N. Leskov "Lefty": description, characters, analysis of the work
Article
Among the Russian classics, Gorky pointed precisely to Leskov as a writer who, with the greatest exertion of all the forces of his talent, strove to create a "positive type" of Russian man, to find among the "sinners" of this world a crystal-clear man, a "righteous man." The writer proudly declared: "The strength of my talent is in positive types." And he asked: "Show me in another writer such an abundance of positive Russian types?"
In the filigree tale of the Lefty (1881), a wonderful master gunsmith performed a technical miracle shod a steel flea made by the British, which cannot be seen without a "melkoscope". But Leskov did not reduce the essence of his story only to the fabulous ingenuity of the self-taught Lefty, although in the writer's eyes it was of exceptional importance for understanding the "soul of the people." the writer penetrates into the complex dialectic of the external and internal content of the image of the Lefty and puts him in characteristic circumstances.
The left-hander is a small, nondescript, dark person who does not know the "calculation of strength", because he did not get into the "sciences" and instead of the four rules of addition from arithmetic, everything still wanders according to the "Psalter and the Half Dream Book". But the wealth of nature inherent in him, diligence, dignity, the height of moral feeling and innate delicacy immeasurably elevate him above all the stupid and cruel masters of life. Of course, Lefty believed in the king-father and was a religious person. The image of Lefty under the pen of Leskov turns into a generalized symbol of the Russian people. In the eyes of Leskov, the moral value of a person lies in his organic connection with a living national element with the native land and its nature, with its people and traditions that go back into the distant past. The most remarkable thing was that Leskov, an excellent connoisseur of the life of his time, did not submit to the idealization of the people that dominated the Russian intelligentsia in the 70s and 80s. The author of "Lefty" does not flatter the people, but he does not belittle them either. He portrays the people in accordance with specific historical conditions, and at the same time penetrates into the richest opportunities for creativity, ingenuity, and service to the motherland hidden in the people. Gorky wrote that Leskov "loved all Rus' as it is, with all the absurdities of its ancient way of life, he loved the half-starved, half-drunk people, battered by officials."
In the story "The Enchanted Wanderer" (1873), Leskov depicts the versatile giftedness of the fugitive serf Ivan Flyagin in a merger with his struggle with hostile and difficult circumstances of life. The author draws an analogy with the image of the first Russian hero Ilya Muromets. He calls him "a typical simple-hearted, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in the beautiful picture of Vereshchagin and in the poem of Count A. K. Tolstoy." It is noteworthy that Leskov chose the narrative in the form of a story about the hero's wanderings through home country. This allowed him to draw a broad picture of Russian life, to confront his indomitable hero, in love with life and people, with its most diverse conditions.
Leskov, without idealizing the hero and not simplifying him, creates a holistic, but contradictory, unbalanced character. Ivan Severyanovich can also be wildly cruel, unbridled in his ebullient passions. But his nature is truly revealed in good and chivalrous disinterested deeds for the sake of others, in selfless deeds, in the ability to cope with any business. Innocence and humanity, practical intelligence and perseverance, courage and endurance, a sense of duty and love for the motherland - these are the remarkable features of the Leskovsky wanderer.
Why did Leskov call his hero an enchanted wanderer? What meaning did he put into such a name? This meaning is significant and very deep. The artist convincingly showed that his hero is unusually sensitive to everything beautiful in life. Beauty has a magical effect on him. His whole life is spent in various and high charms, in artistic, disinterested hobbies. Ivan Severyanovich is under the spell of love for life and people, for nature and homeland. Such natures are capable of becoming obsessed, they fall into illusions. into self-forgetfulness, into daydreams, into an enthusiastically poetic, exalted state.
The positive types depicted by Leskov opposed the "mercantile age" asserted by capitalism, which carried the depreciation of the individual common man, turned it into a stereotype, into a "half". Leskov means fiction resisted the heartlessness and selfishness of the people of the "banking period", the invasion of the bourgeois-petty-bourgeois plague, which kills everything poetic and bright in a person.
In the works about the "righteous" and "artists" Leskov has a strong satirical, critical stream when he reproduces the dramatic relations of his goodies with the socially hostile environment surrounding him, with the anti-people authorities, when he talks about the senseless death talented people in Russia. The originality of Leskov lies in the fact that his optimistic portrayal of the positive and heroic, talented and extraordinary in the Russian people is inevitably accompanied by bitter irony, when the author speaks with sorrow about the sad and often tragic fate representatives of the people. In "Lefty" there is a whole gallery of satirically depicted representatives of the corrupt, stupid and greedy ruling elite. Satirical elements are also strong in The Dumb Artist. The whole life of the hero of this work consisted in single combat with lordly cruelty, lack of rights, soldiery. And the story of a serf actress, a simple and courageous girl? is it her broken life, the tragic outcome of which gave rise to the habit of "filling the coal" of the suffering she endured with sips from the "placon" with vodka, is not a denunciation of serfdom ?!
The formula "all of Rus' appeared in Leskov's stories" should be understood primarily in the sense that the writer comprehended essential national characteristics spiritual world Russian people. But "all Rus' appeared in Leskov's stories" in a different sense. Life for him is perceived as a panorama of the most diverse ways of life and customs in various regions of a vast country. Leskov turned to such successful ways of constructing a plot that allowed him to embody "all of Rus'" in a single picture. He closely studies the experience of Gogol, the author of "Dead Souls", and not only draws a fruitful lesson from Gogol's device (Chichikov's trips), but also rethinks this method in relation to his subject of depiction. The hero's wanderings as one of the ways to unfold the narrative are necessary for Leskov in order to show a simple Russian person a runaway peasant in different circumstances, in collision with various people. such is the peculiar odyssey of the enchanted wanderer.
Leskov called himself an "artist of the style", that is, a writer who owns a living, and not literary speech. In this speech, he drew its imagery and strength, clarity and accuracy, lively emotional excitement and musicality. Leskov believed that in the Oryol and Tula provinces, the peasants speak surprisingly figuratively and aptly. “So, for example,” the writer says, “a woman does not say about her husband “he loves me,” but says “he pities me.” Think about it, and you will see how complete, tender, precise and clear it is. A husband does not talk about a pleasant wife says that he "liked" her, he says, "she came by all thoughts". Look again, what clarity and completeness."
