The classic of Russian literature K. G. Paustovsky is famous not only in his homeland, but throughout the world as a wonderful master of words. His prose is striking in its colorful and precise words. Each writer's work shows love and attention to the beauty of nature, to people who feel and understand the music of the world.
Avoiding everyday impressions and words, Paustovsky notices touching and unusual in the surrounding landscape. And in the same way, the writer, without touching the biography of the heroes, turns to the life of feelings, depicts the dialectics of their soul, selecting those little things that will help the reader to see the person, feel and capture the source of his experiences.
The art of seeing the world
An indefatigable romantic, subtly feeling the world around him, Paustovsky, with enthusiasm and poetry, paints pictures of nature - exciting, luxurious, full of grandeur and splendor. A person who hears the music of rain, the whisper of the surf, feels gentle splashes of water and the breath of flowering land, also sensitively hears the slightest vibrations of the human soul.
The love with which Paustovsky treated the world and the people around him permeated his works. The warmth and beauty of the writing language, the depth and imaginativeness of the narrative from the writer’s heart went to the reader’s heart and touched those strings of the soul, the existence of which the reader had no idea before meeting with Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky.
The story of one photo
The “Telegram” of Konstantin Paustovsky is connected with the real story that happened in 1964. Popular singer and actress Marlene Dietrich came to Moscow on tour . She wrote that at the Moscow airport she immediately asked reporters who met her about Paustovsky. When Marlene drove up to the hotel, she already knew that the writer was in the hospital. G. Arbuzova, the stepdaughter of Konstantin Georgievich, in one of the interviews said that Paustovsky wanted to attend a concert by Marlene Dietrich, but at that time he was very ill. And so, accompanied by his doctor V.A. Konevsky, the writer went to the House of Writers, where she performed.
After the concert, the cinema legend answered questions. And when Marlene was asked what her favorite writer was, she replied that she loved Paustovsky. The translator Nora came up to her and said that the writer was in the audience. Marlene stood and peered into the hall, expecting him to rise on stage. But, being a very shy person, Konstantin Georgievich did not rise. And when the audience began to applaud, encouraging him, Paustovsky went on stage. Marlene, without saying a word, knelt before the writer and pressed his hand to her tear-stained face.
The evening dress of the actress, embroidered with stones, was so narrow that threads began to burst, and stones fell down the stage. Everyone froze for a moment. An inaccessible goddess kneels and kisses the hands of a Soviet writer. Then the huge hall rose slowly and uncertainly, timid lonely claps were heard in silence, and then a real storm began - a flurry of applause. When Marlene was helped to rise from her knees, she quietly said that she was shocked by Paustovsky's Telegram. And since then, she considered it her duty to kiss the hand of the writer who wrote this.
Characters in the Telegram story
Konstantin Georgievich recalled that in the forest Meshchera region he created many things, including the story “Telegram”. Paustovsky did not indicate the date of writing, but for the first time the story was published in the eighth issue of Ogonyok magazine in 1946. The plot of the story is simple: not waiting for the arrival of her daughter, the old woman dies. The daughter, who received a telegram about her mother’s illness, gets to the distant Ryazan village only the next day after the funeral.
The protagonists of this story are two groups: the inhabitants of the village of Zaborye and the surroundings of Nastya. Katerina Petrovna, the daughter of a famous artist, lives after his death in the village of Zaborye in the house he built. Her fellow villagers also belong to the first group: the neighbor's daughter Manyushka, the postman Vasily, a young teacher, the watchman Tikhon, and the old people who buried Katerina Petrovna.
The second group of people is concentrated around Nastya, the daughter of Katerina Petrovna, who left for Leningrad many years ago. Paustovsky, the sculptor Timothyev, whose exhibition is engaged in by Nastya, his more successful colleague Pershin, and the old master, alarmed by the telegram received by Nastya, can be attributed to this group of heroes of Telegram Paustovsky.
