It is a pity that so much of this volume is taken up with Taras Bulba, a story that hardly showcases all that is best in the works of Nikolai Gogol. Gogol was no Tolstoy or Dostoevesky, but he had a wonderful gift for the absurd. In Gogol’s hands, the mundane and mediocre lives of the average human being are seen as something weird and possibly tinged with insanity. For Gogol, life is but a joke, and he loves dwelling on the foibles of humankind. Even while he had strong religious views that sought to elevate mankind, his literary products somehow always end up showing the human race in a more ignoble light. However before we get to those, we have to go through Taras Bulba. The story is about an old Cossack who takes his sons into a battle that is needless, but which the narrator celebrates as a triumph of the courageous and fine spirit of the Cossacks. Despite the inevitable deaths of all concerned, there is no suggestion that Gogol ironically distances himself from the bigoted nationalism of his narrator. The story is full of offensive stereotypes. Poles are to be despised, a worrying trend given the history between Russia and Poland. Turks and Muslims are savages to be destroyed for not supporting the right religion. Then of course there are the Jews, portrayed with a contempt that occasionally approaches tolerance at best. The Cossacks are happy to kill the Jews on principle, but Taras absent-mindedly saves one Jew, Yankel. Later the Jews help Taras. However this is no enlightened attitude on the part of Gogol. The Jews are entirely despicable. When Yankel (a short time after nearly falling victim to the pogrom) is back selling products to the army, Taras shakes his head at this evidence of the Jewish character. I am not sure how he expected Yankel to survive without trading for money, but somehow this is seen as abject and greedy in Gogol’s eyes. After Yankel has done well for himself, he still prays in a dirty smock because miserliness is more important than their god, or so Gogol imagines.
The gung ho militarism soon becomes tiresome, and it seems that every Cossack must deliver a brave and flowery speech before he dies. Overall this is not the best work of the great Gogol.
The other stories in this collection are minor ones perhaps, but considerably more fun. There is a strongly grotesque element to them though, and most of them end badly for the main characters.
A few of the stories involve characters who make Faustian deals that corrupt and destroy them. In ‘St John’s Eve,’ a man secures the hand of his sweetheart against parental objection by carrying out the blood sacrifice of her young brother at the behest of a witch. While he afterwards suffers from amnesia about the event, his sense that something is wrong will undermine any chance of the marriage being a happy one. The story is said to have inspired Mussorgsky’s tone poem, ‘Night on the Bare Mountain’.
‘The Mysterious Portrait’ is another variation on the idea of a sinister painting, a common theme in literature. A penniless painter buys a portrait of a devilish man, and discovers that the man has the ability to leave the portrait at night. The man also appears to have a ready supply of money, some of which the artist steals.
One would expect the story to be about the man in the painting tormenting the artist for return of the money, but actually he disappears from the rest of the tale for the main part. Instead it is about how the money corrupts the artist.
He uses it to buy a comfortable establishment, and discovers that artistic appreciation and perceived wealth go together. His new establishment is so respectable that people think his art must be good. However in pandering to the tastes of his subjects, he loses all artistic talent and finally goes mad.
However this is not the end of the story. There is a Part Two, in which we learn of the devilish origins of the picture from the original artist’s son. He intends to buy the picture and destroy it, but by the time he has finished explaining his reasons for wanting the painting, someone has stolen it.
The theme of these stories is about the corrupting influence that bad decisions have on people, and how they are left contaminated for life. The other stories deal with the more usual Gogol themes – that of ordinary people who find themselves in ridiculous situations.
The best story in the collection is ‘The Cloak’. This deals with a meek clerk who is despised by his workmates for his shabby appearance, and his limited abilities that only run to copying work, a job that he does with great enthusiasm.
However the tables are briefly turned when he makes a dignified speech about the mockery he is receiving, and one colleague is ashamed and turns away from his colleagues as a result. On the whole though, Gogol’s tone is equally scornful, and he clearly enjoys laughing at the silliness of the clerk.
His life is going well enough until one day his cloak becomes so worn that he is forced to buy a new one at great expense. Though greatly distressed by the cost, he is thrilled when the new coat suddenly earns him greater respect from others, and his confidence is restored.
Alas, tragedy of the Gogol kind strikes. On his way home, he is assaulted and the coat stolen. A supercilious official enjoys humiliating the clerk and gives little help. The clerk sickens and dies, but apparently is still seeking his cloak after death.
It is the kind of story in which nobody emerges with credit – the clerk reduced to a mere mediocrity by the drudgery of his job, or the officials and colleagues who spurn him.
‘How the Two Ivans Quarelled’ may tail off a little at the end, but is also an effective and amusing tale. The two Ivans are good friends until they get caught up in a silly argument. When one Ivan refuses to sell a gun to the other, the disappointed Ivan calls him a ‘goose’.
Somehow this offensive word destroys their friendship. They engage in petty actions against one another, resulting in a lawsuit that exhausts their energies and goes on for the rest of their lives, or so we imagine.
Once again there is that melancholic tinge to the story that mingles with the comedy. This is a pointless and silly argument, but somehow the two men can’t help themselves, and throw away a warm relationship.
‘The Calash’ brings the collection to an end, and is a short and amusing story. A man invites guests round to see his calash (or carriage), but falls asleep without informing his wife. Without any means to offer dinner to the guests, they decide to pretend that he is out while he hides in the calash. However the guests insist on inspecting the calash. One of them discovers his presence but kindly hides it from the others.
Bourgeois respectability is shown up to be ridiculous here, as it is in many stories – the Ivans concerned with trifling matters of honour, the artist caring more for fame and fortune than his integrity, the clerk at the mercy of respectable standards concerning his coat, and so on.
There are also absurd incidental details thrown in just for the devilry of it. We are told that one of the Ivans likes to listen to the words of poor people telling him how badly they are in need. After this, he offers words of counsel and moves on without actually giving them anything. In ‘The Calash’, we learn that the mayor removed gardens from the town to ‘improve’ its appearance, although obviously that is not the case.
I would have given this volume four stars for most of the stories, but due to the presence of Taras Bulba taking up most of the volume, I can only manage three. If you can endure that opening tale (which is not terrible, but not great either), then the rest of the book is more interesting.
