ISBN: Ostalo
Godina izdanja: 1975
Jezik: Engleski
Autor: Strani

U dobrom stanju, prvo izdanje, sa posvetom autora

Title: The Seeker : D. S. Merezhkovskiy
Author: Bedford, C. Harold
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: ‎University Press of Kansas; First Edition (1975)
Language: ‎English
ISBN-13: ‎978-0700601318
Pages: 222


THE SEEKER: D. S. MEREZHKOVSKIY
By C. Harold Bedford
Lawrence: The University Press of Kansas, 1975. x, 222 pp.

Recently there appeared two books devoted to aspects of the work of D. S. Merezhkovsky, an author not spoiled hitherto by too much flattering attention. These studies are: Ute Spengler, D. S. Merezhkovskij: Versuch einer religiosen Begrilndung der Kunst (Lucerne, 1972), and B. G. Rosenthal, D. S. Merezhkovsky and the Silver Age. The Development of a Revolutionary Mentality (The Hague, 1975). Merezhkovsky, although through his entire long creative career a controversial as well as a widely-read author, has remained an underrated and underanalyzed writer and thinker.

What was wanting was an intelligent and knowledgeable synopsis of the many facets of his literary and philosophical endeavor. Professor Bedford has now provided such a badly needed summary. In addition to being distinguished for its extraordinary stylistic refinement and suppleness, this presentation-though not devoid of critical detachment when appropriate-excels in thoroughness, sound information, and empathy as well as sympathy. Bedford`s study gives the reader insight into Merezhkovsky`s childhood and family background, and deals with his conversion from populism-with its attachment to poets such as Nekrasov and Nadson-to symbolism-under the impact of classical antiquity, Baudelaire, and Nietzsche. These mental processes were accompanied by attempts to rescue contemporary Russian literature and intellectual culture from stagnation, provincialism, and a one-sided preoccupation with social concerns by extolling its great traditions which pointed toward a more idealistic and `symbolistic` interpretation of life and history. The two sections entitled `Christ and Antichrist` and `The Second Coming` contain both a highly perceptive, intelligent, and lucid exposition of the celebrated Trilogy (Merezhkovsky`s abiding triumph in the field of the philosophical novel masked as historical romance) and a sensible probing into the formation of his most cherished religious and philosophical intuitions. Interestingly, here is the discovery of an affinity between some of Kierkegaard`s theses and Merezhkovsky`s inner religious experience. The following chapter deals with attempts to translate these inner experiences into the social realities of his time-spiritual campaigns which led him into much literary, political, and ecclesiastical conflict. Within this context, Bedford clearly outlines Merezhkovsky`s struggle with the Christian commandimient of universal charity, as opposed to his innate intellectual and moral aristocraticness, nonconformity, and rebelliousness.

The last section is concerned with the author`s career in exile, the period following the irreconcilable stand he had taken with regard to bolshevism. In Paris he assumed a role, not so much of the writer and thinker, but, rather, of the prophet warning Western mankind against its moral and spiritual flabbiness, against imminent disasters of unprecedented dimensions, and general spiritual bankruptcy.

Merezhkovsky sincerely and passionately believed in this role, even though it generated much friction with others who were by no means inclined to follow him onto the paths of the religious and moral visionary. A painstakiingly compiled bibliography adds to the value of this highly commendable study, despite the absence of several important works in languages other than English or Russian. The book will undoubtedly render a most valuable service to the student of the labyrinthine intellectual, literary, and spiritual currents and crosscurrents so characteristic of the Russian cultural scene during the first half of this century.

Мерешковски, Дмитриј Сергејевич
mereškovski dmitrij sergejevič