Presentation on the topic of potters' life and creativity. Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov

The life and work of Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov The presentation was prepared by the teacher of Russian language and literature Lendyl Irina Nikolaevna

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Ivan Goncharov was born on June 6, 1812 in Simbirsk. His father Alexander Ivanovich and mother Avdotya Matveevna (nee Shakhtorina) belonged to the merchant class. The future writer spent his childhood in the large stone house of the Goncharovs, located in the very center of the city, with an extensive courtyard, garden, and numerous buildings.

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When Goncharov was seven years old, his father died. In the subsequent fate of the boy, in his spiritual development, his godfather Nikolai Nikolaevich Tregubov played an important role. It was a retired sailor. He was distinguished by his open-mindedness and was critical of some phenomena of modern life. “Good sailor” - this is how Goncharov gratefully called his teacher, who actually replaced his own father. The writer recalled: “Our mother, grateful to him for the difficult part of taking care of our upbringing, took upon herself all the worries about his life and household. His servants, cooks, coachmen merged with our servants, under her control - and we lived in one common yard. The entire material part fell to the lot of the mother, an excellent, experienced, strict housewife. Intellectual concerns fell to him.”

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Education Goncharov received his initial education at home, under the supervision of Tregubov, and then at a private boarding school. At the age of ten he was sent to Moscow to study at a commercial school. The choice of educational institution was made at the insistence of the mother. Goncharov spent eight years in school. These years were difficult and uninteresting for him. Goncharov's spiritual and moral development, however, took its own course. He read a lot. His true mentor was Russian literature.

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Goncharov is already eighteen. The time has come to think about your future. Even in childhood, the passion for writing that arose, the interest in the humanities, especially in literary arts, all this strengthened his idea to complete his education at the Faculty of Literature of Moscow University. In August 1831, after successfully passing the exams, he was enrolled there.

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The three years spent at Moscow University were an important milestone in Goncharov’s biography. It was a time of intense reflection - about life, about people, about myself. At the same time as Goncharov, Belinsky, Herzen, Ogarev, Stankevich, Lermontov, Turgenev, Aksakov and many other talented young people studied at the university, who later left their mark on the history of Russian literature.

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Life after university Having graduated from university in the summer of 1834, Goncharov felt, by his own admission, a “free citizen”, before whom all paths in life were open. . He was attracted by the prospect of an intense spiritual life in the capitals, communication with interesting people there. But there was another, secret dream connected with his long-time passion for writing. He decided to definitely leave drowsy, boring Simbirsk. And he didn’t leave. The governor of Simbirsk persistently asked Goncharov to take the position of his secretary

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Service in the position The Simbirsk governor persistently decided to do it with his own hands, asking Goncharov to take the position of his secretary without anyone’s help. After thought and hesitation, the future. Upon arrival in the capital, Goncharov accepted this offer, but went to the trade ministry of the Ministry of Finance, where it turned out to be ungrateful. boring However, the impressions of the bureaucratic subsequently living mechanism of the system, the department offered him an external position as a translator of foreign correspondence. The service turned out to be not very burdensome for Goncharov. She is, to some extent, a writer. After eleven months of providing financial support for Goncharov and staying in Simbirsk, he left, leaving time for independent work in St. Petersburg. These also worked well in literary studies and reading.

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The beginning of creativity The serious creativity of the writer gradually begins. It was formed under the influence of those sentiments that prompted the young author to take an increasingly ironic attitude towards the romantic cult of art. The 40s marked the beginning of the heyday of Goncharov’s work. This was an important time in the development of Russian literature, as well as in the life of Russian society as a whole.

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“Ordinary History” In the spring of 1847, “Ordinary History” was published on the pages of Sovremennik. In the novel, the conflict between “realism” and “romanticism” appears as a significant conflict in Russian life. Goncharov called his novel “Ordinary History,” thereby emphasizing the typical nature of the processes that were reflected in this work.

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Voyage on the frigate "Pallada" In October 1852, Ivan Goncharov, who served as a translator in the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Finance, was appointed secretary of Admiral Putyatin. From the very first days of the trip, Goncharov began keeping a detailed travel journal (the materials of which formed the basis for the future book “Frigate Pallada”). The expedition lasted almost two and a half years. Goncharov visited England, South Africa, Indonesia, Japan, China and many small islands and archipelagos of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Having landed on the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, Goncharov traveled overland across Russia and returned to St. Petersburg on February 13, 1855. Already in the April book of “Notes of the Fatherland” for 1855, the first essay about the journey appeared. And in 1858, the entire essay was published as a separate publication. The cycle of travel essays “Frigate Pallada” is a kind of “writer’s diary”. The book immediately became a major literary event, striking readers with the richness and variety of factual material and its literary merits. The book was perceived as the writer’s entry into a large world that was unfamiliar to the Russian reader. For Russia in the 19th century, such a book was almost unprecedented.

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The flourishing of creativity In 1859, the word “Oblomovism” was first heard in Russia. Through the fate of the main character of his new novel, Goncharov showed a social phenomenon. However, many saw in the image of Oblomov also a philosophical understanding of the Russian national character, as well as an indication of the possibility of a special moral path opposing the bustle of all-consuming “progress”. Goncharov made an artistic discovery. He created a work of enormous generalizing power.

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Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov 1812 – 1891 Municipal educational institution Otradnenskaya secondary school in Ulyanovsk. Teacher Gorbunova L.A.

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As a classic, he is undoubtedly guaranteed a strong place in Russian literature. His enormous and truthful talent enriched our imagination with immortal types that went far beyond the framework of his time... V.G. Korolenko.

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Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov was born on June 6 (18), 1812 in Simbirsk into the family of a wealthy merchant who was repeatedly elected mayor. The house in which I.A. Goncharov was born (Simbirsk 19th century) Modern view

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At the age of fifty, the childless Alexander Ivanovich, having become a widow, married for a second time the mother of the future writer, nineteen-year-old Avdotya Matveevna Shakhtorina, also from the merchant rank. She gave her husband four children. “Our mother was smart. She was decidedly smarter than all the women I know,” wrote I.A. Goncharov.

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When Ivan was seven years old, his father died. The teacher of the orphans was their godfather - landowner Nikolai Nikolaevich Tregubov, a retired sailor and court councilor. An old bachelor, he adored children and left the writer with the most tender memories of himself. He was a man of “a rare, sublime soul, natural nobility and at the same time the kindest, most beautiful heart.”

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Ivan Goncharov received his initial education at the private boarding school of the priest Father Fyodor (Troitsky). There he became addicted to reading: Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, Tass, Stern, theological works, books about travel... In 1822, Avdotya Matveevna, hoping that her son would follow in his father’s footsteps, sent him to the Moscow Commercial School. After toiling there for eight years, Ivan persuaded his mother to write a petition for his dismissal. “We languished there for 8 years, 8 best years with nothing to do,” wrote I.A. Goncharov. Moscow Commercial School

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In 1831 he entered the literature department of Moscow University. The following year, his first publication took place in the Telescope magazine - a translation of several chapters from Eugene Sue's novel Atar-Gul. At the same time, Herzen, Ogarev, Belinsky, Lermontov studied at the university with him, and it seems strange that he remained unfamiliar with them. However, according to him, he studied “patriarchally and simply: we went to the university as if to a source for water, stocked up on knowledge as best we could...”.

