Will-o'-the-wisps (Leskow)
Irrlichter ( Russian Блудящие огни , Bludjaschtschije ogni ) is a development novel by the Russian writer Nikolai Leskow , which was written in 1874 and appeared in the weekly Niwa (German: Die Flur ). The book edition in 1876 came under the title Children's Years. From the memoirs of Merkul Praotzew ( Russian Детские годы. Из воспоминаний Меркула Праотцева , Detskije gody. Is wospominani Merkula Praotzewa ).
action
The grizzled first-person narrator Merkul Praotzew, son of a Russian , ekes out his last earth days as father Gordi in the monastery cell. When the monk looks back on his life 25 years ago while writing about his youth, he comes across the parable of the will-o'-the-wisps who lure people into the swamp. Merkul had sought light and warmth in life, but had only consumed shells in that mire and was dying because of it. Father Gordi, an artist and art connoisseur, confesses that he may have marched forward on the way to art, but occasionally went astray along the way.
The first story tells of the father's death. Captain Pawel Praotzew, commander of a Russian cavalry regiment in a Polish city, in the midst of "the hostile-minded Polish population", had survived numerous battles while serving in that regiment. As a child Merkul traveled with his mother Karolina, who remained Protestant at heart , a progressive-minded Livonian baroness, from Poland to Livonia to see her grandmother. She took out a mortgage on her great estate. With the money, the father brought his run-down regiment into shape for an upcoming troop display. When the superior general was nevertheless very dissatisfied with the fully equipped regiment, the father did not survive the fiasco and died after a stroke . The elderly grandmother dies on the threshold of her property when she has to leave it. Merkul finds accommodation in a children's home in Petersburg and becomes a cadet there. At the Petersburg cadet institution , 16-year-old Merkul took part in throwing stones at superiors on the occasion of one of the flogging sentences. For this, the forty stone throwers were beaten mercilessly and, as outcasts “only fit for community service”, each with 27 rubles and 50 kopecks travel money in their pockets, distributed on horse-drawn vehicles to the provinces. On the advice of her mother, who now lives in her Livonian homeland, Merkul chose the university city of Kiev , the place of residence of an influential uncle. On the way with the coachman Kiril, Merkul's comrade Viktor Wolosatin reached his wealthy family in Tver . All comrades traveling on are invited by Wolosatin to a ball in his parents' house. Merkul appears awkward, is encouraged by Wolosatin's sister Anja and falls in love with the 29-year-old. Once in Tula and Oryol three companions total disembarked, four set the drive to Kiev over Gluchowo and Njeshin continued. Little Knyshenko does not get into his Nyeshin, but drowns near Baturin in the Seima River while catching crabs . Merkul writes a long love letter in Borsna Anja Wolosatina. Soon after putting the letter in the mailbox, he fears the answer from his goddess from Tver.
After six long years, Kiev brings Merkul to meet her dear 36-year-old mother again. She has left Livonia forever, has moved near the relatives and comforts the boy. He's lost a few privileges, but she has a plan. The kind, yet energetic mother relies on the education of the only son. Merkul's working day is filled with the timetable. Mother and son live in three little rooms; live in modest circumstances. The mother won the widowed Republican Ivan Ivanovich Altanski, professor at the Spiritual Academy , as Merkul's understanding private teacher in mathematics and in the history of classical philosophy. In return, the educated, logical woman teaches his only 18-year-old daughter Christa Altanskaya, a serious Ukrainian girl, in English. Christa and Merkul feel almost overwhelmed by the superiority of Baroness Karolina.
The mother Karolina does not hide her intensive correspondence with a certain Philipp Kolberg from Petersburg from the son. Merkul obediently makes a courtesy visit to his uncle General Lev Jakowlewitsch and his wife Olga Fominischna. Merkul says that there is a smell of “arrogance, pomposity and inner emptiness” in their surroundings. Merkul met 25-year-old Serjosha Krutowitsch from her relatives. His wealthy mother Vera Fominischna lives on her estate outside Kiev and is the sister of Merkul's aunt Olga. When Merkul realizes - Serjosha and Christa are lovers, he feels a stab in his heart. The pale, resolute Christa lying, they love one another, as Serjosha one on parental behest marriage received.
The work in the uncle's office does not strain Merkul and there is still enough time for scientific work under the direction of Professor Altanski. Although the general ignores his nephew Merkul at all, Merkul has to repeat the courtesy visit occasionally. Because Merkul's mother goes to see Baron K., the general's superior. Merkul says the general doesn't hit anyone, he just yells.
