SOLOGUB, Fyodor

   Pseudonym of Russian poet and novelist Fyodor-Kuzmich Teternikov (1863-1927), who remains best known for his second novel, Melkii bes (1907; best trans R. Wilks as The Little Demon 1962 UK); the title refers to the apotheosis of numbing mediocrity, mercilessly depicted, which devours the schoolteacher protagonist. FS's third novel, Tvorimaia legenda (1907-13 Shipovnik, then Zemlya; cut 1914; part 1 only of cut text transJohn Cournos as The Created Legend 1916 UK; complete trans Samuel D. Cioran of restored text in 3 vols as The Created Legend 1979 US), is sf, though of a strange order. The 1st vol describes the life in 1905 Russia of the protagonist who-pedagogue, inventor, sybarite and mage - clearly represents a wish-fulfilment version of the author. The 2nd describes the RURITANIAN kingdom of the United Isles, threatened by volcanoes anddynastic upheavals. In the 3rd, after successfully applying to become king - echoes of Frederick ROLFE's Hadrian VII (1904) are clear - theprotagonist escapes Russia in a spherical flying device of his own invention and enters into his meritocratic heritage. The text as a whole irretrievably mixes superscience, Satanism, an eroticized vision of history, SATIRE and dream. The Sweet-Scented Name, and Other Fairy Tales, Fables and Stories (coll trans Stephen Graham 1915 UK) and The Old Houseand Other Tales (coll trans John Cournos 1916 UK) contain some fantasies.

   JC