Cases from the life of Krylov. “It would be surprising if one of the Russians did not know Krylov”

Ivan Krylov was born in 1769 and died in 1844. Over the 75 years he lived, he achieved everything he wanted and entered world literature as an outstanding Russian nugget.

So, we present to you interesting facts about Ivan Krylov

Krylov was a very plump and literally thick-skinned creature. Those around him sometimes got the impression that he had no emotions or feelings, since everything was covered in fat. In fact, hidden inside the writer was a subtle understanding of the world and an attentive attitude towards it. This can be seen from almost any fable.
It should be noted that Ivan Andreevich loved to eat. Moreover, his appetite sometimes impressed even seasoned gluttons. They say that once he was late for a social evening. As “punishment,” the owner ordered Krylov to be served a huge portion of pasta, several times higher than the daily allowance. Even two grown men could hardly do this. However, the writer calmly ate everything and happily continued the lunch. The audience's surprise was immeasurable!
Krylov loved books extremely much and worked in a library for 30 years.
By the way, it was in the library that Ivan Andreevich developed a tradition of sleeping after a hearty lunch for about two hours. His friends knew this habit and always saved an empty chair for their guest.
The writer was never married, although it is believed that from an extramarital affair with a cook he had a daughter, whom he raised as his legitimate and his own.
Despite his size (and Krylov was plump from his youth), he traveled a lot around Russia, studying the customs and way of life of his people. It was on such trips that new subjects for fables were born.
By the way, it should be noted that in his youth the future fabulist was fond of wall-to-wall fighting. Thanks to his size and height, he has repeatedly defeated quite old and strong men!
An interesting fact is that Krylov did not like changing clothes or combing his hair at all. One day he asked a lady he knew what outfit to buy for a masquerade, and she told him that if he washed and combed his hair, no one would recognize him. Wow!
Some argue that the fabulist was a completely insensitive creature, and when his mother died, he went to the performance. They also say that on the day when his close maid passed away, he calmly played cards with friends. But these facts are not confirmed, so we will not take them seriously.
By the way, it is quite remarkable that Krylov was incredibly attracted to fires. No matter where the house was burning in St. Petersburg, he urgently went there and observed the process of the conflagration. Strange hobby!
Once in the theater, eyewitnesses told an interesting fact about Krylov. He was unlucky enough to sit next to an emotional person who kept shouting something, sang along with the speaker and behaved quite noisily. - However, what kind of disgrace is this?! – Ivan Andreevich said loudly. The twitchy neighbor perked up and asked if these words were addressed to him. “What are you talking about,” answered Krylov, “I turned to the man on the stage who is preventing me from listening to you!”
All the writer’s friends told another interesting fact related to Krylov’s house. The fact is that above his sofa there was a huge painting hanging at a rather dangerous angle. He was asked to remove it so that it would not accidentally fall on the fabulist’s head. However, Krylov only laughed, and indeed, even after his death, she continued to hang at the same angle.
By the way, the sofa was Ivan Andreevich’s favorite place. There is information that Goncharov based his Oblomov on Krylov.
This one is also known interesting fact about Krylov. Doctors prescribed him daily walks. However, as he moved, merchants constantly lured him to buy furs from them. When Ivan Andreevich got tired of this, he spent the whole day walking through the traders’ shops, meticulously examining all the furs. At the end, he asked each merchant in surprise: “Is this all you have?”... Having not bought anything, he moved on to the next merchant, which greatly frayed their nerves. After that, they no longer pestered him with requests to buy something.
It is reliably known that Ivan Andreevich Krylov is the author of 236 fables. Many plots are borrowed from the ancient fabulists La Fontaine and Aesop. Surely you have often heard popular expressions that are quotes from the work of the famous and outstanding fabulist Krylov.

Moreover, his appetite sometimes impressed even seasoned gluttons. They say that once he was late for a social evening. As “punishment,” the owner ordered Krylov to be served a huge portion of pasta, several times higher than the daily allowance. Even two grown men could hardly do this. However, the writer calmly ate everything and happily continued the lunch. The audience's surprise was immeasurable!

