Athanasius Fet, whose biography and work will be discussed below, is a very interesting person. His fate, seemingly carefree and easy from the outside, is actually full of difficult episodes. And even the birth of the poet, his origin and sonship was shrouded in mystery for a long time.
Background
The biography of Fet, however strange it may sound, began long before the birth of the poet. In 1818, in a distant Darmstadt, a young German girl Charlotte Elizabeth Becker was married by law with the 29-year-old assessor of the local court, Johann Foeth. A year later, the couple had a daughter, Carolina. But the husband got into debt, began to mistreat his wife. As Charlotte met in Darmstadt with Athanasius Neofitovich Sheshin, who at that time was forty-five, the documents were silent. It is only clear that on September 18, 1820, this couple crossed the border of Russia. Two months later, on November 21 (December 3, in a new style), the son of Athanasius was born to Elizabeth Petrovna Fet, who converted to Orthodoxy.
Childhood
What happened next? Poet Fet, biography which began so scandalously, was recorded in the church metric book of the village of Novoselki (this is the Mtsensk district of the Oryol province) as the son of Athanasius Neofitovich Shenshin. Until the age of 14, the boy carried this surname. Judging by the letters of his mother, who wrote to her brother Ernst in Darmstadt, the stepfather cared for Athanasius as a blood son.
The couple had three more children, two of whom died in infancy. Athanasius had only two sisters left: the eldest Carolina Fet and the younger Lyubov Shenshina. In 1824, the blood father Athanasius married the teacher of the eldest daughter and completely deleted his son from his will.
"Spot" of the illegitimate
When the boy was 14 years old, the secret of his origin was revealed, and he turned from a Russian citizen into the "Hessendarmestadt citizen" Athanasius Fet. The poet survived this very hard and all his life he sought the return of the name Shenshin. He succeeded only in 1873. A creative biography of Fet began in the private boarding house for German boys "Krummer" in Võru (modern Estonia). There he became addicted to poetry and wrote his first poems.
Awakening Talent
However, Athanasius Fet did not immediately choose the creative path. In 1838, on the advice of his parents, he entered the University of Moscow in order to become a lawyer. But it was too tough for Athanasius to cram laws, acts and various decrees, and he transferred to the department of history and philology. The first collection of poems came out when Fet was still sitting on a university bench in 1840. He published his works in several magazines (this is Moskvityanin, Patriotic Notes, and others). After a short military service, he was awarded the rank of officer. After the death of her beloved Maria Lazich, biography Feta A.A. has changed. He decided to pursue a military career.
The coming of glory
Already the first collections of poems were received favorably by criticism of Russia. He becomes a member of literary circles of venerable writers, meets Goncharov, Nekrasov, Turgenev and others. In the 1850s, he became close to the editorial board of Sovremennik magazine. In 1857, the poet married Maria Botkina, the sister of a famous doctor, retired and settled in Moscow. Further feta biography A. made a sharp turn towards servility in front of the emperor. Athanasius broke with the magazine Sovremennik, which seemed too politicized for him, and devoted himself to singing nature, weather and female beauty. For which he was kindly treated by the authorities. The venerable lyricist and corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy in Moscow died in November 1892, on the 21st.