Stanislav Lem and his novel "Solaris"

The 1961th was marked not only by the first manned flight into space, but also by the fact that the novel “Solaris” was first published this year. The author of this fantastic work was a Polish writer of Jewish origin Stanislav Lem. "Solaris" was destined to become not only the most famous of the works of the writer, but also leave an indelible mark on the fantastic literature of the whole world.

Stanislav Lem - author of the novel "Solaris"

Stanislav Lem, or as they call him in the homeland of Stanisław Lem, was born in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, which at that time belonged to Poland.

The childhood of the future writer passed there. After graduation, young Stanislav chose the profession of a physician and went to study medicine at Lviv University. However, with the outbreak of World War II, Lem was forced to leave his studies and get a job as a welder.

The writer and his parents were Jews. However, they were able to avoid deportation, as well as imprisonment in concentration camps thanks to fake documents.

After the war, Lviv became part of the USSR, and Lem, being a Pole, was forced to leave his hometown and move to Krakow. Here he continued his studies at the Jagiellonian University.

In the difficult post-war period, earnings from Stanislav Lem were small. In order to earn extra money, in his free time from official work, he began to write short fantastic stories. Soon, Lem's talent was appreciated, an extra part-time job became his main job.

In 1951, the writer published his first major work - the science fiction novel Astronauts. This work makes Lem famous not only in Poland, but throughout the world. Astronauts are translated into other languages ​​and often reprinted.

In subsequent years, many works of the writer. The novels “Magellanic Cloud”, “Investigation”, “Eden”, “Return from the Stars”, “Manuscript Found in the Bath”, “Invincible”, “Voice of the Lord”, “Qatar” and others. A series of humorous stories about the adventures of the astronaut “Star Diaries of Iyon the Pacific”, a collection of essays “Dialogues”, a humorous story “Invasion from Aldebaran”. The series of stories “Tales of robots”, “Cyberiada”, “Tales of the pilot Pirks”, “Absolute emptiness” and much more. Among the author’s works there is also an autobiographical novel about childhood in Lviv, “The High Castle” and the most famous philosophical science fiction novel “Solaris” worldwide.

The writer died in March 2006 from heart problems and was buried in Krakow.

Summary of the novel "Solaris"

In the near future, humanity is actively exploring the cosmos.

One hundred thirty years before the beginning of the story, scientists discovered the planet Solaris. At first, people decided that it was uninhabited. However, soon mankind learned that the jelly-like ocean, covering the entire surface of the planet, is a living creature. People were delighted and began to look for a way to establish contact with this mind. But a century passed, and failed to do so.

A new employee arrives at the research station on Solaris - psychologist Chris Kelvin. The behavior of the other station workers — Snaut and Sartorius — seemed very strange to him. Moreover, a third officer named Gibaryan committed suicide shortly before Chris arrived.

Kelvin did not have time to digest all the news, as it is not known where his ex-girlfriend Hari appears from. However, this could not be her, since the girl had once committed suicide. All attempts by Chris to get rid of Hari are unsuccessful - the girl comes back again and again. Soon, the psychologist learns that each crew member has a similar uninvited “guest” from the past. It turns out at a time when people are studying Solaris, the planet also began to conduct "experiments" on its researchers. To do this, she materializes objects from the sad or shameful memories of people on the planet.

Kelvin and his companions in misfortune are actively looking for a way to get rid of their "guests", called phantoms. However, they do not succeed. Meanwhile, Chris begins to become attached to Hari, who is becoming more humane and soon herself guesses about her origin. Realizing what she is, the girl tries to kill herself, but nothing comes out of her.

Soon, Kelvin stops looking for a way to get rid of Hari. But his comrades, along with the girl, secretly continue research. They manage to succeed and destroy all the phantoms at the station, including Hari.

Chris is very worried about this loss. His colleagues fear that he will do something rash - blow up the planet or commit suicide. But hard to rethink what happened, Kelvin decides to stay on Solaris and continue research.

History of the writing of the novel

The novel "Solaris" was not the first major fantastic work of Lem. However, in it, the writer began to move away from the utopian image of the future characteristic of his earlier robots.

The main part of Solaris was written in the summer of 1959, when Stanislav Lem rested in southern Poland. But, returning home, the writer abandoned the unfinished manuscript for almost a year. In 1960, Lem decided to finish the novel Solaris. To do this, he appends the last chapter, and also edits the previously written text. In 1961, the novel was published in Poland, and in subsequent years it began to be actively translated into other languages.

As Lem himself later wrote in his autobiographical books, many things in his novel Solaris were inexplicable to himself. While working on the novel, it sometimes seemed to the writer that someone else was telling him how and what to write.

Adaptations

In 1963, Solaris was translated into Russian. The novel was so liked by Soviet readers that just five years after publication, a television play was shot with Vasily Lanov in the title role based on his motives.

In 1972, Andrei Tarkovsky made a full-fledged film based on Lem’s novel with Donatas Banionis in the role of Kelvin.

Meanwhile, the author of the novel himself reacted rather negatively to the rethinking of Solaris by Tarkovsky, saying that the great director did not understand his plan.

At the beginning of the two thousandth, Stanislav Lem was offered to film his novel in Hollywood.

After failure with Tarkovsky, the writer hesitated for a long time, but agreed. And in 2002, the third adaptation of the novel “Solaris” was released. Unfortunately, it turned out to be even farther from the original than the 1972 film.

In 2016, 55 years have passed since the publication of the book by Stanislav Lem “Solaris”. The novel over all these years has not lost its relevance and continues to excite the minds of more and more new generations of readers.