The main theme and idea of ​​the work are old-world landowners. Analysis of Gogol's story "Old-world landowners

Questions of the artistic method of N.V. Gogol has always been in the center of attention of science and criticism. Critics and researchers of the writer's work of different periods note the presence in the artistic method of N.V. Gogol of different principles: both objective and subjective. This allowed one to talk about N.V. Gogol as a realist (V.A. Desnitsky 6, p.9, I.P. Egorova 7, p.67, V.F. Pereverzev 12, p.384-385), others saw in his work predominantly romantic features ( I. V. Kartashova 10, p. 140. G. M. Fridlender 16, p. V. Sergievsky, V. I. Strazhev). In the first decades of the twentieth century, there were even attempts to record the author of "The Overcoat" and "The Nose" as the forerunners of modernist trends. The words of D. M. Chizhevsky, which he cites in his detailed review of émigré criticism of Gogol V. A. Voropaev: "... Gogol was not a" realist "in the usual sense of the word. Any current or direction of Russian literature could rightfully see in him its forerunner. "Romantic", "realist", "fantastic", "surrealist" - such definitions in connection with the name of Gogol make sense - he really was a unique literary phenomenon ... "3, p.202.

Of course, the desire to see the origins of surrealism in The Nose, and other attempts to firmly connect Gogol with modernity, seem to us not quite thorough, especially given their complete semantic dissonance. At the same time, it is impossible to deny the universality of the writer's method, which definitely stands out from the realism and romanticism allotted to it.

A number of researchers in the work of N.V. Gogol also noted the characteristic features of the poetics of sentimentalism. So, V.N. Turbin, speaking about the genre specifics of Gogol's works, notes that Gogol's idyll is an all-pervasive genre.

“The idyllic state ruled by Gogol is powerful. The real state is doomed to be one-sided, it is lonely” 15, p.162. Researcher V.N. Khokhlacheva attributes N.V. Gogol to realism, but already sees the style of the "Karamzin school" in "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka": .39

So, the real practice of analyzing the works of N.V. Gogol is confronted with artifacts that are not consistent with the established idea of ​​the evolution of the writer's method, and forces us to look at his work more broadly and from a different or even different angle. One of the most interesting works in this respect is the story "Old World Landowners".

It is curious to note that, even having renounced the vulgar sociological postulates, modern literary criticism still has not decided on its attitude to the characters of the story. So, according to V.E. Vetlovskaya, N.V. Gogol here, in contrast to Taras Bulba, depicts such a cramped and musty little world that “the slightest breath of wind, the slightest interference in measured idling is enough for the illusory well-being of a illusory existence to disappear: no love of Pulcheria Ivanovna for Afanasy Ivanovich could resist “wild” (i.e., the most “natural”) behavior of a cat… The place of a full-blooded life… is occupied by an escheat chimera, where… the material, bodily beginning of life, inadmissibly expanding at the expense of the soul, captures her feelings and thoughts with all sorts of nonsense…” 2, p. .fourteen .

A completely opposite opinion is expressed by I.P. Zolotussky, who highly appreciated the feelings of the heroes of the story, putting them on a par with the characters of Taras Bulba: “That moment of love ... that Gogol captured in Little Russian Philemon and Baucis is higher and more significant than any upheaval or cataclysm.

And let Gogol call this love "habit". It is a thousand times higher than the romantic “passion” ridiculed by him in the same story” 8, p.176.

The changed view of the content of the story, apparently, predetermined the interpretation of its genre and stylistic originality, about which I.P. Zolotussky writes as follows: "Old-world landlords" became a triumph of harmony and reconciliation, a triumph and balance between the real and the ideal, the prosaic and the poetic…” 8, p.176.

An important observation for us is made by I.F. Annensky, who drew attention to the idyllic nature of the relationship between the heroes of the story: “The basis is immortal love, pure and high Eros of Plato. Remember the death of Pulcheria Ivanovna: how simply she relates to the question of her imminent death and with what anxiety - to the question of the comforts of the companion she is leaving. Immortality itself appears to this pure heart in the form of afterlife cares for the old husband” 1, p.617. The idealism of the "Old-world landowners" the researcher calls "holy".

Yu.V. was the first in literary criticism who noted the sentimental type of consciousness of N.V. Mann:

“It is very important that the story from the very beginning brings into contact two warehouses of consciousness and worldview - “sentimental” and “naive”. And when the narrator (as a representative of the first mode) descends into the sphere of life of the characters, he seems to renounce his experience, his complexity. You involuntarily refuse, at least for a short time, from all audacious dreams and imperceptibly pass with all your feelings into a base bucolic life.

The researcher also considers the type of consciousness of the heroes of the story: “The inhabitants of the bucolic nest seemed ready to move towards a developed life - but can they do it? Afanasy Ivanovich “was not one of those old men who get bored with eternal praises of the old times or censures of the new. He, on the contrary, questioned you, showed great curiosity and interest in the circumstances of your own life, successes and failures, in which all good old people are usually interested, although it is somewhat like the curiosity of a child who, while talking to you, examines the signet of your hours". The type of consciousness represented by the character does not aggressively oppose itself to the new; on the contrary, he tries to get closer to him, to understand him, but can he do it? Obviously, no more than a child can understand the affairs and concerns of an adult.

Meanwhile, the courage of the narrative, according to Yu.V. Manna lies in the exposure of the bottomless depth of a limited bucolic life. This is a description of the reaction of Afanasy Ivanovich to the death of Pulcheria Ivanovna. The scientist here says that for any other writer (especially a romanticist, a contemporary of Gogol), the book that she read, the melody that she loved, that is, the images of higher spiritual movements, would serve as a reason for bitter recollection of the deceased. N.V. Gogol's favorite food serves as such an occasion. For many writers, the grief of a contrite person would be expressed with the help of signs of psychological experience - tears, sighs, etc. N.V. For the same purpose, Gogol mixes rows with amazing courage: on the one hand, a lofty image of tears, a “silently flowing fountain”, and on the other, a characterization of the eating process in all its everyday, almost physiological prosaicness, the eating process, suspended and upset by an unbearable attack of grief. . “Here it is clearly seen,” the researcher claims, “that the images of food, physiological and natural movements begin to mean more than was originally intended, and at the very moment of the transition of these images to a different emotional and semantic channel, the secret of an irresistible impact is hidden ... In the “Old World Landowners” changes images of physiological and natural movements testify to the strength and power of the spiritual principle. The images of food begin to testify not to the emotions of the initial, “heroic” stage of collective life, but to affection, love, immeasurable grief - that is, a strong, individualized feeling. Therefore, the scientist sees the motives of sentimentality precisely in the images of food, in food. He also notes that the images of food have “the power of constancy and concentration in themselves”: “... the images that interest us convey a simple, seemingly undeveloped “bucolic” feeling, which, however, reveals the irresistible power of constancy and concentration in itself. "God! I thought... five years of all-destroying time... and such a hot sadness? What is stronger over us: passion or habit? Whatever it was, but at that time all our passions against this long, slow, almost insensible habit seemed childish to me.

So, we can conclude that the artistic method of N.V. Gogol does not fit into the framework of only one direction. It is much wider and richer. The remarks of researchers about the presence in the artistic world of the writer of the style of the “Karamzin school”, lyrical feeling, idyll as an all-pervasive genre, allow us to speak about the presence in the artistic method of N.V. Gogol's principles of reflecting life, characteristic of sentimentalism.

We will try to prove the presence of a large number of sentimentalist reminiscences in the text of "Old World Landowners" by a comparative analysis of Gogol's story with the story of N.M. Karamzin "Poor Liza". The comparison will be based on the main features of this method.

The problem of aesthetics and poetics of sentimentalism is widely considered in modern literary criticism. In particular, the following researchers are engaged in it: N.P. Verkhovskaya, V.I. Sorokin, G.N. Pospelov, P.A. Orlov, L.I. Timofeev, S.V. Turaev and others.

As a result of the work done, we found out that scientists identify the following basic principles for depicting reality, which characterize the literary trend - sentimentalism:

1. Image of the life of ordinary people;

2. Smoothing out the acuteness of social contradictions between landowners and peasants;

3. Image of the private family life of ordinary people;

4. Location - small provincial towns, villages;

5. The image of pictures of rural artless nature that evoke deep emotional experiences - cemeteries, ruins, desert places, etc.

6. The desire to show that "peasants know how to love", that ordinary people are characterized by deep and pure noble human feelings;

7. Reflection of the inner world of a person, his feelings and experiences;

8. The influence of sentimentalists on the reader, the desire to evoke his response to the events described;

9. The idea of ​​an extra-class human personality;

10. Glorification of love and friendship;

11. The image of a modest life with family and true friends, honest work;

12. Searching for something unique in every person that makes him different from other people;

13. Positive and negative characters are not sharply opposed;

14. The desire of sentimentalist writers to morally join the life of the "city people";

15. The writer's constant reminder of his author's will, that this is fiction.

The results of a comparative analysis of the two stories are reflected in the table.

