Tolstoy's "The Blizzard" Synopsis and Impressions - A masterpiece born from his own experience of nearly freezing to death on the road from the Kafkers! Turgenev also praised it highly!
This time I would like to introduce "Fubuki" (Snowstorm) published by Tolstoy in 1856. I read "Fukiyuki" in Nakamura Shiraha's translation of "The Complete Works of Tolstoy 2: Early Works (Upper)" published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha in 1982 (4th printing). (The title of "Blizzard" was changed to "Snow Storm" in the translation.)
Let's take a quick look at the book.
Tolstoy has long been called a "master of expression.
This piece is a model of the kind of work submitted by the author, and although it merely describes a nighttime snowstorm without any structure or plot, it is valuable for its excellent sensory depiction, which shows off the author's unique characteristics without regret.
In January 1854 (age 26), Tolstoy was promoted to the rank of officer, said goodbye to the Kafkers, and returned to his hometown. On his way there, he encountered a ferocious snowstorm and wandered across the snowy plains by sleigh overnight.
It is said that one of the stories in "Yuki Arashi" was born from this experience, and is the precursor of the famous description of a night during a snowstorm in his later masterpiece, "The Master and the Servant.
The contrast between the traveler's dream of sleeping in a sleigh on a snowy plain and the midday scene of summer in his hometown that haunts him - the effect of this contrast is psychologically and sensually rewarding as a masterpiece of description.
Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Nakamura Shiraha's translation of "The Complete Works of Tolstoy 3: Early Works (Part 2)", 1980, 3rd printing edition, p. 43.5
Some line breaks have been made.
The work was inspired by Tolstoy's own experience of nearly freezing to death in a snowstorm.
As the above commentary says, this piece is just going right and left in a blizzard, and you are left wondering what is going to happen or not, but it is strangely powerful.
This work was described in "Tolstoy" by Takashi Fujinuma as follows.
As Tolstoy wrote on page 183, on the night of January 24, 54, while returning to Russia by sleigh from the Caucasus before participating in the Crimean War, he lost his way and the sleigh lost its way all night, and Tolstoy and his friends nearly froze to death. Immediately he wrote in his diary, "The idea of writing a short story about a snowstorm came to me. More than two years later, "The Blizzard" came to fruition.
This work was more than welcomed by Turgenev and many others, it was highly praised. Indeed, "The Blizzard" is only a short story about one night's wandering in the snow, but it is a gem of a work, dense and weighty. Artistically, it is the first of his early works.
Moreover, this fine work of art is a condensed representation of Tolstoy's position at this time, and it is a meaningful suggestion. I don't have time to describe this work in detail here, but in this work, I am at the mercy of the governor (the people), the sled (time), the horse (nature), and the snowstorm (fate), and while standing on the edge of despair, I find my way back to life through the horse's (nature's) instinctive sense.
Daisan Bunmeisha, Tolstoy, by Takashi Fujinuma, p.209-210
Some line breaks have been made.
The Blizzard" was a work that was highly praised by that Turgenev. Turgenev was 10 years older than Tolstoy, and by this time Turgenev was already at the top of the Russian literary world.
Tolstoy is not an ordinary man to be so highly praised by Turgenev. It is amazing that Tolstoy could display such expressive power in just a few years after his debut as a writer.
Also, as noted in the commentary above, the work is loaded with meaningful allusions.
We have discussed in previous articles that the Kafkaesque experience was a major experience for Tolstoy that would last throughout his life.
This work, which sublimates the Kafkaesque experience into an "idea" by depicting it as a "disaster caused by a blizzard," has a strong message.
The overwhelming grandeur of the Kafkers, the lives of the people who live there, and the view of humanity that he learned through his military service.
And this majestic world came to take Tolstoy's life through a natural phenomenon called "snowstorm.
The overwhelming nature that almost takes our hearts with it can also easily take away our lives.
Longing and fear of the overwhelming.
Emotions that human beings have in the face of the gigantic nature.
One wonders how much of Tolstoy's life was influenced by his days at Kafkaes.
It is a well-known story that many European writers have gone through the "Alpine Experience". The German poet Goethe is one of them.
It is very interesting to me how the Alps were such a great inspiration to Europeans.
Similarly, this Kafkaesque experience had a great impact on Tolstoy.
I felt that this was a point that could not be overlooked when learning about Tolstoy.
The above is a summary of Tolstoy's "The Blizzard" - a masterpiece born from his own experience of nearly freezing to death on the road from the Kafkers! Turgenev also praised it highly!" Turgenev also praised it highly.
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