Apparitions

by Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Tourgueniev

I Je ne pouvais dormir et m'agitais en vain dans mon lit d'un c�t� et de l'autre. - Le diable soit des tables tournantes, pensais-je, qui vous agacent les nerfs ! - Pourtant je commen�ais � m'assoupir lorsque je crus entendre r�sonner pr�s de moi une corde d'instrument; elle rendait une note triste et tendre. Je soulevai la t�te. En ce moment la lune venait de d�passer l'horizon, et ses rayons tombaient sur mon visage. Blanc comme la craie �tait le parquet de ma chambre � l'endroit �clair� par la lune. Le bruit se renouvela, et cette fois plus distinct. Je m'appuyai sur le coude. Le coeur me battait un peu... Une minute se passa, puis une autre... Quelque part, au loin, un coq chanta; plus loin encore, un autre coq lui r�pondit.

Genres: Russia, Classics, Short Stories, Fantasy, Audiobook, Russian Literature, Horror

58 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published May 19, 2015

About the author

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (Cyrillic: Иван Сергеевич Тургенев) was a novelist, poet, and dramatist, and now ranks as one of the towering figures of Russian literature. His major works include the short-story collection A Sportsman’s Sketches (1852) and the novels Rudin (1856), Home of the Gentry (1859), On the Eve (1860), and Fathers and Sons (1862).

These works offer realistic, affectionate portrayals of the Russian peasantry and penetrating studies of the Russian intelligentsia who were attempting to move the country into a new age. His masterpiece, Fathers and Sons, is considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.

Turgenev was a contemporary with Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy. While these wrote about church and religion, Turgenev was more concerned with the movement toward social reform in Russia.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

Phantoms is a novelette by Ivan Turgenev where the first-person narrator experiences fantastical night flights across Europe, escorted by a mysterious, semi-transparent, dark-eyed beauty who goes by the name of Alice. Inhabiting a psychological space that is a cross between dream, fantasy, and hallucination, this surreal work left contemporary critics and readers utterly baffled. Did Ivan Turgenev, a committed social realist and the author of such grounded works as Fathers and Sons, really write this?

Indeed he did. And I can imagine readers back in 1864, the year of the tale's publication, dropping their jaws when, just a few paragraphs in, they read the original dialogue between the narrator and the phantom:

Her eyes were turned upon me; their gaze expressed neither distress nor delight, but a sort of lifeless attention. I waited to see whether she would utter a word, but she remained motionless and speechless, and still gazed at me with her deathly intent eyes. Dread came over me again.
‘I have come!’ I cried at last with an effort. My voice sounded muffled and strange to me.
‘I love you,’ I heard her whisper.
‘You love me!’ I repeated in amazement.
‘Give yourself up to me,' was whispered me again in reply.
‘Give myself up to you! But you are a phantom; you have no body even.’ A strange animation came upon me. ‘What are you—smoke, air, vapour? Give myself up to you! Answer me first, Who are you? Have you lived upon the earth? Whence have you come?’
‘Give yourself up to me. I will do you no harm. Only say two words: “Take me.”’
I looked at her. ‘What is she saying?’ I thought. ‘What does it all mean? And how can she take me? Shall I try?’
‘Very well,’ I said, and unexpectedly loudly, as though some one had given me a push from behind; ‘take me!’

And off they go. Turgenev doesn't hold back. The pair behold, among other spectacular sights, the phantom forces of Julius Caesar's Roman legions and Paris from the sky.

Phantoms serves as fertile ground for philosophical reflections revolving around literature, aesthetics, and our shared human experience. Among their number:

REALISM AND REALITY
Are realist novels like Fathers and Sons better at portraying human interactions and human drama than tales of fantasy or the fantastic? Although realism is a prevailing form of fiction, serious readers are also drawn to works like J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, since many aspects of our everyday world can be best penetrated by exaggeration. By stepping out of his realist mode, Turgenev tests these very boundaries of representation.