Krylov loved books extremely much and worked in a library for 30 years. It was in the library that Ivan Andreevich developed a tradition of sleeping after a hearty lunch for about two hours. His friends knew this habit and always saved an empty chair for their guest.

The writer was never married, although it is believed that from an extramarital affair with a cook he had a daughter, whom he raised as his legitimate and his own.

Despite his size (and Krylov was plump from his youth), he traveled a lot around Russia, studying the customs and way of life of his people. It was on such trips that new subjects for fables were born.

In his youth, the future fabulist was fond of wall-to-wall fighting. Thanks to his size and height, he has repeatedly defeated quite old and strong men!

Krylov did not like changing clothes or combing his hair at all. One day he asked a lady he knew what outfit to buy for a masquerade, and she told him that if he washed and combed his hair, no one would recognize him.

Some argue that the fabulist was a completely insensitive creature, and when his mother died, he went to the performance. They also say that on the day when his close maid passed away, he calmly played cards with friends. But no one knows whether these facts are true.

The sofa was Ivan Andreevich’s favorite place. There is information that Goncharov based his Oblomov on Krylov.

I. A. Krylov is mainly known for his fables, although he is also the compiler of the then famous Slavic-Russian dictionary.

Doctors prescribed him daily walks. However, as he moved, merchants constantly lured him to buy furs from them. When Ivan Andreevich got tired of this, he spent the whole day walking through the traders’ shops, meticulously examining all the furs. At the end, he asked each merchant in surprise: “Is this all you have?”... Having not bought anything, he moved on to the next merchant, which greatly frayed their nerves. After that, they no longer pestered him with requests to buy something.

It is quite remarkable that Krylov was incredibly attracted to fires. No matter where the house was burning in St. Petersburg, he urgently went there and observed the process of the conflagration. Strange activity!

All the writer’s friends told one interesting fact related to Krylov’s house. The fact is that above his sofa there was a huge painting hanging at a rather dangerous angle. He was asked to remove it so that it would not accidentally fall on the fabulist’s head. However, Krylov only laughed, and indeed, even after his death, she continued to hang at the same angle.

It is reliably known that Ivan Andreevich Krylov is the author of 236 fables. Many plots are borrowed from the ancient fabulists La Fontaine and Aesop.

Once in the theater, eyewitnesses said, Krylov was not lucky enough to sit next to an emotional person who kept shouting something, sang along with the speaker and behaved quite noisily. - However, what kind of disgrace is this?! – Ivan Andreevich said loudly. The twitchy neighbor perked up and asked if these words were addressed to him. “What are you talking about,” answered Krylov, “I turned to the man on the stage who is preventing me from listening to you!”

Glorified throughout the centuries as a writer, and almost unknown as a person - this is a brief summary of Krylov’s biography.

A brilliant satirist and one of the most talented writers of his time, whose artistic thought is accessible even to children.

Having come to all-Russian fame from ignominy and poverty, Ivan Andreevich, apart from his literary heritage, left almost no personal documents.

Biographers had to reconstruct information about life events and character from the memories of friends and acquaintances of the famous Muscovite.

I. A. Krylov - Russian writer and fabulist

The small genre of fables glorified the son of a poor army officer. This says a lot about a person.

About the ability to grasp the very essence of complex moral issues and modern historical problems and present it in an accessible form with accuracy and humor, sometimes with malicious satire.

The small size of the work requires the highest concentration of language, thoughtfulness of the system of images and artistic and expressive means. Knowing about such nuances, you are only surprised how many fables Krylov wrote: 236!

The list of collections published during his lifetime includes 9 editions - and all sold out with a bang.

However, he took a long time to get into shape and started with high drama. Answering the question of when Krylov wrote his first play, biographers give an approximate answer - in 1785. After all, the tragedy “Cleopatra” has not been preserved. But just by the title you can understand that the young author tried to create within the framework of classicism.

