Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T02:57:20.179Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gastronomy, Gogol, and His Fiction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Natalia M. Kolb-Seletski
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The mention of “gastronomy and Gogol” may immediately make us think of the good-natured pair in Old-Fashioned Landowners, who, if they were not eating, were sure to be sleeping. Or perhaps what comes to mind is that remarkable five-by-five figure of Peter Petrovich Petukh, whom Gogol appropriately described as a “round watermelon.” And who can forget how Sobakevich ever so quietly and “innocently” alone dispatched that noble sturgeon at the breakfast party given by the chief of police, or how the thoroughly tipsy Khlestakov bragged about the “dream of a soup” that was delivered to him in St. Petersburg from no other gastronomic paradise than Paris itself. Nor can we forget Khlestakov's other soup—the one more like the River Nile (with feathers)—which was so ill-received and yet eaten with such alacrity by the starving braggart. Perhaps only Vladimir Nabokov did not laugh at Puzatyi Paciuk and his ingenious way of transporting varenyky to his mouth without moving an inch—and he first had to dip them into a dish of sour cream that was placed on a low barrel in front of him. And what about that pan of fried eggs that was rushed onto the stage in Meyerhold's production of Gogol's The Marriage, in which one of the suitors for the hand of the merchant's daughter—much to the confusion of the others—is called “Fried Eggs.”

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , March 1970 , pp. 35 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Vladimir, Nabokov, Nikolai Gogol (New York, 1961), p. 31–32.Google Scholar Varenyky (vareniki in Russian) is the favorite among a variety of dumplings (comparable to Italian ravioli) made of soft dough with a variable filling. In Ukrainian cookery curd filling is the national favorite. For definitions of Ukrainian and Russian dishes the following books, as well as standard reference tools, were consulted : Gould-Marks, Beryl, Eating the Russian Way (London, 1963), 128 pp.Google Scholar; Kengis, R. P., Prigotovlenie muchnykh konditerskikh izdelii (Moscow, 1951), 248 pp.Google Scholar; Markevich, Nikolai, Obychai, pover'ia, kukhnia i napitki malorossiian (Kiev, 1860), 171 pp.Google Scholar; Markevitch, Marie Alexandre, The Epicure in Imperial Russia (San Francisco, 1941), 103 pp.Google Scholar; Selivanova, Nina Nikolaevna, Dining and Wining in Old Russia (New York, 1933), 154 pp.Google Scholar; Savella, Stechishin, Traditional Ukrainian Cookery (Winnipeg, 1959), 497 pp.Google Scholar; Toliverova, A. N., Skoromnyi i Postnyi domashnii stol, 3rd ed. (St. Petersburg, 1908), 518 pp.Google Scholar

2. Gogol, N. V., Sobranie sochinenii, 6 vols. (Moscow, 1959), 5 : 315–16.Google Scholar Future references to Gogol's works, unless otherwise indicated, will be to this edition, cited henceforth simply by volume and page number. All references to deity will be capitalized, and all translations, except for the instances indicated, are my own.

3. Driessen, F. C., Gogol as a Short-Story Writer (The Hague, 1965).Google Scholar See especially the chapter entitled “Gogol and Anxiety,” pp. 16-58.

4. Rasstegai is raised pastry, rectangular in shape, filled either with a stuffing of fish or a mixture of meat and onions. The classic stuffing for rasstegai, just as for kulebiaka, has a base of visiga, the gelatinous marrow of the sturgeon's backbone (to a Russian, a delicacy). For everyday use, fatty rice, sliced eggs, and onions are added to the meat or fish. Kulebiaka is a large four-cornered fish and cabbage (or kasha and cabbage) pie of choux, puff, or short crust pastry, with a top crust and generally containing two or three different savory layers. The classic kulebiaka has at its base visiga; as a substitute for visiga finely shredded pancakes, cooked rice, kasha, or cabbage may be used to absorb some of the juices (the inside of a kulebiaka should be moist and “gooey“) and to prevent the pastry from being soggy. One may substitute meat for fish or have a sweet filling.

5. Pis'ma N. V. Gogolia, ed. V. I. Shenroka, 4 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1901), 1 : 107.

6. It is standard practice, while reiterating that Gogol's Ukraine is a figment of his imagination, to omit entirely accounts to the contrary. When I. S. Aksakov visited the Ukraine in 1848, he wrote : “Vezde zdes’ tak i torchit Gogol’ so svoimi ‘Vecherami na khutoke bliz Dikan'ki.’ Tol'ko tut vy pochuvstvuete vse dostoinstvo, vsiu vernost’ etikh opisannii,” cited in Zenkovsky, V. V., N. V. Gogol’ (Paris, 1961), p. 64.Google Scholar

7. Halushky is the Ukrainian name for dumplings made of batter or a thick dough mixture and served as a side dish or an accompaniment to a roast; halushky may also replace croutons in soups. Pamptishky (in Ukrainian cookery) are yeast-raised doughnuts, with or without a filling. Shyshky are small wedding cakes. Putria is a variety of kasha (see note 16 for a definition of kasha). Holubtsi are made of cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and rice. Korzhy are unleavened plain flat cakes made with lard.

