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This study of the effect of literature on readers, both as individuals and as members of social groups, focuses on Russia's national poet, Alexander Pushkin, as a model for investigating the aesthetic and social functions of literature.

The individual reader's response to the literary text is demonstrated in Part One through a broad range of memoirs, diaries, and correspondences in which Russian readers recorded their reactions to Pushkin. Among the reactions are testimonies that Pushkin's works helped readers form their personalities, provided cathartic relief in times of stress, and aided them in releasing their suppressed emotions. In his analysis, the author draws on various psychological approaches, from studies of perception through developmental psychology to psychoanalysis.

Part Two exposes the extent to which individuals' aesthetic responses are conditioned by their social environment. Against the backdrop of Russian social history in the early nineteenth century, the author describes the dissemination of new aesthetic norms, notably the relations of the Russian literary elite to "lowbrow" and "middlebrow" groups. In this context, he analyzes a number of Pushkin imitations (with Pushkin's responses to them) and links Nikolai Gogol's development as a writer to the social groups surrounding Pushkin. Among the other topics discussed are the popularization of Pushkin on the stage and his inclusion in school textbooks and anthologies.

The aura surrounding the personality of an author is the subject of Part Three, in which the author shows how Pushkin's death in a duel with a foreigner contributed to his emergence as a symbol of the Russian nation, and how deep-seated anxiety about national identity gave rise to the Pushkin myth and to the canonization of the poet as martyr. The author also describes how the combined effect of the widespread reading of Pushkin's work and his legend as martyr allowed him to remain Russia's main mythic figure despite the Soviet Union's attempts to supplant him with Lenin. Throughout the book, theoretical arguments are buttressed by close readings of Pushkin's works, especially The Prisoner of the Caucasus , Eugene Onegin , Poltava , Egyptian Nights , and several lyric poems.

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CHOICE Review

The word that best defines the focus of this study is "readership," a concept treated from three angles. The first is the "fortunes" of Pushkin, i.e., how Russians have responded to their greatest poet--from adulation in the 1820s, to reserved reception accorded the alleged "aristocrat," to the radicals' denial of his significance in the 1850s and 1860s, culminating in idolatry in the 20th century. The second aspect is the way individual readers have created a Pushkin in their own image--the fiery rebel, the incarnation of the "Russian soul," the patriot, etc. The third demonstrates how over the years individual Russians have modeled their lives on Pushkin's fictional creations--e.g., Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Debreczeny (Univ. of North Carolina) uses insights drawn from sociology, and his discussions sometimes suffer from the vagueness endemic to that discipline. A certain disproportion of materials is notable (e.g., a full 20 pages devoted to Tsvetaeva's understanding of Pushkin). These peccadilloes notwithstanding, this is an impressively researched and original study. Upper-level undergraduates and above. R. Gregg; Vassar College

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Paul Debreczeny is Alumni Distinguished Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina. Among his many publications are Alexander Pushkin: Complete Prose Fiction (translated) and The Other Pushkin: A Study of Alexander Pushkin's Prose Fiction (both Stanford, 1983).