The meaning and analysis of Gogol's works “Arabesques. Biography The work of Gogol arabesque summary
Arabesque collection of works by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in two parts, compiled by the author. Published in the first half of January 1835 (censored November 10, 1834). The collection included articles on chronicle, geography, and art, as well as several works of art.
In the articles included in the collection "Arabesques" Gogol expounds his historical views and his views on literature and art. In the article "A few words about Pushkin", Gogol expressed his view of Pushkin as a great Russian national poet; in his struggle with romantic aesthetics, Gogol here outlines the tasks facing Russian literature. In his article "On Little Russian Songs," Gogol assessed folk art as an expression of folk life and national consciousness. In an article about Karl Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" Gogol made a principled assessment of the phenomena of Russian art.
Part one. Foreword (1835) Sculpture, painting and music (1835) About the Middle Ages (1834) Chapter from the historical novel (1835) Chapter from the historical novel About teaching general history (1834) Portrait (story) View at the compilation of Little Russia (Excerpt from the History of Little Russia. Volume I, Book I, Chapter 1) (1834) A look at the compilation of Little Russia A few words about Pushkin (1835) A few words about Pushkin About the architecture of the present time (1835) Al-Mamun (1835)
Hetman (novel) The novel takes place in the middle of the 17th century. The main character, Stepan Ostranitsa, is a historical person, the Nezhinsky colonel, information about whom Gogol drew from the History of the Rus. Gogol worked on the novel for years, but was dissatisfied with what he had written and burned his work, sparing only two chapters. Also preserved are several rough handwritten excerpts from the novel, containing many inaccuracies. 17th century Stepan Ostranitsa colonel History of the Rus years
In "Northern Flowers" for 1831, an excerpt from a novel was printed under the title "Chapter from a Historical Novel." Gogol placed this passage, together with another excerpt "The Bloody Bandurist" in the collection "Arabesques", but the ending of "Bloody Bandurist" was not missed by the censor, so Gogol wrote a different ending. The original version was published according to the surviving author's proofreading, in the magazine "Niva", 1917, 1 Northern colors 1831 Arabesque censored Niva
A look at the compilation of Little Russia Historical article by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, written in the years. Included in the collection "Arabesques". Article by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in years Arabeski This article was supposed to precede the historical work of Gogol "History of Little Russia", unknown to this day. Gogol's biographers were never able to find manuscripts or any materials indicating that the "History of Little Russia" was written at all.
In a letter to Mikhail Maksimovich dated November 9, 1833, Gogol wrote about his work: “Now I set about the history of our only poor Ukraine. Nothing is more soothing than history. My thoughts begin to flow quieter and slimmer. It seems to me that I will write it, that I will say a lot of things that have not been said before me "Mikhail Maksimovich 1833 Ukraine history
On January 30, 1834, Gogol placed in the Northern Bee "Announcement of the publication of the history of Little Russia", asking him to send him materials on the history of Ukraine for the great work he had begun. However, by the beginning of March 1834 (despite the fact that even in a letter to M. A. Maksimovich dated February 12, Gogol promised to write the entire History of Little Russia "from beginning to end", "in six small or four large volumes") Gogol began to gradually cool down towards the work he had begun.
