The Family Novel in Russia and England, 1800–1880 by Anna A. Berman (review)

Reviewed by: The Family Novel in Russia and England, 1800–1880 by Anna A. Berman Anna Maslenova The Family Novel in Russia and England, 1800–1880. By Anna A. Berman. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2022. x+262pp. £65. ISBN 978–0–19–286662–2. Anna A. Berman's monograph explores how two national traditions shaped contrasting portraits of the family in their respective literatures. Berman convincingly contends that English novels followed a vertical family structure, focused on genealogy and descent, whereas Russian writers adhered to a horizontal plan, prioritizing expansive kinship. The analysis is founded upon over a hundred Russian and English novels, ambitiously selected to encompass not only well-known writers, such as Dickens, Austen, Tolstoi, and Dostoevskii, but also Russian female novelists, including Evgeniia Tur and Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia, who remain relatively obscure to most contemporary readers. The book is divided into three parts, successively comparing consanguineal, conjugal, and alternative family relationships in English and Russian novels. Berman's innovative approach centres on illustrating how differences in these two nations' legal systems influenced their respective literary traditions. In Chapter 1 she explores the impact of Russia's autocratic regime—when the Tsar held immense power to grant or revoke noble titles—on family narratives. The radical uncertainty engendered by autocracy led families in Russian novels to prioritize immediate concerns over bequeathing wealth to future generations. Conversely, in English novels, where intergenerational transmission was secure, the institution of marriage and the birth of an heir who would inherit both wealth and social privileges served as central narrative drivers. Chapters 2and 3 discuss how Russian and English novels integrated siblings into their narrative structures. A critical difference in the inheritance systems of the two countries emerges here: Russia divided inherited property evenly among all siblings, while Britain favoured male primogeniture. Berman suggests that in Russian novels the doctrine of 'love thy brother' was faithfully upheld, which explains the intricate and multifaceted nature of the plots, characterized by concurrent narrative threads. On the other hand, English novels often eliminated inconvenient siblings who disrupted the linear narrative structure. In their quest to cultivate the ideal of family, English novels also omitted unsuccessful marriages, while Russian authors aimed for a more realistic depiction. Chapters 4–6 explore this contrast, which according to Berman stems from variations in the two countries' approaches to women's rights. Married Russian women enjoyed more extensive legal rights than their British counterparts, including property ownership and estate management. However, they lacked significant power within the family. Traditional family values, as prescribed in the Domostroi, a medieval Russian manual of household advice, persisted until the nineteenth century, although considered backward by Russian novelists. Britain's more effective women's rights movement ironically helped to preserve the domestic ideal in English novels. Russian writers, by contrast, rarely depicted marriage as happy. Fictional End Page 244 couples often avoided wedlock, which perpetuated patriarchal domination. Instead, female characters sought out personal liberation, prioritizing their well-being in the present. Russian novels emphasized the value of spiritual connections between individuals over official bonds or bloodlines, leading to the formation of what Berman calls 'alternative kinships'—even though in Russia these relationships were considered the norm rather than a deviation. Chapters 7 and 8 explore such non-nuclear-family arrangements. Berman contends that English novels featured alternative kinships as responses to situations in which conventional 'reproductive futurity' (p. 190) was not possible. For instance, in Dinah Craik's John Halifax, Gentleman (1856) Phineas's poor health prevents him from forming a conventional family. Instead, he forms a close quasi-fraternal bond with the orphaned John Halifax, later acting as an unofficial kinsman to John's wife Ursula and their children. Berman suggests that in such cases the strict division between Russian and English family models becomes blurred, and that both novel traditions offered flexible and inclusive kinship arrangements. Berman's monograph is an invaluable contribution to the study of the intersection of novels with family history. It reveals the limitations of Western literary models regarding the normative family, highlighting their lack of universality. Berman's concern about the absence of Russian scholarship on her topic is misplaced, however: there are precedents in Iurii...