The work "The Noble Nest" was written in 1858. Turgenev set himself the task of portraying a typical image of the Russian landowner's estate, in which the life of the entire provincial nobility of that time proceeded. What was this society? Glitter and wretchedness merged here into a single canvas of secular existence. The life of the nobility consisted of receptions, balls, trips to the theater, the pursuit of Western fashion, the desire to look “worthy”. In this work, Turgenev revealed the concept of " noble nest» not only as estates noble family but also as a social, cultural and psychological phenomenon.

It happened in 1842. On a fine spring day in the Kalitins' house, it becomes known that a certain Lavretsky is coming. This is a significant event for the city. Fyodor Ivanovich Lavretsky arrives abroad. He was in Paris, where he accidentally discovered the betrayal of his own wife, the beautiful Varvara Pavlovna. He broke off relations with her, and as a result of this, she became famous in Europe.

The news is brought by a certain Gedeonovsky, state councilor and big man. The widow of the former provincial prosecutor Maria Dmitrievna, whose house is considered the most respected in the city, has sympathy for him.

“Marya Dmitrievna in her youth enjoyed the reputation of a pretty blonde; and at fifty her features were not devoid of pleasantness, although they were a little swollen and flattened. She was more sensitive than kind, and until her mature years she retained her institute manners; she spoiled herself, was easily irritated, and even wept when her habits were broken; on the other hand, she was very affectionate and amiable when all her desires were fulfilled and no one contradicted her. Her house was one of the nicest in the city.

Maria Dmitrievna's aunt, seventy-year-old Marfa Timofeevna, on the contrary, does not like Pestov, Gedeonovsky, considering him a talker and a writer. Marfa Timofeevna generally likes few people. For example, she does not at all favor the official from St. Petersburg on special assignments, the chamber junker Vladimir Nikolaevich Panshin, whom everyone loves so much. The first groom in the city, a wonderful gentleman who plays the piano so amazingly, and also composes romances, writes poetry, draws, recites. He has a lot of talents, besides, he holds himself with such dignity!

Panshin arrived in the city with some task. Often happens at Kaliti's. They say he likes Liza, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Maria Dmitrievna. Surely he would have made an offer long ago, but only Marfa Timofeevna does not let him down, believing that he is no match for Liza. And the music teacher, already middle-aged Khristofor Fedorovich Lemm, does not like him. Lemm's appearance did not favor him. He was short, round-shouldered, with crookedly protruding shoulder blades and a retracted belly, with large flat feet, with pale blue nails on the hard, unbent fingers of sinewy red hands; his face had wrinkled, sunken cheeks and compressed lips, with which he constantly moved and chewed, which, with his usual silence, produced an almost ominous impression; his gray hair hung in tufts over his low forehead; like freshly filled embers, his tiny, motionless eyes smoldered muffledly; he walked heavily, at every step throwing his clumsy body. This unattractive German was very fond of his pupil Lisa.

Everyone in the city discusses Lavretsky's personal life and comes to the conclusion that he does not look too pathetic as it was supposed. Keeps cheerful, looks good, and radiates with health. Only sadness hides in the eyes.

Lavretsky is a man of such a disposition that it is unusual for him to become limp. His great-grandfather Andrei was a tough, smart, cunning man, he knew how to stand up for himself and achieve what he needed. His wife was a gypsy at all, her character was quick-tempered, it was fraught with offending her - she would always find how to take revenge on the offender. “The son of Andrei, Peter, Fedorov’s grandfather, did not resemble his father; he was a simple steppe gentleman, rather eccentric, a screamer and a hooter, rude, but not evil, a hospitable and canine hunter. He was over thirty years old when he inherited from his father two thousand souls in excellent order, but he soon dismissed them, partly sold his estate, spoiled the household ... Pyotr Andreevich's wife was a humble; he took her from a neighboring family, according to his father's choice and order; her name was Anna Pavlovna ... She had two children with him: son Ivan, Fedorov's father, and daughter Glafira.

Ivan was brought up by a rich old aunt, Princess Kubenskaya: she appointed him her heir, dressed him like a doll, hired all kinds of teachers for him. After her death, Ivan did not want to stay in his aunt's house, where he suddenly turned from a rich heir into a hanger-on. Involuntarily, he returned to the village, to his father. His native nest seemed dirty, poor and trashy, and everyone in the house, except for his mother, looked unfriendly. His father criticized him, “everything here is not for him,” he used to say, “he’s picky at the table, he doesn’t eat, he can’t stand the smell of people, he can’t stand stuffiness, the sight of drunk people upsets him, don’t dare to fight in front of him either, he doesn’t want to serve: weak, you see , health; fu you, such a sissy!

Tempering to life's troubles, obviously, passed from the ancestors to Fyodor Lavretsky. Even in infancy, Fedor had to take a sip of trials. His father became friends with the maid Malanya, fell in love and wanted to connect his fate with her. His father became furious and disinherited him, ordering Malania to be sent away. On the way, Ivan intercepted her, and got married. He left her with his distant relatives, he went to St. Petersburg, then abroad. Malania had a son. For a long time, the elder Lavretskys did not accept her, and only when Ivan's mother was dying, she asked her husband to accept her son and wife. Malanya Sergeevna appeared with little Fedor at the house of her husband's parents. The latter came to Russia twelve years later, when Malanya had already died.

Fedor was brought up by his aunt Glafira Andreevna. This woman was terrible: evil and ugly, loving power and humility. She kept Fyodor in fear. She was given him to be raised during her mother's lifetime.

Upon his return, the father himself took up the upbringing of his son. The boy's life has changed, but it has not become easier. Now he wore a Scottish suit, he was taught math, international law, heraldry ^ natural sciences, they were forced to do gymnastics, get up at four in the morning, pour cold water over them, and then run around the pole on a rope. They fed him once a day. In addition, he was taught to ride, shoot from a crossbow, and when Fyodor turned seventeen, his father began to instill in him contempt for women.

