Writers explore life in two ways - mentally, starting with reflections on the phenomena of life, and artistically, the essence of which is the comprehension of the same phenomena not with the mind (or, rather, not only with the mind), but with their entire human essence, or, as they say, intuitively.
Intellectual knowledge of life leads the author to a logical presentation of the material studied by him, artistic - to the expression of the essence of the same phenomena through a system of artistic images. The writer-fiction writer, as it were, gives a picture of life, but not just a copy from it, but transformed into a new artistic reality, which is why the phenomena that interested the author and illuminated by the bright light of his genius or talent appear before us especially visible, and sometimes visible through and through.
It is assumed that a true writer gives us life only in the form of its artistic representation. But in reality there are not so many such "pure" authors, and perhaps they do not exist at all. More often than not, a writer is both an artist and a thinker.
Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov has long been considered one of the most objective Russian writers, that is, a writer in whose works personal sympathies or antipathies are not set as a measure of certain life values. He gives artistic pictures of life objectively, as if “listening to good and evil with indifference”, leaving the reader to judge and pass judgment on his own, with his own mind.
It is in the novel ordinary story Goncharov, through the mouth of a magazine employee, expresses this idea in its purest form: “... the writer will only, firstly, write efficiently when he is not under the influence of personal passion and predilection. He must survey life and people in general with a calm and bright look, otherwise he will express only his own I that no one cares about." And in the article “Better late than never,” Goncharov notes: “... I will first say about myself that I belong to the latter category, that is, I am most fond of (as Belinsky noted about me) “my ability to draw.”
And in his first novel, Goncharov painted a picture of Russian life in a small country estate and in St. Petersburg in the 40s of the 19th century. Of course, Goncharov could not give a complete picture of life in the countryside and St. Petersburg, just as no author can do this, because life is always more diverse than any of its images. Let's see if the depicted picture turned out to be objective, as the author wished, or some side considerations made this picture subjective.
The dramatic content of the novel is that peculiar duel waged by its two main characters: the young man Alexander Aduev and his uncle Pyotr Ivanovich. The duel is exciting, dynamic, in which success falls to the lot of one side or the other. A fight for the right to live life according to your ideals. And the ideals of uncle and nephew are directly opposite.
Young Alexander comes to Petersburg straight from the warm embrace of his mother, dressed from head to toe in the armor of lofty and noble spiritual impulses, comes to the capital not out of idle curiosity, but in order to engage in a decisive battle with everything soulless, prudent, vile. “I was attracted by some irresistible desire, a thirst for noble activity,” exclaims this naive idealist. And he challenged not just anyone, but the whole world of evil. Such a little homegrown donquixote! And after all, he also read and heard all sorts of noble nonsense.
The subtle irony of Goncharov, with which he describes his young hero at the beginning of the novel - his departure from home, vows of eternal love to Sonechka and his friend Pospelov, his first timid steps in St. Petersburg - it is this very mocking look of Goncharov on his young hero that makes the image Aduev Jr. dear to our hearts, but already predetermines the outcome of the struggle between his nephew and uncle. True heroes capable of great deeds are not treated with irony by the authors.
And here is the opposite side: a resident of the capital, the owner of a glass and porcelain factory, an official on special assignments, a man of a sober mind and practical sense, thirty-nine-year-old Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev is the second hero of the novel. Goncharov endows him with humor and even sarcasm, but he himself does not treat this creation of his with irony, which makes us assume: here it is, true hero novel, here is the one on whom the author suggests that we take alignment.
These two characters that interested the Potters were brightest type of his time. The ancestor of the first was Vladimir Lensky, the second - Eugene Onegin himself, although in a greatly transformed form. I will note here in brackets that the coldness of Onegin, his experience suffer exactly the same collapse as the experience and significance of the life of Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev.
Still vaguely feeling the integrity of his novel, Goncharov writes: “... in the meeting of the soft, spoiled by laziness and lordship, dreamer-nephew with a practical uncle, there was a hint of a motive that had just begun to play out in the liveliest center - in St. Petersburg. This motive is a faint flicker of consciousness of the need for work, a real, not routine, but a living thing in the fight against the all-Russian stagnation.
Goncharov really wants to take this particular person of “living work” as a model for himself, and not only for himself, but also to offer him to the reader’s attention precisely as a model.
With what brilliance the dialogues between uncle and nephew are written! How calmly, confidently, categorically the uncle breaks his hot, but not armed with a terrible weapon of logic and experience, nephew! And every critical phrase is deadly, irresistible. Irresistible because he speaks the truth. Heavy, sometimes even offensive and merciless, but the truth.
Here he ridicules “material signs ... of immaterial relations” - a ring and a curl presented by Sonechka at parting to her beloved Sashenka leaving for the capital. “And it was you who was carrying a thousand five hundred miles? .. It would be better if you brought another bag of dried raspberries,” advises the uncle and throws symbols of eternal love, priceless for Alexander, through the window. Alexander's uncle's words and his actions seem wild and cold. Can he forget his Sonya? Never!..
