Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich - the famous Russian writer, a brilliant satirist, was born on March 20, 1809 in the village of Sorochintsy, on the border of the Poltava and Mirgorod counties, in the family estate, the village of Vasilievka. Gogol's father, Vasily Afanasyevich, was the son of a regimental clerk and came from an old Little Russian family, the ancestor of which was considered an associate of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Hetman Ostap Gogol, and his mother, Marya Ivanovna, was the daughter of the court adviser Kosyarovsky. Gogol's father, a creative, witty man, who had seen a lot and was educated in his own way, who loved to gather neighbors in his estate, whom he entertained with stories full of inexhaustible humor, was a great lover of the theater, staged performances in the house of a wealthy neighbor and not only participated in them himself, but he even composed his own comedies from Little Russian life, and Gogol's mother, a housewife and hospitable hostess, was distinguished by special religious inclinations.

The innate properties of Gogol's talent and character and inclinations, partly learned by him from his parents, were clearly manifested in him already in his school years, when he was placed in the Nezhinsky Lyceum. He liked to go with close friends to the shady garden of the lyceum and there sketch out the first literary experiments, compose caustic epigrams for teachers and comrades, come up with witty nicknames and characteristics that clearly marked his outstanding powers of observation and characteristic humor. The teaching of sciences in the lyceum was very unenviable, and the most gifted young men had to replenish their knowledge through self-education and in one way or another satisfy their needs for spiritual creativity. They subscribed to magazines and almanacs, the works of Zhukovsky and Pushkin, staged performances in which Gogol, who played comic roles, took a very close part; published their own handwritten journal, whose editor was also chosen by Gogol.

Portrait of N. V. Gogol. Artist F. Müller, 1840

However, Gogol did not attach special significance their first creative exercise. He dreamed at the end of the course to go to public service Petersburg, where, as it seemed to him, he alone could find both a wide field for activity and the opportunity to enjoy the true benefits of science and art. But Petersburg, where Gogol moved after completing his course in 1828, far from lived up to his expectations, especially at first. Instead of extensive activities "in the field of state benefit", he was offered to confine himself to modest studies in the offices, and his literary attempts were so unsuccessful that the first work he published - the poem "Hans Küchelgarten" - Gogol himself took away from bookstores and burned it after an unfavorable critical note. about her Field.

Unaccustomed living conditions in the northern capital, material shortcomings and moral disappointments - all this plunged Gogol into despondency, and more and more often his imagination and thought turned to his native Ukraine, where he lived so freely in his childhood, from where so many poetic memories were preserved. In a wide wave they poured over his soul and poured out for the first time into the direct, poetic pages of his Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, published in 1831 in two volumes. "Evenings" was very cordially welcomed by Zhukovsky and Pletnev, and then by Pushkin, and thus finally established Gogol's literary reputation and introduced him to the circle of luminaries of Russian poetry.

From that time on, Gogol's biography began a period of the most intense literary creativity. Proximity to Zhukovsky and Pushkin, before whom he revered, inspired his inspiration, gave him courage and energy. In order to become worthy of their attention, he began to look more and more at art as a serious matter, and not just as a game of mind and talent. The appearance, one after another, of such amazingly original works by Gogol as "Portrait", "Nevsky Prospekt" and "Notes of a Madman", and then "The Nose", "Old-world landowners", "Taras Bulba" (in the first edition), "Viy" and "The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich", - made a strong impression in the literary world. It was obvious to everyone that in the person of Gogol a great original talent was born, which was destined to give high examples of truly real works and thereby finally consolidate in Russian literature that real creative direction, the first foundations of which had already been laid by the genius of Pushkin. Furthermore, - in Gogol's stories almost for the first time (although still superficially) the psychology of the masses, those thousands and millions of "little people" whom literature has hitherto touched only in passing and occasionally, is touched upon (albeit still superficially). These were the first steps towards the democratization of art itself. In this sense, the young literary generation represented by Belinsky enthusiastically welcomed the appearance of Gogol's first stories.

But no matter how powerful and peculiar the writer’s talent was in these first works, imbued with either the fresh, charming air of poetic Ukraine, or the cheerful, cheerful truly folk humor, or the deep humanity and stunning tragedy of The Overcoat and The Madman’s Notes, - however, not in they expressed the main essence of Gogol's work, what made him the creator of The Inspector General and Dead Souls, two works that constituted an era in Russian literature. Ever since Gogol began to create The Inspector General, his life has been completely absorbed exclusively by literary creativity.

