Futility: a novel on Russian themes: Classic Book Guide and Free Edition
Futility: a novel on Russian themes: author and translator credits, catalogue synopsis, subjects and links to the Gutenberg reading formats.
Futility: a novel on Russian themes is catalogued by Project Gutenberg with author credits for Gerhardie, William Alexander (1895–1977).
Catalogue synopsis
Project Gutenberg supplies this automated synopsis of the opening text:
Futility by William Gerhardi is a novel written in the early 20th century. It blends comedy and melancholy in a Chekhov-like portrait of pre-revolutionary Russian society, seen through an Anglo-Russian narrator who becomes entangled with the turbulent Bursanov family. The likely focus is the clash of love, vanity, money, and obligation across a sprawling circle of relatives, dependents, and suitors, where every solution breeds new complications and a pervasive sense of futility. The opening of the book frames the narrator in Vladivostok, awaiting a ship home and deciding to set down his tale, then flashing back to a seaside dacha near Petersburg where he meets the three sisters—Sonia, Nina, and Vera—and glimpses the family’s fractures while watching Chekhov’s Three Sisters. At their city flat he learns that the commanding Fanny Ivanovna is not legally married to their father, Nikolai Vasilievich; constant quarrels, money troubles, and divorce tangles dominate. Nina and Vera depart for Moscow to their mother, and at the station the narrator impulsively proposes to Nina. Fanny then pours out her history: a proud German past, eleven years as Nikolai’s partner without divorce, his wife Magda’s disruptions, the illusion of Siberian gold mines, a mortgaged house, and a trail of dependents (including the silent “Kniaz”). A dinner interrupted by letters and visitors brings Eisenstein’s tearful plea and the shock that Vera is his daughter; later, Magda waits on the landing and confides her wish to remarry and her belief that Nikolai long avoided divorce to evade marrying Fanny. The narrator soon encounters Nikolai exultant with teenaged Zina and meets her ravenous family; a theatre sighting by Fanny and the girls deepens the rift. Emboldened, the narrator drafts a grand “intervention” chart to fix everyone’s lives, only to be mocked, his plan torn up, and his coach horse’s comic retreat sealing his humiliation; a sleepless white night on the balcony with Fanny closes this beginning in rueful, talk-filled stillness.
Book and edition facts
- Title: Futility: a novel on Russian themes
- Author credits: Gerhardie, William Alexander (1895–1977)
- Catalogue language: English
Catalogue subjects
- Historical fiction
- Soviet Union -- Fiction
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View the complete Gutenberg catalogue record. Project Gutenberg identifies this edition as public domain in the United States; that designation does not establish its copyright status in every country.
Source notes
Catalogue metadata is public domain and is supplied through Gutendex, which imports Gutenberg's machine-readable catalogue. The automated synopsis is source-supplied, not an independently verified review. Author dates above describe the credited people; no ebook release date is presented as the book's original publication date.
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