Turgenev is the best. The meaning of Turgenev's novels

Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich, whose stories, tales and novels are known and loved by many today, was born on October 28, 1818 in the city of Orel, in the ancient noble family. Ivan was the second son of Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva (née Lutovinova) and Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev.

Turgenev's parents

His father served in the Elisavetgrad cavalry regiment. After his marriage, he retired with the rank of colonel. Sergei Nikolaevich belonged to an old noble family. His ancestors are believed to have been Tatars. Ivan Sergeevich’s mother was not as well-born as his father, but she surpassed him in wealth. The vast lands located in belonged to Varvara Petrovna. Sergei Nikolaevich stood out for his elegance of manners and secular sophistication. He had a subtle soul and was handsome. The mother's character was not like that. This woman lost her father early. She had to experience a terrible shock in adolescence, when her stepfather tried to seduce her. Varvara ran away from home. Ivan's mother, who experienced humiliation and oppression, tried to take advantage of the power given to her by law and nature over her sons. This woman was distinguished by her willpower. She loved her children despotically, and was cruel to the serfs, often punishing them with flogging for minor offenses.

Case in Bern

In 1822, the Turgenevs went on a trip abroad. In Bern, a Swiss city, Ivan Sergeevich almost died. The fact is that the father put the boy on the railing of the fence that surrounded a large pit with city bears entertaining the public. Ivan fell off the railing. Sergei Nikolaevich grabbed his son by the leg at the last moment.

Introduction to fine literature

Turgenevs from trip abroad returned to Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, their mother’s estate, located ten miles from Mtsensk (Oryol province). Here Ivan discovered literature for himself: one of the servants from his mother’s serfs read the poem “Rossiada” by Kheraskov to the boy in the old manner, in a chanting and measured manner. Kheraskov in solemn verses sang the battles for Kazan of the Tatars and Russians during the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich. Many years later, Turgenev, in his 1874 story “Punin and Baburin,” endowed one of the heroes of the work with a love for the Rossiade.

First love

The family of Ivan Sergeevich was in Moscow from the late 1820s to the first half of the 1830s. At the age of 15, Turgenev fell in love for the first time in his life. At this time, the family was at the Engel dacha. They were neighbors with their daughter, Princess Catherine, who was 3 years older than Ivan Turgenev. First love seemed captivating and beautiful to Turgenev. He was in awe of the girl, afraid to admit the sweet and languid feeling that had taken possession of him. However, the end to joys and torments, fears and hopes came suddenly: Ivan Sergeevich accidentally learned that Catherine was his father’s beloved. Turgenev was haunted by pain for a long time. He will give his love story for a young girl to the hero of the 1860 story “First Love.” In this work, Catherine became the prototype of Princess Zinaida Zasekina.

Studying at universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg, death of father

The biography of Ivan Turgenev continues with a period of study. In September 1834, Turgenev entered Moscow University, the Faculty of Literature. However, he was not happy with his studies at the university. He liked Pogorelsky, a mathematics teacher, and Dubensky, who taught Russian. Most teachers and courses left student Turgenev completely indifferent. And some teachers even caused obvious antipathy. This especially applies to Pobedonostsev, who talked tediously and for a long time about literature and was unable to advance in his passions further than Lomonosov. After 5 years, Turgenev will continue his studies in Germany. About Moscow University he will say: “It is full of fools.”

Ivan Sergeevich studied in Moscow for only a year. Already in the summer of 1834 he moved to St. Petersburg. Here on military service was his brother Nikolai. Ivan Turgenev continued to study at His father died in October of the same year from kidney stones, right in Ivan’s arms. By this time he was already living apart from his wife. Ivan Turgenev's father was amorous and quickly lost interest in his wife. Varvara Petrovna did not forgive him for his betrayal and, exaggerating her own misfortunes and illnesses, presented herself as a victim of his heartlessness and irresponsibility.

Turgenev left a deep wound in his soul. He began to think about life and death, about the meaning of existence. Turgenev at this time was attracted by powerful passions, bright characters, tossing and struggling of the soul, expressed in an unusual, sublime language. He reveled in the poems of V. G. Benediktov and N. V. Kukolnik, and the stories of A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. Ivan Turgenev wrote his dramatic poem called "Sten". More than 30 years later, he will say that this is “a completely ridiculous work.”