On the reasons for his cooling, Gogol wrote on March 6, 1834 to Izmail Sreznevsky, who expressed a desire to help with the materials: “I have lost interest in our chronicles, in vain trying to find in them what I would like to find. Nowhere is there anything about that time, which should have been the richest of all events. A people whose whole life consisted of movements, which were involuntarily (even if it were completely inactive by nature) neighbors, the state of the earth, the danger of being led to deeds and exploits, this people ... I am dissatisfied with Polish historians, they say very little about these exploits ... And that is why every sound of the song speaks to me more vividly about the past. Izmail Sreznevsky
Part two. Life (1835) Schletzer, Miller and Herder (1835) Nevsky Prospekt (1835) Nevsky Prospekt About Little Russian songs (1834) About Little Russian songs Thoughts about geography (A few thoughts about teaching children geography) (1831) The last day of Pompeii (1835) Prisoner ( Bloody bandurist) (1835) Prisoner (Bloody bandurist) On the movement of peoples at the end of the 5th century (1835) Notes (1835)
"Nevsky Prospect" The Story of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Included in the cycle Petersburg stories. Written in years. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol Various works of N. Gogol ", part 2, St. Petersburg, The concept of" Nevsky Prospekt "dates back to 1831, when Gogol made several unfinished sketches depicting the landscape of St. Petersburg. Arabeski. Various works of N. Gogol in 1831 St. Petersburg
Two sketches have survived: “A terrible hand. A story from a book entitled: Moonlight in a Broken Attic Window "and" The Lantern Was Dying ... ". Both sketches referring to the years are associated with the concept of "Nevsky Prospekt" in the years
"On Little Russian Songs" An article by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, in which he compares a folk song and the reflection of folk history, folk aspirations and ideals. The song for him is nothing more than "a folk story, living, bright, full of colors, truth, revealing the entire life of the people ..., living, speaking ... chronicle." Written in 1833 by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol 1833 The article was written about Izmail Sreznevsky's "Zaporozhye antiquity"
"Notes of a Madman" The story of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, written by him in 1834. For the first time the story was published in 1835 in the collection "Arabesques" with the title "Scraps from the notes of a madman." Later it was included in the collection "Petersburg Stories". The Story of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol 1834 1835 Arabesques Petersburg Tales
Arabesque Arabesque, Arabesque, Arabesque (fr. Arabesque from ital. Arabesco arabic). Arabesque kind of ornament. Arabesque is one of ... Wikipedia
- "Night Stories" by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1817) Collection of stories a separate edition of a group of stories ... Wikipedia
- "Mirgorod" (February, 1835) a collection of stories by Nikolai Gogol, which is positioned as a continuation of "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka." The stories in this collection are based on Ukrainian folklore and have much in common. It is believed that ... Wikipedia
Evenings on a farm near Dikanka, the first book by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (excluding the poem "Ganz Kuchelgarten", published under a pseudonym). Consists of two volumes. The first came out in 1831, the second in 1832. The stories of "Evenings" were written in 1829 1832 ... ... Wikipedia
Years in 19th century literature. 1835 in literature. 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 ← XVIII century 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 ... Wikipedia
A few thoughts on teaching children geography ("Thoughts on Geography") article by N. V. Gogol, "the first and perhaps the best pedagogical work of Gogol." Published in Literaturnaya Gazeta, 1831, No. 1, dated January 1, p. 4 7 under ... Wikipedia
Arabesque, Arabesque, Arabesque (fr. Arabesque from ital. Arabesco arabic). Arabesque (ornament) kind of ornament. Arabesque is one of the ballet poses. "Arabesques (collection)" a collection of works by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, ... ... Wikipedia
Coat of arms of the Zaporizhzhya Army ... Wikipedia
- (1809 1852), Russian writer. Gogol's literary fame was brought about by the collection Evenings on a Farm near Dykanka (1831 32), which is rich in Ukrainian ethnographic and folklore material, marked by romantic moods, lyricism and humor. ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
- (Roe) (1809 1849), American romantic writer, critic. The classic of a strict storyline novel, mostly tragic, "terrible", "double", fantastic adventure (including science fiction), a collection of "Grotesques and Arabesques" ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Books
- Arabesque, Andrey Bely. Book of articles. In "Arabesques" a series of articles is collected, which in general serve as a continuation of the most important theoretical work of A. Bely "Symbolism". To them the author added some excerpts and notes from ...
- Arabesques, Nikolai Gogol. Nikolai Gogol's collection `Arabesques` - the second after ʻEvenings on a farm near Dikanka` - reminds in its variegated composition` an almanac of one author`: here are articles on art, ...
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Arabesque. Various works of N. Gogol. Parts 1-2. St. Petersburg, printing house of the widow Plyushar with her son, 1835. Censorship of the collection - November 10, 1834.
