Decade. Is it a lot or a little? Ten years after the publication of Pushkin’s novel in the poems “Eugene Onegin”, Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov decided to make adjustments to the “hero of the time”. With his mind he comprehended the trends of the era and understood that these thoughts and reasoning should have spilled out on paper ...
New time ... New characters
Life has accelerated. The country was changing ... The writer pushed to rethink modernity the
death of Pushkin, who was the idol of his youth. He mourned his death "as the death of his mother." A new book was conceived by a young Goncharov. “Ordinary story” is the name of the first novel by a novice author. The idea was grandiose, and it was difficult to underestimate it. Objectively, a new novel of the great Russian literature of the XIX century was sought after following Pushkin and Lermontov! Ivan Aleksandrovich, working on the book, showed due discernment, supplying his creation with progressive problems, ideology, and confrontation of views. The writer felt that Evgeny Onegin, the “extra man” in his Fatherland, could not further reflect the realities of development. It was too much for Pechorin.
Goncharov decided to write about people of the new formation in the novel “Ordinary History”. The story of the creation of the work is evolutionary. It should be noted that this was Goncharov’s first novel. Before publication, he read it in the Maykov family. Then he made corrections proposed by Valerian Maykov. And only when the work enthusiastically approved Belinsky, Ivan Alexandrovich published his novel. Contemporaries, inspired by the Russian literary critic No. 1 (Belinsky), willingly bought a new book with an inscription on the cover of "Potters" Ordinary History ".
The summary of the chapters that we set out in this article is determined by the structure of the novel, which contains two parts and an epilogue.
The idea
It was as if the author decided to start his new book back in the “Pushkin world,” that is, in a classical estate dominated by local nobles, and to end in the already emerging “new world” —bourgeois: among factory owners and careerists. Goncharov succeeded in describing these two socio-cultural systems, two successive stages in the development of Russian society. Note that, realizing his plan of the work, Goncharov made a huge contribution to Russian literature. "Ordinary story" reviews caused a variety of. However, all critics agreed on one thing: the novel is timely, truthful, needed. By the way, in the course of work on his conceived work, Ivan Goncharov formulated an interesting idea that all Russian realistic novels of the 19th century are rooted in Pushkin's novel.
From the Rooks estate to Petersburg
Ivan Goncharov begins to narrate the first part of his work from the ironic scene. “Ordinary History” begins with the abandonment of one of the main characters, Alexander Fedorovich Aduev, the son of a poor local noblewoman Anna Pavlovna Adueva, his family estate Grachi. A stir reigns in the estate: a bewildered loving mother gathers her child ... This scene is both touching and ironic.
At the same time, the reader has the opportunity to notice a typical picture of unreformed Russia: serfdom has transformed this landlord ownership (in the language of Goncharov’s later novel) into a “sleepy kingdom”. Even time here has its “dimension”: “before lunch” and “after lunch”, and the seasons of the year are determined by field work.
Twenty-year-old Alexander leaves with the valet Yevsey, whom she assigned to serve the young master Agrafen. In Rooks there remained a mother, a sister, Sonia, in love with him. On the day of Alexander’s departure, a friend of Pospelov rushed over sixty miles to hug his friend goodbye.
According to the style of presentation, Goncharov’s novel is unlike typical books of his time. An Ordinary Story, the characters of which are, as it were, revealed in the course of an ordinary story of an ordinary person, is not like a literary work (the novel does not contain summaries). The content of the book seems to be presented not by the author, but by the contemplator, accomplice, contemporary of the described events.
About Aduev’s motivation
Alexander would certainly have taken place in his family estate. If he stayed in the Rooks, then his further life would, of course, be arranged. His well-being, measured by the harvest, did not require effort. A young gentleman was automatically provided with a comfortable social life in these parts of the world. However, the author Goncharov clearly sympathizes with this literary image - the young landowner. “Ordinary history” therefore in its description contains good irony ... What attracts him to Petersburg? He who writes poetry and tries himself in prose, dreams of glory. They are driven by dreams. In some ways, he resembles Lermontovsky Lensky in his warehouse: naive, with high self-esteem ...
What prompted him to take such a decisive step? First, read French novels. The author mentions them in his narrative. These are Balzac's “Shagreen Skin”, Soulier's “Devil's Memoirs”, as well as the popular “soap reading” that flooded Europe and Russia in the middle of the 19th century: “Les sept péchés capitaux”, “Le manuscrit vert”, “L'âne mort”.
The fact that Alexander Aduev really absorbed the naive and good views on life, taken from the novels, shows Ivan Goncharov. The “Ordinary History” in the episodes of the words of Alexander contains quotes from the novels “The Green Manuscript” (G. Druino), “Atar-Gul” (E. Xu) ... The writer lists with light sadness all the books that he “had been ill with” in his youth. Then the author will write about this work of his that he showed in him “himself and people like him” who arrived in cold, tough, competitive Petersburg (the place where “careers are being made”) from “good mothers”.