However, it is in subsequent comedies that fans of Krylov’s work find his inherent courage of thought, accuracy of expression, sensitivity to the native language and a sense of the potential of Russian national culture.

Brief biography of Ivan Andreevich Krylov

The years of the writer's life cover a period of 75 years. And although the writer’s place of birth remains speculative, the year is precisely established – 1769. We will cite only the most important events.

Father and mother

The future writer was born into the family of a poor army officer Andrei Prokhorovich, who rose to the rank through his own strength and abilities, without connections. The soldier was the organizer of the defense of Yaitsk from the Pugachevites, and subsequently anonymously published a story about this in Otechestvennye zapiski.

The first-born appeared in the family during the years of life in the capital, Troitsk or Trans-Volga region - one can only guess. Already at the age of 10, little Ivan, then living with his parents in Tver, lost his father - he died and left his son and widow in complete poverty.

The mother of the great Russian writer Maria Alekseevna was a poorly educated woman, perhaps even illiterate. But energetic, enterprising, smart and loving her children. Unlike her husband, she was not interested in reading books, but she encouraged her son to study them in every possible way.

Childhood years

Information about childhood is extremely scarce. As a young child he lived in Yaitsk; during the Pugachev riot his mother took him to Orenburg, after which the family moved to Tver. His father instilled in the future famous writer a love of books and an interest in literature.

After the death of his father, the young man began working in the Kalyazin zemstvo court, and later transferred to the Tver magistrate.

Education

Homely and unsystematic: no gymnasium, no home teacher, no theological seminary or municipal school. During the years of living in Tver, Ivan Krylov, who had lost his father, out of mercy studied with the children of the local influential and wealthy Lvov family.

In 1783, the benefactors moved to St. Petersburg, taking Ivan Andreevich with them. He entered the service of the local Treasury Chamber, while at the same time reading a lot and studying science on his own.

As a result, he learned to play the violin, showed great talent in mathematics, and mastered the French, Italian and German languages - enough for a deep acquaintance with world classical literature.

Of the fateful meetings pointing to the future of the brilliant writer, only two are known from this period of his life. At Lvov, Krylov met the famous classicist playwright Yakov Borisovich Knyazhnin and the great poet Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin.

Krylov's creative path

The writer had to search for himself for a long time, paying tribute to the fashion for classicism (creating high tragedies “Cleopatra” and “Philomela” and comedies “The Coffee House”, “The Writer in the Hallway”, etc.).

The young writer felt the breath of time. Russian literature turned from imitating European models to itself: language, themes, cultural customs.

Krylov worked as a publisher on the magazine “Mail of Spirits”. One of the sections was devoted to the correspondence of elves ridiculing among themselves the morals of Catherine’s enlightened absolutism. In 1790, censorship banned the publication (the government everywhere saw the threat of the French Revolution). The following magazines, Spectator and Mercury, suffered the same fate, although the editor in them toned down his tone somewhat.

In 1794, Ivan Andreevich was forced to leave the northern capital and move to Moscow, a year later he was asked to move from there. The disgraced young author had a hard time experiencing the social and literary blockade. He found shelter and support in the family of General Sergei Fedorovich Golitsyn, who had also fallen out of favor. He worked as the secretary of the head of the family and was involved in the education of children, and over the years he wrote only a couple of poems and a few stories.

After Alexander the First came to power, at the dawn of the 17th century, Ivan Andreevich returned to Moscow and began to create again. Yes, with such fervor that the censorship vetoed the publication of the comedy “Podchipa or Triumph” - and the manuscripts circulated throughout Russia.

The author boldly ridiculed the height of the classicist Triumph and Podshchipa, which was alien to Russian political life - they say, the Russian writer has already outgrown patriarchy. The subsequent plays “Pie” and “Fashion Shop” were staged and became part of the theater repertoire for a long time.

In 1805, the fables “The Oak and the Reed” and “The Picky Bride” were published, and four years later the first collection was published. This became an event, as evidenced by the controversy surrounding Krylov’s work in Vestnik Evropy.

