Not so Chichi

If last year’s theme was about place, 2010 is provoking me to think I am reading time-dependent novels. It is making me think about another one of my long-held beliefs; namely, that great literature is timeless and the stories therein speak to future generations. My son recently emailed me an article written by a poli sci professor who requires his students to read the Classics and cull from them universals about conflict and human nature. I am reading to “hear something ring true.”

That didn’t happen with Gogol’s Dead Souls. Instead, it made me question whether my love for Dickens wasn’t preordained by the way I was taught English Lit in college: strict chronology, over five semesters. Maybe he just seemed the best when compared with all who wrote before him. So seems Gogol. Placing this banned book after Miller’s Tropic of Cancer – which itself now shocks much less – Dead Souls must have been censored because it debunked corrupt local dignitaries as well as satirically over-caricaturizing stock Russian landowners. Gogol as author enters the story to explain his choice of an anti-hero in Chichikov. In fact, Gogol often editorializes within the tale to explain his style and intent. The only pages that I dog-eared where those where he intrudes.

Rather than detailing my lack of knowledge about the history of Russian literature, I will only comment on Dead Souls as picaresque. If Gogol wanted this volume to be the first part of a larger story modeled on The Divine Comedy, it is expected that Chichikov experiences no enlightenment after his years of skirting the law. Certainly, the novel hits hard on parodying contemporary politics. His servants are not strong fellow travelers; his near escapes are accomplished by officials more rascal than he is. Chichikov’s quest is not noble or based on a simple misunderstanding of value – it is for the almighty kopek. The humor is buffoonish; where it might be subtle, too much time and upheaval has intervened.

I am feeling like Goldilocks: late 20^th Century selections on the list don’t seem to be universal enough; older novels are coming across as dated. Where is my perfect picaresque book?