V. Nechayeva, "Dostoevsky: Photographs and Records" Summary and Comments - A Biography of Dostoevsky through Photographs and Pictures
Today we introduce "Dostoevsky: Photographs and Records" by V. Nechayeva, edited and translated by Kennosuke Nakamura, published by Ronsosha Publishing.
This biography is a translation of "Dostoevsky by Portrait, Illustration and Record," published in Moscow in 1972.
The author is listed as V. Nechayeva, but it is a joint compilation with five other scholars, and V. Nechayeva is said to be the principal editor.
And this biography, as the title of the book suggests, contains a large number of photographs and drawings. This is the greatest feature of this biography. Let's look at the translator's foreword.
When it comes to the photographs and drawings of the "material to see," they fill in any period of Dostoevsky's life without leaving any significant gaps, even though he was a writer more than a hundred years ago. The book is also a photographic biography.
For four years from 1867, Dostoevsky and his wife, Anna, traveled from city to city in Western Europe. Looking at photographs of the cityscapes of these cities far from Russia and reading Dostoevsky's letters from there, the shades of life that the words of his letters carry are clearly felt.
Sources to look at can help us understand the novels. Illustrations of the novels are helpful, of course, but paintings are also useful.
Pictures are given an important role in Dostoevsky's novels. Ippolito Terentyev and Prince Myshkin in "The Idiot" speak at length and with great enthusiasm about Hans Holbein's "The Dead Christ in the Tomb," and Versilov in "The Minor" about Claude Lorrain's "Achis and Galatea."
It is the internal confession of each character and the presentation of the central theme of the novel. The specificity of the reader's understanding of that confession will be completely different if he or she reads it with the picture being told in front of him or her than if he or she does not.
In "Diary of a Writer," Dostoevsky wrote a very detailed and lengthy review of the works of Russian painters such as Nikolai Ghee's "The Last Supper," Quimby's "On the Island of Valaam," and Repin's "The Boatman. In this book, one can read Dostoevsky's points, checking each one with a painting. The "materials to see" are as eloquent as the "materials to read.
Ronsosha, Kennosuke Nakamura (ed. and trans.), V. Nechayeva, Dostoevsky: Photographs and Records, p. 2-3.
This biography contains an astonishing amount of photographs and drawings, as mentioned in the foreword.
This biography is a clear departure from previous biographies that have focused on the written word.
This biography reminds me of a Japanese history resource book I had when I was in junior high or high school. That book was full of pictures and illustrations.
You will find more and more illustrations of Dostoevsky's works, Russian landscapes, and portraits of people associated with Dostoevsky that you had never seen before.
Just looking at the pictures and drawings is a pleasure.
However, when I got it, there were some used and inexpensive ones left, but now the stock seems to be low or the price is high.
However, it is a very useful biography as a reference material, and I think it is a very good secondary reader.
The above is V. Nechayeva, "Dostoevsky: Photographs and Records.
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