BEAUTY AND TERROR
Turgenev includes passages that are not only terrifying but also contain vivid images we enjoy reading again and again. For example: This something was the more horrible that it had no definite shape. Something bulky, dark, yellowish-black, spotted like a lizard’s belly, not a storm-cloud, and not smoke, was crawling with a snake-like motion over the earth. A wide rhythmic undulating movement from above downwards, and from below upwards, an undulation recalling the malignant sweep of the wings of a vulture seeking its prey; at times an indescribably revolting grovelling on the earth, as of a spider stooping over its captured fly....”

Here is one of the mysteries of aesthetic experience: terror, when encountered at an imaginative distance from actual danger, can become a source of the strange mixture of fear, fascination, and pleasure we associate with the sublime.

CULTURAL CONDITIONING AND OPENNESS OF MIND
The narrator continually asks Alice: What are you? Where do you come from? What do you really want from me? His reaction to this lady of light is to call her a phantom and, at one point, wonder if he is being tempted by the power of Satan. His mindset is understandable: it is mid-nineteenth-century Russia, and Christianity is enormously influential in how someone in this society would respond to an uncanny supernatural female presence.

Now that it is 2026 and we are, in a very real sense, living in a world culture, it shouldn't come as a surprise that, as a Westerner, I have received extensive training in meditation, pranayama, and yoga from outstanding Indian yogis and Tibetan Buddhist lamas. Therefore, if I had such a beautiful, alluring nightly visitor, I would see her as a dakini—that is, a sky dancer, a feminine embodiment or messenger of wisdom who could guide me toward greater insight. Thus, I would open myself up completely and gladly accompany her to whatever distant vistas she chose.

This underscores a question Turgenev seems to be posing: When confronted with the mysterious (or the mystical), is wisdom discovered by asking for clarification, classification, and reasons? Or would it be wiser to move beyond our safe categories and be willing to be transformed, enlarged, and expanded? Seen in this way, Alice ceases to be a phantom, a Gothic vampire draining one's life, and becomes instead a catalyst for dissolving the ego—a necessary step on the path toward enlightenment.

[Bethan]

Beautiful and ethereal. A short story, it is about Ellis, the female phantom who loves the narrator and comes to him at night to take him on flights above various geographical locations. Yet, perhaps fittingly for a ghost, Ellis is always unable to be grasped and mysterious. In parts, a snake-like malevolence is hinted at amidst the benevolence of the narrator's experience.

I feel this is representative of a facet of my life, hence the 5 stars even though it would be flawed as a story for most. Even the shocking solidity and brutality of the commonplace ending fits for me.

[Jason Reeser]

Quick little ghost story that is a rich description of a man who is visited by a ghost. She claims to love him, and claims to want only to take him wherever he wants to go. But his servants and family warn him that he is looking ill, and far too pale. Is the ghost really a vampire? What is her true purpose?

[Andy]

How very interesting... Turgenev and vampires. Classically written, but lacks the urgency of Poe or the sheer horror of Stoker.

[Beth]

Turgenev is my favorite Russian author, and this story is a fine example of his work. His prose is lyrical, his descriptions are vivid and beautiful.

[Karine Mon coin lecture]

Nouvelle très agréable à lire, la plume de Tourgueniev (ou plutôt de son traducteur) me plait beaucoup. Imagé à souhaits. Bon, à la lumière de ce qui se fait ajd, c'est hyper classique, mais mystérieux et onirique à souhaits!

[Alexandr Kuznetsov]

Не смотря на предупреждение в начале повести, представляю как удивились современники автора после прочтения. А сейчас ничего особенного, разве только язык хорош. Про природу можно начитаться вдоволь.