N.M. Karamzin	N.V. Gogol
1. Image of paintings of rural artless nature:
“... a magnificent picture, especially when the sun shines on it, when its evening rays blaze on countless golden domes ... Fat, densely green flowering meadows spread below, and behind them, along the yellow sands, a bright river flows, agitated by the light oars of fishing boats ... » .	“... fragrant bird cherry, whole rows of low fruit trees, sunk cherries with a crimson sea and plums covered with a lead mat; a spreading maple ... a long-necked goose drinking water with young and tender, like fluff, goslings; a palisade hung with bundles of pears and apples ... a cart with melons ... ".
2. Location - small provincial towns, villages:
“Perhaps no one living knows the surroundings of this city as well as I do ... The most pleasant place for me is the place where the gloomy, Gothic towers of the Simonov Monastery rise ... I often come to this place and almost always meet spring there; I also come there in the gloomy days of autumn to grieve together with nature.		“I really love the modest life of those secluded rulers of remote villages, who in Little Russia are usually called old-world, who, like decrepit picturesque houses, are good in their diversity and the complete opposite of the new smooth structure, which ... the porch does not show red bricks.”
3. Image of the life of ordinary people:
“Seventy sazhens from the monastery wall, near a birch grove in the middle of a green meadow, stands an empty hut, without doors, without windows, without a floor; The roof has long since rotted and collapsed. In this hut, thirty years before, the beautiful, kind Lisa lived with her old woman, her mother. Lizin's father was a rather prosperous villager, because he loved work, plowed the land well and always led a sober life. But soon after his death, his wife and daughter became impoverished.		old men of the last century ... All these long-standing unusual occurrences were replaced by calm and solitary life, those dormant and together some harmonic dreams…”
4. Smoothing out the acuteness of social contradictions between landowners and peasants:
"Hello, good old lady! - he said. - I am very tired; do you have fresh milk?" Helpful Lisa…brought clean krinka ... Everyone guesses that after that he thanked Liza, and thanked Not so much with words as with looks.		Why do you have this, - Nichipor, - she said, turning to her the clerk, who was right there, - have oak trees become so rare? Look at your head hair did not become rare. Why are they rare? - used to say usually the clerk - disappeared! So they completely disappeared: and with thunder beat, and the worms pierced - disappeared, sir, they're gone.
5. The desire to show that "peasants know how to love", that ordinary people deep and pure noble feelings are characteristic:
“... the poor widow almost constantly sheds tears about the death of her husband - for even peasant women know how to love! - day by day she became weaker and could not work at all. “Liza returned to her hut in a completely different disposition in which she left it. Heartfelt joy was found on her face and in all her movements. "He loves me"!" she thought and admired this thought.		“On their faces is always written such kindness, such cordiality and sincerity, that you involuntarily refuse, although at least for a short time, from everyone daring dreams and imperceptibly you pass into low-lying bucolic life ... It was impossible to look without participation to their mutual love. They never you said to each other, but you always ... They never had children and therefore all their affection focused on them themselves."
6. Searching for something unique in every person that makes him different from others
"Even before the rising of the solar Liza got up, went down to the banks of the Moscow River, sat down on grass and, grieving, looked at the white mists that waved in the air and, rising up, leaving shiny drops on the green cover of nature. Everywhere silence reigned. But soon rising the luminary of the day awakened all creation... But Liza was still sitting grieving.
7. The writer's constant reminder of his author's will, that this is fiction:
"Oh! I love things that touch my heart and make me spill tears of tender sorrow! . “But I drop the brush. I will only say that this Liza's timidity disappeared in a moment of delight ... " "My heart bleeds this minute. I forget the man in Erast - ready curse him - my tongue does not move - I look at him and a tear rolls down my face mine. Oh! Why am I writing not a novel, but sad story"?" .		"I still can't forget two old men of the last century, whom, Alas! no longer there, but my soul is full still pity." "Good old people! But the narration mine is approaching a very sad event ... ". “An old man stepped forward. So this is it! I immediately recognized him; but he's already bent twice as much as before."
In artistic terms, both stories are clearly divided into two parts:
Part I: “But more often than not, it attracts me to walls of the Simonov Monastery, memories of the deplorable fate of Liza, poor Liza. Part II: “Good old men! But my story is approaching very sad event changed the life of this forever peaceful corner! .

We examined the traditions of the poetics of sentimentalism in the creative method of N.V. Gogol on the example of one story, but this is the key to a deeper and more careful study of all his work.

Bibliography

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In 1835, N.V. Gogol's collection "Mirgorod" was published, opening a new page in the writer's work.

From the fantasy and romantic mood of "Evenings ...", he moved on to depicting real life pictures. A poet of reality and a satirist, skillfully exposing the vices of mankind - this is how Gogol appears here.

"Old World Landowners" is a story that opened the collection and caused many conflicting assessments. But almost all the reviews converged on one thing - this is a work about the genuine and deep affection of the characters for each other.

Prototypes of the Tovstogubs

The scene of the story "Old World Landowners" is associated with Vasilievka - the Gogol family estate, where the writer spent his childhood and youth. As an adult, he often came to his father's house to visit his parents and sisters.

Pulcheria Ivanovna and Afanasy Ivanovich also have their prototypes. These are Afanasy Demyanovich and Tatyana Semyonovna (maiden name Lizogub) Gogol-Yanovsky - grandfather and grandmother of Nikolai Vasilyevich. The story of their marriage and life together is very reminiscent of Gogol's story. Old-world landowners also married against the will of their parents. Afanasy Ivanovich, after graduating from the theological academy in Kyiv, secretly took away his beloved.

Literary critic P.E. Shchegolev also drew a parallel between the heroes of the story and Gogol's parents. In his opinion, although the life of the latter was not as calm and serene as that of the Tovstogubs, and even to old age they did not happen to live together, the relationship between the spouses was always as warm, filled with love and tenderness, as with Pulcheria Ivanovna and Afanasy Ivanovich . These are the main human qualities that Gogol draws the reader's attention to.

"Old-world landowners": a brief summary of the exposition

The story can be roughly divided into several parts:

• acquaintance with the estate;
• a story about the measured, calm life of the characters and the idyllic relationship between them;
• death of Pulcheria Ivanovna and its consequences.

The narrative begins with a description of a typical old Russian estate and the narrator's reflections on the warmth and welcoming hospitality that always emanates from these cozy little houses, their surrounding gardens and good-natured owners, as Gogol portrays the Tovstogubov spouses.

Old-world landowners created a cozy home. Their house is a full bowl. There is plenty of everything here, and work on cooking, salting, harvesting something is constantly in full swing. Their land gave birth to so many good things that the theft of servants was not at all noticeable. Many small details help to outline their way of life. These are numerous boxes and chests stored in the heroine's room and filled with all sorts of good things. And old doors "singing" in different ways. And good natural furniture. And a feeling of warmth, and even heat in small rooms. As a result, a picture of a limited little world of the inhabitants of the estate appears.

Relationships of spouses

Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna lived in perfect harmony. They had no children, and the whole world revolved around them. With genuine tenderness, always on "you", they turned to each other, trying to anticipate every desire. Afanasy Ivanovich - tall, usually smiling, who loved warmth and therefore dressed in a sheepskin coat - loved to play tricks on his wife. Pulcheria Ivanovna, on the contrary, who almost never laughed, had such a kind expression on her face that it was enough to express constant cordiality and readiness to treat her husband or guest to something. This was the main feature that N.V. Gogol emphasized in the heroine.

The old-world landowners spent all their days the same way. Drinking coffee in the morning. Then Afanasy Ivanovich talked with the clerk - he learned about the affairs and gave orders (which were little carried out). Then they had a bite to eat twice and sat down to dinner at 12 o'clock (the table was certainly filled with many different dishes). After an hour's rest and an afternoon snack, a joint walk through the garden followed. Then Pulcheria Ivanovna had household chores, and Afanasy Ivanovich, sitting in the shade of the shed, watched what was happening in the yard. The day ended with dinner at half past ten.

Thus, the whole life of the landowners was devoted to daily care for each other and for the economy. Despite the limited and even useless life of the heroes for society, the author and readers are attracted to them by sincere, sincere relations, opposed to the bustle and bitterness of the city.

Everything for guests

Another good feature of the spouses is noted by Gogol. The old-world landowners were very hospitable. As soon as a stranger appeared in the house, he immediately found himself in the center of attention. We got all the best dishes, vying with each other offered by the owners. But the main thing was not even that. The atmosphere itself was amazing - friendly, warm, hospitable. And all this was not at all out of a desire to flatter or please. The old people didn't know how to pretend at all. Therefore, every passer-by was glad to see the Tovstogubs, tell them about the news and certainly taste the most delicious dishes.

tragic omens

N. V. Gogol ends his story very sadly. Old-world landlords are dying, and their estate and all the acquired goods go to dust.

Once Pulcheria Ivanovna was taken away by stray cats that lived in a nearby forest. After a while, the animal returned. The cat was in a very ugly shape. The hostess immediately began to feed her, and was about to stroke her, as she jumped out the window and ran away again. For Pulcheria Ivanovna, her whole life changed at that moment - for some reason she decided that her death was coming. The power of self-hypnosis was so great that soon she really fell ill and died.

Gogol continues the story with bitterness. The old-world landowners were so attached to each other that Afanasy Ivanovich could not come to terms with the death of his wife. When the narrator visited him again after 5 years, he was amazed at what he saw. The once cheerful and smiling owner turned into a bent old man. Even after the lapse of time, he could not pronounce the name of his wife - tears immediately began to stifle. And all around were visible traces of decline and neglect.

Afanasy Ivanovich died in the same way as Pulcheria Ivanovna - he heard her voice, fell ill and quickly faded away. Before his death, he asked only to be buried next to his wife.

The idea of ​​the work

Gogol's story "Old World Landowners" and its characters cause an ambiguous attitude. Some critics saw the Tovstogubs as idle living “non-smokers”. They noted their limitations, focusing only on food and "the state of animal peace" (I. A. Vinogradov). Others, such as I. F. Annensky, M. N. Boyko, admired the purity and warmth of Pulcheria Ivanovna, mutual love and devotion. In any case, the characters with their naturalness, somewhere even childlike spontaneity, evoke admiration and sympathy in the reader.

What is this book about?

The elderly Little Russian landowners, husband and wife Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna Tovstoguba, live in perfect harmony and run a hospitable household. A bad omen frightens Pulcheria Ivanovna, and she dies - the idyll comes to an end, the husband briefly outlives his girlfriend. Gogol's most touching story opens the Mirgorod cycle, immediately setting a dual tone and reminding him of blessed Arcadia, into which, alas, death has also penetrated.

Nikolay Gogol. 1834. Lithograph by Alexei Venetsianov

When was it written?

In 1832, after a five-year absence, Gogol visited his homeland - the village Vasilievka Gogol's family estate was founded at the end of the 18th century on the Kupchinsky farm. The farm was renamed Vasilyevka, after Gogol's father, Vasily Afanasyevich. Today, the family estate has become a museum-reserve of Gogol, and the village itself has received the name Gogolevo. ⁠ Mirgorodsky district of the Poltava province. The impressions from this trip formed the basis of the "Old World Landowners", on which the writer apparently works at the end of 1833 - the beginning of 1834 (more accurate dating is difficult). At the same time, he was engaged in historical research, which would turn into an article “A look at the compilation of Little Russia” - according to Gogol’s plan, it was supposed to become only an introduction to the big “History of Little Russia”, but that was the end of the matter: already in the spring of 1834, the writer cooled off to this idea and focused on "Mirgorod". By this time, Gogol was a history teacher in the women's Patriot Institute The institute was established in St. Petersburg in 1822. It was founded on the basis of a school for orphans, which was run by the St. Petersburg Women's Patriotic Society. It was under the patronage of Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, and then - Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas I. After the revolution, the Patriotic Institute was closed, and the Power Engineering College was located in its place. In 2006, the building was transferred to the Higher School of Economics. ⁠ and successful author of Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka; readers are wondering if he would write a new part of "Evenings", but Gogol refused this "quite consciously, treating this book as a stage" 1 Eikhenbaum B. M. Comments // Gogol N. V. Complete works: In 14 volumes. T. 2. Mirgorod / Ed. V. V. Gippius. M.; L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1937. S. 683. ⁠ . Despite the fact that the subtitle of "Mirgorod" will be "Tales that serve as a continuation of" Evenings on a farm near Dikanka ", Gogol separated the second collection from the first - as more "domestic", more diverse in terms of genre, just more mature.

