Laurence Stern's sentimental journey. "a sentimental journey through France and Italy

The story is told from the perspective of the main character - a gentleman named Yorick, who sets off from England to travel through France and Italy and begins his journey in Calais. As the story progresses, Yorick finds himself in various situations; as a rule, the text contains a description of the plot itself and the actions of the characters and the attitude of the main character to this or that phenomenon. For example, when at the beginning of the story a monk comes to his hotel to collect money for the monastery, Yorick refuses him and begins to argue about the dangers of such handouts.

However, Yorick then gives the monk a snuff box to impress the lady. There is sympathy between them, but she refuses to travel together. Montreuil, a young and cheerful servant, La Fleur, has been hired. Road to Nanpon, La Fleur throws off his horse, in Nanpon a pilgrim mourns a donkey.

At the entrance to Amiens, Count L, and an attractive lady from Calais turns out to be his sister. She sends a note inviting her to Brussels. Yorick decides not to go, remembering Eliza from England.

La Fleur makes friends with Madame L's servant, he entertains the servants in her house, then compliments L on behalf of the hero. La Fleur is lying and says he forgot to deliver a letter from Yorick. Fleur returns to the hotel, persuades him to write to L after all, and offers a sample letter.

Paris, a barber, meeting a beautiful grisette in a shop, a theater and an elderly officer's story about strange (for an Englishman) customs. Bookstore, meeting the girl of Madame R's maid, Yorick was going to her with a letter.

The police are looking for the hero, England and France are at war, and he arrived without a passport. He is threatened by the Bastille, he goes to Versailles to ask for the protection of the Duke de Choisede, he is absent, the hero goes to Count B, a fan of Shakespeare. B himself goes to the Duke and arrives with a passport, then they talk about their nations.

At the hotel, Madame R's maid came for a letter, they had a nice conversation, a kiss goodbye. While seeing off the maid, he sees a strange beggar who receives alms from every woman and does not ask from men. Yorick reflects on how it is possible to touch every woman in this way, and what words are needed for this.

There is a conflict with the hotel owner, but La Fleur settles it, then he buys a new suit and asks for a day off. Fleur wants to woo Count B's maid.

Yorick spends the day parsing and translating a handwritten text in Old French, possibly written by Rabelais. The text contains a story about a notary who, while walking in the evening, heard from one house an order to the servant to run for the notary. A notary passing by enters the house, sees an old nobleman who has nothing to pay, but he will leave the will itself as payment, and in the will there is such an amazing story, the publication of which will certainly bring income, but the story ends there.

Fleur returns, finds himself in the other two pages of the manuscript, he has wrapped a bouquet for the maid. Yorick sends him to return the manuscript, but the maid gave the bouquet to the footman, who gave it to the seamstress, and the seamstress to the violinist. Yorick and Fleur are saddened by this fact, but each for their own reason.

The hero is walking in the evening and sees two ladies waiting for a cab. The beggar asks them for 20 sous (the standard alms size is 1-2 sous) and makes compliments. After much flattery and perseverance, he receives 12 from each, Yorick recognizes that same beggar at the hotel.

Having discovered the secret of communication, Yorick uses this method for three weeks. He communicates with the acquaintances of Count B and the acquaintances of these acquaintances, gaining favor with compliments and showing interest only in the interests of these people. Then the behavior becomes disgusting to the hero himself, he orders horses for a trip to Italy.

A trip through Bourbonnais, admiring the grapes, remembering Mr. Shandy's sad story about the girl Maria from Bourbonnais. Yorick visits Maria's family, sad story. Yorick meets Maria, she remembers Shandy, talks about the pilgrimage to Rome, they say goodbye in the city of Moulins.

To repair his carriage, Yorick stops at Mount Tarar; he is sheltered by a farmer. He feeds and drinks the traveler with delicious dishes, and after each dinner the farmer calls on the whole family to sing and dance, calling this action the best prayer of thanks.

Difficult descent from Mount Tarar to Lyon, stopping due to bad weather at an inn. The lady and the maid also come there, but there is only one room and three beds. As a result, the lady and Yorick discuss how to solve the situation.

After drinking wine, they form a pact, according to which Yorick sleeps in his clothes and does not utter a word. However, he still ends up speaking and, in order to calm the lady down, he wants to touch her lightly, but in the end he grabs her breast when the maid unexpectedly approaches. The story ends here.

Picture or drawing Stern - A sentimental journey through France and Italy

Other retellings for the reader's diary

On Christmas Eve, Fritz and Marie spend the whole day in the bedroom. They were forbidden to enter the living room, as they were decorating the Christmas tree and placing gifts there. The boy tells his sister that his godfather came in with a large box.

• Summary of Andreev Bargamot and Garaska

  The main character is Ivan Akindinovich Bergamotov, nicknamed “Bargamot”, a policeman who was respected by the residents of the outskirts of “Orel”. This tall, fat and at the same time strong man was known as a serious and respectable man.

"SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY".
PROBLEMS OF THE GENRE
(LAURENCE STERN AND N. M. KARAMZIN)

E. Krasnoshchekova
(USA)

RUSSIA AND BRITAIN IN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
EXPERIENCE OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND CULTURAL
COMPARATIVISTS
Part 1
St. Petersburg Center for the History of Ideas
St. Petersburg 2002

http://ideashistory.org.ru/pdfs/a19.pdf

In this article, discussing the genre specificity of the books of Stern and Karamzin and in no way ignoring the originality of the two talents, I will focus on the objective conditions that determined the significant differences between the two famous “travels” with the obvious intention of the Russian author to follow the English one and with equally obvious echoes Stern’s discoveries in the very mood and poetics of “Letters of a Russian Traveler”. The first in importance among these conditions is the level of maturity of the two national literatures, which these writers worthily represented.