Fedor's father died a few years later. Young Lavretsky went to Moscow, where he entered the university. Here, those traits began to appear that were nurtured in him, first by an evil wayward aunt, then by his father. Fedor did not find a common language with anyone. As for women, it was as if they did not exist at all in his life. He avoided them and was afraid.

The only person with whom Fedor got along was a certain Mi-khalevich. He wrote poetry and looked at life with enthusiasm. With Fedor, they seriously became friends. When Fyodor was twenty-six, Mikhalevich introduced him to the beautiful Varvara Pavlovna Korobina, and Lavretsky lost his head. Varvara was really good, charming, educated, possessed many talents and could bewitch anyone, not just Fyodor. Because of this, he had to suffer in the future. Well, in the meantime, there was a wedding, and six months later the young arrived in Lavriki.

Fedor did not graduate from the university. Together with his young wife, he began family life. Aunt Glafira was no longer in charge of his house. General Korobin, Varvara Pavlovna's father, was appointed manager. The young family went to Petersburg.

Soon they had a son, but he did not live very long. Doctors advised the family to move to Paris to improve their health. And so they did.

Varvara Pavlovna liked Paris immediately and forever. She conquers the French world, gets herself an army of admirers. In society, she is accepted as the first beauty of the world.

Lavretsky did not even think about doubting his wife, but a love note addressed to Varvara fell into his hands. The character of the ancestors woke up in Fedor. In a rage, he first decided to destroy both his wife and her lover, but then he ordered a letter about the annual allowance to his wife and about the departure of General Korobin from the estate, and he went to Italy.

Abroad, Fedor continued to hear rumors about his wife's affairs. He learned that she had a daughter, possibly his daughter. However, by this time, Fedor did not care anymore. For four years he lived in a voluntary distance from everything that was in his former life. Then, however, he decided to return home to Russia, to his Vasilievskoye estate.

In his hometown, Lisa liked him from the first days. However, he himself assumed her to be Panshin's lover, who did not leave her a single step. Lisa's mother openly said that Panshin could become Elizabeth's chosen one. Marfa Timofeevna desperately opposed this.

Lavretsky settled in his estate and began to live in solitude. He did housework, rode horseback, read a lot. After some time, he decided to go to the Kalitins. So he met Lemm, with whom he became friends. In the conversation, old Lemm, who was rarely treated with respect, spoke of Panshin. He was sure that Lisa did not need this man, that she did not love him, that her mother urged her on. Lemm spoke badly of Panshin as a person and believed that Lisa simply could not fall in love with such a nonentity.

Liza lost her father early, however, he did little to her. “Swamped with business, constantly preoccupied with the growth of his fortune, bilious, sharp, impatient, he did not skimp on giving money for teachers, tutors, for clothes and other needs of children; but he could not bear, as he put it, to babysit the squeakers—besides, he had no time to babysit them: he worked, busied himself with business, slept little, occasionally played cards, worked again; he compared himself to a horse harnessed to a threshing machine...

Marya Dmitrievna, in fact, was not much more concerned with Liza than her husband, although she boasted to Lavretsky that she had brought up her children alone; she dressed her like a doll, stroked her head in front of guests and called her a clever and darling in her eyes - and only: the lazy lady was tired of all constant care. During the life of her father, Lisa was in the arms of a gou-vfnant, the maiden Moreau from Paris; and after his death, Marfa Timofeevna took up her upbringing. Turgenev shows the typical attitude of parents towards children in the so-called "noble nests".

Lisa and Lavretsky are getting closer. They communicate a lot, and it is obvious that there is mutual trust in their relationship. Once, in great embarrassment, Liza asked Lavretsky why he had broken with his wife. In her opinion, it is impossible to tear apart what God has connected, and Lavretsky had to forgive his wife, no matter what she did. Lisa herself lives by the principle of forgiveness. She is submissive because she was taught this as a child. When Liza was very young, her nanny named Agafya took her to church, told her about the life of the Blessed Virgin, saints and hermits. She herself was an example of humility, meekness, and a sense of duty was her main life principle.

Unexpectedly, Mikhalevich arrives in Vasilyevskoye, aged, obviously not living well, but still burning with life. He “did not lose heart and lived for himself as a cynic, idealist, poet, sincerely caring and lamenting about the fate of mankind, about his own vocation - and caring very little about how not to die of hunger. Mikhalevich was not married, but fell in love without counting and wrote poems for all his lovers; he sang with particular ardor one mysterious dark-haired<панну»... Ходили, правда, слухи, будто эта панна была простая жидовка, хорошо известная многим кавалерийским офицерам... но, как подумаешь -чразве и это не все равно?»

Lavretsky and Mikhalevich argue for a long time on the topic of happiness in life. What can give a person joy, bring him out of an apathetic existence? - this is the subject of their dispute. Lemm follows the course of their thoughts without interfering in the discussion.

The Kalitins are coming to Vasilyevskoye. Lisa and Lavretsky communicate a lot, it is clear that both of them enjoy it. They become friends, which they confirm when they say goodbye during a short dialogue.

The next day, Lavretsky looks through French magazines and newspapers to keep himself occupied. One of them contains a message that the queen of fashionable Parisian salons, Madame Lavretskaya, suddenly died. Fyodor Ivanovich thus turns out to be free.

In the morning he goes to the Kalitins to meet Lisa and tell her the news. However, Lisa accepted him rather coolly, saying that it was worth thinking not about her new position, but about getting forgiveness. In turn, Lisa says that Panshin proposed to her. She does not love him, but her mother insistently convinces her to marry him.

Lavretsky begs Liza to think before, not to marry without love. “- I only ask you about one thing ... do not decide right away, wait, think about what I told you. Even if you did not believe me, even if you decided to marry according to reason - and in that case you would not marry Mr. Panshin: he cannot be your husband ... Isn't it true, you promise me not to hurry?

Liza wanted to answer Lavretsky - and did not utter a word, not because she decided to "hurry"; but because her heart was beating too fast and a feeling like fear took her breath away.

She immediately tells Panshin that she is not yet ready to give an answer and must think. That same evening, she reported her words to Lavretsky, and then seemed to disappear for several days. When he asked about what she had decided about Panshin, Liza evaded the answer.