The idea of the novel: a worldview conflict
However, let us return to the novel again ... Secondly, Alexandra brought to the city on the Neva an example of his uncle, Pyotr Aduyev, who had arrived from St. Petersburg from the provinces seventeen years ago and had "found his way." It was about the resolved philosophical conflict of the aforementioned characters that Goncharov wrote the novel. An “ordinary story” is not just a different view of the life of two people, it is a trend of the times.
The summary of this book, therefore, is the juxtaposition of the two worlds. One - dreamy, lordly, spoiled by laziness and the other - practical, filled with awareness of the need for labor, "real". It should be recognized that the writer Ivan Goncharov managed to notice and put on the display of the reading public one of the main conflicts of the 40s of the XIX century: between the patriarchal corvee and the nascent business life. They show the characteristic features of the new society: respect for work, rationalism, professionalism, responsibility for the result of one's work, respect for success, rationality, discipline.
Nephew's arrival
How did St. Petersburg uncle react to the arrival of his nephew? For him it was like snow on his head. He is annoyed. Indeed, on his shoulders, in addition to ordinary worries, a letter from the daughter-in-law of Anna Pavlovna (mother of Alexander) naively entrusted the care of an infantile and excessively ardent and enthusiastic son. Of the many similar to this ironic scene creates a novel by Goncharov. The Ordinary Story, which we summarize in the article, continues by reading the message written by Aduev’s mother without punctuation and sent along with a “honey pot” and a bag of “dried raspberries”. It contains a mother’s request not to “pamper” her son and to look after him. Anna Pavlovna also notified that she would provide her son with money. In addition, the letter contains more than a dozen requests from neighbors who were known to him by a twenty-year-old boy before leaving for St. Petersburg: from asking for help in a lawsuit to romantic memories of an old acquaintance about yellow flowers that had been plucked to her. Uncle, having read the letter and not having any cordial affection for his nephew, decided to give him complicity, guided by the "laws of justice and reason."
Help of Aduev Sr.
Pyotr Ivanovich, who successfully combines public service with economic activity (he is also a breeder), unlike his nephew, lives in a completely different, business, “dry” world. He understands the futility in terms of career views of the world of his nephew, which is shown in his book Goncharov (“Ordinary History”). We will not describe the brief content of this worldview conflict, but just say that it consists in the victory of the material world.
Pyotr Ivanovich dryly and busily undertakes to teach his nephew to urban life. He equips the young man with housing, helps to rent an apartment in the house where he lives. Aduev Sr. tells Alexander how to organize his life, where to eat better. Uncle cannot be blamed for inattention. He is looking for a nephew to work according to his inclinations: translating articles on agriculture.
Social adaptation of Alexander
Petersburg business life is gradually dragging on a young man. After two years, he already occupies a prominent place in the publishing house: he not only translates articles, but also selects them, is engaged in proofreading other people's articles, he writes himself on the topic of agriculture. About how the social orientation of Aduev Jr. Is narrated in the novel by Goncharov. The “Ordinary History”, the brief content of which we are considering, talks about the changes that have occurred with the young man: the adoption by him of a bureaucratic-bureaucratic paradigm.
Disappointments in love and in friend
Alexander has a new love, Nadia Lyubetskaya. Sonia from the Rooks has already been thrown out of her heart. Alexander is cordially in love with Nadenka, he dreams of her ... A prudent girl prefers Count Novinsky to him. Young Aduev completely loses his head from passion, he wants to challenge the count to a duel. Even an uncle cannot manage such a volcano of passions. At this stage of the novel, a significant nuance is introduced by Ivan Goncharov. The Ordinary Story tells us that romance from a dangerous crisis (possibly threatening suicide) helps another romantic - this is the wife of Peter Ivanovich, Aunt Alexander, Lizaveta Aleksandrovna. The young man is no longer crazy, a dream has come to him, but he is indifferent to his surroundings. However, then a new blow of fate awaits him.
By chance in St. Petersburg on Nevsky Prospect, he sees a childhood friend Pospelov. Alexander is delighted: well, finally, there appeared one in whom one can always find support, in whom the blood did not cool ... However, the friend turns out to be the same only externally: his character has undergone significant changes, he has become unpleasantly mercantile and prudent.
How uncle convinced his nephew
Alexander is completely depressed morally, as evidenced by the novel Ordinary History. Goncharov, however, further narrates how his uncle has revived the young Aduev, who has lost faith in people. He pragmatically and firmly returns his nephew to the realities of life, for a start accusing him of heartlessness. Alexander agrees with the words of Pyotr Ivanovich that those who love and care for him in the real world (mother, uncle, aunt) should be more valued and less in the fantasy world. Aduev Sr. consistently brings his nephew to pragmatism. To do this, he constantly, step by step (water wears away the stone) logically analyzes each desire and phrase of Aduev Jr. from the point of view of the experience of other people.
