In 1927 issues seven and eight of the well-known literary journal Red Virgin Soil [Krasnaia nov’] caused a sensation. They introduced Iurii Olesha’s novel Zavist’ [Envy] to the Soviet reading public. Positive reviews followed from both specialized periodicals like Revolution and Culture [Revoliutsiia i kul’tura] and mass circulation newspapers such as Pravda. Reviewers initially saw Envy as an attack on outdated bourgeois values, but Olesha was soon under fire because readers sympathized more with the characters who embodied, in the eyes of Soviet officials, those very “negative” values. …
1907 words
Citation: Rowley, Alison. "Zavist'". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 April 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=24344, accessed 21 November 2024.]