An Evening with Claire

by Gaito Gazdanov

This work, written with the simple lyricism and psychological acuity of the early Tolstoy and Bunin struck a chord with the émigrés of the 1930s, who recognized their own feelings in those of the hero, and in a peculiar way it forms a complement to Nabokov’s early novels of longing for the Russian childhood left behind forever in a country which no longer existed.
An Evening with Claire was hailed as a major literary event in Russian émigré circles when it was first published in Paris in 1930. Its author, Gaito Gazdanov, was compared to the young Nabokov, as well as to Proust and Bunin.

Genres: Russia, Classics, Fiction, Russian Literature, Novels, 20th Century, Historical Fiction

135 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Gaito Gazdanov (Russian: Гайто Газданов; Ossetian: Гæздæнты Бæппийы фырт Гайто) (1903–1971) was a Russian émigré writer of Ossetian extraction. He was born in Saint Petersburg but was brought up in Siberia and Ukraine, where his father worked as a forester. He took part in the Russian Civil War on the side of Wrangel's White Army. In 1920 he left Russia and settled in Paris, where he was employed in the Renault factories. Gazdanov's first novel — An Evening with Claire (1930) — won accolades from Maxim Gorky and Vladislav Khodasevich, who noted his indebtedness to Marcel Proust. On the strength of his first short stories, Gazdanov was decried by critics as one of the most gifted writers to begin his career in emigration.
Gazdanov's mature work was produced after World War II. His mastery of criminal plots and understanding of psychological detail are in full evidence in his two most popular novels, The Specter of Alexander Wolf and The Return of the Buddha, whose English translations appeared in 1950 and 1951. The writer "excels in creating characters and plots in which cynicism and despair remain in precarious yet convincing balance with a courageous acceptance of life and even a certain joie de vivre." In 1953, Gazdanov joined the Radio Liberty, where he hosted a program about Russian literature until his death.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Evening with Claire is a story of nostalgic love and the story is no less nostalgic than that nostalgic love…

After glancing back at the Seine a final time I would go up to my room, lie down, and instantly sink into the profound gloom; strange forms stirred within this gloom which sometimes had no time to form into familiar images before my eyes and would vanish, having never materialized; and in my sleep I would regret their disappearance, sympathize with their imaginary and incomprehensible sorrows, and I lived and dozed in this ineffable state which I could never recapture while awake. This should have distressed me but in the morning I would completely forget about what I had seen in my sleep, and the last memory of the previous day would be that I had once again missed the train. In the evening I’d set off again for Claire’s.

An Evening with Claire is a recollection of childhood and adolescence, parents and homeland, growing up and falling in love, war and flight…

These first, carefree years of life at the gymnasium were only rarely aggravated by those emotional crises from which I suffered so greatly but in which I nonetheless found an agonizing satisfaction. I lived happily – if one can live happily when a persistent shadow floats behind one’s shoulders. Death was never far away, and the abyss into which my imagination plunged me seemed to belong to it.

In exile, even the recollections of happiness are sad because it is a memory of the lost world.

[Nikos Tsentemeidis]

Σίγουρα ενδιαφέρον βιβλίο, όχι όσο το φάντασμα όμως. Ιδιαίτερος συγγραφέας ο Γκαζντάνοφ και θα διάβαζα ευχάριστα ότι άλλο δικό του θα μεταφραστεί.

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: While there is some lovely language in this short read, I did not end up thinking it was Deathless Prose.

These first, carefree years of life at the gymnasium were only rarely aggravated by those emotional crises from which I suffered so greatly but in which I nonetheless found an agonizing satisfaction. I lived happily—if one can live happily when a persistent shadow floats behind one’s shoulders. Death was never far away, and the abyss into which my imagination plunged me seemed to belong to it.

High school's like that. The highs are empyrean; the lows abyssal. Claire gets a whole lot fewer lines than an evening should hold. I was reminded of the Doobie Brothers' 1977 hit song, "What A Fool Believes", which covers the same territory in three minutes, forty-seven seconds.

Blasphemy to the literary, I know, but really I'll listen to the song again (and it was never one of my favorites) before I'll re-read this history lesson with straight-boy crush object posed in front of it. The entire Russian Civil War—one of history's major social paroxysms!—took place with a sleepwalking Kolya (Claire's fanboy) apparently numb to it. But of course he is...he is superior to the victims. (Where he got that idea, and what it's based on, must've been in a part of the read I didn't get in my DRC.) So, Claire of the title barely shows her face; the narrator's a numbed-out zombie or a sociopathic prick; and the story's too long for the récit it could've quite successfully been and too detached to work as a novel.

I'll see myself out.

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Когато паметта се плъзне нагоре срещу течението на времето, с всяка неусетна крачка назад тя започва да се съединява все по-гладко къс по къс. И една “Вечер при Клер” повдига за миг завесата от спасително отчуждение и превръща сенките на съзнанието, прекосили детство, Кавказ и гражданска война недокоснати, във вече истински и окончателен спомен.

——
Това е първият роман на Гайто Газданов, бил е само на 25! Но бидейки герой на всеки един от романите си, вече е бил изживял няколко различни живота, а са му предстояли още много.

——
А ето как е изглеждал брониран влак като този от романа:


4,5⭐️

———————————————————————————
”Те си мислят, че ако имаш невярна представа за руската история като за смяна на добродетелни и умни монарси, е добре. Всъщност ти изучаваш някаква сантиментална митология, с която те заменят историческата действителност. Но в резултат на това ще излезеш глупак. Впрочем ти и без това ще се окажеш глупак, дори да знаеш истинската история.
- Непременно ли ще се окажа глупак?
- Непременно. Всички се оказват глупаци.
[…]
- Но какво да се прави?
- Да бъдеш негодник.”

