Sterne and Yakovlev: On the reception of Lawrence Sterne in Russia

Abstract

The article focuses on a little-known episode from the history of Russian-English literary relations. L. Sterne’ s works, “Sentimental Journey through France and Italy” in particular, were included in the range of reading of the educated Russian nobility, and “Sentimental Journey” attracted a wide variety of readers. Sterne’s “Journey” marked the beginning of “sentimental” travel literature in Russian, written by the authors “with eyes, full of tears.” Pavel Yakovlev, a writer of the first half of the 19th century, forgotten today, wrote short plays, novellas, a novel, numerous articles, but he became famous for his parodies. His most famous parody is the novella “Sentimental Journey along Nevsky Prospekt”, first published in parts in the “Blagonamerenny” magazine, and then as a separate book. Yakovlev used Sterne’s story as a kind of a plan recognizable by readers. Borrowing the structure of Sterne’s book helps the development of the plot. Yakovlev also uses various artistic means, a certain vocabulary and syntax, which are inherent in the works by Sterne. Yakovlev’s book is a monologue of the protagonist, which includes the conversations he heard in coffee houses, shops, visiting friends. Like Sterne’s text, Yakovlev’s novella belongs to “oral culture,” that of salons. There are three planes in Yakovlev’s novella: the creation of a literary envelope that holds the attention of readers; a parody of the “sentimental journey” as a literary genre; depiction of scenes from the life of literary Petersburg.