Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Humorous Poems of Count A. K. Tolstoy

1943; Wiley; Volume: 2; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/125256

1467-9434

Clarence A. Manning, Alexey Tolstoy,

Discourse Analysis and Cultural Communication

R USSIAN literature is predominantly serious. It is, as has so often been said, a literature of ideas, a literature frankly intended by its authors to educate the people and to lead them on the path of freedom and progress. Its greatest writers have sought to set forth the problems and struggles of the human soul in its efforts to find the way on which it should go. As a result, the foreign reader has frequently received an impression similar to that of H. G. Wells, when he said of Count Leo Tolstoy and other Russian authors: There is no depth of humor in any of them, no laughter, no creative fun. Far too often such works as Gorky's Lower Depths have been treated as typically Russian in the depravity of the characters, the drabness of the scene, and the almost endless discussion of ideals and realities. Yet these works illustrate but one side of the Russian character. That there are others is well proved by the unending stories of the gaiety and irresponsibility of the old Russian gentry and the lively character of the Russian court. It is proved by the actions of the Russians in many a crisis of their history when their courage and steadiness surprised the world as they have in 1942. Russian literature as a whole does not justify the usual impression that foreigners have of it, and many would be surprised to be told that there is as goodly an amount of amusing and satirical stories as in any other country, and that these are the works of deservedly great authors. The Russian stage can count as many successful comedies as it can tragedies, and we need only think of Griboedov's Woe from Wit, Gogol's Inspector General, and many other works. Even Pushkin, affectionately known in his youth as Cricket, always preserved a lightness and a sense of irony and sarcasm that peeks out in Evgeny Onegin, and delights in poking fun at the over-serious aspects of Russian life and thought. These same qualities are shown by Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, a distant relative of Count Leo, and an author who is far too little known outside of Russia. Yet he was typical of that high level of successful delittantism that has been so often found in Russians of education and wealth, and is perhaps more common than among English gentlemen of whom it is often predicated. A read-