The islanders
The Islanders ( Russian Островитяне , Ostrowitjane ) is a novel by the Russian writer Nikolai Leskow , which was written from 1865 to 1866 and published in the November and December 1866 issue of the St. Petersburg Otetschestwennye Sapiski .
action
The anonymous first-person narrator named the heroine of his novel at the beginning: “Manja Nork was a German from St. Petersburg's Vasily Island .” Other Germans lived on the island in the middle of the bustling city - initially Manja's mother Sofja Karlowna Nork, the 83-year-old ailing grandmother Malwina Fjodorovna, Manja's sisters Ida and Berta and Berta's fiancé, the wealthy future wholesaler Friedrich Schulz. The Norks, however, were among the less wealthy Germans in Petersburg. Manja's father, Sofja's husband, the Petersburg German wood turner Johann Christian Nork, had died. Sofja bravely continued Johann's business with the journeyman Hermann Wehrmann and a few apprentices.
The narrator, a Russian who at that time also lived on the island near the German school, had met the backfish Manja and Berta when they found shelter under his roof on their way home from school during a thunderstorm. Thus contact with the Nork family was established. In the Nork house, the narrator meets Friedrich Schulzen's acquaintance, the 30-year-old aristocratic Russian academic Roman Prokofjewitsch Istomin, a young, powerful painter.
After the marriage, Berta Schulz lives very close to her parents' wooden house. The narrator makes friends with Istomin. Both bachelors move into their own room in a shared apartment. It turns out that although the painter is an extremely capricious darling of women, he is unable to love anyone. The narrator deliberately ignores the occasional sighs and moans of this or that passionate lady in the next room. Thanks to the commitment of financially strong Friedrich Schulz, Manja's 16th birthday is celebrated in a big way. On the occasion, Istomin found access to the Nork family and Manja - a figure “shimmering white and weightless like sea foam”. When Istomin asked Manja to do a quadrille and then to waltz, the petite girl, like a tiny graceful bird, floating next to the sturdy Istomin, looked like a child.
Istomin persuades Manja to take painting lessons a few months after the birthday party. Manja lets the seducer kiss her.
The narrator and Istomin spend the summer in southern Russia and return to Petersburg in the fall. Istomin - back on the island - impregnates Manja.
The narrator does not get to see Manja for a long time because he has fallen ill with typhus . Istomin travels to Italy and writes to Manja - addressed to his empty rented apartment. In Parma, the womanizer duels a horned husband and is "badly wounded". Friedrich Schulz generously pays a significant sum from a distance for all costs incurred in Parma. Manja's grandmother Malwina Fjodorovna gets up from the wheelchair at home in the wooden house, curses Manja and dies. After such excitement, Manja has a miscarriage. The child is born dead. Manja is treated in a sanatorium for the mentally ill .
Istomin returns to Petersburg. Manja, back home, humbly asks for him; at least for a moment. When he comes, it flies to his chest. He pushes her back and jumps out of the window because he fears a game that will lead to a forced marriage. The father of the family, Friedrich Schulz, as the protector of the sister-in-law, wants to duel with the bachelor Istomin. Manja's 24-year-old sister Ida prevents that. Istomin gives in, gives in to the resolute young woman without contradiction and leaves Petersburg for Tbilisi forever . He wants to first explore the Caucasus and then on to the Syr-Darja . Two years later the businessman Friedrich Schulz takes the melancholy Manja with him to Northern Germany and marries her there with the eccentric Robert Bär. The north German has to realize that Manja doesn't love him and finally releases her. Manja lets Robert bless her and leaves on a steamer. Bear and Istomin stand on the bank. The eccentric Bär had the painter Istomin, now blind, summoned to say goodbye.
Sofja Karlowna wants to visit her daughter Manja before she dies. The wholesaler Friedrich Schulz wants to sell the mother-in-law's turnery business. The old woman Sofja Karlowna dies of stomach cancer. Now Ida wants to visit her sister Manja. The brother-in-law is investigating that Manja has left Mr. Bear and is publishing travel stories for children in the Allgemeine Zeitung . Istomin cannot be found. Ida cannot start her trip, because Manja's Central European whereabouts are also unknown.
shape
At the end of some of the 27 chapters of the novel, the narrator looks ahead - for example at the end of chapter 10: “I had every reason to fear Manja: I knew Istomin and saw that he was seriously after her; this could only lead to disaster for Manja. "
The narrator describes the defloration of Manja mentioned above as a voyeur - listening from the room next door to the shared apartment.
Leskow sprinkles verbatim speeches by Germans in their mother tongue into the text - for example “О yes, yes! God forbid! ”(3rd chapter) or“ Oh! We wanted to dance a little longer! "(7th chapter)
reception
- 1970: Zelinsky: The wooden house, "in which the Norks live, presents itself as a true island in the middle of the metropolitan sea ... Such a life ... must fail." Zelinsky judges the dramatic material - young, naive girl loves older ones who are experienced in love affairs Artists, presented by Leskow in prose - fail, as here, mostly and state: "The sensitive and touching leads to a weakening of the expression of the form."
- 1985: Dieckmann thinks that Leskow wrote even better prose than this early “sentimental romance novel with melodramatic collisions”, but the topic of “Petersburg's marginalized population” is a rarity. Dieckmann writes: "Leskow reported on the German population of Petersburg who were active in handicrafts and small businesses, and of the long-time immigrants, as he emphasizes, who have a permanent place in this city."
literature
German-language editions
Output used:
- The islanders. Translated from the Russian by Günter Dalitz. P. 5–221 in Eberhard Dieckmann (Ed.): Nikolai Leskow: Collected works in individual volumes. Vol. 3. The sealed angel. Stories and a novel. 795 pages. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1985 (1st edition)
Secondary literature
- Vsevolod Sechkareff : NS Leskov. His life and his work. 170 pages. Verlag Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1959
- The islanders. P. 74–98 in Bodo Zelinsky : Roman and Romanchronik. Structural studies on Nikolaj Leskov's storytelling. 310 pages. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 1970
Web links
- The text
- Wikisource Островитяне (Лесков) (Russian)
- online at Lib.ru / Klassiker (Russian, with reference to the first publication in the appendix)
- online at RVB.ru (Russian)
- Entry in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)
Remarks
- ↑ After Leskov is at that time a girl in Russia with 16 years of age (used edition, page 39, the 10th ACR).
- ↑ The northern German town of Doberan am Plauer See , mentioned by Leskow , also appears in his satire The Iron Will .