De ‘Sad.’ On Marina Stepnova’s 2020 novel The Garden [Sad]

Abstract

A. Zhuchkova’s review deals with M. Stepnova’s new novel The Garden [Sad], a recognised bestseller in 2020. The critic examines the novel from the viewpoint of its adherence to the classical genre of ideological novel and finds that the entire book is at the same time a response to Dostoevsky’s The Possessed [Besy] and a mockery of the liberal idea, the latter used as a prism through which to view the whole of Russia. Parody takes up an enormous part of Stepnova’s book; in fact, the entire novel is a spoof.Its principal fabric is made of implied parallels to The Possessed: Tusya is Nikolay Stavrogin, Boryatinskaya is Varvara Petrovna, Meisel is Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky, Nyutochka is Dasha Shatova, and Aleksandr Ulianov is Kirillov... In Dostoevsky’s and Stepnova’s novels, the portrayal of liberals is identical when it comes to their mannerisms, ideals and bon mots, so is the time setting in The Possessed and The Garden. However, while Dostoevsky only shares his premonitions about the imminent socialism, denunciations, killings and terror, Stepnova (whose novel conspicuously features the Ulianovs among its characters) has the knowledge of what is to come.