Turgenev vs Flaubert, or Literary Polemic about Sancta Simplicitas

The article is devoted to a particular issue within the framework of the voluminous theme “Turgenev and Flaubert”. This issue is based on a well-known fact, namely: the Russian writer’s refusal to translate Flaubert’s story “Simple Soul”, which was part of cycle called “Three Tales” and was combined with two others (“Legend of St. Julian” and “Herodias”) the problem of holiness. Turgenev was also interested in the phenomenon of holiness, especially the question of its representation in modern life. At the legendary level, which is presented in “Legend of St. Julian” and “Herodias”, Turgenev found Faubert’s position close. Turgenevʼs interest in translating these two texts was primarily determined by their stylistic novelty, which was a difficult task for him, but was an extremely useful school. Within the framework of the aesthetics of the simple and everyday narrative, in which Flaubert’s “Simple Soul” was executed, telling about the unexpected transformations of an ordinary person into a saint, Turgenev did not consider it productive to reflect. Nevertheless, in the early 1850s, long before he undertook to translate Flaubert and, in principle, before meeting the French writer, Turgenev was developing the theme of “Sancta Simplisitas”. The article presents a brief overview of the unrealized plot by Turgenev about the poet-painter, who, being a completely simple person who had not read a single book, suddenly composed highly spiritual Easter poems. The unconvincing nature of this character, which gradually acquired comic features, was the reason for Turgenev’s refusal to develop the plot. But the writer returned to the plot about Lukerya, also conceived in the early 1850s, shortly before starting work on the translations of Flaubert. The heroine of “Living Relics” is somewhat reminiscent of Philicite, but her holiness is due to her real, unquestioned closeness to Christ. Nevertheless, she represents an “unrecognized saint”, just like Flaubert’s heroine. The article proves, by updating Turgenev’s early plans addressed to the problem of Sancta Simplicitas, that he perfectly understood the complexity of this artistic task, therefore the high assessments from George Sand and I. Taine of his Lukerya did not open his eyes on what he wrote, but confirmed the correctness of the path. As a writer, he did not agree with Flaubert’s artistic tactics in terms of depicting a modern “unrecognized saint”, since this could be fraught with unacceptable comedy in this case, which is what happened with Chekhov in “Darling”, which researchers consider as a cryptoparody of Flaubert’s “A Simple Soul”.