Once, at a social event, Panshin begins to talk about the new generation. In his opinion, Russia lagged behind Europe. As arguments, he cites, for example, that even mousetraps were not invented in Russia. His anger and irritation is obvious, regarding the topic of conversation - Russia - Parshin demonstrates contempt. Lavretsky enters into an argument, unexpectedly for everyone.

“Lavretsky defended the youth and independence of Russia; he sacrificed himself, his generation, but stood up for new people, for their beliefs and desires; Panshin objected irritably and sharply, announced that smart people should redo everything, and finally carried on to the point that, forgetting his chamber junker rank and bureaucratic career, he called Lavretsky a backward conservative, even hinted - though very remotely - at his false position in society.

As a result, Panshin with his arguments is defeated. He is annoyed by this fact, especially since Liza is clearly sympathetic to Lavretsky. In an argument, she took his point of view.

Lavretsky says that while there is vanity and numerous reforms around, he personally intends to plow the land as best and conscientiously as possible.

Lisa is offended and insulted that Panshin speaks of Russia in this way. She finally moves away from him, but for Lavretsky, on the contrary, she feels steadfast sympathy. She sees that they have a lot in common. The only discrepancy is the attitude towards God, but here, too, Lisa hopes that she will be able to introduce Lavretsky to the faith.

Lavretsky himself also feels the need to see Liza, to be with her. The guests disperse from the secular party, but Fedor is in no hurry. He goes out into the night garden, sits down on a bench and calls to Lisa, who is passing by. As she approaches, he confesses his love for her.

After the confession, joyful and happy, for the first time in a long time, Lavretsky returns home. In the sleeping city, he suddenly hears the wondrous, alluring sounds of music. They pour from Lemm's dwelling. Lavretsky listens fascinated, and then, calling the old man, embraces him.

The next day, Lavretsky was overtaken by an unexpected blow - his wife returned. Her many things filled the entire living room, and she herself begs him to forgive her.

“- You can live wherever you want; and if your pension is not enough for you...

Oh, don’t say such terrible words,” Varvara Pavlovna interrupted him, “have mercy on me, although ... although for the sake of this angel ...” And having said these words, Varvara Pavlovna quickly ran out into another room and immediately returned with the little one, very elegantly dressed girl in her arms. Large blond curls fell on her pretty ruddy face, on big black sleepy eyes; she smiled, and squinted from the fire, and rested her plump little hand on her mother's neck.

Ada's daughter arrived with Barbara, and she makes her also beg her father for forgiveness.

Lavretsky invited Varvara Pavlovna to settle in Lavriki, but never count on a resumption of relations. She meekly agrees, but on the same day she goes to the Kalitins.

Meanwhile, the final explanation between Liza and Panshin took place at the Kalitins. Varvara Pavlovna disposes everyone to a Jew person, conducting secular conversations, achieves the location of Maria Dmitrievna and Panshin. Lisa's mother promises to assist her in reconciliation with her husband. Among other things, Varvara hints that he has not yet forgotten "fee. Liza is very worried about this, but tries to hold on with all her might.

“Lisa's heart began to beat strongly and painfully: she barely broke herself, barely sat still. It seemed to her that Varvara Pavlovna knew everything and, secretly triumphant, teased her. Fortunately for her, Gedeonovsky spoke to Varvara Pavlovna and diverted her attention. Lisa bent over the embroidery frame and furtively watched her. This woman, she thought, he loved. But she immediately drove the very thought of Lavretsky out of her head: she was afraid of losing power over herself; she felt that her head was spinning quietly.

Lavretsky receives a note from Lisa asking for a visit and goes to the Kalitins. There he first of all sees Marfa Timofeevna. Thanks to her assistance, Fedor and Lisa remain alone. Lisa says that now there is nothing left but to fulfill his duty, Fyodor Ivanovich must make peace with his wife. Now, she says, it is impossible not to see that happiness does not depend on people, but on God.

Lavretsky, at the invitation of the servant, goes to Marya Dmitrievna. She tries to persuade him to forgive his wife. She convinces him of her great repentance, then leads Varvara Pavlovna herself out from behind the screen, and both of them beg him to have mercy. Lavretsky succumbs to persuasion and promises that he will live with her under the same roof, but only on the condition that she does not leave the estate. The next morning he took his wife and daughter to Lavriki and left for Moscow a week later.

The next day Panshin came to Varvara Pavlovna and stayed with her for three days.

Lisa, in a conversation with Marfa Timofeevna, says that she wants to go to a monastery. “I know everything, both my own sins and those of others... It is necessary to pray for all this, it is necessary to pray for it. I feel sorry for you, sorry for your mother, Lenochka; but there is nothing to do; I feel that I cannot live here; I have already said goodbye to everything, bowed to everything in the house for the last time; recalls me something; I feel sick, I want to lock myself up forever. Do not hold me back, do not dissuade me, help me, otherwise I will leave alone ... "

A year has passed. Lavretsky learned that Liza had taken the veil as a nun. She now resided in a monastery located in one of the most remote parts of Russia. After some time, Lavretsky went there. Lisa obviously noticed him, but pretended not to recognize him. They didn't even talk.

Varvara Pavlovna soon moved to St. Petersburg, and then again went to Paris. Fyodor Ivanovich gave her a bill of exchange and paid off the possibility of a second unexpected run-in. She is older and fatter, but still sweet and graceful. She had a new lover, a guardsman, “a certain Zakurdalo-Skubyrnikov, a man of about thirty-eight, of an unusually strong build. French visitors to Ms. Lavretskaya’s salon call it “1e gros taureau de 1’Ukraine” (“fat bull from Ukraine”, French). Varvara Pavlovna never invites him to her fashionable evenings, but he enjoys her full favor.

Eight years passed, and Lavretsky again went to his native city. In the Kalitins' house, many have already died. The house was now run by the young, the younger sister Lisa and her fiancé. Through the noise and merry voices, Fyodor Lavretsky walked around the house, saw the same piano, the same atmosphere, which he remembered. He was seized by "a feeling of living sadness about the disappeared youth, about the happiness that he once possessed." In the garden, the same bench and the same alley reminded him of something irretrievably lost. Only he no longer regretted anything, since he had ceased to desire his own happiness.