At the moment of the discovery of Stern’s work by reading Russia, he “attracted attention not as a humorist; At first, this side of his talent was somehow little noted by his Russian fans. Stern was interested mainly as a representative of the sentimental movement... Stern’s predominantly humane mood was noted, his constant call for sensitivity, in which Stern really saw a powerful means for improving human moods... This humane mood and his soft sympathetic attitude towards people in general and the disadvantaged in particular was correctly understood and highly valued by our ancestors,” concludes V.I. Maslov, who specifically studied the interest in Stern in Russian literature of the late 18th and early 19th centuries 1 . Karamzin himself, as can be seen from his enthusiastic review of Lavrenty (!) Stern in 1792, also valued in the writer not humor, but the ability to reproduce tender feelings and arouse similar ones in readers: “Stern is incomparable! At what university did you learn to feel so tenderly? What rhetoric revealed to you the secret of shaking the finest fibers of our hearts with two words? What musician so skillfully commands the sounds of strings as you command our feelings? 2

There is a difference in the perception of Stern in Russia (only as a sentimentalist and subtle psychologist) with how he was perceived in his homeland. In Britain he attracted sharp criticism and at the same time admiration, primarily as an eccentric humorist and a bold innovator in the field of genre and style, who exploded in “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” (1759-1767) and “A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy” (1768) traditional structures: respectively, the “novel of education” (Bildungsroman) and the “literary journey” (Travelogue), genres so popular in Europe in the 18th century.

Stern in “Tristram Shandy,” having completely liberated himself from all the canons of this tradition, surrendering to the will of his own ironic talent, “seems to separate the novel that had developed by this time into large and small, even the smallest, component parts, unscrews it bit by bit and makes the surprised the reader, willingly or unwillingly, joins in this analysis of the creative process, taken to the extreme - almost to the point of absurdity." Therefore, Stern’s amazing creation is rightly called an anti-novel 3. The polemical challenge to previous literary experience is no less palpable in “Sentimental Journey”, which is permissible, in turn, called anti-travel.

The deliberate optionality of logical connections between the chapters, the bizarre mixture of “little things” and philosophical conclusions, the freedom of the hero’s unexpected statements created in the unprepared reader the illusion of “insurmountability” of the vital material. In fact, it was an aesthetic game of high standard, which, as is now recognized, predicted the delights of 20th century modernism. Stern's ironic attacks were multidirectional, but, first of all, concerned the situation within the “literary workshop”.

The popularity of “travel” in the 18th century was largely due to the very spirit of the Enlightenment, opposing xenophobia - a sign of the Middle Ages. In this genre, Sterne had many predecessors in England, whose books were oversaturated with various information and resembled guidebooks (D. Addison “Notes on Northern Italy” (1705), D. Defoe “A Travel Around the Whole Island of Great Britain” (1724-26 ), S. Johnson “Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland” (1775)). But the immediate impetus for writing “A Sentimental Journey” was the publication of “Travels through France and Italy” (1766) by T. Smollett.

The full title of the book is: “A Travel through France and Italy, Containing Observations on Characters, Customs, Religion, Government, Police, Commerce, Arts, and Historical Monuments. With a particularly detailed description of the city’s attractions and the climate of Nice, with the application of a weather calendar for 18 months of stay in this city.” The sheer volume of observations and the seriousness of Smolett’s program turn out in Stern’s book not just as a rejection of both, but as a deliberate and consistent ridicule of them. Yorick, the “sensitive traveler,” is attracted not by the sights of the places he visits (it’s not for nothing that he refuses a pre-thought-out clear route and completely neglects chronology), but by his own, sometimes bizarre impressions and experiences from chance meetings and acquaintances, which form the sensory experience for which he undertakes sentimental journey. “This is a humble journey of the heart in search of Nature and those loving feelings that are generated by it and encourage us to love each other - and also the world - more than we love now.” 4

Stern's position appears in all its clarity and completeness in Yorick's response to Count B. during their conversation at Versailles. The Count ambiguously referred to “the nakedness of our women.” Yorick: “I would very much like ... to look out for the nakedness of their hearts and through the various masks of customs, climate and religion to discern what is good in them, and in accordance with this to form my own heart - for which I came. For this reason... I have not seen the Palais Royal - nor Luxembourg - nor the façade of the Louvre - and have not tried to lengthen the lists of paintings, statues and churches that we have." (145). It is logical that the geographical names of the places visited, so important in ordinary travel books, are written in Stern’s books not in the chapter headings, but in the subheadings. For example, the title is “At the Coach House,” and the subtitle is “Paris,” or the title is “Passport,” and the subtitle is “Versailles.” One of the chapters, “The Sword,” is geographically assigned to Rennes only because the story being told took place there, although, judging by the previous chapter and the course of the main narrative, Yorick should be in Versailles, where the next chapter returns him.

