Prince Pëtr Andreevič Vyazemskij, born in Moscow in 1792 to Andrei Ivanovich and the Irishman Jenny Quinn O’Reilly, was a young man with reddish hair, upturned nose and gray eyes. Favorite of graceful girls and potential mothers-in-law, a fighter against Napoleon, an official in the Ministry of Finance and finally in that of Public Education – after a period of disgrace due to too liberal ideas -, as well as a rampant poet of the “Puškinian pleiad”, Vyazemskij he began to write down in his Moroccan-bound notebooks since 1813 “quotations from the books he read, reflections on literature, politics, morals, stories he had heard, brouillons of letters, poems”.
Crumbs of life
Et voilà: here is Criciole della vita, an Adelphian selection – edited by Serena Vitale – of texts chosen from sixty-five years of annotations. These are short sketches, Muscovite whims, whimsical gossip, composed not without coquetry and malice, and above all with unparalleled style. As for Friedrich Hebbel (remember the memorable, always Adelphian, Last Judgment with pauses), it happens that the diary page is perhaps the most interesting part of the entire work of Vyazemskij: it is in the memoir of the carnets that the prickling conversationalist – alias “NN”, capable of provoking proverbial “salottier migrations” – reaches the acme of his art, devoid of epigonism and not embalmed by official literary tones. Let’s take a few examples. Fragments of a dialogue caught on the fly: “X.: He is a man without principles. Y .: What would he be like? He has a tenacious and unshakable one: always go with the flow, wherever the waves lead, always be on the side of the force, for whatever purpose it is directed, always please the person or persons from whom some utility or economic advantages can be expected “. A real pun: “Mrs. B. hated being asked how she was. ‘Please spare me these questions!’ she replied. I have a doctor who pays six hundred rubles a year ‘”. A hilarious (and almost Swabian) sketch: “L. asks F. if he has seen his betrothed. ‘Yup’. ‘And you like it?’. ‘Sure, very pretty. You’re the youngest of the three sisters, aren’t you? ‘ ‘No, the middle one. But tell me, do you think the younger is more beautiful? Why didn’t you tell me before? I would have chosen her. However, I still have time, I can change it ‘”. And finally a genre in its own right, which will also be practiced by Daniil Charms: the (alleged) anecdote from Pushkin’s life: “Prince *** (landlord): ‘What do you think of this wine?’ Pushkin (in an uncertain voice, out of pure courtesy): ‘It’s not bad, I’d say it’s a decent wine’. Prince ***: ‘Would you believe it if I told you that six months ago you couldn’t swallow a sip?’. Pushkin: ‘I would believe it.’ ”These lightning-fast jokes seem innocent, cruel memories of a vice flogger but, when they make up the knowledgeable gaze of the keen observer in our eyes, they are actually telling us about the vast historical upheavals and reckless lies of a shattered society, of an underground nineteenth century, more particularly of human types who do not hide their indomitable desire for affirmation and, at the same time, the vanity of their every enterprise. “We often see books presented as a new, revised and expanded edition. Will we ever see a new, revised and abbreviated edition? ”. “Somewhere Greč wrote that in his little finger Bulgarin has more intelligence than all his opponents. ‘It’s a pity’ NN said ‘that he doesn’t write with his little finger’ ”.
Pëtr Andreevič Vyazemskij, Crumbs of life, edited by Serena Vitale, Adelphi, pp. 205, € 14.00