Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is familiar to readers from the poem "Who can live well in Russia." But not only poems and poems are his literary merit. "Dead Lake" Nekrasov - a deep and vibrant prose of the XIX century.
About the writer
Nikolai Alekseevich - the son of a landowner in the Yaroslavl province. Born in the village of Greshnevo, where his childhood passed. He was a fragile and painful boy, growing up too impressionable.
He was fond of literature, the first works appeared in childhood. Seriously took up this business as a young man. He was in love with Avdotya Panaeva - co-author of the novel "Dead Lake". Being a married woman and mistress of the literary salon, she rejected the courtship of the young writer.
How did the novel appear?
According to one version, Nekrasov created his “Dead Lake”, based on childhood impressions. Such a lake existed in reality; disputes are still being held about its location. Some argue that we are talking about Lake Ivanovo, located a few kilometers from the former Nekrasovs estate in Greshnevo. And the second ones are sure that Kuleomajärvi, located near Vyborg, became the prototype of the dead lake. It is with him that the greatest number of terrible legends is associated.
A summary of the "Dead Lake" (N. Nekrasov) can be found below.
Briefly about the main thing
The novel is easy to read, but it blows from it with some hidden sadness. The description of the lake is rather creepy, people with developed imagination are able to imagine it in all colors.
A lot of the main characters, you can get confused in them. And the female heroines seem boring, monotonous. However, plunging into reading a book, you begin to notice that this is an erroneous opinion.
The main characters are actress Lyubskaya, the daughter of a gypsy Lyuba, Count Tavrovsky and retired ensign Pokizovkin. People of completely different classes, with individual views on life and their history. The author opens the worldview of each of them, draws parallels, giving the reader the opportunity to compare the characters with each other.
The main characters: a brief description
Actress Lyubskaya is a young, lonely and very beautiful person. It’s so hard in life, too much male attention is paid to the beauty, and resisting him is simply unbearable. And there is a moral fall of Lyubskaya, whose type of activity cannot but affect the way of life. It is no coincidence that in Nekrasov’s novel "Dead Lake", the contents of which are summarized here, the girl is an actress. In the old days, this type of activity was considered extremely low, although it required a certain appearance and education.
Count Tavrovsky is another image of a depraved person. His title, appearance and character allow him to behave extremely badly. Although the Earl is a kind man, his lusts prevail over nobility.
The ensign Pokizovkin is another matter. This is a principled and honest man, a kind of voice of the people. He is an excellent comrade, devoted to his family, has his own inner core and strives for certain ideals. A soldier is a hard worker who has not learned how to trade his own conscience.
Lyuba is the daughter of a gypsy, just the ideal of femininity, tenderness and innocence. She grew up on the shores of Dead Lake, wealthy young ladies can envy the moral purity of a girl. Having no money, Lyuba is highly moral, which cannot be bought. But this purity also destroys the young lady, a meeting with Count Tavrovsky does not bode well for her. Lyuba falls in love with a handsome joker, but he is too deceitful and conceited. The treachery of the count prompts the young gypsy to commit suicide.
Description of the lake
With the contents of the "Dead Lake" Nekrasov we reviewed above. More precisely, they talked about the main characters of the novel. But what is noteworthy, and the secondary characters differ in certain, very vividly described characters. Almost all characters are deprived of parents, brought up by relatives or strangers out of mercy. This makes the novel even more tragic than the series of suicides described in it.
What is a Dead Lake? A terrible and alluring sight: just imagine a living fence from the hills from all sides. Tall trees lean over its quiet surface, casting terrible shadows on the surface of the water. When the wind blows too much, the tops of the trees only sway a little, issuing lingering creaks. The wind prefers to bypass this lake, howling loudly behind the hills. The water surface is also protected by a high reed, occasionally you can hear how frogs, hiding in its bowels, start their sad songs. A gloomy fir tree lurks on the shore, he pulls his paws to the lake, as if trying to protect him from the sunlight. And this whole picture makes you discouraged and terrified by the uninvited guest of the lake. Is it possible to approach him? It is possible, but the metallic surface of the water does not seem alluring, on the contrary, its grayness creates a repulsive impression.
Suicides
In Nekrasov’s novel “Dead Lake”, the characters drown in calm water. And they take this step on their own, as was the case with any gypsy. She threw herself into the waters of the lake, having failed to survive the duplicity of Count Tavrovsky.
Here also the adult gypsy - the mother of Lyuba - finds the last refuge. There is an episode in the novel that tells about the search for her body, which is very sad and rather frightening with its hopelessness. In mad despair, the landowner Kuratov sailed across the lake, calling out to the gypsy, shouting her name. Probably distraught, he believed that a woman would hear him at the bottom of the lake and come up to meet him. Peasants gathered here, they held torches, and bonfires sparkled on the shore to heat people who were searching for the body. And against the background of twilight, it looked majestic, but very eerie.
Denouement
"Dead Lake" (N. Nekrasov wrote it at the end of the XIX century) ends pretty well. At least in comparison with the horrors and despair that unfortunate suicides and those who were associated with them experienced. The younger generation of nobles simply drained the gloomy waters, and ennobled the forest, turning it into a wonderful park. Deprived of its frightening majesty, the lake soon disappeared from human memory.
Frightening fact
It is believed that the book "Dead Lake" by Nekrasov is based on real events. At least, the episode with the search for the body of a gypsy is a kind of “hello” from the writer’s childhood.
Once, he and his father, a schoolboy and two courtyards, went hunting. They walked, having fun talking, and did not notice how the schoolboy Fedor Uspensky lagged behind the Nekrasovs. Moreover, at some two hundred meters, as it turns out later. Nikolai's father, Alexei Sergeyevich, heard a single shot, turned sharply and saw Fedor walking in the shallow water of the lake. The Nekrasovs immediately went back, hoping to reason the schoolboy, but did not have time to get to him. As Nikolai himself later said, Fedor cried out loudly, and when they ran up to the cry, the Nekrasovs saw him drowning in the lake. Alexey Sergeyevich rushed after the boy, and this, given his inability to swim. Having reached him, he began to pull out, but it was no longer possible to help the gymnasium student. The landowner felt that he was sinking, he had to get out of the lake. With great difficulty, the landowner was able to do this.
The peasants were thrown to look for the body of the schoolboy, but their mission was not crowned with success. Although people dived into the dark waters until late at night, the corpse surfaced only four days later. Fyodor Uspensky was buried in his homeland, and Nikolai Alekseevich never recalled this terrible episode of his life, until a certain point.
In the circumstances of the death of a high school student, there is a lot of obscurity that we will never know about now. There was a version that he shot a duck on the lake and swam for his prey. There was a shot, but did they swim in clothes and a hunting bag?
According to the second hypothesis, Ouspensky fell into one of the pools, they were located quite close to the shore. He began to panic, failed to cope with his own fear and died.
Roman Nekrasov's Dead Lake, a brief description of which can be read above, includes this frightening episode.
Conclusion
We examined material about one of the unpopular works of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. Despite this, the novel is quite recommended for reading to lovers of Russian literature.