DIVIDED SOUL: The Life of Gogol

by Henri Troyat ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 12, 1973

Divided Soul, Troyat's latest Russian literary portrait, is an apt two-word summation of Gogol's character and personality -- the man, as opposed to the writer, was not the social critic, democrat and westernizer in whom Belinsky and Herzen placed their hopes, however briefly, after reading Dead Souls and seeing The Inspector General Gogol did not ""invent"" his fictions; he ""embellished"" and exaggerated the life that flowed around him -- the bureaucracy, the land owners, the provincial lionesses, etc. -- so it is interesting to learn that he was only fleetingly a civil servant; that he fled the provinces to the white lights of Petersburg immediately after leaving school; that he stayed away from the family estate which his mother continued to tend haphazardly, turning the Ukrainian folklore sent him by his sisters into leitmotifs for his morbid and lurid literary landscapes; that he saw Russia as a hurtling troika when he was abroad. A friend described Gogol as ""a self-taught genius"" but ""a devious, selfish, arrogant and suspicious creature who will do anything for fame"" -- Troyat doesn't particularly like him or treat his actions generously, which leaves the reader to wonder how he could have aroused Pushkin's interest and become the center of various coteries of Slovophiles, artists, aristocrats and mystically transported ladies who catered to his every need. But the scenes have been set down in all their luminosity -- we can see this self-important pedant, a religious fanatic before his death, didactically instructing his adoring lady-listeners how to give themselves to God; the hypochondriac prostrate on the sofa believing every breath to be his last; the host cooking Ukrainian delicacies for his guests and looking ""like a rooster perched upon his spurs."" One is impelled to consult other lives of Gogol as corrective to this monumental canvas but Troyat's biography -- like his Tolstoy (1967) -- will be the standard for comparison.

Pub Date: Oct. 12, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION