Krechinsky's Wedding by Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin (review)

106 MODERN DRAMA May found in the history of world literature. There is no trace of youthful· exuberance, intellectual immaturity or lack in artistic tact. It is as if lhe young poet sets down here with the assuredness of a sleepwalker what' he had not yet experienced corisciously. Most Hofmannsthal scholars call his first period of introspective mysticism a state of "dreamy preexistence" which he abandoned at the tum of the century by deliberately collaborating with Max Reinhardt, the most versatile theatrical genius of his time. All selections in the current anthology are still from this first' phase of "preexistence" prior to 1899 when the break occurred. HofmannsthaI 's philosophy was then basically a denial of the outer world which was felt to be only a pale reflection of one's soul. The conquest of reality had not Jet taken place. The mood is one of lyrical introspection and, consequently, not conducive to. dramatic treatment. It is the poet and not the playwright who speaks to us in this volume although T. S. Eliot is undoubtedly correct when he recognized Hofmannsthal as one of the few men who "did most, in lhe same age. to maintain and re-animateverse drama." Claude HilI Rutgers University KRECHINSKY'S WEDDING, by Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin, translated by Robert Magidoff, The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1961. Allhough the works ot Aleksander Vasil'evich Sukhovo-Kobylin are few, he is not an unknown; in fact some critics rank him with the very greatest Russian dramatists. In 1902, together with Maxim Gor'kii, he was made an honorarymember of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Svad'ba Krechinskogo (Krechinsky's Wedding ) has long enjoyed popularity. It was played at the Renaissance Theater in Paris in 1902 and is still played on the Soviet stage. It is fortunate that the University of Michigan Press now makes available to the English reading public a work that ranks with similar ones of Griboiedov and GogoI'. Sukhovo-Kobylin was a wealthy Russian nobleman, whose works in large part have been lost to us. His philosophical writings and an almost complete translation of Hegel were destroyed in a fire in 1899. His fame rests solely on a trilogy which is made up of this comedy and two other plays: Delo (The Trial) and Smert' Tarelkina (Tarelkin's Death). These plays are written in a masterful, pithy, striking, and aphoristic language, which portrays beautifully the world of the Russian official in the fifties of the last century. Part of Krechinsky's Wedding was written in prison, where the author spent one of seven long years (1850-1857) in a struggle to get himself acquitted of a charge that he had murdered his French mistress. The play had its premiere in 1855. Unlike the two other plays, which are grotesquely savage in their bitterness, this farce is light and fast moving, and displays best the author's superb command of language and stagecraft. Magidoff's translation is successful in that it preserves some of this. In a light and easy manner the reader's interest is held as he follows through lively scenes, true to their genre, the adroitly conducted intrigues of two most expressive characters: the aristocrat card shark, Krechinsky, and his swindler crony, Raspluyev. Most delightful is the manner in which the reader is left in suspense until the very last scene, where after a struggle between two men of entirely different temperament and character for the affections of a young lady, patient honesty, quiet cleverness, and prudence triumph over the roguery of fourflushers. 1963 BOOK REVIEWS 107 This translation of Krechinsky's Wedding is not only good because some of the qualities of Sokhovo-Kobylin's language and style seem to come through; in choice of words it is excellent. The attractive little volume is a short and most delightful bit of reading, especially for the devotee of Russian literature. Magidoff's rendition would be excellent for a stage performance. Sam Anderson The University of Kansas THE DEATH OF TRAGEDY, by George Steiner, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 1961. 355 pp. Price $5.00. TRAGEDY AND THE THEORY OF DRAMA, by Elder Olson. Wayne State University Press. Detroit, 1961...