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After graduating from university, Goncharov returned to Simbirsk and tried to serve as secretary of the governor’s office. But at home and in the city everything was as before: quiet, sleepy, lazy. Looking at this calm, he realized that life in his hometown did not provide “any space or food for the mind, no lively interest for fresh, young forces.”

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Not finding an environment that suited his interests, a year later he left for St. Petersburg and entered the service of the Ministry of Finance as a translator. In his free time, he wrote a lot - “without any practical purpose”, then he stoked the stove with countless drafts, experiencing painful doubts about his gift. Later he will note: “...a writer, if he does not pretend to be amateurish... but to serious significance, he must devote almost all of himself and not his whole life to this matter!” Petersburg mid-19th century. Nevsky Avenue.

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While earning money by teaching lessons, Goncharov ended up in the house of the famous academician of painting Nikolai Apollonovich Maykov. Ivan Alexandrovich teaches Russian literature and Latin to his children, among whom were the future poet Apollo Maykov and critic Valerian Maykov. A kind of artistic salon was formed in the Maykovs' house, and the young teacher, who unexpectedly discovered great erudition and talent as a storyteller, became almost a trendsetter of literary taste in it. N.A.Maikov A.N.Maikov V.N.Maikov

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Apparently, Goncharov doubted himself as a writer for a long time. Ivan Goncharov gained confidence in his abilities thanks to his acquaintance with Belinsky, whom he valued very highly as a critic. In 1845, “with terrible emotion,” he submitted the novel “An Ordinary History” to critics. Belinsky “was delighted with the new talent” and immediately offered to publish the manuscript. The novel was published in 1847 in the most popular magazine of that time, Sovremennik.

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In his novel, Goncharov did not denounce anyone, he simply showed the young nobleman Alexander Aduev, a provincial who came to St. Petersburg with a notebook of poems, a lock of hair from his beloved and vague dreams of glory, whom metropolitan life “calmed down” with a profitable marriage and an bureaucratic career. Indeed, it is an ordinary story.

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In 1849, Goncharov published in an “illustrated almanac”, sent as a bonus to subscribers of the Sovremennik magazine, a small excerpt of the not yet completed new novel “Oblomov”. He called this passage “Oblomov’s Dream.” But readers had to wait another ten years for the entire novel.

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Unexpectedly, the writer agrees to the position of secretary under Admiral E.V. Putyatin and on October 7, 1852, went with him on a circumnavigation of the world on the frigate "Pallada". He visited England and Japan, “filled a whole briefcase with travel notes.” He published essays about the journey in various magazines, and later published a separate book entitled “The Frigate “Pallada” (1858), which was met with great interest.

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Returning to St. Petersburg, Ivan Aleksandrovich continued to serve in the Department as head of the department. He already had two novels in sketches - "Oblomov" and "Cliff", but work on them made almost no progress. The writer and censor A.V. undertook to save the writer “from the bureaucracy in which he is dying.” Nikitenko. With his help, in 1855 Goncharov accepted the position of censor in the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee.

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Literary work finally got off the ground as a result of, frankly speaking, amazing events. In the summer of 1857, Goncharov went “to the waters” to Marienbad and fell in love there. At that time, the Russian writer was forty-five years old, he was a confirmed bachelor, and then suddenly: “I’ve barely drunk my three mugs and avoided the whole of Marienbad from six to nine o’clock, I’ve barely drunk some tea in passing, when I take a cigar - and go with it... “Who is “she” who aroused such strong feelings in the apathetic writer?

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Goncharov met Elizaveta Vasilyevna Tolstaya in the Maykovs’ house when he was still a teacher. Then he wished fourteen-year-old Lizonka a “holy and serene future” in her album, signing it de Lazy. Ten years later, in 1855, he met her again at the Maykovs’, and a “friendship” began between them. The writer took her to the theaters, sent her books and magazines, enlightened her on matters of art, in return she gave him her diaries to read, he told her that their relationship was similar to the story of Pygmalion and Galatea... Russian literature owes Olga’s remarkable image to Elizaveta Vasilievna Ilyinskaya

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In Marienbad, the novel “Oblomov” was completed in 7 weeks. The final version of "Oblomov" was published in 1859, and its success exceeded the author's expectations. I.S. Turgenev prophetically remarked: “As long as there is at least one Russian left, Oblomov will be remembered.” L.N. Tolstoy wrote: “Oblomov is the most important thing, which has not happened for a long, long time. Tell Goncharov that I am delighted with Oblomov and am re-reading it again...” In Russia in those years there was not a single most ordinary town where people did not read , did not praise “Oblomov” and did not argue about him.

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It took Goncharov the next ten years to complete the novel “The Cliff.” It was published in the journal "Bulletin of Europe" in 1869, and in 1870 - as a separate publication. The work, which touched upon such new phenomena in Russian life as nihilism and the emancipation of women, caused heated debate in criticism and no less rapid popularity among readers. “For the next book of the “Bulletin of Europe”, where the novel was published, “sent from subscribers” went in crowds from early morning, like to a bakery,” recalled a contemporary. "The Precipice" remained the last work of art by the great novelist.

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In 1870, Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov ordered a portrait of Goncharov from the artist Kramskoy for his gallery. The writer refused: “...I am not aware of such an important merit in literature that it deserves a portrait, although I am innocently happy with every sign of attention shown to my talent (moderate)... In the entire literary galaxy from Belinsky, Turgenev, Counts Leo and Alexei Tolstoy, Ostrovsky, Pisemsky, Grigorovich, Nekrasov - maybe - and I have some share of significance, but taken separately, both in the original and in the portrait, I will represent an unimportant figure ... "God granted Goncharov another twenty years of life , but he almost never appeared in print, due to his innate modesty, considering himself an outdated and forgotten writer. Only four years later Tretyakov managed to persuade him.

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Ivan Alexandrovich never started a family. When his servant Karl Treigut died in 1878, leaving a widow with three young children, the writer took care of them - these children owed him both their upbringing and education. Several years before his death, Goncharov appealed in print to all his addressees with a request to destroy the letters they had and he himself burned a significant part of his archive. Only thanks to the descendants of Karl Treigut, who carefully preserved the writer’s personal belongings to this day and with their participation, the Goncharov Literary Memorial Museum was opened in Ulyanovsk (Simbirsk) in 1982. Treigut family

Lesson objectives:

• Introduce students to Goncharov’s personality and biography.
• Give an idea of ​​the worldview, civic position, philosophical and aesthetic views of the writer.
• Reveal the relationship between his fate and creativity.
• Introduce the creativity of I.A. Goncharov into the general context of the development of literature in the second half of the 19th century.

Lesson objectives:

1. Show the role of the patriarchal way of life in the parental home, the Maykov circle in St. Petersburg, and the “natural school” in the formation of the writer’s personality.
2. To familiarize students with the content of the writer’s main works, to show their connection with the ideological and aesthetic quest of the time and the traditions of previous literature.
3. Show the originality of the writer’s artistic heritage.