Portrait of N. V. Gogol. Artist A. Ivanov, 1841

As far as the external facts of his biography are simple and not varied, just as deeply, tragic and instructive is the inner spiritual process that he experienced at that time. No matter how great was the success of Gogol's first works, he was still not satisfied with his literary activity in the form of simple artistic contemplation and reproduction of life, in which it has been until now, according to the prevailing aesthetic views. He was dissatisfied with the fact that his moral personality, with this form of creativity, remained, as it were, on the sidelines, completely passive. Gogol secretly longed to be not only a simple contemplator of life's phenomena, but also their judge; he longed for a direct impact on life in the name of good, he longed for a civic mission. Having failed to carry out this mission in the service field, first as an official and teacher, and then as a professor of history at St. Petersburg University, for which he was little prepared, Gogol turns to literature with even greater passion, but now his view of art is more severe, more demanding; from a passive contemplative artist, he tries to transform into an active, conscious creator, who will not only reproduce the phenomena of life, illuminating them only with random and scattered impressions, but will lead them through the “crucible of his spirit” and “bring to the eyes of the people” as an enlightened deep, penetrating synthesis.

Under the influence of such a mood that was developing in him more and more insistently, Gogol finishes and puts on stage, in 1836, The Inspector General, an unusually bright and caustic satire, not only revealing the ulcers of the modern administrative system, but also showing how much vulgarization under the influence of this system, the most sincere warehouse of a good-natured, Russian person went down. The impression made by the Inspector General was unusually strong. Despite, however, the huge success of the comedy, it caused Gogol a lot of trouble and grief, both from censorship difficulties in staging and printing it, and from the majority of society, touched by the play to the quick and accusing the author of writing lampoons on his own. fatherland.

N. V. Gogol. Portrait by F. Müller, 1841

Frustrated by all this, Gogol goes abroad, so that there, in the "beautiful far away", far from the hustle and bustle and trifles, take on Dead Souls. Indeed, the relatively calm life in Rome, among the majestic monuments of art, at first had a beneficial effect on Gogol's work. A year later, the first volume of Dead Souls was ready and printed. In this in high degree original and unique "poem" in prose, Gogol develops a broad picture of the serf way of life, mainly from the side as it was reflected on the upper, semi-cultural serf layer. In this capital work, the main properties of Gogol's talent are humor and an extraordinary ability to grasp and translate into a "pearl of creation" negative sides life, have reached the apogee of their development. Despite the relatively limited scope of the phenomena of Russian life he touched upon, many of the types he created can compete with the classical creations of European satire in terms of depth of psychological penetration.

The impression made by Dead Souls was even more amazing than from all other works of Gogol, but it also served as the beginning of those fatal misunderstandings between Gogol and the reading public, which led to very sad consequences. It was obvious to everyone that with this work Gogol dealt an unremovable, cruel blow to the entire serf-like structure of life; but while the younger literary generation drew the most radical conclusions on this subject, the conservative part of society was indignant at Gogol and accused him of slandering his homeland. Gogol himself seemed to be frightened by the passion and bright one-sidedness with which he tried to concentrate all human vulgarity in his work, to reveal "all the mud of trifles entangling human life". To justify himself and express his real views on Russian life and his works, he published the book "Selected passages from correspondence with friends." The conservative ideas expressed there were extremely disliked by the Russian radical Westernizers and their leader Belinsky. Belinsky himself, shortly before this, had diametrically changed his socio-political convictions from ardent guardianship to nihilistic criticism of everything and everyone. But now he began to accuse Gogol of "betraying" his former ideals.

The Left circles fell upon Gogol with passionate attacks, which grew stronger with time. Not expecting this from recent friends, he was shocked and discouraged. Gogol began to seek spiritual support and calm in a religious mood, so that with new spiritual vigor he could begin to complete his work - the end of Dead Souls - which, in his opinion, should have finally dispelled all misunderstandings. In this second volume of theirs, Gogol, contrary to the wishes of the "Westerners", intended to show that Russia does not consist of only mental and moral freaks, he thought to portray the types of ideal beauty of the Russian soul. With the creation of these positive types, Gogol wanted to complete, - as the last chord, - his creation, Dead Souls, which, according to his plan, should not have been exhausted by the first, satirical, volume. But physical forces writers were already seriously undermined. Too long a closed life, away from the homeland, a harsh ascetic regime imposed by him on himself, undermined nervous tension health - all this deprived Gogol's work of a close connection with the fullness of life impressions. Suppressed by the unequal, hopeless struggle, in a moment of deep dissatisfaction and longing, Gogol burned the draft manuscript of the second volume of Dead Souls and soon died of a nervous fever in Moscow on February 21, 1852.

