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Dimitri Merejkovsky

Dimitri Merezhkovski is a Russian writer and literary critic. He is the author of historical novels and is among the most read and famous writers of the early 20th century. Friend of Nicolas Berdyaev, close to the revolutionary socialists, he hoped to reconcile Jesus and the revolution and make religion the soul of socialism. His trilogy "Christ and the Antichrist" (1905) brought him worldwide fame. Fleeing Bolshevik terror, he settled in Paris in 1921 and remained there until the end of his days. His wife Zinaïda Hippius shared his opinions and was nicknamed by Leon Trotsky “the Witch”. Like her husband, she welcomed the fall of the imperial regime before devoting absolute hatred to the Bolsheviks, as evidenced by her singular "Diary under Terror" (Anatolia, 2006). The three of them wrote philosophical-political essays with Dimitri Philosophoff.

He was born into a family of non-titled minor nobility whose grandfather - originally from Little Russia - came to serve in the Izmailovsky regiment in Saint Petersburg, during the reign of Paul I. His father, Sergei Ivanovitch Merezhkovski (1823-1908) was a civil servant and pursued a career in the administration of the province of Orenburg, then with the Grand Marshal of the Court, Count Shuvalov. He retired in 1881 with the rank of secret advisor. His mother, born Varvara Vassilievna Tchesnokova, who was very beautiful, is the daughter of the head of the chancellery of the police director of Saint Petersburg.

Dimitri Merezhkovski began with pessimistic poems and published in 1893 the famous manifesto of Russian symbolism: “On the causes of decadence and new trends in contemporary Russian literature”, where he spoke out violently against the realism of the sixties. Fascinated by the question of the struggle of Christianity against paganism, he devoted a romantic trilogy to ancient Egypt: “The Birth of the Gods” shows Tutankhamun, heir to the crown, in Crete. The following novel, “Akhenaton Joy of the Sun”, has as its central characters the reforming pharaoh Akhenaten, the first promoter of a monotheistic religion, and the dancer Dio, “the pearl of the South Seas”, who followed Tutankhamun on his return from Crete and became the pharaoh's mistress. The third novel, “The Shadow of the Coming One”, describes the fall of Akhenaten, facing the supporters of Amon who refuse his religious revolution. This deeply mystical trilogy therefore provides a restitution of ancient Egypt which appears more authentic, less “cliché” than the multitude of novels devoted since then to the same subject.

A second trilogy, “Christ and the Antichrist” (1895-1904), includes “The Death of the Gods” which revives the controversial figure of the Emperor Julian, called “the Apostate” by Christians, while in fact he never accepted the new religion in which he had only pretended to believe under duress. This novel remarkably recreates the life of Julien and the atmosphere of the towns and camps where the Roman legions were stationed. “The Resurrection of the Gods” relates the tormented life of Leonardo da Vinci. Reading this novel had an impact on Freud: it was inspired by a passage from Merejkovski's novel evoking a “childhood memory of Leonardo" (“I was lying in my cradle, a Milan came near me and opened my lips and several times slipped his feathers into them as a sign that all my life I would take care of his wings...") in his own work: "Childhood memories of Leonardo da Vinci", published in 1910 “The Antichrist” relates the tragic dispute between Peter the Great and his son Alexis, whom the Tsar had put to death. These novels earned Merejkovski great fame between the two wars.

Works

  • The Mystery of Alexander I, Calmann-Lévy, 1922
  • Pierre et Alexis 1902 - translation by Georges Globa in Saint-Pétersbourg - Omnibus 1995.
  • The Novel of Leonardo da Vinci (The Resurrection of the Gods), Perrin Et Cie, 1926
  • The Soul of Dostoyevsky , Gallimard
  • Eternal companions, Gallimard, 1930
  • Eternal traveling companions. Lermontov, Dostoyevsky, Goncharov, Maïkov, Tyutchev, Pushkin, Albin Michel, 1949
  • The boor-king (The Rise of Cham), Gallimard
  • On the Road to Emmaus, Gallimard
  • The Reign of the Antichrist, Gallimard, 1938
  • Tragic Theater, Gallimard
  • Dante, translation of Jean Chuzeville, Albin Michel, 1940
  • Julien apostate (The Death of the Gods), translation by Henri Mongault, Gallimard, 1957
  • December fourteenth, translation by Michel Dumesnil de Gramont, Gallimard 1961
  • The Antichrist, Pierre and Alexis, Gallimard
  • Gogol and the Devil, Gallimard
  • Luther, Gallimard
  • Calvin, translation by Constantin Andronikof, Gallimard, reed. at L'Œuvre in 2009
  • Life of Napoleon, translation by Michel Dumesnil de Gramont Calmann-Levy Publishers 1930
  • Tutankhamun (The Birth of the Gods), translation by Michel Dumesnil de Gramont and Victor Loupan
  • Little Thérèse
  • The Christ who comes
  • Unknown Jesus, translation by Dumesnil de Gramont, Grasset ed.1936; reissue The Age of Man, 1995

Theater

  • The death of Paul I trans. Paul de Chèvremont, Bossard, 1922
  • Tzarevitsh Alexis trans. Michel de Gramont, Bossard, 1922
  • Michel Bakunine trans. Michel de Gramont, Bossard, 1922
  • Joy will be trans. Michel de Gramont, Bossard, 1922

Poetry

  • The Symbols
  • Saint Francis of Assisi

Essay

  • The Causes of the decadence of Russian literature
  • From Jesus to us (Paul and Augustin, Francis of Assisi, Joan of Arc), translation by Georges Tolstoy and Jean Chuzeville, Albin Michel, 1941
  • Atlantis-Europe, the Mystery of the West
  • The Mysteries of the Orient (Egypt-Babylon), translation by Michel Dumesnil de Gramont, L'Artisan du Livre, 1927

Resurrection of the gods

This work, published for the first time in 1900, has the subtitle "The Novel of Leonardo da Vinci". It traces the life and work of the latter, genius of the Renaissance and inspiration of esoteric and religious myths. This book is a worldwide success. It will mark entire generations. It is still considered a masterpiece of classical literature today. Freud was inspired by it to write "A Childhood Memory by Leonardo da Vinci" and listed it among his ten favorite works. It is part of a series that could be called “The Lives of the Gods”. Indeed, it also includes the works "The Birth of the Gods", subtitled Tutankhamun in Crete; "The Death of the Gods", subtitled Julian the Apostate.