Speaking about the work of Paustovsky, it must be borne in mind that the artistic details of his works carry a special semantic load. Also, the characters whom the writer, it would seem, mentioned in passing, actually play an important role - they reveal the moral problems that worried the author. A partial summary of Paustovsky’s “Telegram” story and the analysis presented below will help to partly understand them. In parallel, we will consider the details that emphasize the topic, and the problems addressed by the author.
Katerina Petrovna
It was a bluish cloudy day in October, this year it was extremely rainy. Katerina Petrovna was finding it increasingly difficult to get up in the morning. She lived out her days in an old memorial house built by her father. After his death, the house was guarded by a regional museum. Paintings hung on the walls, on which nothing could be made out: perhaps they faded with time, or maybe Katerina Petrovna's eyes began to be poorly seen.
Paustovsky’s “Telegram” story begins with a description of the gloomy autumn weather, and a small detail stands out against its background - a sunflower by the fence. The autumn landscape seems to convey the state of Katerina Petrovna, and the sunflower emphasizes lonely old age.
The last inhabitant of the house looked at the Herald of Europe, gathering dust on the shelves, and thought that in Zaborie there was no one to talk with about paintings, about Paris. But not talking with Manyusha about this, the daughter of a neighbor. Every day she ran to bring water, then sweep the floors. Katerina Petrovna gave the girl ostrich feathers, old gloves and a hat, to which Manyusha replied that she would hand them over for scrap.
Another important detail that K.G. Paustovsky pays attention to in the Telegram is the memorabilia that the old woman gave. She didn’t give up as unnecessary, but donated things dear to her, which became a part of Katerina Petrovna’s life, which, as it turned out, were needed by no one but her.
And alone cruel
Sometimes an old watchman came in, remembering Katerina Petrovna’s father. He cleaned dried trees in the garden, sawed and chopped firewood. And he always asked if Nastya was writing. Without waiting for an answer, he left, and Katerina Petrovna began to cry. Only a kerosene nightlight seemed to be the only living creature in the old house.
This small detail emphasizes the loneliness of the heroine of the Telegram. Paustovsky reinforces the problem, showing the immensity of her loneliness, with the words "without weak fire." The old woman was so lonely that even the light of the night lamp helped her, otherwise Katerina Petrovna did not know how to survive until the morning.
The mother did not receive letters from Nastya, but the postman Vasily brought money transfers from his daughter, which informed that Nastya was very busy, there was not even time to write. One night, someone knocked on a gate boarded up for several years. The old woman went out to see who was knocking, but no one was there.
And again Paustovsky emphasizes in “Telegram” the theme of loneliness - the gate that has not been opened for several years.
Katerina Petrovna stopped on the way back near the maple tree, which she planted as a young girl. He stood yellowed and chilled, and there was no place for the maple to get away from a homeless windy night. She felt sorry for him and wandered home.
The author emphasizes that Katerina Petrovna perceives the tree as living and identifies with it her state of helplessness and loneliness.
On the same night, I wrote a letter to my beloved daughter and asked her to come at least for a day. She said that she was very ill, and would like to see her before her death. Manyusha took the letter to the post office and pushed it into the box for a long time, as if looking inside. But there is only a tin void.
What seems to be unusual in the fact that the mailbox is empty? But K. G. Paustovsky in “Telegram” puts meaning into every detail: emptiness is the soulless daughter.
Daughter Nastya
Another heroine of Paustovsky’s Telegram is Nastya. She left Zaborye many years ago. She lived in Leningrad and worked in the Union of Artists. She was involved in organizing contests and exhibitions that took a lot of time. Even there is no time to read a letter from my mother. She writes, that means she is alive, Nastya thought. She hid the letter in her purse without reading it and went to the workshop of the sculptor Timofeev.
An analysis of Paustovsky’s “Telegrams” shows that the author raises serious moral problems: the fragmentation of loved ones, their distance and unwillingness to show feelings. For three years, Nastya did not see her mother, who never bothered with reproaches and complaints. And, having received news from the dearest and closest person, she hid the letter without reading. With these words, the writer emphasized the indifference and callousness of the heroine.
The dank autumn wind climbed into Timofeev’s workshop, which talked about how warm it was in the studio of colleague Pershin. Timofeev complained of a cold, of rheumatism. Nastya promised to help him and asked the artist to show her Gogol. Timofeev went to the sculpture of the great writer and tore off the fabric from it. Nastya started. A stooped man looked at her mockingly, and she saw a sclerotic vein beating in his temple.
Why did Paustovsky choose Gogol's sculpture? As you know, the great satirist had an amazing ability to guess a person. What did Paustovsky want to say by this? The analysis of “Telegrams” shows that in the story the author raises the topic of the impact of art on a person. It seemed to Nastya that Gogol was looking at her mockingly, as if he had seen her ostentatious kindness and callous soul. Nastya immediately rebukes herself that the letter in her purse lies unopened.
Telegram
Two weeks Nastya was engaged in the arrangement of the exhibition. On the opening day, famous artists and sculptors came to discuss and praise the work of Timofeev. A courier Dasha came in and handed a telegram, the meaning of which did not reach Nastya right away. At first, she thought it wasn’t her, but the return address where the word Zaborye was written dispelled doubts. Nastya frowned, crumpled a telegram, and listened to Pershin's speech, which was scattered with thanks to her, noting that in the person of Anastasia Semenovna caring for a person became a reality.
In Paustovsky’s Telegram, Nastya’s indifference and responsiveness are nearby. Responsive to strangers, she was indifferent to her mother’s letter. And it would seem, having received a telegram that the closest and dearest person was dying, she had to run to her mother at all costs, in order to be able to see, hear and hug her once more. But Nastya crumpled a telegram. In a nutshell, while the department was rushing about caring, the author expressed cruelty, hypocrisy, and indifference to his daughter.
An old artist, preoccupied with Nastya’s thoughtful appearance, came up, touched her hand and asked if the telegram had alarmed her so much. Nastya said that a telegram from a friend, nothing terrible had happened, but all evening she felt a piercing and heavy look on herself. Who could it be? Nastya raised her eyes: Gogol looked at her with a grin.
Paustovsky continues the work “Telegram” with the words from the letter of Katerina Petrovna: “My beloved,” my mother turned to Nastya. Nastya sat on a bench and cried. She realized that no one had ever loved her like her mother. That evening, Nastya left for Zaborye.
Fences
Tikhon went to the post office, whispered something with Vasily, carefully scribbled something on the telegraph form and trudged to Katerina Petrovna. She had not been up for ten days. Manyusha did not leave her for six days and calmed down only when Katerina Petrovna moved under the covers. Tikhon came in, said that it was getting colder on the street, the road would be beaten frost, and Nastya would now be more convenient to get there, and in an uncertain voice read the telegram that he himself had brought.
Katerina Petrovna turned away from the wall. Tikhon sat and sighed in the hallway, until Manyusha called him into the old woman's room. She lay pale and small. “I didn’t wait,” Tikhon sighed and went out. The next day, old men and children buried Katerina Petrovna.
Here appears in the "Telegram" Paustovsky heroine, a young teacher, to whom he devoted only a few lines. In them, a complete stranger pays tribute to a woman-mother.
The young teacher has the same old gray-haired mother left in the county town. The teacher sighed and slowly went behind the coffin, asking people if the dead woman was alone? To which she was told that Katerina Petrovna had a daughter in Leningrad. But, apparently, she took off so high that she could not get out to the mother’s funeral. The teacher went to the coffin, kissed Katerina Petrovna’s hand and listened for a long time as the old men were talking behind her.
Nastya came to the village after the funeral and found only a grave mound. She examined her mother’s room, from which life seemed to have gone a long time ago, and, stealing so that no one saw her, left Zaborye. And no one, except Katerina Petrovna, could remove the unbearable burden from her soul.