Part 1:, 287 pages
Part 2:, 276 pages
In one c / c brown binding of the era with embossing on the spine. Format: 21x13 cm. Rare!
Bibliographic sources:
1. Smirnov – Sokolsky NP My library, Vol. 1, M., "Book", 1969, No. 606.
2. The Kilgour collection of Russian literature 1750-1920. Harvard-Cambrige, 1959, no. 342.
3. Books and manuscripts in the collection of M.S. Lesman. Annotated catalog. Moscow, 1989, no. 616.
4. Collection of S.L. Markov. St. Petersburg, publishing house "Globus", 2007, No. 329.
5. Library D.V. Ulyaninsky. Bibliographic description. Volume III. Russian literature is mainly from the 19th century to the 80s. Moscow, 1915, No. 4146.
In 1832, the literary activity of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was somewhat suspended for all sorts of domestic and personal chores; but already in 1833 he again worked hard, and the result of the intensive creative work of these years was two literary collections. First came the "Arabesques" (two parts, St. Petersburg, 1835), which contained several articles of popular scientific content on history and art, but at the same time three new stories, and three months later - "Mirgorod" (two parts, SPb., 1835), containing four stories. The Arabesques were printed on January 20-22, 1835. The 1st part includes: "Sculpture, painting and music"; "About the Middle Ages"; "A chapter from a historical novel"; "On the teaching of general history"; "Portrait"; "A look at the compilation of Little Russia"; "A few words about Pushkin"; "On the architecture of the present time"; Al-Mamun. The second part includes: "Life"; Schletzer, Miller and Herder; "Nevsky Prospect"; "About Little Russian Songs"; "Thoughts on Geography"; "The last day of Pompeii"; "The Prisoner"; "On the movement of peoples at the end of the 5th century"; "Diary of a Madman". For the first time in this collection, only "Notes of a Madman" appeared. Everything else was published earlier in various periodicals. From the end of 1833, Gogol was carried away by an idea as unrealizable as his previous plans for service were: it seemed to him that he could perform in the academic field. At that time, the opening of the Kiev University was being prepared, and he dreamed of taking the department of history there, which he taught to girls at the Patriotic Institute. Maksimovich was invited to Kiev; Gogol thought to establish himself with him in Kiev, wanted to invite Pogodin there; in Kiev, he finally imagined Russian Athens, where he himself thought to write something unprecedented in world history, and at the same time to study Little Russian antiquity. To his chagrin, it turned out that the chair of history had been given to another person; but on the other hand, he was soon offered the same department at St. Petersburg University, of course, thanks to the influence of his high literary friends. He actually took this pulpit; once or twice he managed to deliver a spectacular lecture, but then the task was beyond his powers: he was discouraged by the indifference of the students, the behind-the-scenes intrigues of the professors who envied him, and most importantly, he was again carried away by the work on "Arabesques" and "Mirgorod".
