Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
My only real area of disbelief was at the end, where in order to round out the story of Razumov, Conrad had the revolutionists visiting Razumov when he was back in Russia, so we could learn what happened to him. That seemed to me to be pretty far-fetched.
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Actually, I thought there were a few "would you like a cup of tea?" moments that didn't quite ring true.
I didn't mind Razumov. I liked the fact that he was just trying to get ahead and then in came some stranger into his room and turned his life upside down. The fact that in the Russia of the novel, he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't help Haldin. As soon as the criminal enters his rooms, he's "toast". I mean how would such a character behave? It's hard to imagine that he's got much to lose - and so he rails against everyone. He offloads Haldin, but finds that it hasn't really helped him - and so he tries to exact a revenge on a movement he credits with his own demise.
Another thing I found - outside of what Conrad perhaps intended - is that Razumov seems to demonstrate why regimes can retain power. He has no particular love of the autocracy of Russia (that I noticed), but he just wants to play by the rules to find his own way to progress and gain comfort. He contemptuously argues on several occasions that revolutionaries can achieve nothing - that the battle is already lost. His own fear perhaps leads him to opt out early only to be dragged into the mess later.
Further, I found it interesting that love is what undid him in the end. This is a man who'd probably walk barefoot across St Petersburg for a paternal embrace if his encounters with Prince K- are anything to go by. This is a man who has been systematically starved of affection. It took some time for the love of a woman to seep through his barriers, but in the end it did and it gave him enough courage (or shame) to confess.
In many ways, I found Rasumov to be the most interesting character in the novel. On the other hand, I tended to disengage quite a bit from his self-torment. Unfortunately, what should possibly have been a fascinating psychological study became a bit of a drag.