Seeking to enrich, strengthen language tools artistic figurativeness and expressiveness, Leskov skillfully used the so-called folk etymology. Its essence lies in the rethinking of words and phrases in the folk spirit, as well as in the sound deformation of words (especially of foreign origin). Both are carried out on the basis of the corresponding semantic and sound analogies. In "Lady Macbeth" Mtsensk district"we read:" Few of you long tongue in "The Warrior": "What are you doing ... you really hate yourself." In "Lefty": "two-seater carriage", "melkoskop", "nymphosoria", etc. Of course, Leskov overheard such sayings not for the sake of aesthetic collecting or photographic copying, but in the name of achieving certain ideological and artistic goals.Rethinking and sound deformation of words and phrases in the narrator's speech often gave the language of the work an almost imperceptible comic or parodic-satirical, humorous and ironic tone.
But the structure of Leskov's author's speech is also distinguished by the same jewelry finish and iridescent play. Not hiding behind the character-narrator, but leading the whole story on his own behalf or acting in it as the author-interlocutor, Leskov "forged" the speech of his heroes, transferred the features of their vocabulary and phraseology into his language. This is how stylization arose, which, in combination with the tale, gave Leskov's entire prose the deepest originality. Ironic stylization of the Church Slavonic language, stylization of folklore, lubok, legend, the "epos of workers", and even a foreign language all this was imbued with polemics, mockery, sarcasm, denunciation or good-natured humor, loving attitude, pathos. Here Levsha was called to the king. He "walks in what he was: in shorts, one trouser leg in a boot, the other is dangling, and the ozyamchik is old, the hooks do not fasten, they are lost, and the collar is torn; but nothing, it will not be embarrassing."
Only a Russian person who merged with the spirit of the living could write like that spoken language, who penetrated the psychology of a forced, unsightly, but artistically talented and self-aware worker. "Wizard of the word" - this is how Gorky called the author of "Lefty".
According to the article by N. Prutskov "The most original Russian writer" / N. S. Leskov. Leads and stories. Lenizdat, 1977.
"The origin of man on Earth" - Ships went from Mainak to Aralsk. Is evolution finished now? And there was evening and there was morning: the sixth day. What is a person? Now the sea level has dropped thirteen meters. Additional nipples; Claws on separate fingers; Strongly developed fangs. Wisdom teeth". Indeed, human activity changes the environment very strongly and at lightning speed.
"Leskov Old Genius" - Keywords. 1) The highest degree of creative talent; What a funny passage! Blatant - causing extreme indignation, completely unacceptable. Evil genius. Fragment piece of music, usually of a virtuoso nature. Frant in a new suit. Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov. " moral issues story "Old Genius"
Leskov N.S. - Ataman Platov picks the pistol lock. Summary of the lesson. Francispis to N.S. Leskov's tale "Lefty". Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich examines a steel flea through a "melkoscope". Compare the illustrations and note the peculiarity of the reflection of the Leskovsky text in the figures. Lesson - excursion. Platov on the "annoying couch". Kukryniksy.
“Writer Leskov” - At times, the signatures “M. Creation. Monument to N. Leskov in Orel. At first creative activity Leskov wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. House-Museum of N.S. Leskov. "Righteous". Leskov-Stebnitsky" and "M. literary career. Latest works about Russian society are very cruel. "Zagon", "Winter Day", "Lady and Fefela" ...
"Leskov Nikolai Semyonovich" - Leskov Nikolay Semyonovich 1831-1895. And the Leskovsky righteous people have the idea of order in life and active goodness. House-Museum of N.S. Leskov. From left to right: Vasily, Mikhail, Nikolai, Alexei. N.S. Leskov Autograph: “The portrait is very similar to me. Filmed at Bem, in Merekkül, July 17, 1892. Childhood years were spent in the estate of the Strakhovs' relatives, then in Orel.
"Leskov life and work" - Authors - Moscow sculptors Orekhovs, architects V.A. Petersburg and A.V. Stepanov. “Literature is a difficult field, a field that requires a great spirit. “He didn’t go far in the sciences,” Leskov will say about himself and call himself “poorly educated” for literary work. Monument to N.S. Leskov. The great legacy of N.S. Leskov.
Among the Russian classics, Gorky pointed precisely to Leskov as a writer who, with the greatest exertion of all the forces of his talent, strove to create a "positive type" of Russian man, to find among the "sinners" of this world a crystal-clear man, a "righteous man." The writer proudly declared: "The strength of my talent is in positive types." And he asked: "Show me in another writer such an abundance of positive Russian types?"
In the filigree tale of Lefty (1881), a wonderful master gunsmith performed a technical miracle - he shod a steel flea made by the British, which cannot be seen without a "fine scope". But Leskov did not reduce the essence of his story only to the fabulous ingenuity of the self-taught Lefty, although in the writer's eyes it was of exceptional importance for understanding the "soul of the people." The writer penetrates into the complex dialectic of the external and internal content of the image of Lefty and puts him in characteristic circumstances.
The left-hander is a small, nondescript, dark person who does not know the "calculation of strength", because he did not get into the "sciences" and instead of the four rules of addition from arithmetic, everything still wanders according to the "Psalter and the Half Dream Book". But the wealth of nature inherent in him, diligence, dignity, the height of moral feeling and innate delicacy immeasurably elevate him above all the stupid and cruel masters of life. Of course, Lefty believed in the king-father and was a religious person. The image of Lefty under the pen of Leskov turns into a generalized symbol of the Russian people. In Leskov's eyes, the moral value of a person lies in his organic connection with the living national element - with his native land and its nature, with its people and traditions that go back into the distant past. The most remarkable thing was that Leskov, an excellent connoisseur of the life of his time, did not submit to the idealization of the people that dominated the Russian intelligentsia in the 70s and 80s. The author of "Lefty" does not flatter the people, but he does not belittle them either. He portrays the people in accordance with specific historical conditions, and at the same time penetrates into the richest opportunities hidden in the people for creativity, ingenuity, and service to the motherland. Gorky wrote that Leskov "loved all Rus' as it is, with all the absurdities of its ancient way of life, he loved the half-starved, half-drunk people, battered by officials."