The house of Dr. Trokhimovsky in Sorochintsy, where Gogol was born. From the album of artistic phototypes and photogravures "Gogol at home". 1902

Yanovshchina (Vasilyevka). Part of the village adjacent to the estate of Nikolai Gogol. From the album of artistic phototypes and photogravures "Gogol at home". 1902

How is it written?

“Old World Landowners” is Gogol’s variation on the theme of idyll: a genre in which the main thing is the description of a serene and patriarchal life. Accordingly, the story is full of idealization: the whole economy of the old-world landowners is full of "inexplicable charm", even if we are talking about things that are completely everyday and even "low". For example, "Old World Landowners" is the most lengthy and poetic of Gogol's hymns to food. At the same time, there is a lot of irony in the story - and it is more connected not with the heroes of the story, but with literature, the rules of which Gogol loosens: for example, a cat that ran away from Pulcheria Ivanovna to wild forest cats “has acquired the romantic rules that poverty with love is better chambers." Such comments are visible signs of the presence in the story of the narrator: on the one hand, "his man", a good friend of the Tovstogubs, on the other, a representative of the outside world. As a result, "Old World Landowners" is both a poetization of pastoral life and a statement of its inevitable death.

Vladimir Orlovsky. View of Ukraine. 1883 Rybinsk State Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve

What influenced her?

First of all - direct Little Russian impressions and memories. In particular, the grandfather and grandmother of Gogol and one of his acquaintances from Mirgorod old people - the Zarudny family or the family Brovkov 2 Eikhenbaum B. M. Comments // Gogol N. V. Complete works: In 14 volumes. T. 2. Mirgorod / Ed. V. V. Gippius. M.; L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1937. S. 698. ⁠ . Gogol took the story of the cat that frightened Pulcheria Ivanovna from the story of his friend, the great actor Mikhail Shchepkin ⁠ : A similar incident happened to his grandmother. Shchepkin, after reading the story, jokingly said to Gogol: “But the cat is mine!” - to which Gogol replied: "But my cats!" (he meant wild forest cats, to which the landowner's cat ran away in the story). The ruin of the Tovstogubov estate is an echo of Gogol's trip to Vasilievka: "I confess that I was very sad to look at my mother's ruined estate."

The most important literary pretext of The Old World Landowners is the myth of Philemon and Baucis, told by Ovid in Metamorphoses; perhaps Gogol takes into account the interpretation of this myth in Goethe's Faust. The idyllic mood that permeates the story is a tribute to sentimentalism, including Karamzin's prose. Researcher Alexander Karpov notes another layer of pretexts - works about "love after death", "love after death", such as Zhukovsky's ballads, novels Mikhail Pogodin ⁠ "Adele" and Nicholas Field Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy (1796-1846) - literary critic, publisher, writer. From 1825 to 1834 he published the Moscow Telegraph magazine, after the closure of the magazine by the authorities, Polevoy's political views became noticeably more conservative. Since 1841 he published the journal "Russian Messenger". ⁠ "Bliss of Madness" Egor Aladin Yegor Vasilyevich Aladyin (1796-1860) - prose writer, poet, translator, publisher. Member of the Patriotic War of 1812. He published several books of prose, collaborated with Otechestvennye Zapiski. In 1825-1833 and 1846-1847 he published one of the most popular Russian almanacs - "Nevsky Almanac", which published Nikolai Polevoy, Vyazemsky, Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, Bulgarin and others. Aladin tried for a long time to get Pushkin into his publication, he at first sent him insignificant impromptu, but then agreed to cooperate for a high fee: excerpts from The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Boris Godunov, Eugene Onegin appeared in the Nevsky Almanac (with the latest publication a well-known incident is connected: the publisher accompanied Tatyana's letter to Onegin with an erotic illustration by Alexander Notbek, to which Pushkin responded with an evil epigram). In 1829-1830, Aladin, together with Orest Somov and Anton Delvig, also published the almanac "Snowdrop". ⁠ "Marriage by of death" 3 Karpov A. A. "Athanasius and Pulcheria" - a story about love and death // The Gogol Phenomenon: Materials of the Anniversary Intern. scientific conf., dedicated To the 200th anniversary of the birth of N.V. Gogol / Ed. M. N. Virolainen and A. A. Karpova. St. Petersburg: Petropolis, 2011, pp. 151-152. ⁠ . All these works are emphatically romantic, but the relationship of the "Old World Landowners" with romantic literature can be characterized as a mild ironic decline. For example, when we read that the widowed Afanasy Ivanovich “often raised ... a spoonful of porridge [and] instead of bringing it to his mouth, he brought it to his nose,” then we recall the behavior of Khan Giray, who lost Mary, from Pushkin’s “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai”: “He often in fatal battles / Raises a saber, and on a grand scale / Suddenly remains motionless, / Looks with madness around…" 4 Karpov A. A. "Athanasius and Pulcheria" - a story about love and death // The Gogol Phenomenon: Materials of the Anniversary Intern. scientific conf., dedicated To the 200th anniversary of the birth of N.V. Gogol / Ed. M. N. Virolainen and A. A. Karpova. St. Petersburg: Petropolis, 2011, pp. 163-164. ⁠ This place seemed inappropriate to the comical critics of Pushkin, and for this reason it was probably memorable to Gogol - reducing Pushkin's pathos, he connected the absent-mindedness of the widower with his former prowess (Afanasy Ivanovich, in order to scare his wife, liked to say that he would go to war).

The story was published in the collection "Mirgorod" at the end of February 1835. Almost simultaneously with "Mirgorod" the collection "Arabesques" was published, which included historical, literary and art criticism articles, the beginning of the unfinished novel "Hetman" and three stories from the cycle, which would later be called "Petersburg Tales": "Portrait", "Nevsky Prospekt" and "Diary of a Madman". This double publication dramatically changed the perception of Gogol by readers who had previously only known "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", and created, in fact, a new reputation for him. In the reprints of "Mirgorod" in 1842 and (posthumously) in 1855, minor corrections were made to the story (at the same time, Gogol seriously corrected "Viya", and almost completely revised "Taras Bulba").

Collection of short stories "Mirgorod". 1835

How was it received?

The stories of Mirgorod were received in different ways: if Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich caused criticism for being “muddy” and earthy, then “Old World Landowners” and “Taras Bulba” were liked by almost “completely all tastes and all different temperaments” (both Gogol himself wrote to Zhukovsky). Just at this time, a heated debate was going on in Russian criticism about what should be understood by nationality in literature. Conservatives wrote approvingly about the "Old World Landowners" Senkovsky Osip-Yulian Ivanovich Senkovsky (1800-1850) - writer, editor, orientalist. In his youth, he traveled through Syria, Egypt and Turkey, published travel essays about him. Upon his return, he got a job as an interpreter at the Foreign Collegium. From 1828 to 1833 he served as censor. Senkovsky founded one of the first mass magazines - "Library for Reading", edited it for more than ten years. He wrote short stories and journalism under the pseudonym Baron Brambeus. ⁠ and Shevyrev Stepan Petrovich Shevyryov (1806-1864) - literary critic, poet. He participated in the circle of "Lyubomudrov", the publication of the magazine "Moskovsky Vestnik", was a close friend of Gogol. From 1835 to 1837 he was a critic of the Moscow Observer. Together with Mikhail Pogodin, he published the Moskvityanin magazine. Shevyryov was known for his conservative views, it is he who is considered the author of the phrase "decaying West." In 1857, a quarrel broke out between him and Count Vasily Bobrinsky due to political differences, which ended in a fight. Because of this incident, Shevyryov was fired from service and expelled from Moscow. ⁠ . Pushkin, responding in 1836 to the second edition of Evenings on a Farm..., wrote about Gogol's new works: "... Everyone read with greed ... "Old World Landowners", this playful, touching idyll that makes you laugh through tears of sadness and tenderness ... " Nikolai Stankevich Nikolai Vladimirovich Stankevich (1813-1840) - publicist, poet, thinker. In the 1830s, Stankevich, a student at Moscow University, gathered around him a group of like-minded people with whom he discussed questions of German philosophy. Among the participants of the "Stankevich circle" were Vissarion Belinsky, Alexei Koltsov, Ivan Turgenev, Konstantin Aksakov, Mikhail Bakunin. Stankevich is the author of several poems and the tragedy "Vasily Shuisky", he planned to write his own textbook of world history, but died of consumption at the age of 26. ⁠ admired: “How wonderful human feeling is captured here in an empty, insignificant life!”, Mikhail Pogodin Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin (1800-1875) - historian, prose writer, publisher of the Moskvityanin magazine. Pogodin was born into a peasant family, and by the middle of the 19th century he had become such an influential figure that he gave advice to Emperor Nicholas I. Pogodin was considered the center of literary Moscow, he published the almanac Urania, in which he published poems by Pushkin, Baratynsky, Vyazemsky, Tyutchev, in his "Moskvityanin" was published by Gogol, Zhukovsky, Ostrovsky. The publisher shared the views of the Slavophiles, developed the ideas of pan-Slavism, and was close to the philosophical circle of philosophers. Pogodin professionally studied the history of Ancient Russia, defended the concept according to which the foundations of Russian statehood were laid by the Scandinavians. He collected a valuable collection of ancient Russian documents, which was later bought by the state. ⁠ called the story "a beautiful idyll and elegy." The most famous and authoritative review belongs to Belinsky: in the article “On the Russian story and on the stories of Gogol”, published in two issues of Teleskop, he insisted on the writer’s nationality, and on the fact that he was not just a humorist. “Old-world landowners” in the article is devoted to a long passage:

Take his "Old World Landowners": what's in them? Two parodies of humanity for several decades drink and eat, eat and drink, and then, as usual, they die. But why is this allure? You see all the vulgarity, all the vileness of this life, animalistic, ugly, caricatured, and yet you take such a part in the characters of the story, laugh at them, but without malice, and then weep with Philemon about his Baucis, sympathize with his deep, unearthly sorrow and be angry with the scoundrel heir who squandered the fortune of two simpletons!