Lesson equipment: multimedia projector, Presentation.

During the classes

I. Organizational moment.

Slide 2–4.

II. Goal setting.

III. Teacher's opening speech.

The historical era that nurtured the creativity of I.A. Goncharov, there were the 40-60s of the 19th century, a time of crisis of the feudal-serf system, the period of the abolition of serfdom, the rise of the democratic movement in Russia. Goncharov saw his calling, his social purpose in literary activity. The central theme of his work was the fate of his homeland. “Now with sadness, now with joy, depending on the circumstances, I observe the favorable or unfavorable course of people’s life,” wrote Goncharov.

Write down the topic of the lesson.

While listening to individual messages, take notes in your notebooks

IM. Individual student assignments

Slide 6–10,13.

1812–1834 Childhood and youth of I.A. Goncharova. University of Moscow.

Born into the family of a wealthy Simbirsk merchant. The writer's father, Alexander Ivanovich Goncharov, was held in high esteem in the city: he was elected mayor many times. He died early, leaving his family a large fortune.

The stone two-story house stood on Bolshaya Street, “its furnishings were lordly: a large hall with a chandelier, an elegant living room with a portrait of the owner and the inevitable sofa; The owner’s office, the hostess’s bedroom and a large, bright room for the children overlook the courtyard.” Ivan Aleksandrovich himself remembered that there were many buildings in the yard: sheds, barns, stables, a barn, a poultry house, “the house was, as they say, a full bowl.” It was these childhood memories that largely formed the basis of the famous “Oblomov’s Dream.”

Mother, Avdotya Matveevna, an intelligent, cheerful and attractive woman, loved children, but was strict and demanding with them, did not allow a single prank to pass without punishment: “tugging ears and kneeling” was “a very common means of subduing and turning naughty people to the path right".

After the death of the father, the upbringing of the children was entrusted to the retired naval officer N.N. Tregubov.

His intelligence and liveliness of character attracted many to him. Being an enlightened, liberal-minded person, he played an important role in the spiritual development of the boy. “The good sailor took us under his wing, and we became attached to him with the hearts of children,” I.A. recalled with great warmth. Goncharov.

Ivan Goncharov received his primary education at the private boarding school of the Trinity priest. There he became addicted to books, having re-read almost the entire library, in which “there was Derzhavin, and Zhukovsky... and old novels... and theological works... and travels to Africa, Siberia and others...” Ivan Aleksandrovich recalled: “No one was following me , what I do in my free time from classes, and I liked to hide in a corner and read everything that came to hand.”

Summer of 1822 was assigned to the Moscow Commercial School e. His love of reading did not decrease, but now he gave preference to Russian authors: Karamzin, Derzhavin, Dmitriev, Kheraskov. “And suddenly Pushkin! I recognized him from Onegin... What light, what magical distance suddenly opened up, and what truths - both poetry and life in general, moreover modern, understandable ones - gushed from this source, and with what brilliance, in what sounds! What a school of grace and taste for an impressionable nature!” - Goncharov was delighted.

In August 1831, he successfully passed the exams at the Faculty of Philology of Moscow University, where Belinsky, Ogarev, Lermontov, and Aksakov were studying at that time.

At the university, according to Goncharov, he “systematically, with the help of critical analysis, studied exemplary works of foreign and domestic writers.” “Only the university will serve its purpose,” Goncharov later said, “who will make a second life for himself from reading.” Young Goncharov was guided by the idea that reading is not only a means of enriching oneself with knowledge, but also a source of cultivating in oneself a person with humane aspirations.

He looked at the university as a source of knowledge, and here, at this source, the thought of noble and useful service to society and his homeland matured in him.

I singled out a few of the teachers.

M.T. Kachenovsky read Russian history and statistics. “He was a subtle, analytical mind... a strictly fair and honest person.”

N.I. Nadezhdin is a professor of theory of fine arts and archeology, “a man with multifaceted, well-known scholarship in philosophy and philology...”. Goncharov will write: “He was dear to us with his inspired, passionate words, with which he introduced us into the mysterious depths of the ancient world, conveying the spirit, life, history and art of Greece and Rome...”

Shevyrev, a young, fresh man, brought us his subtle and intelligent analysis of foreign literatures, from the most ancient to the latest Western literatures...”

“Education gained from university was valued above any other”, Goncharov will say later.

At the university he saw Pushkin. Together with other students, he witnessed a heated debate between the poet and Professor Kachenovsky about the authenticity of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”

Goncharov’s first publication dates back to his student years - a translation of two chapters from Eugene Sue’s novel “Atar-Gul” (1832).

Slide 14–21.

Individual task.

In 1834, the future writer graduated from the university. “I am a free citizen of the world, all paths are open to me, and between them the first path is to my homeland, home, to my people.”(Autobiographical notes “In the Motherland.”)

In Simbirsk he entered the service as secretary of the office of Governor Zagryazhsky. Goncharov described this short period of his life very picturesquely and not without irony in his essay “At Homeland.” “Where is the new, young, fresh? Where are the new people, morals, spirit? - he asks Tregubov. And he in response only points to the cathedral, the drinking establishment and the fresh sterlet in the shop. And even then the young man began to understand that the stagnation of Simbirsk was a phenomenon characteristic of all Russian life.

At the beginning of May 1835 he moved to St. Petersburg.

1835–18. Goncharov in St. Petersburg. The beginning of literary activity. Voyage around the world on the frigate “Pallada”.

Being a poor man, Goncharov is forced to serve. He took a position as a translator at the Ministry of Finance. In St. Petersburg, Ivan Alexandrovich becomes close to the family of the famous artist Maikov, whose sons he teaches Russian literature and Latin. An atmosphere of love for poetry and music, painting and theater reigned in the Maykovs' house. Famous writers, musicians, and painters gathered here almost every day. Later Goncharov will say: “Maykov’s house was in full swing with life, with people bringing here inexhaustible content from the spheres of thought, science, and art.”. In the handwritten almanac “Snowdrop” Goncharov placed his first poems and comic stories for home reading. In full accordance with the poetic fashion of the 20-30s of the 19th century, these poems were imbued with the spirit, poetics and style of “frantic” romanticism.

During these years, Goncharov met Belinsky. In his “Notes on the Personality of Belinsky,” Goncharov called him the herald of “new future beginnings of social life.”

The writer’s further work was formed under the influence of Belinsky and the aesthetic principles of the “Pushkin-Gogol” school. There has been a serious ideological turn in his attitude to life, to moral values, and to pressing problems of our time.

In 1847, the first novel was published in the Sovremennik magazine “An ordinary story." Goncharov declared himself as a realist writer, continuing the creative line of Pushkin and Gogol and, according to V.G. Belinsky, “a terrible blow to romanticism, dreaminess, sentimentality, provincialism.”

In 1949, a chapter from the future novel appeared in the “Literary Collection” of the Sovremennik magazine - “Oblomov’s Dream” which suffered from the censor's pencil. this darkened Goncharov’s creative mood and suspended work on the novel.

