This
book examines a particular aspect of the hatred of women in nineteenth and
twentieth century Russian literature. A man is involved in a romantic
relationship with a woman. He feels he is superior to the woman and almost
divine, deserving the woman's admiration or even worship. But instead of
demonstrating her esteem and respect toward him, she treats him as if he were
inferior to her. He feels humiliated and despised by the woman. He feels
castrated by her, because she behaves like a man and assigns him the role of a
woman. He wishes to restore his own self-respect and avenge himself on
her for the bad feelings she gives him. He wants to murder her, and if it is
not in his power to hurt her, he harms himself. He becomes an alcoholic, mentally ill or commits suicide. The book discusses the works of Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, Lev Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Michail Zoschenko, Yuri Trifonov,
Nikolai Leskov, Ivan Turgenev, Alexandr Kuprin, Michail
Bulgakov, Boris Vasilyev, Vasily Grossman, Valentin Rasputin, Sergei Dovlatov,
Yiri Nagibin, Yuri Polyakov, Galina Tcherbakova, Dina Rubina, Lyudmila
Ulitzkaya, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya and Irina Grekova.