Belinsky sees the reason for “this charm” in the fact that Gogol correctly “found the human feeling that moved and revived his heroes”: habit - and found poetry in habit (and since habit should be familiar to readers in one way or another, they will feel something in Tovstoguby then related). The “sociological” tradition of evaluating the “Old-world landowners” (denunciation of “animal, ugly, caricatured” life) also went from Belinsky’s recall, which will reach its highest point in early Soviet criticism. Belinsky himself, who could in no way approve of “animal life,” wrote: “Oh, Mr. Gogol is a true sorcerer, and you cannot imagine how angry I am with him because he almost made me cry about them, who only drank and ate and then died!” He also noted with sad irony that in the insignificant dialogues between Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna about a squeezed chair and dried pears - "the whole person, his whole life, with its past, present and future."

Vissarion Belinsky and Nikolai Gogol. Drawing by Boris Lebedev. 1947

After Gogol's death, "Old World Landowners" was interpreted in accordance with the critical fashion: if pre-revolutionary critics saw in the story a touching idyll, and in Tovstogub - the characters of kind and close to the "people" provincial nobles, then for early Soviet critics they are "negative" characters embodying backwardness, inertia, the gloom of the life of patriarchal Russia, the triumph of landlord exploitation. Later researchers return to the genre nature of the story, fit it into the context of world romanticism; in the 1990s, Old World Landowners was written about as a story, Christian in spirit, in which righteous, God-pleasing love is shown.

“Old-world landowners” became the subject of literary reflection: for example, gastronomic and idyllic motifs very similar to Gogol’s are found in Gaito Gazdanov’s novel “The Story of a Journey” (1935) 5 Alexandrova E. K. Old-world landowners in Paris: a “gastronomic” parody of Gaito Gazdanov // Russian Literature. 2012. No. 4. S. 199-206. ⁠ . In 1998, playwright Nikolai Kolyada wrote the play "Old World Landowners" based on Gogol's story; the third character in this play is Gogol himself, the Guest, who comprehends the world of Tovstogubs, actively participates in his life and weeps over him. (In addition, Kolyada wrote other plays based on Gogol: "Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt", "The Box" and "Dead Souls".)

In 1979, director David Karasik staged a television play based on The Old World Landowners, and in 2008, a short puppet cartoon by Maria Muat called He and She was shot based on the story.

Teleplay "Old World Landowners". Directed by David Karasik. 1979 Cast - Nikolay Trofimov and Lyudmila Zhukova

What does "old world" mean?

“Old world” means, in fact, “belonging to the“ old world ”- patriarchal, untouched by the destruction of civilization, observing the laws of hospitality commanded by the ancestors. The faces of the kind “old men and old women” who always welcome a guest cordially, the narrator is pleased to recall “in the noise and crowd among fashionable tailcoats”: these fashionable St. Petersburg tailcoats are the “new world”, where man is a wolf to man. The “old world” is characterized by a desire to remain in its place: the Tovstogubs are representatives of one of the “national, simple-hearted and at the same time rich families, always constituting the opposite of those low Little Russians who tear themselves out of the tar, traders, fill, like locusts, chambers and government offices, they take the last penny from their fellow countrymen, flood St. Petersburg with tell-tales, finally make capital and solemnly add to their surname, ending in about, syllable in". Gogol here denounces not the Ukrainian origin of the new Petersburgers, but precisely their desire to break away from the roots.

These roots are not just provincial, but also rural: the landowners are connected with the land (which is noticeable in the English translation of the story's title - "The Old World Landowners"). At the beginning of the story, Gogol gives a detailed exposition of a typical "old-world" economy:

From here I can see a low house with a gallery of small blackened wooden posts going around the whole house so that during thunder and hail you can close the shutters of the windows without getting wet with rain. Behind him is fragrant bird cherry, whole rows of low fruit trees, sunk with crimson cherries and a sea of ​​plums covered with lead mat; spreading maple, in the shade of which a carpet is spread out for relaxation; in front of the house there is a spacious yard with low, fresh grass, with a trodden path from the barn to the kitchen and from the kitchen to the master's quarters; a long-necked goose drinking water with goslings young and tender as fluff; a palisade hung with bundles of dried pears and apples and airy carpets, a wagon with melons standing near the barn, an unharnessed ox lying lazily beside it - all this has an inexpressible charm for me, perhaps because I no longer see them and that we love everything that we are apart from.

"Old world" is also emphasized by those portraits that hang on the wall near Tovstogubs: Peter III, Duchess of Lavaliere Louise-Francoise de la Baume Le Blanc (1644-1710) - mistress of Louis XIV, nun. In her youth, she became the maid of honor of the Duchess of Orleans, met King Louis XIV, became his favorite and gave birth to four children from him. Soon the king had another lover - the Marquise de Montespan. In 1675, the duchess went to a monastery and lived there until the end of her life. The central heroine of the novel by Alexandre Dumas "Viscount de Brazhelon, or Ten years later." ⁠ and "some bishop." The first two images, referring to the "great" and "gallant" centuries, refer to the long-gone youth of the heroes, the third - rather to patriarchy and "eternal peace".

Louise-Francoise de la Baume Le Blanc (Duchess de La Vallière). Illustration from the book "Louise de Lavaliere and the early years of the life of Louis XIV". 1908 The portrait of the king's favorite hangs in the Tovstogubs' house

Unknown artist. Portrait of Grand Duke Pyotr Fedorovich. Middle of the 18th century. The author of the original is Fedor Rokotov. State Hermitage. A portrait of Peter III is also in the Tovstogubs' house

What is the place of the "Old World Landowners" in "Mirgorod"?

A common place for Gogol studies is the contrasting composition of Mirgorod as a single collection. "Mirgorod" is divided into two parts: the first combines "Old World Landowners" and "Taras Bulba", the second - "Viy" and "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich." Sentimental idyll coexists with patriotic heroism, "Gothic" horror - with satire. There are different interpretations of these comparisons - from "vulgar sociological" (Soviet Gogol Nikolay Stepanov Nikolai Leonidovich Stepanov (1902-1972) - literary critic. He worked at the Gorky Institute of World Literature, taught at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. He was a specialist in literature of the 18th and 19th centuries and Soviet poetry. Under the editorship of Stepanov, collected works of Ivan Krylov (on Krylov's fables, Stepanov defended his dissertation), Velimir Khlebnikov, and Nikolai Gogol were published. Stepanov wrote several books about Gogol ("Gogol. Creative Way", "The Art of Gogol the Playwright") and a biography of the writer in the ZhZL series. ⁠ he spoke about "petty money-grubbers" who are opposed in "Taras Bulba" by the "sphere of people's life"; another researcher, Alexander Dokusov, wrote that the old-world landowners "belong to the world of evil") to a purely literary, genre: comparing such dissimilar texts, Gogol tries his own possibilities and expands the boundaries of Russian prose.

But, in addition to contrasts, in Mirgorod, the echoes between the stories are important, again interpreting certain motives and themes in different ways. Particular attention should be paid to the neighborhood of "Old World Landowners" and "Taras Bulba". Alexander Herzen wrote that Taras Bulba and Afanasy Ivanovich are united by the same features: simplicity and gracefulness 6 Herzen A.I. On the development of revolutionary ideas in Russia // Herzen A.I. Collected works: in 30 volumes. T. 7. P. 228. ⁠ . This observation can be correlated with the ancient subtext of the entire Mirgorod: the old Tovstogubs are just as reminiscent of bucolic peasants as Bulba is of Greek and Roman heroes. Much in The Landowners echoes Taras Bulba: for example, Afanasy Ivanovich frightens his wife with a playful intention to go to war, and Bulba (having frightened his wife in the same way) goes to war.

The “Landlords” have a demonological motif in common with “Viy”: the very call from nowhere, which, according to the belief of the “common people”, portends an imminent death, is an omen of much larger, physically manifested horrors of the story of Khoma Brutus and the dead lady. Finally, the idyllic beginning of The Old World Landowners contrasts not only with their own finale, which shows the decline of the old world economy, but also with the finale of the last story in the collection, Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich" 7 Esaulov I. A. The spectrum of adequacy in the interpretation of a literary work (“Mirgorod” by N. V. Gogol). M.: RGGU, 1995. C. 8. ⁠ . Instead of the joy and abundance of the Little Russian summer, there is the “bad time” of autumn: “Again, the same field, pitted in places, black, in places turning green, wet jackdaws and crows, monotonous rain, a tearful sky without clearance. “It’s boring in this world, gentlemen!” In the last story of Mirgorod, Gogol finally destroys the world that he lovingly created in Old World Landowners, and before that in Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. It is tempting to assume in this connection (as the researcher Vladimir Denisov 8 Denisov V. D. To the city and the world: about the collection of N. V. Gogol "Mirgorod" (1835) // Culture and text. 2014. No. 4. S. 14-34. ⁠ ) that the name "Mirgorod" is not only a specific toponym, but also a reference to the well-known Catholic formula urbi et orbi ("city and world"); that Mirgorod is a world-city in which there is a place for different people and ways of living, and which has its own beginning and end.

Girls from Poltava region in holiday clothes. Photo by Samuil Dudin. 1894

In home. Kherson province, Elisavetgrad district. Photo by Samuil Dudin. 1894

How is the myth of Philemon and Baucis played up in The Old World Landowners?

“If I were a painter and wanted to depict Philemon and Baucis on the canvas, I would never choose another original than them. Afanasy Ivanovich was sixty years old, Pulcheria Ivanovna was fifty-five,” writes Gogol. The source of the myth about Philemon and Baucis is Ovid's Metamorphoses. Before Gogol, this story was addressed, in particular, by Russian sentimentalists - Nikolai Karamzin, Mikhail Muravyov, Ivan Dmitriev (Gogol wrote to the latter from Vasilyevka that he now lives "in a village, exactly the same as described by the unforgettable Karamzin").