Writing poetry, republican ideas

Turgenev in the winter of 1834-1835. seriously ill. He had weakness in his body and could not eat or sleep. Having recovered, Ivan Sergeevich changed greatly spiritually and physically. He became very stretched out, and also lost interest in mathematics, which had attracted him before, and began to become more and more interested in elegant literature. Turgenev began to compose many poems, but still imitative and weak. At the same time, he became interested in republican ideas. Existed in the country serfdom he felt it was a shame and the greatest injustice. Turgenev’s feeling of guilt towards all the peasants strengthened, because his mother treated them cruelly. And he vowed to himself to do everything to ensure that there would be no class of “slaves” in Russia.

Meeting Pletnev and Pushkin, publication of the first poems

Student Turgenev in his third year met P. A. Pletnev, a professor of Russian literature. This literary critic, poet, friend of A. S. Pushkin, to whom the novel “Eugene Onegin” is dedicated. At the beginning of 1837, at a literary evening with him, Ivan Sergeevich encountered Pushkin himself.

In 1838, two poems by Turgenev were published in the Sovremennik magazine (first and fourth issues): “To the Venus of Medicine” and “Evening.” Ivan Sergeevich published poems after that. The first samples of the pen that were printed did not bring him fame.

Continuing your studies in Germany

In 1837, Turgenev graduated from St. Petersburg University (literature department). He was not satisfied with the education he received, feeling gaps in his knowledge. German universities were considered the standard of that time. And so in the spring of 1838, Ivan Sergeevich went to this country. He decided to graduate from the University of Berlin, where Hegel's philosophy was taught.

Abroad, Ivan Sergeevich became friends with the thinker and poet N.V. Stankevich, and also became friends with M.A. Bakunin, who later became a famous revolutionary. He held conversations on historical and philosophical topics with T. N. Granovsky, the future famous historian. Ivan Sergeevich became a convinced Westerner. Russia, in his opinion, should follow the example of Europe, getting rid of lack of culture, laziness, and ignorance.

Civil service

Turgenev, returning to Russia in 1841, wanted to teach philosophy. However, his plans were not destined to come true: the department to which he wanted to enter was not restored. Ivan Sergeevich was enlisted in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in June 1843. At that time, the issue of liberating the peasants was being studied, so Turgenev reacted to the service with enthusiasm. However, Ivan Sergeevich did not serve long in the ministry: he quickly became disillusioned with the usefulness of his work. He began to feel burdened by the need to follow all the instructions of his superiors. In April 1845, Ivan Sergeevich retired and was never again in public service.

Turgenev becomes famous

Turgenev in the 1840s began to play the role of a socialite in society: always well-groomed, neat, with the manners of an aristocrat. He wanted success and attention.

In 1843, in April, the poem “Parasha” by I. S. Turgenev was published. Its plot is the touching love of a landowner’s daughter for a neighbor on the estate. The work is a kind of ironic echo of Eugene Onegin. However, unlike Pushkin, in Turgenev’s poem everything ends happily with the marriage of the heroes. Nevertheless, happiness is deceptive, doubtful - it is just ordinary well-being.

The work was highly appreciated by V. G. Belinsky, the most influential and famous critic of that time. Turgenev met Druzhinin, Panaev, Nekrasov. Following "Parasha" Ivan Sergeevich wrote the following poems: in 1844 - "Conversation", in 1845 - "Andrey" and "Landowner". Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich also created short stories and tales (in 1844 - “Andrei Kolosov”, in 1846 - “Three Portraits” and “Breter”, in 1847 - “Petushkov”). In addition, Turgenev wrote the comedy "Lack of Money" in 1846, and the drama "Carelessness" in 1843. He followed the principles" natural school"writers, to which Grigorovich, Nekrasov, Herzen, Goncharov belonged. Writers belonging to this direction depicted "non-poetic" objects: daily life people, life, primary attention was paid to the influence of circumstances and environment on the fate and character of a person.