In the story "The Enchanted Wanderer" (1873), Leskov depicts the versatile giftedness of the fugitive serf Ivan Flyagin in a merger with his struggle with hostile and difficult circumstances of life. The author draws an analogy with the image of the first Russian hero Ilya Muromets. He calls him "a typical simple-hearted, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in the beautiful picture of Vereshchagin and in the poem of Count A. K. Tolstoy." It is noteworthy that Leskov chose the narrative in the form of a story about the hero's wanderings in his native country. This allowed him to draw a broad picture of Russian life, to confront his indomitable hero, in love with life and people, with its most diverse conditions.
Leskov, without idealizing the hero and not simplifying him, creates a holistic, but contradictory, unbalanced character. Ivan Severyanovich can also be wildly cruel, unbridled in his ebullient passions. But his nature is truly revealed in good and chivalrous disinterested deeds for the sake of others, in selfless deeds, in the ability to cope with any business. Innocence and humanity, practical intelligence and perseverance, courage and endurance, a sense of duty and love for the motherland - these are the remarkable features of the Leskovsky wanderer.
Why did Leskov call his hero an enchanted wanderer? What meaning did he put into such a name? This meaning is significant and very deep. The artist convincingly showed that his hero is unusually sensitive to everything beautiful in life. Beauty has a magical effect on him. His whole life is spent in various and high charms, in artistic, disinterested hobbies. Ivan Severyanovich is under the spell of love for life and people, for nature and homeland. Such natures are capable of becoming obsessed, they fall into illusions. into self-forgetfulness, into daydreams, into an enthusiastically poetic, exalted state.
The positive types depicted by Leskov opposed the "mercantile age" approved by capitalism, which carried the depreciation of the personality of the common man, turned him into a stereotype, into a "fifty". Leskov, by means of fiction, resisted the heartlessness and selfishness of the people of the "banking period", the invasion of the bourgeois-petty-bourgeois plague, which kills everything poetic and bright in a person.
In the works about "the righteous" and "artists" Leskov has a strong satirical, critical stream when he reproduces the dramatic relationship of his positive characters with the socially hostile environment surrounding them, with the anti-people authorities, when he talks about the senseless death of talented people in Russia. The originality of Leskov lies in the fact that his optimistic portrayal of the positive and heroic, talented and extraordinary in the Russian people is inevitably accompanied by bitter irony, when the author sorrowfully talks about the sad and often tragic fate of the representatives of the people. In "Lefty" there is a whole gallery of satirically depicted representatives of the corrupt, stupid and greedy ruling elite. Satirical elements are also strong in The Dumb Artist. The whole life of the hero of this work consisted in single combat with lordly cruelty, lack of rights, soldiery. And the story of a serf actress, a simple and courageous girl? Isn't her broken life, the tragic outcome of which gave rise to the habit of "filling the coal" of the suffering she endured with sips from the "plakon" with vodka, is not a denunciation of serfdom?!
The formula "all Rus' appeared in Leskov's stories" should be understood, first of all, in the sense that the writer comprehended the essential national features of the spiritual world of the Russian people. But "all Rus' appeared in Leskov's stories" in a different sense. Life for him is perceived as a panorama of the most diverse ways of life and customs in various regions of a vast country. Leskov turned to such successful ways of constructing a plot that allowed him to embody "all of Rus'" in a single picture. He closely studies the experience of Gogol, the author of "Dead Souls", and not only draws a fruitful lesson from Gogol's device (Chichikov's trips), but also rethinks this method in relation to his subject of depiction. The hero's wanderings, as one of the ways to unfold the narrative, are necessary for Leskov in order to show a simple Russian person - a runaway peasant - in different circumstances, in a collision with various people. Such is the peculiar odyssey of the enchanted wanderer.
Leskov called himself an "artist of style", that is, a writer who owns a living, and not a literary speech. In this speech, he drew its imagery and strength, clarity and accuracy, lively emotional excitement and musicality. Leskov believed that in the Oryol and Tula provinces, the peasants speak surprisingly figuratively and aptly. “So, for example,” the writer reports, “a woman does not say about her husband,“ he loves me ”, but says“ he pities me. he does not say to his wife that he “liked” her, he says, “she came in all thoughts.” Look again, what clarity and completeness.
In an effort to enrich and strengthen the linguistic means of artistic depiction and expressiveness, Leskov skillfully used the so-called folk etymology. Its essence lies in the rethinking of words and phrases in the folk spirit, as well as in the sound deformation of words (especially of foreign origin). Both are carried out on the basis of the corresponding semantic and sound analogies. In the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" we read: "Few people will speak a long tongue to you." In "The Warrior Girl": "What are you doing ... you really hate yourself." In "Lefty": "two-seater carriage", "melkoskop", "nymphosoria", etc. Of course, Leskov overheard such sayings not for the sake of aesthetic collecting or photographic copying, but in the name of achieving certain ideological and artistic tasks. Rethinking and sound deformation of words and phrases in the narrator's speech often gave the language of the work an almost imperceptible comic or parodic-satirical, humorous and ironic tone.
But the structure of Leskov's author's speech is also distinguished by the same jewelry finish and iridescent play. Not hiding behind the character-narrator, but leading the whole story on his own behalf or acting in it as the author-interlocutor, Leskov "forged" the speech of his heroes, transferred the features of their vocabulary and phraseology into his language. This is how stylization arose, which, in combination with the tale, gave Leskov's entire prose the deepest originality. Ironic stylization of the Church Slavonic language, stylization of folklore, lubok, legend, the "epos of workers", and even a foreign language - all this was imbued with polemics, mockery, sarcasm, denunciation or good-natured humor, loving attitude, pathos. Here Levsha was called to the king. He "walks in what he was: in frills, one leg is in a boot, the other is dangled, and the ozyamchik is old, the hooks are not caught, they are lost, and the collar is torn; but nothing, it will not be embarrassing." Only a thoroughly Russian person could write like this, having merged with the spirit of a living spoken language, penetrating into the psychology of a forced, unprepossessing, but artistically talented and self-aware worker. "Wizard of the word" - this is how Gorky called the author of "Lefty".
