Lectures on Russian Literature: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, TolstoyPanin, Ivan
History
Lectures on Russian Literature: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy
Panin, Ivan
Russian literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
And rejoiced the sinner, and spake: "Now verily shall I be let in.
Peter and David shall admit me because they know the weakness of
man, and the grace of God; but thou shalt admit me because thou hast
much love. For hast thou not writ in thy book, O John, that God is
Love, and that whosoever knoweth not Love, knoweth not God? Wert not
thou he that spake in his old age unto men only this one word:
'Brethren, love ye one another'? How then shalt thou now hate me and
drive me hence? Either renounce thine own words, or learn to love
me, and admit me into the kingdom of heaven."
And the gates of heaven opened, and John embraced the repenting
sinner, and admitted him into the kingdom of heaven.
11. Tolstoy, then, is the sole example among men of the harmonious
combination of loftiest aspiration with highest artistic skill. Tolstoy
sees in himself only the preacher, and therefore at the age of sixty he
does not hesitate to repudiate all those works of his which are not
those of the preacher, however great their value as works of art.
Turgenef sees in him only the artist, and therefore beseeches from his
death-bed his fellow-craftsman to give himself back to the forsaken art.
Both are here right, both are here wrong. For each sees only one side,
while Tolstoy is neither the preacher alone nor the artist alone.
Tolstoy, like Janus of old, is two-faced,--the artist, when his soul is
in a state of war; the preacher, when his soul is in a state of peace.
Turgenef looks only upon the face of the artist; Tolstoy looks out into
the world with the face of the preacher.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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