Alas, my uncle was right. Very little time has passed, and Alexander falls in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya, falls in love with all the ardor of youth, with passion inherent in his nature, unconsciously, thoughtlessly! .. Sonechka is completely forgotten. Not only will he never remember her, but he will also forget her name. Love for Nadenka will fill Alexander completely! .. There will be no end to his radiant happiness. What business can there be here, about which my uncle keeps talking, what work, when, one might say, he disappears day and night outside the city with the Lyubetskys! Oh, this uncle, he only has business on his mind. Insensitive! .. How his tongue turns to say that Nadenka, his Nadenka, this deity, this perfection, can fool him. "She will cheat! This angel, this personified sincerity…” exclaims young Alexander. “But still a woman, and probably will deceive,” the uncle replies. Oh, this sober, merciless mind and experience. It's hard!.. But it's true: Nadya deceived me. She fell in love with the count, and Alexander gets his resignation. All life immediately turned black. And uncle keeps saying: I warned you! ..
Alexander fails decisively in all respects - in love, in friendship, in impulses for creativity, in work. Everything, absolutely everything that his teachers and books taught, everything turned out to be nonsense and with a slight crunch shattered under the iron tread of sober reason and practical deeds. In the most tense scene of the novel, when Alexander is driven to despair, drunk, sank, his will is atrophied, his interest in life has completely disappeared, the uncle retorts the last babble of his nephew's excuse: “What I demanded from you - I didn’t make it all up.” “Who? - asked Lizaveta Alexandrovna (wife of Pyotr Ivanych - V.R.). - Vek.
This is where the main motivation for the behavior of Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev was revealed. Decree of the century! Century demanded! “Look,” he cries, “at the youth of today: what a fine fellow! How everything boils with mental activity, energy, how deftly and easily they deal with all this nonsense, which in your old language is called anxiety, suffering ... and the devil knows what else!
Sasha Aduev, the protagonist of the novel, lives in the village in an Oblomov-style carelessly. Mother with a lot of kisses and instructions sends him to St. Petersburg to his uncle - Peter Ivanovich Aduev. With squeamish bewilderment, the uncle reads a letter from a girl (now she is already an old woman), whom she was fond of in her youth: what provincial sentimentality! Another letter from Sasha's mother (the wife of the late brother Pyotr Ivanovich) - she hands over her child to the "dear little girl." In vain did the woman hope that her uncle would settle his nephew in his place and would “cover his mouth with a handkerchief from flies”. Pyotr Ivanovich rents a room for Sasha and gives him his first lessons in urban practicality. He is amused by the naive romanticism of his nephew, his magnificent speeches, his naive poems. Uncle even rejects his nephew's education: all these "philosophies" and "rhetoric" are unsuitable for business. Sashenka is arranged to copy papers in the office. There is also a "literary" job for him (he knows languages!) - translating articles on manure and potato molasses for an economic journal.
Several years pass. A touch of provinciality fell from young Aduev. He dresses fashionably, acquired a metropolitan gloss. He is appreciated in the service. His uncle no longer pastes over his poems and prose utility rooms and reads with interest. But then Aduev decided to tell his uncle about his love - the only one in the world. Uncle makes fun of him: young romantic feelings, in his opinion, are worth nothing. And of course, this feeling cannot be eternal: someone will “cheat” someone. The uncle himself was also going to get married, not "by calculation" (to marry money), but "with the calculation" - so that his wife would suit him as a person. The main thing is to do the job. And Sashenka, because of love, doesn’t even submit articles to the editor on time.
Time has passed. Nadenka (the one and only) preferred Count Novinsky to Alexander. The count (a young, handsome secular lion) visits every day, rides with a girl on horseback. Sashenka suffers. He curses female infidelity, wants to challenge the count to a duel. With all this, he comes to his uncle. Pyotr Aduev tries to explain to his nephew that Nadenka is not to blame for falling in love with another, that the count is not to blame if he managed to capture the girl's imagination. But Aduev does not listen to his uncle, he seems to him a cynic, heartless. The uncle's young wife, Lizaveta Alexandrovna (ta tante), consoles Alexander. She also has a drama: her husband seems too rational to her, he does not tell her about his love. It’s not enough for a young sensitive woman that he remembers all her desires, he is ready to provide the contents of his wallet to satisfy her whims - and after all, money means a lot to Peter Aduev.
Sasha Aduev manages to be disappointed in friendship: why is a friend young years didn’t pour tears over his chest, but just invited him to dinner and began to ask about business? He is also disappointed in magazines that are not able to evaluate his literary work (very grandiloquent and abstract arguments from life). The uncle welcomes the renunciation of literary works (Alexander has no talent) and forces his nephew to burn all his sublime writings. Aunt Lizaveta takes a kind of patronage over Sashenka. Taking care of Alexander, ma tante (aunt), as it were, makes up for that share of sentimentality that her soul seeks.
The uncle gives his nephew an important assignment: to "fall in love" with the widow Yulia Tafaeva. This is necessary because the uncle's partner in the porcelain factory, the amorous and smart Surkov, spends too much money on this widow. Seeing that his place is taken, Surkov will not waste his money. The assignment was carried out with brilliance: Sashenka carried away the sentimental nervous widow, and he himself was carried away. They are so similar! Julia also does not imagine "simple quiet love", it is absolutely necessary for her to "fall at her feet" and swear "with all the powers of the soul." At first, Alexander is so inspired by the relationship of souls and the beauty of Julia that he is ready to marry. However, the widow is too intrusive, too submissive in her feelings - and young Aduev begins to be weary of this relationship. He doesn’t even know how to get rid of the widow, but his uncle saves him after talking with Tafaeva.
Disillusioned, Alexander falls into apathy. He is not interested in promotion, work in the editorial office. He dresses casually, often spending whole days on the couch. He is entertained only by summer fishing. While sitting with a fishing rod, he meets a poor girl Lisa - and is already ready to seduce her, without burdening himself with the obligations of marriage.
