Vampir

by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, John William Polidori, Nikola Nikolajević (Translator)

U pitanju su dve priče sa istim nazivom ali različitim autorima.

Jedan od njih je Aleksej Tolstoj, ruski pesnik, romansijer i dramski pisac.Njegova priča je o plemiću Runjevskom koji tokom bala upoznaje čudnog stranca, koji mu se žali kako među prisutnima ima dosta vampira. Kasnije pripoveda priču koja mu se desila u Italiji a na čitaocu ostaje da proceni da li su na balu bili zaista vampiri, ili je to sve plod ludila protagoniste.

Drugu priču je napisao Džon Vilijam Polidori, engleski lekar i pisac. On je bio lični lekar lorda Bajrona. Priča koju je ispričao nastala je na Ženevskom jezeru u društvu Persi Šelija, njegove verenice Meri i lorda Bajrona. Lord Bajron dolazi na ideju da svako od njih napiše neku prču vezanu za natprirodno. Priča Džona Vilijama Polidorija se smatra prvom modernom pričom o vampirima. Po prvi put se u književnosti javlja "vampir aristokrata", lord Rutven, što je Brem Stoker kasnije iskoristio za svoj lik Drakule.

Genres: Horror, Classics

161 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2014

About the author

Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, often referred to as A.K. Tolstoy (Russian: Алексей Константинович Толстой), was a Russian poet, novelist and playwright, considered to be the most important nineteenth-century Russian historical dramatist. He also gained fame for his satirical works, published under his own name (History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev, The Dream of Councillor Popov) and under the collaborational pen name of Kozma Prutkov.

A.K. Tolstoy was born in Saint Petersburg to the famed family of Tolstoy. His father, Count Konstantin Petrovich Tolstoy (1780–1870), a son of the army general, was a Russian state assignation bank councilor. His mother, Anna Alekseyevna Perovskaya (1796–1857), was an illegitimate daughter of Count Aleksey Kirillovich Razumovsky (1784–1822), an heir of the legendary Ukrainian hetman Aleksey Razumovsky. A. K. Tolstoy's uncle (on his father's side) was Fyodor Tolstoy (1783–1873). His uncle on his mother's side was Aleksey Perovsky (1787–1836), an author known under the pen name of Antony Pogorelsky. Aleksey Konstantinovich was a second cousin of Leo Tolstoy; Count Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy was their common great-grandfather.

Tolstoy represented the later period of Romanticism in Russian literature; art for him was a mystic link between the human world and the higher spheres where "eternal ideas dwell." Along with Fet, his artistic and spiritual ally, he saw Art as a kind of higher science, man's only instrument for a true and comprehensive understanding of the world. Romantic tendencies were best realised in Tolstoy's poetry and in some of his dramas, notably Don Juan where the hero is on a quest for a romantic ideal, looking everywhere for love "that helps one penetrate into the wonderful universal laws, our world's hidden beginnings," as he put it."Art can only be a 'means' - all of the 'ends'... it contains in itself," Tolstoy wrote in 1870, in the course of long dispute with those whom he labeled "utilitarianists in literature". Such views automatically made him a "conservative" in the eyes of the revolutionary democrats who formed a large majority in the Russian literary circles of the 1850s and 1860s. Unlike Fet, though, Tolstoy insisted on the artist's total independence from ideology and politics, and felt himself totally free to criticize and mock authorities, a trait that snubbed many people in high places.

Works

Drama

Don Juan (Дон Жуан, 1862)
The Death of Ivan the Terrible (Смерть Иоанна Грозного, 1866)
Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich (Царь Фёдор Иоаннович, 1868)
Tsar Boris (Царь Борис, 1870)[42]
Posadnik (Посадник, 1871, published in 1874-1976)

Prose

Prince Serebrenni (known also as The Silver Knight, Князь Серебряный, 1862
The Family of the Vourdalak (Семья вурдалака, 1839)
The Vampire (Упырь, 1841)

Poetry

The Sinner (Грешница, 1857)
Ioann Damaskin (Иоанн Дамаскин, 1858)
Vasily Shibanov (Василий Шибанов, 1858)
The Alchemist (unfinished, 1867)
History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev (1868)
Portrait (Портрет, 1872)
Dragon (1875)
The Dream of Councillor Popov (written 1873, first published in 1978, Berlin)

Reviews

[Марко Вујчић · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Tolstojeva priča je puna konstantnih zapleta i drame (što sam i očekivao) ali ništa manje prijatna, a Polidorijeva kratka, slatka i dala mi je inspiraciju za moj rad!
Hvala Nini na divnom poklonu :)

[Aleksandar Obradović · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slaba trojka i to samo zbog ovog dijela koji potpisuje Aleksej Tolstoj inače ne bih dao više od 2.

[Звездан Звеки · Rating 4 out of 5]

Klasici svog vremena u svakom smislu te reči. Vredi ih pročitati i uživati, jer su oni prve priče o vampirima, koji danas drže visoko mesto u našoj (popularnoj) kulturnoj svesti.

[Marko Vasić · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tolstojeva novela je naivna, bljutava, romantičarska priča sa fantastičnim motivima koji bojažljivo, tu i tamo prominiraju, čisto da prekinu duge i dosadne razgovore. Od horora nema ni "H", a vampir je samo metafizička metafora. Učmalost ruskih klasičnih romantičara dominira sve vreme, što čitavu radnju priče čini još dosadnijom.

Polidorijeva pričica više podseća na neki izvod iz dela, ergo - stiče se utisak nedovršenosti. Takođe, horora ima samo u naznakama, ali je ideja mnogo bolja i pragmatičnija od Tolstojeve. Svest o dendi vampiru i njegovo opsedanje.