Kosmorama [The Cosmorama] (1839) has been described by P. N. Sakulin as “one of the best of Odoevsky’s mystical stories”, and by Jo Ann Hopkins Linburn as “a Faustian drama of divine and infernal powers struggling for the hero’s soul”. Neil Cornwell calls it “Odoevsky’s most fully blown romantic tale”, which “includes as full a gamut of occult and Gothic paraphernalia as may be encountered in any work of Russian romanticism”, though “accompanied with a slight edge of undercutting irony” (Intro. to The Salamander and Other Gothic Tales, 5). It is a story with many unanswered questions (perhaps in part a result of the fact that a promised sequel never materialised). Although it has been read as imitative of German (Hoffmannesque) Romanticism, it can also – or perhaps more effectively – be understood (specifically because of...
2346 words
Citation: Sucur, Slobodan. "Kosmorama". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 February 2005; last revised 13 July 2025. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16242, accessed 05 December 2025.]
