"All around the sea, in the middle of hell"

"All around the sea, in the middle of hell"

The Sakhalin Island (Paperback)

Customer Review

July 1890: Anton Chekhov arrived at the eastern tip of Russia, and effort is poised to sembarquer for what will be one of the most intense experiences of his life. No connection with the authorities or any relay on site, without being part dune mission, to carry sembarque then transcribe an extremely thorough investigation of lÎle Sakhalin reclusive place off the Siberian place of exile where prisoners were sent. He draws a book of over 500 pages, simply called LÎle Sakhalin and modestly subtitled Travel Notes.

Danton Chekhov motives, we know that very few things, what frustrates some readers: literary adventure? thirst of adventure, exceeded? scientific curiosity? Roger Grenier, in his preface to the edition Folio, tells us that Chekhov, in correspondence with his friend Suvorin, would have given the explanation follows: "After Australias past, and Cayenne, Sakhalin is the only place where it is possible oReview formed by colonization criminals ".

Indeed, lÎle is not only a prison where the prisoners are there to serve a sentence: they are not doomed to leave, they become outlaws peasants, owners-convicts, relegated, and participate with officials and administrative staff and penitentiary , the process of colonization. Again, we DONT little of information on the state of the Russian designs: if the deportation of criminals in a remote area is a phenomenon that is not unique and the political reasons that are clearly advanced, why other hand wanting to colonize such Island, including , from page to page, we discover the hostile climate and geography, difficulty implementing crop? (Even if we had the historical curiosity to know this information, we do not admit the zeal pushing up the search, so we ask the reader of these lines to please forgive us).

Still, that lintentionnalité of those Chekhov refers to as "legislators" proved: the author reminds us that "Prison and colonization are antagonistic, their interests are exactly reversed. Life in dormitories cell enslaves the inmate and with the course of time, causes its degeneration; () The more it stays the prison, the greater reason to fear that he does not become an unnecessary burden, not the active and useful member dune colony. That is why the practice of colonization demanded above all the reduction of imprisonment and forced labor sentences "(p.323, Folio edition).

Because yes, the conditions of the convicts are terrible, tragic, painful to read when lon remember that this is a witness (and not of a novel), witness whose strength is contained in the first impressions expressed by Chekhov discovers WHEN IT lÎle "All around the sea, in the middle hell. " Indeed, the author connects with remarkable thoroughness, descriptions of different prisons, different cities, lifestyles of the populations (the convicts, officials, local populations present before colonization), and gives us all the conditions, sorrows, sufferings. These sufferings are physical, but they are also moral, as we are reminded by the story dune evening celebrations in one of the cities of lÎle "But despite these festivities, the streets were sweating boredom. No songs or daccordéon nor any drunkard; people wandering like ghosts, were silent as shadows. Even in the glow of Bengal lights, the prison is still the prison, and quentend music far a man would never see his country arouses in him quune black sadness "(p.67).

So why do you ask yourself, would you want to read such a book?

It should be read because it comes as or primarily, dune remarkable literary work, alternating stories and historical information (beyond the situation of the convicted men, we also learn a lot about those of women, children, and local populations ), descriptions, dialogues, transcript of his thoughts, but also some with humor and dironie form, which ultimately gives the book a much shifted tone quon laurait not believed. Chekhov wrote to a reader, which it caters directly and that he calls, and it shows in the writing. Thus, thanks to ViaMichelin descriptions of what surrounds it, from people and situations, vegetation and terrain, it was the impression BE in contact with this strange daily well. And then happens what one would not necessarily have thought at the start: All Aboard with the author, it is believed that a lon, we also had the impulse (or madness?) Out to explore this timeless place, cursed, which seems just as crazy and unreal as the characters who populate it.

If you do not have the courage or envy to go after 540 pages, it does not matter; it is possible to read only a den or part (s), and remove den still what you came for it. LÎle Sakhalin Thus a reading that we recommend, and also to discover a lesser-known part of the oeuvre of Chekhov.

Léa Breton

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