Pasternak's Robespierre/Saint-Just play

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Hi all - salut et fraternite! I've only just joined livejournal and this is my first posting here, so apologies if I mess this up (what's an ljcut?) - anyway, my question: I've always thought the character Pasha/Strelnikov in Pasternak's 'Dr. Zhivago' owed more to Robespierre and co. than to Lenin or Trotsky, and not just cos of the little round glasses, so I googled it and it turns out that Pasternak wrote some fragmentary verse plays about Robespierre and Saint-Just in 1917, published in a magazine in 1918 - apparently, as with Stani, they were inspired by Buchner - and they partly formed the basis for the themes in 'Zhivago'. That's all I know - is there anyone out there who can tell me any more?

Comments

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

Huh, I've never heard of those. Of course, I also haven't read Dr. Zhivago, so I won't be much help there. I'll keep my eye out for those plays though.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Ah well - I think they must be pretty obscure: I'm not even sure if they have ever been reprinted or translated. I confess I haven't read Dr. Zhivago either, just seen the film (Pasha's the Tom Courtenay character, which is a problem if you're also a fan of 'Billy Liar' - you can't see his revolutionary train steaming through the battlefields without thinking 'it was a glorious day in Ambrosia!').

[citoyenneclark.livejournal.com]

if you look in the book Boris Pasternak: A literary biography there is some stuff about his writings on the French Rev. Its 9th Thermidor. Saint just and Robespierre await their doom. For some reason Saint Just is shown as "artistic" and "romantic" Robespierre is the realist and the coldly logical one. Also could the character of Liberius be based on Danton?

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info - I will have to chase this one up. Interesting point about the characterisation - it's funny how so many writers think Saint-Just is romantic/Bryonic and Robespierre a cold fish, when Robespierre can be positively Blakeian whilst Camus is spot on when he says Saint-Just has the cold steel style of the guillotine. I suppose it's all because of their hairstyles...
And you're right, from the character synopsis Liberius does sound like Danton.

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

Haha. Pretty hair does so much for you, doesn't it?