"Notes of a Hunter"

In 1847, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev published the essay “Khor and Kalinich,” created under the impression of hunting trips in 1846 through the fields and forests of the Tula, Kaluga and Oryol provinces. The two heroes in it - Khor and Kalinich - are presented not just as Russian peasants. These are individuals with their own complexities. inner world. On the pages of this work, as well as other essays by Ivan Sergeevich, published in the book “Notes of a Hunter” in 1852, the peasants have their own voice, different from the manner of the narrator. The author recreated the customs and life of landowners and peasants in Russia. His book was assessed as a protest against serfdom. Society received her with enthusiasm.

Relationship with Pauline Viardot, death of mother

In 1843, a young woman arrived on tour Opera singer from France Pauline Viardot. She was greeted enthusiastically. Ivan Turgenev was also delighted with her talent. He was captivated by this woman for his entire life. Ivan Sergeevich followed her and her family to France (Viardot was married) and accompanied Polina on a tour of Europe. His life was now divided between France and Russia. Ivan Turgenev's love has stood the test of time - Ivan Sergeevich waited two years for his first kiss. And only in June 1849 Polina became his lover.

Turgenev's mother was categorically against this connection. She refused to give him the funds received from the income from the estates. Their death reconciled: Turgenev’s mother was dying hard, suffocating. She died in 1850 on November 16 in Moscow. Ivan was informed of her illness too late and did not have time to say goodbye to her.

Arrest and exile

In 1852, N.V. Gogol died. I. S. Turgenev wrote an obituary on this occasion. There were no reprehensible thoughts in it. However, it was not customary in the press to recall the duel that led to and also to recall the death of Lermontov. On April 16 of the same year, Ivan Sergeevich was put under arrest for a month. Then he was exiled to Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, without being allowed to leave the Oryol province. At the request of the exile, after 1.5 years he was allowed to leave Spassky, but only in 1856 was he given the right to go abroad.

New works

During the years of exile, Ivan Turgenev wrote new works. His books became increasingly popular. In 1852, Ivan Sergeevich created the story "The Inn". In the same year, Ivan Turgenev wrote “Mumu,” one of his most famous works. In the period from the late 1840s to the mid-1850s, he created other stories: in 1850 - “Diary extra person", in 1853 - "Two Friends", in 1854 - "Correspondence" and "Quiet", in 1856 - "Yakov Pasynkov". Their heroes are naive and sublime idealists who fail in their attempts to bring benefit society or find happiness in their personal lives. Criticism called them “superfluous people.” Thus, the creator of a new type of hero was Ivan Turgenev. His books were interesting for their novelty and relevance of the issues.

"Rudin"

The fame acquired by Ivan Sergeevich by the mid-1850s was strengthened by the novel "Rudin". The author wrote it in 1855 in seven weeks. Turgenev, in his first novel, attempted to recreate the type of ideologist and thinker modern man. Main character- “an extra person”, who is depicted as both weak and attractive at the same time. The writer, creating him, endowed his hero with the features of Bakunin.

"The Noble Nest" and new novels

In 1858, Turgenev's second novel appeared - " Noble Nest". Its themes are the history of an old noble family; the love of a nobleman, hopeless due to circumstances. Poetry of love, full of grace and subtlety, a careful depiction of the characters’ experiences, the spiritualization of nature - these are distinctive features Turgenev's style, perhaps most clearly expressed in "The Noble Nest". They are also characteristic of some stories, such as “Faust” of 1856, “A Trip to Polesie” (years of creation - 1853-1857), “Asya” and “First Love” (both works written in 1860). "The Nobles' Nest" was received kindly. He was praised by many critics, in particular Annenkov, Pisarev, Grigoriev. However, a completely different fate awaited Turgenev's next novel.

"The day before"

In 1860, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev published the novel “On the Eve”. Summary its next. In the center of the work is Elena Stakhova. This heroine is brave, determined, devoted loving girl. She fell in love with the revolutionary Insarov, a Bulgarian who dedicated his life to liberating his homeland from the power of the Turks. The story of their relationship ends, as usual with Ivan Sergeevich, tragically. The revolutionary dies, and Elena, who became his wife, decides to continue the work of her late husband. This is the plot of the new novel created by Ivan Turgenev. Of course, we described its brief content only in general terms.

