INCONSTANT GENIUSES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21360, 13 June 1931, Page 4

INCONSTANT GENIUSES

TOLSTOY AND HEINRICH HEINE ' ■ ,1 ■"Tolstoy: the Inconstant A Biography by Alexander I. Nazaroff. Illustrated. London: George G. Harrap. (13s net.) " Heinrich Heine: A Critical Examination of the Poet and His Works." By H. Walter, department of German languages and literature, M'GJli University, , Montreal. Illustrated: London: J. M. Dent and Sons. (12s 6d net.) Mr Nazarofi’s biography of Tolistoy justifies in every line I its sub-title, “ The Inconstant Genius.” It gives the best portrait of Tolstoy the man that has been done into English, but it does not develop the figure out of proportion to the achievements which must be balanced with the utmost Care "if...we are to begin to understand the wayward Russian .master. The student of Tolstoy must comprehend, if he is to reach any degree of comprehension, that his weakness <was to be at the mercy of every idea which assailed his receptive mind. It may be that he is under the influence of Voltaire for a time—he becomes an Atheist; Rousseau persuades him to revert to primitive simplicity, and he garbs himself in the long cloak of a serf and lives in the single garment day and night (to the scandalised horror of women visitors). He never, or seldom, looked critically at his philosophical ideas, or only when he was thinking of discarding some of them He was unable to do so because he was naturally vain and egoistic and had -i definite cocksureness that whatever he thought must be right. - . He suffered, of course, extraordinarily for both real and imaginary sins. When Yassuaya came into his hands he had a sort of Communistic doctrine evolved to dictate his treatment of some _ 800 serfs. They thought him a fool for his reforms, -arid he galloped off to enjoy debauches rather more than mild at Moscow and St. Petersburg. This period is followed by repentance, and he gives up even smoking, turns religious. But the idea of fighting fires his bipod, and he is off again,, this time to the wars. At this time he writes “ Childhood,” an introspective novel mainly autobiographical. Then comes Sebastopol, and a return to St. Petersburg as the literary Hon. Again remorse, , and he goes to Yassuaya to educate the 1 peasant youths. Rousseau’s ideal of man i as essentially good is the basis of his j system. I His marriage was not, as he had conI templated; to a peasant girl, but to the daughter of a Court physician. Friction was caused by her -liking for amusements 1 and Tolstoy’s bad temper and attacks of asceticism. When he was writing “War and Peace,” he was so irritable that on one occasion he hurled a tray of dishes to the floor. He wrote the first draft of “ Anna Karenina ” in two months, working “with enthusiasm and with tears.” ’ Tears were never far from his eyes, a

legacy from childhood. About this time Tolstoy (he is Levin in the novel) was passing through another moral crisis. lie contemplated suicide, and eventually found comfort in the Bible. He decided on renunciation of property and of sex, the humiliation of self, and manual labour as the only way of life. His moralistic principle, Mr Nazaroff remarks, developed into a morally philosophic abscess. His decision to leave his wife, from whom he had grown farther and farther apart, Was made and carried out only shortly before his death. • Tolstoy does not emerge from this book as a very pleasant genius. His lapses are all the more emphasised from the fact that when he chose he could be a very pleasant and courteous man; but he appeared to prefer, or could not help, being a boor. He is, however, a very interesting genius, and Mr Nazaroff’s study is not only to be welcomed for its value as'a splendid biography in itself, but as a necessity to anyone who wishes to interpret Tolstoy’s works 'satisfactorily.' It is illustrated with several excellent portraits.

German poets who have achieved an international reputation are few in number,'and Mr Walter’s critical account of Heine’s life and work should do something to awaken fresh interest in Englishspeaking countries in the character and achievements of a poet whose place in the literature of his own country is still the subject of controversy. Since this book was published, it may be remarked, in parentheses, Dusseldorf has done public honour to the poet by subscribing £SOO towards a memorial to be erected to him in his native city, and subscriptions have come in from admirers in all parts of the world, in England Professor Atkins making the appeal, and in France M. Herriot. At first thought Heine may appear as much the inconstant genius as Tolstoy. He possessed deep political convictions, he combined a love of his own country with a fatal facility tb compare it detrimentally with France, apparently with the idea of fostering revolt against those German trends and characteristics that he hated. His.journalism, brilliant and bitter, was, and is, inclined to antagonise the student against his poetry. But Mr Walter leaves the question of Heine the good or bad citizen to the moralists. His purpose is'to show that, far from being a mass of contradictions, Heine had an extraordinarily strongly-marked character; that, • instead iof being inconstant in his views, he was subject only to those evolutionary phases that must be experienced by such an alert mentality. He combats the conception of Heine as a person of pessimistic temperament. Mr Walter does not attempt an English translation of such of Heine’s poems as he quotes, and this fact limits the interest of his book for those without a knowledge of German," though the omission is probably more, than defensible. Heine is notoriously untranslatable, though both Mr P. G. L. Webb and Mr Louis Untermeyer’have given us sound English versions which may be studied. Mr Walter would prefer to disparage Heine’s sparkling political writings and brilliance in controversy as a little unworthy of the poet, and some readers will regret this,' for it is as the picturesque, sharp-thrust-ting wit that many of us know him best. This book is essentially critical, however, and it succeeds admirably in its purpose of interpreting the real nature of its subject. “Heinrich Heine” is illustrated with sixteen portraits, the eight of the poet himself being interesting for their striking dissimilarities —a curious fact in itself significant, J. M.