The Beggar and Other Stories

by Gaito Gazdanov, Bryan Karetnyk (Translator)

Translated for the first time, the best short stories by the 'modernist master' Gazdanov, author of The Spectre of Alexander Wolf.

In a Metro underpass, bald and dressed in rags, stands a silent beggar. In the evening, he walks the deserted streets of Paris; at night, he sleeps in a small, foetid crate vacated by the death of another beggar. He is poor and he is ill, but, on reflection, he is free.

Never published before in English, this marvelously translated collection of tightly written, lyrical works represent marvelously compact miniatures of all the major strands that Gazdanov explores in his novels. The senselessness of life, the nature of fate, and the richness of the inner life - these brilliant and moving stories have it all.

Genres: Short Stories, Russia, Fiction, Russian Literature

221 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

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]

Happiness and unhappiness… Everything is so precarious…

André withdrew from the window and sat down in an easy chair. Again, sounds came from the dining room, but André remained indifferent. “Wings of love,” he repeated to himself. “Where have I read about wings?”
And he recalled reading about several species of ant, which, during the mating season, grow wings and rise into the air, only then to fall and perish by the thousand. “And then there are the drones,” thought André, “who fly after the queen; the weak are the first to be left behind, then others – until only one, the best and the strongest, reaches her. There they are, those wings of love.

Gaito Gazdanov’s personages live and they pass through dramatic changes, and they suffer – physically and morally. All his heroes search for something and can’t find... And their lives are ruled by fatality…

For many years, since he had become a beggar, one of the peculiarities of his existence had consisted in the fact that he had almost ceased speaking, not only because he lacked the urge to do so, but also because there was no necessity. Words and their meaning had long since lost for him their former value, as had everything that preceded his current life.

When one is young, the world is huge… The older one gets the smaller grows one’s world until eventually it becomes just a dot.

[Hugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another borrowed book, in fact I think this was a book that I gave my half-Russian mother as a present a few years ago.

This was the first English story collection by Gazdanov, a Russian novelist who spent much of his life in exile in France. The stories in this collection are taken from both ends of his long career, and the collection rather lacks thematic unity, and I am not sure I was in the right mood to read them sympathetically or attentively.

One of the stories is novella-length, the rest are between 20 and 40 pages, and the later stories are probably the best. Overall I found the collection slightly disappointing, but I would still like to read at least one of Gazdanov's novels.

[Subashini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bourgeois ennui doesn't win me over anymore. While Gazdanov can certainly spin a beautiful sentence, I read these stories over the course of a week or more and never felt any urgency to return to the book. In response to the very civilised, polished, world-weary tone of this book, I can only muster up a shrug.

I saw on Twitter that somebody had described him as "Sebaldian". I've yet to read Sebald, and plan to, and I hope to god it's nothing like this.

[Bert Hirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but not as good as his novel, The Spectre of Alexander Wolf. If you are interested in this writer that is where you should start.

[Swati · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always loved reading Russian authors for their ability to delve deep into the psyche of life. I had never heard of Gaito Gazdanov before I got “The Beggar and Other Stories” from NetGalley and Pushkin Press (one of my favourite publishers now). Thank you for sending me the ARC for a review.

“The Beggar and Other Stories” is a collection of six vivid stories, each featuring one prominent character. The book opens with the story of “Maitre Rueil” in which the titular character is a spy. In the beginning, it appears like he has everything a man could ask for – prestige, women, and adventure. But then one day, suddenly and inexplicably, he is seized with “a sensation hitherto unknown to him, one of incomprehensible irritation and utterly inexplicable alarm. No one was there to see him off…” From there, we see the melancholic descent of a seemingly perfect man into one haunted by his past.

“Happiness” explores the touching bond between Dorin and his son Andre, which is disturbed when a stepmother, Madeleine, comes into the picture. The template might be old but Gazdanov’s treatment of it is certainly different.

In “Deliverance” Alexei Stepanovich comes into a lot of money but feels that his “omnipotent wealth” is just senseless and he “realized all the unbreakable horror of his life.”

“The Mistake” has overtones of Anna Karenina and features Katja, a bored housewife married to a kind man. But his “infallibility began to unnerve her sometimes – as if he were not a man, but a perfect, thinking machine.” Katja is tormented by an affair that she has with a younger man, and we see how her personality undergoes a sea change making her an insufferable person.

“The Beggar” is the glittering star in the collection. We meet Gustave Verdier, once a wealthy man, now a beggar who lives in a crate in Paris, in Champs Elysee. This ironically translates to Elysium Fields, the place where you find perfect happiness according to Greek mythology. Verdier is disillusioned with life and his wealth, and he decides to make himself disappear from his perfectly normal life, and live like a beggar.

Lastly, there is “Ivanov’s Letters”, where we meet Nikolai Franzevich who “seemingly” is a man of letters, cultured, and wealthy. He had few friends and they too don’t seem to know much about him. But the mystery begins to unravel and we are prompted to think about his very existence.

Clearly, the biggest theme that runs through all the stories is disillusionment with life. A numbing that overtakes the characters rendering them heavily lugubrious and spiritless. The motif of blindness (Dorin goes blind, Verdier listens to a blind boy play the accordion) is peppered throughout to, perhaps, reinforce the characters’ closing their eyes to life.

