"Poor Man", "Double Personality", "Basement Notes", "Gambler" Book Cover Courtesy of People's Literature Publishing House
BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- November 11, 2021 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Dostoevsky, the originator of modernist literature. Almost every one of his works provides a world literature gallery with a distinctive, thought-provoking classic image. In his novels, everyone is tasked with revealing the incredible and difficult truth of life, and at the heart of this truth is the mystery of human nature.
Toshi famously said, "The devil fights with God, and the battlefield is in the hearts of the people." The People's Literature Publishing House recently launched the "Dostoevsky Novella Classics" series, with "Poor People", "Double Personality", "Basement Notes" and "Gambler" to show four "battlefields of the human heart" that you may not be unfamiliar with.
Four works Four personalities entangled
"The Poor Man" is not only Dostoevsky's debut work, but also his famous work, and with this novel written "with enthusiasm, almost with tears", he shone in the Russian literary world and won the praise of "The New Gogol". The most famous critic of the time, Belinsky, praised: "The Poor Man is characterized by a deep understanding and expression of the tragic side of man. In this epistolary novel, Dostoevsky portrays a man who is extremely poor on the material level, but he does not lose his sense of self, the desire to love and the power of action of love. The protagonist, Makar, exclaims, "Be a noble man, be strong in afflictions; remember that poverty is not a sin." ”
The scene of the launch ceremony is courtesy of the People's Literature Publishing House
In The Poor Man's companion piece, The Dual Personality, Dostoevsky introduced split personality into literature for the first time. A docile man, as a result of long humiliation, the demons in his heart are stirred up, as if Pandora's box has been opened, causing one fierce battle after another: loyalty and cunning, integrity and meanness, honesty and flattery, honesty and deception, tolerance and calculation...
"The Gambler", which set a record for Dostoevsky's creative speed, has more autobiographical components in both the description of love and the details of gambling. The gambling frenzy had controlled Dostoevsky for a long time, and after writing "The Gambler", he completely washed his hands and left a novel full of the flowers of gambling evil.
The Crypt Notes is recognized as Dostoevsky's signpost. This Russian version of Hamlet, with its anti-heroism and anti-rationality, directly influenced the Creation of the Fall of the French existentialist master Camus, which was called the "peak of Dostoevsky's literary career" by the French writer André Gide.
In the inner struggles of the "poor", "double man", "gambler" and "basement man", it is not difficult for the reader to discover Dostoevsky's understanding of life. As he said in a letter to his brother: "Life is a gift, life is happiness, and every minute can become a century of happiness." Now, if you change your life, you will be born again in a new form. ”
Intensive cultivation increases the harvest of reading
In recent years, the People's Literature Publishing House has adapted to the trend of fragmented reading, launching a small series of Classic Russian writers every year, selecting representative works with unique ideas, infiltrating more literary common sense and literary concepts into the compilation and selection of the series of books, and trying to make readers as rich as possible in a relatively short period of time. The quality of the translation is naturally of paramount importance.
Taking the "Classic of Dostoevsky's Novellas" as an example, all four works adopt domestic authoritative translations. The translator of "The Poor Man" Xu Leiran is a well-known editor of the People's Literature Publishing House, translating works by Pushkin, Turgenev, Korolenko and others. Professor Zang Zhonglun, the translator of "Dual Personality", was a professor at Peking University before his death, translated a large number of works by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and co-translated Herzen's "Past events and Caprice" with Mr. Ba Jin. The translator of "The Gambler", Professor Liu Zongci, from the University of Foreign Chinese in Beijing, has translated novels by Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Rybakov and other writers. Professor Liu Wenfei, the translator of "Basement Notes", is a famous translator who was awarded the Russian Friendship Medal.
Each series of books invites senior experts in the field to write a preface to help readers gain a deeper understanding of the basic creative face of a great writer in a short period of time. Professor Zhao Guilian, who wrote the preface to "Dostoevsky's Classic Of Psychological Novellas," is from Peking University and has studied Dostoevsky for decades.
In addition to the high standards of content, these small sets of books are all hardcover in binding, and they are also accompanied by illustrations specially drawn by famous Russian painters for the works. The illustrations are presented in the form of cards, which are both convenient for the reader to enjoy and can also be used as bookmarks.
"Dostoevsky Novella Classic" can be used as an entry-level option for reading Dostoevsky. On the occasion of the two-hundredth anniversary of Dostoevsky's birth, in addition to this set of small books, the seven-volume "Dostoevsky Anthology" of the Humanities Society is about to be published, and most of the tomes such as "Crime and Punishment" are in it. (End)
Source: China News Network