“And the end? - the dissatisfied reader may ask. - And what happened to Lavretsky later? with Lisa? But what to say about people who are still alive, but have already left the earthly field, why return to them?

This work was called "The Noble Nest" for a reason. The theme of such "nests" was close to Turgenev. With the greatest talent, he conveyed the atmosphere of such places, described the passions that boiled in them, worried about the fate of the heroes - Russian nobles, predicted their prospects. This work confirms that this theme is respected in the writer's work.

However, this novel cannot be called optimistic from the point of view of the fate of a particular "noble nest". Turgenev writes about the degeneration of such places, which is confirmed by many elements: the replicas of the heroes, the description of the feudal system and, in contrast, the “wild nobility”, idolatry before everything European, the images of the heroes themselves.

Using the example of the Lavretsky family, the author shows how the events of the era influence the formation of individuals living at that time. It becomes clear to readers that a person cannot live in isolation from what is happening on a large scale around him. He describes the characteristic features of the wild nobility, with its permissiveness and stereotyping, then proceeds to denounce idolatry before Europe. All this is the history of one kind of Russian nobility, very typical for its time.

Turning to the description of the modern noble Kalitin family, Turgenev notes that in this seemingly prosperous family, no one cares about Lisa's experiences, parents do not pay attention to children, there is no trust in relationships, at the same time material things are highly valued. So, Lisa's mother is trying to marry her to a man whom she does not love. A woman is guided by considerations of wealth and prestige.

The ancestors of Lavretsky, the old gossip Gedeonovsky, the dashing retired captain and famous player of Father Panigin, the retired general Korobin, a lover of government money - all these images symbolize the time. It is obvious that numerous vices flourish in Russian society, and the “noble nests” are deplorable places in which there is no place for the spiritual. Meanwhile, the aristocrats themselves consider themselves the best people. There is a crisis in Russian society.

One of the most famous Russian love novels, which contrasted idealism with satire and fixed the archetype of the Turgenev girl in culture.

comments: Kirill Zubkov

What is this book about?

"The Nest of Nobles", like many of Turgenev's novels, is built around unhappy love - the two main characters, who survived an unsuccessful marriage, Fyodor Lavretsky and the young Liza Kalitina, meet, have strong feelings for each other, but are forced to part: it turns out that Lavretsky's wife Varvara Pavlovna is not died. Shaken by her return, Lisa goes to a monastery, while Lavretsky does not want to live with his wife and spends the rest of his life managing his estate. At the same time, the novel organically includes a narrative about the life of the Russian nobility that has evolved over the past few hundred years, a description of relations between different classes, between Russia and the West, disputes about the ways of possible reforms in Russia, philosophical discussions about the nature of duty, self-denial and moral responsibility.

Ivan Turgenev. Daguerreotype O. Bisson. Paris, 1847-1850

When was it written?

Turgenev conceived a new "story" (the writer did not always consistently distinguish between stories and novels) shortly after finishing work on Rudin, his first novel, published in 1856. The idea was not realized immediately: Turgenev, contrary to his usual habit, worked on a new large work for several years. The main work was done in 1858, and already at the beginning of 1859, The Noble Nest was printed in the Nekrasov "Contemporary" ⁠ .

Title page of the manuscript of the novel "The Nest of Nobles". 1858

How is it written?

Now Turgenev's prose may not seem as spectacular as the works of many of his contemporaries. This effect is caused by the special place of Turgenev's novel in literature. For example, paying attention to the most detailed internal monologues of Tolstoy's heroes or to the originality of Tolstoy's composition, which is characterized by many central characters, the reader proceeds from the idea of ​​a kind of "normal" novel, where there is a central character who is more often shown "from the side", and not from within. It is Turgenev's novel that now acts as such a "reference point", very convenient for assessing the literature of the 19th century.

- Here you are, returned to Russia - what do you intend to do?
“Plow the land,” answered Lavretsky, “and try to plow it as best as possible.”

Ivan Turgenev

Contemporaries, however, perceived Turgenev's novel as a very peculiar step in the development of Russian prose, which stands out sharply against the background of typical fiction of its time. Turgenev's prose seemed to be a brilliant example of literary "idealism": it was contrasted with the satirical essay tradition that went back to Saltykov-Shchedrin and painted in gloomy colors how serfdom, bureaucratic corruption and social conditions in general destroy people's lives and cripple the psyche of the oppressed and the oppressors alike. Turgenev does not try to get away from these topics, however, he presents them in a completely different spirit: the writer is primarily interested not in the formation of a person under the influence of circumstances, but rather in his understanding of these circumstances and his reaction to them.

At the same time, even Shchedrin himself - far from being a soft critic and not inclined towards idealism - in a letter to Annenkov ⁠ admired Turgenev's lyricism and recognized its social benefits:

I have now read The Nest of Nobles, dear Pavel Vasilyevich, and I would like to tell you my opinion on this matter. But I absolutely can't.<…>And what can be said about all the works of Turgenev in general? Is it that after reading them it is easy to breathe, easy to believe, warmly felt? What do you clearly feel, how the moral level in you rises, that you mentally bless and love the author? But after all, these will only be commonplaces, and this, precisely this impression, is left behind by these transparent images, as if woven from air, this is the beginning of love and light, which beats with a living spring in every line and, however, still disappears in empty space. . But in order to decently express these commonplaces, you yourself must be a poet and fall into lyricism.

Alexander Druzhinin. 1856 Photo by Sergey Levitsky. Druzhinin - a friend of Turgenev and his colleague in the Sovremennik magazine

Pavel Annenkov. 1887 Engraving by Yuri Baranovsky from a photograph by Sergei Levitsky. Annenkov was friends with Turgenev, and was also the first biographer and researcher of Pushkin's work.