House of Talyzin (Nikitsky Boulevard, Moscow). Lived here in last years and N. V. Gogol died, here he burned the second volume of "Dead Souls"

Gogol's influence on the work of the literary generation that immediately followed him was great and versatile, being, as it were, an inevitable addition to those great testaments that the untimely deceased Pushkin left far unfinished. Having brilliantly completed the great national cause firmly established by Pushkin, the work of developing literary language and artistic forms, Gogol, in addition to this, introduced two deeply original streams into the very content of literature - the humor and poetry of the Little Russian people - and a bright social element, which from that moment received in fiction undeniable value. He strengthened this meaning by the example of his own ideally high attitude to artistic activity.

Gogol raised the importance of artistic activity to a height civic duty, to which she had never risen to such a bright degree before him. The sad episode of the sacrifice by the author of his beloved creation in the midst of the wild civic persecution raised around him will forever remain deeply touching and instructive.

Literature on the biography and work of Gogol

Kulish,"Notes on the life of Gogol".

Shenrock,"Materials for the biography of Gogol" (M. 1897, 3 volumes).

Skabichevsky, "Works" vol. II.

Biographical sketch of Gogol ed. Pavlenkova.

The work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is literary heritage, which can be compared with a large and multifaceted diamond, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow.

Despite the fact that the life path of Nikolai Vasilyevich was short (1809-1852), and in the last ten years he did not finish a single work, the writer made an invaluable contribution to Russian classical literature.

They looked at Gogol as a hoaxer, a satirist, a romantic, and just a wonderful storyteller. Such versatility was attractive, as a phenomenon, even during the life of the writer. Incredible situations were attributed to him, and sometimes ridiculous rumors were spread. But Nikolai Vasilyevich did not refute them. He knew that over time it would all turn into legends.

The literary fate of the writer is enviable. Not every author can boast that all his works were published during his lifetime, and each work attracted the attention of critics.

Start

The fact that real talent came to literature became clear after the story “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. But this is not the author's first work. The first thing that the writer created was the romantic poem "Hanz Küchelgarten".

It is difficult to say what prompted the young Nikolai to write such a strange work, probably a passion for German romanticism. But the poem failed. And as soon as the first negative reviews appeared, the young author, together with his servant Yakim, bought up all the remaining copies and simply burned them.

Such an act has become something like a ring-shaped composition in creativity. Nikolai Vasilyevich began his literary career by burning his works and ended it with burning. Yes, Gogol treated his works cruelly when he felt some kind of failure.

But then the second work came out, which was mixed with Ukrainian folklore and Russian ancient literature- "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka". The author managed to laugh at the evil spirit, at the devil himself, combine the past and the present, true and false, and paint all this in cheerful colors.

All the stories described in two volumes were received with enthusiasm. Pushkin, who was an authority for Nikolai Vasilyevich, wrote: "What poetry! .. All this is so unusual in our current literature." Put his "quality mark" and Belinsky. It was a success.

Genius

If the first two books, which included eight stories, showed that talent had entered literature, then the new cycle, under common name"Mirgorod" revealed a genius.

Mirgorod There are only four stories. But each work is a real masterpiece.

A story about two old men who live in their estate. Nothing happens in their life. At the end of the story, they die.

Such a story can be treated differently. What did the author seek: sympathy, pity, compassion? Maybe this is how the writer sees the idyll of the sunset part of a person's life?

A very young Gogol (he was only 26 years old at the time of writing the story) so decided to show real, genuine love. He moved away from generally accepted stereotypes: romance between young people, frenzied passions, betrayals, confessions.

Two old men, Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna, do not show any special love for each other, let alone carnal needs, there are no anxious unrest. Their life is caring for each other, the desire to predict, not yet voiced desires, to play a joke.

But their affection for each other is so great that after the death of Pulcheria Ivanovna, Afanasy Ivanovich simply cannot live without her. Afanasy Ivanovich is weakening, decaying, as well as old manor, and asks before his death: "Lay me near Pulcheria Ivanovna."

Here it is everyday, deep feeling.

Tale of Taras Bulba

Here the author touches historical theme. The war that Taras Bulba is waging against the Poles is a war for the purity of faith, for Orthodoxy, against "Catholic mistrust."

And although Nikolai Vasilievich did not have reliable historical facts about Ukraine, being content with folk legends, meager annalistic data, Ukrainian folk songs, and sometimes simply referring to mythology and his own fantasy, he perfectly managed to show the heroism of the Cossacks. The story was literally stretched catchphrases, which remain relevant even now: “I gave birth to you, I will kill you!”, “Be patient, Cossack, you will be an ataman!”, “Is there still gunpowder in the powder flasks ?!”

The mystical basis of the work, where evil spirits and evil spirits united against the protagonist, form the basis of the plot, perhaps the most incredible Gogol story.