Leskov is like a "Russian Dickens". Not because he resembles Dickens in general, in the maneuver of his writing, but because both Dickens and Leskov are "family writers", writers who were read in the family, discussed by the whole family, writers who are of great importance for moral formation a person is brought up in his youth, and then accompanied all his life, along with the best childhood memories. But Dickens is a typically English family writer, and Leskov is a Russian. Even very Russian. So Russian that, of course, he will never be able to enter the English family the way Dickens entered the Russian. And this is despite the ever-increasing popularity of Leskov abroad and, above all, in English-speaking countries.
There is one thing that brings Leskov and Dickens very close: they are eccentrics - the righteous. Why not the Leskian righteous Mr. Dick in David Copperfield, whose favorite pastime was to fly kites and who found the correct and kind answer to all questions? And why not the Dickensian eccentric Nesmertny Golovan, who did good in secret, without even noticing that he was doing good?
But a good hero is just what is needed for family reading. Deliberately "ideal" hero does not always have a chance to become a favorite hero. The beloved hero must be, to a certain extent, the secret of the reader and writer, for truly a kind person if he does good, he always does it in secret, in secret.
The eccentric not only keeps the secret of his kindness, but he also makes literary riddle that intrigues the reader. The removal of eccentrics in the works, at least in Leskov, is also one of the methods of literary intrigue. The eccentric always carries a riddle. Intrigue in Leskov, therefore, subordinates to itself the moral assessment, the language of the work and the "characterography" of the work. Without Leskov, Russian literature would have lost a significant share of its national color and national problematics.
Leskov's work has its main sources not even in literature, but in the oral colloquial tradition, goes back to what Likhachev would call "talking Russia". It came out of conversations, disputes in various companies and families, and again returned to these conversations and disputes, returned to the whole huge family and "talking Russia", giving rise to new conversations, disputes, discussions, awakening the moral sense of people and teaching them to solve moral problems on their own.
For Leskov, the whole world of official and unofficial Russia is, as it were, “his own”. He generally treated all contemporary literature and Russian public life like a kind of conversation. All of Russia was his native, native land, where everyone knows each other, remembers and honors the dead, knows how to talk about them, knows them family secrets. So he says about Tolstoy, Pushkin, Zhukovsky and even Katkov. Yermolov for him, first of all, Alexey Petrovich, and Miloradovich - Mikhail Andreevich. And he never forgets to mention their family life, their kinship with this or that other character in the story, their acquaintances... And this is by no means a vain boast of "a short acquaintance with great people." This consciousness - sincere and deep - of its kinship with all of Russia, with all its people - both good and unkind, with its centuries-old culture. And this is also his position as a writer.
We find an interpretation of the essence of the character of a Russian person in many of Leskov's works. by the most popular stories Leskov are "Lefty" and "The Enchanted Wanderer", in them Leskov makes a bright emphasis on the character and worldview of a truly Russian person.
Realizing the place and significance of N.S. Leskov in the literary process, we always note that this is a surprisingly original writer. The outward dissimilarity of his predecessors and contemporaries sometimes forced him to see in him a completely new phenomenon, which had no analogues in Russian literature. Leskov is brightly original, and at the same time, you can learn a lot from him..He is an amazing experimenter who gave birth to a whole wave of artistic searches in Russian literature; he is a cheerful, mischievous experimenter, and at the same time extremely serious and deep, setting great educational goals for himself.
Creativity Leskov, one might say, knows no social boundaries. He displays in his works people of various classes and circles: and landowners - from the rich to the semi-poor, and officials of all stripes - from the minister to the quarter, and the clergy - monastic and parish - from the metropolitan to the deacon, and the military of various ranks and types of weapons, and peasants, and people from the peasantry - soldiers, artisans and any working people. Leskov willingly shows different representatives of the nationalities of the then Russia: Ukrainians, Yakuts, Jews, Gypsies, Poles ... Leskov's versatility of knowledge of the life of each class, estate, nationality is amazing. Leskov's exceptional life experience, his vigilance, memory, his linguistic flair were needed to describe the life of the people so intently, with such knowledge of life, economic structure, family relations, folk art, folk language.
With all the breadth of coverage of Russian life, there is a sphere in Leskov's work, to which his most significant and famous works belong: this is the sphere of the life of the people.
Who are the heroes of Leskov's most beloved works by our readers?
Heroes" The sealed angel- masons workers "Lefty"- blacksmith, Tula gunsmith," Tupey artist"- serf hairdresser and theatrical make-up artist
To put a hero from the people at the center of the story, one must first of all master his language, to be able to reproduce the speech of different strata of the people, different professions, destinies, ages. The task of recreating the living language of the people in a literary work required special art when Leskov used the form of a tale.
The tale in Russian literature comes from Gogol, but in particular it was skillfully developed by Leskov and glorified him as an artist. The essence of this manner is that the narration is conducted, as it were, not on behalf of a neutral, objective author; the narration is led by a narrator, usually a participant in the reported events. The speech of a work of art imitates the live speech of an oral story. At the same time, in a tale, the narrator is usually a person of a different social circle and cultural stratum to which the writer and the intended reader of the work belong. Leskov's story is led either by a merchant, or a monk, or an artisan, or a retired mayor, or a former soldier. . Each narrator speaks according to his education and upbringing, his age and profession, his concept of himself, his desire and ability to impress listeners.
This manner gives Leskov's story a special liveliness. The language of his works, unusually rich and varied, deepens the social and individual characteristics of his characters, becomes for the writer a means of finely assessing people and events. Gorky wrote about the Leskovsky tale: "... The people in his stories often talk about themselves, but their speech is so amazingly alive, so truthful and convincing that they stand before you just as mysteriously tangible, physically clear, like people from the books of L. Tolstoy and others, otherwise say, Leskov achieves the same result, but with a different method of skill.
To illustrate Leskov's tale manner, let's take some tirade from Lefty. Here is how the narrator, based on Lefty's impressions, describes the living and working conditions of English workers : "Each worker is constantly full of them, dressed not in scraps, but on each capable tunic vest, shod in thick anklets with iron knobs so that they don’t cut their feet anywhere; he works not with a boilie, but with training and has himself In front of everyone, a multiplication table hangs in plain sight, and an erasable tablet is at hand: everything that the master does, he looks at the block and checks with the concept, and then writes one thing on the tablet, erases the other and neatly reduces: what is written on the numbers , then it really comes out."
