Reflection and Narration in Nikolay Akhsharumov's A Tricky Business as a Chronicle of the Russian Literature of the 19th Century

The article is devoted to interpretation the pamphlet novel Mudryonoe delo [A Tricky Business] (1864) by the critic and writer Nikolay Akhsharumov. The novel's subtitle "Essays from the Chronicles of Russian Literature" indicates that the plot should be read as a true story: most heroes were meant to have prototypes, and collisions uniting the staff of the described publishing house could be projected onto actual events and incidents. Parallels between the fictional storylines and actual incidents in the history of Russian journalism and public life are analyzed. In the first part of the article, features of the narration and the prototype are investigated. The story in the novel is based on the protagonist's diary and the author's commentary. The writer chose rather traditional schemes of an adventure novel and a career novel. A Russian Lucien Chardon de Rubempre, Vasily Grigoryevich Bubnov, a young man from the province, plays the classic role of a simpleton, a retarded one in the opinion his Petersburg circle. The main topic of most conversations is the "symbolic" and "real" capital gained or wasted by Russian journalists. Akhsharumov's novel is literally populated by "doubles" of famous Russian critics and writers. Real names and titles enter into a certain competition with fictitious ones. In particular, it is assumed that the "non-partisan" writer (equally distant from the Slavophiles and the Nihilists) combined the events and incidents from the life of the two editions-Sovremennik [The Contemporary] and Vremya [Time]-in his text, using the resource of rumors and oral histories (A.V. Nikitenko and Yu.G. Zhukovsky). In the second part of the article, the novel's plot logic is considered in the context of the general polemic with the novel What Is to Be Done? by N. Chernyshevsky. Akhsharumov does not accept the "new man" and the menage a trois a la Chernyshevsky and disputes this phenomenon in social life. His novel embodies another version of social design related to the representation of the conservative institution of family and marriage. According to V.S. Nechaeva, Akhsharumov builds his melodramatic plot on a real case related to the difficult fate of the nihilist Alexandra Markelova. However, in both cases, the happy-end logic is valid: journalism remains in the hands of an advanced person, and the heroine enters into a legal marriage with Bubnov. In conclusion, the specificity of the narrative organization of the novel is described in the aspect of the author's reflection. The annex contains Akhsharumov's letters to the Dostoevsky brothers. Results and observations which are presented in the article could be used in teaching the history of the Russian literature of the 19th century.

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