According to Ovid, Philemon and Baucis lived in the Phrygian city of Tyana. The elderly husband and wife who tenderly loved each other were the only ones who sheltered the two wanderers - it turned out that Jupiter and Mercury were hiding under the guise of wanderers. The old people were ready to slaughter a single goose for the sake of the guests. Touched by the hospitality of the hosts, the gods drowned all the houses in the area, except for the house of Philemon and Baucis - their hut turned into a temple of Jupiter, and the old people asked the thunderer to leave them as priests at this temple and grant them the opportunity to die at the same time. Their wish was granted:

Suddenly Philemon saw: he was dressed in the greenery of Baucis;
He sees Baucis: the old man Philemon dresses in greenery.
Chilled them were crowned with the peaks of the face.
Quietly, they exchanged greetings. Goodbye
My husband!" "Farewell, O wife!" - so they said together, and immediately
Leaves covered their mouths. And now an inhabitant of Tiana
Two trunks will show you, from a single root that have grown.

per. S. Shervinsky

The "old-world landowners" are both similar to this myth and different from it. On the one hand, we have a loving and hospitable couple (hospitality is the main feature of the Tovstogubs). Ovid, according to Ivan Yesaulov, is also referred to by the common patronymic of the spouses Tovstogubov (Ivanovich, Ivanovna), reminiscent of the common root of the trees into which Philemon and Baucis 9 Esaulov I. A. The spectrum of adequacy in the interpretation of a literary work (“Mirgorod” by N. V. Gogol). M.: RGGU, 1995. C. 27. ⁠ . On the other hand, the Tovstogubs, in contrast to the poor Philemon and Baucis, are wealthy owners, and they are not given the blissful fate of a simultaneous and easy death. Perhaps Gogol was influenced by the second part of Goethe's Faust, published in 1832, shortly before Gogol's work on Mirgorod began. In the last act, Faust thinks, in order to achieve the glory and gratitude of mankind, to build a huge dam, so that “at any cost near the abyss / A piece of land win back" 10 Per. B. Pasternak ⁠ , - but he is hindered by the hut of the elderly spouses Philemon and Baucis, standing on the construction site, who do not agree to leave their house. Faust asks Mephistopheles to deal with the problem - as a result, Philemon and Baucis, to Faust's horror, die. An echo of this rationalizing violence may be an attempt by a distant relative of the Tovstogubs to restore order in their estate after the death of the old people - an attempt that ended, as we remember, in the complete collapse of the estate. By the way, researchers also see another Goethean parallel with the "Old World Landowners" - the poem "Hermann and Dorothea" (1797).

In principle, the combination of Little Russian Eden with ancient culture in the case of Gogol is quite explainable by his biography - his studies at the Nizhyn Gymnasium of Higher Sciences, where they studied the works of the ancients. But, one way or another, by pointing to the Ovidian source, Gogol muffles its influence. So, with the "noble", ancient names of heroes (Afanasy and Pulcheria), the "physiological" surname Tovstogub is adjacent. Such a contrast forces the reader to make an “effort to distinguish manifestations of deep feeling behind the“ bark of earthiness ”, in order to see Athanasius in Tovstogub, in Tovstogubikha - Pulcheria" 11 Karpov A. A. "Athanasius and Pulcheria" - a story about love and death // The Gogol Phenomenon: Materials of the Anniversary Intern. scientific conf., dedicated To the 200th anniversary of the birth of N.V. Gogol / Ed. M. N. Virolainen and A. A. Karpova. St. Petersburg: Petropolis, 2011, p. 159. ⁠ .

It is worth noting that the Tovstogubs were not Gogol's first elderly couple: in the preface to "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka," the narrator, Rudy Panko, talks about himself and "his old woman," a childless and hospitable couple. Gogol of the time of "Evenings", of course, more naturally identified himself with the Little Russian idyll - so much so that he was ready to transform into her "genius of the place".

Peter Paul Rubens. Jupiter and Mercury at Philemon and Baucis. Around 1620-1625. Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum

What is remarkable about the garden of old-world landowners?

The most famous garden in Gogol's prose is Plyushkin's garden. The neglected Plyushkinsky garden is beautiful, because nature and art have equally worked on its creation. In The Old World Landowners, nature and art have a different, but also symbiotic relationship. On the one hand, the economy of the active Pulcheria Ivanovna was “quite similar to a chemical laboratory” (“A fire was always lit under the apple tree, and a cauldron or a copper basin with jam, jelly, marshmallow, made on honey, on sugar, was almost never removed from the iron tripod. and I don't remember what else.Under another tree, the coachman was always driving lembike Reservoir for distillation and purification of vodka. ⁠ vodka on peach leaves, on bird cherry blossoms, on centaury, on cherry pits"); on the other hand, arrears were constantly discovered due to oversight or simply theft - but "the blessed land produced everything in such abundance" that the economy always flourished. Before us is a kind of model of paradise - and it is important that Gogol, describing the garden of Tovstogubs, describes, as it were, all such gardens, all the farms of old-world landowners in general: “Sometimes I like to go for a minute into the sphere of this unusually solitary life, where not a single desire behind the palisade surrounding a small courtyard, behind the fence of a garden filled with apple trees and plums, behind the village huts surrounding it, staggering to the side, overshadowed by willows, elderberries and pears. Later, such generalizations would be adopted by the natural school, but Gogol wanted to show not the typical, but the ideal. Time seems to disappear here: the researcher Vladislav Krivonos notes that the narrator enters the garden “for a minute”, but the minute is very long. for a long time 12 Krivonos V. Sh. Place and plot in Gogol's "Old World Landowners" // Domestic Literature as a Factor in Preserving Russian Identity in the Global World: Proceedings of Vseros. scientific-practical. conf. Samara, 2017, p. 106. ⁠ .

Under the apple tree, a fire was always laid out, and a cauldron or a copper basin with jam, jelly, marshmallow, made on honey, on sugar, and I don’t remember what else, was almost never removed from the iron tripod.

Nikolay Gogol

Yuri Lotman in his work "Artistic Space in Gogol's Prose" explains that the most important property of the old-world landowners' garden is its "fenced off" 13 ⁠ : this is a reserved corner, as Eden should be, an earthly paradise. According to Lotman, the core of this world is the house of the Tovstogubs, surrounded by rings, “border belts”: a courtyard, a palisade, a garden, a village (there are also “border guards” inside the house - the famous “singing” doors). Trouble comes to the Tovstogubs’ house from the only place where this boundary breaks: from the wild forest, which communicates directly with the garden, from the “hole under the barn”, through which one escapes into this forest. cat 14 Virolainen M.N. World and Style (“Old World Landowners” by Gogol) // Questions of Literature. 1979. No. 4. S. 125-141; Weiskopf M. Ya. Gogol's Plot: Morphology. Ideology. Context. M.: RGGU, 2002. S. 347. ⁠ . Unlike other Tovstogubovsky forests, in which the clerk mercilessly cut down trees for his own benefit, this forest was “completely spared by the enterprising clerk”: he was afraid that Pulcheria Ivanovna would hear the sound of an ax. Paradoxically, what should be the norm (the clerk does not cut down the owner's forest) turns into an anomaly and leads to the death of the owners (there are wild cats in this forest that have lured the landowner's cat to him). The death of Pulcheria Ivanovna, who performs the traditional role of the guardian of the home hearth 15 Sintsova S. V. Gender issues in N. V. Gogol's story "Old-world landowners" // Bulletin of the Nizhny Novgorod University. N. I. Lobachevsky. Literary criticism. 2009. No. 6. P. 93. ⁠ , starts the process of destruction of her entire economy - after the death of Afanasy Ivanovich, whom she seems to be punishing to follow her, the matter is completed very quickly. The borders are crumbling, and the garden falls into disrepair: the estate is captured by a "foreign" world. But for their own - that is, for the guests for whom the old-world landowners lived - these boundaries were, of course, permeable, and the garden reminded of the possibility of a different, reserved life.

Vladimir Makovsky. They make jam. 1876 State Tretyakov Gallery

Why do the Tovstogubs eat so much?

Food, associated with the hearth, is almost the semantic center of "Old World Landowners". There is everyday and special food here - for guests, which is presented like at a parade:

Here are the mushrooms with thyme! it's with cloves and walnuts!<…>These mushrooms with currant leaf and nutmeg! But these are big grasses: I boiled them for the first time in vinegar; I don't know what they are; I learned the secret from Father Ivan. In a small tub, first of all, you need to spread oak leaves and then sprinkle with pepper and saltpeter and put another color on a nechui-viter, so take this color and spread it with tails up. And here are the pies! Those are cheese pies! it's with urda! and here are those that Afanasy Ivanovich loves very much, with cabbage and buckwheat porridge.

According to Andrey Bely, Afanasy Ivanovich "took to food nine times a day. day" 16 Mann Yu. V. Gogol's Poetics. Variations on a theme. M.: Coda, 1996. C. 145. ⁠ . Yuri Mann writes that in the images of food here “there is no aggressive, predatory connotation (cf. Sobakevich's devouring of food). It's almost idyllic and vegetal ingestion, chewing and digestion" 17 Mann Yu. V. Gogol's Poetics. Variations on a theme. M.: Coda, 1996. C. 146. ⁠ . He also speaks of "openness and cordiality", which Tovstogubs associated with food. This, of course, is connected with the ancient laws of hospitality: food is responsible for the whole house of old-world landowners. This rule is strengthened by the fact that the world of Tovstogubs is small and closed, so some cheese pies occupy a serious place in it. place 18 Lotman Yu. M. Artistic space in Gogol's prose // Lotman Yu. M. In the school of the poetic word: Pushkin. Lermontov. Gogol. M.: Education, 1988. S. 251-292. ⁠ .

The mild Gogol comedy here is that the Rabelaisian feasts that the Tovstogubs arrange for their guests are, as it were, disproportionate to their small household - but Gogol immediately finds an explanation for this: hospitality is linked to the idea of ​​"paradise on earth", where everything will be born in abundance. “However, I think that the very air in Little Russia does not have some special property that helps digestion, because if someone here decided to eat in this way, then, without a doubt, instead of a bed, he would find himself lying on the table.” On the contrary, for the Tovstogubs, it is precisely the refusal of food that is associated with death: having tuned in to a quick death, Pulcheria Ivanovna refuses to eat. The only treatment that Afanasy Ivanovich can offer her is: “Perhaps you could eat something, Pulcheria Ivanovna?” It may be worth remembering here that shortly before his death, Gogol also refused to eat. Food in Gogol's world is vitality; hunger is death. So it is, in fact, in life, but Gogol, like many things, exaggerates. Moreover, for old-world landlords, talking about food is a kind of talking about love, the language in which they can express their feelings. It is the food bears Fritters from crushed potatoes with cottage cheese. ⁠ with sour cream - for a widower it becomes a living reminder of the deceased. The modern researcher sees here an echo of the romantic idea that the main thing is fundamentally inexpressibly 19 Karpov A. A. "Athanasius and Pulcheria" - a story about love and death // The Gogol Phenomenon: Materials of the Anniversary Intern. scientific conf., dedicated To the 200th anniversary of the birth of N.V. Gogol / Ed. M. N. Virolainen and A. A. Karpova. St. Petersburg: Petropolis, 2011, pp. 161-162. ⁠ .

