ABSTRACT
Towards the end of the terrible confession which Dostoevsky originally intended for The Possessed his protagonist, Nicolai Stavrogin, describes ‘the most unexpected dream’:
I have never known the like of it. In the art gallery in Dresden there is a picture by Claude Lorraine. In the catalogue it is given as ‘Acis and Galatea’, but I have always called it, although I do not know why, ‘The Golden Age’ It was this picture I dreamt of, but not as a picture, but as if it were real life. The scene is set in a corner of the Greek Archipelago; blue caressing waves, islands and rocks, verdant shores, a magical vista in the distance, an entrancing sunset - words cannot describe it. European man was returning to mythology, his sylvan paradise Wonderful people once lived here. They lived their days from morn to night in happiness and innocence. The groves rang with their gay singing; the great abundance of unspent vigour was poured into love and simple joy. The sun bathed these islands and the sea in beams, and rejoiced in its lovely children. What a marvellous dream, such a sublime illusion! This is the most improbable of all dreams, yet it is on this dream that mankind has always lavished its powers; it is for this dream that they have made every kind of sacrifice, died on the cross or as prophets; without it nations cannot live, but neither are they able to die.
