Sergei Ernst similarly lists the sources of Rostopchina’s epigraphs and
the subjects of what he calls her “souvenir” poems, without discussing
their content (“Karolina Pavlova i gr. Evdokiia Rastopchina [sic],” 23 ,
29 ).
Other critics more directly disparage Rostopchina’s work as exces-sive by stating that she wrote “too much”: “It is impossible not to be
amazed at the unusual fecundity of Countess Rostopchina” (Bykov,
“Russkie zhenshchiny-pisatel’nitsy,” 240 ). Several stated that her works
were too “drawn out” (rastianutyiorzastianuty).^46
Critics also described Rostopchina’s work as lacking. Several attrib-uted Rostopchina’s success to the popularity of her poetry with women,
by implication an undereducated and undiscriminating audience. Oth-
ers criticized her work as too personal, specific, and lacking in univer-
sality. One wonders if perhaps women readers found Rostopchina’s
poetry more “universal” than did men because it described their ex-
perience. How “universal,” one might ask, is Pushkin’s poem “Net, ia
ne dorozhu miatezhnym naslazhden’em” (No, I do not value stormy
pleasure, 1831 ), in which a man speaker describes his enjoyment in
having sex with a reluctant woman? Or Baratynsky’s Bal,in which
women are depicted as angels or devils?^47
Irrelevance
The most pervasive theme in Rostopchina criticism, however, is the de-
piction of her work as time- and space-bound, therefore as irrelevant to
the present:
An evaluation of this first volume [of Rostopchina’s collected
works] will show you what social importance the poetry must
have had in its own time.... Let’s give full due... to this talent
that was respected by our teachers and our predecessors.
(Druzhinin, “Stikhotvoreniia grafini E. P. Rostopchinoi,” [ 1856 ],
7 : 157 , 159 , 160 )It is not surprising that in former days Rostopchina’s verses cre-
ated something of a furor—those were other times. (Bykov,
“Russkie zhenshchiny-pisatel’nitsy” [ 1878 ], 242 )Rostopchina outlived herself, outlived her glory as a (woman)
writer.... Her works are forgotten by posterity and will not be
read. (Nekrasova, “Grafinia E. P. Rostopchina” [ 1885 ], 42 , 81 )On the whole, the work of Countess Rostopchina is for us a rich
monument to its time, and its creator one of the best representa-Evdokiia Rostopchina 103