Steeped in the social and religious culture of prerevolutionary
Russia, Andrey Bely's first novel is inspired by theosophy, the
myth of Dionysus, and the author's own thoughts on the relationship
between artistic and religious creation. The story of an idle
intellectual who pursues transcendence, The Silver Dove is also
Bely's study of the unbridgeable chasm between his country's
Westernized intelligentsia and the mysterious, apocalyptic passions
of its peasants.
Dissatisfied with the life of the intellectual, the poet
Daryalsky joins a rural mystic sect, the Silver Doves. The locals,
and in particular the peasant woman Matryona, are fascinated by the
dashing stranger. Daryalsky is taken in by the Doves' intimacy with
the mystical and spiritual -- and by Matryona. Under the influence
of the cult leader, the carpenter Kudeyarov, Daryalsky is
ruthlessly used in a bid to produce a sacred child -- a dove who
will "descend on silvered plummage" and usher in a new age.
Bely, fascinated by the theosophical beliefs of the nineteenth
century, places his hero at the center of a cycle in which elements
of the past are eternally present, suggesting a parallel between
Daryalsky and the figures of Dionysus and Christ. In time,
Daryalsky disappoints the Doves and must face their all-too-mortal
suspicions and jealousies, as well as his own doubts. As the story
concludes, Bely invokes the primitive rituals of the bacchanals --
and the symbols of the Crucifixion -- to reveal Daryalsky's dire
fate.
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