Teaching became a burden for him. Gogol was ill and came to classes with a bandaged silk scarf, complaining of incessant toothache, often missed lectures, and then listened to the mocking and sour remarks of his superiors ... having asked for a vacation, he left for his family estate Vasilyevka. Upon his return, in the fall, he submitted his resignation letter and permanently refused the professorship. It was, of course, great arrogance; but his guilt was not so great, if we recall that Gogol's plans did not seem strange either to his friends, among whom were Pogodin and Maksimovich, the professors themselves, or to the Ministry of Education, which found it possible to give a professorship to a young man who had completed a grammar school course in half ; so low was the entire level of the then university science. “I spat with the university,” he wrote on December 6, 1835 to Pogodin, “and a month later he was again a carefree Cossack. Unrecognized, I ascended the pulpit, and unrecognized I am going down from it. But in these one and a half years - the years of my infamy, because the general opinion says that I have not taken up my business - in these one and a half years I have taken a lot from there and added to the treasury of the soul. No longer children's thoughts, not the limited previous circle of my information, but lofty thoughts, full of truth and terrifying grandeur, agitated me ... "
Yes, the university was a school for Gogol himself. He plunged into the world of history with his characteristic passion, without knowing any compromises or concessions. He opened a new world there - the world of people's destinies, incessant movement, heroic deeds and events. This enriched him as a writer. But Gogol the historian, Gogol the scientist could not push back Gogol the writer. The result of his studies in history was a number of brilliant articles: "On the Middle Ages", "On the Teaching of General History", "Al-Mamun", "Schletzer, Miller and Herder", "On the Movement of Nations at the End of the 5th Century", "A Look at the Compilation Little Russia ". The fact that three stories appeared in Arabesques, surrounded by various articles and studies, obviously had to demonstrate that the author in all spheres is at the level of European thinking - both as an artist and as a theorist, treating the problems of beauty, art, division his various branches ("Sculpture, painting and music"), about the relationship between the regilious eras - paganism and Christianity ("Life") - to this we must add numerous arguments on historical topics themselves. These articles testify both to the versatile erudition of Gogol and to the advanced by that time views on history as a process of development and progress of peoples. But above all they are poetry. Like everything that Gogol wrote, his historical articles are animated by a brilliant, burning syllable, full of that inextinguishable poetic pathos that still makes them a model of high verbal art. The cycle of the "Petersburg" stories of the writer is rooted in the mystical-romantic works of Hoffmann and Schiller, "Melmoth the Wanderer" by Maturin and "The Human Comedy" by Balzac. Turning to the pictures of demonic life in Nevsky Prospect, Gogol comprehends the reasons for her obsession and emptiness. "Nevsky Prospect" is a metaphor for hell that Satan arranges on earth. The demon is trying to give the appearance of a light presence, and a person who took deception for truth obeyed this. The freaks of evil are unlimited in the illusion city. Once Gogol turned off Nevsky Prospekt and, passing by an uncurtained window of one of the houses, accidentally looked into it. At the back of the narrow, dimly lit room sat a pale young man with curly blond hair. His face expressed suffering, he gazed thoughtfully in front of him, as if not daring to move. There were pictures on the walls, and an easel was dark in the corner. "Probably a poor artist," thought Gogol. It seemed to him that the fate of this young man, who probably came to the damp, cold capital in a thirst for glory from some distant side, resembled his own fate. After all, he is as lonely as this young artist. During the years spent in St. Petersburg, he had to face bitter need, humiliation, envy, and experience a lot of grief and hostility. Before my eyes a picture of Nevsky Prospekt rose up, now unusually lively, teeming with smartly dressed regulars, with brilliant carriages sweeping by, harnessed by hot, slender as an arrow horses, now plunging into the false twilight in which the need and suffering were hidden.
"Nevsky Prospect" is a story about St. Petersburg, about the cruel contrasts of a big city, about the death of the honest, gifted artist Piskarev and about the well-being of the vulgar and self-satisfied lieutenant Pirogov. Gogol first named his artist Palitrin, but then changed his last name to Piskarev, thereby emphasizing his modesty, his inconspicuous place in life, like a small inconspicuous fish. Gogol met these half-impoverished eccentrics during his visits to the Academy of Arts. They were usually kind and shy, loved their art, naively believed in the justice and purity of the people around them. With heartache, Gogol excitedly recounted the tragedy of an artist who had become a victim of his all-consuming passion. His Peruginova Bianca, so beautiful in the transparent glow of the artificial evening light, in fact turned out to be a rude and vulgar slut. The hero of the