The narrator did not see the English workers. He dresses them according to his imagination, connecting a jacket with a vest. He knows that they work there “according to science”, he himself heard only about the “multiplication dovetail” in this regard, which means that the master, who works not “by eye”, but with the help of “tsifirs”, should compare his products with it. The narrator, of course, lacks familiar words, he distorts unfamiliar words or uses them incorrectly.. "Shoes" become "shoes" - probably by association with panache. The multiplication table turns into a "dolbitsa" - obviously, because the students "hollow" it. Wanting to designate some kind of extension on the boots, the narrator calls it a knob, transferring the name of the extension on a stick to it.
Narrators from the folk environment often change strange-sounding foreign words into Russian., which, with such a rework, receive new or additional values; Leskov especially willingly imitates this so-called "folk etymology ". So, in "Lefty" the barometer turns into a "buremeter", "microscope" - into a "melkoskop", "pudding" - into "studing " etc. Leskov, who passionately loved puns, puns, witticisms, jokes, filled "Lefty" with linguistic curiosities. But their set does not evoke the impression of excess, because the immense brightness of verbal patterns is in the spirit of folk buffoonery. And sometimes a word game not only amuses, but behind it is a satirical denunciation.
The narrator in a tale usually refers to some interlocutor or group of interlocutors., the narrative begins and progresses in response to their questions and remarks. At the core "Toupee artist"- the story of an old nanny to her pupil, a nine-year-old boy. This nanny is a former actress of the Oryol fortress theater of Count Kamensky. This is the same theater that is described in Herzen's story "The Thieving Magpie" under the name of Prince Skalinsky's theater. But the heroine of Herzen's story is not only a highly talented, but, due to the exceptional circumstances of life, an educated actress... Leskov's Lyuba is an uneducated serf girl, by natural talent capable of singing, dancing, and playing roles in plays "observe" (that is, hearsay, following other actresses ) She is not able to tell everything and reveal what the author wants to tell the reader, and not everything can know (for example, the conversations of the master with his brother). Therefore, not the whole story is told on behalf of the nanny; part of the events are described by the author with the inclusion of excerpts and small quotes from babysitter's story.
In Leskov's most popular work - "Lefty" we meet with a tale of a different kind. There is no author, no audience, no narrator. More precisely, the author's voice is heard for the first time after the end of the tale: in the final chapter, the writer characterizes the story told as a "fabulous legend", an "epos" of masters, "a myth personified by folk fantasy".
(*10) The narrator in "Lefty" exists only as a voice that does not belong to a specific, named person. This is, as it were, the voice of the people - the creator of the "gunsmith's legend".
"Lefty"- not a household tale, where the narrator tells about the events he experienced or personally known to him; here he retells the legend created by the people, as folk narrators perform epics or historical songs. As in folk epic, in "Lefty" there are a number of historical figures: two kings - Alexander I and Nicholas I, ministers Chernyshev, Nesselrode (Kiselvrode), Kleinmikhel, ataman of the Don Cossack army Platov, commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress Skobelev and others.
Contemporaries did not appreciate either "Lefty" or Leskov's talent in general.They believed that Leskov was excessive in everything: he overlays bright colors too thickly, puts his heroes in too unusual positions, makes them speak in an exaggeratedly characteristic language, strings too many episodes on one thread and so on.
Most associated with the work of the people "Lefty". At the very basis of its plot lies a comic proverb in which the people expressed their admiration for art. Tula masters: "Tula people shod a flea". Leskov used and went among the people legends about the skill of Tula gunsmiths. As early as the beginning of the 19th century, an anecdote was published about how an important Russian gentleman showed an expensive English pistol to the workman of the Tula Arms Plant, and he, taking the pistol, "unscrewed the trigger and showed his name under the screw". In "Lefty" Platov arranges the same demonstration to prove to Tsar Alexander that "we have our own house no worse." In the English "armory of curiosities", (*12) having picked up the especially touted "pistol", Platov unscrews the lock and shows the tsar the inscription: "Ivan Moskvin in the city of Tula."
As you can see, love for the people, the desire to discover and show the best sides of the Russian folk character did not make Leskov a panegyrist, did not prevent him from seeing the traits of slavery and ignorance that his history had imposed on the people. Leskov does not hide these features in the hero of his myth about a brilliant craftsman. The legendary Lefty with two of his comrades managed to forge and attach horseshoes to the paws of a steel flea made in England with carnations. On each horseshoe "the master's name is displayed: which Russian master made that horseshoe." These inscriptions can be seen only in the "microscope, which magnifies five million." But the artisans did not have any microscopes, but only "shooting the eye."
This is, of course, a fabulous exaggeration, but it has real grounds. Tula craftsmen have always been especially famous and are still famous for their miniature products, which can only be seen with a strong magnifying glass.
Admiring the genius of Lefty, Leskov, however, is far from idealizing the people as they were, according to historical conditions, at that time. The left-hander is ignorant, and this cannot but affect his work. The art of the English masters was manifested not so much in the fact that they cast a flea from steel, but in the fact that the flea danced, wound up with a special key. Grounded, she stopped dancing. And the English masters, cordially receiving the one sent to England with a savvy flea, Lefty , indicate that he is hindered by a lack of knowledge: "... Then you could figure out that in every machine there is a calculation of strength, otherwise you are very skillful in your hands, and you didn’t realize that such a small machine, as in a nymphosoria, is designed for the most accurate accuracy and its horseshoes are not Because of this, now nymphosoria does not jump and dance does not dance. "Leskov attached great importance to this moment. In an article devoted to the tale of Levsha, Leskov contrasts Levsha's genius with his ignorance, and his (ardent patriotism) with the lack of concern for the people and homeland in the ruling clique. Leskov writes: one person, and that where "Lefty" stands, one should read "Russian people."
Lefty loves his Russia with a simple-hearted and unsophisticated love. He can't be tempted easy life in a foreign land. He rushes home because he has a task that Russia needs to complete; thus she became the goal of his life. In England, Lefty learned that the muzzles of guns should be lubricated, and not cleaned with crushed brick, as was customary then in the Russian army, which is why "bullets hang in them" and guns, "God forbid war, (...) are not suitable for shooting ". With this, he hurries home. He arrives sick, the authorities didn’t bother to provide him with a document, the police completely robbed him, after which they began to take him to hospitals, but they didn’t take him anywhere without a “tugament”, they dumped the patient on the floor, and, finally, his “nape of the parat split” . Dying, Lefty thought only about how to bring his discovery to the king, and still managed to inform the doctor about it. He reported to the Minister of War, but in response he received only a rude shout: "Know (...) your emetic and laxative, and don't interfere in your own business: in Russia there are generals for this."
