SOURCE: Croft, Lee. B. “Charlie Chaplin and Olesha's Envy.” College Language Association Journal 21 (1978): 525-37.

In the following essay, Croft draws parallels between Olesha's Envy and the films of Charlie Chaplin.

In the history of literature and cinema it may easily be said that the usual course of influence proceeded from the former to the latter. That is, literary texts rapidly provided a source of material for the burgeoning cinema industry. But finding early instances where cinematic productions had a noticeable influence on literature is more difficult. In the Soviet Union, however, where cinema was taken very seriously as an artistic medium even in the embryonic stages of its development, such an instance does exist. A clearly demonstrable example of this influence is to be found in Yuri Olesha's Envy, one of the most significantly artistic novels of the 'twenties.¹ In theme, plot, and especially in characterization, this novel...