Lisa's father gives the younger Aduev a turn from the gate. Indifference to everything overcomes Alexander. He is unable to follow in his uncle's footsteps and find himself in society and in business (as they would say now - "in business"). Enough money for a modest life? And enough! Uncle tries to distract him and in response receives accusations that the younger Aduev, through the fault of Aduev Sr., has grown old in soul before he has gained the necessary experience for this.
Pyotr Aduev received his “reward” for his diligent service to the cause (and for playing cards every night) - he has a backache. Alexander Aduev’s lower back certainly won’t hurt! That's what my uncle thinks. Alexander does not see joy in the "case". Therefore, he needs to go to the village. The nephew heeded the advice and departed. My aunt cried all day.
In the village, Alexander first rests, then gets bored, then returns to journal (economic) work. He is going to return to Petersburg, but does not know how to announce this to his mother. The old woman relieves him of these troubles - she dies.
In the epilogue, the reader encounters Aunt Lizaveta's unexpected illness - she is struck by a deep indifference to life. This gave rise to the "methodical and dryness" of her husband's attitude towards her. Pyotr Ivanovich would be happy to correct this (he resigns and sells the plant!), but his wife's illness has gone too far, she does not want victims - nothing can revive her. Uncle is going to take her to Italy - his wife's well-being has become the highest value for him.
But Alexander triumphs - he marries a rich (very rich!) young girl (does it matter what she feels!), He is doing great in the service and in magazines. He is finally happy with himself. The only bad thing is that the lower back began to ache a little ...
One summer, from the village of Grachi, the estate of the poor landowner Anna Pavlovna Adueva, the only son of Anna Pavlovna, Alexander Fedorovich, “a blond young man in the prime of life, health and strength,” is escorted to St. Petersburg to serve. The valet Yevsey is sent with him. Anna Pavlovna is beside herself with grief, she either begins to cry, then scolds Yevsey for not paying due attention to the things of the master, then she reads the last instructions to Sashenka. Yevsey is escorted by Agrafen's cohabitant, a domineering and strict woman, trying with all her might to restrain her emotions. Neighbor Marya Karpovna comes to see off with her daughter Sophia. Sophia has an affair with Alexander, she embroiders his marks on his underwear, supplies him with a ring and a strand of cut hair on the road. Before sending, young people swear to each other in eternal love and fidelity. At the last moment, Alexander's friend, Pospelov, appears, who rode one hundred and sixty miles just to hug Alexander. Young Aduev likes this very much; according to him, friendship should be manifested in this way. Alexander and Yevsey leave.
Peter Ivanovich Aduev, Alexander's uncle, was also sent to Petersburg by Alexander's father and lived there for seventeen years. He had not communicated or corresponded with relatives for a long time. “In Petersburg, he was known as a man with money, and, perhaps, not without reason; served under some important person as an official for special assignments and wore several ribbons in the buttonhole of his tailcoat; lived on a high street, occupied nice apartment, held three people and the same number of horses. “He was a tall, proportionately built man, with large, regular features of a swarthy face, with an even, beautiful gait, with restrained but pleasant manners ... There was also ... the ability to control himself ... He was known for an active and businesslike person. He always dressed carefully, even dapper, “but not too much, but only with taste…”
When the footman announces to Pyotr Ivanovich about the arrival of his nephew (with gifts like dried raspberries and village honey and a mass of accompanying and pleading letters from relatives and old acquaintances from the province), he first decides to get rid of Alexander under the first plausible pretext. With disgust, he throws several letters into the wastebasket (including from Aunt Alexander, with whom Pyotr Ivanovich had a stormy romance in his youth, she did not marry and still remembers that story), but something in the letter Alexander's mother is touched by Aduev Sr., and he recalls how Anna Pavlovna cried many years ago, seeing him off to the capital, how she sincerely took part in it. Pyotr Ivanovich is horrified by the fact that Anna Pavlovna orders him to intercede for Sashenka before his superiors, baptize him in his sleep and cover the “boy’s” mouth at night with a handkerchief from flies. When Alexander appears, Pyotr Ivanovich behaves very restrainedly, does not allow his nephew to hug himself, does not invite him to live in his apartment (but shows him a room for rent), does not invite him to dine together (but escorts him to a tavern).
All these recommendations, which are in the order of things in St. Petersburg, cast melancholy on the exalted and overly emotional Alexander.
Communication between uncle and nephew from the very beginning is like a conversation between two deaf people. Alexander expects "sincere outpourings" from Pyotr Ivanovich, he needs constant verbal confirmation of his uncle's friendly disposition towards him. Pyotr Ivanovich, an extremely restrained person, does not at all accept his nephew's romantic attitude to life, does not miss a single opportunity not to reproach Alexander for the inappropriateness of showing feelings in public. Soon, he generally offers his nephew to go back to the village: “You are obsessed with love, friendship, and the delights of life, happiness; think that life only consists in this: Oh yes oh! They cry, whimper and be kind, but they don’t do things ... how can I wean you from all this ... ”Peter Ivanovich ridicules Alexander’s unnatural pretentious manner of expressing himself in romantic clichés, throws away the “material signs of immaterial relations” (Sophia’s ring and hair), pastes over the wall with Alexander’s poems , makes him write a letter to a friend in a normal style, where he characterizes himself as follows: “Uncle loves to do business ... knows more than one Pushkin by heart ... reads in two languages ... loves art, has an excellent collection of paintings of the Flemish school ... often goes to the theater, but does not fuss, does not rush about, does not gasp, does not groan, thinking that this is childish, that one must restrain himself, not impose his impressions on anyone, because no one needs them. He also does not speak wild language…”.