The main action takes place in the temple. Here the author allowed himself to fall into doubt, is the evil spirit victorious? Is faith capable of resisting this demonic revelry when neither the word of God nor the performance of special sacraments helps.

Even the name of the protagonist - Khoma Brut, is chosen with a deep meaning. Khoma is a religious principle (that was the name of one of Christ's disciples - Thomas), and Brutus, as you know, is the murderer of Caesar and an apostate.

Bursak Brutus had to spend three nights in the church reading prayers. But the fear of the pannochka rising from the grave made him turn to uncharitable protection.

Gogol's character struggles with the lady in two ways. On the one hand, with the help of prayers, on the other hand, with the help of pagan rituals, the drawing of a circle and spells. His behavior is explained by philosophical views on life and doubts about the existence of God.

As a result, Homa Brutus did not have enough faith. He rejected the inner voice prompting: "Do not look at Viy." And in magic, he was weak, compared to the surrounding entities, and lost this battle. He lacked a few minutes before the last cock crow. Salvation was so close, but the student did not take advantage of it. And the church remained in desolation, defiled by evil spirits.

The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich

A story about the enmity of former friends who quarreled over a trifle and devoted the rest of their lives to sorting out the relationship.

A sinful passion for hatred and strife - this is the vice that the author points to. Gogol laughs at the petty dirty tricks and intrigues that the main characters build each other. This enmity makes their whole life petty and vulgar.

The story is full of satire, grotesque, irony. And when the author says with admiration that both Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are both beautiful people, the reader understands all the meanness and vulgarity of the main characters. Out of boredom, the landlords are looking for reasons to litigate and this becomes their meaning of life. And it is sad because these gentlemen have no other goal.

Petersburg stories

The search for a way to overcome evil was continued by Gogol in those works that the writer did not combine into a certain cycle. It's just that the writers decided to call them Petersburg, according to the place of action. Here again the author makes fun of human vices. The play "Marriage", the novels "Notes of a Madman", "Portrait", "Nevsky Prospekt", the comedies "Litigation", "Excerpt", "Players" deserved special popularity.

Some of the works should be told in more detail.

The most significant of these Petersburg works is considered to be the story "The Overcoat". No wonder Dostoevsky once said: "We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat." Yes, this is a key work for Russian writers.

The "Overcoat" shows the classic image of a little man. The reader is presented with a downtrodden titular adviser, meaning nothing in the service, whom anyone can offend.

Here Gogol made another discovery - small man interesting to everyone. After all, a worthy image in literature early XIX centuries were considered problems state level, heroic deeds, stormy or sentimental feelings, vivid passions, strong characters.

And now, against the backdrop of prominent characters, Nikolai Vasilyevich “releases into the people” a petty official who should be completely uninteresting. There are no state secrets, no struggle for the glory of the Fatherland. There is no place for sentimentality and sighs starry sky. And the most courageous thoughts in the head of Akaky Akakievich: “But why not put a marten on the collar of your overcoat?”

The writer showed an insignificant person, whose meaning of life is an overcoat. His goals are very small. Bashmachkin first dreams of an overcoat, then saves money for it, and when it is stolen, he simply dies. And readers sympathize with the unfortunate adviser as they consider the issue of social injustice.

Gogol definitely wanted to show the stupidity, inconsistency and mediocrity of Akaky Akakievich, who can only deal with the correspondence of papers. But it is compassion for this insignificant person that gives rise to a warm feeling in the reader.

It is impossible to ignore this masterpiece. The play has always been a success, also because the author gives the actors a good basis for creativity. The first release of the play was a triumph. It is known that the example of the "Inspector General" was Emperor Nicholas I himself, who favorably accepted the production, and assessed it as a criticism of bureaucracy. That's how the comedy was seen by everyone else.

But Gogol did not rejoice. His work was not understood! We can say that Nikolai Vasilievich took up self-flagellation. It is from the "Inspector General" that the writer begins to evaluate his work more harshly, after any of his publications, raising the literary bar higher and higher.

As for The Inspector General, the author hoped for a long time that he would be understood. But this did not happen even ten years later. Then the writer created the work “Decoupling to the Inspector General”, in which he explains to the reader and viewer how to correctly understand this comedy.

First of all, the author declares that he does not criticize anything. And cities where all officials are freaks cannot exist in Russia: "At least two or three, but there are decent ones." And the city shown in the play is a spiritual city that sits inside everyone.

It turns out that Gogol showed in his comedy the soul of a person, and called for understanding his apostasy and repentance. The author put all his efforts into the epigraph: “There is nothing to blame on the mirror, if the face is crooked.” And after he was not understood, he turned this phrase against himself.