The recognized genius poet V. A. Zhukovsky reproached the fabulist for the rudeness of expressions, fashionable and following his own path A. S. Pushkin - sees in them the merit of hiding behind a pseudonym (the first fables, who experienced the disfavor of those in power, were signed by Krylov Navi Volyrk).

It is the simple language that makes these works unique not only for the genre, but for all Russian poetry in general.

The fables were circulated for quotations not only in Russia: a two-volume set was published in Paris, they are being translated into Italian. International popularity is also explained by the genre itself - an ancient one, actively using allegories and symbols, plots and themes common to many European peoples.

A Russian writer could borrow the image of his Italian or French predecessor - and they speak and think like modern Russian people. That’s what they say: the speech of the fables is lively and natural, almost freely conversational. Krylov was able to find his own unique winged language of apt expressions.

During his lifetime, Ivan Andreevich was revered as a luminary. However, taught by experience, he preferred to live in the shadows - not to participate in political and literary disputes, not to go out into the world, to dissuade himself from the attention of journalists by laziness and absent-mindedness, in his clothes and manners he showed eccentricity and carelessness, he preferred a hearty dinner to everything and loved to play cards. Therefore, many speculations have been generated about Krylov’s life and work - he has become a constant hero of jokes.

This image is contradicted by his friendship with A.S. Pushkin, which seems to be deep: only the great poet, already mortally wounded in a duel, said goodbye to his “grandfather.” An interesting fact from Krylov’s biography - already being an old man, the poet studied ancient Greek.

Personal life

I. A. Krylov was not officially married. However, biographers believe that his actual wife was the housekeeper Fenyushka, who gave birth to his daughter Sasha. The child lived in the Krylov house as a goddaughter. One can understand why the writer never officially recognized his own child and did not marry his mother.

Fenyushka was one of the simple ones, close and dear in spirit. However, the world would not forgive the “grandfather of Russian literature” for his misalliance. And it didn’t matter that he himself came from a poor and unborn family. He who kissed the hand of the empress could not kiss the hands of a rootless housekeeper.

However, it seems that Ivan Andreevich loved his wife and daughter very much. He sent Sasha to a boarding school, provided her with a dowry, did not alienate her from him after the death of his wife, and married her to a completely worthy man. After his death, he transferred all his fortune and rights to Sasha’s husband, whose origins did not allow him to challenge the will and deprive his daughter of his inheritance.

Last years of life and death

He was treated kindly by the royal family. He received a pension, was awarded a government order and the rank of state councilor.

Krylov's seventieth birthday was celebrated throughout the country.

He died of severe pneumonia in the house of his daughter - for all goddaughters - in St. Petersburg in 1844.

He was buried at the Tikhvin Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.

The writer was distinguished by a strange love for observing fires. There were legends about him as a great glutton. They even said that he died after eating too many pancakes. He posed for many artists; at least three portraits were written by famous painters of those times.

Famous fables and works of Ivan Krylov

It is difficult to single out the most famous ones. But, probably, every reader will be able to remember at least a line from the fables “The Dragonfly and the Ant,” “The Fable of the Crow and the Fox,” or “The Swan, the Pike and the Crayfish.”

But the latter, for example, was the writer’s deeply personal response to the political events of his time - the inconsistency of the allies in the war against Napoleon (according to another version - conflicts in the State Council).

But the magic of the genre and the extraordinary talent of the author made the work a fable for all time. There are many such creations in the works of Ivan Andreevich, and reading them is a real pleasure.

Conclusion

Many writers in Russia turned to short allegorical poems with a didactic meaning. Including A. S. Pushkin, L. N. Tolstoy, D. Bedny and S. Mikhalkov.

But no one was called the best fabulist after Krylov. Reading Krylov’s fables, comparing them with previous and subsequent ones, you understand and even feel why.

Interesting facts about Krylov.

