Nadezhda Teffi is the first and best comedian of the beginning of the 20th century, recognized as the âqueen of humorâ. Who is she and why does the reader cling so much? Humor of Hope Teffi is not a senseless giggle "in a rag", but a very subtle intellectual satire, built on his own observations and life situations, familiar to everyone.
Over time, the humorous nature of the story bothers Nadezhda. And now her works are full of philosophical meaning. The story âFriends and Foesâ by Taffy, a brief summary of which we will discuss below, is considered a brilliant illustration of the relationship between the most dear and important people in our lives.
Acquaintance with the author
Teffi is the pseudonym for Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Lokhvitskaya, a Russian writer, poetess, translator, and memoirist. The public knows her from the famous stories âDemonic Womanâ and âKeferâ. We will talk about the biography of a woman in more detail.
short biography
Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya was born in a beautiful city on the Neva in the family of a lawyer. The girl received education in the gymnasium on Liteiny Prospekt. After marriage, she lived near Mogilev. The poetess began to publish in 1901. She was famous for her suspended language and the ability to appropriate make up, was a regular employee of the journal "Satyricon". With her first husband, Vladislav Buchinsky, she raised three children - two girls and a boy. After the separation of the spouses, the writer moved to St. Petersburg, where she further expanded her literary work.
About the nickname
The writer did not want to sign her stories with her real name. At the same time, she also did not want to hide behind the male, although this was a very popular practice. The author decided to confuse her readers by choosing something incomprehensible. She remembered the name of one fool, Steffi, deciding to use it as a pseudonym, dropping only the first letter. One day during an interview, a journalist asked the poetess about the origin of the pseudonym, adding that the name is found in Kiplingâs stories. Hearing this version, Nadezhda Taffy dutifully agreed.
Other scholars of the writer's work argue that choosing a pseudonym was part of a mystical literary game that Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya loved very much. Someone claims that âTeffiâ is just a modification of the name Stefan. There is also a version that Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya took a pseudonym, as her sister Mirra Lokhvitskaya was printed under her real name. She, by the way, was called "Russian Safo."
Thumbnails
Miniatures were a favorite genre of the writer. Short stories, full of humor, satire and insight, became the hallmark of the poetess. Perhaps she liked this style of story after long work in magazines, where she needed to write briefly but vividly.
Friends and Foes: A Brief Summary
The miniature of the famous Russian writer tells that all people divide the people around them into âfriendsâ and âstrangersâ. The first are those about which everything is known: from age to financial standing. The same data is unknown about the "aliens." If the situation happens that all this becomes known, the âalienâ will immediately go into the category of âfriendsâ. So says Taffy.
âFriends and strangersâ, the brief content of which we are considering, gives the reader the thesis that the love of loved ones can be worse than the feeling of strangers. This statement provides some evidence. A person who has a lot of âfriendsâ knows more about himself than is bad. He suffers more, it is harder for him to live in the world, says the reader Nadezhda Teffi (âFriends and Foesâ).
The summary ("Briefly") shows that the central question of the work is as follows: why can strangers in the mountain be kinder and more compassionate than the closest and kin? The writer beats this topic in the spirit of irony and mockery. However, the question is painfully familiar to everyone.
Do you want to feel the full intensity of relations between family people? Read âFriends and Foesâ by Taffy. The summary of the story is full of clever thoughts that are worth considering. Perhaps the relationship is so complicated, because "friends" always tell the truth, and "strangers" lie a little. And such a sweet lie is much nicer than the bitter words from native people. Is it really so hard for a person to accept the truth?
Speaking about the story âFriends and Foesâ by Taffy, the summary should be analyzed in detail. It has a description of two interesting cases. The first occurred in the car when one passenger shouted at another for lack of education and indifference to others. To this, the second traveler indignantly answered: "See me for the first time in my life, but scream like a sibling." The second interesting case concerns a wife who spoke about her husband. She said this: âMy husband is polite, pleasant and courteous, as if a stranger! But we have been married for 4 years! â
Interesting Facts
A fan of the work of Nadezhda Teffi was Nicholas II himself. Candies (âTeffiâ) were also named after the poetess. In the 1920s, when the negative aspects of emigrant life began to be described in the writer's work, her collections became pirated. It ended when she made a public accusation.
The closure of the Russkoe Slovo newspaper, in which she worked, entailed a chain of interesting events: Nadezhda Teffi leaves for Kiev and Odessa, then gets to Turkey, Paris and Germany. In 1920, the writer married Paul Thickston. She opened her literary salon in Germany.
The story âFriends and Foesâ by Taffy, the brief content of which we examined, is a pearl of Russian literature, as well as other works of Nadezhda. You should collect them and carefully store them in the depths of your soul, looking for answers to âeternalâ questions. What did N. Taffy want to convey? âAliensâ, the summary of which we learned, suggests that you should be more attentive to relatives. No need to hurt them with truth if it is so painful.