Pyotr Ivanovich gradually brings Alexander from heaven to earth, assigns him to the service. In dreams, voiced aloud, Alexander imagines a dizzying career (before the minister) because everyone should instantly appreciate his outstanding virtues, and because he is extremely vague about his service. It seems to him that he will immediately be entrusted with solving some important state business and will be offered to implement one of his projects - “one of those projects that have already been completed for a thousand years or which cannot and should not be performed,” according to his uncle. It turns out that Alexander did not even succeed in calligraphy. Even a young man is attracted by the career of a writer or a poet, but his uncle debunks the myth about poets-celestials before him and explains that “art in itself, craft in itself, and creativity can be in both”. He constantly urges Alexander not to soar in the clouds, but to build his life and career brick by brick with hard work. As a literary activity, the uncle is looking for translations for the agricultural magazine for his nephew.
Two years pass. Alexander diligently follows the recommendations of Peter Ivanovich, acquires elegant manners and a dandy suit, becomes more balanced and self-confident, speaks “wild language” less often, learns to control himself. Employers praise Alexander, Pyotr Ivanovich decides that his nephew is finally set on the right path, when suddenly Alexander falls in love with a certain Nadenka Lyubetskaya. All the upbringing of Peter Ivanovich goes to waste: happy Alexander begins to do a lot of stupid things one after another, abandons his career, more and more often freezes in one place with a stupid smile on his face. The uncle gets angry, tries to convey to his nephew that one should marry at a more mature age, that in order to provide for a family, one must have a solid income, and a career is not made in one day; finally, that in addition to sighing on the bench, a man should be able to captivate a woman with a game of the mind and know women's habits. Alexander is primitive and unsophisticated; Pyotr Ivanovich warns him that Nadenka's infatuation will not last long.
Alexander indignantly dismisses all advice; he is astounded to the extreme when he learns that Pyotr Ivanovich himself is going to marry, ardently reproaches his uncle for acting “with calculation” “to perform this sublime rite”. Alexander begins to visit the Lyubetskys' house more and more often.
Nadenka “was not a beauty and did not attract instant attention to herself ... Thoughts and diverse sensations of her extremely impressionable and irritable soul were constantly replaced by one another ... Everything showed in her an ardent mind, a wayward and fickle heart.” She enjoys complete freedom from her mother. At first, Nadenka shares Alexander's ardor, and she is quite satisfied with long sitting opposite each other, loving glances, talking about anything and walking under a magnifying glass. Alexander is bypassed in the service, he visits Pyotr Ivanovich less and less, realizing that he is unlikely to share his rapture with love to the detriment of business. Alexander again takes up literary work, but the publishers unanimously conclude that his works are immature, unnatural, and such heroes do not exist. The last hurts Alexander the most: “It doesn’t happen, but I myself am the hero.” Gradually, Nadenka begins to tire of the monotony of her admirer: “her heart was busy, but her mind remained idle.” Coming to the end of the year probationary period, appointed by her to Alexander, Nadenka by all means avoids a decisive explanation and proposal to her mother. One of the reasons is the visit of Count Novinsky - a young secular lion, well-mannered and educated, who knows how to interest a woman. Novinsky begins to visit the Lyubetskys every day, teaches Nadenka how to ride. Nadenka is increasingly avoiding Alexander. He falls into a panic, then into black melancholy, then bothers the girl, reminding her of her vows of eternal love, then disappears for a couple of weeks so that they regret him and begin to look for him. Nothing like that happens. Alexander, in the end, calls Nadya to a decisive conversation. She confesses that she is infatuated with the Count. Leaving her, Alexander begins to sob loudly without tears. By - the janitor appears with his wife, they decide that it is a dog howling, and noticing Alexander, they conclude that he is drunk.
Alexander runs in the middle of the night to Pyotr Ivanovich, trying to arouse sympathy for himself in him. He asks his uncle to be his second in the duel with Novinsky. Pyotr Ivanovich refuses and explains to Alexander the senselessness of the duel: Nadenka's heart can no longer be returned to him, but you can certainly acquire her hatred if you harm the count. Moreover, the uncle reveals to his nephew what will happen to him if he kills Novinsky (exile, penal servitude). Pyotr Ivanovich is trying to convince the young man that the opponent could have been outplayed if Alexander had not done all his stupid things, but had managed to quietly convince Nadenka of his superiority - primarily intellectual - over the count. He proves that it is not Nadenka's fault that she fell in love with Novinsky, but Alexander made a tactical miscalculation. It all ends with Alexander bursting into tears, and Peter Ivanovich's wife, Alexander's young aunt, Lizaveta Alexandrovna, comes to comfort him.
A year passes. “Alexander gradually passed from gloomy despair to cold despondency. He no longer thundered curses ... against the count and Nadenka, but branded them with deep contempt, ”the aunt spends a lot of time comforting her nephew. Alexander likes to play the role of the sufferer. He demands complete selflessness from love, offering little in return (sighs, glances, lying at his feet). To Lizaveta Alexandrovna’s objection that true love does not seek to demonstrate itself to everyone and everyone, Alexander immodestly remarks that, for example, Pyotr Ivanovich’s love for his wife is hidden so deeply that it is not visible at all.