Pyotr Boklevsky. Pulcheria Ivanovna. Illustration for the story "Old World Landowners". 1887

Yu. A. Porfiriev. Afanasy Ivanovich. Illustration for the story "Old World Landowners". 1946

What war was Afanasy Ivanovich going to go to?

According to the references to the wars, one can approximately date the action of the "Old World Landowners". It happens after 1815 In 1815, Napoleon I again became the French emperor, but only for a hundred days. After losing the Battle of Waterloo, he was forced to abdicate a second time. ⁠ , probably in the early 1820s - because the guest tells Afanasy Ivanovich rumors that "the Frenchman secretly agreed with the Englishman to release Bonaparte again to Russia." (Let's leave aside the death of Bonaparte in 1821 - it is not necessary that the Mirgorod district would soon find out about this, and the relationship between the narrator and the author: the narrator is clearly older than Gogol, who was 24 years old by the time the story was written.) At the same time, 55-year-old Pulcheria Ivanovna remembers how “the Turks were in our captivity”: the captive “Turken”, who taught the hostess in a special way to salt mushrooms, lived with the Tovstogubs after Russian-Turkish war of 1787-1791 War between Russia and the Holy Roman Empire on one side and the Ottoman Empire on the other. The Ottoman Empire planned to regain the lands that had ceded to Russia after the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774, including Crimea, but could not do this - the new war ended with the victory of Russia. The Ottoman Empire signed the Iasi Peace Treaty, according to which it had to cede Crimea to Russia forever and pay an indemnity in the amount of 7 million rubles. However, Empress Catherine II refused the money, citing the enemy's poor economic condition. ⁠ - 25 years before the events of the story. Finally, Pulcheria Ivanovna inspects her forests, sitting in a droshky pulled by horses "who still served in the police" - that is, "in the militia, formed by a van in Russia during Russian-Prussian-French war The war of France against a coalition of Russia, Prussia and Great Britain. Prussia started the war after Napoleon refused to withdraw his troops from German lands. The war ended with the conclusion of the Treaty of Tilsit between Napoleon and Alexander I, under the terms of the peace, the territory of Prussia was cut, Russia recognized all the conquests of France and joined the continental blockade of England, and France stopped supporting Turkey in the war with Russia. ⁠ 1805-1807 due to the threat of the invasion of Napoleonic troops into the country and dissolved shortly after the conclusion of the Tilsit peace" 20 Guminsky V. M. Gogol, Alexander I and Napoleon // Our contemporary. 2002. No. 3. S. 216-232. ⁠ . Ivan Nikiforovich from another Gogol story also served in the police - for this he bought a gun "from Turchin", which caused discord between friends.

Pulcheria Ivanovna was the most entertaining for me when she led the guest to a snack.

Nikolay Gogol

The “upcoming war”, about which the guest entertains Afanasy Ivanovich, is hardly any specific: after 1814, Russia did not participate in wars with foreign powers for more than ten years (except for the Caucasian War, which began in 1817). Only in the summer of 1826 did the Russo-Persian War The war was started by Persia in 1826 to revise the terms of the peace treaty concluded after the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813. The attack on Russia was supported by Great Britain. Two years later, after a series of military setbacks, Persia was forced to enter into peace negotiations. As a result of the war, part of the Caspian coast and Eastern Armenia passed to Russia, Persia paid an indemnity in the amount of 20 million rubles, while Russia, after paying the indemnity, withdrew its troops from South Azerbaijan. ⁠ - Persia wanted to take revenge for the defeat in previous conflict Russian-Persian war of 1804-1813. Persia started the war after the annexation of Eastern Georgia to Russia. In the winter of 1806-1807, Russia concluded a truce because of the Russian-Turkish war that had begun, but hostilities soon resumed. The war with Persia ended with the victory of Russia - Russia received the exclusive right to keep the fleet in the Caspian Sea, Persia recognized Eastern Georgia as Russian possession ⁠ in 1813. In The Old World Landowners, apparently, we have the same idle rumors as in Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich: there Ivan Ivanovich tells his friend that “three kings have declared war on our tsar” and “they want us to everyone accepted the Turkish faith” (an echo of numerous wars with the Ottoman Empire, the anti-Napoleonic coalition and the creation of the Holy Alliance).

“I myself am thinking of going to war; why can't I go to war?" - says Afanasy Ivanovich Tovstogub. He, of course, is not liable for military service: after a short military career, he enjoys the privileges Manifesto on the Liberty of the Nobility Decree of Peter III of 1762. According to him, the nobles were exempted from compulsory military and civil service and received the right to freely travel abroad. During the war, the state could require a nobleman to enter the service. If at that time he was abroad, he should immediately return to Russia, otherwise his possessions were confiscated by the state. ⁠ , granted by Peter III (the same sovereign, whose portrait hangs at the old-world landowners in the house). Talk about the war is interestingly combined with the infantilism of Afanasy Ivanovich, which Gogol constantly emphasizes. Afanasy Ivanovich is not involved in household matters and is entirely dependent on the care of his wife, who feeds him like a caring woman. mother 21 Sintsova S. V. Gender issues in N. V. Gogol's story "Old-world landowners" // Bulletin of the Nizhny Novgorod University. N. I. Lobachevsky. Literary criticism. 2009. No. 6. P. 92. ⁠ . He listens to the guests with a curiosity that is "somewhat like the curiosity of a child." Pulcheria Ivanovna, dying, says: “You are like a little child: you need to be loved by the one who will look after you.” Afanasy Ivanovich, frightened by his wife's presentiment, "is crying like a child." Hearing the call, as it seems to him, of the deceased wife, he submits to his own death "with the will of an obedient child." In this context, it is necessary to perceive the husband's banter over his wife, including threats to go to war: this is how children like to scare their parents, and sometimes they speak seriously. Did Leo Tolstoy have "Old World Landowners" in mind when he wrote the scene in which Petya Rostov speaks to his parents for the first time that he is going to go to war?

Arkhip Kuindzhi. Evening in Ukraine. 1878 State Russian Museum

Why did Pulcheria Ivanovna mistake a cat for death?

Pulcheria Ivanovna's favorite, a spoiled gray cat, runs away to the forest cats, returns emaciated three days later, and, having eaten, runs back into the forest. This trifling incident makes Pulcheria Ivanovna draw an unexpected conclusion: “It was my death that came for me!”

In fact, such a case happened with the grandmother of the famous actor Mikhail Shchepkin Mikhail Semyonovich Shchepkin (1788-1863) - actor. He began his career with a home serf theater, played in the Poltava theater. In 1822 he received his freedom and in the same year, at the invitation, he moved to Moscow, where he served at the Maly Theater until the end of his life. Shchepkin played Famusov in Woe from Wit, Gorodnichiy in The Government Inspector. Especially for him, Belinsky wrote the play "Fifty-year-old Uncle, or a Strange Disease", and Turgenev wrote the play "The Freeloader". Known primarily for comic roles, Shchepkin also acted in tragic roles: for example, he played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. The Higher Theater School in Moscow, one of the main Russian educational institutions for actors, is named after Shchepkin. ⁠ , who came from serfs - Gogol borrowed this anecdote from Shchepkin. The conviction of Pulcheria Ivanovna has folklore roots. A similar belief is recorded in the "Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature" Alexander Afanasiev Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasiev (1826-1871) - historian, literary critic, collector of folklore. He served in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Afanasiev collected his own library of old Russian books and manuscripts, published articles on Slavic mythology in the journals Sovremennik and Otechestvennye Zapiski. The collection “Russian Folk Legends” published by Afanasyev was banned by censorship, the stories from this collection, as well as the “Treasured Tales” of erotic content, were sent abroad by Afanasyev. After the search, he was fired from the archive. From 1865 to 1869, Afanasiev published his main three-volume work, Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature. In the last years of his life he worked on a collection of Russian fairy tales. Died of consumption. ⁠ : “The Czechs and Little Russians say that Death, taking the form of a cat, scratches at the window, and the one who sees her and lets her into the hut must die in the shortest time" 22 Afanasiev A.N. Poetic views of the Slavs on nature: In 3 volumes. M .: Modern writer, 1995. T. 3.C. 55. ⁠ . The appearance of a cat is a bad omen in some other cultures as well. By remark Vladimir Toporov Vladimir Nikolaevich Toporov (1928-2005) - linguist, literary critic. He worked at the Institute of Slavonic and Balkan studies. Toporov was engaged in comparative historical linguistics, the study of folklore, semiotics (Toporov is one of the founders of the Tartu-Moscow semiotic school). Introduced the concept of "Petersburg text" into literary criticism. Together with the linguist Vyacheslav Ivanov, he developed the theory of the "main myth" - the plot of the fight between the Thunderer and the Serpent. Studied Sanskrit, Pali language, ancient Indian epos. He was the first to translate into Russian from the Pali language the Dhammapada, a collection of sayings of the Buddha. ⁠ , “in lower mythology, the cat acts as the embodiment (or assistant, member of the retinue) of the devil, unclean strength" 23 Myths of the peoples of the world: Encyclopedia. In 2 vols. T. 2. M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1992. C. 11. ⁠ . Hence the idea of ​​the diabolical beginning in black cats: in Russian literature it is most fully shown in The Master and Margarita, and Gogol could have been familiar at least from Hoffmann's The Golden Pot; in fact, in Gogol's "May Night" a black cat-witch appears.

The old woman thought. “It was my death that came for me!” she said to herself, and nothing could dispel her

Nikolay Gogol

On the other hand, among Christians, especially among the Old Believers, a cat is a “clean” animal (unlike a dog), which is what Pulcheria Ivanovna says: “The dog is unclean, the dog will spoil, the dog will kill everything, and the cat is a quiet creature, it does not hurt anyone. will do evil." But it is precisely this “quiet creation” that runs away into the neighboring forest, where it associates with robber forest cats, whom Gogol calls “gloomy and wild people”: we have before us a typically Gogolian ambivalence, generally speaking, characteristic of evil spirits (here we can also recall the pannka from “Viya "- a beautiful girl and a disgusting old witch).