“I locked myself in my room, sat down to work every morning, but everything came out long, heavy, unprocessed... I’m afraid that I have actually lost all ability to write from old age.”

In August 1852, Goncharov received an offer to go on a trip around the world. Ivan Alexandrovich immediately agreed. The decision to travel was not accidental. This is how he explained his action: “ I shuddered joyfully at the thought: I will be in China, India, cross the oceans, set foot on those islands where the savage walks in primitive simplicity, look at these miracles - and my life will not be an idle reflection of small, boring phenomena. I was renewed, all the dreams and hopes of my youth, youth itself returned to me. Hurry up, hurry up and hit the road!”

On October 7, 1852, the frigate “Pallada” left Kronstadt, on which Goncharov, as secretary to the head of the expedition, Admiral Putyatin, set off on a trip around the world. During the trip, he visited England, South Africa, Hong Kong, China, Japan, and “stuffed a whole briefcase with travel notes.” As a result, they formed a two-volume book of essays entitled “Frigate “Pallada”. The book is written so vividly and excitingly that it can be considered one of the best examples of the adventure genre in world literature.

1855 Returning from his trip, Goncharov was appointed to serve in the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee, immersed himself in literature, and visited the Sovremennik circle, where new literature was read and discussed.

Slide 22–27.

Individual task. Trilogy: Novels “ Ordinary story”, “Oblomov”, “Cliff”.

Goncharov has repeatedly pointed out that “Ordinary History”, “Oblomov” and “Cliff” represent something integral that he sees “not three novels, but one. They are all connected by one common thread, one consistent idea - the transition from one era of Russian life... to another.”.

The main theme of his work has always been Russia, its urgent issues that were raised by Russian life in the 40s, 50s and 60s of the 19th century.

“... I didn’t invent anything: life itself was written by me, as I experienced it and saw how others experienced it, and that’s how it went under the pen. It’s not me, but the phenomena that happened before everyone’s eyes that generalize my images,” the writer asserted.
His attention is drawn to the deep process of the era: the destruction of the patriarchal way of life and its displacement by new dynamic forms of life. Antithesis becomes the main artistic device. Goncharov depicts the change of historical eras as a contradictory and ambiguous process, where gains are paid for by losses, and vice versa. The writer does not connect his social and aesthetic ideal with either the patriarchal “old” or the bourgeois “new”, and in both he sees their advantages and disadvantages.

In the novel “Ordinary story” Goncharov raises an interesting topic about the fate of a romantic in the conditions of the emerging bourgeois life in Russia. Alexander Aduev, the main character of the novel, as Belinsky puts it, “a triple romantic - by nature, by upbringing and by life circumstances,” goes to seek his fortune in St. Petersburg. But the pragmatic life of the city gradually sobers up the enthusiastic young man. Ten to twelve years have passed - and A. Aduev becomes a successful businessman, freed from illusions. He serves conscientiously, has gained weight and wears an order around his neck with dignity. An “ordinary story” happens to him - the story of the transformation of an enthusiastic romantic into a sober official, a balanced businessman.

The artist of words, sensitive, sensitive to the deep processes of the social existence of his contemporary society, reflected in his novel “a faint flicker of consciousness of the need for work, a real, not routine, but a living thing, in the fight against all-Russian stagnation.”

In 1859, the novel “ Oblomov.”

Back in 1847, the Sovremennik magazine published the chapter “Oblomov’s Dream.” Ten years later, in 1857, at the resort of Marienbad, “as if under dictation,” Goncharov wrote almost the entire novel.

Goncharov recalled: the success “exceeded all my expectations. I. Turgenev once remarked to me briefly: “As long as there is at least one Russian left, Oblomov will be remembered.” L. Tolstoy wrote at the same time: “Oblomov is the most important thing, which has not happened for a long, long time.”

A.V. Druzhinin, in a review of the novel, wrote: “In the writer who gave our literature “Ordinary History” and “Oblomov”, we have always seen and see now one of the strongest modern Russian artists.” Goncharov himself has repeatedly emphasized his involvement in the realistic school. In the critical notes “Better late than never” we read: “...you can’t escape Pushkin and Gogol in Russian literature now. The Pushkin-Gogol school continues to this day, and all of us, fiction writers, are only developing the material they bequeathed.”

The last novel Break" was published in 1869 in the journal “Bulletin of Europe”. The complex creative history of “The Precipice” is closely connected with the social and cultural life of Russia in the 1850–1860s. “This novel was my life: I put into it a part of myself, people close to me, my homeland, the Volga, my native places...” wrote Goncharov. In the novel, conceived in 1849 under the title “The Artist,” the writer wanted to show the conflict between the creative person and the environment. This is a novel about an artist, in whose image Goncharov, in his words, showed a kind of “artistic Oblomovism”, “Russian gifted nature, wasted in vain, to no avail”: Raisky is “receptive, impressionable, with the makings of talent, but he is still Oblomov’s son "
The final title of the novel, “The Precipice,” determines the fate of the younger generation, who suffered a tragic defeat in search of their historical path. This name is symbolic; it encapsulates the ideological essence of the work. The cliff is both the place of a terrible murder, and a tragic misunderstanding of two generations, a break in traditions and a fall into the abyss of unbelief. The novel continued the search for a moral ideal and reflected criticism of nihilism.
Goncharov himself considered this work the best of all that he had written.

V. The teacher's word. Slides 28–34/

1. The writer responded to the social events of the 1940s with the novel “Ordinary History.” Goncharov firmly stands on the progressive positions of the enlightened bourgeoisie and from these positions exposes the failure of the noble-estate culture.
2. The novel “Oblomov” was created in the 50s, when the conflict between two structures - patriarchal-serfdom and capitalist - became even more aggravated and raised the question of the inevitability of the abolition of serfdom. The reform of 1861 was approaching. In “Oblomov” Goncharov pronounces a harsh verdict on the feudal-serf system, albeit with some hidden sadness.
3. “The Cliff” was created mainly in the 60s. Patriarchal estate life was now a thing of the past, and the position of the bourgeoisie became stronger. But at this time, a new social force appeared on the stage of Russian history - revolutionary democracy, calling for a social revolution.
Goncharov's position is clear: he is the enemy of any violent breakup.

Goncharov saw the ideal of social development in the transformation of everything “through reforms,” in the cooperation of all classes of Russian society, in the harmony of their interests.

VI. Recent decades. Slide 35–39/

I.A. Goncharov intended to write a new, fourth novel after The Cliff. In January 1870, he wrote to P.V. Annenkov: “If I have the strength, it’s better for me, having finished with The Precipice, to think carefully about something new, that is, about a novel, if old age doesn’t interfere.”

But Goncharov “left this plan” because, in his opinion, “ creativity requires calm observation of already established and calmed forms of life, and new life is too new, it trembles in the process of fermentation, forms today, decomposes tomorrow and changes by leaps and bounds. Today's heroes are not like tomorrow's and can only be reflected in the mirror of satire, a light essay, and not in large epic works."