She mentally agrees with him, because, although she does not have the right to complain about her husband (Peter Ivanovich's security, employment and politeness are proverbial), she subconsciously wants more manifestation of feelings for her than a credit card or New furniture. Lizaveta Alexandrovna sometimes feels like another beautiful thing in a good apartment of her husband, a thing that was brought only following decorum.
Once Alexander comes to his aunt “in a fit of some kind of evil mood for the whole human race.” It turns out that Alexander was “betrayed” once again. One of his friends, whom Aduev had not seen for many years, met Alexander on Nevsky Prospekt. As soon as Alexander was about to start his “sincere outpourings”, he, in accordance with decency, inquired about Alexander’s service, reported something about his successes, and went to a dinner party, not forgetting, however, to invite a friend to his place the next day. At dinner, in addition to Alexander, he has about a dozen more guests. Instead of leaving them all and indulging in a heart-to-heart conversation with only Alexander, who, with a capricious and inflated look, is sitting alone on the sofa, a friend either invites him to play cards, then holds out a cigar, then a pipe, then calls to join the company, then offers help if Alexander needs money, etc. All this causes a storm of indignation in Alexander. He starts talking about his unhappy love, and his friend laughs. Alexander reads to Lizaveta Alexandrovna and Pyotr Ivanovich excerpts from French novelists, which define friendship in a very romantic and pretentious way. Pyotr Ivanovich loses his temper. He harshly reprimands Alexandra, ridicules the novelists, recalls that the “betraying” friend behaved (after many years of separation) more than decently towards Alexander. He declares that it is time for his nephew to stop whining and complaining about people when he has friends who are ready for a lot for him (Pyotr Ivanovich lists himself and his wife as such).
In response to the boyish taunts of Alexander, who declares all his acquaintances to be characters in Krylov's fables, his uncle asks him if he deserved such good relationship(promotion, invitations to the house, patronage), without doing anything for them personally, without his, Peter Ivanovich, recommendation. Finally, the uncle reminds Alexander that he has not written to his mother for four months, and therefore does not have the right to talk about love or something sublime at all, Alexander is completely crushed. “As in his years, having allowed himself to hate and despise people, having considered and discussed their insignificance, pettiness, weaknesses, going over each and every one of his acquaintances, he forgot to make out himself! What blindness! And his uncle gave him a lesson, like a schoolboy, took him apart piece by piece, and even with a woman ... Alexander ... promised himself to strictly look after himself and destroy his uncle at the first opportunity: to prove to him that no experience can replace what is invested from above ... " To console him, Lizaveta Aleksandrovna advises him to return to literary work. Alexander writes a story where the action takes place in a Tambov village, and the characters are "slanderers, liars and all kinds of monsters." He reads the story to his uncle and aunt. Pyotr Ivanovich writes a letter to an editor he knows, in which he assures that this story is his work, that he wants to publish it and certainly for a fee. Having received the answer, he immediately comes to his nephew.
The editor saw through the deception, he notes: “The author must be a young man. He is not stupid, but in some way he angers the whole world... Selfishness, daydreaming, premature development of heart tendencies and immobility of the mind, with the inevitable consequence - laziness - these are the causes of this evil. Science, work, practical work - that's what can sober up our idle and sick youth. The editor also writes that, in his opinion, the author of the story, that is, Alexander, has no talent. Alexander burns all his literary experiments.
Uncle asks Alexander to help him: to compete with a certain Surkov, a companion of Peter Ivanovich. Surkov is in love (and according to Pyotr Ivanovich, he thinks he is in love) with Yulia Tafaeva, a young widow, and for her sake he is going to diligently waste money, and he intends to take it from Pyotr Ivanovich. Alexander begins to visit Tafaeva, they have a lot in common (dreaming, a gloomy look at the world without passionate love).
Soon Alexander is already in love again, and Tafaeva, brought up on sentimental French literature and early married to a man much older than her, pays him back. Talk about the wedding begins, Alexander turns to Lizaveta Alexandrovna for assistance, begging to keep all preparations a secret from his uncle. NDR asks Lizaveta Aleksandrovna for assistance, begging her to keep all preparations a secret from her uncle. The aunt pays Yulia a visit, she is horrified that Lizaveta Alexandrovna is young and beautiful, and Tafaeva begins to actively protest against Alexander's communication with the Aduevs. Alexander, on the other hand, treats Yulia extremely arbitrarily, demands unquestioning obedience and the fulfillment of his most absurd whim (forbids leaving, fences off Tafaeva from all male acquaintances). Julia bears it all with pleasure, looking for Alexander's constant company, but soon they get bored. Alexander begins to find fault with Yulia, understands that he lost two years in vain (his career suffered once again), that he wants to break away from Yulia, communicate with friends, go to society, work - and she still passionately and arbitrarily demands that he belonged only to her. Julia arranges scenes, humiliates herself, even begs to marry her with the condition of providing Alexander complete freedom. Alexander rushes to his uncle for help: he does not want to get married, but does not know how to escape from the captivity of circumstances. Julia has a nervous attack. Pyotr Ivanovich goes to her and settles the matter, explaining to her that Alexander does not know how to love. Alexander falls into apathy, he does not appear at his uncle's, cools down to the service, does not strive for anything.
