.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{box-sizing:border-box;width:100%;padding:5px;border:none;font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .hidden-title{font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .hidden-content{text-align:left}@media all and (max-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{width:auto!important;clear:none!important;float:none!important))You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (January 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at [[:ru:Зависть (роман Олеши)]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template ((Translated|ru|Зависть (роман Олеши))) to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
Envy
First English edition (cover by V. Kozlinsky, 1936)
AuthorYury Olesha
Original titleЗависть
LanguageRussian
GenreSatirical novel
PublisherKrasnaya Nov
Publication date
1927
Publication placeSoviet Union

Envy (Russian: Зависть, romanized: Zavist') is a satirical novel by the Russian writer Yury Olesha, first published in 1927 .

Plot summary

The novel is about a pathetic young man named Nikolai Kavalerov, who refuses to accept Communist values and is consumed by loathing and envy for his benefactor Andrei Babichev, a model Soviet citizen who manages a successful sausage factory. With Andrei Babichev's brother Ivan, Kavalerov attempts to stage a comeback of all the old, petty feelings that were crushed under communism. In the end, Ivan and Kavalerov are crushed by their own iniquity.

Background

Envy first appeared in Krasnaya Nov, a Soviet literary magazine, in late 1927. Olesha wrote the novel while working at the Gudok, a widely read newspaper of the Railway Workers' Union. Other authors of the newspaper were Mikhail Bulgakov, Isaac Babel, Ilya Ilf, and Yevgeny Petrov.[1]

Style

Encyclopædia Britannica calls Envy "a satire in the tradition of Notes from the Underground".[2]

Themes

The central social theme of Envy is the fate of the intelligentsia in Russia's postrevolutionary society. The novel presents a clash between the rational industrial state and the creative aspirations of Nikolay Kavalerov, which results with Kavalerov throwing his potential away. Despite Olesha's enthusiasm for the new state of affairs, Envy is one of a number of 20th-century Russian novels in which the protagonists clash with Soviet reality and as a result find themselves marginalized.[3]

English translations

References

  1. ^ "Yuri Olesha. Envy. - Free Online Library".
  2. ^ "Russian literature - Post-Revolutionary literature | Britannica".
  3. ^ "Yury Karlovich Olesha | Russian author | Britannica".

External links

Categories