“What has not grown and matured within me, what I have not seen, what I have not observed, what I have not lived with, is inaccessible to my pen!” the writer said. I wrote only what I experienced, what I thought, what I felt, what I loved, what I saw and knew closely - in a word, I wrote both my life and what grew into it.”("Better late than never"). This explains why Goncharov did not write a novel about “modern life.”

In December 1871, Goncharov attended the play “Woe from Wit” at the Alexandrinsky Theater, and soon a “critical sketch” “A Million Torments” was written, containing a deep analysis of the comedy by A.S. Griboedova. He no longer had the strength to create large epic works, but Ivan Aleksandrovich continues to work hard and fruitfully: he writes “Notes on the personality of Belinsky”, articles “Better late than never”, “An extraordinary story”, autobiographical essays “At home”, “In university."
In the last years of his life he lived in solitude, surrounded by the children of his servant Karl Treigut, who died in 1878. Goncharov died on September 15 from pneumonia at the age of eightie. He was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1956, the writer’s ashes were transferred to Volkovo Cemetery. The obituary published on the pages of Vestnik Evropy noted: “Like Turgenev, Herzen, Ostrovsky, Saltykov, Goncharov will always occupy one of the most prominent places in our literature.”

We got acquainted with the biography of I.A. Goncharov and his creative heritage. Now let's check the task completed during the lesson: What life circumstances shaped the writer’s worldview, his philosophical and aesthetic views?

Student answers.

VII. Stage of consolidation of knowledge/

Quiz/
Goal: consolidate knowledge of the biography and creativity of A.I. Goncharova

1. Who did I.A teach? Goncharov literature as a home teacher?

2. What book of essays did Goncharov write during his trip around the world?

3. Name three novels by Goncharov.

4. Name the poet, who is for Goncharov an incomparable teacher of life, an educator of noble human feelings and love for the homeland.

5. Which writer first used the word “Oblomovism”?

• I.A. Goncharov.
• ON THE. Dobrolyubov.
• DI. Pisarev.
• V.G. Belinsky.

6. “Oh my God! What light, what magical distance suddenly opened up!” - Goncharov gave such an enthusiastic review to the work:

• “Hero of Our Time” by M.Yu Lermontov.
• “Eugene Onegin” A.S. Pushkin.
• "Dead Souls! N.V. Gogol.
• “Woe from Wit” A.S. Griboedova.

7. It is known that Goncharov went on a trip around the world on the frigate “Pallada”, and what route did he return home?

8. In what work did Belinsky see “a terrible blow to romanticism, dreaminess, sentimentality”?

9. Which literary characters have a book on their table, one of which has been open on page 14 for two years, and the other has the pages of the open books covered with dust and yellowed?” Name the works and their authors.

VIII. Lesson summary.
IX. Homework: reread chapters 1–10 of the novel “Oblomov.”

Ivan Goncharov was born on June 6 (18), 1812 in Simbirsk. His father and mother belonged to the merchant class. The future writer spent his childhood in the large stone house of the Goncharovs, located in the very center of the city, with an extensive courtyard, garden, and numerous buildings. Recalling in his old years his childhood and his father’s house, Goncharov wrote in his autobiographical essay “In the Motherland”: “The barns, cellars, and glaciers were overflowing with reserves of flour, various millet and all kinds of provisions for food for us and the vast household. In short, a whole estate, a village.” Much of what Goncharov learned and saw in this “village” was, as it were, an initial impulse in the knowledge of the local, lordly life of pre-reform Russia, so vividly and truthfully reflected in his “Ordinary History”, “Oblomov” and “Cliff” (three famous novels by Goncharov on “O”) of the year Simbirsk merchant class “Ordinary History” “Oblomov” “Obliv”

When Goncharov was seven years old, his father died. In the subsequent fate of the boy, in his spiritual development, his godfather Nikolai Nikolaevich Tregubov played an important role. It was a retired sailor. He was distinguished by his open-mindedness and was critical of some phenomena of modern life. “Good sailor” was how Goncharov gratefully called his teacher, who actually replaced his own father. The writer recalled: “Our mother, grateful to him for the difficult part of taking care of our upbringing, took upon herself all the worries about his life and household. His servants, cooks, and coachmen merged with our servants, under their control, and we lived in one common yard. The entire material part fell to the lot of the mother, an excellent, experienced, strict housewife. Intellectual concerns fell to him.”

Education Goncharov received his initial education at home, under the supervision of Tregubov, and then in a private boarding house. And at the age of ten he was sent to Moscow to study at a commercial school. The choice of educational institution was made at the insistence of the mother. boarding house Moscow Goncharov spent eight years in school. These years were difficult and uninteresting for him. Goncharov's spiritual and moral development, however, took its own course. He read a lot. His true mentor was Russian literature. Goncharov recalled: “The first direct teacher in the development of humanity, in general in the moral sphere, was Karamzin, and in the matter of poetry, I and my peers, summer youths, had to feed on Derzhavin, Dmitriev, Ozerov, even Kheraskov, who was passed off as a poet at school.” Great revelation for Goncharov and his comrades Pushkin appeared with his “Eugene Onegin”, which was published in separate chapters. He tells: humanity Karamzin Derzhavin Dmitriev Ozerov Kheraskov Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” “Oh my God! What light, what magical distance suddenly opened up, and what truths, and poetry, and life in general, moreover modern, understandable ones, poured out from this source, and with what brilliance, in what sounds!” Goncharov retained this almost prayerful reverence for the name of Pushkin throughout his life. Meanwhile, studying at school became completely unbearable. Goncharov managed to convince his mother of this, and she wrote a petition to exclude him from the list of boarders. Goncharov is already eighteen. The time has come to think about your future. Even in childhood, a passion for writing, an interest in the humanities, especially literary literature, all this strengthened his idea to complete his education at the literature department of Moscow University. A year later, in August 1831, after successfully passing the exams, he was enrolled there. Moscow University August 1831 exams Three years spent at Moscow University were an important milestone in Goncharov’s biography. It was a time of intense reflection about life, about people, about myself. At the same time as Goncharov, Belinsky, Herzen, Ogarev, Stankevich, Lermontov, Turgenev, Aksakov and many other talented young people studied at the university, who later left one or another mark on the history of Russian literature. Belinsky Herzen Ogarev Stankevich Lermontov Turgenev Aksakov

