Russian Short Stories Part 5: The Hirsute Prose of Dostoyevsky

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1821-1881

In this series, we've been looking at major Russian authors through the lens of the short story. My initial idea was to use the medium of the short story to introduce the works of these authors in a way that was less intimidating than some of their major, hefty, door-stopping novels. The stories we've read so far have given us fairly accurate impressions of each author's style and themes expressed in their longer works. We've encountered the mannered and measured hesitance of Turgenev (whose white whiskers were neat and close-cropped), the humane passion and moral gravity of Tolstoy (perhaps the greatest of all the Russian bearded novelists), and the funny, surreal yet realistic social criticism of Gogol (who, as it happened, sported only a mustache). But what of Dostoyevsky, easily one of the hairiest and most prolific novelists of the nineteenth century? Here we are presented with a challenge.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's cups tended to overflow with a wealth of ideas that were often difficult to contain, even within the confines of a sprawling novel, much less so a short story. Combing through his work can be frustrating to new readers. In his novels, he sometimes tended to overwrite and his digressive tendencies can interrupt the flow of his narratives, leading us to conclude that he visited his editor about as often as he visited his barber. His characters are odd and quirky--and by that I mean, "erratic, impossibly neurotic, sometimes insanely paranoid and often completely dysfunctional". His output is uneven; the best of his works ranking among the very best in literature, and the rest, like unkempt facial hair, a jumbled mess.

This collection certainly gives us oodles of his style, warts and all, but his short stories only hint at what he would accomplish in the larger medium of the novel. This anthology collects stories from throughout Dostoyevsky's career. Here, we encounter the young, clean shaven writer of the late 1840s trying to find his way in the long shadow of the relatively hairless Gogol, and the author in his more hirsute years in which his works and talents, like his luxuriant, flowing beard, grew longer, richer and fuller. 

Short Stories (18??) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

When a bachelor takes in a lodger at the insistence of his housekeeper, he gains a companion and a master storyteller in "An Honest Thief" (1848). After an incident in which his benefactor's greatcoat has been stolen, the lodger, Astafy Ivanovitch, tells a story about Emelyan Illyitch. an indigent alcoholic whom Astafy once took in despite his own considerable poverty, and whose tendency to pilfer personal property to buy his vodka became a catalyst for conflict and ultimately, redemption. This story is a psychological profile of a man whose criminal deeds conflict with his moral nature--a theme that would be more extensively explored in Crime and Punishment (1866). This is one of the best of the bunch.

"A Novel in Nine Letters" (1847) is a Gogol-like satire of St. Petersburg society that follows the correspondence of two apparently refined and educated men, but their gentile, mannered language gradually reveals the sinister, unscrupulous deeds of two card sharps, their dupe, and their squabbles over money. The sound premise and the highly condensed epistolary twists make it worth reading, although it seems a trifle too clever. It is said that Dostoyevsky wrote this condensed novel in one night. It shows.

"An Unpleasant Incident" (aka "A Nasty Story") (1862), is supreme, muscular satire written at a time in Russia's history when the serfs had been emancipated and social and political reforms were hotly debated. Ivan Ilyich Pralinsky, a young civil servant of high rank who gives lip service to lofty progressive social ideals while boozing it up with his skeptical peers puts his philosophy to the test for motives that fall considerably short of altruistic. After leaving the gathering late in the evening, he discovers that his driver is nowhere to be found and sets off on foot for home, relishing the chance to punish his servant in doing so. While walking home, he hears music and laughter coming from a modest house and asks a policeman who lives there. Pralinsky is informed that the party is a wedding celebration for one of the men who works under him.

Our protagonist seizes upon the opportunity to show his inferiors how benevolent and enlightened he is by crashing the party, imagining that everyone will be thrilled by such a magnanimous gesture. From this point on, a worst case scenario is played out in which his presence causes a considerable disruption, making the guests feel uncomfortable and resentful of his presence. As the evening goes on, Pralinsky veers out of control, wanting to leave but instead staying longer and drinking himself into a stupor. 

"An Unpleasant Incident" is the tale of one man's journey into a drunken state of cognitive dissonance. His actions, rather than endearing him in the eyes of his inferiors, make him appear to be the transparent, self important fool that he really is. The best targets for satire are people who can't bear the thought of being laughed at. Consequently, the laughs found here are painful and full of gravitas--the very best kind of laughs a satirist can evoke. This story is one of Dostoyevsky's most effective pieces of writing.

