Krechinsky's deception of the Muromskys and his swindle of the pawnbroker
function as the point about which the play revolves. In common with the tradition
of the piece bien faite* the effectiveness of Krechinsky's Wedding depends on a ...
Author: Александр Сухово-Кобылин
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 3718656949
Category: Performing Arts
Page: 210
View: 104
Sukhovo-Kobylin's "Trilogy - Krechinshy's Wedding, The Case"and "The Death of Tarelkin" represent the sole literary legacy of their aristocratic author whose involvement in a sensational murder case became one of the great scandals of mid-19th century Russian society. Out of the drama of his own life, Sukhovo-Kobylin fashioned a trilogy of plays remarkable for the acidity of their satire against the tsarist bureaucracy and police. It is not only for their pungent satire that the plays have continued to attract attention ever since. They are, above all, splendidly theatrical and encompass not one but several different traditions of theatre from the "well-made play" of Scribe to the absurd comedy of Gogol. "As for sheer stagecraft," writes Price D.S. Mirsky in his "A History of Russian Literature," "they have no rivals in Russian literary drama." Harold B. Segel is Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, New York. He is the author of ten books and numer