This novel caused conflicting assessments. Dobrolyubov, for example, in an instructive tone in his article reprimanded the author where he was wrong. Ivan Sergeevich became furious. Radical democratic publications published texts with scandalous and malicious allusions to the details of Turgenev’s personal life. The writer broke off relations with Sovremennik, where he published for many years. The younger generation stopped seeing Ivan Sergeevich as an idol.

"Fathers and Sons"

In the period from 1860 to 1861, Ivan Turgenev wrote “Fathers and Sons,” his new novel. It was published in the Russian Bulletin in 1862. Most readers and critics did not appreciate it.

"Enough"

In 1862-1864. a miniature story “Enough” was created (published in 1864). It is imbued with motives of disappointment in the values ​​of life, including art and love, so dear to Turgenev. In the face of inexorable and blind death, everything loses its meaning.

"Smoke"

Written in 1865-1867. The novel "Smoke" is also imbued with a gloomy mood. The work was published in 1867. In it, the author tried to recreate the picture of modern Russian society, the ideological sentiments that prevailed in him.

"Nove"

Turgenev's last novel appeared in the mid-1870s. It was published in 1877. Turgenev presented in it the populist revolutionaries who are trying to convey their ideas to the peasants. He assessed their actions as a sacrificial feat. However, this is a feat of the doomed.

The last years of the life of I. S. Turgenev

Since the mid-1860s, Turgenev lived abroad almost constantly, visiting his homeland only on short visits. He built himself a house in Baden-Baden, near the house of the Viardot family. In 1870, after the Franco-Prussian War, Polina and Ivan Sergeevich left the city and settled in France.

In 1882, Turgenev fell ill with spinal cancer. They were hard recent months His life and death were hard. The life of Ivan Turgenev was cut short on August 22, 1883. He was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovsky cemetery, near Belinsky’s grave.

Ivan Turgenev, whose stories, novellas and novels are included in school curriculum and known to many, is one of the greatest Russian writers of the 19th century.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born on October 28 (November 9), 1818 in the city of Orel. His family, both on his mother’s and father’s sides, belonged to the noble class.

The first education in Turgenev’s biography was received at the Spassky-Lutovinovo estate. The boy was taught literacy by German and French teachers. Since 1827, the family moved to Moscow. Turgenev then studied in private boarding schools in Moscow, and then at Moscow University. Without graduating, Turgenev transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University. He also studied abroad and then traveled around Europe.

The beginning of a literary journey

While studying in his third year at the institute, in 1834 Turgenev wrote his first poem called “Wall”. And in 1838, his first two poems were published: “Evening” and “To the Venus of Medicine.”

In 1841, having returned to Russia, he was engaged in scientific activities, wrote a dissertation and received a master's degree in philology. Then, when the craving for science cooled, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev served as an official in the Ministry of Internal Affairs until 1844.

In 1843, Turgenev met Belinsky, and they began a relationship. friendly relations. Under the influence of Belinsky, new poems by Turgenev, poems, stories were created and published, including: “Parasha”, “Pop”, “Breter” and “Three Portraits”.

Creativity flourishes

To others famous works The writer can be attributed to: the novels “Smoke” (1867) and “Nov” (1877), novels and short stories “The Diary of an Extra Man” (1849), “Bezhin Meadow” (1851), “Asya” (1858), “ Spring waters"(1872) and many others.

In the fall of 1855, Turgenev met Leo Tolstoy, who soon published the story “Cutting the Forest” with a dedication to I. S. Turgenev.

Last years

In 1863 he went to Germany, where he met outstanding writers Western Europe, promotes Russian literature. He works as an editor and consultant, himself translating from Russian into German and French and vice versa. He becomes the most popular and read Russian writer in Europe. And in 1879 he received an honorary doctorate Oxford University.

It was thanks to the efforts of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev that the best works Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy.

It is worth briefly noting that in the biography of Ivan Turgenev in the late 1870s - early 1880s, his popularity quickly increased, both at home and abroad. And critics began to rank him among the best writers century.

