The Russian gentry of the 19th century produced a strangely long list of 'names'. Can you imagine the English nobility, in that or any other era, producing Tolstoys or Turgenevs, Mussorgskys or Herzens? The contrast between actual and would-be, in 19th-century Russia, was vast, and was to stimulate literature of a very high order: in this respect, there is a parallel between the Russian case and the Anglo-Irish one, among others. In Italy, Sicily was by far the most backward part: but all the most interesting Italians - and certainly the funniest - came from the South. An upper class looking 'west' in a countryside that looked 'east' had much to sharpen its sense of irony.

LRB 7 July 1983 | PDF Download