But the poem was also perceived as a criticism of landlord Russia. They also saw a call to fight against serfdom, although, in fact, Gogol was not an opponent of serfdom.

In the second volume of Dead Souls, the writer wanted to show positive examples. For example, he painted the image of the landowner Costanjoglo so decent, hardworking and fair that the peasants of the neighboring landowner come to him and ask him to buy them.

All the ideas of the author were brilliant, but he himself believed that everything was going wrong. Not everyone knows that for the first time Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls back in 1845. This is not an aesthetic failure. The surviving drafts show that Gogol's talent has not dried up at all, as some critics try to claim. The burning of the second volume shows the exactingness of the author, and not his insanity.

But rumors about the slight insanity of Nikolai Vasilyevich quickly spread. Even the close circle of the writer, people far from stupid, could not understand what the writer wants from life. All this gave rise to additional inventions.

But there was also an idea for the third volume, where the characters from the first two volumes were supposed to meet. One can only guess what the author deprived us of by destroying his manuscripts.

Nikolai Vasilievich admitted that at the beginning life path, while still in adolescence, he was not easily worried about the question of good and evil. The boy wanted to find a way to fight evil. The search for an answer to this question and redefined his calling.

The method was found - satire and humor. Anything that seems unattractive, unsightly, or ugly needs to be made funny. Gogol said so: "Even the one who is not afraid of anything is afraid of laughter."

The writer has developed the ability to turn the situation around in a funny way so much that his humor has acquired a special, subtle basis. visible to the world laughter hid in itself tears, and disappointment, and grief, something that cannot amuse, but, on the contrary, leads to sad thoughts.

For example, in a very funny story "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich" after funny story about irreconcilable neighbors, the author concludes: "It's boring in this world, gentlemen!" The goal has been reached. The reader is sad because the situation played out is not at all funny. The same effect after reading the story "Notes of a Madman" where a whole tragedy is played out, although it is presented in a comedic perspective.

And if early work differs in true cheerfulness, for example, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, then with age the author wants deeper proceedings, and encourages the reader and viewer to do this.

Nikolai Vasilievich understood that laughter could be dangerous and resorted to various tricks to circumvent censorship. For example, the stage fate of The Inspector General might not have worked out at all if Zhukovsky had not convinced the emperor himself that there was nothing unreliable in mocking officials who did not inspire confidence.

Like many, Gogol's road to Orthodoxy was not easy. He painfully, making mistakes and doubting, was looking for his way to the truth. But it was not enough for him to find this way himself. He wanted to point it out to others. He wanted to cleanse himself of all evil and offered to do this to everyone.

WITH young years the boy studied both Orthodoxy and Catholicism, comparing religions, noting similarities and differences. And this search for truth was reflected in many of his works. Gogol not only read the Gospel, he made notes.

Having become famous as a great hoaxer, he was not understood in his last unfinished work, Selected passages from correspondence with friends. Yes, and the church reacted negatively to the "Selected Places", believing that it is unacceptable for the author of "Dead Souls" to read sermons.

The Christian book itself was truly instructive. The author explains what happens at the liturgy. What is the symbolic meaning of this or that action. But this work was not completed. In general, the last years of the writer's life are a turn from the external to the internal.

Nikolai Vasilyevich travels a lot to monasteries, especially often visits the Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage, where he has a spiritual mentor, Elder Macarius. In 1949, Gogol met a priest, Father Matvey Konstantinovsky.

Disputes often occur between the writer and Archpriest Matthew. Moreover, for the priest, the humility and piety of Nikolai is not enough, he demands: "Renounce Pushkin."

And although Gogol did not commit any renunciation, the opinion of his spiritual mentor hovered over him like an indisputable authority. The writer persuades the archpriest to read the second volume of "Dead Souls" in the final version. And although the priest initially refused, after he decided to give his assessment of the work.

Archpriest Matthew is the only lifetime reader of the Gogol manuscript of the 2nd part. Returning the final original to the author, the priest did not easily give a negative assessment of the prose poem, he advised to destroy it. In fact, that's who influenced the fate of the work of the great classic.

The condemnation of Konstantinovsky, and a number of other circumstances, prompted the writer to abandon creativity. Gogol begins to analyze his work. He almost gave up food. Dark thoughts overcome him more and more.

Since everything happened in the house of Count Tolstoy, Gogol asked him to hand over the manuscripts to Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow. Out of good intentions, the count refused to comply with such a request. Then late at night Nikolai Vasilievich woke up Semyon's servant to open the oven valves and burn all his manuscripts.

It seems that this event predetermined quick death writer. He continued to fast and rejected any help from friends and doctors. He seemed to be cleaning himself up, preparing for death.