Since 1882, the writer began to be overcome by illnesses: gout, angina pectoris, neuralgia. As a result of a painful illness (sarcoma), he died on August 22 (September 3), 1883 in Bougival (a suburb of Paris). His body was brought to St. Petersburg and buried at the Volkovsky cemetery.

Chronological table

Other biography options

• In his youth, Turgenev was frivolous and spent a lot of his parents’ money on entertainment. For this, his mother once taught him a lesson, sending him bricks in a parcel instead of money.
• The writer’s personal life was not very successful. He had many affairs, but none of them ended in marriage. Most great love in his life there was the opera singer Pauline Viardot. For 38 years, Turgenev knew her and her husband Louis. He traveled all over the world for their family, lived with them in different countries. Louis Viardot and Ivan Turgenev died in the same year.
• Turgenev was a clean man and dressed neatly. The writer loved to work in cleanliness and order - without this he never began to create.
• see all

The famous Russian writer Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born on October 28, 1818 in Orel. His father and mother were nobles. The future writer spent his childhood on his mother’s estate, Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. In 1827, Ivan and his family moved to Moscow. Turgenev studied literacy from home teachers and in private boarding schools. In 1833 he entered Moscow University, and a year later he transferred to the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University.

Started my own literary creativity a famous prose writer, oddly enough, from poetry. When in 1836 the aspiring poet showed his creations to Professor Pletnev, he invited him to literary evening, where Turgenev met with Pushkin himself. A couple of years later, Turgenev’s works appeared in the Sovremennik magazine. By this time he had written about a hundred poems and even a poem.

In 1938, the writer left the country for the first time and went to Germany. For more than a year he lives in Berlin, writes poetry, studies foreign languages and attends lectures at the university. After this, he returns to his homeland for a while, and then goes abroad again, this time to Italy.

Since 1843, Ivan Sergeevich entered service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the same time, his poem “Parasha” appeared, highly appreciated by the famous critic Belinsky. A little later, the ironic poems “The Landowner” and “Andrey” appear. In 1845 the poet retired.

Soon Turgenev began writing his famous collection stories "Notes of a Hunter". In the works included in this cycle, Turgenev’s nature and the main direction of his work - diversity - are clearly manifested. human characters, the value of each person as an individual, as well as all the negative phenomena of serfdom. Turgenev's heroes were very often ordinary Russian people - peasants, he, hereditary nobleman, was an ardent opponent of serfdom and the infringement of people in society.

As a result of Turgenev’s works, in which the position in relation to modern politics, are banned, and he himself is first arrested and then expelled from St. Petersburg to Spasskoye. As a result, after living a little more in Russia, in 1856 Turgenev left the country and went first to France, and then to England and Germany. His story “Asya” appears there.

In 1859 his novel “The Noble Nest” appeared. The main character of the novel is somewhat similar to Ivan Sergeevich himself - he is close to the people, understands all their problems and considers it his duty to alleviate their lot. However, for the sake of personal happiness, he forgets about his calling, but never achieves it.

In his next novel, “On the Eve,” Turgenev also continued the theme of the need to abolish such a humiliating phenomenon for the country as serfdom and changes in state policy towards the common people. Such creativity made the writer more and more popular in the eyes of the people, but critics and revolutionaries interpreted the meaning of the novel in their own way. As a result, in response to Dobrolyubov’s article published in Sovremennik, he left the magazine. Even though Turgenev and his former revolutionary friends diverged from this point on, he still valued them spiritual qualities and believed that the future of Russia belonged to such people.

In 1962 appears famous novel“Fathers and Sons,” which the writer devotes to the eternal conflict of generations and the political and ideological interests of people. There were also conflicts between landowners and peasants, who were finally freed from serfdom, and between different classes of nobles. Arguing in the novel with his hero, the “nihilist” Bazarov, who is not interested in art, nature and love, he at the same time pays tribute to the firmness of his convictions, which are opposite to the opinions of society. The differences between common people and the intelligentsia, who tried to defend his interests.

Rudin (1856, other sources – 1855)

Turgenev's first novel is named after the main character.

