Raisky and Paradise in The Precipice by I. A. Goncharov

Abstract

The article presents the novel The Precipice as the final part of the novel trilogy by I. A. Goncharov (by analogy with the canticle “Paradise” in the composition of the “Divine Comedy” by A. Dante). So Raisky appears as the central (not declaratively, but essentially) character of the novel, crowning Goncharov’s ideas of a “serious human figure” and an “idealist character.” The article examines the image of Raisky in its evolutionary development, and designates the vector of his spiritual movement as an experience of falling, repentance and resurrection. The image of the ascetic artist Kirilov clearly manifests Goncharov’s ideas about the purpose of art, about the indecomposable unity of art and religion. It turns out that the spiritual evolution of Raisky — from the “Petersburg” part of the novel to the “Malinovskaya” and to the finale — takes place under the sign of Kirilov’s ideological and aesthetic attitudes, despite the fact that they do not coincide with installations of both Raisky and Goncharov himself. For the first time, the article shows the character of the plot, which is particular for the general meaning of the novel, connected with the spiritual duel of Vera and Mark Volokhov, since all the main meanings of the work, including biographical ones, converge in the figure of Raisky.