It's a pity the same can't be said for "Another Man's Wife" (1848), a rather hollow story of infidelity and jealousy taken to ridiculous extremes. This piece combines two such stories under one heading with rapid-fire dialogue and silly, stagey comedy more appropriately suited for Vaudeville than for a work of prose. This is the stuff of bedroom comedy. If Woody Allen had written it, it would actually be funny. but as it is, it comes off as corny and mindlessly broad. This is pure farce from a writer who could do infinitely better. All that yammering gave me a headache.

"The Heavenly Christmas Tree" (1876) is just odd, managing to combine metafiction with stark realism and sickly sweet sentimentality. A young boy leaves the side of his mother who has died from hunger and illness, only to succumb to death himself in the freezing cold and find his soul among the spirits of other children who dance gaily around Jesus' own Christmas tree. The bipolar contrast of grim reality and maudlin, treacly, greeting card grade sentiment is hard to take seriously. Puhl-eeeeze! But considering the fact that he often wrote just to put food in his mouth, we'll cut him some slack. A brief, pastoral sketch of the loving compassion of a serf for a frightened young boy follows in "The Peasant Marey" (1876). A bit sentimental, but the author portrays the peasant with dignity and humanity.

"The Crocodile" (1865) though silly, packs a satirical wallop. An educated, middle class couple go and their friend go to a public exhibit to see a real live crocodile. Somewhat disappointed by the animal's placidity and inertia, the husband teases and is consequently swallowed whole by the enormous reptile. His wife cries for the animal to be cut open to save her husband, but his voice is suddenly heard from within, describing what his new environment is like and asking his friend to elicit the help and advice of an elder mentor concerning what to do. The German owner of the crocodile refuses to slice open his animal for fear of financial ruin, and an ideological battle that pits capitalist versus socialist ideas ensues as all parties engage in high-minded dialogue rather than taking concrete action. The satire is laid on pretty thick, but the story is well wrought.

"Bobok" (1873) is an imaginative story of a young writer in search of new ideas who finds himself in a church graveyard after he idly follows a funeral procession. To his astonishment, he hears the voices of the graveyard's inhabitants talking, joking, gossiping and often irritating each other as they would have when they were alive, with their social and economic statuses, as well as their prejudices, intact. Great premise, great dialogue and very funny. 

The very last story is "Dream of a Ridiculous Man" (1877), a tale in which a sullen, depressive man, convinced of the meaninglessness of life, decides to commit suicide. He has purchased a revolver, but has not yet found the courage to pull the trigger. One day, while out walking and the emptiness of life and planning to finally commit the deed, he is accosted by a frightened little girl who him to help her mother who is in grave danger. Although he refuses, upon his return to his apartment for yet another go at killing himself, he is unable to do so because his pity for another human being has been aroused by the little girl's suffering--an indication that life may not be meaningless after all. He then falls asleep and has an intense dream, or perhaps a vision.

In his dream, he actually shoots himself in the heart and is then whisked away by a mysterious being to a parallel Earth where mankind lives in perfect harmony, inspiring awe and reverence in our protagonist. He tells them tales of the Earth he knows, in which sorrow is prevalent and mankind treats one another with hatred, suspicion and selfishness. In so doing, he infects the inhabitants of this pristine world until they display all the worst human behaviors. He awakens aglow with spiritual revelation, eager to tell the world of the importance of doing good.

This is existentialism incarnate--a story in which moral behavior has to be incentivized by the promise of heavenly reward--a viewpoint that disavows altruism and reduces man to the level of maintaining moral order merely for the sake of self interest rather than for its own sake, making morality a choice rather than a mandate for beings endowed with free will. Heavy stuff, well ahead of its time. Whether you agree with his conclusions or not, this is definitely food for thought, and so thoroughly written and filled with vivid images.

I'm sure you have a friend or family member whom you love dearly despite the fact that he or she often drives you completely crazy. That's how I feel about Dostoyevsky. But his work reflects the kind of guy he was, and he was truly brilliant, weird, inconsistent and a little nuts. But those flashes of brilliance and humanity are what make it impossible to dismiss him. His voice is passionate, challenging and alive, and that's what keeps me coming back.

Download Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky from Project Gutenberg

Next time, we'll look at Russia's preeminent short story writer, Anton Chekhov.

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