story, Piskarev, amazed at the transformation of the beauty into an inhabitant of a brothel, thinks about the duality of man, about the preference given to the "hellish spirit" and, in despair, commits suicide. Gogol painted a sad and harsh in its truth picture of his funeral, the funeral of a beggar, a person of no use to anyone. Gogol considered the story "Portrait" to be his unsuccessful attempt and later significantly revised it. In a new edition, it was published in the third book of the journal "Contemporary" for 1842. The prototype of the artist, who sent his painting from Italy to an exhibition in St. Petersburg, was A. A. Ivanov, who worked all his life on one painting - "The Appearance of Christ to the People." His features were also reflected in the image of the elder artist who had gone to the monastery. In the article "Historical Painter Ivanov", included in the book "Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends", Gogol wrote: "What an incomprehensible fate of this man! Already his business began, at last, to be explained to everyone. Everyone was convinced that the picture he was working on was an unprecedented phenomenon, they took part in the artist, they were busy from all sides so that he would be given the means to finish it, so that the artist would not die of hunger over it ... spirit from St. Petersburg ... Here were brought ridiculous rumors that the artists and the entire professors of our Academy of Arts, fearing that Ivanov's painting would not kill with itself everything that had been produced by our art until now, out of envy they were trying to ensure that he was not given funds for the ending. This is a lie, I'm sure of it. Our artists are noble, and if they knew all that poor Ivanov endured because of his unparalleled selflessness and love of work, risking really starving to death, they would share with him brotherly their own money, and not to inspire others with this cruel business. And why should they be afraid of Ivanov? He goes his own way and is not a hindrance to anyone. He not only does not look for a professorial position and worldly benefits, but even simply does not look for anything, because he has long since died for everything in the world, except for his work ... the one on the canvas. Ivanov prayed to God to send him such a complete conversion, shed tears in silence, asking Him for strength to fulfill the thought He had inspired; and at this time they reproached him for his slowness and hurried him! Ivanov asked God to incinerate in him with the fire of grace that cold callousness that many of the best and kindest people now suffer, and would inspire him to portray this appeal in such a way that a non-Christian would be moved by looking at his picture; and at that time he was reproached even by people who knew him, even his friends, thinking that he was simply lazy, and seriously thought about whether it was not possible to make him finish the picture by hunger and the deprivation of all means. " The structure of the "Diary of a Madman", which is in the form of a diary, consistently fixing the stages of madness of the protagonist Poprishchina, is divided into a comic story of a titular councilor, a comic story of a madman who imagined himself to be a “found” heir to the Spanish throne, and a final note, a passionate monologue of a tortured man. The tragedy of the hero, passed through the comic style of his monologue, is that in his ambitions he aims at something higher than the social and spiritual framework in which he is forced to exist. "I spit on everyone!" This is the height of misanthropy and hatred, the blackest envy. Powerless thirst for revenge. Fury in the desire to humiliate the whole world. And yet a cry for help. Gogol's hero is frantically looking for a way out of his unhappy situation (he and his love are ridiculed), looking for a way out in elevation above the one who offended him, in a purely material, class, visual leap. He can't even pick up a title to avenge himself harder. So he grows up to the king. The king is not only a mockery of the table of ranks (there is no such rank there), but also the mysteriousness of the prishchin's thinking, its allegory, for the king is Spanish, but in Spain there is no king, and the throne is empty. For the Russian reader, this fact was already a fairy tale, a myth, an incomprehensible dream, and Gogol's hero was transported to this dream (which was a reality for Europe in 1833). Reality bursts into Gogol's story and pushes Poprishchin's imagination, prompts him: dare! The throne in Spain is empty. You are the king! You are the true heir to the throne, you are the one whom everyone is waiting for and everyone is looking for and who must finally take his place under the sun. And here is the first entry in the diary of the hero who has found himself. “Today is the day of the greatest celebration! There is a king in Spain. He was found. This king I am! " Poprishchin is making his leap. According to P.V. Annenkov, he once found an elderly man in Gogol's St. Petersburg apartment on Malaya Morskaya, talking about the habits of madmen, a strict, almost logical consistency seen in the development of their ridiculous ideas. Gogol sat down next to him, listened attentively to his narration, and when one of his friends began to call everyone home, Gogol objected, hinting at his visitor: "You go ... They already know their time and when necessary, they will leave." Most of the materials