The Village of Stepanchikovo: And its Inhabitants: From the Notes of an Unknown (Penguin Classics)

This was the second book Dostoevsky published after his imprisonment and exile, and like the first, Uncle's Dream, it's a farce of Russian country life. From what I've read, Dosteovsky was being careful to step extra lightly at first after being allowed to return to writing to make sure he didn't give the authorities any reservations about letting him publish again, so these books are much lighter in tone and less substantive than his great later works. But they're both quite entertaining, especially this one, The Village of Stepanchikovo. I've been reading/rereading all of Dostoevsky's works in order, and while this book and Uncle's Dream aren't at the level of his major later novels, it's striking just how greatly improved his writing was immediately in his initial post-prison works compared to his directly pre-prison output. If you read them blind, you'd never think the delightful The Village of Stepanchikovo and the dreadful Netochka Nevnanova were written by the same person.The first person narrator of The Village of Stepanchikovo remarks to himself early on as he's getting a sense of the chaos he's walked into in accepting a request from his uncle to come to his country estate to help him deal with a personal/family drama, "This is real Bedlam." And that's pretty much what this book is all the way through, two days of non-stop bedlam. Most of the characters are eccentric and way over the top, which makes for some crazy scenes when Dostoevsky employs his often-used technique in many of his books of getting all the characters together in a room for a meeting that quickly descends into confrontation and chaos, though here these confrontational meetings are played more for comedy than drama. In setting the scene for one of these fiascos, Dostoevsky throws in the line, "Also present was a nun, who had wandered into the house that morning from goodness knows where." You don't expect a LOL line in a Dostoevsky book, but I laughed out loud at that one.I don't speak Russian, but as best I can judge, the translation in this edition by Ignat Avsey was very well done. It certainly reads quite well, and his introduction and notes provide useful insight. It's not necessary to enjoy the book, but it was interesting and funny to find out from the detailed footnotes from Avsey how directly and transparently Dostoevsky was roasting Gogol in having the pompous idiot Foma Fomich, the central driver of the book's bedlam, do or say things that directly echo things Gogol had said or done. Gogol was very indirectly but importantly tied into Dostoevky's getting sent to Siberia (the most high profile charge against him came from his reading a letter by Belinksky attacking Gogol's reactionary, pro-serfdom ideological shift at a meeting of the Petrashevsky circle), and apparently Dostoevsky was still mad about it 10 years later.The Village of Stepanchikovo isn't in the same lofty category as the likes of Brothers Karamazov, but it's very entertaining. I'd never even heard of it before embarking on this project of reading everything Dostoevsky wrote, and after reading it I'm surprised it's not better known and more highly regarded within Dostoevsky's body of work these days. It deserves to be much more widely read.

The Village of Stepanchikovo (also known in English as The Friend of the Family) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky was first published in 1859. It is narrated Sergey Aleksandrovich who obeys his uncle's summons, Colonel Yegor Ilich Rostanev having asked him to come from St. Petersburg. The colonel is concerned because he sees that a charlatan, Foma Fomich Opiskin is gulling the local boyars, posing as a nobleman. It is uncanny that Dostoievsky seems to anticipate the susceptibility of the Romanovs, though he wrote the story 40 years before Rasputin rose to power. More significantly, the story was written just two years before the emancipation of the serfs.Foma is dangerous in that he urges serfs to learn French, a revolutionary innovation that is absurd in its implementation yet still offers a challenge to traditional, Russian feudalism. He is angered when he finds the serfs dancing the kamarinskaya, according to their own traditions. Uncle Yegor is personally anxious because Foma wants him to marry the wealthy but mentally retarded Tatyana Ivanova , though she elopes with another suitor, the mother's boy, Obnoskin, despite her affection for the more decisive Mizinchikov.The story is a parody of the Russian hierarchy whereby a feudal system was preserved by a strictly ordered civil service and army both under the tutelage of the Tsar who ruled by divine right. Even though Foma is a charlatan, he is a redemptive force who necessitates a degree of reform through the gauche, youthful narrator. The story is more obviously comic than most of Dostoyevsky's longer novels, where humour depends on the interaction of parasitic grotesques in the Colonel's household - a class of people whose way of life was threatened with the imminent emancipation of the serfs.The village of Stepanchikovo offers a microcosm that parallels the Russian feudal courts at high and low levels in Russian society, not only the Tsar's court, but the regional centres presided over by local boyars. The work is also an attack on the clergy who would exploit the susceptibilities of the Orthodox peasantry, and even the petty nobles who were keen to maintain the good graces of the clergy, even those who were impostors. The Village of Stepanchikovo: And its Inhabitants: From the Notes of an Unknown (Penguin Classics)