8. The bandura is a musical instrument similar to the guitar, but with twelve (or more) strings.

9. Kutia is a ritual dish and an integral part of the Holy Night supper. It consists of boiled wheat sweetened with honey and sprinkled with poppy seeds. Boiled rice may also be used for kutia, but then raisins and sometimes also nuts are added.

10. Kovbasa is sausage; palianitsi are small flat breads; pyrihy are large-sized yeastraised rolls, distinct from pyrozhky, which are smaller, daintier, oblong in shape, and with tapering ends. Both pyrihy and pyroshky may have a variety of savory or sweet fillings.

11. A svytka is a full coat, a kind of caftan.

12. Forster, E. M., Aspects of the Novel (New York, 1954), p. 53.Google Scholar

13. Nabokov, Nikolai Gogol, p. 98.

14. Pirozhki (sing, piroshok) are yeast-raised rolls or pastry, generally oblong in shape and filled with a number of sweet or savory fillings : meat, fish, cabbage, mushrooms, buckwheat kasha, cottage cheese. Traditionally, pirozhki are served with soup (borshch, broth, or consommé), which in Russia is never served alone. For special occasions short or puff pastry may be substituted for the yeast-raised dough. In his translation of Dead Souls (Baltimore, 1961), David Magarshack defines skorodumki (sing. skorodutnka) as “fried eggs” (p. 66); a Soviet edition of Gogol's works, Izbrannye proisvedeniia (Moscow, 1946), defines skorodumki as pirozhki (p. 358). Dai's definition for skorodumki (Tolkovyi slovar1, 4 : 205) is : “Veshchi, delo … skorospeloe, vdrug, naskoro zadumannoe i sdelannoe. Skorodumka, vost. iaichnitsa vypusknaia ili glazun'ia.“ It seems to me that within the context of Gogol's Dead Souls (skorodumki is the second item in a list of buns and pancakes) piroshki would be the more probable definition for skorodumki. Shanishki are a variety of a vatrushka, which is an open pastry with a cheese center. Priagly (olad'i) are thick pancakes, generally made from potatoes. Bliny are very small pancakes, about four inches in diameter, made of raised paste of buckwheat flour. Bliny should be served hot with melted butter, cold thick sour cream, caviar, slices of smoked salmon, and finely chopped herring.

15. Kalach is a braided ring-shaped bread, somewhat richer than ordinary bread.

16. Any baked or cooked (like porridge) cereal is called kasha. It may be made of buckwheat groats, rice, barley, wheat, millet, or corn meal. All varieties of kasha are served as a substitute for potatoes or as a basic dish to accompany a protein food. Buckwheat kasha is the national favorite.

17. This is a second association of potatoes with Germans. The first one occurred when Gogol described Schiller and his way of life (p. 39).

18. Magarshack's translation of Gogol's Dead Sottls, p. 311. In his recollections about Gogol, L. I. Arnoldi mentions that Gogol, “just like Petukh … was capable of conversing with the chef for a whole hour about some kulebiaka.” N. V. Gogol’ v vospominaniiakh sovremennikov i perepiske, ed. V. V. Kallash (Moscow, 1909), p. 89.

19. Vasilii, Gippius, Gogol’ (Leningrad, 1924)Google Scholar, reprinted by Brown University Press, Reprint Series, no. 3 (Providence, 1963), p. 156.

20. Ibid., p. 159.

21. Lermontov, M. Iu., Sobranie sochinenii, 4 vols. (Moscow, 1958-59), 2 : 405, 427, 400.Google Scholar

22. Hofmannsthal, Hugo von, Selected Prose, trans. Hottinger, Mary and Tania, and Stern, James (New York, 1952), p. 312.Google Scholar

23. In Thomas Otway's. Don Carlos, Prince of Spain, the Duchess of Eboli (in love with the prince) invites Don Carlos to “a feast,” that is, herself. In George Etherege's play “The Man of Mode, or, Sir Fopling Flutter” Belinda is consumed by a strange desire to eat nectarines early in the morning. When questioned, she confesses to her fault, but it is understood by all present that the conversation is not in fact about the nectarines which she has just eaten.

