dealing with mental illness.
Rundown of stories
Kapitel aus einem historischen Roman - essentially just a disjointed chapter of a destroyed project. Had some folktalelike bits in it, follows a guy going to someone's house out in the countryside. That person tells him a horror story about a tree where some maybe Sinti and Roma? hard to tell? killed a preacher and now the tree is haunted.
Das Porträt - straight-up horror story about a portrait of a creepy moneylender that ruins the life of everyone who touches it. Main character is an artist who buys it, it makes him rich, and then he starts doing society portraits and loses all his talent and integrity. Probably my favorite in this book.
Das Leben - super abstract story about various famous areas of the world like Greece, Rome etc. looking at the poor people on the Russian plains.
Der Newskijprospect - someday I have to see this street everyone keeps talking about it. Tons and tons of general description, and then after about ten pages a story about two dudes who decide to creepily stalk two strange ladies home. The sensitive guy follows the beautiful brunette. It turns out she is a prostitute. He runs away and dreams of her every night and gets an opium habit so he can dream about her more, then he offers to marry her and she turns him down because she likes prostitution so he kills himself. The other guy stalks a blond lady home, turns out she's married and kind of dumb so he keeps following her around and acting to her husband like it's nbd. He tries to force himself on her and her husband and his friends beat him up and he acts like he's the wronged party. NOT MY FAVE STORY IN TERMS OF GENDER ROLES AND STUFF.
Der blutige Banduraspieler - weird historical segment. Not really sure where this was going. Bandits steal a monastery's basement to torture some guy they kidnapped, but it turns out it's his wife. She immediately breaks under torture, but someone calls to her to not talk, so she doesn't. Turns out it's a skinless bandura player.
Aufzeichnungen eines Wahnsinnigen - ah yes, mental illness in the 19th century. The russian bureaucracy machine drives another minor player insane as he falls in love with his boss's daughter and also thinks he hears dogs talking and he is the king of spain. He ends up being tortured in an institution. It's real fun, both in terms of totally unrealistic representation of actual delusional states and in terms of how terrible people were about dealing with mental illness.