And finally, in his struggle with the romanticism of his nephew, Peter Ivanovich strikes a decisive blow. He decides to show Alexander the real power of his writing talent. For this, Aduev Sr. even makes certain material sacrifices. He offers his nephew, as an experiment, to publish his story in his own name. The publisher’s response was crushing for the aspiring ambitious writer ... It was, figuratively speaking, a shot that completely killed the romance in him.
One good turn deserves another
Now both the nephew and uncle speak the same business, dry language, without bothering themselves with sentiment. Nobleness has been eliminated from the soul of Alexander ... He agrees to help his uncle in one rather unclean matter. His uncle has a problem: his partner, Surkov, ceases to be a reliable partner under the influence of passion. He falls in love with the widow Tafaeva Julia Pavlovna. Aduev Sr. asks his nephew to recapture a young woman from Surkov, falling in love with herself, which Alexander manages to do. However, his relationship with Tafaeva does not end there, but develop into a mutual passion. Romantic Julia Pavlovna brings down such a stream of emotions on young Aduev that Alexander cannot stand the test of love.
The psychological breakdown of Aduev Jr.
Pyotr Ivanovich manages to dissuade Tafaev. However, Alexander becomes completely apathetic. He agrees with Kostikov, whom Peter Ivanovich recommended to him. This is an official deprived of any spiritual world and imagination. His destiny is relaxation: “play checkers or fish”, live without “emotional disturbances”. Once an aunt, Lizaveta Alexandrovna, trying to stir up Alexander, who was indifferent to everything, asked him to be escorted to a concert.
Influenced by the music of the violinist-romance, Alexander decides to drop everything and return to his small homeland, in Rooks. He comes to his native estate with a faithful servant Eusebius.
Short-term gaining oneself
It is noteworthy that the returning “Petersburger” Aduev Jr already sees a different, not youthful, idyllic way of seeing the landowner economy. He notices hard and regular peasant labor, mother’s tireless care. Alexander begins to rethink creatively that much of his translation in agricultural technology at the publishing house is far from practice, and takes up reading special literature.
Anna Pavlovna is saddened that the son’s soul lost its former ardor, and he went bald, replenished, that he was swallowed up by the whirlpool of Petersburg life. Mom hopes that staying in the house will return to her son the lost, but she does not wait - she dies. The main character of the novel, whose soul has been cleansed by suffering, comes to an understanding of true values, true faith. However, at this spiritual height, he is destined to stay not for long. Alexander returns to St. Petersburg.
What is the "usual" story?
From the epilogue we learn that in four years Aduev Jr becomes a college adviser, he has a rather big income, and he is going to marry profitably (he will be given a bride’s dowry of three hundred thousand rubles and an estate of five hundred serf souls).
In the uncle's family, the opposite changes occurred. Aduev Sr. comes to an obvious dead end, where the business world inevitably pushes him. After all, his whole life is completely subordinated to his career, entrepreneurship, service. Due to monetary interests, he completely abandoned his individuality, turned himself into part of a single machine.
Elizaveta Alexandrovna lost her romance, becoming a calm lady. She at the end of the novel turned into a “home device for providing comfort”, not bothering her husband with emotions, worries and questions. Goncharov clearly shows that the new bourgeois society, just like patriarchal-feudal society, is capable of destroying the identity of a woman. This metamorphosis unexpectedly bothered Pyotr Ivanovich, who wants to give up his career as a counselor and leave his wife and wife from the capital. In the epilogue of the book, he rebels against that society, the interests of which he has been throughout the novel.
Note: do not miss these scenes of the novel
- There is an episode in which Goncharov’s special relationship to Pushkin is seen. Just arrived in St. Petersburg, Alexander Aduev goes to the Bronze Horseman (one of the places Alexander Sergeevich loved).
- Goncharov’s picture of the summer of St. Petersburg and the Neva, the author’s description of the white nights, is very romantic. These fragments of the novel are highly artistic. They should even be re-read periodically. Goncharov is a maestro!
Conclusion
Typical for its time, the trend reflected in the novel Goncharov. “Ordinary History” analyzes historical authenticity and shows that in the 40s of the 19th century, the influx of wealthy noblemen and brothers and sisters to St. Petersburg, eager to make a career and succeed, reached its maximum. At the same time, you must agree, the moral aspect was the most important. What was the reason the young man was traveling: to serve the Fatherland or simply to make a career at any cost?
However, in addition to the problematic component, Goncharov’s novel has undoubted artistic value. It marks the beginning of the creation by Russian novelist writers of a detailed picture of the reality surrounding them. In his article, “Better Late Than Never,” Ivan Goncharov told readers (which, unfortunately, neither Dobrolyubov nor Belinsky did) that his three novels, the first of which was Ordinary History, are, in fact, a single trilogy about the era of sleep and awakening of a vast country. Thus, we can say that the integral literary cycle, consisting of three novels, was created by Goncharov about his time (Oblomov, Cliff, Ordinary History).