Stern devotes a special chapter to the ironic characterization of types of travelers other than his chosen one - “sensitive” - “Preface. In disoblizhan”, unexpectedly for the reader, placed not at the beginning, but after a series of chapters (the same technique of “unscrewing” the accepted forms as in “Tristram Shandy”). Stern’s answer to numerous “inquisitive travelers” like Smollett, ridiculed under the name Smelfungus, is this: “knowledge and experience can, of course, be acquired by sailing and mailing them, but whether knowledge is useful and whether experience is real is all a matter of chance ... But since the chances of acquiring such capital and putting it to good use are extremely slim, I think we would act wisely by convincing ourselves that we can live peacefully without foreign knowledge and experience, especially if we live in a country where there is not the slightest shortage neither one nor the other.” The subsequent argument seems to sound quite serious. It recognizes one’s own country as a leader in the development of human capabilities. There is no need for an Englishman to become like a “student” of foreign sages, for “there is no country under heaven that abounds in more varied learning - where art is so encouraged and will soon reach a high development ... and where, to top it all, there is more wit and variety of characters capable of give food to the mind." (48)

The author of “Letters of a Russian Traveler” (1791-1795) lived in a country that in many respects (geographically, historically, in the field of mentality) looked like the antipode of England. Karamzin’s worldview was not at all characterized by Stern’s self-sufficiency, which was reflected not only in the content of his book, but also in its very leading intonation (not irony, but varying degrees of admiration or tenderness). As a writer, Karamzin represented a very young literature that was just feeling its way in the field of high prose. If Stern completed (and parodied!) “hardened” traditions, then Karamzin pioneered the way for the creation of new artistic forms, which were destined to become an object of imitation. Thus, the English author, in his experiment, predicted a change in aesthetic preferences (the coming romanticism), the Russian one mastered the accumulated European experience and established preferences on its basis that accelerated the entry of Russian literature into the European verbal space.

In European prose, the genre of “literary travel,” according to T. Roboli, author of the article “Literature of “Travel,” existed in two types: “one is Stern’s own, where, in essence, there is no real description of the journey; and another - like Dupaty, representing a hybrid form, where ethnographic, historical and geographical material is mixed with sketches, arguments, lyrical digressions, etc.” Ch. Dupaty (1746-1788) is the author of “Letters from Italy in 1785” (1788), translated into Russian in 1801 and going through three editions.

(Karamzin read them before the trip and mentions them in the book). The author of this article classifies the “Letters...” to the second type (without mentioning, however, that Dupaty himself was listed as one of Stern’s students): “Letters of a Russian Traveler” are constructed according to a hybrid type, but in relation to its model - Dupaty - it is more condensed in the sense quantity and variety of material, and in the sense of epistolary style..." 5

If the emotional epistolary style and freedom of self-expression in Karamzin’s book go back to Stern’s idea of ​​travel as the “education of feelings,” then the “condensation” and variety of material go back to the idea of ​​travel as a condition for the “education of the mind” on the threshold of full maturity. The concept of such a journey was specially developed in the “novel of education.” The genesis of this genre and the characteristics of its varieties are presented in the work of M. M. Bakhtin “The Novel of Education and its Significance in the History of Realism.” The scientist associates the emergence of the genre in the 18th century with the fact that the Age of Enlightenment is “the era of the powerful awakening of the sense of time, especially the sense of time in nature and in human life.” Therefore, it is in this novel that instead of a “ready-made hero”, the “image of a man in the making” appears: “the hero himself, his character become a variable value...” 6

The idea of ​​travel as an obligatory component of the process of educating a perfect person was consistently developed by J. -J. Rousseau. In the novel “Emile, or On Education” (1762), which “depicts the pedagogical process of education in the proper sense of the word” 7, Rousseau recognizes the journey as an essential experience that completes the formation of Emile’s personality, which began from infancy under the guidance of a wise Mentor: “who is good gifted by nature, in whom good inclinations have been well developed and who travel with sincere intentions to learn, they all return better and wiser than when they set out.” Studying the “map of the world” ensures that a young person enters the circle of people as such, which at the same time means going beyond the boundaries of the home-family, that is, according to Rousseau, the completion of growing up and the beginning of an independent life: “I consider it an indisputable truth that whoever has seen everything one people does not know people, but knows only those with whom it lived.” When Emil emerged from early youth and met his ideal friend Sophie, the mentor considered this meeting the most important moment in the development of the student: “Until now, you lived under my guidance: you were not able to manage yourself. But the age is approaching when the laws, giving you control over your goods, make you the ruler of your personality. , who you want to be, what occupation you want to spend your life in, what measures you want to take to provide a piece of bread for yourself and your family...” 8 A two-year “educational journey” around the World should become that “school of life” that will bring Emil closer to the answers to these are fundamental questions.

When analyzing the journey that Karamzin takes (sentimental, according to Stern, and educational, according to Rousseau), a peculiar genre combination is revealed. Before us is a kind of “pre-novel”, in which the central character is developed at the novel level (it’s not for nothing that the word “traveler” appears in the title, not “journey”). If Stern wrote two unconventional works, then Karamzin, combining in one both the traditions of the Enlightenment and the experience of their subverter - Stern, made an equally bold breakthrough. Many promising shoots of the rapid rise of national literature are nestled in the capacious genre form.

M. M. Bakhtin, defining (based on the construction of the image of the main character) the varieties within the genre of the novel of education, characterizes one of them in this way. She “draws a certain typically repeating path of a person’s formation from youthful idealism and daydreaming to mature sobriety and practicality... This type of novel of formation is characterized by the depiction of the world and life as experience, as a school through which every person must go and take away the same thing from it.” the result is sobering up with one degree or another of retirement.” 9

An example of this type is the classic German novel: “The History of Agathon” by K. M. Wieland and “The Student Years of Wilhelm Meister” by J. - W. Goethe 10. In general, the spiritual development of the traveler, as it appears in the “Letters...”, goes through the same stages as those named by Bakhtin. In four parts (sequentially from one to another), there is a gradual enrichment of the narrator’s personality and, as a result, maturation. The hero acquires the qualities of independence and certainty of character. It is known that Karamzin’s friends were amazed at the change that took place in him during the trip. A.I. Pleshcheeva wrote to A.M. Kutuzov: “I see him every day, but I don’t see the one who left me. His heart was a hundred times more tender and sensitive... His change also lies in the fact that he became more reliable in himself.” Kutuzov agreed: “It is clear that his journey produced a great change in the thinking of his former friends.” 11 Although in all parts of “Letters of a Russian Traveler” there is an ongoing acquisition of the hero’s mind and enrichment of the feelings, nevertheless, in each one, one, main Discovery, granted during a visit to a particular country, prevails. And as a result, the hero steadily climbs the age ladder, overcoming enthusiastic infantilism and gaining the sought-after wisdom.