Life after university Having graduated from university in the summer of 1834, Goncharov felt, by his own admission, a “free citizen”, before whom all paths in life were open. First of all, he decided to visit his native land, where his mother, sisters, and Tregubov were waiting for him. Simbirsk, in which everything was so familiar from childhood, struck the matured and matured Goncharov, first of all, by the fact that nothing had changed. Everything here resembled a huge sleepy village. This is exactly how Goncharov knew his hometown in childhood, and then in his youth. 1834 University Even before graduating from the university, Goncharov decided not to return to Simbirsk permanently. A new meeting with him finally strengthened this determination. He was attracted by the prospect of an intense spiritual life in the capitals (Moscow, St. Petersburg), communication with interesting people there. But there was another, secret dream connected with his long-time passion for writing. He decided to definitely leave drowsy, boring Simbirsk. And he didn’t leave. The governor of Simbirsk persistently asked Goncharov to take the position of his secretary. After thought and hesitation, Goncharov accepts this offer, but the task turned out to be boring and thankless. However, these vivid impressions of the mechanism of the bureaucratic system later came in handy for Goncharov the writer. After eleven months of stay in Simbirsk, he leaves for St. Petersburg. Goncharov decided to build his future with his own hands, without anyone’s help. Upon arrival in the capital, he applied to the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Finance, where he was offered the position of translator of foreign correspondence. The service turned out to be not very burdensome. She to some extent provided Goncharov financially and left time for independent literary studies and reading. University Moscow-St. Petersburg Petersburg In St. Petersburg, he became close to the Maykov family. Goncharov was introduced into this family as a teacher of the two eldest sons of the head of the family, Nikolai Alexandrovich Maykov, Apollo and Valerian, to whom he taught Latin and Russian literature. This house was an interesting cultural center of St. Petersburg. Famous writers, musicians, and painters gathered here almost every day. Later Goncharov would say: Nikolai Aleksandrovich Maykov Apollo Valerian The Maykov House was in full swing with life, with people who brought here inexhaustible content from the spheres of thought, science, and art.

The beginning of creativity The serious creativity of the writer gradually begins. It was formed under the influence of those sentiments that prompted the young author to take an increasingly ironic attitude towards the romantic cult of art that reigned in the Maykovs’ house. The 40s began the heyday of Goncharov’s creativity. This was an important time in the development of Russian literature, as well as in the life of Russian society as a whole. Goncharov meets Belinsky. Communication with the great critic was important for the spiritual development of the young writer. Goncharov himself testified in one of his letters what role Belinsky played for him: 40s Only when Belinsky regulated all yesterday’s chaos of tastes, aesthetic and other concepts, etc., then the view of these heroes of the pen (Lermontov and Gogol) became more definite and stricter. Conscious criticism appeared... In his “Notes on the Personality of Belinsky,” Goncharov spoke with sympathy and gratitude about his meetings with the critic and about his role as “a publicist, an aesthetic critic and a tribune, a herald of new future beginnings of public life.” In the spring of 1847, “Ordinary History” was published on the pages of Sovremennik. In the “novel” (1847), the conflict between “realism” and “romanticism” appears as a significant conflict in Russian life. Goncharov called his novel “Ordinary History”, thereby emphasizing the typicality of the processes that were reflected in this work by Lermontov Gogol, 1847, novel 1847

Around the world voyage and the frigate “Pallada” In October 1852, an important event happened in Goncharov’s life: he became a participant in a voyage around the world on the sailing warship frigate “Pallada” as secretary to the head of the expedition, Vice Admiral Putyatin. It was equipped to inspect Russian possessions in North America, Alaska, which at that time belonged to Russia, as well as to establish political and trade relations with Japan. Goncharov imagined how many impressions he would enrich himself and his work with. From the very first days of the trip, he begins to keep a detailed travel journal. It formed the basis of the future book “Frigate Pallas”. The expedition lasted almost two and a half years. England, the Cape of Good Hope, Java, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, China, the Lycean Islands, the Philippines, the return journey through Siberia are the main milestones of this journey. Goncharov's trip can be considered a trip around the world only conditionally. 1852 frigate "Pallada" Putyatin North America Alaska Russia Japan "Frigate Pallada" England Cape of Good Hope Java Singapore Hong Kong Japan China Lyceum Islands Philippines Siberia He returned to St. Petersburg on February 13, 1855, and already in the April book "Notes of the Fatherland" the first essay appeared. Subsequent fragments were published in the Marine Collection and various magazines for three years, and in 1858 the entire work was published as a separate edition. The cycle of travel essays “Frigate Pallada” () is a kind of “writer’s diary”. The book immediately became a major literary event, striking readers with the richness and variety of factual material and its literary merits. The book was perceived as the writer’s entry into a large and unfamiliar world to the Russian reader, seen by an inquisitive observer and described by a sharp, talented pen. For Russia in the 19th century, such a book was almost unprecedented. Meanwhile, Goncharov returned to the department of the Ministry of Finance and continued to regularly perform his bureaucratic duties, for which he had no soul. Soon, however, a change came in his life. He received the position of censor. This position was troublesome and difficult, but its advantage over the previous service was that it was at least directly related to literature. However, in the eyes of many writers, this position put Goncharov in an ambiguous position. The idea of ​​a censor in the progressive strata of society was then far from flattering. He was perceived as a representative of the hated government, as a persecutor of free thought. The image of a stupid and cruel censor was somehow branded by I. A. Pushkin in his “Message to the Censor”: February 13, 1855, 1858, 19th century censor I. A. Pushkin “O barbarian! Which of us, the owners of the Russian lira, did not curse your destructive ax? Soon Goncharov himself began to feel burdened by his position and at the beginning of 1860 he retired. Among other things, the difficult and troublesome service decisively interfered with the writer’s own literary pursuits. By this time, Goncharov had already published the novel “Oblomov.” 1860 “Oblomov”

The flourishing of creativity So, in 1859, the word “Oblomovism” was heard for the first time in Russia. In the novel, the fate of the main character is revealed not only as a social phenomenon (“Oblomovism”), but also as a philosophical understanding of the Russian national character, a special moral path opposing the bustle of all-consuming “progress”. Goncharov made an artistic discovery. He created a work of enormous generalizing power. The publication of Oblomov and its enormous success among readers secured Goncharov’s fame as one of the most outstanding Russian writers. But Goncharov does not give up his writing and begins his new work, “The Cliff.” However, the writer had to not only write, but also earn money. Having left the post of censor, he lived “on free bread.” In mid-1862, he was invited to the position of editor of the newly established newspaper Severnaya Poshta, which was an organ of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Goncharov served here for about a year. Then he was appointed to a new position as a member of the press council, and his censorship activities began again. But in the current political conditions it has already acquired a clearly conservative character. He caused a lot of trouble to Nekrasov’s Sovremennik and Pisarev’s Russian Word, he waged an open war against “nihilism,” wrote about the “pathetic and dependent doctrines of materialism, socialism and communism.” Goncharov defended government foundations. This continued until the end of 1867, when he, at his own request, resigned and retired. Now it was possible to energetically take up the “Obryv” again.

The Flourishing of Creativity By that time, Goncharov had already written a lot of paper, but still did not see the end of the novel. The approaching old age frightened the writer more and more and turned him away from work. Goncharov once said about “The Precipice”: “this is the child of my heart.” The author worked on it for a long time (twenty years) and tirelessly. At times, especially towards the end of the work, he fell into apathy, and it seemed to him that he did not have enough strength to complete this monumental work. In 1868, Goncharov wrote to Turgenev: apathy1868 “You ask whether I am writing: no; Maybe I would have tried it if I hadn’t been faced with an inconvenient task that has long been known to you, which, like a millstone, hangs around my neck and prevents me from turning around. And what writing now at my age.” Elsewhere, Goncharov noted that, having finished the third part of “The Precipice,” “I wanted to leave the novel entirely without finishing it.” However, I finished it. Goncharov was aware of the work of what scale and artistic significance he was creating. At the cost of enormous efforts, overcoming physical and moral ailments, he brought his “child” to the end. “The Precipice” thus completed the trilogy. Each of Goncharov’s novels reflected a certain stage in the historical development of Russia. For one of them Alexander Aduev is typical, for another Oblomov, for the third Raisky. And all these images were components of one overall holistic picture of the fading era of serfdom.