[roz_anthi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Αναλυτικά η άποψή μου για το βιβλίο εδώ.

Αν η μνήμη είναι το ερμάριο όλων των πραγμάτων όπως έλεγε ο Κικέρων, τότε στο Μια βραδιά με την Κλαιρ η μνήμη δεν παρέχει κατοικία μόνο στα αισθητηριακά αποτυπώματα που αφήνει το πέρασμα της ζωής στον άνθρωπο, αλλά στεγάζει και την ίδια του την ύπαρξη, ή καλύτερα, τη δυνατότητα να επιστρέφει κανείς σε αυτή κατά βούληση.

Η παρατεταμένη επίσκεψη στο μνημονικό απόθεμα του πρωταγωνιστή, από τα παιδικά χρόνια και τη Στρατιωτική Σχολή όπου μαθήτευσε μέχρι και τον πόλεμο, αποτελεί από μόνη της μια πράξη που τον διαχωρίζει από τα θηρία, της οποίας το νόημα πηγαίνει βαθύτερα απ’ όσο υποθέτουμε. Ο Κόλια, βασανισμένος από το υδαρές τοπίο που αποκρυσταλλώνεται μέσα του, βρίσκει στην ανάκληση των γεγονότων ένα κέντρο γύρω από το οποίο μπορεί να περιγράψει τη ζωή και τον εαυτό του.

Ο Γκαζντάνοφ, με την αποστασιοποιημένη και νηφάλια αφήγηση του Κόλια, επιλέγει να τμήσει ανθρωπότυπους, όχι απλώς μεμονωμένα άτομα. Καθώς η ακρίβειά του φτάνει μέχρι το κόκαλο, διανοίγοντας την κατανόησή μας για την ανθρώπινη ψυχή στα μεγαλοπρεπή πλάτη της ρωσικής στέπας, οι άνθρωποι φωτίζονται ολοκάθαρα από την απαστράπτουσα πρόζα του. Όλα τα στοιχεία που στο Φάντασμα του Αλεξάντρ Βολφ λαμποκοπούν σαν σταλακτίτες μέσα στο χιόνι, κάνουν το ντεμπούτο τους σε αυτό το μυθιστόρημα.

Ο Γκαϊτό Γκαζντάνοφ, του οποίου το έργο, έστω και καθυστερημένα ευτυχήσαμε να ανακαλύψουμε μέσα απ’ τις εξαίσιες μεταφράσεις της Ελένης Μπακοπούλου, διεκδικεί επάξια μια κορυφαία θέση ανάμεσα στους μεγάλους συγγραφείς της ρωσικής λογοτεχνίας του αιώνα που μάς πέρασε.

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Evening with Claire was Gaito Gazdanov’s first novel, published in France in 1930. Gazdanov was one of the “unnoticed generation,” marginalised, rootless, younger writers who fled Russia in the years following revolution and brutal civil war. He washed up in Paris in the early 1920s where, after a string of lean years, driving a taxi gave him time to write. Gazdanov’s debut’s an intricate, semi-autobiographical piece briefly posing as a classic tale of unrequited love and desire. Desire plays a part here but it’s a desire for place and something else, something yearned for, almost intangible, that can only be accessed through memory. The central character Kolya’s a young Russian living in Paris, he’s adrift and isolated, apparently obsessed with Claire, a married woman, and his long-lost, first love. But Claire’s a near-mythic figure for Kolya, a potent symbol of the past. Her active role here’s a minor one, a catalyst for the flood of recollections to come.

The bulk of Gazdanov’s narrative’s a vivid recreation of Kolya’s history: a settled childhood in a cultured, middle-class family ruptured by his father’s early death; unruly, challenging school years; a growing sense of alienation; and the unexpected decision to fight in the Russian Civil War, when he was barely sixteen years old. It’s a beautifully-constructed story, atmospheric and compelling. A series of impressionistic snapshots, filled with striking images and anecdotes, that demonstrate why Gazdanov was sometimes dubbed the Russian Proust. Although Gazdanov hadn’t actually read Proust, and his writing features a decidedly hard-edged element that Proust’s lacks.

The scenes of Kolya’s childhood have a wonderful, fairy-tale quality but I was most impressed by the episodes set during the Civil War. The deeply self-analytical Kolya’s representation of wartime veered between introspective, understated observations and meticulously-drawn vignettes centred on his fellow soldiers. There are jolts of absurd or bleak humour in his depiction of army life, interspersed with lyrical descriptions of landscapes and wildlife that highlight the strangeness, the uncanny aspect of war. Gazdanov makes it clear that war can shatter everything around it, but shows how easily it can also become mundane - experiences of violence and death too commonplace to question. The emphasis throughout’s very much on Kolya’s perceptions and encounters, there’s little in the way of historical detail, perhaps because Gazdanov’s addressing readers who shared similar histories. It’s possible that may be challenging for anyone unfamiliar with the period but I think the sheer force of the writing makes up for the more elliptical content. Apparently Gazdanov’s work’s considered difficult to translate, I can’t comment on that, all I can say is I found Bryan Karetnyk’s recent translation fluid and convincing.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for the arc

[Nasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ένα περίεργο βιβλίο, με πολλά αυτοβιογραφικά στοιχεία, που μας συστήνει τον Γκαζντανοφ στο ελληνικό κοινό και είναι σίγουρα υποσχόμενο. Αλλά κατάφερα να το τελειώσω με την τρίτη, τις πρώτες δύο φορές που το προσπάθησα δεν κατάφερα να περάσω τις πρώτες 30 σελίδες, θες που μιλάει πολύ ο συγγραφέας, θες που σε στιγμές τον έχανα, δεν ξέρω, σίγουρα δεν μπήκα στο νόημα πάντως νωρίς.