The narrative begins on a high emotional note: “I broke up with you, dears, I broke up! My heart is attached to you with all its most tender feelings, and I am constantly moving away from you and will continue to move away!... Tears are contagious, my dears, and especially in this case... and your friend is orphaned in the world, orphaned in his soul!” 12 This intonation is certainly inspired by the author of the “Sentimental Journey,” who discovered in the “great Sensorium of the world” and in its derivative, “sweet Sensibility,” “an inexhaustible source of everything precious in our joys and everything uplifting in our sorrows!” (191) But the intonation of the “Russian traveler” soon changes to a seriously thoughtful one, as soon as the second genre component of “Letters...” begins to assert itself - the novel of education. Germany brings meetings with Sages, philosophers, writers, who have long become the hero’s spiritual Mentors.

Visiting the Great Men, with whose characters the young man identified himself more than once, he is full of timidity and respect: “... it seemed to him that he was transported to ancient times, when philosophers went to see their kind in the most remote countries and found hospitable hosts and sincere friends everywhere.” (451-452) (this is how Karamzin characterized his hero when presenting the book to the French reader).

The situation of student and Teacher, which is reproduced more than once in German episodes, is most clearly conveyed by the hero’s meeting with Abbot J. -J. Barthelemy (though it takes place in the French Academy). The hero is likened to the character of the so-called “archaeological novel” by Barthelemy about the ancient Scythian who visited the great Plato - “The Journey of Young Anacharsis through Greece” (1788). In Karamzin’s book we read: “Today the young Scythian K*... had the good fortune to recognize Barthelemy - Plato.” The following dialogue is presented: “I am Russian; I read Anacharsis, I know how to admire the works of great, immortal talents. And so, although in awkward words, accept the sacrifice of my deep respect!” - I am glad to meet you, I love the north, and the hero I have chosen is no stranger to you. - “I would like to have some similarity with him: Plato is in front of me, but my name is not as well known as the name of Anacharsis.” “You are young, traveling, and, of course, in order to decorate your mind with knowledge: enough similarities!” (251-252)

The image of a “young Scythian” from a distant, cold country, reverently absorbing the culture of Europe, most likely arose under the influence of not just the above-mentioned novel, but a whole series of genres. As is known, among his friends Karamzin was called “Lord Ramsay” in honor of the Scottish author E. Ramsay. “New Cyropaedia, or Kirov’s Travels” was the title of his novel about the educational journey of young Cyrus (following Xenophon’s “Cyropedia”). It was written in the genre of the popular “Adventures of Telemachus” by F. Fenelon (1669), of whom Ramsay was a friend and admirer. As Yu. M. Lotman writes: “Karamzin had a negative attitude towards the tradition of Fenelon’s political and pedagogical novel. However, the scheme of such a novel is clearly visible in “Letters of a Russian Traveler”: a journey from sage to sage, from one form of “citizenship” to another, reflections on liberty, the arts, trade, a listing of monuments of art and culture.” 13

The meeting with “the glorious Kant, the thoughtful, subtle metaphysician” became perhaps the most influential meeting for the Russian traveler in Germany. And there is an explanation for this: “... the atmosphere in which Karamzin lived in Moscow was permeated with the spirit of authority and submission to authority. The power of the moral demands and intellectual guidance of the mentor for the student was unconditional... The whole pathos of Kant’s philosophy was in the human right to spiritual and intellectual independence.” 14 In 1784, Kant answered the question “What is Enlightenment?” “Enlightenment is a person’s emergence from the state of his minority. Juvenility is the inability to use your mind without guidance from someone else...Have the courage to use your own mind! - this is... the motto of the Enlightenment... It’s so convenient to be a minor! If I have a book that thinks for me, if I have a spiritual shepherd whose conscience can replace mine...then I have no need to bother myself.” 15 Overcoming the infantilism typical of a noble child, aggravated by living among teachers and older friends, was destined to be accomplished through a kind of escape to unknown lands. “Thinking with your own mind was exactly that. for which Karamzin broke up with friends and mentors and went on a journey. And the statement that neither a mentor nor a book can replace one’s own experience and reflection also corresponded to his sentiments.” 16

“I, a Russian Nobleman, love great men, and I wish to express my respect to Kant,” Karamzin’s hero humbly addresses the philosopher. But the conversation with him is on equal terms, first of all, about the nature and morality of man. “Activity is our definition,” the sage believes.” (20) However, the main lesson is taught indirectly. The philosopher says about his enemies: “they are all good people.” A little later, seeing how Berliners scold Lavater, so respected as a hero, he remembers Kant and asks the question: “Where can we look for tolerance if the very Philosophers, the very educators... show so much hatred towards those who think differently from them? He is for me a true Philosopher, who can get along with everyone in peace, who loves those who disagree with his way of thinking.” (38) Tolerance is a precious sign of wisdom, rarely inherent in youth and usually acquired through difficult and varied experiences. And Karamzin’s hero certainly agrees with the words of the old French officer, expressed by him in a casual conversation with Yorick Stern: “The benefit of travel in relation to the ability to live is that it allows you to see a great variety of people and customs; it teaches us mutual tolerance; and mutual tolerance... teaches us mutual love.” (116-117)