“Looking into life, questioning his heart and head, he saw with horror that neither here nor there was not a single dream left, not a single pink hope ... naked reality spread out before him like a steppe.” Alexander is not ready to resist this reality, arrange his life in the real world. He converges with the old man Kostikov, a grump and a miser, goes fishing with him. One day they meet with an elderly summer resident and his daughter Lisa, who is trying in every possible way to attract the attention of Alexander. He plays the role of an uncle in front of her, teaches her to be more sober about life and love, criticizes Byron. Alexander himself notices that he is primarily interested in the features of Lisa's figure, and is horrified by the change in his hitherto romantic consciousness. Lisa's father privately forbids Alexander to fool his daughter's head and kicks him out. Alexander thinks about suicide, at that moment the washes on which he stands are bred, and Alexander jumps onto a solid support.
In autumn, Alexander receives a note from his aunt asking him to take her to a concert: his uncle is unwell. Music makes such a deep impression on Alexander that he cries right in the hall. They laugh at him. Alexander finally loses faith in humanity, seeks "sleep of the soul" and decides to return to the village. He tells Pyotr Ivanovich that he does not reproach him for trying to open his nephew's eyes to things, but seeing things as they are, he was completely disappointed in life, in women, in friendship and other values. In Grachi, Alexander learns that Sophia has been married for a long time and is expecting her sixth child. The mother is amazed at how thin and pale her Sashenka has become. It is accepted to fatten him, allows him to spend whole days in inactivity. Anna Pavlovna hints to Alexander that it is time for him to get married, but he refuses.
Alexander thinks a lot about how Petersburg broke him, begins to write again, is interested in agriculture and recalls how out of touch with reality his magazine articles on land, etc. were. A thirst for activity slowly awakens in him, and he understands that he must return to Petersburg . Alexander writes courteous letters to his uncle and aunt, admits that he is ashamed of his selfishness, and asks for moral support upon his return to the capital. Alexander is also bringing "evidence" to his uncle - his ardent letter to that Grachev aunt, in which Pyotr Ivanovich once talked about yellow flowers in the same romantic vein as Alexander himself.
The plot of Goncharov's novel Goncharov I. A. “An Ordinary Story”
The action of the novel takes place in the early summer morning in the family of the landowner Adueva. The young master, Alexander Fedorovich, decides to leave for the service, and therefore all the courtyards are bustling around the whole house for a little while. Together with the young man, his servant Yevsey, the beloved man of the housekeeper Agrafena, leaves.
The parting of Anna Pavlovna with her son is difficult. She in every possible way convinces him not to go to St. Petersburg, but to stay at home, marry Sonyushka, for whom he had the deepest feelings and enjoy a calm and well-fed life. Alexander wants to show off his knowledge gained at the university in big city, make a career, become a great person. The last words of his mother were filled with wise advice about a decent way of life in St. Petersburg. The young man promises to fulfill all her orders.
Alexander arrived to see off the priest, Sonya with her mother and close friend Alexander Pospelov, who rushed from afar. Sasha's beloved girl gives her ring and a strand of hair as a farewell gift.
Arriving in St. Petersburg, Alexander visits his uncle, Peter Ivanovich Aduev, a wealthy man. He gives him three messages from his native places and many gifts. At first, Pyotr Ivanovich did not want to receive his nephew, but, remembering the care of his daughter-in-law, he begins to teach him the life of St. Petersburg. He rents accommodation for Alexander in the same house and tells him what kind of people he needs to communicate with, where it is better to have lunch and dinner. He throws away Sonyushka's memorabilia and says that this is not the right time for love. Having got a job as a translator on the recommendations of his uncle, the young man begins to live according to the rules that were destined by Peter Ivanovich.
Two years later, we see Alexander, who has completely advanced up the career ladder. He not only writes articles for the magazine, but also edits other people's work. He also forgot Sonyushka. He had another passion, Nadenka Lyubetskaya. The young man cannot live without her for a minute. But he has a competitor who is also in love with this girl. This is Count Novinsky. Pyotr Ivanovich tried to guide his nephew on the true path, but he did not succeed. The young man was eager to challenge his opponent to a duel. And perhaps the conflict would have flared up with the greatest force, if not for the heartfelt conversation of the uncle's wife. After the events that happened, Alexander is indifferent to everything. Nothing worries him. And in one of the conversations, his uncle reproaches his nephew for becoming completely selfish, forgot his mother, and does not respect him and his wife. And the young man again began to engage in literary creativity. And Petr Ivanovich even sends the work under his own name to his friend's magazine. And when Alexander finds out that his creations do not affect the reader, he decides to end his work.
Romantic relations with the widow Tafaeva and serious upheavals, all this reckless life in St. Petersburg makes our hero return to native village. But here time seemed to stop, he saw the same faces. Only Sonyushka got married. The time spent at home did not change the Young Man. He kept thinking about returning to Petersburg. Returning to his uncle, he noticed that Elizaveta Petrovna had changed a lot. Pyotr Ivanovich, thinking about whether his wife was ill, even intended to take her away from this city. Alexander quickly began to make a career, and even found himself a rich bride. This is the meaning of the novel. The story of a young man is the most ordinary.
In the village of Pleasant Garden it was always calm, the mountain that was nearby was never of interest to anyone. One day, fiery flashes and smoke appeared on the top of the mountain. Many residents were afraid that it might be and wanted to
Another work by Arkady Averchenko is traditional, on a topic that is relevant at all times - about cheat sheets, their types and applications. The authors of the last century never cease to amaze - it would seem that it was written so long ago. And you can read like a contemporary.