In the story" "Dumb Artist" the writer displays a rich count with an "insignificant face", revealing an insignificant soul. This is an evil tyrant and tormentor: people who are objectionable to him are torn to pieces by hunting dogs, executioners torment them with incredible torture. Thus, Leskov opposes truly courageous people from the people of the people, “masters”, rabid from immeasurable power over people and imagining themselves courageous, because they are always ready to torment and to destroy people at their own whim or whim - of course, by proxy. strong of the world this." The image of one of the master's servants is vividly depicted in "The Toupee Artist". This is pop. Arkady, not frightened by the tortures that threaten him, perhaps mortal, is trying to save his beloved girl from abuse (* 19) over her by a depraved master. The priest promises to marry them and hide them for the night, after which both hope to get into the "Turkish Khrushchuk". But the priest, having previously robbed Arkady, betrays the fugitives to the count's people sent in search of the fugitives, for which he receives a well-deserved spit in the face.
"Lefty"
SPECIFICITY OF NARRATORY. LANGUAGE FEATURES. When discussing the genre originality of the story, we did not say anything about such a definition of the genre as “skaz”. And this is no coincidence. A tale as a genre of oral prose implies a focus on oral speech, narration on behalf of a participant in the event.. In this sense, "Lefty" is not a traditional tale. At the same time, a skaz can also be called such a way of narration, which involves the “separation” of the narrative from the participant in the events. In “Lefty” such a process takes place, especially since the word “fable” is used in the story, suggesting the skaz character of the narration. The narrator, being neither a witness nor a participant in the events, actively expresses his attitude to what is happening in various forms. At the same time, in the tale itself, one can detect the originality of the position of both the narrator and the author.
Throughout the story, the style of the story changes.. If at the beginning of the first chapter the narrator outwardly ingenuously outlines the circumstances of the emperor's arrival in England, then he successively tells about the events taking place, using vernacular, obsolete and distorted forms of words, different types of neologisms etc., then already in the sixth chapter (in the story about the Tula masters) the narration becomes different. It does not completely lose its conversational character, however becomes more neutral, practically no distorted forms of words, neologisms are used . By changing the narrative manner, the author wants to show the seriousness of the described situation.. It is no coincidence that it occurs even high vocabulary, when the narrator characterizes "skillful people, on whom the hope of the nation now rested." The same kind of narration can be found in the last, 20th chapter, which, obviously, summing up, contains the author's point of view, so its style differs from that of most of the chapters.
In the calm and outwardly impassive speech of the narrator are often introduced expressively colored words(for example, Alexander Pavlovich decided to “ride around Europe”), which becomes one of the forms of expression author's position deeply hidden in the text.
The story itself skillfully emphasizes intonation features of characters' speech(cf., for example, the statements of Alexander I and Platov).
According to I.V. Stolyarova, Leskov “directs the interest of readers to the events themselves”, which is facilitated by the special logical structure of the text: most of the chapters have an ending, and some have a peculiar beginning, which makes it possible to clearly separate one event from another. This principle creates the effect of a fantastic manner. You can also notice that in a number of chapters, it is at the end that the narrator expresses the author’s position: “And the courtiers who stand on the steps all turn away from him, they think: “Platov got caught and now they will drive him out of the palace, because they couldn’t stand him for courage” (end of chapter 12).
It is impossible not to note the use of various techniques that characterize the features of not only oral speech, but also folk poetic creativity in general: tautologies(“shod on horseshoes”, etc.), peculiar prefixed verb forms(“admired”, “send”, “slap”, etc.), words with diminutive suffixes(“palm”, “bubble”, etc.). It is interesting to pay attention to the introduced saying text(“morning is wiser than night”, “snow on the head”). Sometimes Leskov can modify them.
ABOUT the mixing of different manners of narration is evidenced by the nature of neologisms. They can go into more detail describe the object and its function(double carriage) scene(busters - combining the words busts and chandeliers, the writer gives a more complete description of the room in one word), action(whistles - whistles and messengers accompanying Platov), designate foreign curiosities(.merblue mantons - camel mantles, etc.), the state of the heroes (waiting - waiting and agitation, an annoying bite, on which long years lay Platov, characterizing not only the inaction of the hero, but also his wounded pride). The appearance of neologisms in Leskov in many cases is due to literary play.
“Thus, Leskov's tale as a type of narration not only transformed, enriched, but also served to create a new genre variety: a tale of tales. A fairy tale is distinguished by a great depth of coverage of reality, approaching in this sense the novel form. It was Leskov's fairy tale that contributed to the emergence of a new type of truth seeker, who can be put on a par with the heroes of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky ”(Mushchenko E.G., Skobelev V.P., Kroichik L.E. S. 115). The artistic originality of "Lefty" is due to the task of finding special forms of expressing the author's position in order to assert the power national character.
Variety of genres (from major novels and chronicles to small form in all varieties. At the same time, L discovered a special propensity for the chronicle genre.
Documentary pr-th L. His name is "not a writer-fictionist, but a writer-recorder" this leads to a chronicle composition. L often uses unreasonable sudden events, many suddenly, many climaxes, the plot unfolds with many introductory chapters and faces.
The originality is also manifested in language skills. The writer is bizarrely heterogeneous linguistic e-you. Obsolete words and dialectisms. Attentive to nar etymology, nar rethinking and sound deformation of the word
Many pr-i are written in the form of a tale with the special oral speech of the narrator or hero preserved, but often, along with the narration, the author-interlocutor also speaks, whose speech preserves the speech features of the hero. So the tale turns into a stylization. All this is subordinated to the main task - to reveal the fate of Russia.