Karamzin also finds support from Stern in finding that inner freedom that he was looking for on his journey, running away from the tutelage of his elders. An unexpected, logically unmotivated change in route is typical of a “sensitive traveler”: his mood and feelings guide him. As Yorick notes: “I rarely get to the place where I am going... I cannot control circumstances - they control me.” (136-137) This episode from “Letters of a Russian Traveler” is noteworthy. Two miles from Dresden, while walking, the hero suddenly felt bored and uncomfortable. I thought about going further, but was held back by my earlier decision to stay there for a week. What to do? “let's move on! and with his cane he drew a long snake in the sand, similar to the one that Corporal Trim drew in Tristram Shandy..., speaking of the pleasures of freedom. Our feelings were of course similar. Yes, good-natured Trim! nothing can be so sweet as liberty, I thought, returning with quick steps to the city; and whoever is not yet locked in a cage - who can, like the birds of heaven, be here and there, and there and here - can still enjoy his being, and can be happy, and should be happy.” (49) The image of the cage and the birds of the sky, of course, came from “Sentimental Journey” (chapter “Passport. Parisian Hotel”), where a talking starling in a cage repeats: “I can’t get out.” Trying to free the bird, Yorick admits that compassion has never awakened in him with greater tenderness. And he pronounces a panegyric to freedom, “sweet and gracious goddess,” “it is pleasant to taste you, and you remain desirable until Nature herself changes.” (129)

The motive of Freedom entails the motive of the Game. It is rooted in Stern’s talent and programmatic for him, reigning supreme in his books. But for a Russian writer it is unusual and is acquired with an eye on the model. The “long snake” as a sign of free will, ease and ease of behavior indicates that the Russian traveler is successfully following Yorick. It is in this state of newfound looseness that he arrives in Switzerland.

The apogee of the emotional experiences of the hero Karamzin is connected with this country: “And so I am already in Switzerland, in the country of picturesque Nature, in the land of freedom and prosperity! It seems that the local air has something revitalizing in it: my breathing has become easier and freer, my figure has straightened, my head rises up by itself, and I think with pride about my humanity.” (97) It is here that the hero makes an enthusiastic discovery of the Unseen - Nature as the single homeland of all living things, that very Nature that so touches sensitive hearts. “Scythian” from a distant country of flat plains and calm wide rivers finds himself in a world of mountains, glaciers and waterfalls... Their splendor shocks the hero to such an extent that he is unable to live without religious ecstasy, a sense of the will of the Creator (“the invisible hand that moves the worlds and atoms , which protects both the worm and man") and faith in Providence to perceive the grandiose pictures that open up: "here a mortal feels his high determination, forgets his earthly fatherland and becomes a citizen of the universe... he forgets time and deepens into eternity in thought, here in awe his heart trembles…” (134) This experience of mental tension (previously unknown feelings!) is measured by the maximum measure: Space - the Universe, Time - Eternity.

But in a “sentimental journey” the maximum coexists with the minimum (“little things”). This is the special heartfelt vision of a humane storyteller. Stern wrote: “A man who disdains or is afraid to go into dark corners may have excellent qualities and be capable of a hundred things, but he will never make a good sensitive traveler.” (117) “Dark nook” (“winding street”) is a metaphor for such a route when the traveler, behind the big picture, the front façade, unexpectedly but predictably discovers something simple and sweet. So Yorick, entering the luxurious houses of the nobility, discovers the most charming grisette in a glove shop and a pretty maid in a bookstore.

A chance stop at a farmer's house... An idyll of a family dinner, a dance after it, called a “prayer of thanksgiving” (“the religion that overshadowed the dance”). In Karamzin, Swiss natural splendor is also “humanized” by scenes of meetings with shepherds (“Arcadia!”) and pastoral descriptions of portly Swiss people. The episode of the wedding arrangement in a mountain village, the appearance of the languid bride (“How tender is the feeling in the Alpine shepherdesses! How well they understand the language of the heart!” (139)) suggest that Stern’s named metaphor is not alien to Karamzin’s poetics.

If the Russian traveler constantly moved around Germany and Switzerland, then he lived in Paris and London for months at a time. And this circumstance influenced the very essence of his Discoveries and provided a noticeable leap in his internal development. In the third and fourth parts, attention shifts from the transfer of external impressions and vivid pictures to analysis and generalizations, most of all in the sphere of national character. Naturally, the process of self-awareness of the narrator also accelerates; he strives to comprehend his own personality in the same aspect. Thus, from a humble student of great sages, great insight and balanced assessments are required - signs of a mature mind.

Paris - “the only city”, “the capital of splendor and magic” - provides the young man with the joy of immersion in the world of Art and is known in contrast with the Switzerland he has just left: “do not look for Nature in the gardens of Versailles; but here at every step Art captivates the eyes...” (295) Comprehension of the image of the Frenchman is possible only through this “second Nature” - the creation of human hands. The Frenchman seems to have been polished by his stay in the sphere of artificial Nature. Hence a kind of “acting” that has entered the blood, poured into polite phrases, deft poses... A sign of the Parisian crowd is “excellent liveliness of popular movements, amazing speed in words and deeds... Here everything is in a hurry somewhere; everyone seems to outdo each other; they catch, grab thoughts; They guess what you want so that they can send you away as soon as possible.” (217) Courtesy at every step: “his (the people’s) subtle considerations in the art of living with people are amazing.” (320)

