''Petersburg'' (russian: Петербург, ''Peterbúrg'') is a novel by Russian writer

Andrei Bely Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev ( rus, Бори́с Никола́евич Буга́ев, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ bʊˈɡajɪf, a=Boris Nikolayevich Bugayev.ru.vorb.oga), better known by the pen name Andrei Bely or Biely ( rus, Андре ...

. A

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

work, it has been compared to other "city novels" like ''

Ulysses Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature. Ulysses may also refer to: People * Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name Places in the United States * Ulysses, Kansas * Ulysse ...

'' and ''

Berlin Alexanderplatz ''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' () is a 1929 novel by Alfred Döblin. It is considered one of the most important and innovative works of the Weimar Republic. In a 2002 poll of 100 noted writers the book was named among the top 100 books of all time. ...

''.Nabokov, ''Russian Writers, Censors, and Readers'', Read at the Festival of the Arts, Cornell University, April 10, 1958 The first edition was completed in November 1913 and published serially from October 1913 to March 1914 (and later reissued as a book in 1916). It received little attention and was not translated into English until 1959 by

John Cournos John Cournos, born Ivan Grigorievich Korshun () (6 March 1881 – 27 August 1966), was a writer and translator of Russian Jewish background who spent his later life in exile. Early life Cournos was born in Zhytomyr, Russian Empire (now in Ukraine ...

, over 45 years after it was written. Today the book is generally considered Bely's masterpiece; Vladimir Nabokov ranked it one of the four greatest "masterpieces of twentieth century prose", after ''

'' and '' The Metamorphosis'', and before "the first half" of ''

In Search of Lost Time ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

''.1965, Nabokov'
television interview
TV-13 NY In

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

Bely published in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

a revised edition which was shorter by a third than the first one. As Bely noted, "the new edition is a completely new book for the readers of the first edition". In the Berlin version Bely changed the

foot The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...

of his rhythmic prose from

anapest An anapaest (; also spelled anapæst or anapest, also called antidactylus) is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. In classical quantitative meters it consists of two short syllables followed by a long one; in accentual stress meters it consist ...

to amphibrach, and removed ironical passages related to the revolutionary movement. The second version is usually considered as inferior to the first one. The novel is the second part of Bely's unfinished trilogy ''East or West'', while ''

The Silver Dove ''The Silver Dove'' is a novel by Andrei Bely published in 1909, in which he processes his partly neo-Kantian speculations, abstract thoughts and metaphysical speculations under the impression of the failed revolution of 1905. The work was plann ...

'' is the first one. Chekhov Ableukhov

Plot summary

Just after the conclusion of the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

in 1905, Nikolai Apollonovich Ableukhov is given the task of assassinating his bureaucrat father, Apollon Apollonovich, using a time bomb supplied to him by a fellow radical, Alexander Ivanovich Dudkin. Nikolai Apollonovich spends much of his time dressing himself in a red domino costume with a black domino mask, making a fool of himself in front of Sofya Petrovna Likhutina, a woman who has rebuked his flirtations in the past. Instead of focusing on the immense task he has agreed to undertake he gets himself into the newspaper's gossip columns with his antics and attends a party. His father notices these exploits and decides that his son is a scoundrel. Dudkin himself answers to a higher power, a man named Lippanchenko who is the leader of their radical group. Eventually both Nikolai Apollonovich and Dudkin experience a change of heart about their mission, however there is much to detain Nikolai Apollonovich on his way to throw the bomb into the river.

Characters

* Apollon Apollonovich Ableukhov - a senior official in the Russian Imperial government * Nikolai Apollonovich Ableukhov (Nikolenka/Kolenka) - Apollon Apollonovich's son; a student involved in radical politics * Anna Petrovna Ableukhova - Apollon Apollonovich's estranged wife and Nikolai's mother; lives in Spain * Sofya Petrovna Likhutina (Angel Peri) - a socialite who runs an informal salon from her apartment * Mavrushka - Sofya Petrovna's maid * Sergei Sergeyevich Likhutin (Seryozhka) - a second lieutenant in the Gregorian Regiment; Sofya's husband; Nikolai Apollonovich's childhood friend * Nikolai Stepanovich Lippanchenko (Lipensky) - attends Sofya Petrovna's salon; a provocator and leader of the radical terrorist wing of the party; based on

Yevno Azef Yevno Fishelevich Azef (russian: Евгений Филиппович (Евно Фишелевич) Азеф, also transliterated as ''Evno'' Azef, 1869–1918) was a Russian socialist revolutionary who also operated as a double agent and agent ...