“The Cliff” became Goncharov’s last major work of art. But after finishing work on the work, his life became very difficult. Sick and lonely, Goncharov often succumbed to mental depression. At one time he even dreamed of taking on a new novel, “if old age does not interfere,” as he wrote to P.V. Annenkov. But he didn’t start it. He always wrote slowly and laboriously. More than once he complained that he could not quickly respond to the events of modern life: they must be thoroughly settled in time and in his consciousness. All three of Goncharov's novels were devoted to depicting pre-reform Russia, which he knew and understood well. According to the writer’s own admissions, he understood the processes that took place in subsequent years less well, and he did not have enough physical or moral strength to immerse himself in their study. But Goncharov continued to live in an atmosphere of literary interests, intensively corresponding with some writers, personally communicating with others, without abandoning his creative activity. He writes several essays: “Literary Evening”, “Servants of the Old Century”, “A Trip along the Volga”, “Across Eastern Siberia”, “The Month of May in St. Petersburg”. Some of them were published posthumously. It is worth noting a number of other remarkable performances by Goncharov in the field of criticism. For example, his sketches such as “A Million Torments”, “Notes on the Personality of Belinsky”, “Better Late Than Never” have long and firmly entered the history of Russian criticism as classic examples of literary and aesthetic thought. V. Annenkov Volga etudes A million torments Goncharov remained completely alone and on September 12 (24), 1891, he caught a cold. The disease developed rapidly, and on the night of September 15 he died of pneumonia at the age of eightie. Ivan Alexandrovich was buried at the New Nikolskoye Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (in 1956 he was reburied, the writer’s ashes were transferred to the Volkovo Cemetery). The obituary published on the pages of Vestnik Evropy noted: “Like Turgenev, Herzen, Ostrovsky, Saltykov, Goncharov will always occupy one of the most prominent places in our literature” year of pneumonia of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra 1956 obituary of Ostrovsky Saltykov

Paths that Oblomov did not choose. The novel "Oblomov" was written by I.A. Goncharov in 1859 and immediately attracted the attention of critics with the problems posed in the novel. Russian revolutionary democracy, represented by N.A. Dobrolyubov, assessed Goncharov’s novel as something “more than just the successful creation of a strong talent.” She saw in him “a work of Russian life, a sign of the times.” This is how the exceptional topicality of Goncharov’s novel was determined. And in those same years, very authoritative contemporaries expressed judgments that assessed “Oblomov” as a work that would have a long life. Today's intense attention and close interest in it by theater and cinema, readers and researchers, the inclusion of the novel in the sphere of debate about recent history and the problems of the future is a direct confirmation of the prophetic foresights of those years. What is the secret of this novel? Apparently, the fact is that Goncharov, as a brilliant artist, was able to reveal a typically national phenomenon that is close to all of us. A phenomenon that has become a symbol, a common noun. This phenomenon is Oblomovism.

Who is he, Ilya Ilyich Oblomov? Life, like a dream, and a dream, like death, this is the fate of the main character of the novel and many other characters. And outside the novel, the reader saw a great many more Oblomovs. The tragedy of Goncharov’s novel lies precisely in the ordinariness of the events that occur. A kind, intelligent person, Oblomov lies on the sofa in a comfortable dressing gown, and his life fades away irrevocably. The wonderful girl Olga Ilyinskaya, who fell in love with Oblomov and tried in vain to save him, asks: “What ruined you? There is no name for this evil... There is... “Oblomovism,” our hero answers. The kingdom of serf Russia is the origin of Oblomov’s apathy, inactivity, fear before life. The habit of receiving everything for free, without putting any effort into it, is the basis of all Oblomov’s actions and mode of action. And not only him alone.

Now let’s try for a moment to imagine what Oblomov gave up, and in what direction his life could have gone. Let's imagine a different course of the novel's plot. After all, many of Oblomov’s contemporaries, who grew up in the same conditions, overcome their harmful influence and rise to serve the people and the Motherland. Let's imagine: Olga Ilyinskaya manages to save Oblomov. Their love is united in marriage. Love and family life transform our hero. He suddenly becomes active and energetic. Realizing that serf labor will not bring him great benefits, he frees his peasants. Oblomov orders the latest agricultural equipment from abroad, hires seasonal workers and begins to run his farm in a new, capitalist way. In a short time, Oblomov manages to get rich. In addition, his smart wife helps him in his entrepreneurial activities.

Let's imagine another option. Oblomov “awakens” from sleep himself. He sees his vile vegetation, the poverty of his peasants and “goes into the revolution.” Perhaps he will become a prominent revolutionary. His revolutionary organization will entrust him with a very dangerous task, and he will successfully complete it. They will write about Oblomov in the newspapers, and all of Russia will know his name. But these are all fantasies... Goncharov’s novel cannot be changed. It was written by an eyewitness to those events, it reflected the time in which he lived. And this was the time before the abolition of serfdom in Russia. Waiting time for change. A reform was being prepared in Russia that was supposed to radically change the course of events. In the meantime, thousands of landowners exploited the peasants, believing that serfdom would exist forever. To this day, Goncharov’s novel “Oblomov” has retained its charm as a work of high moral pathos, merciless authorial frankness, and genuine humanism

I. A. Goncharov’s novel “The Cliff” I. A. Goncharov, in his belated explanation - the preface to the second edition of the novel “The Cliff,” published only in 1938, regrets that “no one (of the critics) bothered to take a closer look and deeper, no one saw the closest organic connection between all three books: “Ordinary History”, “Oblomov” and “The Precipice”!” Indeed, Goncharov’s contemporary critics: N.A. Dobrolyubov, A.V. Druzhinin, D.I. Pisarev and others considered each novel separately, and not as a whole. Ivan Alexandrovich lamented: “The entire young and fresh generation eagerly responded to the call of the time and applied their talents and strength to the evil and work of the day.” However, in defense of the critics, it can be said that their concept, as we would say now, the concept of the “sixties” with the wishes of rapid and radical political and cultural transformations did not correspond to the “Better late than never” program of “Monsieur de Laigne” with his dreams of stability and some down-to-earthness: “I wrote only what I experienced, what I thought, felt, what I loved, what I saw and knew closely - in a word, I wrote my life and everything that grew into it.” According to Goncharov, it was more than difficult for the “sixties” to cover the more than thirty-year period of writing one novel. Let's try to prove the correctness of Goncharov's first statement by comparing three great novels: let's find something in common in them.

