Page 57 - DENG104_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_I

Elective English–I

Notes The word lubok (from lub, the inner bark of the lime tree, or from lubochnaia koroba, the phrase
designating the box used by peddlers to transport their goods) was known from the early 17th
century. Essentially, the lubok consisted of a picture (or a series of pictures) accompanied by
a printed text which might be explanatory or narrative as the case required. Many of the
shorter stories for the people (e.g., “Little Girls Wiser Than Their Elders,” ‘’Evil Allures, But
Good Endures,” and “Il’ias”) were modelled on the lubok and printed, often as separate sheets,
with an accompanying picture. Finally, Tolstoy made use of folklore anthologies as sources for
the stories. “The Godson,” “The Repentant Sinner,” “The Workman Emel’ian and the Empty
Drum,” “The Three Hermits” and “The Imp and the Crust” are all closely modelled on religious
legends or fairy tales found recorded in the collections made by A. N. Afanas’ev and other
folklorists.
The stories contain several elements common to folk narratives and not found in Tolstoy’s
usual literary style. As previously mentioned, angels and demons frequently appear as do
events and characters in groups of three, the latter in distinct contrast to Tolstoy’s preference
in his “literary” style for comparison and contrast based upon binary groupings. There is
evidence in the form of notebooks kept by Tolstoy, especially in the late 1870s, of his deliberate
attempt to gather striking turns of phrase from common folk. From time to time he would
conceal himself behind bushes growing by the entrance to the drive leading to the manor
house at Yasnaya Polyana (his country estate). He would eavesdrop upon the conversation of
those passing by along the road on foot. When he would overhear some particularly choice
or juicy example of popular speech he would discreetly emerge from his hiding place, catch
up with the travelers, and engage them in further conversation as they walked along together.
Having thus gathered some gems of the popular lexicon or syntax he would return to his
ambush and make careful notes of the discoveries he had made, not a few of which later found
their way into his stories.
Finally, Tolstoy quoted freely from scripture and adopted some mannerisms typical of the
Bible and other religious literature. This element is most frequently found in the epigraph
(where it has a significance not unlike that of the proverbs used as titles) or at the climax of
the story or, where there is a moral, in the passage where it is explained. Assuming that to
the popular, Orthodox reader Biblical language would be both familiar and authoritative,
Tolstoy may have used it to add weight to the moral teaching of his stories.
It may be thought unlikely that works so overtly burdened with didactic purpose and directed
at so specific an audience would have much chance of being artistically memorable. In the
case of many of these stories, especially the very brief ones, this prediction proves all too
accurate. Yet such stories as “God Sees the Truth, But Waits,” “What Men Live By,” “Two Old
Men,’’ “The Three Hermits,” “Where Love Is, There Is God Also,” and “How Much Land Does
a Man Need?” possess high artistic value. They represent a masterful achievement in the
creation—from heterogeneous, although related, elements--of a unified style which yet permits
a modicum of flexibility and is singularly well adapted to its solemn moral purpose.

5.2 Popular Dramas

After 1880 Tolstoy produced some half dozen dramatic works of varying length. He had made
some rather tentative experiments in writing plays in his earlier career, primarily in the late
1850s and the first half of the 1860s. None of these early experiments were either published
or produced during Tolstoy’s lifetime. It was also the fate of much of Tolstoy’s later dramatic
writing to remain “in the drawer,” as the Russian phrase has it. Both of the plays which he
wrote for the popular theatre, however, were produced, although in one case not as its author
had planned.

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