My personal favourites are “The Mistake” and “The Beggar”, the former for its Tolstoy-esque feel and the latter because there were long passages that just stood out like stars on a dark night.
“He was free now – because nobody needed him; he had no belongings, no money, no ability to influence anything anywhere, no ability to help or harm anyone in any way, in a word, nothing…”

How can you resist passages like this?

Although Gazdanov’s exploration of the human mind and life is not as incisive or destructive or shot through with passion like that of Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky it certainly gives us a look at modern life. Where the earlier Russian masters focused on intense emotions and feelings, most of Gazdanov’s characters are anaesthetized. This pervasive dullness is what infuses most of the stories with reality, holding up a mirror to modern life.

“…the majority of people feel constrained by those conditions that determine their existence. Their soul, their intellect demand something else, as though each of them needs to live several lives, and not just one.”

Bryan Karetnyk's brilliant and seamless translation of Gazdanov’s stories preserves their soul. Unlike the people in his stories who have lost theirs.

[Bonnye Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

GNab Gaito Gazdanov is an excellent author, and these shorts, published for the first time in English, are exceptional. I had not been introduced to this author before - I will have to find his novels. I love the way he brings his story to light, and the mental gyrations delved in his protagonists.

I received a free electronic copy of this collection of short stories from Netgalley, Gaito Gazdanov and Brian Karetnyk, and Pushkin Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

Pub date Sept 25, 2018
Pushkin Press

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Émigré Russian writer Gaito Gazdanov is perhaps not as well-known as his contemporaries, such as Nabokov, and this collection of 6 of his stories from Pushkin Press is to be welcomed, as it’s a wonderful introduction to his work for anyone not familiar with it. Over a long writing career he wrote 9 novels and over 50 short stories, and the half dozen presented here span that career, from the 1930s to the 1960s. Gazdanov’s characters are concerned with morality and the meaning of life while themes of loss, suffering, alienation and exile pervade the stories. They don’t make for cheerful reading, but I found all of them compelling and often moving. I particularly liked “Deliverance” in which Alexei Stepanovich becomes a rich man, but finds that his wealth is ultimately inconsequential and meaningless. A thought-provoking, yet always accessible collection, that feel seamlessly translated.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another author to explore further...I picked this one up once Patti Smith recommended it, she always finds the best books to read!

[Chythan · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5)

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

'The Mistake' features several candidates for the title incident – although you can have a good guess at which one it is, even through the woolly structure. It features a woman who doesn't seem to enjoy life and wishes to negate love; even giving everything away in charity doesn't seem to help her misery, which is a theme common to the book. In 'Deliverance' an entrepreneur by default tries too to give money away, and doesn't end up with friendship or purpose because of it. It's also something the title character of the whole collection knows to be true. He's a true nihilist, wanting and enjoying nothing ever in life, but the psychology of the piece does finally manage to tell us why. You can seek psychology in the woozy opening story in vain, for this early piece has a bit of genre DNA, but a lot of something else, and I didn't find the piece to work. More successful, mostly from being very different to the rest, is the tale of a morose teenager's relationship with his father, and the man's remarrying. But equally distinctive is the final work, which I almost gave up on, with its preponderance of long sentences and lack of interest – more fool me had I done so. This then, with a tidy little introduction, left me with the feel that this wasn't the best selection of his stories available (the charity similarity being the main reason; the fact several are turning up in English for the first time ever one justification for the choices made), but still happy I'd got to try this author at least once.

[Camille · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been interested in Russian literature for years, so whenever I get a chance to try a new writer, I jump on it. Sometimes, it's love at first read, sometimes it doesn't work out. Unfortunately, in this case it's the latter.
Now, don't get me wrong, Gazdanov's writing is great, it's entirely personal here. I just didn't get into the stories and they just did nothing for me and I didn't feel compelled to keep reading. I'm sure it will work for others, I'm just not overly keen on character-centered stories.

Disclaimer - I received a free digital copy of this book courtesy of Pushkin Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Constance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gazdanov's stories are small marvels - his work shows him to be a worthy successor to Chekov, a chronicler of human hearts.

[Pari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would be exploring the author further. Such lucid and honest writing. One of the rare translated works that doesn't seem to have lost much in translation.

[Kevin S · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Tim McKay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Except for 2 of the stories I thought this was an excellent book, hence a rating of 4.

[Ostap Bender · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of Gazdanov’s short stories, four from the 1930’s and two from the 1960’s, is a decent read but a little uneven. Philosophical themes that ponder life’s meaning (or lack thereof) are a common thread, some with an optimism and upbeat attitude in spite of it, for example, in ‘Happiness’ while others, such as ‘The Beggar,’ signal a sad rejection of not only life’s obligations, but the point of it all. It was remarkable to me that he wrote with such insight into the views of life that evolve with age in ‘Deliverance’ in 1936 when he was 33. Unfortunately ‘The Mistake’, ‘The Beggar’, and ‘Ivanov’s Letters’ suffer from premises which simply aren’t engaging enough. Overall not bad, but I prefer his novels instead – ‘The Buddha’s Return’, ‘The Flight’, and ‘The Spectre of Alexander Wolf’.

[Sourojit Das · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stories, interesting style, and very diverse. Credit to the trnanslators for bringing to the public, the work of a tru master of the form