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Nikolaï Tchernychevski What to do ? T he new men |
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A
novel that no one would publish today, because its characters
absolutely want to transform their revolutionary ideal into concrete
reality. Fortunately, freely available on the internet.
"This
novel exerted a considerable influence on generations of young Russian
radicals and revolutionaries, who modeled their behavior on the
characters and the intrigue of the novel, in particular the figure of
the professional revolutionary. According to British historian Orlando
Figes, its permission to publish through Czarist censorship was one of
his biggest mistakes, because reading it converted many people to
devote themselves to the revolution. Among them are Plekhano, Piotr
Tkatchev, and the anarchist prince Kropotkin as well as the nihilist
students of the 1860s.
« Who has not read and reread this famous book ? Who has not undergone its attraction and under beneficial influence, who has not purified, improved, strengthened, emboldened ? [...] Who, after having read this novel, has not reflected on his own life, has not subjected his own aspirations and inclinations to a rigorous examination ? We have drawn moral strength and faith in a better future. » Gueorgui Plekhanov, 1890 The
novel exerted an important particular influence on the young Lenin who
found a copy in the library left by his brother after his execution,
who declared in 1904 "He plowed me from top to bottom". In 1902, Lenin
took over the title What to do ? for one of his political treaties." (French Wikipedia)
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Shi Nai'an
At the water's edge 水浒传 |
"Adventure novel from the Chinese oral tradition, compiled and written by several authors, but generally attributed to Shi Nai'an (14th century). It tell the exploits of one hundred and eight bandits, revolted against the corruption of the government and high officials of the court of the emperor." (French Wikipedia) |
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Rabelais Pantagruel, Gargantua, Third Book |
All three novels condemned by the Sorbonne. In
the Middle Ages, the most thunderous laughter to denounce the misdeeds
of clerical obscurantism, singing the healthy joy of free living.
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Victor Hugo The miserables |
The ordinary life of the dominated-exploited people, and their struggle their liberation. |
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Charles Dickens |
"Basically, Dickens' novels are all reduced to a sentence, and here it is : - Be good and lov e; there is real joy only in the emotions of the heart; sensitivity is the whole of man. Leave science to scientists, pride to the nobles, luxury to the wealthy; have compassion on humble miseries; the smallest and most despised being can be worth as much as thousands of powerful and superb beings. Take care to offend the delicate souls that bloom in all conditions, under all clothes, at all ages. Believe that humanity, pity, forgiveness are the most beautiful things in man; believe that intimacy, effusion, tenderness, tears are the sweetest things in the world. It’s nothing to live; it is little to be powerful, learned, illustrious; it is not enough to be useful. This one alone lived and is a man, who cried in remembrance of a benefit that he has rendered or that he has received." |
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Cervantès Don Quixote |
The comic adventures of a man in love with justice and beauty. |
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Balzac |
The novelist whose art was so decisive that he ignored his own ideology, to portray reality with truth. He had the honor of not being admitted to the French Academy. See pourquoi (Why, French Text) |
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Jack London Martin Eden |
"He tells us about the painful ascent, then the fatal abandonment which concludes this ascent, of a poor young man blinded by the love and the wealth of which he has always been deprived. It is not only a apprentissage novel, but also the story of disenchantment, the categorical refusal to comply with the common vision of the elite of a gangrenous society, hermetically closed to all original thought, however brilliant it was. Despite a similarity between the life of Eden and London, the author has always protested: this work is an attack on the philosopher Nietzsche and individualism." (French Wikipedia) |
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Jules Verne The Jonathan Shipwrecked |
"How will this heterogeneous population be able to survive to become a colony, then a people? Will survive fear, fury, famine and war? And what extraordinary interior trip will the Kaw-Djer, loving freedom and independence, have to make?" |
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Georges Orwell 1984 |
The horrors of totalitarianism, and its language wrapped in "good" intentions. |
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Saint-Exupéry The little Prince |
The Human behaviors and ideas that really have value. |
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Mouloud Feraoun
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A novel that no publisher would publish today, because the text evokes the simple life of common people said "ordinary" but who want to conquer their human dignity. |
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