It must be said that Nikolai Vasilyevich was not abandoned. The literary community sent the best doctors to the patient's bedside. A whole council of professors was assembled. But apparently the decision to start compulsory treatment was belated. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is dead.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that the writer, who wrote so much about evil spirits, went deeper into faith. Everyone on earth has their own path.

Since the end of the 20s. a number of journal articles and individual books appear on issues of Russian, Ukrainian and common Slavic ethnography, and one after another editions of monuments of folk art are published: Little Russian Songs by M.A. Iv. Sreznevsky (1834, 1835, and 1838), the three-volume Tales of the Russian People by I. P. Sakharov (1836-1837) and many others. etc. At the same time, the “Collection of Russian Songs” by Peter Kireevsky, published later, was being prepared.

In line with this still emerging ethnographic movement, Gogol finds himself as an artist, creates and publishes his first narrative cycle, Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.

Gogol was born and raised in Ukraine and until the end of his life he considered it his micro-homeland, and himself a Russian writer with a “Khokhlatsky” leaven.

Coming from the medium of the middle-class Ukrainian nobility, he knew well its rural and urban life, from a young age was burdened by the provincial-serf "poverty" and "earthlyness" of this life, admired the folk-poetic traditions of the "Cossack antiquity", which then lived not only among the people, but also revered in some "old-world" noble families, including in the house of a noble and highly educated distant relative future writer - D. P. Troshchinsky, an ardent admirer and collector of Ukrainian "old times".

"Evenings" amazed contemporaries with its incomparable originality, poetic freshness and brightness. Pushkin’s review is known: “... everyone was delighted with this lively description of a singing and dancing tribe, these fresh pictures of Little Russian nature, this cheerfulness, simple-hearted and at the same time crafty.

How amazed we were at the Russian book that made us laugh, we who have not laughed since the time of Fonvizin! The mention of Fonvizin is not accidental. This is a hint that the simple-hearted gaiety of "Evenings" is not as simple-minded as it might seem at first glance.

Belinsky, who greeted Belkin's Tale very coldly, greeted Evenings, also - and earlier than Pushkin - noting in them a combination of "gaiety, poetry and folk."

"Merry nationality" sharply distinguished "Evenings" from the usual naturalistic depiction of the serf life of the Russian and Ukrainian villages in the so-called "common people" stories of that time, in which Belinsky rightly saw a profanation of the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bnationality.

Gogol happily avoided this danger and did not fall into the other extreme - the idealization of "folk mores", finding a completely new angle of their image. It can be called a mirror reflection of the poetic, life-affirming consciousness of the people themselves. The “living”, in Pushkin’s words, “description of the singing and dancing tribe” is literally woven from the motifs of Ukrainian folklore, drawn from its various genres - heroic-historical “dooms”, lyrical and ritual songs, fairy tales, anecdotes, crib comedies.

This is the artistic authenticity of the cheerful and poetic people of Gogol's first narrative cycle. But his poetic world is permeated with a hidden longing for the former Zaporizhzhya liberties of the enslaved, like all "tribes" Russian Empire, "Dikan Cossacks", which forms the epic beginning and the ideological unity of all the stories included in it.

Romantically bright in its national coloring, the poetic world of "Evenings" is devoid of another obligatory attribute of the romantic epic - historical, temporal locality. Each story has its own historical time, special, sometimes definite, and in some cases, for example, in May Night, conditional. But thanks to this, the national character (according to the philosophical and historical terminology of the 1930s and 1940s, the “spirit”) of the Cossack tribe appears in Evenings from the side of its ideal, invariably beautiful essence.

Its immediate reality is the linguistic consciousness of the people in all the stories of the cycle. The predominantly verbal characterization of the characters gives the fantastic style of "Evenings" the "pictorial style" previously unknown to Russian prose, noted by Belinsky, and belongs to the number of Gogol's most promising innovations.

The tale is a means of delimiting the author's speech from the speech of his characters, in "Evenings" - from popular vernacular, which thus becomes both a means and an object of artistic representation. Russian prose knew nothing of the kind before Gogol's Evenings.

The stylistic norm of the colloquial element of "Evenings" is rustic innocence, under the mask of which lies the abyss of "Khokhlatsky" cheerful slyness and mischief. In combination with one another, the whole comedy of "Evenings" is concluded, mainly verbal, motivated by the artistic fiction of their "publisher", "beekeeper" Rudy Pank, and a number of storytellers related to him.

The preface to Evenings, written on behalf of Rudy Panok, characterizes their "publisher" as the bearer of the speech norm, not by the author, but by his storytellers and heroes. And this norm remains unchanged in all the stories of the cycle, which also emphasizes the constancy of the fundamental properties of the national character of the "Dikan Cossacks" in all historical circumstances.