Leskov's stories about the righteous. The problem of our national character became one of the main ones for the literature of the 1960s and 1980s, closely connected with the activities of the various revolutionaries, and later the Narodniks. In "Well-Intentioned Speeches", the satirist showed the Russian mass reader - the "simple" reader, as he said - all the lies and hypocrisy of the ideological foundations of the noble-bourgeois state. He exposed the falsity of the well-intentioned speeches of the lawyers of this state, who “throw you all kinds of“ cornerstones ”, talk about various“ foundations ”and then“ they foul the stones and spit on the foundations. The writer exposed the predatory nature of bourgeois property, respect for which the people were brought up from childhood; revealed the immorality of the bourgeois family relations And ethical standards. The Mon Repos Shelter cycle (1878-1879) shed light on the situation of small and medium-sized nobles in the late 70s. The author again turns to the most important topic: what did the reform give Russia, how did it affect various sections of the population, what is the future of the Russian bourgeoisie? Saltykov-Shchedrin shows the Progorelov family of nobles, whose village is becoming more and more entangled in the nets of the local kulak Gruzdev; truthfully notes that the bourgeoisie is replacing the nobility, but expresses neither regret nor sympathy for the dying class. In Krugly God, the satirist passionately and selflessly fights against young monarchist bureaucrats like Fedenka Neugodov, against the wild repressions of the government, frightened by the scope of the revolutionary struggle of the Narodnaya Volya, defends honest journalism and literature - the “beacon of ideas”, the “source of life” - from the government and from "Moscow hysterics" Katkov and Leontiev.
Leskov has a whole cycle of novels and stories on the theme of righteousness.
Love, skill, beauty, crime - all mixed up and
in another story by N.S. Leskov - “The Sealed Angel”. There is no
any one main character; there is a narrator and an icon around which
action unfolds. Because of it, faiths collide (official and
Old Believers), because of it they work miracles of beauty and go to
self-sacrifice, sacrificing not only life, but also the soul. It turns out for
Can the same person be killed and saved? And even true faith does not save from
sin? Fanatical worship of even the highest idea leads to
idolatry, and, consequently, vanity and superstition, when the main thing
something small and unimportant is accepted. And the line between virtue and sin
elusive, each person carries both. But ordinary
people mired in everyday affairs and problems, transgressing morality, do not
noticing this, they discover in themselves the heights of the spirit "... for the sake of people's love for people,
revealed this very terrible night". So the Russian character combines faith and unbelief, strength and
weakness, meanness and majesty. It has many faces, like people embodying
his. But its non-applied, true features are manifested only in the most simple and in
at the same time unique - in relation to people to each other, in love. If only
it was not lost, it was not ruined by reality, it gave people the strength to live. In the story "The Enchanted Wanderer" (1873), Leskov, without idealizing the hero and not simplifying him, creates a holistic, but contradictory, unbalanced character. Ivan Severyanovich can also be wildly cruel, unbridled in his ebullient passions. But his nature is truly revealed in good and chivalrous disinterested deeds for the sake of others, in selfless deeds, in the ability to cope with any business. Innocence and humanity, practical intelligence and perseverance, courage and endurance, a sense of duty and love for the motherland - these are the remarkable features of the Leskovsky wanderer. Innocence and humanity, practical intelligence and perseverance, courage and endurance, a sense of duty and love for the motherland - these are the remarkable features of the Leskovsky wanderer. The positive types depicted by Leskov opposed the "mercantile age" approved by capitalism, which carried the depreciation of the personality of the common man, turned him into a stereotype, into a "fifty". Leskov, by means of fiction, resisted the heartlessness and selfishness of the people of the "banking period", the invasion of the bourgeois-petty-bourgeois plague, which kills everything poetic and bright in a person. The originality of Leskov lies in the fact that his optimistic portrayal of the positive and heroic, talented and extraordinary in the Russian people is inevitably accompanied by bitter irony, when the author sorrowfully talks about the sad and often tragic fate of the representatives of the people. The left-hander is a small, nondescript, dark person who does not know the "calculation of strength", because he did not get into the "sciences" and instead of the four rules of addition from arithmetic, everything still wanders according to the "Psalter and the Half Dream Book". But the wealth of nature inherent in him, diligence, dignity, the height of moral feeling and innate delicacy immeasurably elevate him above all the stupid and cruel masters of life. Of course, Lefty believed in the king-father and was a religious person. The image of Lefty under the pen of Leskov turns into a generalized symbol of the Russian people. In the eyes of Leskov, the moral value of a person lies in his organic connection with the living national element - with his native land and its nature, with its people and traditions that go back into the distant past. The most remarkable thing was that Leskov, an excellent connoisseur of the life of his time, did not submit to the idealization of the people that dominated the Russian intelligentsia in the 70s and 80s. The author of "Lefty" does not flatter the people, but he does not belittle them either. He portrays the people in accordance with specific historical conditions, and at the same time penetrates into the richest opportunities hidden in the people for creativity, ingenuity, and service to the motherland.
5. The most diverse characters in their social status in the works of Leskov got the opportunity to express themselves in their own word and thus act as if independently of their creator. Leskov was able to realize this creative principle thanks to his outstanding philological abilities. His "priests speak in a spiritual way, nihilists - in a nihilistic way, peasants - in a peasant way, upstarts from them and buffoons with frills."
The juicy, colorful language of Leskovsky's characters corresponded to the bright colorful world of his work, in which life is fascinated, despite all its imperfections and tragic contradictions. Life in the perception of Leskov is unusually interesting. The most ordinary phenomena, falling into art world of his works are transformed into a fascinating story, into a sharp anecdote or into a “funny old fairy tale under which, through some kind of warm slumber, the heart smiles freshly and affectionately. To match this semi-fairytale, "full of mysterious charms of the world" and Leskov's favorite heroes are eccentrics and "righteous people", people with a whole nature and a generous soul. None of the Russian writers we will meet so many positive characters. Acute criticism of Russian reality and active civil position encouraged the writer to search for the positive beginnings of Russian life. And the main hopes for the moral revival of Russian society, without which he could not imagine social and economic progress, Leskov placed on the best people of all classes, be it priest Savely Tuberozov from Soboryan, a policeman (Odnodum), officers (Unmercenary Engineers, Cadet Monastery), a peasant (Nemortal Golovan), a soldier (Man on the Watch) , craftsman ("Lefty"), landowner ("The seedy family").