Christa informs Merkul about one of Serjosha's bad character traits that shows up in his money marriage. Even so, she loves this affected man and is convinced that he will return to her. That’s what happens. Four years go by. Serjosha runs away in front of his domineering wife and stays with the Altanski. Christa is happy again because she is loved. Serjosha in no way conceals this relationship. The mother-in-law Marja Ilyinishna threatens him with disinheritance and forces the couple back together. Christa, pregnant by Serjosha, gives birth to a child. Mother and child die after giving birth.
When Merkul's aunt dies, the widowed general soon marries the wealthy Marja Ilyinishna and has taken care of things.
Merkul sees his turn to the sciences as a mistake after he got to know the painter Laptew and discovered his destiny as an artist in the village of Krotowo on the banks of the Oka . Finally, Merkul becomes known in artistic circles with the above mentioned mysterious Mr. Kolberg from Petersburg and learns the story of his unhappy love: The Christian Baroness Karolina and the penniless fraternity , student in Dorpat , did not become a couple. Kolberg sponsors Merkul.
Merkul has to return to Kiev. He spends several days at his mother's grave. This had poisoned itself during his absence. The young man leaves Kiev and returns to Kolberg.
Minor characters
Besides the coachman Kiril, Merkul's comrade, the young Pole Stanislaw Penknowski from Kiev, is the main actor. Penknowski, who likes to come to the fore, does one farce after another on the long way from Petersburg to Kiev together with the drunkard and trader Kiril. In Kiev he sneaks the trust of the baroness and her Kiev relatives and finally marries a wealthy old woman - Serjosha's mother Vera Fominischna. Christa and Merkul have to laugh so hard and long at this recent farce Penknowski that Christa feels uncomfortable afterwards.
reception
- 1970: Zelinsky characterizes Merkul's mother as angelic, Kolberg as an unfulfilled lover, Professor Altanski as a sensitive scholar and remarks that the first-person narrator father Gordi alias Merkul is not omniscient. Nikolai Leskov avoided black and white painting. For example, the coachman Kiril also has good sides and Merkul's mother not only good sides. Merkul was brought up for a long time - first by her father, then in the Petersburg cadet institute and finally by her mother in Kiev. The mother fails with her method based on obedience and submission. The dominant theme is the mother-child relationship. Merkul reflects, reviews, and corrects these across large parts of the story in Kiev.
literature
German-language editions
Output used:
- Will-o'-the-wisps. Transferred from Ena von Baer ; 263 pages. Verlag der Nation , Berlin 1963.
Secondary literature
- Vsevolod Sechkareff : NS Leskov. His life and his work. 170 pages. Verlag Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1959
- The will-o'-the-wisps. P. 98–163 in Bodo Zelinsky : Roman und Romanchronik. Structural studies on Nikolaj Leskov's storytelling. 310 pages. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 1970
Web links
- The text
- Entry in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)
Remarks
- ↑ The novel is about 1848, because while the protagonist lives in Kiev at the age of 16, the Hungarians stand up against the Habsburgs . (Edition used, p. 119 middle as well as p. 122, 1. Zvo).
- ↑ Zelinsky writes: “... the hero's emotional world is determined by error. He resembles a wanderer ... who, in spite of misleading lights, not only gets further, but also higher. "(Zelinsky, p. 128, 6. Zvu)
- ↑ This story comes off lightly for Merkul. Not Anja, but Viktor answers. With that, the story is already over (Edition used, p. 150 below).
- ↑ Merkul enjoys analyzing and researching (Zelinsky, p. 119, 11. Zvo).
- ↑ Christa's love for Serjosha is dominated solely by her sacrifice (Zelinsky, p. 123, 11th Zvu).
- ↑ Of the educators of Merkul, Laptew is the only successful one because he trains Merkul's naturally existing abilities (Zelinsky, p. 119, 15. Zvo).
- ↑ Nikolai Leskov gives no reason for the mother's suicide. Zelinsky makes less than plausible assumptions about this (Zelinsky, p. 119, 9th Zvu). In another context, however, Zelinsky repeatedly points to the precisely drawn mother-son relationship in the novel - for example when he writes: “... he [Merkul] suspected the greatness of the mother's soul , which she endured even in the worst scenes of the father let, ... “(Zelinsky, p. 154, 12th Zvu).
- ↑ The image of the ideal, earthly Kolberg at the end of the novel - like the mother's suicide before it - does not match the otherwise coherently drawn image of adults around the young protagonist Merkul (Zelinsky, p. 162, 4th Zvo).
- ↑ Zelinsky: "The mother fails because she ... strives to transfer her goodness ... to others." (Zelinsky, p. 160, 17. Zvo)