collected from the stories of an elderly man were used by Gogol later in the "Notes of a Madman." The elderly stranger was probably an experienced psychiatrist. In any case, as modern experts note, the "Diary of a Madman" clinically accurately describes the origin and development of schizophrenic delirium, focusing on one extraneous idea that has grown to a manic idee fixe. An important role in the story is played by the "correspondence of dogs" borrowed from Hoffmann, which allows, along with the emancipation of the consciousness of the "madman", to see the world of familiar phenomena in a naturally naked form. "Arabesques" are Arabic patterns that are a combination of dissimilar elements. Lack of unity, inconsistency, discord, Gogol declared in the preface to the book, and then in the letters accompanying the donation copies. Gogol's collection has combined articles on history, geography, literature and art, as well as stories on St. Petersburg themes. In the preface to Arabesques, Gogol emphasized: “This collection consists of plays written by me in different epochs of my life. I didn't write them to order. They spoke from the heart, and I chose as the subject only that which greatly amazed me. Among them, readers will no doubt find a lot of young things. I confess that I might not have admitted some of the plays at all to this collection if I had published it a year earlier, when I was more strict with my old works. But instead of harshly judging your past, it is much better to be implacable in your present pursuits. It seems as unfair to destroy what we have previously written as to forget the past days of our youth. Moreover, if an essay contains two or three truths that have not yet been said, then the author has no right to hide it from the reader, and for two or three correct thoughts one can forgive the imperfection of the whole. " In the evenings, Gogol usually stood at the desk and wrote. He loved to write on large sheets of office books, made of plain paper with leather spines, usually used to record incoming and outgoing papers in offices. In these notebooks, Gogol sketched out rough, initial texts of his works, plans, ideas. In a small, indistinct, somewhat feminine handwriting, he very closely, leaving neither margins, not a scrap of free space, wrote the entire page, without any system, without numbering, with reddish, as if somewhat faded ink. The letters were woven into long, monotonous lines, which sometimes rose or fell slightly, as if expressing the inner rhythm of the phrase. He made blots and corrections in thin, almost imperceptible letters above the line. Concepts and plans overtook each other, collided on the same page. Here is a sketch of the beginning of the article "Sculpture, Painting and Music", interrupted on the seventh line. Immediately, it was carefully derived “A Story from a book titled; "Moonlight in the broken window of the attic on Vasilievsky Island in the 16th line." A few lines of the still unfinished story about a street illuminated by the strange glint of a lonely lantern. And then the opening phrases of "Nevsky Prospect": "There is nothing better than Nevsky Prospekt, at least in St. Petersburg ..." A few pages later a draft of the article "Schletzer, Miller and Herder", followed by four lines from the end of "Diary of a Madman." We seem to see here how generously Gogol's ideas swarmed, how inexhaustible was his creative impulse, redundancy, creative wealth of the writer. Along with working on works of art, he devoted a lot of time and effort to studying history, reading sources, scientific research, and monographs. In his notebooks there are extracts from rare books and sources, notes, notes of his own thoughts. Here is a discourse about the place of residence of the Slavic peoples, and notes "On the Varangians", "Alliances of European sovereigns with the Russians", "The Age of Louis XIV", sketches of lectures - on the Media and the Persians, on the "Dissemination of the Normans", on "Italy before the Visigoths" and much more. How much selfless labor, tireless work, careful study was needed to accumulate this mass of materials! In a lyric note dedicated to the new, coming 1834, Gogol wrote: “Mysterious, inexplicable 1834! Where will I signify you with great works? Is it among this heap of houses thrown one on top of another, thundering streets, seething commercialism - this ugly heap of fashions, parades, officials, wild northern nights, splendor and low colorlessness? Whether in my beautiful, ancient, promised Kiev, crowned with prolific gardens, surrounded by my southern, beautiful, wonderful sky, delightful nights, where the mountain is strewn with bushes with its seemingly harmonious cliffs, and my clean and fast washing away, my Dnieper ... "Gogol dreams of getting away from the commercialism of St. Petersburg, its tenement houses, the blatant contradictions of splendor and colorlessness, luxury and poverty. He appeals to his genius, to the dream of universal harmony, beauty, human bliss: “Oh, do not part with me! Live on earth with me for at least two hours every day, like my beautiful brother. I will ... I will! Life is in full swing in me. My works will be inspired. A deity inaccessible to the earth will blow over them! I will ... Oh, kiss and bless me! " This lyrical confession, this poet's dream of a harmonious peace, of human happiness was the more agitated and heartfelt, the darker and more hopeless was all that unfair, base, venal