Everything seems to be rehearsed, brought to the formalization of behavior in its best examples... Yorick’s first impressions of Paris are the same crowd dynamics: “everyone, young and old, in yellow, blue and green, rushes towards the ring of pleasure.” At the same time, the hero’s imagination dresses the Parisians in theatrical costumes: “Old men with broken weapons and in helmets without visors - young people in shiny armor, sparkling like gold, and decorated with all the bright feathers of the East...” (97) This desire to look in life as if on stage, Stern calls it “gloss”, “pompousness”, which “comes down to the fact that there is more greatness in words than in deeds.” Most likely, it is in this sign that there is a solution to the reproach made to his fellow tribesmen by Yorick, which Count B. did not understand. After the words of the Englishman: the French are “the most faithful, the bravest, the most generous, the most witty and the most good-natured people under heaven” - it follows: “If they have a fault, it is only that they are too serious.” (154) (Karamzin’s translation is more successful - “important.”) It is not for nothing that the hero of “Letters of a Russian Traveler” recalls this last remark. His metaphor for the French character is “fire, air.” “I don’t know a smarter, more fiery and more windy people...” “Cheerful recklessness is the dear friend of his life...” These are all manifestations of the romantic period - adolescence and youth - with the predominance of emotions over the calculations of the mind. So it is not without reason that the representative of the young Russian nation feels an affinity with the French type: “I want to live and die in my dear fatherland; but after Russia there is no land more pleasant for me than France...” (320-321)

In Stern, next to generalizations about the character of the French, there are details, details both in the detailed story about the servant La Fleur, and in the sketch of a glimpse of a French officer with a dancing gait. Yorick confesses: “I think I am able to discern clear distinguishing marks of national character rather in such absurd trifles than in the most important affairs of state, when great men of all nationalities speak and behave so much alike that I would not give ninepence for the choice.” between them." (99-100) Karamzin’s hero also discovers the instructive truths of life not only in a crowd (in a theater or on a noisy street), but also when meeting a lonely old woman who has lost her daughter Louise and lives in a neglected castle. (Perhaps we are looking at a distant sketch of “Poor Lisa”?) A conversation with her evokes from the soul of the sensitive traveler exclamations in the spirit of his English predecessor: “My God! How much splendor there is in the physical world... and how much disaster there is in the moral world! Can the unfortunate, oppressed by the burden of his existence, rejected, secluded among many people, cold and cruel - can he rejoice in your splendor, golden sun! your pure azure, bright sky! your beauty, green meadows and groves? No, he is languishing; always, everywhere the poor sufferer languishes!” (243)

In the context of an “educational journey,” a stay in Paris is recognized as fruitful: “you didn’t leave with an empty soul: ideas and memories remained in it!” On the threshold of parting with my own youth, a meeting with “young France” brought joy from an unexpected coincidence of age phases: “Maybe someday I’ll see you again and compare the past with the present; Maybe then I’ll rejoice at the greater maturity of my spirit, or sigh about the lost liveliness of feeling.” (321)

A move to England brought two “sensitive travelers” face to face. In his routes and impressions, Karamzin’s hero initially follows the authentic footsteps of the “Sentimental Journey,” which is why researchers mention the scenes in Calais as the most “Sternian.” But it seems that something else is more important: both heroes gradually and increasingly (stop in London) turn out to be opponents in discussing the national characteristics of the British. And in a situation of testing the independence of views, the hero of Karamzin’s “novel of education” parted with the beautiful-hearted enthusiasm of a youth and discovered the calm firmness of an adult man. It is no coincidence that the very form of the narrative changes: instead of excited letters, there is a much less emotional, analytical diary, the very vocabulary of which is enriched with social terms. Now the text also captures the internal inconsistency, since the “Russian traveler” never ceases to be a romantic at the bottom of his soul and cannot turn into an ironic skeptic, even after going through the loss of illusions. The complete, decisive maturation of a representative of a “young nation” is a long process and, perhaps, will never be fully realized.

England is expected by the "sensitive traveler" with genuine excitement. This is “the land that in my childhood I loved with such fervor, and which, in terms of the character of its inhabitants and the degree of public education, is certainly one of the first states in Europe.” (327) And, indeed, the hero is struck by abundance and purity. Civilization is manifested in tolerance, so precious to him, cultivated on the primacy of the Law. “The Englishman reigns in Parliament and the Exchange; in the first he gives laws to himself, and in the second to the whole trading world.” (344) The intonation of unconditional acceptance evaporates when looking at the Englishman as a stable socio-psychological type. Reflections are supported by constant comparisons both with images drawn from much-loved English novels (including Stern’s) and with other national types (French and Russian). In the novels read in Russia by a young Anglophile, the resident of the British Isles looked like an attractive bearer of enlightenment and prudence. Now, up close, “I give them justice, I praise them - but my praise is as cold as they themselves.” (380) The Englishman is seen as a kind of frozen, monolithic, uniform figure. He is “silent, indifferent, speaks as he reads, never revealing the rapid mental movements that electrically shock our entire physical system.” (381) (The word “our” gives the narrator away: the restraint and closeness of the British turns the “Russian traveler” away from them). These adults also lose to the eternally youthful French (the English are boring).

Deploying such an image, Karamzin inevitably had to collide with Sterne, the author of “A Sentimental Journey,” where the leveling “Frenchness” (they are “even too polite”) is contrasted with the English stubborn preference for the individual in a person, right down to the famous oddities (in “Tristram Shandy” called “ skate"). “If we, the English,” Yorick answers Count B., “were ever to acquire, through gradual polishing, that polish that distinguishes the French, ... we would certainly lose our inherent originality and originality of characters, which distinguish us not only from each other.” friend, but also from all other nations.” (153) Karamzin’s lines about the origins of the English quirks lovingly reproduced by Stern sound like an echo of these words. They are the product of external freedom (the property of European civilization), and that internal one, which the narrator himself learned from Stern: “this unlimited freedom to live as you want, to do what you want, in all cases not contrary to the good of other people, produces in England many special characters and a rich harvest for Novelists." (384)

