Stello, or the Blue Demons

8 hrs. 4 min.

Romance & Prose

Language Russian

Author Alfred de Vigny

Narrator Irina Yerisanova

Description

"Stello" — "Chatterton": In 1832, Vigny's novel "Stello" was published (Russian translation 1835; 1987), consisting of three "consultations" (dialogues) between two symbolic figures: the Black Doctor, embodying Vigny's own intellect, and the poet Stello, who yearns to play an active role in public life. Wishing to warn Stello of the dangers inherent in political enthusiasm, the Black Doctor tells him three stories on the theme of the poet's relationship with power: the frivolity of Louis XV condemns Nicolas Gilbert to die in poverty; the fanaticism of the republican tyrant Robespierre leads André Chénier to the scaffold; the egotism of London's Lord Mayor William Beckford causes the suicide of the poet Thomas Chatterton. Any political regime, the Black Doctor argues, amounts to "eternal ostracism" for the poet.
Later, Vigny reworked the part of "Stello" devoted to Chatterton's suicide into a three-act prose drama, "Chatterton". Recreating Chatterton's final moments, he shows the nobility and suffering of a misunderstood genius in a merciless materialistic world. Vigny's greatest achievement as a dramatist, "Chatterton" remains one of the finest Romantic dramas. Vigny's novel "Military Servitude and Grandeur" (1835; Russian translations 1914; 1968) consists of three novellas connected by personal commentary and narrates the nobility and suffering of a soldier who, by the nature of his trade, is obliged to kill and condemned to passive obedience. The first and third novellas are outstanding achievements of Vigny the prose writer, while the hero of the second novella, the old Napoleonic soldier Captain Renaud, remains an unforgettable embodiment of human greatness. In 1838, Vigny returned to poetry and did not abandon it until the end of his life. During these years he composed 11 poems, later united under the title "Les Destinées" (1864), the earliest of which are permeated by deep pessimism, while the subsequent ones ever more confidently affirm the imperishable nature of man's spiritual forces.