Between the lines
In the story of Konstantin Paustovsky “Telegram” between the lines you can read a lot about the family living in the old house. Katerina Petrovna lives among the paintings of her father and his friends. Kramskoy himself was his friend, a sketch for his picture occupies an honorable place in the house. The journal “Vestnik Evropy” was read by Katerina Petrovna and her father. It published the works of Russian writers Solovyov, Ostrovsky, Turgenev, Goncharov. The inhabitants of the house grew on this classic literature.
Katerina Petrovna was in Paris with her father in the summer of 1885, it was then that Victor Hugo died, at the funeral of which she was. She was not buried next to her father. None of those present remembered that she was the daughter of a famous artist. Is it because the villagers, who rendered all possible assistance to Katerina Petrovna, did not understand the significance and value of the paintings hanging on the walls of her house?
So, fleetingly, Paustovsky showed a huge spiritual gap between the intelligentsia and the peasantry of Russia. Obviously, the artist’s contribution to Russian art was great, as the house was memorial. Why is this quotation mark written by Paustovsky in Telegram? Indifference and responsiveness are also nearby. On the one hand - the indifference of the state, under the protection of which was the house, and therefore the picture, tarnished and forgotten. On the other - the responsiveness of a simple watchman. Out of pity, Tikhon helped Katerina Petrovna with the housework. And he is the only one who remembered the artist and probably did not realize the true value of the paintings, but looked at them with reverence and sighed: “Natural work!”
Nicks on the heart
In The Golden Rose, the author wrote the story of the creation of the story Telegram. Paustovsky did not specify the date of writing, but told a touching story, on the basis of which he created his masterpiece. The chapter “Notches on the Heart” introduces the prototypes of this story. At one time, Paustovsky lived near Ryazan, in the estate of the once famous engraver Pozhalostin. The only daughter of the mistress of the house forgot about her mother, and sent only translations from Leningrad.
In the evenings, the writer went to drink tea with Katerina Ivanovna. The mistress of the estate saw it badly, and the neighbor girl Nyurka ran to her two or three times a day. Katerina Ivanovna once lived in Paris, knew Turgenev and was present at the funeral of Hugo. She gave Paustovsky to read a bunch of yellow letters left from his father.
Paustovsky writes that he sent a telegram to Nastya, reporting the death of her mother. Nyurka handed the writer an envelope in which Katerina Ivanovna wrote what to bury her with. Paustovsky saw the mistress of the estate already tidied up - she lay in a golden ball gown with a train, in black suede shoes. Nastya arrived three days after the funeral.
In his autobiography, Paustovsky talked about the fact that two brothers died in the war. The writer only had a half-blind sister. Did her helpless appearance form the basis of the characteristics of the main character of the story? It seems that not only the image of the daughter of Pozhalostin was reflected in the heroine of the novel. But other, dear to the author’s heart, images of close people whom he portrayed with such love, longing and sincere regret.
Until it's not too late
What is the genre of Telegrams by Paustovsky? This is a story, on several pages of which the author raises important issues: loneliness, motherly love, the problem of fathers and children. Compositionally, the story is divided into three parts, one of which tells about the mother, the second about the daughter, and in the third there is a tragic outcome.
Half-blind old woman, lives among her memories. Only they stayed with her, even her own daughter Katerina Petrovna is not needed.
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Two telegrams are given in the story. The real one was sent by the guard Nastya to Leningrad. Another telegram was invented by the same Tikhon. He invented it in order to instill hope in the heart of a dying mother. Katerina Petrovna guessed, but thanked the watchman for his affection and kindness.
But it is a mistake to assume that the headline is a reflection of two telegrams. The master of the word Paustovsky weighed every word. And, in the light of the construction of a socialist state, calling to think first about the homeland, and then about the family, the writer reminds with his “Telegram” - do not forget your loved ones.