But the emphasis in the discussion about English quirks in Karamzin’s book is not on this conclusion, but on something completely different. We are talking about the loss by this mature nation of a young (French? Russian?) thirst for life, hence the appearance of “spleen” - a sign of disappointment in adulthood, achieved but not bringing the expected satisfaction. “Is it not from spleen that numerous English oddities arise, which in another place would be called madness, but here they are called only waywardness and whim? A person, no longer finding a taste for the true pleasures of life, invents false ones, and when he cannot seduce people with his happiness, he at least wants to surprise them with something unusual.” (383) So the “horse” appears as a kind of artificial mask designed to hide human inferiority. Karamzin also does not accept Stern’s clearly defined sense of self-sufficiency of the inhabitants of the islands, their proud independence from continental Europe. This is seen only as contempt for foreigners. For an Englishman, a stranger is an object of condescending pity: “He’s a poor man or a baby.” (383)

In the end, the reason for the internal irritation that appears in English-type assessments is “spoken out.” England is the last stop in Europe, and now the Motherland occupies an increasingly important place in the fugitive’s mind. His spiritual return takes place long before the landing in Kronstadt. And this “experience of return” - a sign of a novel of upbringing - is clothed in Karamzin in clear acceptance and rejection. The hero is forced to recognize a number of advantages of English men (English women constantly admire him for their beauty and loyalty to family foundations!), including a reasonable adherence to the principles of morality in the family and in society. But the Russian traveler ends the passage in this way: “... strict honesty does not prevent them from being subtle egoists... Doing good without knowing why is the work of our poor, reckless heart.” (382)

The upcoming meeting with the Motherland revealed in the minds of the matured hero the depth of the differences between the two countries located in different eras. England enters the 19th century, having gone through the “school” of the Enlightenment with its cult of reason and individual freedom protected by Law. Russia is rapidly emerging from the Middle Ages, while still pinning its hopes on the heartfelt impulses of individual noble people. A bitterly sympathetic recognition of this truth (hence the “poor” heart) leads to a sober conclusion: “All civil institutions must be consistent with the character of the people; what is good in England will be bad in another land.” (383)

The content of an educational novel usually includes a kind of “summing up” of the hero’s life in time, which itself changed him. The reflections of the Karamzin traveler in Windsor Park recognize the accomplished phenomenon - the transition from youth to maturity. The hero thinks about the very possibility of fulfilling the “dark, flattering, sweet hopes of the heart” in life. And... nostalgically exclaims: “Ah! youth is a wonderful era of our existence! The heart, in the fullness of life, creates for itself a future that is dear to it; everything seems possible, everything is close.” Next, a whole hymn is born to the best period of life, when “Love and Glory, two idols of sensitive souls, stand behind the veil in front of us and raise their hand to shower us with their gifts. The heart beats in delightful anticipation, gets lost in desires, in the choice of happiness, and enjoys the possible even more than the actual.” This romantic stage is as charming as it is short. (For Karamzin’s hero it lasted longer than usual, thanks to the poetic inspiration that nature endowed him with). The subsequent lines reflected the experience experienced on the pages of the “Letters of a Russian Traveler” themselves: “But the color of youth on the face fades; experience dries out the heart... We learn that imagination adorned all the pleasures of life, hiding its shortcomings from us. Youth is gone; love, like the sun, rolled down from the horizon... glory, like the rose of love, has its thorns, its deceptions and torments.” (354)

The hero fully believed that initially man was not given wise care for every priceless moment of life (we either spend our lives dreaming in the future, or in the past, having lost our youthful hopes). Only in maturity “do we learn to value the present; then we are extremely sensitive to the slightest waste; then a beautiful day, a cheerful walk, an entertaining book, a sincere friendly conversation... bring tears of gratitude from our eyes.” (355) “Sobering up with one degree or another of retirement” (immersion into oneself, withdrawal from earthly vanity) is where the formation of a person in the novel of education ends. In the last letter, the Karamzin wanderer asks to prepare a neat hut for him, where he can be sad, have fun and be comforted with friends. So the “sentimental journey,” according to Stern, ends in the spirit of Rousseau’s pedagogy: the hero returns “better and wiser” than he was when he left.

1 Maslov V.I. Interest in Stern in Russian literature of the late 18th century and the beginning. 19th centuries // Historical and literary. collection. L., 1924. P. 355.

2 Karamzin N. M. Works: In 2 vols. L., 1984. T. 2. P. 37.

3 Elistratova A. A. English novel of the Enlightenment. M., 1966. P. 324.

4 Stern Lawrence. A sentimental journey through France and Italy. Translation from English A. Frankovsky. SPb., 2000. P. 146. Further I quote from this edition indicating the page in the text.

5 Roboli T. Literature of “travel”. // Russian prose. Sat. Articles. Under. ed. B. Eikhenbaum and Y. Tynyanov. L., 1926. (Reprint Mouton & CO. The Hague, 1963. P. 49-50).

6 Bakhtin M. M. Aesthetics of verbal creativity. M., 1979. S. 206, 200.

7 Ibid. P. 202.

8 Rousseau J. -J. Pedagogical works: In 2 vols. M., 1981. T. 1. P. 560, 555, 561, 556.

9 Bakhtin M. M. Decree. book P. 201.

0 See about this in my book. "AND. A. Goncharov. The world of creativity." St. Petersburg, 1997, pp. 53-57.

11 Quoted. based on the book: Lotman Yu. M. Karamzin. St. Petersburg, 1997. P. 514.

12 Karamzin N. M. Letters of a Russian traveler. L., 1984 (“Literary monuments”). pp. 5-6. Below I quote from this publication. indicating the page in the text.