In its early chapters, the novel promises to be a nuanced character-study of a manipulative, moralistic charlatan who somehow has gained psychological domination over an ingenuous aristocrat and his circle. But the novel soon concentrates on the farcical, light-comedy aspects of the situation, rapidly following the ever-changing follies of the household. Dostoevsky is certainly underappreciated as a writer of farce--mostly notably, in the priceless "literary soiree" depicted in "The Devils."

Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of everything else I have read by Dostoevsky. That said, this book was just disappointing to me. It was an easy and even entertaining read, but I want more than just entertainment from dostoevsky. The book does hint at future works and have some elements of the great novels to come, and so is informative in that respect. And it is important if you want to get a feel for D's developement as a writer. But on it's own, it just doesn't measure up. If you want to read everything written by D, like I do, then I urge you to read this and judge for yourself. There is some stuff to appreciate here. If you're a more casual reader, familiarize yourself with his other, better known work.

Lesser known than the big works but a very enjoyable read. Mostly a parlour melodrama. Humour in Dostoevsky is often overlooked but it is always there and it is brought splendidly to the fore in this excellent easy flowing translation by the late Ignat Avsey. His introduction too is well worth reading after finishing the book as it illuminates a lot of the layers in the story and characters. The character of the General’s Lady is a brilliant comic presentation and it is easy to see the influence of Dickens whom Dostoevsky greatly enjoyed and admired.

This highly spirited character comedy turns around an impudent schemer, who became the real master of a household through his `ties' with the mother of an estate owner, `uncle'. The latter is a credulous, irresolute weakling, who is terrorized of giving offense. He is completely mystified by the confident of his mother, who is not more than an arrogant, bullying parasite, but a master in psychological blackmail.Other important characters are a young heiress, whom the family wants to couple with `uncle' in order to save the estate, and a young girl who is in love with `uncle'.The whole bunch around them, are mainly intriguers and vipers, who are using `uncle' as a punching ball.In one of his first novels, Dostoyevsky shows already that he is a master painter of psychological warfare, in depth character sketches, complicated intrigues and hilarious scenes with embarrassing confrontations.Like in all his earlier work, one can find here the basic brushes of the great characters in his major novels. One thinks here immediately of `The Idiot'.In his excellent introduction, which should be read as an afterword, the translator I. Avsey explains that the character of `uncle' is a portrait and an attack on Gogol, because of his reactionary comments in `Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends'.This book is highly recommended to all lovers of world literature and all fans of Dostoyevsky.

But the reader does a bit of cringing and squirming.All’s well that ends well, though!

I started reading Dostoyevsky in the 80s and believed I’d read just about all his great novels and short stories, but this is one that I missed, and it’s been a revelation. I knew Dostoyevsky had a sense of humour, but usually you get oases of humour (much of it bitter and sardonic) amid deserts of despair. Here, though, you get sustained humour from beginning to end. It reminded me of the situation you often find in a Chekhov play, with the hypocritical parasite who controls the world around them, sometimes being exposed, but often surviving to wreak perpetual damage beyond the confines of the play.Ultimately though, you get the feeling that justice is being done when Foma Fomich is allowed to stay in Stepanchikovo and end his days there surrounded by people who’ve learned how to contain his nonsense and in so doing, save the rest of us from having to bother with him. An excellent and entertaining novella. I’d recommend reading it between a couple of the great novels as a bit of light relief. Say after The Devils and before The Brothers Karamazov.

The contents are good. The book arrived damaged though.