In a village near Moscow, Vasily Kurolesov lived with his mother. They decided one day to buy a few young pigs for their farm and went to the market for piglets.
Graduating from the Pedagogical Institute, the main character Nadia and her classmates decided to work only where they would receive distribution. Nadia's father died early, and her mother raised the children herself, she was a domineering woman, she did not want to let her daughter go to another city
The reason for the birth literary work The word about the death of the Russian land was the invasion of the hordes of the Tatar-Mongols on the Russian land.
This summer morning in the village of Grachi began unusually: at dawn, all the inhabitants of the house of the poor landowner Anna Pavlovna Adueva were already on their feet. Only the culprit of this fuss, the son of Adueva, Alexander, slept, "as a twenty-year-old youth should sleep, with a heroic sleep." The turmoil reigned in Grachi because Alexander was going to St. Petersburg to serve: the knowledge he received at the university, according to the young man, must be applied in practice serving the Fatherland.
The grief of Anna Pavlovna, parting with her only son, is akin to the sadness of the "first minister in the economy" of the landowner Agra-fena - together with Alexander, his valet Yevsey, Agrafena's cordial friend, is sent to Petersburg - how many pleasant evenings this tender couple spent playing cards!. Alexander's beloved Sonechka also suffers - the first impulses of his exalted soul were dedicated to her. Best friend Adueva, Pospelov, bursts into Grachi at the last minute to finally hug the one with whom they had conversations about honor and dignity, about serving the Fatherland and the delights of love best watch university life...
Yes, and Alexander himself is sorry to part with his usual way of life. If lofty goals and a sense of his destination had not pushed him on a long journey, he would, of course, have remained in Grachi, with his mother and sister, the old maid Maria Gorbatova, who loved him infinitely, among hospitable and hospitable neighbors, next to his first love. But ambitious dreams drive the young man to the capital, closer to glory.
In St. Petersburg, Alexander immediately goes to his relative, Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev, who at one time, like Alexander, "was sent to Petersburg by his elder brother, Alexander's father, at the age of twenty, and lived there without a break for seventeen years." Not maintaining contact with his widow and son, who remained after the death of his brother in Grachi, Pyotr Ivanovich was greatly surprised and annoyed by the appearance of an enthusiastic young man who expects care, attention and, most importantly, the separation of his increased sensitivity from his uncle. From the very first minutes of their acquaintance, Pyotr Ivanovich has to almost forcefully restrain Alexander from outpourings of feelings with an attempt to embrace a relative. Together with Alexander, a letter arrives from Anna Pavlovna, from which Pyotr Ivanovich learns that great hopes are placed on him: not only by an almost forgotten daughter-in-law, who hopes that Pyotr Ivanovich will sleep with Alexander in the same room and cover the young man's mouth from flies. The letter contains many requests from neighbors, which Pyotr Ivanovich has forgotten to think about for almost two decades now. One of these letters was written by Marya Gorbatova, Anna Pavlovna's sister, who remembered for the rest of her life the day when the young Pyotr Ivanovich, walking with her around the countryside, climbed knee-deep into the lake and plucked a yellow flower for her memory ...
From the very first meeting, Pyotr Ivanovich, a rather dry and businesslike man, begins to educate his enthusiastic nephew: he rents an apartment for Alexander in the same house where he lives himself, advises where and how to eat, with whom to communicate. Later, he finds a very specific case for him: service and - for the soul! - translations of articles devoted to the problems of agriculture. Ridiculing, sometimes quite cruelly, Alexander's addiction to everything "unearthly", sublime, Pyotr Ivanovich is gradually trying to destroy the fictional world in which his romantic nephew lives. So two years pass.
After this time, we meet Alexander already partly accustomed to the complexities of St. Petersburg life. And - without memory in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya. During this time, Alexander managed to advance in the service, and achieved some success in translations. Now he's become enough important person in the journal: “he was engaged in choosing, and translating, and correcting other people's articles, he himself wrote various theoretical views on agriculture". He continued to write both poetry and prose. But falling in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya seems to close the whole world in front of Alexander Aduev - now he lives from meeting to meeting, drugged by that "sweet bliss at which Peter Ivanovich was angry."
She is in love with Alexander and Nadenka, but, perhaps, only with that “little love in anticipation of a big one,” which Alexander himself experienced for Sophia, who is now forgotten by him. Alexander's happiness is fragile - Count Novinsky, the neighbor of the Lyubetskys in the country, gets on the way to eternal bliss.
Pyotr Ivanovich is unable to heal Alexander from raging passions: Aduev Jr. is ready to challenge the count to a duel, to take revenge on an ungrateful girl who is unable to appreciate his high feelings, he sobs and burns with anger ... To help the distraught young man is the wife of Pyotr Ivanovich, Lizaveta Alexandrovna ; she comes to Alexander when Pyotr Ivanovich turns out to be powerless, and we don’t know exactly what, with what words, with what participation, the young woman succeeds in what her smart, reasonable husband did not succeed. “An hour later he (Alexander) came out thoughtful, but with a smile, and fell asleep for the first time calmly after many sleepless nights.”