So, for example, the vernacular, and thus the spiritual image of the characters of "Sorochinsky Fair" and "The Night Before Christmas" do not differ from each other, despite the fact that the action of the first story is related to the present, takes place before the eyes of the author, and the action of the second dated to the end of the 18th century, at the time when the government decree promulgated in 1775 was being prepared, according to which the Zaporozhian army was deprived of all its liberties and privileges.

In the breadth of the historical time covered by the "Evenings", their lyrical and ethnographic beginnings merge into one, acquire an epic scale.

“The Night Before Christmas” opens the second part of “Evenings”, which was published at the beginning of 1832. And if the epic of the first part (“Sorochinsky Fair”, “Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”, “May Night”) declares itself only with the historical overtones of folk fantasy, oral and poetic “tales” and “fables”, then the stories of the second part, together with the “Lost Letter” that concludes the first part, have a fairly clearly defined historical space - from the era of the struggle of the “Cossack people” against Polish domination (“Terrible Revenge”) to its feudal modernity (“Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt”).

So history merges with modernity on the principle of contrasting the beauty of the heroic past of the freedom-loving "tribe" with the ugliness and dullness of its serfdom.

Exactly the same ideological and artistic connection exists between the stories of Gogol's second cycle, Mirgorod (1835). If two of them - "Old World Landowners" and especially "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich" - stylistically and thematically adjoin the story about Shponka, then the other two - "Viy" and "Taras Bulba" - stand in one along with the vast majority of the stories of the "Evenings", have a bright poetic flavor in common with them.

It is no coincidence that Gogol gave "Mirgorod" the subtitle "Continuation of Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", thus emphasizing the ideological and artistic unity of both cycles and the very principle of cyclization. This is the principle of the contrast between the natural and the unnatural, the beautiful and the ugly, high poetry and low prose. national life, and at the same time, its two social poles - folk and small local.

But both in "Evenings" and in "Mirgorod" these social polarities are attached to different epochs of national existence and correlate with each other as its beautiful past and ugly present, moreover, the present is depicted in its immediate feudal "reality", and the past - in such a way. , as it was imprinted in the people's consciousness, deposited in the national "spirit" of the people and continues to live in its legends, beliefs, legends, customs.

Here manifests itself the most important feature Gogol's artistic method is his philosophical historicism, the Walter-Scottian beginning of the writer's work.

The depiction of popular movements and customs is one of the most promising innovations in historical novels by W. Scott. But this is only the historical background of their action, the main "interest" of which is the love affair and the fate of the personal heroes of the story, voluntary or involuntary participants in the depicted historical events, connected with it.

The national character of Gogol's Ukrainian stories is already essentially different.

The national specificity and historical projection of their Cossack world act as a form of critical comprehension of the “poverty” and “earthness” of contemporary Russian life for the writer, recognized by the writer himself as a temporary “lulling” of the national spirit.

History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983

He was born on March 20 (April 1), 1809 in the village of Sorochintsy, Poltava province, in the family of a landowner. Gogol was the third child, and in total there were 12 children in the family.

Training in the biography of Gogol took place at the Poltava School. Then in 1821 he entered the class of the Nizhyn gymnasium, where he studied justice. In his school years, the writer was not distinguished by special abilities in his studies. Well, he was given only drawing lessons and the study of Russian literature. He only wrote mediocre works.

The beginning of the literary path

In 1828, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg in his life. There he served as an official, tried to get a job as an actor in the theater and was engaged in literature. Actor career did not go well, and the service did not bring Gogol pleasure, and sometimes even weighed down. And the writer decided to prove himself in the literary field.

In 1831, Gogol met representatives of the literary circles of Zhukovsky and Pushkin, undoubtedly these acquaintances greatly influenced him further fate and literary activities.

Gogol and theater

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's interest in the theater manifested itself in his youth, after the death of his father, a wonderful playwright and storyteller.

Realizing the full power of the theater, Gogol took up dramaturgy. Gogol's The Inspector General was written in 1835 and staged for the first time in 1836. Due to the negative reaction of the public to the production of "The Inspector General", the writer leaves the country.

last years of life

In 1836, in the biography of Nikolai Gogol, trips were made to Switzerland, Germany, Italy, as well as a short stay in Paris. Then, from March 1837, work continued on the first volume in Rome. greatest work Gogol's "Dead Souls", which was conceived by the author in St. Petersburg. After returning home from Rome, the writer publishes the first volume of the poem. While working on the second volume, Gogol had spiritual crisis. Even a trip to Jerusalem did not help to rectify the situation.

At the beginning of 1843, Gogol's famous story "The Overcoat" was first published.