Genre L, thoroughly saturated with philology, is a “tale” (“Lefty”, “Leon the Butler's Son”, “The Sealed Angel”), where the speech mosaic, vocabulary and voice setting are the main organizing principle. This genre is partly popular, partly antique. Here reigns "folk etymology" in the most "excessive" forms. It is also characteristic of Leskovsky philology that his characters are always marked by their profession, their social. and national sign. They are representatives of this or that jargon, dialect. Average speech, the speech of an ordinary intellectual, L gets by. It is also characteristic that these dialects are used by him in most cases in a comic way, which enhances the play function of the language. This applies both to the learned language and to the language of the clergy (cf. the deacon Achilles in The Councilmen or the deacon in Journey with the Nihilist), and to the nat. languages. Ukr. the language in the "Hare Remise" is used precisely as a comic element, and in other things, broken Russian appears every now and then. language - in the mouth of a German, then a Pole, then a Greek. Even such a "public" novel as "Nowhere" is filled with all sorts of linguistic anecdotes and parodies - a trait typical of a storyteller, a variety artist. But apart from the realm of the comic tale, L also has an opposite realm - the realm of sublime declamation. Many of his works are written, as he himself said, in "musical recitative" - metrical prose, approaching verse. There are such pieces in "The Bypassed", in "The Islanders", in "The Spender" - in places of greatest tension. In his early works, L uniquely combines stylistic traditions and techniques he took from Polish, Ukrainian. and Russian writers. But in later works this connection
Leskov has a whole cycle of novels and stories on the theme of righteousness. The people of L. interpreted the concept broadly, and peasants, merchants, officials, and priests turned out to be righteous (“Odnodum”, “Cathedrals”). The righteous are endowed with mercy towards the sick, the oppressed, the poor. All of them have universal categories of goodness. The value of these virtues increases from experienced persecution and persecution both from the side of the authorities and from people who live a cruel and selfish life. In a sense, all the righteous merged in the broadly understood people's truth and turned out to be an opposition force in relation to the existing system, they carried in themselves some element of the social. rebuke. Archpriest Tuberozov (“Cathedrals”), a man who lived in external prosperity, grew up as a rebel, rebelled against the lies of priestly life, privileges, and dependence on higher ranks. All his thoughts for 30 years of service are recorded in his "Demicotonic Book". He yearns for a nationwide denunciation of the rank of priest at the council. Tuberozov refuses to repent and dies in his righteousness. Many righteous people seem to be eccentrics, people with a shifted psychology, oddities. All of them have some kind of obsession. “Righteousness” turns out to be a kind of popular opinion, which develops and lives spontaneously, it cannot be curbed by any circulars of power. Resolutely always "righteous" did not receive due assessment from the authorities. In principle, the "righteous" according to the social. estimates of a “small” person, whose entire property is often in a small shoulder bag, and spiritually he grows in the mind of the reader into a giant legendary epic figure. Such is the hero Ivan Severyanych Flyagin (“The Enchanted Wanderer”), reminiscent of Ilya Muromets. The conclusion from his life was this: "A Russian person can handle everything." He saw a lot and experienced a lot: “All my life I have been dying and could not die in any way.” Most bright work about the righteous - "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and steel flea". The “righteous” bring charm to people, but they themselves act as if enchanted. Give them a second life, they will live it the same way. In the exploits of Lefty and his friends, the Tula masters, there is a lot of virtuoso luck, even eccentric eccentricity. Meanwhile, their life is very nasty and for the most part meaningless, and folk talents wither and perish under the tsarist system. The result of the story is bitter: forced labor is pointless, although Lefty showed Russian prowess. And yet L. does not lose optimism. Despite the cruelty of circumstances and the complete oblivion that awaits Lefty, the hero managed to save the "human soul". L. was convinced that simple people with their with pure hearts and thoughts, standing aside from the main events, "they make history stronger than others."
N. S. Leskov is an original and great writer. L. born in 1831 in the village of Gorokhov, Oryol province, in a family of small. official, out from a spiritual environment. As a child, his peers were baptized children, with a cat he, in his own words, "lived and lived soul to soul." L. wrote that the people do not need to study “The common people. I knew everyday life down to the smallest detail, and down to the smallest nuances I understood how it was related to it from a large manor house, from our “small chicken house”. In the 16th year, without graduating from the gymnasium, he began his working life as a clerk in the Oryol Criminal Chamber. Later, having entered the private commercial service, he traveled Russia far and wide. According to L.'s convictions, he was a democrat, an educator, an enemy of crepe rights and its vestiges, a defender of education. But to the assessment of all yavl-th social. and political life, he, like Dost and L. Tolst, approached morality. criterion and count. the main progress is moral progress: we don’t need good orders, but we need good people, ”said L. creative theme. L. - the possibilities and riddles of the Russian. nat. Har-ra. Distinguishing properties Russ people he was looking for in all estates and classes, and his artist. the world hit its social. variegation and diversity. the grandson of a priest and a merchant's wife, the son of officials and a noblewoman, he knew the life of each class well and depicted it in his own way, constantly mixing it with literary traditions and stereotypes. His Katarina Izmailova from the story “LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSKY DISTRICT! immediately reminded the heroine of the play A. N. Ostrovsk "Thunderstorm"; also a young merchant's wife, having decided on illegal love, seized by passion to self-forgetfulness. But Kat Izm depicts love not as a protest against the merchant's way of life, to demand to rise above it, but as born of the same way of life, its sleepy stupidity, lack of spirituality, the thirst for pleasure, prompting the "fearless" woman to commit murder after murder. This is the image of the Russian. Har-ra L. is arguing not nur with Ostrovsky and Dobrolyubov. The name of the story recalls Turgenev's essay "Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky District", where he described the European images of a nobleman with a weak, insignificant character. In L., the heroine of the sixth warehouse combines, on the contrary, an unusual strength of character with complete intellect and morals underdevelopment.
Early stories L. from the people. life "The Warrior" - about a tenacious and cynical Petersburg matchmaker, broken by a passion that overtook her late - like "Lady Macbeth ...", basic. on plots and images drawn from the people. love-everyday songs and ballads, and are saturated with rustic. and philistine-urban eloquence. L. is looking for genuine Russian heroes. life in a different environment-in the patriarch. nobility.
12. early dos-poor people, mistress, doppelgänger.
