A king Lear of the steppe

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Ivan Turgenev in the 1870s

A King Lear of the steppe , also A King Lear of the village and A King Lear from the steppe ( Russian Степной король Лир , Stepnoi korol Lir), is a novella by the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev , which appeared in Westnik Evropy in October 1870 . In 1873 E. Behre in Mitau published the translation into German.

Title, time and place

The fable and protagonists are reminiscent of Shakespeare : a father - a certain Martyn Petrovich Charlow - passes on his estate prematurely to his daughters, is finally chased out of the house and dies a desperate avenger.

Charlow - a huge figure, endowed with bear strength - was there in 1812 when the Russians initiated the expulsion of the French from Russia. The story is told by Dmitri Semjonowitsch, one of Charlow's landowners. The adult narrator was fifteen years old at the time.

Although the title A King Lear of the Steppe has prevailed, there is a village story. According to Schwarz, the tragic event in the vicinity of Spasskoye-Lutowinowo , Turgenev's mother's estate in the Oryol region , actually happened.

content

Ten years before the narrator's birth, Charlow had saved his mother Natalya Nikolaevna in an accident with her carriage. Since then the landowner had looked after her neighbor Charlow; married the then 40-year-old to Margarita Timofejewna. The marriage resulted in two daughters - Anna and Jewlampija. Charlow's wife Margarita had passed away. Natalja had also promoted a certain Vladimir Vasilyevich Slyotkin and later married Anna. For Yevlampia - the younger of the two sisters - Natalja had a man from her neighborhood in her sights, the impoverished, stupid Major a. D. Gavrila Fedulytsch Shitkov. Natalja had even taken Charlow's brother-in-law Timofejewitsch Bychkow - called Souvenir - into her house. The fool and miserable parasite souvenir is thievingly happy when he can torment his brother-in-law Charlow to the core.

Charlow informs Natalja, who is well-meaning to him, before he goes to death with him that he wants to bequeath his three hundred dessyatins to his daughters. Natalja urgently advises the friend against. Anna was haughty and Yevlampia wasn't particularly meek either.

Charlow cannot be persuaded and signs the deed of donation.

Although afterwards both daughters turn out to be ungrateful, the deeply offended Charlow remains: his daughters will always obey him.

Anna's husband Slyotkin rules the estate; drives out Jewlampija's suitor Shitkow and lets Jewlampija dance to his tune. Natalja reads the riot act to her protégé Slyotkin, but ultimately cannot do anything.

The narrator, Dmitri, confronts Slyotkin, but gets the answer that Charlow has become childish.

When Charlow is chased away by Slyotkin and Anna, he finds refuge with Natalja and is constantly mocked by his brother-in-law Souvenir.

Charlow then goes back to his children, climbs up into the attic and begins to destroy the manor house that he built with his own hands. When the giant tore off two rafters, he fell down and was shattered by the falling ridge beam. Only Yevlampia regrets. Nevertheless - the narrator Dmitri perceives the “grief” of the dead man's daughters as a gesture of embarrassment.

Yevlampia donates her inheritance to sister Anna and her husband Slyotkin, leaves the area with a little money and becomes the extremely authoritative head of the Chlysty , a sect of self-flagellators .

Fifteen years later: The narrator Dmitri returns from Moscow to his estate after his mother's death. The reason for travel that cannot be postponed - it's about the boundaries between goods. So Dmitri has to negotiate with the neighbors. Slyotkin passed away. The rumor mill is simmering - the widow Anna, she has two beautiful daughters and a magnificent boy, has poisoned her husband. During the aforementioned negotiations, Dmitri observed a calm, dignified Anna who argued neither stubbornly nor greedily. On the contrary, their well thought-out and logical objections are ultimately accepted by all landowners.

filming

  • 1976 Soviet Union : A King Lear of the Steppe - radio and TV version by Anatoli Alexandrowitsch Wassiljew with Andrei Alexejewitsch Popow as Charlow.

German-language editions

  • A King Lear from the steppe country. Story , pp. 227–326 in: Iwan Turgenew: Gesammelte Werke. Vol. 4. Rauch. A King Lear from the steppe country. Edited and translated from the Russian by Johannes von Guenther. 331 pages Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1952.
  • A king Lear of the steppe. German by Ena von Baer , pp. 359–451 in: Iwan Turgenew: First love and other short stories. With an afterword by Friedrich Schwarz. Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1968 (3rd edition)

Output used:

  • Ivan Turgenev: A King Lear of the Steppes. Novella. Transferred from Ena von Baer . 93 pages. Insel-Bücherei Nr. 702. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1962 (Licensor: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung)

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Since the narrator Dmitri followed the incident as a 15-year-old and mostly from the maternal estate three werst away, he cannot answer questions like "What kind of triangular relationship Anna - Slyotkin - Yevlampia?" But he made his observations. He once met Slyotkin with Yevlampia in the forest while hunting. Anna then looked for her husband. Charlow also makes allusions to this subject that lead the reader to suspect that something like a relationship could have developed between Slyotkin and Yevlampia.
  2. ↑ That seems credible to the reader. Turgenev has always singled out Anna as the outstanding female villain per se.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schwarz, p. 538, 12. Zvo
  2. ↑ Russian Васильев, Анатолий Александрович
  3. ↑ Russian Попов, Андрей Алексеевич
  4. ↑ 90 min film on YouTube (Russian)