Υπήρχαν σημεία που μου φαίνονταν φοβερά ενδιαφέροντα και σημεία που μου φάνηκε να πλατειάζει σε σημείο που να το άφηνα ξανά κατά μέρους. Δυστυχώς το τέλος για μένα ανήκει στα δεύτερα σημεία, κάτι που προσωπικά δεν με ευχαρίστησε. Σίγουρα δεν κατάλαβα καλά τον συγγραφέα, οπότε αν ποτέ πέσει κάτι άλλο δικό του στα χερια μου, θα του δώσω ευκαιρία.

[Vladys Kovsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is clearly autobiographical. At least it appears to be and I proceed with the review having this assumption in mind.

There are touching descriptions of the author's childhood, beautiful passages devoted to his parents, and an unusually detailed account of the inner word of the protagonist/author. This inner world is composed of daydreams and overlaps with fever induced nightmares creating a somewhat surreal effect. Life of the growing child is strongly anchored to his internal world to such an extent that external impressions and events have little effect on forming of his character. He goes through life more like a detached observer than an active participant. This detachment is most evident in the author's matter of fact account of the horrors of the Civil war. This part of the book is perhaps most effective thanks to the observer's point of view. Atrocities and terror find little emotional response in the protagonist submerged in his own internal underworld. This lack of emotions in the description of the bloody carnage serves as an amplification device for the reader.

While looking into the author's mind is an unusual privilege we get in this book, what we see down there is not that pretty. There are interesting ideas and concepts but only a few. The dominating impression is an unjustified feeling of superiority the protagonist feels towards other people with a few notable exceptions. His judgement based on his inner world's presumed richness and his reading experience serves him as a method to easily dismiss people around him as not worthy, inferior. The only people who avoid this kind of treatment are those who themselves have an air of superiority about them: the protagonist's mother, a cold blooded killer and a talented singer Arkady Savin, spoiled and capricious Claire. It is Claire who enters the precarious inner world of the protagonist and her presence there drives his decisions. It is easy to see that Claire is about to lose her mythical position in the protagonist's imaginary hierarchy after he finally gets into her bed...

The impressions from this book support my earlier take on the author as an individual capable of interesting observations and unusual ideas. However, to me he remains somewhat immature, a brilliant adolescent arrested in his development either by brutal circumstances or by choice. Gaito Gazdanov is not an author I intend to read again.

[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for a review copy of the book.

The first book by Russian émigré writer Gaito Gazdanov, An Evening with Claire (1929), opens in Paris where we are introduced to our narrator and main character, Nikolai Sosedov or Kolya. After ten years, Kolya has been reunited with his first love, Claire, one he has never ceased loving, and has always dreamt of. As the romance he has imagined for so long becomes real, the unattainable dream-like status Claire has always had in Kolya’s thoughts fades away. But his thoughts of the Claire of his dreams, or rather of a dream-like image of Claire that he needs to always have, lead him back to times past—in fact all the way back to his childhood in Russia.

In a flowy narrative, with loosely connected memories of different people, incidents and times in his life, we follow Kolya from his idyllic childhood, which lasted somewhat briefly for he lost his father when he was only eight; his life with his cold but admirable mother; in the gymnasium and military academy; carefree times spent wandering in his grandfather’s orchards in the holidays; his meeting with Claire; and ultimately the civil war in which he joined the White Army and eventually found himself having to leave Russia. Throughout these recollections what Kolya tells us is his perceptions of scenes he witnessed, incidents he experienced, and people he met—at different times in his life, these were from all walks of life, his own family, fellow students, teachers and fellow soldiers.

Kolya makes for an interesting, yet puzzling character; there are some things he feels strongly—like the loss of his father (I’ve perished with him, so too my fabulous ship, and the island with white buildings which I discovered in the Indian ocean), or even an incident involving Claire’s mother’s rather harsh words to him, while in others, whether it is the death of his sisters (here his reaction seemed more to his mother’s sorrow which made him almost guilty to be alive) or the pointless and seemingly endless injury and loss of life during the war which he seems almost numb to. Moments of ‘perfect happiness’ are perhaps few, like when he is a child:

…sitting on Father’s knees and glancing from time to time at mother’s placid face—for she was usually by his side—I experienced true happiness, the sort that only a child or man possessed of extraordinary spiritual strength can feel.

Or amidst nature or in a book:

In that moment, as whenever I was truly happy, I vanished from my own consciousness. It could happen in a forest, in a field, on a river, by the seashore; it could happen while I was reading a captivating book.

But for the most part, Kolya seems to live within himself—in his inner life, as opposed to the outer one—and so looks at most others, in a rather detached manner. In his memories we meet a range of personalities, warm and cold, brave and cowardly, learned and hypocritical, as well as some colourful characters.