* Varvara Yevgrafovna Solovyova - an intellectual well versed in Marxist theory; friends with Sofya Petrovna; involved with the party * Nikolai Petrovich Tsukatov (Coco) - a wealthy man who hosts a ball attended by many of the main characters * Lyubov' Alekseyevna Tsukatova - Nikolai Petrovich's wife * Leib Hussar Shporyshev - attends Sofya Petrovna's salon * Baron Ommau-Ommergau - a "yellow cuirassier"; attends Sofya Petrovna's salon * Count Aven - a "blue cuirassier"; attends Sofya Petrovna's salon * Herman Hermanovich Verhefden - a clerk in Apollon Apollonovich's office; attends Sofya Petrovna's salon * Aleksandr Ivanovich Dudkin - a former political prisoner and local party operative reporting to Lippanchenko * Zoya Zakharovna Fleisch - lives with Lippanchenko; probably a party member * Pavel Yakovlevich Morkovin or Voronkov - possibly a secret policeman; possibly also a party member * Mindalini (Mantalini) - Sofya Petrovna's Italian lover * Matvei Morzhov - a yardkeeper * Dmitrich Semyonych - the Ableukhovs' doorkeeper * Ivan Ivanych Ivanov - a merchant * Bessmertny - a shoe salesman * Neintelpfain - a hack journalist * Stepan Styopka - a friend of Dudkin's * Grishka - a lackey in the Ableukhov household

Analysis

Bely drew many of his characters from historical models: Apollon Apollonovich shares many characteristics with Procurator of the Holy Synod Konstantin Pobedonostsev; Dudkin resembles the revolutionary terrorist

Boris Savinkov Boris Viktorovich Savinkov (Russian: Бори́с Ви́кторович Са́винков; 31 January 1879 – 7 May 1925) was a Russian writer and revolutionary. As one of the leaders of the Fighting Organisation, the paramilitary win ...

; Lippanchenko shares many characteristics with the infamous double agent

. There are similarities with James Joyce's ''

''. The linguistic rhythms, wordplay, Symbolism, politics, and general structure and themes of the novel have all been compared to Joyce's novel, as well as the setting of the action in a capital city (

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

; St. Petersburg) that is itself a character and the unusual use of humor. However, the differences are also notable; the English translation of Bely remains more accessible than Joyce, for example. Bely's work is based on a complex rhythm of patterns, yet does not use such a wide variety of innovations as Joyce. The comparison of ''Petersburg'' to ''Ulysses'' has been made for both its symbolist style and for the centrality of the city within the narrative. There are many allusions within the novel to the city's history going back to its

founding Founding may refer to: * The formation of a corporation, government, or other organization * The laying of a building's Foundation * The casting of materials in a mold See also * Foundation (disambiguation) * Incorporation (disambiguation) In ...

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

, and it incorporates a number of literary allusions to literature set in Petersburg (especially ''

The Bronze Horseman The ''Bronze Horseman'' (russian: link=no, Медный всадник, literally "copper horseman") is an equestrian statue of Peter the Great in the Senate Square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was opened to the public on 7 (18) August ...

'') as well as Russian literature in general. The characters such as Apollon Apollonovich and Alexander Ivanovich often merge with their environments, while the city itself forms a significant role in the story's unfolding. The book was informed by many of the philosophies Bely and others of his time were concerned with, both political and spiritual. One of the major influences on the somewhat mystical tone of the book was Bely's experience with Rudolf Steiner and his philosophy of anthroposophy. The characters undergo various transcendent states, and these are generally drawn from Bely's spiritual studies. There are also discussions of

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

and

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...

's ideas, and, though the book revolves around a political action, much of it is concerned with spiritual states.

Translations

There have been four major translations of the novel into English: * ''St. Petersburg'' (or ''Saint Petersburg''), translated by

(1959, based on the Berlin version) * ''Petersburg'', translated and annotated by

John E. Malmstad John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and Robert A. Maguire (

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...

, 1978; based on the Berlin version) * ''Petersburg'', translated by David McDuff (

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.John Elsworth (

Pushkin Press Pushkin Press is a British-based publishing house dedicated to publishing novels, essays, memoirs and children's books. The London-based company was founded in 1997 and is notable for publishing authors such as Stefan Zweig, Marcel Aymé, Anta ...

, 2009); winner of the 2012

Rossica Translation Prize The Rossica Translation Prize is a biennial award given to an exceptional published translation of a literary work from Russian into English. It is the only prize in the world for Russian to English literary translations. History of the prize The ...

In a review of all the existing English translations, Professor Michael R. Katz writes that, "if someone wants to read Bely's masterpiece and to understand ''most'' of it, then learn Russian and read it in the original; if he/she wants to understand ''some'' of it, then read Maguire and Malmstad's magisterial annotated, introduced, and reasonably well-translated scholarly edition; and if someone wants just to say that he/she has read Bely's ''Petersburg'' for the sake of adding one notch to his cultural gun

hen Hen commonly refers to a female animal: a female chicken, other gallinaceous bird, any type of bird in general, or a lobster. It is also a slang term for a woman. Hen or Hens may also refer to: Places Norway *Hen, Buskerud, a village in Ringer ...

go read Elsworth's version." In the ''Times Literary Supplement'', Thomas Karshan noted that "Elsworth's version conveys little of Bely's sonic patterning" but that "McDuff's distinguished 1995 version does a good job of approximating the music of Bely's Symbolist prose poetry".

References

{{Reflist 1913 novels 1922 German novels 1959 Russian novels Novels set in Saint Petersburg Novels about revolutionaries Novels set in 20th-century Russia Symbolist novels Novels about cities Novels about terrorism Patricide in fiction Modernist novels Russian philosophical novels Russian political novels 1905 Russian Revolution