The Wide World

A tale of adventure, a coming-of-age novel and a biography of immigrant experienceTHE WIDE WORLD is all of the above in one exciting, action-packed volume. Written for both young and old readers back in 1895, the Russian master, Vladimir Korolenko, traces the lifes journey of his strong, broad-shouldered hero, Matvei Lozinsky, from a remote village I n Ukraine to the churning existence of Gilded Age New York.Mystifying, intimidating, sometimes even threatening, immigrant trials and tribulations test the mettle of this upright young man with a luxuriant beard who doesnt know a single word of English. His troubles begin in the great German immigrant port of Hamburg when he and his lively sidekick, Puff, miss the right boat and find themselves on one that almost collides with an iceberg. All turns out well: the young travelers dance on deck, and Matvei meets and falls in love with beautiful Anna.Freedom is the magnet; the friends know too little of it back in their homeland. Is it just because the great statue in New York harbor greets new immigrants, or something more? Matvei, Puff, and Anna disembark and think theyve come not so much to a new country as to a new planet.The streets are filled with rushing crowds doing incomprehensible things. Incessant noise assaults the newcomerssteamship whistles, clanking trolleys, trains thundering along the famous Elevatedall so unlike the peaceful village sounds they knew. Church steeples are the highest points of the 19th century landscape, but the other structuresthe Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Elall newly builtbear down upon them.Fortunately, they have some helpgood advice and even better examples of the new lifefrom a kindly Jewish family that runs a boarding house where they settle. Theres worse to come though. Puff succumbs to Tammany Hall corruption, and Anna and Matvei tie in with a nasty, expatriate Russian noblewoman. Intrepid Matvei even stares down a wolf in Central Parkthat after becoming a homeless wanderer in the teeming melting pot of immigrant New York. He blunders upon and disrupts a rally of the citys unemployed led by the famed 19th century labor leader Samuel Gompers. Matvei is cursed with notoriety because of the episode and pictures of the mysterious giant which had appeared on the front pages of all the newspapers. He clashes with the police and is rescued by a band of intrepid Italian compatriots.Placed in a train headed west, the city left behind, replaced by an American countryside that seems familiar, Matveis view of the new land begins to change. Judge Dick Dickinson gives him a new understanding of American law, and he comes to know Nilov, an idealistic Russian immigrant. His hopes of immigration and his experience of freedom come to be realized.AUTHOR:In Russia, Vladimir Galaktinovich Korolenko has an honored place in the great pantheon of 19th century Russian literature. Born in Zhitomir, Ukraine, the son of a judge, he was never a member of a political party but always had the worldview of a populist. He was exiled to Siberia three times, the first as a student at the Moscow Forestry Institute. A fearless Publicist and prolific literary figure, he became known as a champion of the oppressed. During the Beilis Case, Tsarist Russias version of the Dreyfus Affair, he served as the successful advocate for exoneration.The translator Stanley Harrison taught Russian at Cornell University during the Cold War. He is retired.