"The Nest of Nobles" was Turgenev's last major work, published in "Contemporary" Literary magazine (1836-1866), founded by Pushkin. From 1847, Nekrasov and Panaev directed Sovremennik, later Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov joined the editorial board. In the 60s, an ideological split occurred in Sovremennik: the editors came to understand the need for a peasant revolution, while many authors of the journal (Turgenev, Tolstoy, Goncharov, Druzhinin) advocated slower and more gradual reforms. Five years after the abolition of serfdom, Sovremennik was closed by personal order of Alexander II. ⁠ . Unlike many novels of this time, it fit entirely in one issue - readers did not have to wait for a sequel. Turgenev's next novel, "On the Eve", will be published in the magazine Mikhail Katkov Mikhail Nikiforovich Katkov (1818-1887) - publisher and editor of the literary magazine "Russian Messenger" and the newspaper "Moskovskie Vedomosti". In his youth, Katkov is known as a liberal and a Westerner, he is friends with Belinsky. With the beginning of the reforms of Alexander II, Katkov's views become noticeably more conservative. In the 1880s, he actively supported the counter-reforms of Alexander III, campaigned against ministers of non-titular nationality, and generally became an influential political figure - and the emperor himself read his newspaper. ⁠ "Russian messenger" Literary and political magazine (1856-1906) founded by Mikhail Katkov. In the late 1950s, the editorial board took a moderately liberal position; from the beginning of the 1960s, Russky Vestnik became more and more conservative and even reactionary. Over the years, the magazine published the central works of Russian classics: Anna Karenina and War and Peace by Tolstoy, Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, On the Eve and Fathers and Sons by Turgenev, Cathedrals Leskov. ⁠ , which in economic terms was a competitor to Sovremennik, and in political and literary terms - a principled opponent.

Turgenev's break with Sovremennik and his fundamental conflict with his old friend Nekrasov (who, however, many biographers of both writers tend to overdramatize) are connected, apparently, with Turgenev's unwillingness to have anything in common with the "nihilists" Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky, who printed on the pages of Sovremennik. Although both radical critics never spoke badly of The Nest of Nobles, the reasons for the gap are generally clear from the text of Turgenev's novel. Turgenev generally believed that it was precisely the aesthetic qualities that made literature a means of public education, while his opponents rather saw art as an instrument of direct propaganda, which could just as well be carried out directly, without resorting to any artistic techniques. In addition, Chernyshevsky hardly liked that Turgenev again turned to the image of a hero-nobleman disappointed in life. In the article “A Russian Man on Rendez-Vous” dedicated to the story “Asya”, Chernyshevsky already explained that he considers the social and cultural role of such heroes to be completely exhausted, and they themselves deserve only condescending pity.

First edition of The Noble Nest. Publishing house of the book seller A. I. Glazunov, 1859

The Sovremennik magazine for 1859, where the novel The Noble Nest was first published

What influenced her?

It is generally accepted that, first of all, Turgenev was influenced by the works of Pushkin. The plot of the "Noble Nest" has been repeatedly compared with history. In both works, a Europeanized nobleman who arrived in the provinces encounters an original and independent girl, whose upbringing was influenced by both noble and common folk culture (by the way, both Pushkin's Tatiana and Turgenev's Lisa encounter peasant culture through communication with a nanny). In both, love feelings arise between the characters, but due to a combination of circumstances, they are not destined to stay together.

It is easier to understand the meaning of these parallels in a literary context. Critics of the 1850s were inclined to oppose each other "Gogol" and "Pushkin" trends in Russian literature. The legacy of Pushkin and Gogol became especially relevant in this era, given that in the mid-1850s, thanks to softened censorship, it became possible to publish fairly complete editions of the works of both authors, which included many works previously unknown to contemporaries. On the side of Gogol in this confrontation was, among others, Chernyshevsky, who saw in the author, first of all, a satirist who denounced social vices, and in Belinsky - the best interpreter of his work. Accordingly, such writers as Saltykov-Shchedrin and his numerous imitators were considered to be a "Gogol" trend. Supporters of the "Pushkin" direction were much closer to Turgenev: it is no coincidence that Pushkin's collected works were published Annenkov Pavel Vasilievich Annenkov (1813-1887) - literary critic and publicist, the first biographer and researcher of Pushkin, the founder of Pushkin studies. He was friends with Belinsky, in the presence of Annenkov Belinsky wrote his actual testament - "Letter to Gogol", under Gogol's dictation Annenkov rewrote "Dead Souls". The author of memoirs about the literary and political life of the 1840s and its heroes: Herzen, Stankevich, Bakunin. One of Turgenev's close friends, the writer sent all his latest works to Annenkov before publication. ⁠ , a friend of Turgenev, and the most famous review of this publication was written by Alexander Druzhinin Alexander Vasilievich Druzhinin (1824-1864) - critic, writer, translator. Since 1847, he published stories, novels, feuilletons, translations in Sovremennik, and his debut was the story Polinka Saks. From 1856 to 1860 Druzhinin was the editor of the Library for Reading. In 1859, he organized the Society to provide assistance to needy writers and scientists. Druzhinin criticized the ideological approach to art and advocated "pure art" free from any didacticism. ⁠ - Another author who left Sovremennik, who was on good terms with Turgenev. Turgenev during this period clearly focuses his prose precisely on the "Pushkin" beginning, as the then criticism understood it: literature should not directly address socio-political problems, but gradually influence the public, which is formed and educated under the influence of aesthetic impressions and ultimately becomes capable of responsible and worthy deeds in various spheres, including the socio-political one. The business of literature is to promote, as Schiller would say, "aesthetic education."

"Noble Nest". Directed by Andrey Konchalovsky. 1969

How was it received?

Most writers and critics were delighted with Turgenev's novel, which combined the poetic principle and social relevance. Annenkov began his review of the novel as follows: “It is difficult to say, starting the analysis of the new work of Mr. Turgenev, what is more deserving of attention: whether it is with all its merits, or the extraordinary success that met him in all strata of our society. In any case, it is worth thinking seriously about the reasons for that single sympathy and approval, that delight and enthusiasm that were caused by the appearance of the “Noble Nest”. On the author's new novel, people of opposite parties came together in one common verdict; representatives of heterogeneous systems and views shook hands with each other and expressed the same opinion. Especially effective was the reaction of the poet and critic Apollon Grigoriev ⁠ , who devoted a series of articles to Turgenev's novel and admired the writer's desire to portray "attachment to the soil" and "humility before the people's truth" in the person of the protagonist.