Another year has passed since that memorable night. From the gloomy despair that Lizaveta Alexandrovna managed to melt, Aduev Jr. moved on to despondency and indifference. “He somehow liked to play the role of the sufferer. He was quiet, important, foggy, like a man who, in his words, withstood the blow of fate ... ”And the blow was not slow to repeat: an unexpected meeting with an old friend Pospelov on Nevsky Prospekt, a meeting, all the more accidental that Alexander did not even know about the move his soul mate to the capital, - brings confusion into the already disturbed heart of Aduev Jr. The friend turns out to be completely different from what he remembers from his years at the university: he is strikingly similar to Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev - he does not appreciate the wounds of the heart experienced by Alexander, he talks about a career, about money, he welcomes an old friend in his house, but special signs of attention does not show to him.
It turns out to be almost impossible to heal the sensitive Alexander from this blow - and who knows what our hero would have reached this time if uncle had not applied the “extreme measure” to him! .. Arguing with Alexander about the bonds of love and friendship, Pyotr Ivanovich cruelly reproaches Alexander in that he closed himself only in own feelings not knowing how to appreciate the one who is faithful to him. He does not consider his uncle and aunt his friends, he has not written to his mother for a long time, living only thoughts about her only son. This "medicine" turns out to be effective - Alexander again turns to literary creativity. This time he writes and reads it to Pyotr Ivanovich and Lizaveta Alexandrovna. Aduev Sr. invites Alexander to send the story to the magazine in order to find out the true value of his nephew's work. Pyotr Ivanovich does this under his own name, believing that this will be a fairer trial and better for the fate of the work. The answer was not slow to come - he puts the last point in the hopes of the ambitious Aduev Jr. ...
And just at that time, Pyotr Ivanovich needed the service of a nephew: his factory companion Surkov suddenly falls in love with the young widow of a former friend of Pyotr Ivanovich, Yulia Pavlovna Tafaeva, and completely abandons things. Above all else, appreciating the cause, Pyotr Ivanovich asks Alexander to “fall in love with himself” Tafaeva, ousting Surkov from her home and heart. As a reward, Peter Ivanovich offers Alexander two vases that Aduev Jr. liked so much.
The case, however, takes an unexpected turn: Alexander falls in love with a young widow and evokes a reciprocal feeling in her. Moreover, the feeling is so strong, so romantic and sublime that the “culprit” himself is unable to withstand the impulses of passion and jealousy that Tafaeva brings down on him. Brought up on romance novels, having married a rich and unloved man too early, Yulia Pavlovna, having met Alexander, seems to be throwing herself into a pool: everything that was read and dreamed of is now falling on her chosen one. And Alexander does not stand the test ...
After Pyotr Ivanovich succeeded in bringing Tafaev to his senses through arguments unknown to us, another three months passed in which Alexander's life after the shock he experienced is unknown to us. We meet him again when he, disappointed in everything that he lived before, "plays checkers with some eccentrics or fishes." His apathy is deep and inescapable, nothing seems to be able to bring Aduev Jr. out of dull indifference. Alexander no longer believes in love or friendship. He begins to go to Kostikov, about whom Za-ezzhalov, a neighbor in Grachi, once wrote in a letter to Pyotr Ivanovich, wanting to introduce Aduev Sr. to his old friend. This man turned out to be most welcome for Alexander: he “could not awaken spiritual unrest” in a young man.
And one day on the shore, where they were fishing, unexpected spectators appeared - an old man and a pretty young girl. They appeared more and more often. Lisa (that was the name of the girl) began to try to captivate the yearning Alexander with various female tricks. In part, the girl succeeds, but the offended father comes to the meeting in the gazebo instead of her. After explaining with him, Alexander has no choice but to change the place of fishing. However, he does not remember Lisa for long ...
Still wanting to awaken Alexander from the sleep of the soul, the aunt asks him one day to accompany her to a concert: "some artist, a European celebrity, has arrived." The shock experienced by Alexander from meeting with beautiful music strengthens the decision that had matured even earlier to give up everything and return to his mother, in Grachi. Alexander Fedorovich Aduev leaves the capital along the same road that he entered St. Petersburg several years ago, intending to conquer it with his talents and high appointment ...
And in the village, life seemed to have stopped its run: the same hospitable neighbors, only older, the same infinitely loving mother, Anna Pavlovna; just got married, without waiting for her Sashenka, Sofya, but still remembers yellow flower aunt, Marya Gorbatova. Shocked by the changes that have taken place with her son, Anna Pavlovna asks Yevsey for a long time how Alexander lived in St. Petersburg, and comes to the conclusion that life in the capital itself is so unhealthy that it aged her son and dulled his feelings. Days pass after days, Anna Pavlovna still hopes that Alexander's hair will grow again and his eyes will shine, and he thinks about how to return to St. Petersburg, where so much has been experienced and irretrievably lost.
The death of his mother relieves Alexander of the torment of conscience, which does not allow Anna Pavlovna to admit that he again planned to escape from the village, and, having written to Pyotr Ivanovich, Alexander Aduev again goes to Petersburg ...
Four years pass after Alexander's re-arrival in the capital. Many changes have taken place with the main characters of the novel. Lizaveta Alexandrovna was tired of fighting her husband's coldness and turned into a calm, reasonable woman, devoid of any aspirations and desires. Pyotr Ivanovich, upset by the change in his wife's character and suspecting her of a dangerous illness, is ready to give up his career as a court adviser and resign in order to take Lizaveta Alexandrovna away from St. Petersburg at least for a while. adviser, good state maintenance, extraneous labors ”earns a lot of money and is also preparing to marry, taking three hundred thousand and five hundred souls for the bride ...
On this we part with the heroes of the novel. What an ordinary story indeed!
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