What defines Kolya perhaps is his constant search for something—the adventure on the Indian Ocean in his childhood games with his father, the search for ‘change’ , to be somewhere which alone leads him to join the White Army (he has no belief in their cause or for that matter, in the Reds’), and so too, is the dream of Claire—which we soon realise means not so much the person but an unattainable dream which he must always have to carry him on, and forward. At one point, Kolya observes of a fellow student, Vasily Nikolaevich, he was always searching for his truth, wherever he happened to be. And that seems to apply to Kolya too, always needing to have that dream he is in pursuit of.

While I enjoyed the writing in the book (the translation was excellent, and it never felt that I was reading one), and the different memories through which Kolya takes us through (his childhood memories are lovely while those of the war once again make one question the point of it), I found myself struggling with how to understand the book. But thinking over it all, Kolya perhaps represents the experience of Gazdanov himself, and perhaps many other emigres, their home taken away from them (probably) forever, left only with snatches of memory of times past, and ‘Claire’, that unattainable dream he is always in search of, the only thing they can hold on to.

(This is probably more of an exercise in my trying to understand the book than a review per se, I know, but these were the thoughts that came to mind).

I got interested in picking up this book after reading excellent reviews by Karen from Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings (https://shinynewbooks.co.uk/an-evenin...) and by a Goodreads friend, Alwynne (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).

[Ends of the Word · Rating 3 out of 5]

“But Claire is French,” I suddenly recalled, “and if this is so, then what was all that constant, intense sorrow about snow and green plains for, all that sorrow for those many lives I had lived in a country now hidden from me behind a fiery curtain?” I began to dream of meeting Claire in Paris, where she had been born, and where she would undoubtedly return. Before my eyes I saw France, Claire’s native land, and Paris, and the place de la Concorde; and the square seemed different to me than the one I had seen depicted on postcards.

Born in Saint Petersburg, Gaito Gazdanov (1903 - 1971) left Russia for Paris in 1920, where he started working for Renault. At the time he also wrote short stories about the immigrant experience. This first phase of his authorial career culminated in his first novel or, rather, novella, An Evening with Claire, a work from 1929 which is still considered one of the classics of Russian emigré literature.

It feels natural to consider this an autobiographical work. Its narrator, Kolya, a Russian based in Paris, spends his evenings with Claire, an old flame with whom he was besotted as a young man ten years before. His meetings with Claire, who is now married, set off a train of memories of his childhood and youth, of his family, friends and schoolmates.

Kolya’s (and Gazdanov’s) sense of displacement as an immigrant is mirrored in the style of writing which seems to hover on the cusp of modernism, unsure whether to abandon itself to the lush Romanticism of a past age, or to embrace a more contemporary stream-of-consciousness approach. Kolya’s lyrical voice is well captured in the translation prepared by the indefatigable Bryan Karetnyk, who is doing so much to bring lesser-known classics of Russian literature to the English-speaking public.

If I am disappointed with the novel it is only because it was not the love story which I was expecting after reading the blurbs (and which I was in the mood for). The eponymous Claire is, ultimately, not a character we ever come to know intimately. She remains primarily, if not exclusively, a symbol of the emigré experience, her unattainability seemingly inseparable from her Frenchness:

I could distinguish between simple unknowns and strangers par excellence, a type that existed in my imagination like that of a foreigner - which is to say, a person not only of different nationality, but who belonged to a different world, one that was inaccessible to me. Perhaps my feelings were in part because she was French and a foreigner. Although she spoke Russian with perfect fluency and accuracy and understood everything down to the meaning of folk sayings, there remained in her a certain charm that a Russian girl would never have had...

Like the music of Stravinsky’s French years, or the 1920s Parisian streetscapes of Konstantin Korovin, Gazdanov’s An Evening with Claire is not only a fine work in its own right, but is also an important expression of a particular community at an important juncture in 20th Century history.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...

[Dragan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ljubavna priča između zrele žene i mladića u čijoj je pozadini podastrta panorama jedne Rusije koja mi nije toliko poznata: Rusija nakon revolucije viđena očima" druge strane", pripadnika bijelih, ruske emigracije, života u tuđini, nostalgije. Fragmentarno pripovijedanju i elementi misticizma pridaju romanu bajkovitost i začudnu egzotičnost. Ima tu neke satievske egzistencijalne tjeskobe i osjećaja nepripadanja.

Stilski izuzetno lijepo i profinjeno, u najboljoj tradiciji Bunjina i Paustovskog. Mislim da ćemo se Gajto i ja još družit.

[Crazytourists_books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Για πολλά χρόνια, διαβαζα σχεδόν αποκλειστικά κλασσική λογοτεχνία. Αυτό άλλαξε την τελευταία δεκαπενταετία για διάφορους λόγους. Σιγά σιγά υπήρξε μια ισορροπία μεταξύ σύγχρονης και κλασσικής λογοτεχνίας και τα τελευταία χρόνια η ζυγαριά έγειρε ξεκάθαρα προς τη σύγχρονη λογοτεχνία.
Δεν είμαι σίγουρη πως το βιβλιο αυτό ανήκει στα έργα της κλασσικής λογοτεχνιας, μάλλον όχι, εχει όμως πολλά κοινά στοιχεία με τα έργα των μεγάλων Ρώσων κλασικών: στη γλώσσα, το ύφος, τις περιγραφές. Διαβάζοντάς το, διαπίστωσα πόσο πολύ με κουράζει πλέον αυτή η ρομαντική, πεσιμιστική ατμόσφαιρα, οι ονειροπολήσεις, οι φιλοσοφικοί στοχασμοί, οι ευαίσθητες και ταυτόχρονα ακαταμάχητες γυναίκες...
Το βιβλίο είναι εξαιρετικά καλογραμμένο, είναι σαφές ότι η μεταφράστρια, Ελένη Μπακοπούλου, και ο εκδοτικός (αντίποδες) έχουν κάνει εξαιρετική δουλειά, αλλά δε με κράτησε. Βαρέθηκα, το διάβασα μηχανικά (γιατί δεν του άξιζε να το παρατήσω) και ξεφύσηξα με ανακούφιση όταν τελειωσε...