However, some contemporaries had different opinions. For example, according to the memoirs of the writer Nikolai Luzhenovsky, Alexander Ostrovsky remarked: “The noble nest”, for example, is a very good thing, but Lisa is unbearable for me: this girl is definitely suffering from scrofula driven inside.

Apollo Grigoriev. Second half of the 19th century. Grigoriev devoted a whole series of complimentary articles to Turgenev's novel

Alexander Ostrovsky. About 1870. Ostrovsky praised "The Nest of Nobles", but found the heroine Lisa "intolerable"

In an interesting way, Turgenev's novel quickly ceased to be perceived as a topical and topical work, and was further often evaluated as an example of "pure art". Perhaps this was influenced by those that caused a much greater resonance, thanks to which the image of the “nihilist” entered Russian literature, which for several decades became the subject of heated debate and various literary interpretations. Nevertheless, the novel was a success: already in 1861 an authorized French translation was published, in 1862 - German, in 1869 - English. Thanks to this, Turgenev's novel until the end of the 19th century was one of the most discussed works of Russian literature abroad. Scholars write about his influence on, for example, Henry James and Joseph Conrad.

Why was The Nest of Nobles such a topical novel?

The time of publication of The Nest of Nobles was an exceptional period for imperial Russia, which Fyodor Tyutchev (long before Khrushchev's time) called the "thaw". The first years of the reign of Alexander II, who ascended the throne at the end of 1855, were accompanied by the growth of “glasnost” (another expression that is now associated with a completely different era) that amazed contemporaries. The defeat in the Crimean War was perceived both among government officials and in educated society as a symptom of the deepest crisis that had engulfed the country. The definitions of the Russian people and empire adopted in the Nikolaev years, based on the well-known doctrine of the “official nationality”, seemed completely inadequate. In the new era, the nation and the state had to be reinterpreted.

Many contemporaries were sure that literature could help in this, actually contributing to the reforms initiated by the government. It is no coincidence that during these years the government offered writers, for example, to participate in compiling the repertoire of state theaters or compiling a statistical and ethnographic description of the Volga region. Although the action of The Nest of Nobles takes place in the 1840s, the novel reflected the actual problems of the era of its creation. For example, in the dispute between Lavretsky and Panshin, the protagonist of the novel proves “the impossibility of leaps and arrogant alterations from the height of bureaucratic self-awareness - alterations that are not justified either by knowledge of their native land or by real faith in an ideal, even a negative one,” obviously, these words refer to plans government reforms. The preparations for the abolition of serfdom made the topic of relations between estates very relevant, which largely determines the background of Lavretsky and Lisa: Turgenev is trying to present to the public a novel about how a person can comprehend and experience his place in Russian society and history. As in his other works, “the story has penetrated into the character and works from within. Its properties are generated by a given historical situation, and outside of this they have no meaning" 1 Ginzburg L. Ya. About psychological prose. Ed. 2nd. L., 1976. S. 295. ⁠ .

"Noble Nest". Directed by Andrey Konchalovsky. 1969 In the role of Lavretsky - Leonid Kulagin

Piano by Konrad Graf. Austria, circa 1838. The piano in the "Nest of Nobles" is an important symbol: acquaintances are made around it, disputes are fought, love is born, a long-awaited masterpiece is created. Musicality, attitude to music - an important feature of Turgenev's heroes

Who and why accused Turgenev of plagiarism?

At the end of the work on the novel, Turgenev read it to some of his friends and took advantage of their comments, finalizing his work for Sovremennik, and he especially valued the opinion of Annenkov (who, according to the recollections of Ivan Goncharov, who was present at this reading, recommended Turgenev to include in the narrative the backstory of the main character Lisa Kalitina, explaining the origins of her religious beliefs. The researchers actually found that the corresponding chapter was added to the manuscript later).

Ivan Goncharov was not enthusiastic about Turgenev's novel. A few years earlier, he told the author of The Nest of Nobles about the concept of his own work, dedicated to an amateur artist who finds himself in the Russian outback. Hearing the "Nest of Nobles" in the author's reading, Goncharov was furious: Turgenev's Panshin (among other things, an amateur artist), as it seemed to him, was "borrowed" from the "program" of his future novel "Cliff", moreover, his image was distorted ; the chapter on the protagonist's ancestors also seemed to him the result of literary theft, as did the image of the strict old lady Marfa Timofeevna. After these accusations, Turgenev made some changes to the manuscript, in particular, changing the dialogue between Marfa Timofeevna and Lisa, which takes place after a night meeting between Lisa and Lavretsky. Goncharov seemed to be satisfied, but in the next great work of Turgenev - the novel "On the Eve" - ​​he again found the image of an amateur artist. The conflict between Goncharov and Turgenev led to a big scandal in literary circles. Collected for his resolution "Areopagus" The authority in ancient Athens, which consisted of representatives of the tribal aristocracy. In a figurative sense - a meeting of authoritative persons to resolve an important issue. ⁠ of authoritative writers and critics, he acquitted Turgenev, but Goncharov suspected the author of The Noble Nest of plagiarism for several decades. The Cliff came out only in 1869 and did not enjoy such success as the first novels of Goncharov, who blamed Turgenev for this. Gradually, Goncharov’s conviction of Turgenev’s bad faith turned into a real mania: the writer, for example, was sure that Turgenev’s agents were copying his drafts and passing them on to Gustave Flaubert, who made a name for himself thanks to Goncharov’s works.

Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, Turgenev's family estate. Engraving by M. Rashevsky after a photograph by William Carrick. Originally published in the Niva magazine for 1883

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

What do the heroes of Turgenev's novels and stories have in common?