Ivan Krylov was born in 1769 and died in 1844. Over the 75 years he lived, he achieved everything he wanted and entered world literature as an outstanding Russian nugget.

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So, we present to you interesting facts about Ivan Krylov.

1. Krylov was a very plump and literally thick-skinned creature. Those around him sometimes got the impression that he had no emotions or feelings, since everything was covered in fat. In fact, hidden inside the writer was a subtle understanding of the world and an attentive attitude towards it. This can be seen from almost any fable.
2. It should be noted that Ivan Andreevich loved to eat. Moreover, his appetite sometimes impressed even seasoned gluttons. They say that once he was late for a social evening. As “punishment,” the owner ordered Krylov to be served a huge portion of pasta, several times higher than the daily allowance. Even two grown men could hardly do this. However, the writer calmly ate everything and happily continued the lunch. The audience's surprise was immeasurable!
3. Krylov loved books extremely much and worked in the library for 30 years.
4. By the way, it was in the library that Ivan Andreevich developed a tradition of sleeping after a hearty lunch for about two hours. His friends knew this habit and always saved an empty chair for their guest.
5. The writer was never married, although it is believed that from an extramarital affair with a cook he had a daughter, whom he raised as his legitimate and his own.
6. Despite his size (and Krylov was plump from his youth), he traveled a lot around Russia, studying the customs and way of life of his people. It was on such trips that new subjects for fables were born.
7. By the way, it should be noted that in his youth the future fabulist was fond of wall-to-wall fighting. Thanks to his size and height, he has repeatedly defeated quite old and strong men!
8. An interesting fact is that Krylov did not like changing clothes or combing his hair at all. One day he asked a lady he knew what outfit to buy for a masquerade, and she told him that if he washed and combed his hair, no one would recognize him. Wow!
9. Some claim that the fabulist was a completely insensitive creature, and when his mother died, he went to the performance. They also say that on the day when his close maid passed away, he calmly played cards with friends. But these facts are not confirmed, so we will not take them seriously.
10. By the way, it is quite remarkable that Krylov was incredibly attracted to fires. No matter where the house was burning in St. Petersburg, he urgently went there and observed the process of the conflagration. Strange hobby!
11. Once in the theater, eyewitnesses told an interesting fact about Krylov. He was unlucky enough to sit next to an emotional person who kept shouting something, sang along with the speaker and behaved quite noisily. - However, what kind of disgrace is this?! – Ivan Andreevich said loudly. The twitchy neighbor perked up and asked if these words were addressed to him. “What are you talking about,” answered Krylov, “I turned to the man on the stage who is preventing me from listening to you!”
12. All the writer’s friends told another interesting fact related to Krylov’s house. The fact is that above his sofa there was a huge painting hanging at a rather dangerous angle. He was asked to remove it so that it would not accidentally fall on the fabulist’s head. However, Krylov only laughed, and indeed, even after his death, she continued to hang at the same angle.
13. By the way, the sofa was Ivan Andreevich’s favorite place. There is information that Goncharov based his Oblomov on Krylov.
14. This one is also known interesting fact about Krylov. Doctors prescribed him daily walks. However, as he moved, merchants constantly lured him to buy furs from them. When Ivan Andreevich got tired of this, he spent the whole day walking through the traders’ shops, meticulously examining all the furs. At the end, he asked each merchant in surprise: “Is this all you have?”... Having not bought anything, he moved on to the next merchant, which greatly frayed their nerves. After that, they no longer pestered him with requests to buy something.
15. It is reliably known that Ivan Andreevich Krylov is the author of 236 fables. Many plots are borrowed from the ancient fabulists La Fontaine and Aesop. Surely you have often heard popular expressions that are quotes from the work of the famous and outstanding fabulist Krylov.

“It would be AMAZING IF ANY OF THE RUSSIANS DIDN’T KNOW KRYLOV.” INTERESTING FACTS FROM THE LIFE OF THE FABULORITOR

In 1838, the 70th anniversary of Ivan Andreevich Krylov and the half-century anniversary of his literary work were solemnly celebrated in St. Petersburg. The whole country, including the emperor, treated the fabulist with exceptional warmth. That did not stop, however, both his contemporaries and descendants from laughing at his lifestyle and oddities.