[ميرنا المهدي · Rating 5 out of 5]

"كنت شخصًا اجتماعيًا جدًا، لكني لم أكن أحب أحدًا، وكنت أفترق بلا أسف عن أولئك الذين تبعدني عنهم الظ��وف. كنت آلف الناس الجدد بسرعة، وما إن أعتادهم حتى أكف عن ملاحظة وجودهم. ربما كان مرد ذلك إلى حبي للعزلة (..) لم أكن أحب أن أفتح قلبي لأحد، لكن بما أني كنت أتمتع بعادة سرعة التخيل، كانت الأحاديث الحميمة سهلة علي. من دون أن أكون كاذبًا، لم أكن أصرح بما أفكر فيه، وأتجنب لا شعورياً مصاعب الاعترافات الرصينة، ولم يكن لي رفاق."

رواية شديدة العذوبة والجمال قائمة على فلسفة البطل ورؤيته للعالم ولمن حوله. اسمتعت بها وببراعة ترجمتها جدًا ❤️

[Sergei_kalinin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Психоделическая книга :) Требует неспешного и тихого прочтения, не на бегу...

Во-первых, про любовь :)
Во-вторых, про Россию времен гражданской войны - про "пейзаж смерти". Книг про эти смутные времена множество, но у автора очень своеобразное видение катаклизма, как бы изнутри...
В-третьих, местами просто вштырили :) очень тонкие и глубокие интроспективные погружения автора в свой собственный внутренний мир. Очень немногие умеют подметить, ухватить и выразить словами тонкие и ускользающие душевные состояния, которым нет прямолинейных названий.

Язык книги очень вкусный, но немного тяжеловат (поэтому и требует неспешного чтения-погружения).

И ещё - текст страдает некоторой фрагментарностью... Возможно, это не минус, а авторский приём, чтобы ещё больше подчеркнуть интроспективность текста. Но читать тяжеловато...

[Елвира · Rating 4 out of 5]

Меланхолен полет на една силно поетична мисъл.

Бих казала, че тази силна чувствителност за усещания е нещото, което ми се струва - особено откакто намирам у себе си значителна зрялост - най-важното човешко умение. Напълно отговаря на моя копнеж и представа за живот.

Много ми допадна изящността на потока на мисълта (лишен от цинизма и грубостта на „Одисей“), който, освен другото, е и заглъхващ отглас от една епоха на романтични и аристократични времена, на които винаги съм се възхищавала. Харесва ми също така да чета мислите на душевно богатите хора, приятно ми е да чета дори за ежедневните им незначителни действия, спомени и срещи.

Съвсем малко не достигна на книгата да ме заплени истински, но всяка друга нейна форма при това ѝ съдържание вероятно би отнела от качествата ѝ, защото сама по себе си е наистина много хубава.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really know where to start with Russian novels for #readingenvyrussia so I jumped in with a book I had from @pushkin_press - An Evening with Claire by Gaito Gazdanov, originally published in 1930, translated from the Russian by Bryan Karetnyk.

This was an author I didn't know of, but he lived from 1903-1971, and spent most of his life outside of Russia. The novel is described as a coming of age story bookended by two encounters with a woman named Claire, but I found it to be much heavier on coming of age and very sparse on Claire. When she's present the dialogue is in French, which is a pain even if there are reasons.

Most of it is part nostalgia including references to Leo Tolstoy and Kolya's grandfather, who was a nobleman who stole horses in the Caucasus. The narrator lives during a very transitional time, and even joins the White Army against all recommendations, knowing they will probably lose. The style is very internal and philosophical and really is more of a wander through family history and the people he meets.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me early access, even if I ended up saving it for my Russian focus this year.

[Tzeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Във "Вечер при Клер" изобщо не става дума за вечер при Клер. Даже за Клер не става дума. Става, де, ама само колкото да отиде до тоалетна и да пие вода, и после пак си ляга. И продължава да сънува един живот, който е невъзможно да разбереш и да харесаш, и е най-добре изобщо да не се опитваш. В първия си роман Гайто Газданов е направил един героичен, епичен и красив опит да не се опитва - и не е успял, разбира се. Тази битка е обречена. Това е обречеността на силната литература, на чиято Газданов е грос-майстор, а и на живеенето като цяло. Защото щастието и смисълът се крият в опита, в усилието, в невъзможността и в липсата на край. "Вечер при Клер" е една интимна изповед, чиито дълги като планинска река изречения, наситени с безчет бързеи, усойни долчинки и водопади, те повличат безмилостно нанякъде - надолу, напред, после назад и малко нагоре, а след това отново стремглаво надолу, и обикновените ти човешки сили не ти стигат да се добереш до спасителен бряг, освен ако това не е брегът на съня. "Вечер при Клер" сама по себе си е сън - нито кошмар, нито приказка, нито мокър, нито сух. Всичко едновременно, без запетайки и пътни знаци, които да ти покажат кое къде свършва и накъде те води, откъде те завръща. "Вечер при Клер" е аморфен разказ, със сюжет, който само плахо ти се извинява преди отново да се скрие зад буквите. Зад емоциите, безкрайно разтърсващи и почти напълно отсъстващи, които пред очите ти съживяват чудовище, което да прегърнеш и да утешиш. И то теб.