Rudin is one of the best representatives of the cultural nobility. He was educated in Germany, like Mikhail Bakunin, who served as his prototype, and like Ivan Turgenev himself. Rudin is endowed with eloquence. Appearing at the estate of the landowner Lasunskaya, he immediately charms those present. But he speaks well only on abstract topics, carried away by the “flow of his own sensations,” not noticing how his words affect his listeners. The commoner teacher Basistov is captivated by his speeches, but Rudin does not appreciate the young man’s devotion: “Apparently, he was only looking for pure and devoted souls in words.” The hero also suffers defeat in the field of public service, although his plans are always pure and selfless. His attempts to teach at a gymnasium and manage the estates of one tyrant landowner end in failure.

He wins the love of the landowner's daughter, Natalya Lasunskaya, but retreats before the first obstacle - his mother's opposition. Rudin does not stand the test of love - and this is how a person is tested in art world Turgenev.

Nobles' Nest (1858)

A novel about the historical fate of the nobility in Russia.

The main character, Fyodor Ivanovich Lavretsky, falls into the love net of the cold and calculating egoist Varvara Pavlovna. He lives with her in France until an incident opens his eyes to his wife’s infidelity. As if freed from an obsession, Lavretsky returns home and seems to see anew his native places, where life flows silently, “like water through swamp grasses.” In this silence, where even the clouds seem to “know where and why they are floating,” he meets his true love- Lisa Kalitina.

But this love was not destined to be happy, although the amazing music composed by the old eccentric Lemm, Lisa’s teacher, promised happiness for the heroes. Varvara Pavlovna, who was considered dead, turned out to be alive, which means that the marriage of Fyodor Ivanovich and Lisa became impossible.

In the finale, Lisa goes to a monastery to atone for the sins of her father, who acquired wealth through dishonest means. Lavretsky is left alone to live out a joyless life.

The Eve (1859)

In the novel “On the Eve,” Bulgarian Dmitry Insarov, fighting for the independence of his homeland, is in love with a Russian girl, Elena Strakhova. She's ready to share him difficult fate and follows him to the Balkans. But their love turns into cruelty towards Elena’s parents and friends, leading her to break with Russia.

In addition, the personal happiness of Insarov and Elena turned out to be incompatible with the struggle to which the hero wanted to devote himself without reserve. His death looks like retribution for happiness.

All Turgenev’s novels are about love, and all are about the problems that worried the Russian public at that time. In the novel “On the Eve”, social issues are in the foreground.

Dobrolyubov, in the article “When will the real day come?”, published in the magazine “Sovremennik,” called on the “Russian Insarovs” to fight the “internal Turks,” which included not only supporters of serfdom, but also liberals, like Turgenev himself who believed in the possibility of peaceful reforms. The writer persuaded Nekrasov, who published Sovremennik, not to publish this article. Nekrasov refused. Then Turgenev broke with the magazine with which he had collaborated for many years.

Fathers and Sons (1861)

IN next novel“Fathers and Sons” the dispute is between liberals, such as Turgenev and his closest friends, and revolutionary democrat such as Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov (Dobrolyubov partly served as the prototype for the main character Bazarov).

Turgenev hoped that “Fathers and Sons” would serve to unite the social forces of Russia. However, the novel caused a real storm of controversy. The Sovremennik staff saw in the image of Bazarov an evil caricature of the younger generation. The critic Pisarev, on the contrary, found in him the best and necessary traits of a future revolutionary, who does not yet have room for activity. Friends and like-minded people accused Turgenev of currying favor with the “boys”, the younger generation, of unjustifiably glorifying Bazarov and belittling the “fathers”.

Offended by the rude and tactless polemics, Turgenev leaves abroad. Two very unusual stories of these years, with which Turgenev then intended to complete his literary activity, - “Ghosts” (1864) and “Enough” (1865).

Smoke (1867)

The novel “Smoke” (1867) differs sharply from Turgenev’s previous novels. The main character of "Smoke" Litvinov is unremarkable. The center of the novel is not even him, but the meaningless life of a motley Russian society in the German resort of Baden-Baden. Everything seemed to be shrouded in smoke of petty, false significance. At the end of the novel, an extended metaphor for this smoke is given. who watches Litvinov returning home from the carriage window. “Everything suddenly seemed like smoke to him, everything own life“Russian life is everything human, especially everything Russian.”

