Поиск по творчеству и критике
Cлово "EXAGGERATION"
Входимость: 1. Размер: 14кб.
Входимость: 1. Размер: 15кб.
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Входимость: 1. Размер: 14кб.
Часть текста: deserves all the attention thus bestowed upon him. He is the only original fabulist who has appeared since La Fontaine; and though he does not, perhaps, equal the exquisite grace of the inimitable Frenchman, though he has fewer sly strokes of wit, less cunning simplicity in telling a story, he has, on the other hand, more originality of invention. His observant good sense penetrates to the roots of things, and he possesses a genuine kind of phlegmatic humour which betrays the Oriental element in Slavonic nature. In his birth and all the circumstances of his life Krilof was as Russian as possible: he was essentially national in his ways of thinking, feeling, and writing; and it may be maintained without exaggeration that a foreigner who has carefully studied Krilof’s fables will have a better idea of the Russian national character than if he had read through all the travels and essays that attempt to describe it. Russian children learn Krilof by heart as French ones do La Fontaine, without entering into all the wisdom of...
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Часть текста: of Provincial Life (Gubernskie Ocherki) , in which he lashed with indomitable vigour the numerous abuses then current under the name of Government and Justice. Saltykoff’s manner as a satirist somewhat resembles that of Juvenal. His laughter is bitter and strident, his raillery not unfrequently insulting. But, as we have already said, his violence often assumes the form of caricature. Now there are two kinds of caricature: that which exaggerates the truth, as with a magnifying glass, but which never entirely alters its nature, and that which more or less consciously deviates from the natural truth and proportion of fact. Saltykoff indulges in the first kind only, the only admissible one. It is the natural consequence of his character: kind and sensitive at bottom, but superficially rude. At the same time he is very delicate in his perceptions, which have something of instinct and divination about them. He has read much, and above all he has seen much. In fact he knows his own country better than any man living. The History of a Town — which is in reality a sort of satirical history of Russian society during the second half of the past and the beginning of the present century, under the form of a burlesque description of the town of Glupoff, and of the governors who successively ruled over it from 1762 to 1826 — could not well be translated in its entirety, nor do I think that it could be understood or appreciated by a Western public. The «taste of the soil» is too perceptible, and the language too often runs into slang. Frequently too the author allows his fancy to run away with him in a manner quite preposterous. In the series of typical Governors of Glupoff (Dullborough), for instance, there is one who has for his head a pâté de foie gras, which is eventually devoured by the «Marshal of the Nobility», a great gourmand...