Two unhappy princesses: «The Princess Mery» of Mikhail Lermontov and «The Princess Mery» of Gayto Gazdanov

Considered in this paper is the hypothesis for the influence of Mikhael Lermontov’s novel «The Princess Mery» on the novel by Gayto Gazdanov «The Prinсess Mery». An analysis is made of the personage structure of the works: in Gazdanov’s work it is a peculiar love quadrangle, consisting of three men (pseudo-writer Maria, pseudo-actor Marcel and pseudo-boxer Pier) who are competing for one woman. And as this is taking place, on the metalevel there is the story-teller who is trying to unravel the mystery of the pseudo-writer. We can see a similar structure in the novel by Lermontov: Pechorin plays the role of a pseudo-writer, Grushnitsky with his constant showing off behaves like a pseudo-actor, and the dragoon captain, whom Pechorin knocks down, is like a pseudo-boxer. On the metalevel there is an officer story-teller who is trying to solve the mystery of Pechorin’s personality and who has published his Diary. Also considered is the type of a storyteller-analyst and his functions, the pseudo-writer’s motives, those of conspiracy, honour, hierarchy, highest force, true reality, and insincere friend’s motives: motivic complexes of «intermediate states» and «femininity».

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