Ivan Esaulov, who emphasizes the importance of borders in Old World Landowners, notes that the runaway cat finds himself in a wild “big world” outside the closed idyllic space of the Tovstogubov estate - and, returning, becomes a messenger of death precisely from this “big world”. peace" 24 Esaulov I. A. The spectrum of adequacy in the interpretation of a literary work (“Mirgorod” by N. V. Gogol). M.: RGGU, 1995. C. 38. ⁠ . A skinned, emaciated animal, running wild with its owner, is the exact opposite of the spoiled cat that Pulcheria Ivanovna knew: it can be assumed that, having come into contact with the wild world of the forest (in Russian folk culture, the forest is unequivocally interpreted as an entrance to the other world), she is “infected” with otherworldliness and becomes, in fact, the bearer of death. This is quite in the logic of a syncretic, magical, folklore consciousness - and the fact that Pulcheria Ivanovna takes the belief seriously speaks of her belonging to the patriarchal / pastoral world, despite her noble status (again, remember that Mikhail Shchepkin's grandmother was a serf).

Gogol refers directly to popular belief when he talks about the foreshadowing of the death of Afanasy Ivanovich, who suddenly heard Pulcheria Ivanovna calling him:

You, no doubt, have ever heard a voice calling you by name, which common people explain by the fact that the soul yearns for a person and calls him, and after which death inevitably follows. I confess that I have always been afraid of this mysterious call. I remember that in childhood I often heard it: sometimes suddenly someone behind me clearly pronounced my name.

It should be noted that in the two "everyday" stories of Mirgorod - "Old World Landowners" and "Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich" - a zoological trifle becomes an impulse for the development of the action. But if a quarrel over the word “geese” is a frankly absurd and (in Bakhtin’s sense) carnival story, then there is something very touching in death over a cat, as in the whole story.

The cat is in an affectionate mood. Engraving from Charles Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. 1872

Universal History Archive/Getty Images

Why does Afanasy Ivanovich show no emotion at Pulcheria Ivanovna's funeral?

The death of Pulcheria Ivanovna, as it were, “turns off” Afanasy Ivanovich from the world of the living. At his wife’s funeral, he “looked at everything ... insensibly”, “looked at everything strangely”, sheds “some insensible tears” over the coffin, and after the burial he says: “So you already buried her! why?!" Emotions overtake him only upon returning from the funeral: “But when he returned home, when he saw that his room was empty, that even the chair on which Pulcheria Ivanovna was sitting had been taken out, he sobbed, sobbed hard, sobbed inconsolably, and tears like a river flowed from his dull eyes. Since then, grief has not left him.

The psychologist will say that Gogol accurately describes the initial stage of deep grief, the behavior of a person after a catastrophic shock. Yuri Mann in Gogol's Poetics writes that Afanasy Ivanovich's reaction should seem strange to outsiders - distant relatives and countrymen participating in the "collective ritual action" of the funeral, and even to readers story 25 Mann Yu. V. Gogol's Poetics. Variations on a theme. M.: Coda, 1996. C. 32-36. ⁠ . In the usual funeral bustle, crying is mixed with laughter: “... Long tables were placed around the yard; kutya, liqueurs, pies covered them in heaps; the guests talked, cried, looked at the deceased, talked about her qualities ... ... The sun was shining, babies were crying in the arms of their mothers, larks were singing, children in shirts were running and frolicking along the road. Against the background of these "natural" and predictable reactions, the figure of Afanasy Ivanovich stands out sharply: this makes us follow him with increased attention - one where there were two before. civilization" 26 Mann Yu. V. Gogol's Poetics. Variations on a theme. M.: Coda, 1996. C. 147.⁠ is needed just to set off the life of the old-world landowners, to show its attractiveness and inaccessibility (after all, at the end of the story, the narrator watches the ruin of the estate).

The narrator, the confidant of his heroes, can make assessments of them (“Pulcheria Ivanovna was the most entertaining for me when she led the guest to a snack”); he, like a good neighbor, follows their fate (he visits the widower - and thereby gets the opportunity to talk about his life after Pulcheria Ivanovna). At the same time, this narrator is not fully a character: he also has the features of an “omniscient author” who is able to tell the reader, for example, the details of the private conversations of the spouses. He remains the god of storytelling. Such a dual role is parodied in Nikolai Kolyada's modern play The Old World Landowners, where Gogol is a full-fledged character, but at the same time a person from the outside, who can comprehend everything that happens. At the same time, the involved and third-party position allows the narrator to involve other, alien contexts in his description: he compares Tovstogubov with Philemon and Baucis, whom they hardly ever heard of, and introduces an insert story about a man who lost his beloved, twice tried to do away with himself, but then nevertheless consoled himself. The opposite of this worldly story is Afanasy Ivanovich's "long, hot sadness" - and for the narrator here is a reason to think about which is stronger - passion or habit.

Fedor Moller. Portrait of Nikolai Gogol. Early 1840s. State Russian Museum

What does the decline of the Tovstogubov estate mean?

At the beginning of the story, the “model economy” of the old-world landowners is contrasted with “a new smooth building, whose walls have not yet been washed by rain, the roof has not been covered with green mold, and the porch, devoid of tickling, does not show its red bricks.” The "old-world" economy should have signs of antiquity, dilapidation. Romanticism inherits from sentimentalism a special attitude towards ruins, which at the same time remind of a high, now inaccessible architectural ideal and demonstrate the harmonious co-creation of man and nature - co-creation through destruction. In The Old World Landowners, Gogol, with gentle irony, reduces the pathos of the poetics of the ruins - and demonstrates what real ruins are: after the death of the owners on their estate, you can see only "a bunch of collapsed huts, a dead pond, an overgrown moat in the place where the low house stood, - and nothing more". This collapse was accelerated by attempts, so to speak, by mechanical modernization: the heir to the estate, a distant relative of the Tovstogubs, nailed rooms to the huts and buys “six beautiful English sickles” - philologist Ivan Esaulov thinks 27 Esaulov I. A. The spectrum of adequacy in the interpretation of a literary work (“Mirgorod” by N. V. Gogol). M.: RGGU, 1995. C. 23. ⁠ it is no coincidence that six months later the completely ruined estate had to take custody The system of noble guardianship was established in 1775. Officials were supposed to manage the property of noble widows and orphans, find trustees for their estates. Often, estates were arrested for misconduct - the estate was taken under guardianship if it was discovered that a noble was ruining his possessions, mistreating peasants, or demonstrating immoral behavior. ⁠ .

It is interesting that Gogol chooses precisely this variant of eschatology for the estate of old-world landowners - in the words of Eliot, "not an explosion, but a sob." Let us recall that Afanasy Ivanovich liked to play a joke on Pulcheria Ivanovna, frightening her with a fire. In reality, the fire really devours their household - but in a completely different way: “the palisade and wattle fence in the yard were completely destroyed, and I myself saw how the cook pulled sticks out of it to fire the stove, while she had to take two extra steps to get the heaped brushwood right there. Eden was destroyed not by a loud, scandalous and somewhat romantic catastrophe, but by everyday entropy - we have before us a manifestation of realism as such.

Humboldt 28 Esaulov I. A. The spectrum of adequacy in the interpretation of a literary work (“Mirgorod” by N. V. Gogol). M.: RGGU, 1995. C. 25, 30.⁠ . Gogol's story was attributed to idylls throughout the history of its reading and study, starting with Pushkin. It was created "in an atmosphere of controversy about the genre of the idyll, the beginning of which was supposed 29 Surkov E. A. About the idyllic in N. V. Gogol's "Old-world landowners" // N. V. Gogol and the Slavic world (Russian and Ukrainian receptions) / Ed. N. V. Khomuk. Tomsk, 2007. Issue. 1. S. 47-57. ⁠ book release "Idylls of Vladimir Panaev" Vladimir Ivanovich Panaev (1792-1852) - poet, academician, major official (Gogol served under him for some time). He wrote mostly poetic idylls; the only collection of "Idylls of Vladimir Panaev" was published in 1820. Panaev did not like romantic writers, including Pushkin and Gogol; they reciprocated. ⁠ . The idyllic nature of the "Old World Landowners" was written by such philologists as Dmitry Ovsyaniko-Kulikovskiy Dmitry Nikolaevich Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky (1853-1920) - literary critic, linguist. He taught at Novorossiysk, Kharkov, St. Petersburg and Kazan universities. From 1913 to 1918 he edited the journal Vestnik Evropy. He studied the works of Gogol, Pushkin, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov. The most famous work of Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky was The History of the Russian Intelligentsia, published in 1907. He studied the syntax of the Russian language, as well as Sanskrit and Indian philosophy. ⁠ , Viktor Vinogradov Victor Vladimirovich Vinogradov (1895-1969) - linguist, literary critic. In the early 1920s he studied the history of the church schism, in the 1930s he took up literary criticism: he wrote articles about Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Akhmatova. With the latter he was connected by many years of friendship. In 1929 Vinogradov moved to Moscow and founded his own linguistic school there. In 1934, Vinogradov was repressed, but released early to prepare for Pushkin's anniversary in 1937. In 1958, Vinogradov headed the Institute of the Russian Language of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He was an expert for the prosecution in the trial of Sinyavsky and Daniel. ⁠ , Boris Eichenbaum Boris Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum (1886-1959) - literary critic, textual critic, one of the main formalist philologists. In 1918, he joined the OPOYAZ circle along with Yuri Tynyanov, Viktor Shklovsky, Roman Yakobson, and Osip Brik. In 1949 he was persecuted during Stalin's campaign against cosmopolitanism. Author of the most important works on Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, Leskov, Akhmatova. ⁠ . Indeed, the idyllic chronotope of The Old World Landowners, exactly according to Humboldt, is opposed to the “big world”: here they don’t know world upheavals, they talk about the war only in jest, they don’t travel far and try not to remember that once everything it was different. They eat a lot here - and the food, according to Bakhtin 30 Bakhtin M. M. Forms of time and chronotope in the novel. Essays on historical poetics // Bakhtin M. M. Collected works: In 6 volumes. T. 3. Theory of the novel. M.: Languages ​​of Slavic cultures, 2012. S. 474. ⁠ , an important part of the idyllic chronotope The inseparable unity of a certain point in space and a certain moment in time. In literary criticism, the term began to be used thanks to Mikhail Bakhtin. ⁠ . They don’t want to change anything here, but the “blessed earth” itself is responsible for ensuring that this closed system remains harmonious and viable, which will give birth to “everything in such a multitude”, which covers any shortcomings, nullifies the small invasions of chaos.

I confess that I have always been afraid of this mysterious call. I remember that in childhood I often heard it: sometimes suddenly someone behind me clearly pronounced my name

Nikolay Gogol

At the same time, in The Old World Landowners there is an important difference from the classical idyll: the death of heroes and the destruction of the patriarchal life, built with love in the first part of the story. What is shown in this way? That a genuine idyll is impossible today? That it was never possible? Rather, that everything has its time, nothing will escape the "all-consuming time."