The novel revealed Turgenev's extreme Westernizing views. In the monologues of Potugin, one of the characters in the novel, there are many evil thoughts about the history and significance of Russia, the only salvation of which is to tirelessly learn from the West. "Smoke" deepened the misunderstanding between Turgenev and the Russian public. Dostoevsky and his like-minded people accused Turgenev of slandering Russia. The Democrats were unhappy with the pamphlet on revolutionary emigration. Liberals - satirical image"tops".

Nov (1876)

Turgenev's last novel, Nov, is about the fate of populism. At the center of the work is the fate of the entire social movement, and not its individual representatives. The characters' characters are no longer revealed in love affairs. The main thing in the novel is the clash between different parties and layers of Russian society, primarily between revolutionary agitators and peasants. Accordingly, the social resonance of the novel and its “topicality” increase.

Poems in prose

The swan song of the aging writer was Poems in Prose (their first part appeared in 1882, the second was not published during his lifetime). They seemed to crystallize into lyrical miniatures the thoughts and feelings that possessed Turgenev throughout creative path: these are thoughts about Russia, about love, about insignificance human existence, but at the same time about feat, about sacrifice, about the meaningfulness and fruitfulness of suffering.

last years of life

IN last years Throughout his life, Turgenev became more and more homesick for his homeland. “I am not only drawn, I am vomiting to Russia...” he wrote a year before his death. Ivan Sergeevich died in Bougival in the south of France. The writer's body was transported to St. Petersburg and buried at the Volkov cemetery in front of a huge crowd of people. Over his coffin, the fierce debates that during his life did not cease around his name and books fell silent. Turgenev's friend, the famous critic P.V. Annenkov wrote: “A whole generation came together at his grave with words of tenderness and gratitude to both the writer and the person.”

Homework

Prepare to share impressions about the novel “Fathers and Sons” and its hero.

Formulate in writing the questions that arose while reading.

Literature

Vladimir Korovin. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. // Encyclopedias for children “Avanta+”. Volume 9. Russian literature. Part one. M., 1999

N.I. Yakushin. I.S. Turgenev in life and work. M.: Russian word, 1998

L.M. Lotman. I.S. Turgenev. History of Russian literature. Volume three. Leningrad: Nauka, 1982. pp. 120 – 160

Years of life: from 10/28/1818 to 08/22/1883

Russian prose writer, poet, playwright, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences. Master of Language and psychological analysis, Turgenev had a significant influence on the development of Russian and world literature.

Ivan Sergeevich was born in Orel. His father came from an old noble family, was extremely handsome, and had the rank of retired colonel. The writer’s mother was the opposite - not very attractive, far from young, but very rich. On my father's side it was a typical marriage of convenience and family life Turgenev’s parents can hardly be called happy. Turgenev spent the first 9 years of his life on the family estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. In 1827, the Turgenevs settled in Moscow to educate their children; They bought a house on Samotek. Turgenev first studied at the Weidenhammer boarding school; then he was sent as a boarder to the director of the Lazarevsky Institute, Krause. In 1833, 15-year-old Turgenev entered the literature department of Moscow University. A year later, due to his older brother joining the Guards Artillery, the family moved to St. Petersburg, and Turgenev then moved to St. Petersburg University. At St. Petersburg University, Turgenev met P. A. Pletnev, to whom he showed some of his poetic experiments, which by that time had already accumulated quite a lot. Pletnev, not without criticism, but approved of Turgenev’s work, and two poems were even published in Sovremennik.