that surrounded him. The dream of universal harmony, of the liberation of man from the vulgarity of his surroundings, was reflected in a number of articles written with the same inspired pathos and soon included in the collection "Arabesques". These articles are imbued with a passionate love for a person, anxious concern for his fate in this mercantile world of ranks and gold, general corruption and decline: “Everything constitutes a conspiracy against us, - wrote Gogol, - all this seductive chain of refined inventions of luxury is trying to drown out and lull our senses. We yearn to save our poor soul, to escape from these terrible seducers ... ”. For the first time, Gogol mentioned "Arabesques" in letters to M.P. Pogodinu from November 2 to December 14, 1834: "... terribly busy ... I'm typing some things!" and “I print all sorts of things. All the compositions and excerpts and thoughts that sometimes occupied me. Among them there are historical ones, already known and unknown. - I only ask you to look at them more indulgently. They have a lot of young people. " At the beginning of January 1835, Gogol sent a preface to A. AS. Pushkin: “I am sending you a preface. Do mercy, review and if anything, correct and change right there with ink. As far as you know, I have not yet written any serious prefaces, and therefore am completely inexperienced in this matter. " It is not known whether Pushkin made any correction to the text of his younger brother in literature. On January 22, 1835, Gogol sent a copy to A.S. Pushkin, noting in a letter: “Subtract ... and do mercy, take a pencil in your pens and do not stop indignation at the sight of mistakes, but the same hour they are all on the face. - I need it very much". On the same day, copies of the Arabesques were sent by M.P. Pogodin and M.A. Maksimovich. M.P. For a moment, Gogol wrote: “I am sending you all my stuff. Stroke it and pat it: there is a lot of childish in it, and I tried to throw it out into the light as soon as possible, so that at the same time everything old was thrown out of my desk, and, having shaken off, start a new life. Express your opinion about historical articles in some magazine. Better and more decent, I think, in the journal of education. Your word will help me. Because I also seem to have some kind of learned enemies. But fuck their mother! " M.A. Gogol reported to Maksimovich: "I am sending you a confusion, a mixture of everything, porridge, in which there is butter, judge for yourself." V.G. Belinsky, in his article "On the Russian Story and the Stories of Mr. Gogol" (1835), did not appreciate Arabesques' articles on history: “I don’t understand how you can so thoughtlessly compromise your literary name. Really translating, or, better to say, paraphrasing and re-parodying some passages from Miller's history, mixing them with your own phrases means writing a scholarly article? In what case are not comparable, also scholarship? .. "The Arabesques did not have commercial success. In this regard, on March 23, 1835, Gogol wrote to M.P. Pogodinu: "... Please, publish in Moskovskie Vedomosti an announcement about Arabesques, that this book has aroused general curiosity, that the expense for it is terrible (No. 6, so far not a penny of profit has been received) and the like." The publisher of "Arabesque" was Nikolai Vasilievich himself. In his letters, he irritably speaks of Smirdin, complains about booksellers. On October 7, 1835 Gogol complained to A.S. Pushkin: “My neither" Arabesques "nor" Mirgorod "suit perfectly. The devil knows what that means. Booksellers are the kind of people who can be hung on the first tree without any conscience. " Subsequently, Gogol did not value most of the works included in the Arabesque. On November 16 (28), 1836, he wrote from Paris to M.P. Pogodinu: “I am scared to remember all my maranyas. They are like formidable accusers, they appear to my eyes. Oblivion, long oblivion asks the soul. And if such a moth appeared that would suddenly eat up all copies of The Inspector General, and with them Arabesques, Evenings and all the other nonsense, and about me, for a long time, neither in print, nor orally, no one words - I would thank fate. Glory after death alone (for which, alas! I still have not done anything) is familiar to the soul of a genuine poet. And modern fame is not worth a penny. " In the article "Russian Literature in 1841" V.G. Belinsky noted that in A. “Gogol passes from cheerful comedy to“ humor ”, which for him consists in the opposite of contemplation of true life, in opposition to the ideal of life - with the reality of life. And therefore his humor amuses only simpletons or children; people who have looked into the depths of life look at his paintings with sad meditation, with heavy anguish ... Because of these monstrous and ugly faces, they see other, fine-looking faces; this dirty reality leads them to contemplate the ideal reality, and what is, more clearly presents to them what should be ... "
All these stories are united into one whole, primarily by their common theme, defined by Gogol as “the collision of dreams with; materiality ”(reality). The place of action - St. Petersburg, the capital city, in which social contradictions especially clearly manifested themselves already in the 30s of the XIX century, during the period of development in the capital of "commercialism"], the pursuit of profit, predation, soulless calculation, also makes them similar.