[Trounin]

Тургенев — автор мистических историй? Воспринимаемый за писателя реалистического толка, Иван имел склонность к повествованию, вполне допустимого именоваться за фантазию. Но тут могло оказать влияние начало публикаций Александра Афанасьева, пробудившего интерес к сказочным историям, в том числе и относящихся к жанру мистики. Вполне допустимо предполагать разное. Кому-то покажется за вдохновителя Василий Жуковский с его «Людмилой», Николай Гоголь с «Вечерами на хуторе близ Диканьки», иные увидят влияние «Фауста» Гёте или некоторых произведений Одоевского, Соллогуба и Шевченко. Гораздо проще воспринять содержание за однажды приснившийся сон, для описания которого Тургенев не мог найти времени. Согласно сохранившихся свидетельств, идея о написании «Призраков» у Ивана появилась в 1855 году, постоянно отодвигаемая вследствие работы над другими произведениями. И вот к 1863 году возможность представилась.

Почему всё-таки сон? Согласно повествования к рассказчику приходила незнакомка во время ночного отдохновения. Она настойчиво звала явиться в определённое место. Проснувшись в первый раз, сочтя увиденное за сновидение, рассказчик не придал ему значения. Сон повторился, и вновь был проигнорирован. На третью ночь рассказчик уступил. Как охарактеризовать такое положение дел? Этого рассказчик понять не мог. Незнакомка говорила с акцентом, на лицо казалась за иностранку, к тому же начала утверждать, будто его любит. Её предложение — отправиться в любое место на выбор. Тургенев посчитал за позволительное дать им дорогу в известные ему места. Путешествия будут стремительными. Можно оказаться хоть в Италии, хоть во Франции. Или почему бы не поприсутствовать среди разинских казаков? Услышать их призыв: «Сарынь на кичку!»

Читатель не получит ответа, кем являлась незнакомка. Того и не требовалось. Мистическое приключение выполнено без обрамления в сказание об умертвиях. Поэтому трудно судить, насколько Тургенев склонялся к возможности написать страшную по содержанию историю. Это не русалка, желающая утянуть путника на дно. И ни кто-либо ещё, действующий из побуждения причинить вред. Остаётся только полагать, будто Иван описал сновидение. Только почему приснилось столь необычное видение? Искать причину того в той же мере нет необходимости. Главное, «Призраки» понравились современникам, никто не стал высказывать негативного мнения. Может рассудили, как хорошо видеть в Иване писателя, способного отстраниться мыслями от восприятия происходившего в действительности.

(c) Trounin

[Salimaaaaa]

J'ai bien kiffé c'est le cas de le dire

[Burak Şamlı]

This is also the story that inspired the song "Forsaken" by the progressive metal band Dream Theater. Many parts of the story can be found in the lyrics.

[Verónica]

Uma pequena história de fantasmas!
A personagem principal , um homem, é visitado por uma aparição, branca, com a figura de uma mulher, que diz chamar-se Ellis e diz amá-lo! Assim que ele acede em ir ao encontro dela, nos bosques, ela leva-o a voar, alto, sobre cidades longínquas. 
À medida que as visitas da mulher misteriosa avançam, o homem emagrece e empalidece!  Será fruto das desgastantes viagens no tempo? Ou esta mulher será antes um vampiro e não um fantasma? Qual será mesmo o propósito dela? 

[Krzysiek]

Никак рассказ не понравился, осталось невероятно много вопросов без ответа. Мне кажется, что тут даже сюжета не хватает - все о ничем. Просто описания европейских городов окрашенны какой-то историей о призраке.

[Yzza]

Most beautiful horror story of all time.

[Irène Wadowski uliasz]

Courte nouvelle fantastique dont la fin nous donne une impression d'inachevé .

[Kathi Sharp]

Classic Tales Podcast

[Catherine Mustread]

Dracula like story, listened to this on The Classic Tales Podcast.

[Anastasia]

2.75/5

*Read for class.

A weird little novella. Abruptly started and finished the same way. I don't think I fully understood what happened. Still, not a bad one, just confusing.

[Rachel]

A beautiful little horror story, listened to on the Classic Tales Podcast.

[Eric Evans]

This was good but not what I was lead to believe.