Famous philologist Lev Pumpyansky Lev Vasilyevich Pumpyansky (1891-1940) - literary critic, musicologist. After the revolution, he lived in Nevel, together with Mikhail Bakhtin and Matvey Kagan formed the Nevel philosophical circle. In the 1920s he taught at the Tenishevsky School, was a member of the Free Philosophical Association. He taught Russian literature at Leningrad University. Author of classic works on Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Gogol and Turgenev. ⁠ wrote that the first four Turgenev's novels ("Rudin", "The Nest of Nobles", "On the Eve" and) are an example of a "test novel": their plot is built around a historically established type of hero who is being tested for compliance with the role of a historical figure. Not only, for example, ideological disputes with opponents or social activities, but also love relationships serve to test the hero. Pumpyansky, according to modern researchers, exaggerated in many respects, but on the whole his definition is apparently correct. Indeed, the main character is at the center of the novel, and the events taking place with this hero make it possible to decide whether he can be called a worthy person. In The Nest of Nobles, this is expressed literally: Marfa Timofeevna demands from Lavretsky to confirm that he is an "honest person", out of fear for the fate of Lisa - and Lavretsky proves that he is incapable of doing anything dishonorable.

She felt bitter in her soul; She did not deserve such humiliation. Love did not affect her cheerfully: for the second time she cried since yesterday evening

Ivan Turgenev

The themes of happiness, self-denial and love, perceived as the most important qualities of a person, were already raised by Turgenev in his stories of the 1850s. For example, in the story "Faust" (1856), the main character is literally killed by the awakening of a love feeling, which she herself interprets as a sin. The interpretation of love as an irrational, incomprehensible, almost supernatural force that often threatens human dignity, or at least the ability to follow one's convictions, is typical, for example, for the stories "Correspondence" (1856) and "First Love" (1860). In The Nest of Nobles, the relationship of almost all the characters, except for Lisa and Lavretsky, is characterized in this way - it is enough to recall the description of the connection between Panshin and Lavretsky's wife: “Varvara Pavlovna enslaved him, she enslaved him: in another word it is impossible to express her unlimited, irrevocable, unrequited power over him."

Finally, the backstory of Lavretsky, the son of a nobleman and a peasant woman, is reminiscent of the main character in the story Asya (1858). Within the framework of the novel genre, Turgenev was able to combine these themes with socio-historical issues.

"Noble Nest". Directed by Andrey Konchalovsky. 1969

Vladimir Panov. Illustration for the novel "The Nest of Nobles". 1988

Where are the references to Cervantes in The Nest of Nobles?

One of the important Turgenev types in "The Nest of Nobles" is represented by the hero Mikhalevich - "an enthusiast and a poet", who "adhered to the phraseology of the thirties". This hero in the novel is served with a fair amount of irony; suffice it to recall the description of his endless nighttime dispute with Lavretsky, when Mikhalevich tries to define his friend and every hour rejects his own formulations: “you are not a skeptic, not a disappointed, not a Voltairian, you are - bobak Steppe groundhog. In a figurative sense - a clumsy, lazy person. ⁠ , and you are a malicious bastard, a conscious bastard, not a naive bastard.” In the dispute between Lavretsky and Mikhalevich, a topical issue is especially evident: the novel was written during a period that contemporaries assessed as a transitional era in history.

And when, where did people decide to fool around? he shouted at four o'clock in the morning, but in a somewhat hoarse voice. - We have! Now! in Russia! when each individual person has a duty, a great responsibility before God, before the people, before himself! We sleep and time is running out; we are sleeping…

The comedy is that Lavretsky considers the main goal of the modern nobleman to be a completely practical matter - to learn to "plow the land", while Mikhalevich, who reproaches him for laziness, could not find any business on his own.

You joked with me in vain; my great-grandfather hung men by the ribs, and my grandfather himself was a man

Ivan Turgenev

This type, a representative of the generation of idealists of the 1830s and 40s, a man whose greatest talent was the ability to understand current philosophical and social ideas, sincerely sympathize with them and convey them to others, was bred by Turgenev in the novel Rudin. Like Rudin, Mikhalevich is an eternal wanderer, clearly reminiscent of a “knight of a sad image”: “Even sitting in a carriage, where they carried his flat, yellow, strangely light suitcase, he was still talking; wrapped in some kind of Spanish cloak with a reddish collar and lion's paws instead of fasteners, he still developed his views on the fate of Russia and moved his swarthy hand through the air, as if scattering the seeds of future prosperity. Mikhalevich for the author is the beautiful-hearted and naive Don Quixote (Turgenev's famous speech "Hamlet and Don Quixote" was written shortly after "The Noble Nest"). Mikhalevich “fell in love without counting and wrote poems for all his lovers; he especially ardently sang of one mysterious black-haired "lady", who, apparently, was a woman of easy virtue. The analogy with Don Quixote's passion for the peasant woman Dulcinea is obvious: the hero of Cervantes is just as incapable of understanding that his beloved does not correspond to his ideal. However, this time it is not a naive idealist that is placed at the center of the novel, but a completely different hero.

Why is Lavretsky so sympathetic to the peasant?

