I.A. Krylov’s “Fables” in F.M. Dostoevsky’s Novel The Idiot

Abstract

The article explores the presence of I.A. Krylov’s “Fables” as a book within a book in F.M. Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot, making the first approaches to the development of the topic “Dostoevsky and Krylov,” which practically did not attract the attention of researchers earlier, despite the numerous references of the writer to Krylov’s legacy. In the text of the novel Idiot, only two Krylov fables are directly mentioned. However, one of them (named by Ferdyshchenko “The Lion and the Donkey”) is a reference to the plot, which is common to two fables at once (“The Aged Lion” and “The Fox and the Donkey”). In addition, the release of “Idiot” coincided with the celebration in Russia in 1868 of the centenary of Krylov’s birth, which was also indirectly reflected in the novel (it is a well-known fact that while working on “Idiot,” Dostoevsky, who was abroad at that time, was keenly interested in this anniversary). The author suggests new interpretations of the role of Krylov’s fables in the novel and, in particular, substantiates the connection of Krylov’s “The Cloud,” first published in the journal “Son of the Fatherland” in 1815, with the legendary image of Napoleon after Waterloo (which is extremely important for the depiction of the Napoleonic myth in the novel Idiot).

Keywords

• : book within a book
• i.a. krylov’s fables
• “the lion and the donkey
• ” “the cloud
• ” the napoleonic myth
• napoleon
• the summer garden
• the monument to i.a. krylov
• dostoevsky
• “the idiot.”