Studia Litterarum (Dec 2023)
Friendly Censorship in the Creative History of Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story “Candle”
Abstract
The article is devoted to the problem of two editions of the finale of L.N. Tolstoy’s short story “Candle” (1885–1886), written specifically for the people’s book publishing house “Intermediary.” The purpose of the article is to clarify and concretize the facts known in the circle of specialists related to the history of the publication of the Tolstoy’s text. The task of the work was to study and comprehend new archival materials introduced into scientific circulation for the first time: letters of P.I. Biryukov to L.N. Tolstoy and V.G. Chertkov, letters of V.G. Chertkov to L.N. Tolstoy published with significant bills, letters of A.M. Kalmykova to V.G. Chertkov, as well as the unpublished correspondence of L.N. Tolstoy and P.I. Biryukov, prepared for publication by the latter. Archival materials (OR GMT, RGALI) contribute to a deep and comprehensive study of the “program” of the “Intermediary” publishing house, organized at the end of 1884, and identification of the basic principles of its work, the nature of relationships between employees and methods of selecting texts for publication. The article shows that without this information an objective assessment of Tolstoy’s place and importance in the publishing house as a whole is impossible. It also clarifies the writer’s predicament in connection with the need to change the ending of the “Candle.” The author of the article comes to the conclusions that P.I. Biryukov initiated the question of the end of the “Candle”; that the controversy that unfolded around the story entailed a violation of the author’s intention; that L.N. Tolstoy’s talent overcame the narrow limits of the given “program.” These conclusions will form the basis of a historical and literary commentary on the story of L.N. Tolstoy “Candle” for volume 13 of the Complete Works of L.N. Tolstoy in 100 vols.
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