“The Fat General” and Prince Gremin: Transformations of the Literary Image
The noble old man, Tatiana’s husband, became part of the “supertext” of “Eugene Onegin” thanks to Tchaikovsky’s opera (1879) and Dostoevsky’s “Pushkin speech” (1880). The “aging” of this image, possibly, was facilitated by the contamination with the image of Prince Vereisky from Pushkin’s novel “Dubrovsky.” In the story “Uncle’s Dream” Dostoevsky refers to both of these images. Prince Gremin first appeared in the story in Bestuzhev-Marlinsky’s story “The Trial” (1830). Thanks to Gogol’s example, the surname Gremin was repeatedly used as a household name in an ironic context, but Tchaikovsky’s Gremin is purely positive lyrical character. In “Pushkin speech,” Tatyana’s husband is not just an old man, but a sufferer “in the taste of Dostoevsky.” A parody reference to this image is contained in Chekhov’s story “The Mysterious Nature” (1883).