Despite the fact that each work is separated from the other by a ten-year period of time, they can be spoken of as a single whole, since their themes have something in common, and are novels in nature, notes L. N. Tolstoy in his letter to A. V. Druzhinin , “capital”, therefore their success is “timeless”, that is, not associated with specific historical events. At the same time, the themes of the trilogy are closely related to the historical situation of the 50s - 80s. In my opinion, there is no paradox here, because the social themes of those years: relations between rich and poor, contradictory positions of the authorities and the people, etc. - are relevant in Russia at all times. The talent of a true seer helped Goncharov to capture the mood of the times. The critic Chuiko draws attention to the uniqueness of the historical context in the artist’s work: “an epic of the 19th century, in which the writer managed to reduce the entire historical, state and social life of his time to one final synthesis.” These words were said about “The Precipice” - it seems to me that they can be applied to the entire work of Ivan Alexandrovich, after all, according to the idea of ​​Yu. V. Lebedev: “If “Ordinary History” is the foundation of the temple, “Oblomov” is the walls and vaults him, then the "Cliff" - the lock of the vault and the dome with a cross directed to the sky."

Let's take as an example the first facts of the biographies of the main characters - their birth and upbringing. Each of them was born in a village: in Rooks in “Ordinary History” (by the way, rooks are the first birds to arrive in early spring - the name of the village of the first novel was not chosen by chance), in Oblomovka in “Oblomov” (this name is derived from the name of the landowner - the only case in the trilogy), in Malinovka in “The Precipice” - everywhere sweet mothers and grandmothers dove and spoil their sons and granddaughters (here we can recall the image of Arina Vlasyevna in “Fathers and Sons” by I.S. Turgenev). But this is not the only thing that unites the characters. Also their attitude towards their native land. This is tenderness. Both the “warm corner” in “Ordinary History”, and the “blessed corner” in “Oblomov”, and the “eden” in “Obyv” are thought of as a shelter from failures, problems and adversities, as a place where there is no need to restrain oneself and keep up with the pace society. It is in the village that the characters are revealed most fully. This does not apply to the younger Aduev, who, as if being the “starting point” for the next stages of the “Hero’s” development, lives and wastes his life in the city

“Oblomov’s Dream” deserves a separate analysis. Firstly, this “overture” appeared much earlier than the novel itself, the original title of which was “Oblomovka.” Secondly, “Oblomov’s Dream” is indicative as an artistic and psychological device. This chapter was later placed in the middle of the work and was a transitional moment in the plot. It seems to contrast one period of life with another. However, this is not a complete antithesis, because elements of such a dream were always present in the mind of Ilya Ilyich. As the novel progresses, the theme of Oblomovka—a certain image of reality and thoughts—can be traced either stronger or weaker. In addition, his dream is a dream-prediction: it is not for nothing that Oblomov’s death overtook him precisely in peace and quiet. If we consider "Dream..." from a psychological point of view, we can come to the conclusion that it is an archetype. Taking the form of a dream, Oblomovka takes the form of convention: space and time in it are not linear, but cyclical. The “reserved” region itself is surrounded by high mountains, and people in it live happily, do not get sick and almost die. Using the archetype technique, Goncharov fully reveals the subconscious essence of his hero.

On the other, already real, side, their native lands frighten the heroes with the prospect of living in inaction. This is where the difference between them comes into play. Young Aduev unconsciously turns away from home, feeling an instinctive rush to the “promised land” - to the capital, to St. Petersburg. Oblomov, on the contrary, lives happily, “the same way [as they lived in sleepy Oblomovka], and not otherwise.” Raisky, the most controversial character, changes his attitude towards Malinovka, its inhabitants and order more than once throughout the novel: having first arrived there as a young man, he feels a surge of creative strength: “What views are around - every window in the house is the frame of its own special picture!” ; after a long separation, he “not without embarrassment” awaits a meeting with his native places, which, however, he soon sees as one picture “in a tight, definite frame in which a person has taken refuge,” and after a while “Raisky almost does not feel that he is living ", then boredom gives way to interest, but not in the village, but in its guardians (Berezhkova, Vera, Marfenka). As we see, the heroes of the three novels, as I.A. Goncharov aptly put it, “make up one person, hereditarily degenerating...” And the trilogy is “one huge building, one mirror, where three eras are reflected in miniature - old life, sleep and awakening."

The novel “An Ordinary History” (1847) The novel “An Ordinary History” (1847) is sometimes considered only as an approach to the more complex and multifaceted subsequent two. Moreover, the somewhat schematic structure of the novel makes such a task easier: it is easy to see in it the initial blueprint for the future full-blooded creation of “Oblomov.” But if you look at “An Ordinary History” as the ovary from which all novelism developed, as a clot of creative energy that gave impetus to Goncharov’s entire work, then this particular novel will require the closest consideration. In “An Ordinary Story” all of Goncharov’s preferences in the choice of traditions, genre, plot, hero and, accordingly, all other elements of the novel have already appeared, while the preferences are so definite that although they subsequently underwent changes, but not to the extent that the the being of the choice made. At the same time, in the first novel, not only the freedom of creative choice, but also its “unfreedom” already made itself felt; the dependence on the recommendations put forward by the temporary situation and authorities in art affected.

During Goncharov's life, in situations of social and literary struggle, the topical aspects of his works were usually brought to the fore (at the expense of all others). For example, in Ordinary History, only after decades was it emphasized (against the background of the novel’s attachment to its era) a deep theme of a universal nature. The novel “depicts the eternal discord between idealism and practicality in humanity, but in the phenomena noticed in Russian life”, it reproduces “the dual flow of life, as true as the immortal images of Cervantes” (a reference to the mention of “Don Quixote” in the quote above letter). In Goncharov’s novel such an “ordinary story” was seen, which, repeating itself in all centuries, was expressed “in his (Goncharov’s) time in the peculiar forms of Russian social life.” The context of the decade has rightly been expanded to the context of centuries.

The noted counterpoint (of the plan and super-plane) is clearly captured, first of all, in the fate of the main character. Alexander Aduev is a young provincial of the 30s, who adopted the nature of feelings and behavior of popular characters in contemporary literature (pre-romantic and romantic). Imitation, which has entered the very core of a young man, determines the unnaturalness of behavior, strained speech, easily susceptible to ridicule. At the same time, he is “an ordinary healthy young man, just in the romantic stage of his development.” “Book clothes” fall off from Alexander as he grows up, along with the naivety and exaltation of youth. This creates a kind of alternating double “illumination” in Goncharov’s text: it is read both as a psychological narrative about the norm of life in the era of youth, and as a comic story of the delusions of a dreamy Russian provincial of a particular era. But since youth is always inclined to prefer dreams to sober reality and everywhere easily dresses up in “other people’s dresses,” the psychological integrity of Goncharov’s “man for all seasons” is not seriously undermined by a concession to the specific “event of the day.”

However, the question of what is primary in the novel (the revelation of the signs “eternally inherent in humanity” or the discovery of the “peculiar forms of Russian social life” in which these signs are clothed) remains a subject of debate to this day. True, the very tone of the discussions is changing radically. It is argued, for example, that in the novel “little is connected with a certain moment in social history contemporary to Goncharov. But when it enters a novel, it serves only as an illustration of the fundamental problems of human existence, or even more as a stimulus to try to come into contact with them.”