In a sense, the idyllic feeling, as Gogol interprets it, is opposed to the romantic feeling. This is especially evident in two points. Firstly, Afanasy Ivanovich tries not to remember that he once managed to cleverly take away Pulcheria Ivanovna, whom they did not want to marry him: such a romantic act is inconsistent with his current state of calm. Secondly, speaking of the inconsolable grief of Afanasy Ivanovich, Gogol inserts a story about a young man whose beloved died unexpectedly; he tried to commit suicide twice, but was eventually consoled and happily married. Unlike this young man, Afanasy Ivanovich is unable to survive his loss - which makes the narrator think:

"God! - I thought, looking at him, - five years of all-destroying time - an old man already insensible, an old man whose life, it seemed, had never once been disturbed by a single strong sensation of the soul, whose whole life seemed to consist only of sitting on a high chair, of eating dried fish and pears, from good-natured stories - and such a long, such a hot sadness! What is stronger over us: passion or habit? Or are all strong impulses, all the whirlwind of our desires and seething passions, only a consequence of our bright age, and only for that alone seem deep and crushing?

In his Indefatigable Tambourine, Alexei Remizov notes that the word "habit" here is simply a replacement for the "big" word "love", which Gogol was "ashamed to use". But rather, it is not about constraint, but about the fact that the word “love” is assigned to romanticism, while “habit” (which, as Pushkin recalls, is “given to us from above” and replaces happiness) is precisely about an even, harmonious, idyllic feeling closer to the Christian ideal. Here one can recall the idea that instead of “I love” Russian women say “I’m sorry”, and the phrase of the aging Lizaveta Alexandrovna from Goncharov’s “Ordinary History”: “Yes, I’m very ... used to you,” Lizaveta Alexandrovna wanted just a romantic love, but she was forced, not without bitterness, to admit that "habit" fell to her lot instead. However, if for Goncharov “habit” is part of a complex moral equation that has no solution, then for Gogol it is, if not problem-free, but a sign of idyllic harmony, which is somehow opposed to all other stories of Mirgorod.

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• Khomuk N. V. Garden architectonics in N. V. Gogol’s story “Old-world landowners” // Picture of the world: models, methods, concepts. Materials Vseros. interdisciplinary school young scientists "Picture of the world: language, philosophy, science". Tomsk, 2002, pp. 136–141.
• Eikhenbaum B. M. Comments // Gogol N. V. Complete works: In 14 volumes. T. 2. Mirgorod / Ed. V. V. Gippius. M.; L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1937. S. 679–760.

All bibliography

N.V. Gogol, a master of mystical literature, following his well-known romantic collection Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, creates and prints another cycle of his fantastic stories. His new collection includes four stories, including the story "Old World Landowners", which was placed by the author in the first part. In this work, N. Gogol gave a complete realistic picture of the life of the old-world landowners, who were already living out their lives. The writer depicts his characters with satire, denouncing their unhealthy existence.

History of the creation of the story

Pushkin's influence on Nikolai Gogol was so high that the writer began a creative period when he created a lot, many creative ideas were born in his head. From 1832 to 1836, the author visits St. Petersburg, where he makes new acquaintances, and he tried to put all this life experience on paper.

The impressionable Gogol found new images for his works in the trains. When reading the collection Mirgorod, one can notice what feelings Gogol himself experiences, who is serious and thoughtful, trying well and deeply to understand this life.

The plot of the work

Afanasy Ivanovich is the main character of the story, who always wore a sheepskin coat and was distinguished by his sweet smile. But on the other hand, his wife Pulcheria Ivanovna almost never laughed or smiled, but her face and eyes radiated a lot of kindness. These landowners lived in seclusion in a distant village, where the old-world order still reigned. Their manor house, low and quiet, was rarely visited by guests. Therefore, they lived calmly and indifferently. They were not disturbed at all and did not care about the events that took place in the world. They had their own cozy world, devoid of feelings.

In all the rooms of the landowner's house, there was nothing! Various little things that no one needed, a lot of old and creaky doors, even more storerooms, in which there were so many supplies that they could feed the whole world. After all, almost all the courtiers, who were led by the main character, were constantly engaged in their preparation for whole days. The main characters had no deprivation in anything, so they diligently did not notice how the clerk, and just lackeys robbed them.

They never had children, so they gave all their affection and love to each other. Affectionately calling each other "you", they tried to take care of each other and fulfill any desire of their soul mate. But they especially loved to treat someone who would inadvertently visit them as a guest. But they did not deny themselves the desire to eat. From morning to evening, his wife offers Afanasy Ivanovich various dishes, trying to anticipate his desires. But sudden and completely unexpected events will forever change the life of this calm and peaceful old-world corner.

The mistress's cat, whom the elderly woman loved so much, disappears, most likely in the garden, having run away after the cats. For three days the heroine was looking for her, and when this emaciated creature is found, after feeding she does not allow her to be stroked, but runs away again, jumping out the window. This incident makes the poor old woman think, who walked for a long time with a thoughtful and boring look, and then suddenly unexpectedly informs her husband that it was death itself that came for her and she was destined to die soon.

The old woman dies, and Afanasy Ivanovich for a long time cannot understand and realize what happened after all. And only when he feels the loneliness of his house, the hero begins to sob. Five years later, the narrator again visits the house of a lonely landowner, but the estate has changed, it has become more dilapidated. The hero himself has also changed, who yearns for his wife all the time. He is hunched over and often cries, especially when he tries to say her name. Afanasy Ivanovich also dies after a while. As he walks through the garden, he hears the voice of his dead wife. And after this incident, he dies. His death is somewhat reminiscent of the death of his wife. Before his death, he asks to be buried next to Pulcheria Ivanovna. Since then, the house has been empty, and the property has been stolen.

Characters in the story

★Old world landowner Afanasy Ivanovich Tovstogub
★The landowner's wife - Pulcheria Ivanovna Tovstogubikha.

According to the text of the plot, the reader will very soon note for himself that the heroes of this story are simple and very modest people. These meek creatures made caring for each other the meaning of their lives. They are very hospitable and always sincerely rejoice at the guests. It seemed that now they live only for guests. A table was laid immediately, as if they knew about the visit, and all the best that was in the house was placed on this table. But the author contrasts them with other people who already live differently:

Key keeper Yavdokha.
The clerk Nichipor.
Yard girls.
Room boy.
Favorite cat of Pulcheria Ivanovna.

But most of the rest of Russia is opposed to these old people, who are unsophisticated and indifferent. "Low Little Russians" are sneaky, greedy, rip off the last penny from their own fellow countrymen. According to the author, this is how they make capital for themselves. Therefore, against the background of these people, striving for profit and power, the idyll of the old landowners seems ironic and ridiculous.

But the further this story continues to develop, the more interesting the psychological characteristics of Gogol become. For example, in the main character at the very beginning of the story, he notes his smile, which was always on his face. But closer through time, remembering all about the same smile, he says this about Afanasy Ivanovich:

"He always listened with a pleasant smile to the guests."

So the good landowner tried to influence his interlocutors, guests, showing that everything would soon come to their senses and everything would be fine and wonderful.

But the heroes themselves do not develop, and their existence is centered around plants. They worry only about a good harvest, nothing else interests them. And every day is like yesterday. Therefore, with such cordiality they receive guests who bring variety to their lives. And then they can demonstrate all the products that are in the kitchen. The idyll of these two people, drawn by the author, is dull and inanimate, because there are no soul disturbances in it, and it does not contain any emotions.

Prototypes of the main characters

Researchers of Gogol's creativity consider Vasilievka, where the estate of the writer's family was located, as the scene of the events from the story "Old World Landowners". In this place, the future mystical writer spent all his childhood and youth. But even then, Nikolai Gogol did not forget this place and often came to his father's house to visit his close people: sisters and parents. But not only the scene of the plot is known to writers. The main characters have prototypes. Gogol knew the story of the landowners Gogol-Yanovsky, who were grandparents for the writer. Grandma's maiden name was Lizogub.

So, the prototype of Pulcheria Ivanovna is Tatyana Semyonovna, the writer's grandmother. The writer copied the image of Afanasy Ivanovich from his grandfather, Afanasy Demyanovich. The story of the marriage of these two people is known, as well as further life together, which is very similar to the story that Nikolai Gogol told his readers. They got married, violating the will of their parents. It happened like this: Afanasy Demyanovich at that time was studying in Kyiv at the Theological Academy. Having fallen in love with Tatyana Semyonovna, he secretly takes away his beloved.

Literary critics who study the life of the writer's ancestors believe that their life was not as calm and peaceful as that of the heroes of the story. And although there were warm relations between the spouses, like the heroes of Gogol's work, they did not manage to live to old age together.

Analysis of the story

Critics and writers of that time differently evaluated the new story by Nikolai Gogol. Pushkin laughed heartily at her plot, considering it playful and touching. And in order not to create the impression of an earthly paradise in the estate of the main characters, the narrator himself seeks to show that this life is like a dream. There is also a parallel with mythology in the story. So, with Philemon and Baucis, the main characters are compared, whom the gods rewarded for their love. But in Gogol the idyll is destroyed by time itself.

There is another paradox in Gogol's work: the Ukrainian estate, where, according to the author's description, an earthly paradise appeared, created by the main characters of the story, it also becomes a mystical place. Incomprehensible things happen to the main character in the garden: he is seized with fear, a voice is heard, and here silence informs about death. This silence frightens not only the protagonist, but even the narrator. So the estate of the landowners, which at the beginning of the story appears as an earthly paradise, turns into the kingdom of death.

But you can read this Gogol's work in a different way, where this estate turns into a kind of shrine. And the garden is already a paradise in which no one else can be let in. But this holiness is very subtle and vulnerable, since the main character was a great housewife who collected everything, not even knowing yet how she would use it. And then Plyushkin and his features come to mind. But Pulcheria Ivanovna has not yet reached this stage. Squeaky doors, flies and jam that is boiled in the garden in large quantities are not signs of holiness. The author shows in his story how the disintegration of the patriarchal life of the landowners takes place in stages.

And yet this story is about love, great and imperceptible, which turns out to be above everything, even above passion. And here, in Gogol's story, the story of a young man who wanted to kill himself because of the death of his beloved draws attention to itself. But a year later he was happy and married. But for the main characters, when the reader meets them, love is a habit, so it is both strong and long-lasting. In his story, Gogol talks philosophically about the essence of love. This habit of love caused not only different assessments from critics, but also led to numerous disputes about the author's moral position in the story.