In "Nevsky Prospect" Gogol tells the story of the artist Piskarev, an enthusiastic dreamer, before whose eyes appeared "all low, all despicable life - a life filled with emptiness and idleness ...". And Piskarev perishes as a tragic victim of the discord between dreams and reality.
The story "Portrait" was later (in 1841) reworked by Gogol, especially in the second part. This is a sad story about the artist Chartkov, who ruined his talent in the pursuit of wealth. "Gold became his passion, ideal, fear, pleasure, goal." Under the influence of gold, human qualities die off in Chartkov, and the artist also perishes in him, since the exploiting classes do not need genuine, realistic art; they need a handicraft embellishment of themselves and the life in which they dominate.
In The Notes of a Madman and in the adjacent, although written later (in 1841), The Overcoat, Gogol addresses the theme raised by Pushkin in The Station Keeper, the theme of the “little man,” a poor petty official living in a society that evaluates people by rank and wealth.
The senseless clerical service - rewriting papers - killed every living thought and every human aspirations in Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkina.
But even in this downtrodden, humiliated petty official, a person wakes up when he has a goal in life: a new overcoat. “He,” writes Gogol, “became somehow more alive, even more firm in character, like a man who has already determined and set a goal for himself. Doubt and indecision disappeared from his face and from his actions by itself ... "
There was no happier person than Akaki Akakievich when, finally, the tailor brought him a new overcoat. But the joy was short-lived. At night, when he was returning from a colleague, he was robbed: they took off his greatcoat. In vain did Akaki Akakievich seek help from a private bailiff, from a "significant person"; everywhere he met either complete indifference, or contempt and menacing shouts. Frightened by the reception at the "significant person", timid and downtrodden Akaki Akakievich fell ill with a nervous fever, which carried him to the grave. "The creature disappeared and disappeared," Gogol notes, "not protected by anyone, dear to anyone, not interesting to anyone ..."
With great sympathy, Gogol showed a downtrodden little man who responded to the evil ridicule of his colleagues with “penetrating” words: “Leave me, why are you offending me,” and in these penetrating words other words rang out: “I am your brother.”
Two collections of Gogol ("Mirgorod" and "Arabesques") caused a wonderful article by Belinsky: "On the Russian story and stories of Gogol", published in the magazine "Telescope" in 1835.
Defining the peculiarities of Gogol's work, Belinsky writes: “The distinctive character of Mr. Gogol's story is made up of simplicity of fiction, nationality, the perfect truth of life, originality and comic animation, always conquered by a deep feeling of sadness and despondency. The reason for all these qualities lies in one source: Mr. Gogol is a poet, a poet of real life. " And if the first four qualities are inherent, according to Belinsky, "all elegant works", then the last - a special humor - is the originality of Gogol the writer.
This article by Belinsky, which Gogol liked very much, was important in that the great critic, having sincerely guessed in Gogol a great writer, a worthy successor to Pushkin, emphasized with all decisiveness that Gogol was a realist writer, strong in his faithful depiction of life. Each of Gogol's novellas "makes you say:" How simple, ordinary, natural and true it all is, and, together, how original and new! "