Pushkin House (novel)

The protagonist of the novel is Leningrad philologist Leva Odoevtsev , a representative of the sixties generation (“Leva was conceived in the fateful year” ^[1] ). The novel is dedicated to his life, from graduation to work at the Institute of Russian Literature, which is known as the Pushkin House .

The novel consists of a prologue called “What to do?” , Three sections, each of which is divided into chapters and ends with an appendix and commentary. The text of the novel is interrupted by author's digressions, which are highlighted in italics.

In the first section, “Fathers and Sons. Leningrad novel ” tells about the relationship of Leva Odoevtseva with relatives. He was born into a family of scientists. His grandfather is a famous philologist who was repressed in the Stalin years , whom Leva never saw. His father is also a philologist, a university teacher. Lyova does not love him, the place of his father in Leova’s mind is taken by a family friend, Uncle Mitya, or Uncle Dickens , a participant in the First World War , Civil War , and World War II and a camp . Lyova enters the Faculty of Philology and learns that his grandfather, Modest Platonovich Odoevtsev , has returned. The meeting is not at all what Leo expected. Appendix to the section: two short stories of Uncle Dickens, which fell into the hands of Leo.

In the center of the second section, which is called “Hero of our time. Version and version of the first part, ” - events that developed in parallel with those events that are described in the first section. It begins with a key date: “ On March 5, 1953, it is known who died ” ^[2] . In the second section, the author focuses on Leo’s relationship outside the family. With a classmate and classmate Mitishatiev , who has a strange influence on Leva. With three women: Faina , Albina and Lyubasha. Particularly painful is the relationship with Faina, who is older and more experienced than Leva. Appendix to the section: retelling of Leva’s scientific article “Three Prophets” with an analysis of three poems: “Prophet” by Pushkin , “Prophet” by Lermontov , “Madness” by Tyutchev . It is emphasized that all poems were written at a time when their authors were twenty-seven years old. The same amount of Leo while writing the article.

Section Three “The Poor Horseman. The poem about petty hooliganism ” is a direct continuation of the first two sections, in which the narrative lines merge into one. Lyova remains on duty at the Pushkin House for the November holidays . He cannot refuse, since immediately after the holidays he will defend his dissertation. Suddenly Mitishatyev comes with his student, whom he calls "von Gottich." Then comes Blank , a former employee of the institute. The evening, which began with a friendly drinking party, ends with a grandiose scandal and a duel (just a fight) by Leva and Mitishatiev. The author offers different finale options. In one of them, Leo perishes, in the other, she remains alive and, with the help of Uncle Dickens, restores order in the destroyed office of the institute. Appendix to the section: the history of the author’s relationship with his hero, which is compared with the pursuit of the Achilles tortoise ^[3] .

The novel ends with “Comments” , where the author talks about the persons and everyday realities mentioned in the text (the “scatter” toy, Pavlik Morozov , etc.), about the story of the creation of the novel.

Andrei Bitov began writing a novel in 1964, impressed by the trial of Joseph Brodsky , when it seemed that the era of the " thaw " was already ending. At first it was not even a novel, but a story called “Out” (corresponds to the third section). When the story grew to a novel, Bitov decided to change the name. Gradually, he came to the current name - “Pushkin House”. In the appendix to the third section, the name is explained as follows: "... and Russian literature, and Petersburg (Leningrad), and Russia - all this, one way or another, the PUSHKIN HOUSE without his curly lodger." The author had several options for the subtitle: a punishment novel, a philological novel, a Leningrad novel, two versions, a poem about petty hooliganism.

The novel was completed in 1971 and diverged in samizdat . It was first published in 1978 by the American publishing house Ardis . A foreign publication (and participation in the Metropol almanac) actually blocked for Bitov the possibility of printing anything in the USSR.

Only during Perestroika did his books begin to appear again. The Pushkin House was published in the journal New World in the last three issues of 1987. In 1989, a book edition was published, which culminated in the Commentary. In them, Bitov admits that the novel was most influenced by the work of three writers: Proust , Dostoevsky and Nabokov . In the same place, he says that the writer Yury Dombrovsky , philologist Mikhail Bakhtin and unprofessional writer, author of oral novels Igor Stin became the prototypes of grandfather Odoevtsev.

The novel “The Pushkin House” is called one of the main examples of Russian postmodernism (along with the books “ Moscow - Petushki ” by Venedikt Erofeev , “ School for Fools ” by Sasha Sokolov , “ Walks with Pushkin ” by Abram Tertz ) ^{[4] [5] [6]} .

It notes such features of postmodernism as intertextuality (epigraphs and titles of sections and chapters refer to the classic works of Russian literature), the principal incompleteness of the narrative, irony , the complex relationship of the author and the hero, reflection on his own text ("autoliterary studies"). Mark Lipovetsky believes that the novel “recognized the simulative nature of the cultural and historical context <...> this radical revolution in worldview is perhaps the most important of the consequences of the thaw” ^[5] .

• Andrey Bitov. "Excitement, or the Inevitability of the Unwritten"
• Yuri Karabchievsky. “The point of pain. About Andrei Bitov’s novel “Pushkin House” ”
• Vyacheslav Kuritsyn. “Great myths and modest deconstructions”
• Mark Lipovetsky. “The defeat of the museum. "Pushkin House" Andrei Bitov "
• Irina Skoropanova. “Classics in the postmodern coordinate system: Andrei Bitov's Pushkin House”