24. There are a number of associations, but one or two will be sufficient : “ ‘She's only a clerk's widow, but she has elbows good enough for a countess, and with dimples tool’ Oblomov thought” (p. 312) ; “A bare arm, hardly covered with the shawl he had already seen, was thrust through the door of the side room holding a plate with a huge piece of steaming hot pie” (p. 313). Ivan, Goncharov, Oblomov, trans. Duddington, Natalie (New York, 1960).Google Scholar

25. Korolenko, V. G., Povesti i rasskazy (Moscow, 1960), 2 : 349.Google Scholar

26. Vinigret is Russian salad that invariably contains either meat, game, or fowl.

27. Gogol, N. V., Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 10 vols. (Berlin, 1922), 7 : 236.Google Scholar

28. Varenychky are curd dumplings, halushechky pshenychnye are wheaten dumplings, pampushechky are buns, and tovchenychky are fish or meat buns (or dumplings).

29. Letters of Nikolai Gogol, selected, edited, and translated by Carl R. Proffer (Ann Arbor, 1967), p. 213.

30. Gerhard, Gesemann, “Grundlagen einer Charakterologie Gogols,” in Jahrbuch der Charakterologie (Berlin), 1 (1924) : 49–88Google Scholar; quotation, p. 54.

31. Hugh, McLean, “Gogol's Retreat from Love : Toward an Interpretation of Mirgorod,” American Contributions to the Fourth International Congress of Slavicists (The Hague, 1958), p. 225–44.Google Scholar

32. Sigmund, Freud, A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, trans. Riviere, Joan (New York, 1958), p. 273.Google Scholar

33. Aksakov, S. T., Istoriia moego snakomstva s Gogolem, ed. Naselenko, E. P. and Smimova, E. A. (Moscow, 1960), p. 11.Google Scholar

34. Čyževskyj, D., “Zur Komposition von Gogol's ‘Mantel,” Zeitschrift für slavische Philologie, 14 (1937) : 63–94, see esp. pp. 78-92.Google Scholar

35. Chizhevsky, D, “Neizvestnyi Gogol',” Novyi Zhurnal (New York), 27 (1951) : 126–58.Google Scholar

36. With especial vehemence Gogol twice underlines these “prolonged kisses.“

37. I do not quite agree with McLean's interpretation of Old-Fashioned Landowners : “The fact that they have the same patronymic may be a suggestion that their real relationship is that of brother and sister, safely pre-genital and Platonic” (McLean, “Gogol's Retreat from Love,” p. 239). On the contrary, their love—in its initial stage—must have been very passionate : one must remember that Ivan Ivanovich abducted his beloved. Gogol's own views on love in marriage, expressed in a letter to A. S. Danilevsky (March 30, 1832), seem to support this : “Beautiful, fiery, exhausting, and inexplicable is love before marriage; but he who has loved before marriage has displayed only one burst, one effort to love. This love is not complete; it is only a beginning, momentary, but it is a strong and fierce enthusiasm which shakes the organism of a man for a long time. But the second part, or better, the book itself … is calm, an entire sea of quiet pleasures which open up more and more each day; and you are amazed by them with all the more pleasure because they seemed absolutely insignificant and ordinary” (Proffer, Letters of Nikolai Gogol, p. 41). When we meet this lovable pair, they are old— starichki Gogol calls them page after page—and, as is to be expected, are no longer sexually active. For some time now they have been sublimating their libidinal desire for each other by turning to food—Pulkheriia Ivanovna's culinary language is really an expression of her love for her husband. Since Gogol was never really successful in portraying sexual love, perhaps this is one of the underlying reasons why he chose to portray his old-fashioned landowners in their senility and why eventually he gets rid of Pulkheriia Ivanovna for no apparent reason at all. She had to meet her punishment for associating food with sex.

38. Peter C., Spycher, “N. V. Gogol's ‘The Nose' : A Satirical Comic Fantasy Born of an Impotence Complex,” Slavic and East European Journal, 7, no. 4 (1963) : 361–74.Google Scholar In his convincing article Spycher fails, however, to mention why Kovalev's nose was found baked in a loaf of bread and not, let us say, in some empty cupboard or in the barber's shaving cream. However, if one accepts Gogol's association of food with sex, then the major's nose could not have been found anywhere else but in a loaf of bread.

39. Oscar, Wilde, Salome, trans, from the French by Lord Alfred Douglas (New York, 1967), p. 1967 Google Scholar : “I saw thee, and I loved thee. Oh, how I loved thee! I love thee yet, Iokanaan. I love only thee… . I am athirst for thy beauty; I am hungry for thy body; and neither wine nor apples can appease my desire.“