[Bookish Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book - it took me back to my years of reading Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Nabokov. There is a beauty in Gazdanov's writing, an intensity that saturates each page. Despite despising the main character for his arrogance - he believed he was smarter, more emotionally intact, more attractive than anyone else - I understood him to be an intolerable person. I've met those people.

Like the main character I, too, fell in thrall with Claire - who only appears in tiny segments in a book that is ultimately about war, class and morality. He sees this bombastic French girl in class and falls for her, believing her to be the only woman worthy of him. She is bright, intelligent, dazzling - and dissapears into long conversations about the differences and similarities between the white and red armies. Both are armies, both are fighting a side, one is losing, one is winning. A deeply contemplative text that falls back on love as the root of human action.

[Кремена Михайлова · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Най-прекрасните, най-проникновени чувства, които съм изпитвал някога, дължах на музиката; но нейното вълшебно и мимолетно съществование е онова, към което безуспешно се стремя – и не мога да живея така. Много често по време на концерт неочаквано започвах да разбирам онова, което дотогава ми се струваше неуловимо; музиката изведнъж събуждаше в мен такива необичайни физически усещания, за които се смятах напълно неспособен, но с последните заглъхващи звучи на оркестъра усещанията изчезваха и аз отново се оказвах в присъщата ми неизвестност и неувереност.“

„Всички деца бяха красиви с хубава, здрава красота, бяха силни физически и склонни към веселба, но руският сангвиничен тип при тях не се бе проявил докрай благодарение на германската кръв на майката.“

„Ето нà, твърде рано научихме момчето да чете, затова така се получи.“

„Но страшният навик непременно да водиш разговор задържаше по някакъв начин една малка част от моето изплъзващо се внимание и аз отговарях, говорех и дори се обиждах по време на този диалог….“

„ – Смисълът ли? – учуди се Виталий. – Всъщност смисъл няма, той не е и нужен.“

„… и враждебното ми отношение към религията и корпуса се затвърди още повече.“

„- Вярно ли е това, което се говори: искал си да постъпиш в армията?
- Да.
- Вършиш глупости.“

„Способностите на баща ми се проявяваха у мен в много променена форма: вместо силна воля и търпение – инат; вместо таланта на ловец – остро зрение, физическа издръжливост и точна наблюдателност – на мен ми се бе паднала само сляпа любов към животинския свят и напрегнат, но несъзнателен и безцелен интерес към всичко, което се случва, говори и прави наоколо.“

„Говореше френски и немски с безукорна точност, която впрочем можеше да изглежда твърде класическа; но и на руски моята майка си служеше само с литературни изрази и употребяваше родната реч с обичайната си студенина и равнодушно-презрителни интонации. Винаги беше такава; само на баща ми, когато бяхме на масата или в гостната, най-неочаквано се усмихваше с неудържимо радостна усмивка, която в друго време и при никакви други обстоятелства не бях виждал у нея. Често ми правеше забележки – съвсем спокойни, изказани със същия равен глас; в такива случаи баща ми ме гледаше съчувствено, кимаше с глава и сякаш ми оказваше някаква мълчалива подкрепа.“

„Не, скъпи, смисълът е фикция и целесъобразността е също фикция. Виж какво: ако вземеш ред явления и започнеш да ги анализираш, ще видиш, че има някакви сили, които направляват техните движения, но понятието смисъл няма да фигурира в тези сили, нито в тези движения.“

[Ourania Topa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 🌟 το διάβασα με ενδιαφέρον και προσδοκώ ακόμα περισσότερα από Το Φάντασμα του Αλεξάντερ Βολφ!

[Елиана Личева · Rating 3 out of 5]

„Вечер с Клер“, Гайто Газданов, изд. Аквариус, превод Жела Георгиева.

Първият роман на Гайто Газданов, публикувавъв Франция през 1930 г. За Газданов много литературоведи считат, че е недооценен, но много талантлив млад автор. Самият той е лишен от корени, като много хора на изкуството, избягали от Русия в годините след революцията и гражданската война. Той живее в Париж, където започва да твори.

Книгата е дебют за Газданов и донякъде е автобиографично произведение; за мен дори носеше усещането за дневник, изповед пред читателя. Сюжетът не излиза от рамките на епохата – история за несподелена любов и терзанията на един млад мъж.

За мен началото на историята беше изключително силно, и поглъщах страниците неусетно. Клер, с която започва книгата, е почти митична фигура за Коля; тя е дори врата към миналото и спомените му. Нейната роля в книгата е второстепенна – тя е просто катализатор за поток от спомени, започващи от детството и свързващи се с участието в Руската гражданска война, когато Коля е едва на шестнадесет години. През цялото време читателят е свидетел на нарастващо чувство на отчуждение към семейството, родината и дори към самия себе си.

В първата половина на книгата, докато все още опознаваме характера на невротичното момче, Газданов си служи с поредица от импресионистични похвати, изпълнени с объркващи образи и състояния на аза, които показват защо понякога е наричан руския Пруст. Желанието играе важна роля в текста, но това е желание за друго място, за нещо жадувано, почти неосезаемо, непознато, което героят не може да достигне по всяко време.