In 1836, Turgenev graduated from the course with the degree of a full student. Dreaming about scientific activity, he is in next year again took the final exam, received a candidate's degree, and in 1838 went to Germany. Having settled in Berlin, Ivan took up his studies. While listening to lectures on the history of Roman and Greek literature at the university, he studied the grammar of ancient Greek and Latin languages. The writer returned to Russia only in 1841, and in 1842 he passed the exam for a master's degree in philosophy at St. Petersburg University. To obtain his degree, Ivan Sergeevich had only to write a dissertation, but by that time he had already lost interest in scientific activity, devoting more and more time to literature. In 1843, Turgenev, at the insistence of his mother, entered the public service to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, however, without serving even two years, he resigned. In the same year, Turgenev's first major work appeared in print - the poem "Parasha", which earned high praise from Belinsky (with whom Turgenev later became very friendly). Significant events also occur in the writer’s personal life. After a series of youthful loves, he became seriously interested in the seamstress Dunyasha, who in 1842 gave birth to his daughter. And in 1843, Turgenev met the singer Polina Viardot, whose love the writer carried throughout his life. Viardot was married by that time, and her relationship with Turgenev was rather strange.

By this time, the writer’s mother, irritated by his inability to serve and his incomprehensible personal life, completely deprives Turgenev of material support, the writer lives in debt and from hand to mouth, while maintaining the appearance of well-being. At the same time, since 1845, Turgenev has been wandering all over Europe, either following Viardot or with her and her husband. In 1848, the writer witnesses French Revolution, during his travels he became closely acquainted with Herzen, George Sand, P. Merimee, in Russia he maintained relations with Nekrasov, Fet, Gogol. Meanwhile, a significant turning point occurred in Turgenev’s work: from 1846 he turned to prose, and from 1847 he wrote practically not a single poem. Moreover, later, when compiling his collected works, the writer completely excluded poetic works from it. The writer’s main work during this period was the stories and novellas that made up “Notes of a Hunter.” Published as a separate book in 1852, Notes of a Hunter attracted the attention of both readers and critics. Also in 1852, Turgenev wrote an obituary for the death of Gogol. St. Petersburg censorship banned the obituary, then Turgenev sent it to Moscow, where the obituary was published in Moskovskie Vedomosti. For this, Turgenev was sent to the village, where he lived for two years, until (mainly through the efforts of Count Alexei Tolstoy) he received permission to return to the capital.

In 1856, Turgenev’s first novel “Rudin” was published and from this year the writer again began to live for a long time in Europe, returning to Russia only occasionally (fortunately, by this time Turgenev had received a significant inheritance after the death of his mother). After the publication of the novel "On the Eve" (1860) and dedicated to the novel articles by N. A. Dobrolyubov “When will the real day come?” Turgenev breaks up with Sovremennik (in particular, with N.A. Nekrasov; their mutual hostility persisted until the end). The conflict with the “younger generation” was aggravated by the novel “Fathers and Sons.” In the summer of 1861 there was a quarrel with L.N. Tolstoy, which almost turned into a duel (reconciliation in 1878). In the early 60s, relations between Turgenev and Viardot improved again; until 1871 they lived in Baden, then (at the end of the Franco-Prussian War) in Paris. Turgenev is closely associated with G. Flaubert and, through him, with E. and J. Goncourt, A. Daudet, E. Zola, G. de Maupassant. His pan-European fame is growing: in 1878, at the international literary congress in Paris, the writer was elected vice-president; in 1879 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford. In his later years, Turgenev wrote his famous “poems in prose,” which presented almost all the motifs of his work. In the early 80s, the writer was diagnosed with spinal cord cancer (sarcoma) and in 1883, after a long and painful illness, Turgenev died.

Information about the works:

Regarding the obituary on Gogol’s death, the chairman of the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee, Musin-Pushkin, spoke as follows: “It is criminal to speak so enthusiastically about such a writer.”

Ivan Turgenev's Peru belongs to the most short work in the history of Russian literature. His prose poem “Russian Language” consists of only three sentences

Ivan Turgenev's brain, as the physiologically largest one measured in the world (2012 grams), is included in the Guinness Book of Records.

The writer's body, according to his wishes, was brought to St. Petersburg and buried at the Volkovsky cemetery. The funeral took place in front of a huge crowd of people and resulted in a mass procession.

Bibliography

Novels and stories
Andrey Kolosov (1844)
Three Portraits (1845)
Jew (1846)
Breter (1847)
Petushkov (1848)
Diary of an Extra Man (1849)