Krylov's fancy dress costume

Krylov was tall, very corpulent, with gray hair that was always disheveled. He dressed extremely sloppily: he wore a frock coat that was constantly soiled and stained with something, and his vest was worn at random. Krylov lived rather dirty. All this was extremely displeasing to his benefactor, the President of the Academy of Arts Alexei Nikolaevich Olenin, who was also the director of the Imperial Public Library, where Krylov served as a librarian. Olenin's wife Elisaveta Markovna, who treated the fabulist to dinner every Sunday, made some attempts to improve Ivan Andreevich's life, but such attempts led to nothing. One day Krylov was going to a court masquerade and asked Elisaveta Markovna and her daughters for advice; On this occasion Varvara Alekseevna told him:
“You, Ivan Andreevich, wash yourself and comb your hair, and no one will recognize you.”

Cloud and frogs

One day, on the Fontanka embankment, along which Krylov usually walked to Olenin’s house, three students caught up with him. One of them, probably not knowing Krylov, almost caught up with him, loudly said to his comrades:
- Look, a cloud is coming.
“And the frogs began to croak,” the fabulist calmly answered in the same tone as the student.

The ear is waiting!

It is known that Krylov loved to eat well and ate a lot. One evening, Krylov went to see Senator Andrei Ivanovich Abakumov and found several people invited to dinner. Abakumov and his guests pestered Krylov to have dinner with them, but he did not give in, saying that sterlet fish soup awaited him at home. Finally we managed to persuade him under the condition that dinner would be served immediately. We sat down at the table. Krylov ate as much as the rest of the company together, and barely managed to swallow the last piece before he grabbed his hat.
“For goodness’ sake, Ivan Andreevich, what’s your hurry now?” - the owner and guests shouted in one voice. “After all, you have had dinner.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that a sterlet fish is waiting for me at home, I’m still afraid that it might catch a cold,” Krylov answered angrily and left with all the haste that he was capable of.

You can't take risks!

One day Krylov was invited to dinner with Empress Maria Feodorovna in Pavlovsk. There were few guests at the table. Zhukovsky sat next to him. Krylov did not refuse a single dish. “Yes, refuse at least once, Ivan Andreevich,” Zhukovsky whispered to him. “Give the empress the opportunity to treat you.” “Well, why not treat him?” - he answered and continued to put it on his plate.

Illustration for the fable by I.A. Krylova “Pig under the oak tree”

Terrible revenge

The untalented poet Count Dmitry Ivanovich Khvostov, angry with Krylov for some satirical remark about his poems, wrote the following epigram to him:

Not shaved, not combed,
Leaning onto the sofa,
As if uncouth
Some idiot
Lying completely scattered
Why Krylov Ivan:
Is he overeated or drunk?

Krylov, of course, immediately guessed who the poet was. And he took revenge on him in the way that only the smart and good-natured Krylov was able to take revenge: under the pretext of wanting to listen to some new poems by Count Khvostov, Krylov asked to come to him for lunch, ate for three and after dinner, when the poet, having invited the guest into the office, began read his poems, he unceremoniously collapsed on the sofa, fell asleep and slept until late in the evening.

And Khvostov’s harsh ode...

Krylov’s stomach was truly heroic. But one day he almost embarrassed his master. The fabulist was walking or, more likely, sitting on a bench in the Summer Garden. Suddenly Krylov was overtaken by great need. It's in my pocket, but there's no paper. There is somewhere to hide, but there is nothing... Luckily for him, he sees Count Khvostov approaching him in the alley. He loved, while walking around the Summer Garden, to find people who did not know him and read his poems to them. Krylov rushes to him: “Hello, Count. Do you have anything new? “Yes, just now they sent me a newly printed poem from the printing house,” and gives him a piece of paper. “Don’t be stingy, Count, and give me two or three copies, I will find the best use for them.”