Сцените от детството на Коля много ме впечатлиха, за разлика от разказа, развиващ се по време на Гражданската война. Представянето на военното време беше лишено от абстракцията и усещането за безвремие. За сметка на това абсурдният и мрачен хумор в описанието на армейския живот, лишено от лиричните описания от първата част – на пейзажи и диви животни – за мен беше недостатък, но предполагам, че за доста читатели това би било обратното.

Газданов, макар да не е политически обвързан и заради младостта си, ясно заявява позицията, че войната може да разруши всичко около себе си. В книгата има немалко исторически подробности, и според мен, ако читателят не направи кратко проучване за периода, четенето може да се окаже предизвикателство за всеки, който не е запознат с тези събития. За сметка на това, първата част и детските години са по-елиптични и общочовешки.

Очевидно е, че творчеството на Газданов не трябва да остане неоценено, но аз не успях да открия в него голямата дълбочина на автори, творили по същото време. През голяма част от текста имах усещането за незрялост, за бързане – сякаш авторът иска да ни каже толкова много, но не успява да структурира и успокои емоциите си, за да поднесе кохерентен текст. За съжаление, за Газданов няма много информация, макар че търсих както български, така и английски източници. Според мен има много неизказано във връзка със семейството и психичното му състояние, което вероятно, с повече контекст от автобиография, щеше да ми помогне да „простя“ тази прямота на творбата.

[Xenia Germeni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ο δεξιοτέχνης Gazdanov υφαινει μια σχεδον κινηματογραφική αυτοβιογραφική και αυτοαναφορική εξιστορηση της ζωής του, των κοινωνικών θεσμών και της Ιστορίας στην οποία υπήρξε ενεργό μερος της. Τα τοπία, τα πρόσωπα, ακόμη και ο γραμμικός χρόνος κυλούν πάνω στις ράγες της προσωπικής και κοινωνικής ιστορίας της Σοβιετικής Ένωσης, όπως το θωρακισμένο τρένο στο οποίο επιβιβάζεται ο Κόλια. Η επινόηση του Gazdanov της συνάντησης μιας βραδιάς με την Κλαιρ, του εφηβικού έρωτα του Κόλια, κάπου στο Παρίσι, για να τολμήσω να χρησιμοποιήσω κινηματογραφικούς όρους, προσθέτει ένα δραματικό τόνο στο flashback που ακολουθεί με σεκανς που είναι δεμένες τόσο υφολογικά όσο και τεχνικά, ακόμα και στην υποκειμενικότητα που σε πολλά σημεία χρησιμοποιεί στην αφήγηση του ο Gazdanov. Αν και αρχικά η μεταφραση και η επιμέλεια στην αρχή δεν με καλυψαν πλήρως, και κυρίως γιατι με είχε γοητευσει "Το Φαντασμα του Αλεξαντερ Βολφ", στη συνέχεια οι γοητευτικές εικόνες και ο ίδιος ο Κόλια με κέρδισαν. Αντικειμενικά, η επιλογή του όμορφου εξώφυλλου (με το σκίτσο μιας ατμομηχανής της Σοβιετικής Ένωσης, όπως και το παιχνίδι με τους κοκκινο-μαυρους χρωματισμούς) είναι εμπνευσμένη, καθώς ταιριάζει με ολο το μοτίβο και το ρυθμό της ιστοριας του ήρωα. Υποκειμενικά τωρα, το βιβλιο με κέρδισε από τη μεση και μετα. Είχε περισσοτερο δυναμική και δράση. Ημουν τυχερη γιατι το διαβασα μεσα σε τρενο που διεσχιζε κρυο και χιονισμενα τοπια, με προορισμό τη Μαύρη Θάλασσα, όχι πολυ μακρια από εκει που βρεθηκε ο Κόλια. Οι σημειώσεις για το συγκεκριμενο βιβλιο δεν χρειαζοταν να βρισκονται στο τελος ειδικά όταν επρόκειτο για απλή γαλλικη μεταφραση φράσεων, οι οποιες θα μπορουσαν να ενταχθουν μεσα στο κειμενο. ΥΓ Να το διαβασεις γιατι σου αρεσε να ταξιδεψεις στο παρελθον σου και εσυ οπως ο Κολια. Να το διαβασεις αν σου αρεσουν τα ταξιδια με τρενο και οι εφηβικοι ερωτες.

[César Carranza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me recordó mucho a Andrei Biely, en Yo, Kotik Letayev, una parte importante del libro son los recuerdos de infancia del protagonista, esto da mucha idea de cómo es que lo que sucede tiene una trascendencia en él. Un libro de recuerdos, de aquí para allá. Hubo algo que no me gustó especialmente, es que la edición que leí tenía muchos diálogos en francés, y uno se tenía que mover de páginas para leerlo, eso me pareció un poco fastidioso, pero en general me pareció bueno, profundo, el personaje principal es muy consistente y es inevitable tener algo en común.

[Sean Bradford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful translation. The prose has a dreamlike quality that floats between dreams, memories, and the present. Every part of the book, from the wistful romance, the memories of boyhood, and the Civil War stands on their own. My favorite is the monologue of Vitaly, his uncle, to the 16 year soldier to be.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Эмигрантская меланхолия, набоковский язык, яркие женские персонажи. Недоразумение, что Газданова нет в школьной программе.

[Alec · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Было очень жарко и тихо; и мне казалось, что в этой солнечной тишине, над синим морем умирает в светлом воздухе какое-то прозрачное божество."

