Review

Reviewed Work(s): The Prince, the Fool and the Nunnery. Religion and Love in the Early
Poetry of Anna Akhmatova by Wendy Rosslyn and Anna Akhmatova
Review by: Isia Tlusty
Source: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 63, No. 2 (Apr., 1985), pp. 293-294
Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London,
School of Slavonic and East European Studies
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4209098
Accessed: 16-01-2020 02:07 UTC

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 REVIEWS 293

the avant-garde, of which the fulsome admiration for Lesmian expressed by

Przybos is emblematic. This admiration is worth dwelling upon: for
although Lesmian's neologistic experiments may have been embedded in
verse of a traditional texture, their effects are far more resonant than those
achieved in the neologisms of the self-declared avant-gardists, with the
possible exception of Przybos himself. In paying homage to Lesmian
Przybos recognizes a continuity of neologistic creationism, which chal-
lenges God's prerogative of forming the word. Carpenter implicitly
concedes the pre-eminence of Przybos by according him many more pages
than she does the other avant-gardists, but nevertheless her study has some
of the congenital flatness of literary history and is too prone to approach
poets exclusively along the lines laid down by their often strident self-
definitions. Like many Polish critics, she is wary of'the liberated word'. All
the same, this is a very useful introduction to the field.
Reading PAUL COATES

Rosslyn, Wendy. The Pr

Early Poetry of Anna Akhmatova. Avebury, Amersham, I 984.
viii + 265 pp. Notes. Select Bibliography. Index of Poems Cited.
Index. ?i6.oo.

UNTIL now, the theme of religion in Akhmatova's poetry has been largely
neglected. The reasons for this omission are complex and are due in part to
the sensitive nature of this subject. It is known that Akhmatova was a
religious woman in the traditional, Russian Orthodox sense, but the role
played by religion in her poetry is less easy to define. In her book, Wendy
Rosslyn sets out to remedy this situation by examining Akhmatova's lyrics
of I909 to I 925 from the point of view of the religious quest of the heroine.
The title of the book is taken from two poems of I 909 in which the heroine
finds herself rejected by her prince. She can either marry a fool or go into a
nunnery (the poems are in fact called 'Reading Hamlet'). Ms Rosslyn takes
these poems as a model and asks 'who (or what) plays the role of the prince
and fool, and what attitude the heroine adopts towards the nunnery' (p. 3).
The introduction presents, among others, a synopsis of critical views of
Akhmatova's early work from I9I4 to the present (pp. 5-I 3) and a short
description of the Russian Orthodox Church before I 9 I 7 (pp. I 3-I 6). Both
these sections provide useful background information against which the
themes of religion and love are analysed. An important distinction between
Akhmatova's lyrical heroine and the real Akhmatova is made early on
(p. 22), as is the fact that more than one persona is present in the lyrics. Th
two points notwithstanding Ms Rosslyn assumes, seemingly correctly, that
certain biographical details of Akhmatova's life are evoked in her poems
and the psychology of their heroine is in many ways a reflection of
Akhmatova's own personality. Ms Rosslyn asks 'to what extent' the image
of the heroine 'is the product of imagination, and to what extent it reflects
reality' (p. 73). The answers to these questions form the basis of an
exploration into such diverse aspects of Akhmatova's life as the historical

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294 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW

and literary associations of her first name, Anna (pp. 75-76) and 'self-
induced' illnesses 'bordering on emotional violence' (p. 78) in connection
with youthful infatuations.
In the chapters which follow, 'the twists and turns of religious
experience' are demonstrated and analysed. In Rosary, for example, some
advances along the path towards a more 'explicit religion' (p. 2II) are
made. The heroine's active striving towards the divine is nevertheless
accompanied by a lack of trust in divine mercy and lack of a belief in a just
God. In White Flock the heroine looks for an ideal, a 'heaven-sent angel'
(p. 213) but her spiritual development is not sustained. She turns instead to
poetry for comfort, only to find that there is also torment in this form of
adulation of the Muse. According to Ms Rosslyn, only in Plantain are the
prince and the fool finally seen in spiritual terms, but again, this view is
short-lived.
How then does the author perceive the religious quest of Akhmatova's
heroine, and what conclusions can be drawn from this book? Firstly, Ms
Rosslyn suggests that although religious themes and imagery can be
perceived throughout Akhmatova's early collections, these are not 'specifi-
cally Christian' (p. 220). Instead of choosing the safe, protected path of
belief, the heroine looks for a morally acceptable alternative life-style. In
order to achieve it she forces herself to experience a wide range of human
emotions. Only then is she satisfied that neither love, passion, nor self-
reliance can provide substitutes for the divine. Secondly, even when she
comes to this realization, the heroine is forced to live 'outside the portals of
Christianity' (p. 220) so that she may preserve her creative freedom.
The book contains a useful bibliography of recent works about Akhma-
tova and lists translations of her poetry. It may be recommended to readers
of Russian and those unfamiliar with the language for its impressive fund of
information and original treatment of a difficult subject.
London ISIA TLUSTY

Briuske, W. Untersuchu
Beziehungen des I0-12
sche Forschungen, 30. B6hlau, Cologne, Vienna, I983. xiii + 265 pp.
Bibliography. Notes. Map. DM 42.00.

THIs book, still something of a standard work since its publication thirty
years ago, is an attempt to bring together all that is known of the Slavonic
peoples who, until the last decades of the twelfth century, formed a paga
wedge between the Christian Empire in Germany and Christian Poland.
Only if this background is understood is it possible to make sense of the
process of conquest and colonization undertaken, often in rivalry, by the
two great Christian powers. Briuske's study centres around the Ljutizi, a
league of peoples centred in the area later known as Brandenburg. The
history of the Obotrites, who lived further North and had closer contacts
with the Empire is also considered. The book begins with a history of the
Slavonic peoples of this vast area from the eighth century to the end of the

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