Barrel Lesson

In one of the benefit performances of the famous tragic actress Katerina Semenovna Semenova, she decided to play together with the opera actress Sofia Vasilyevna Samoilova in the famous comedy “A Lesson for Daughters” written by Ivan Andreevich Krylov. At that time they were already the mothers of the family, in advanced years and quite voluminous. Grandfather Krylov was not too lazy to come to the theater to look at his grown-up daughters. At the end of the comedy, someone asked his opinion.
“Well,” answered grandfather Krylov, “both of them, like experienced actresses, played very well; only the name of the comedy should have been changed: it was a lesson not for “daughters”, but for “barrels”.

Rozha has passed

Krylov once had erysipelas on his leg, which prevented him from walking for a long time. That’s why he had difficulty getting onto Nevsky. A friend is driving past and, without stopping, shouts to him from the carriage: “Has the mug gone away?” Krylov shouted after him: “I’ve passed!”

He's still a writer

For about twenty years, Krylov went to the gambling industry.
- Whose portrait is this? - a famous St. Petersburg player once asked after seeing a portrait of the fabulist.
- Krylova.
- Which Krylov?
- Yes, this is our first writer, Ivan Andreevich Krylov.
- What do you! - answered the player. - I know him. He seems to write only with chalk on a green table.

An example for young writers

As he grew older, Krylov liked to talk about how young writers saw only the economic side of their work. This did not stop him from complaining that the publisher Smirdin paid him only three hundred rubles for each fable (the price of a good serf), he wanted to change the contract and receive five hundred. Exhausted by his reproaches, the publisher agreed to pay Krylov ten thousand for editing the “Library for Reading”.

Grateful Readers

Somehow Krylov decided to buy himself a house somewhere near the Tuchkov Bridge, on the Petersburg side. But, having examined it carefully, he saw that the house was bad and would require major alterations, and therefore unaffordable costs. Krylov abandoned his intention. A few days later a rich merchant comes to him and says:
“I heard, Father Ivan Andreich, that you want to buy such and such a house?”
“No,” answered Krylov, “I’ve already changed my mind.”
- Why?
-Where should I bother with him? A lot of amendments are required, and there is not enough money.
- And the house is extremely profitable. Let me, father, arrange this matter for you. We will consider the costs.
- Why would you be happy to do this for me? I don't know you at all.
“It’s no wonder that you don’t know me.” It would be surprising if one of the Russians did not know Krylov. Let one of them do you a little favor.
Krylov had to agree.
Another time, two merchants from Kazan came to him:
- We, Father Ivan Andreich, sell tea. We, along with all Kazan residents, love and respect you. Let us supply you with the best tea every year.
And indeed, every year Krylov received such an amount of excellent tea from them that it was quite enough to fill the spacious belly of the brilliant fabulist.

Dinner habit

Krylov loved to visit the writer Alexei Alekseevich Perovsky, where he met with friends once a week. The hospitable host always offered his guests dinner at the end of the evening. Few sat down, and Ivan Andreevich was always among them. We were talking about the habit of dinner. Some said that they never eat dinner, others that they stopped a long time ago, and still others that they were thinking about stopping. Krylov, putting food on his plate, said here: “And I, it seems to me, will stop having dinner on the day from which I will not have lunch.”

A fable about yourself

Krylov, as is known, died of indigestion after eating grated dry hazel grouse with butter at night. He was ill only for a few days, and during this time Adjutant General Ya.I. often visited him. Rostovtsev, who sincerely loved Ivan Andreevich. During one of these visits, Krylov said to Rostovtsev:
“I feel like I’m going to die soon, and I really regret that I can’t write the last fable about myself.”
- What fable? - asked Yakov Ivanovich.
- Here's what it is. The man loaded the cart with dry fish, preparing to take it to the market. The neighbor tells him: “Your nag will not carry such heavy luggage!” And the man answered him: “Nothing! The fish is dry!”