[JacquiWine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in 2013, I was captivated by Gaito Gazdanov’s The Spectre of Alexander Wolf (1947), an existential novel that explored questions of coincidence, fate, love and death. I read it pre-blog, but it’s been widely reviewed elsewhere. Originally published in 1930, An Evening with Claire was Gazdanov’s first novel, written during his time as a Russian émigré in Paris. It was an instant success, resonating strongly with the displaced population across Europe as a whole. In writing this novel, Gazdanov drew heavily on his own life via a series of memories covering his childhood, his time in the Russian Civil War and his impressions of an enigmatic young woman named Claire, the figure captured in the book’s title.

As the novel opens, the narrator – a young man named Sosedov, but referred to as Kolya throughout – has recently reconnected with Claire, a French woman he first met some ten years earlier in 1917. Kolya has been spending his evenings with Claire at her home in Paris, the lady’s husband being away on an extended trip to Ceylon. While Claire sleeps, Kolya reflects on the time he has spent desiring her over the years, the woman who has occupied his mind for the past decade.

Surrendering to the power of sleep, or sadness, or yet another emotion, no matter how strong the emotion was she never ceased being herself; and it seemed that the mightiest tremors were powerless to alert this perfectly completed body, could never destroy this final invincible charm which had induced me to waste ten years of my life in pursuit of Claire, and which had made it impossible for me to get her out of my mind at any time, any place. (p. 28)

This process triggers a series of memories for Kolya as he gradually comes to remember everything that has happened in his life, particularly the events of his first eighteen years. While the difficulty of understanding and articulating everything seems immense, Kolya proceeds to explore his childhood and adolescence through a stream of associations, moving seamlessly from one recollection to another over the course of the novel. We hear of the young boy’s close relationship with his father, a man obsessed with fires and hunting, a man whom Kolya loved very dearly at the time. By contrast, Kolya’s mother is portrayed as a relatively cold and controlled woman, someone who showed little warmth and affection in her dealings with the children. Nevertheless, Kolya respected her a great deal.

From a relatively early age, Kolya’s life was marked by the shadow of death. He was just eight years old when his father died, and by the time of the Great War both of his sisters had followed suit.

Death was never far away, and the abyss into which my imagination plunged me seemed to belong to it. I think this feeling was hereditary: It was not for nothing that my father so violently detested everything that reminded him of the inevitable end; this fearless man felt his weakness here. It was as though my mother’s unconscious, cold indifference reflected someone’s final stillness, and the ravenous memories which my sisters possessed absorbed everything into themselves so quickly because, somewhere in their distant foreboding, death already existed. (p. 60)

As a consequence, Kolya was left alone with his mother, a woman who struggled to come to terms with the losses that had touched her family.

At various times during his childhood, Kolya felt as though he was turning in on himself, a process which left him somewhat immune to the external events that were happening around him. This feeling emerged once again when Kolya was sent to military school, a place he disliked a great deal. Given that the other cadets seemed so different, Kolya kept his distance from the rest of the pack, a move that also caused him to develop an instinct for self-preservation when dealing with his tutors.

The novel touches on various stories and anecdotes from Kolya’s time at both the military school and the gymnasium that followed, too many to capture here. While several of these memories are melancholy in tone, there are recollections of happier times as well: the summers Kolya spent at his grandfather’s house in Caucasus where many of his father’s relatives also lived; memories of Claire too, especially Kolya’s first encounter with her at the tennis courts of the gymnastics society (Kolya was around fourteen at the time). From the moment he first set eyes on eighteen-year-old Claire, Kolya was captivated by her presence. A native of Paris, Claire had travelled to Russia with her family; her father, a merchant, had a base in Ukraine which he visited every now and again. Kolya and the coquettish Claire spent much of the summer together, laughing and joking at Claire’s house. Even so, Kolya was acutely aware of Claire’s blossoming sexuality, something he did not fully understand at the time despite being able to feel it. By late autumn that year, Claire had all but disappeared from Kolya’s life, a development which left the young boy feeling rather bereft.

To read the rest of my review, please click here:

https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2017...

[Ksenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Получила невероятное удовольствие от этой книги. Красивый, но без излишних красивостей, русский язык; острые наблюдения, точные описания, поэтические метафоры. Ощущение, будто читаешь поэму в прозе. Сюжет лишь намечен грубыми мазками, акцент - не на внешние события и действия, а на внутреннюю жизнь рассказчика и на то, как она преломляется в немногих важных для него событиях. "Вечер у Клэр" напоминает калейдоскоп, в котором причудливо перемешались чувства рассказчика, события Гражданской войны, типические и архетипические персонажи; в этом коротком романе есть и тоска по утраченному, и светлая грусть, и безысходность, и надежда, и страх смерти, и любовь.

Несмотря на нелинейную манеру повествования, этот роман совершенно точно является продолжением лучших традиций классической русской литературы. Вспомнились "Детство. Отрочество. Юность" Толстого, "Братья Карамазовы" Достоевского, "Жизнь Арсеньева" Бунина и рассказы Набокова.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 1930, An Evening with Claire is about Kolya, a Russian immigrant in Paris meeting up with Claire, a woman he loves but has been separated from for the last ten years. Much of the book is his recollections of his childhood and life in Russia, so it’s about memory and loss, isolation and separation. The writing drifts and there’s some great descriptions, almost dreamlike at times.

[Theediscerning · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me, this modernist melange skips readably from the current story of (sort-of) unrequited love with the title character, and copious beats of memoir, with added yack about depression thrown in too. Alone, any one aspect of this might have made for a read that swept me along with it, but in being such a mish-mash with such an unedited, first draft feel, I was lost. One and a half stars.