13 Lotman Yu. M. Decree. book P. 539.

14 Ibid. P. 65.

15 Kant I. Works: In 6 vols. M., 1966. T. 6. P. 27. Author’s italics.

16 Lotman Yu. M. Decree. book P. 65.

“A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy” is a novel by Laurence Sterne (the genre definition of “novel” is not generally accepted; other characteristics of the genre: travel essay, travel book). Written in 1768

This is Stern's final and final work. The son of an infantry officer, great-grandson of the Archbishop of York, Stern studied at Jesus College, Cambridge. Having become a priest in Yorkshire, he earned a reputation as a good pastor and a brilliant preacher; he read a lot, played the violin, painted, was the soul of provincial society and was fond of women; the unusualness of this pastor was aggravated in the eyes of the public by his literary works: after a satire on church discord (“Political Novel”, 1759), his novel “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy” (1759-1767) began to be published, which brought him fame; “Sentimental Journey...” will also be associated with it. “Tristram Shandy” was unusual to the point of whimsy: it violated and parodied all the foundations of the then-forming moral-descriptive-everyday novel (Richardson, Fielding, Smollett), the freedom and humor of jokes bordered on obscenity, and behind all this there was acute observation, depth of thought and novelty artistic approach to man. These qualities carried over into “Sentimental Journey...”. At the same time, by the mid-1760s. Stern, who survived the death of his mother and the mental illness of his wife, became seriously ill, is tired of his somewhat scandalous fame. Then the idea of ​​a “Sentimental Journey through France and Italy” was born, the material for which was his stay in France in 1762-1764. and traveling for eight months in 1765. Another motivating reason was his love for Eliza Draper (in Tristram Shandy - Jenny), with whom his last writings are connected.

Both books have common characters and plots (the journey to France itself is described in volume VII of Tristram Shandy). General - and in approximation to the narrative technique that will develop in the 20th century. under the name of “stream of consciousness” and in which the object of the image becomes the “inner man”. The personality of the author of “A Sentimental Journey...” sharply distinguishes it from other “travel books” that were very fashionable in the 18th century. (D. Diderot described his "Tour of the British Isles" in 1724 - 1726, Fielding left his "Diary of a Travel to Lisbon" in 1755, Smollett - "Travels in France and Italy" in 1768). The peculiarity of Stern’s novel is in the subjectivity of impressions, the tendency to highlight something small and ordinary instead of “attractions,” and most importantly in the image of a perceiving and feeling hero.

This hero is autobiographical, but still does not entirely coincide with the real Stern: Pastor York came here from Tristram Shandy and in both books it is no coincidence that he bears the name of the jester from Shakespeare's Hamlet. York is witty, kind, sensitive, loving and talkative; and each of his impressions and feelings is expressed in a double contrasting manner, either outwardly ironic and inwardly moved, or outwardly moved, with many tears and words, but the inner irony will be felt in the very fact and form of verbal outpouring.

Stern called the "Sentimental Journey through France and Italy" his "Work of Redemption", undertaken with the goal of "teaching us love for the world and for our fellow living creatures." Expression " fellow creatures ” refers to the entire spectrum of living beings, including humans. This Stern state will echo in the 20th century in a similar feeling of G.K. Chesterton: “Man is created, in this lies all his joy.” Indeed, Sterne's "Journey" covers a path longer than from Calle to Lyon: from the caricature of man to the awareness of the brotherhood of man.

Having decided to travel through France and Italy, an Englishman with the Shakespearean name Yorick lands in Calais. He reflects on travel and travelers, dividing them into different categories. He classifies himself as a “sensitive traveler.” A monk comes to Yorick’s hotel asking him to donate to a poor monastery, which prompts the hero to think about the dangers of charity. The monk is refused. But wanting to make a favorable impression on the lady he meets, the hero gives him a tortoiseshell snuffbox. He invites this attractive lady to go together, since they are on the same path, but, despite the mutual sympathy that has arisen, he is refused. Arriving from Calais in Montreuil, he hires a servant, a young Frenchman named La Fleur, whose cheerful character and cheerful disposition greatly contribute to a pleasant journey. On the road from Montreuil to Nanpont, La Fleur was thrown off his horse, and the master and servant traveled the rest of the way together in a mail carriage. In Nanpon they meet a pilgrim bitterly mourning the death of his donkey. Upon entering Amiens, Yorick sees Count L***'s carriage, in which his sister, a lady already familiar to the hero, is sitting with him. The servant brings him a note, in which Madame de L*** invites him to continue his acquaintance and invites him to visit her in Brussels on the way back. But the hero remembers a certain Eliza, to whom he swore allegiance in England, and after painful thoughts he solemnly promises himself that he will not go to Brussels, so as not to fall into temptation. La Fleur, having made friends with Madame de L***'s servant, enters her house and entertains the servants by playing the flute. Hearing the music, the hostess calls him to her place, where he showers him with compliments, supposedly on behalf of his master. In the conversation, it turns out that the lady did not receive an answer to her letters, and La Fleur, pretending that he forgot it at the hotel, returns and persuades the owner to write to her, offering him as a sample a message written by a corporal of his regiment to the drummer’s wife.

Arriving in Paris, the hero visits the barber, a conversation with whom makes him think about the distinctive features of national characters. Leaving the barber's, he goes into a shop to find out the way to Opera Covique and meets a charming grisette, but, feeling that her beauty has made too strong an impression on him, he hastily leaves. In the theater, looking at the people standing in the stalls, Yorick reflects on why there are so many dwarfs in France. From a conversation with an elderly officer sitting in the same box, he learns about some French customs that somewhat shock him. Leaving the theater, he accidentally meets a young girl in a bookstore; she turns out to be Madame R***'s maid, to whom he was going to visit to deliver a letter.

Returning to the hotel, the hero learns that the police are interested in him. He arrived in France without a passport, and since England and France were at war at that time, such a document was necessary. The innkeeper warns Yorick that the Bastille awaits him. The thought of Bastille brings back memories of the starling he once released from its cage.