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A review by retric
Petersburg by Andrei Bely
5.0
This is one of those books where if you really wanted to fully appreciate it, you'd have to teach yourself Russian and dig into the original text, because as the footnotes in the back will tell you, there's no real translation that will do this book justice. But for those of us who don't have the time to do so, the current translation is pretty good as it is... although the Prologue and many other parts still look weird at first glance (but I'm guessing it's mostly like that in the original text also).
In part the story is intended to be understood by contemporary Russian readers of the early 20th century, as there are a lot of allusions and symbolism that will be lost if you don't have any working knowledge of Russian history up to that point, what with all the references to Peter the Great and Pushkin and The Bronze Horseman and how rectilinear Nevsky Prospect is and whatnot. Honestly, the only thing I could remember from reading this the first time around was that expanding spheres show up everywhere, and that was because the Slavic professor asked us to count how many times they showed up, which I felt was mostly distracting away from the real point. But anyway, if you have the patience to cross-reference or reread later, the footnotes to the current translation do a great job of providing a lot of the historical background, or at least to the point where I felt like I had a decent grasp of the history of the city afterwards without having to read an actual textbook.
All that said, if you can get past the obscure references and odd symbolism (well... considering this is a Symbolist novel), it's a great read. This is a novel that really tries to capture the spirit of the city of St. Petersburg and focuses on an issue that Russians, along with everyone else at some point, have struggled with for ages - their national identity. Are they really European, or Asian, or both or neither or something else altogether? (I've always kinda wondered that myself ever since seeing Russia for the first time on a map.) Particularly at a time where the country was undergoing continual turmoil with protests happening everywhere, amid a recent loss in an international war. Paranoia was rampant, and you can feel it throughout these pages.
It probably helped a lot that I reread this in preparation for a trip to St. Petersburg, as it gave me a chance to see the geographical features and quirks of the city come to life and made actually seeing those sites in person much more meaningful. Even past the historical/geographical context though, there's way more going on in this novel in terms of language, plot, themes, and so on that I have still have trouble processing even after rereading. It's one of those works worth coming back to if you can find the time - there's always something new to discover here.
In part the story is intended to be understood by contemporary Russian readers of the early 20th century, as there are a lot of allusions and symbolism that will be lost if you don't have any working knowledge of Russian history up to that point, what with all the references to Peter the Great and Pushkin and The Bronze Horseman and how rectilinear Nevsky Prospect is and whatnot. Honestly, the only thing I could remember from reading this the first time around was that expanding spheres show up everywhere, and that was because the Slavic professor asked us to count how many times they showed up, which I felt was mostly distracting away from the real point. But anyway, if you have the patience to cross-reference or reread later, the footnotes to the current translation do a great job of providing a lot of the historical background, or at least to the point where I felt like I had a decent grasp of the history of the city afterwards without having to read an actual textbook.
All that said, if you can get past the obscure references and odd symbolism (well... considering this is a Symbolist novel), it's a great read. This is a novel that really tries to capture the spirit of the city of St. Petersburg and focuses on an issue that Russians, along with everyone else at some point, have struggled with for ages - their national identity. Are they really European, or Asian, or both or neither or something else altogether? (I've always kinda wondered that myself ever since seeing Russia for the first time on a map.) Particularly at a time where the country was undergoing continual turmoil with protests happening everywhere, amid a recent loss in an international war. Paranoia was rampant, and you can feel it throughout these pages.
It probably helped a lot that I reread this in preparation for a trip to St. Petersburg, as it gave me a chance to see the geographical features and quirks of the city come to life and made actually seeing those sites in person much more meaningful. Even past the historical/geographical context though, there's way more going on in this novel in terms of language, plot, themes, and so on that I have still have trouble processing even after rereading. It's one of those works worth coming back to if you can find the time - there's always something new to discover here.