Chronological table

Other biography options

  • The writer was fond of mysticism and religion. The most mysterious work of Gogol is the story "Viy", created, according to the author himself, on the basis of Ukrainian folk tradition. However, literary critics and historians still cannot find evidence of this, which indicates the exclusive authorship of the hoax writer.
  • It is also believed that a few days before his death great writer burned the second volume of Dead Souls. Some scientists consider this an unreliable fact, but no one will ever know the truth.
  • It is still not known exactly how the writer died. One of the main versions says that Gogol was buried alive. Evidence of this was the change in the position of his body during reburial.
  • see all

What did a great writer look like? M.N. Loginov recalled that Gogol was short, thin, with a twisted nose and crooked legs. More precisely, his sister O.V. recalls the appearance of Gogol. Smut: “His hair was blond, and his eyes were brown. As a child, he had blond hair, and then darkened. He was below average height; I never saw him thin; his face was round, and he always had a good complexion, I did not see him sickly pale. He was a little stooped, it was more noticeable when he was sitting ... ”Gogol also followed his hair. Once he shaved off his hair to make it thicker. In general, many of Gogol's contemporaries believed that he was handsome.

Character

Gogol had a varied character. Some contemporaries recalled that he often resisted, others - that there was no person kinder than Gogol, still others - that there was no person more secretive than Gogol. Gogol was also very talkative and did not like female chatter.
Here is how the artist F.I. Jordan: “Gogol's kindness was unparalleled, especially to me and to my great work “Transfiguration”. He recommended me where he could. Thanks to his great acquaintance, this served as an encouragement and gave me new strength my desire to finish the engraving. Gogol did good to many with recommendations, thanks to which the artists received new orders.”

Creation

Gogol began writing while still in high school. First most famous work Gogol was the poem "Hanz Küchelgarten". Gogol always carried a notebook and a pen in his pocket, so that if inspiration suddenly came, he could immediately write it down. Gogol's handwriting was illegible, and when he submitted manuscripts for printing, the publishers could not make out his handwriting. Although N.V. Berg believed that Gogol's handwriting was quite beautiful and legible. Great fame was brought to Gogol by “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, “Dead Souls” and “Inspector General”.

Gogol's first dwelling was a house in Vasilievka, where he was born. There in his room was a desk and a table where his books lay. Gogol's second dwelling was an apartment in St. Petersburg on Gorokhovaya Street. Her Gogol, together with A.S. Danilevsky was removed from the ad. They lived there together until Danilevsky entered military service and left. Gogol also lived in Italy - in Rome on Via Felice No. 126. The apartment in Rome was very spacious. Gogol's last home was a house in Moscow on Nikitinsky Boulevard. There Gogol died.

Trips

Gogol traveled a lot. Gogol's first journey was from Vasilievka to Nizhyn, when Gogol was on his way to the gymnasium. After graduating from the gymnasium, Gogol again went to Vasilievka, and from Vasilievka to Petersburg. From St. Petersburg, Gogol sailed to Germany, to the city of Aachen, and then to Switzerland. After Switzerland, Gogol returned to Russia, to Moscow. Then he again went abroad - to Italy, to Rome, where he lived for a long time. Gogol was also in France. Then he returned to Moscow, where he died.

Gogol was not very poor, and even more so his father. Gogol's father had 400 serf souls. Gogol lived abroad for a long time, and it is very expensive to live there. Gogol also paid a lot of money to have his poem “Hanz Küchelgarten” published, which he then burned. Gogol was also not economical, and also spent a lot of money on books.

Hobbies

Gogol loved to sing. Gogol also liked to collect exclusive books. Nikolai Vasilievich loved both botany and needlework. Gogol drew very well. While living in Rome, he often went to the Colosseum, sat there and painted. Gogol loved to play dominoes and checkers, but Gogol's favorite game was billiards.

Gogol liked to wear a frock coat, as well as multi-colored vests: blue, green and many other colors. Gogol also wore bloomers. On his head was either a white or a gray hat. L.I. recalls Gogol's clothes. Arnoldi: “... He will appear in a dress of bright colors, smoothed, open his snow-white shirt, hang a gold chain around his waistcoat and look like some kind of birthday boy.<...>He thought a lot about how to dress up prettier.”

Gogol had a sweet tooth. He constantly sucked honey gingerbread, ate various sweets and drank kvass. He always had some gingerbread or candy in his pockets. Gogol also ate sugar and jars of jam. Gogol also loved various Little Russian dishes: dumplings and other dishes. Before dinner, Gogol drank a glass of vodka. Gogol himself loved to cook. Here is how L.I. Arnoldi: “Gogol began to order dinner, invented some new dish of berries, flour, cream and something else, I only remember that it was not tasty at all.”