The dog (Turgenev)

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Ivan Turgenev in 1859

The Dog ( Russian Собака , Sobaka ) is a fantastic novel by the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev , written in April 1864 and published on March 31, 1866 in the St. Petersburg newspaper .

In conversation, educated gentlemen from Petersburg investigate the question of the role of the logos if the supernatural would be allowed to exist alongside the rule of natural laws.

Three dogs

There are three dogs in the text; two natural and - since there is a work of fantasy - the eponymous supernatural dog. One of the real dogs is a young brown hound with a white muzzle and brown front paws. The animal is called Tresor and saves the life of its master, the impoverished landowner Porfiri Kapitonytsch from the Koselsk district in the Kaluga governorate . The nobleman and officer Porfiri is attacked by the second real animal, a huge red dog with bloodshot eyes. The mad red wants Porfiri for the throat, but Tresor intervenes at the last moment. The third dog, the supernatural, is discussed below.

overview

Porfiri, who got a job in the public service in Petersburg, tells some astonished, honorable gentlemen there how he got into the dog about six years ago: Wherever the player Porfiri stayed - in an apartment, in a hotel or otherwise where - in their respective bedrooms, an imaginary dog ​​made unmistakable noises as soon as the lights were turned off. In that case, if someone with a lighted candle looked for a dog under the bed or somewhere in the room, there was always no one there. Porfiri got rid of the supernatural apparition that repeated itself night after night for weeks on the advice of the old Believ sectarian Sergei Prokhorovich Pervuschin : Porfiri got himself a safe.

Soon after Tresor had saved its master's life, the young animal was bitten to death by "the damned". That should be bad for the rabid. A soldier from the garrison shot him. Curious: that was the soldier's first hit. The soldier had been decorated after participating in the twelfth campaign , although he had not met there in battle.

German-language editions

Output used:

  • The dog , p. 263–285 in: Iwan Turgenew: Gesammelte Werke. Vol. 5. Novellas. Edited and translated from the Russian by Johannes von Guenther. 365 pages Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1952.

Secondary literature

  • Reinhold Trautmann : On the form and content of Turgenev's novellas . 96 pages. Verlag S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1943 in: Treatises of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, Philological-Historical Class. Vol. 44, No. 3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Trautmann, p. 60, 14. Zvo
  2. ↑ Russian Sankt Petersburg newspaper
  3. ↑ Russian reference to first publication under text sources (Источники текста), 9. Zvo
  4. ^ Russian district of Koselsk