The father of the protagonist of the novel is a Europeanized gentleman who raised his son according to his own “system”, apparently borrowed from the writings of Rousseau; his mother is a simple peasant woman. The result is rather unusual. Before the reader is an educated Russian nobleman who knows how to behave decently and with dignity in society (Marya Dmitrievna constantly evaluates Lavretsky's manners poorly, but the author constantly hints that she herself does not know how to behave in really good society). He reads magazines in different languages, but at the same time he is closely connected with Russian life, especially the common people. In this regard, two of his love interests are remarkable: the Parisian "lioness" Varvara Pavlovna and the deeply religious Liza Kalitina, brought up by a simple Russian nanny. It is no coincidence that Turgenev's hero caused delight Apollon Grigoriev Apollon Alexandrovich Grigoriev (1822-1864) - poet, literary critic, translator. In 1845, he began to study literature: he published a book of poems, translated Shakespeare and Byron, and wrote literary reviews for Otechestvennye Zapiski. From the late 1950s, Grigoriev wrote for the Moskvityanin and headed a circle of its young authors. After the closure of the magazine, he worked at the Library for Reading, Russian Word, and Vremya. Due to alcohol addiction, Grigoriev gradually lost influence and practically ceased to be published. ⁠ , one of the creators pochvennichestvo Social and philosophical trend in Russia in the 1860s. The basic principles of soil farming were formulated by the staff of the magazines Vremya and Epoch: Apollon Grigoriev, Nikolai Strakhov and the Dostoevsky brothers. The Pochvenniks occupied a certain middle position between the camps of the Westernizers and the Slavophiles. Fyodor Dostoevsky, in his “Announcement of a subscription to the journal Vremya for 1861”, which is considered a manifesto of soil movement, wrote: “The Russian idea, perhaps, will be a synthesis of all those ideas that Europe develops with such persistence, with such courage, in its individual nationalities. ; that, perhaps, everything hostile in these ideas will find its reconciliation and further development in the Russian people. ⁠ : Lavretsky is really able to sincerely sympathize with a peasant who has lost his son, and when he himself suffers the collapse of all his hopes, he is consoled by the fact that the ordinary people around him suffer no less. In general, Lavretsky's connection with the "common people" and the old, non-Europeanized nobility is constantly emphasized in the novel. Upon learning that his wife, who lives according to the latest French fashions, is cheating on him, he experiences not secular rage at all: “he felt that at that moment he was able to torment her, beat her half to death, like a peasant, strangle her with his own hands.” In a conversation with his wife, he indignantly says: “You joked with me in vain; my great-grandfather hung men by the ribs, and my grandfather himself was a man. Unlike the previous central heroes of Turgenev's prose, Lavretsky has a "healthy nature", he is a good owner, a man who is literally destined to live at home and take care of his family and household.

Andrei Rakovich. Interior. 1845 Private collection

What is the meaning of the political dispute between Lavretsky and Panshin?

The protagonist's beliefs are consistent with his background. In a conflict with the metropolitan official Panshin, Lavretsky opposes the reform project, according to which European public "institutions" (in modern parlance - "institutions") are able to transform the very life of the people. Lavretsky “demanded first of all the recognition of the people's truth and humility before it - that humility without which courage against lies is impossible; finally, he did not deviate from the well-deserved, in his opinion, reproach for the frivolous waste of time and effort. The author of the novel clearly sympathizes with Lavretsky: Turgenev, of course, himself had a high opinion of Western "institutions", but, judging by the "Nest of Nobles", he did not appreciate domestic officials who tried to introduce these "institutions" so well.

"Noble Nest". Directed by Andrey Konchalovsky. 1969

Coach. 1838. The carriage is one of the attributes of secular European life, which Varvara Pavlovna indulges in with pleasure

The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London

How does the family history of the characters influence their fate?

Of all Turgenev's heroes, Lavretsky has the most detailed genealogy: the reader learns not only about his parents, but also about the entire Lavretsky family, starting with his great-grandfather. Of course, this digression is intended to show the rootedness of the hero in history, his living connection with the past. At the same time, Turgenev's "past" turns out to be very dark and cruel - in fact, this is the history of Russia and the nobility. Literally the whole history of the Lavretsky family is built on violence. The wife of his great-grandfather Andrei is directly compared with a bird of prey (Turgenev always has a significant comparison - just remember the finale of the story "Spring Waters"), and the reader literally does not learn anything about their relationship, except that the spouses were at war with each other all the time. another: “Goggle-eyed, with a hawk nose, with a round yellow face, a gypsy by birth, quick-tempered and vindictive, she was in no way inferior to her husband, who almost killed her and whom she did not survive, although she always fought with him.” The wife of their son Pyotr Andreevich, a “humble woman,” was subordinate to her husband: “She loved to ride trotters, she was ready to play cards from morning to evening and always used to close the penny winnings recorded on her hand when her husband approached the gambling table; and all her dowry, all the money she gave him at the unrequited disposal. Lavretsky's father Ivan fell in love with the serf girl Malanya, a "modest woman" who obeyed her husband and his relatives in everything and was completely removed from raising her son by them, which led to her death:

Ivan Petrovich's poor wife could not bear this blow, she could not bear the second parting: resignedly, in a few days, she died away. Throughout her life, she did not know how to resist anything, and she did not fight the disease. She could no longer speak, grave shadows were already falling on her face, but her features still expressed patient bewilderment and constant meekness of humility.

Pyotr Andreevich, who learned about his son’s love affair, is also compared with a bird of prey: “He attacked his son like a hawk, reproached him for immorality, godlessness, pretense ...” It was this terrible past that was reflected in the life of the protagonist, only now Lavretsky himself found himself in the power of his wife. Firstly, Lavretsky is the product of a specific paternal upbringing, because of which he, a naturally intelligent, far from naive person, got married without understanding what kind of person his wife was. Secondly, the very theme of family inequality connects Turgenev's hero and his ancestors. The hero got married because his family past did not let him go - in the future, his wife will become part of this past, which will return at a fateful moment and ruin his relationship with Lisa. The fate of Lavretsky, who was not destined to find his native corner, is connected with the curse of his aunt Glafira, who was expelled by the will of Lavretsky's wife: “I know who is driving me from here, from my family nest. Only you remember my word, nephew: do not make a nest for you anywhere, you will wander forever. At the end of the novel, Lavretsky thinks of himself that he is "a lonely, homeless wanderer." In the everyday sense, this is inaccurate: before us are the thoughts of a wealthy landowner - however, inner loneliness and the inability to find happiness in life turn out to be a natural conclusion from the history of the Lavretsky family.

The head is all gray-haired, and if he opens his mouth, he will lie or gossip. And also a state adviser!

Ivan Turgenev

The parallels with Lisa's backstory are interesting here. Her father was also a cruel, "predatory" man who subjugated her mother. There is also a direct influence of folk ethics in her past. At the same time, Liza, more acutely than Lavretsky, feels her responsibility for the past. Lizina's readiness for humility and suffering is not connected with some kind of inner weakness or sacrifice, but with a conscious, thoughtful desire to atone for sins, not only her own, but also those of others: “Happiness did not come to me; even when I had hopes of happiness, my heart still ached. I know everything, both my own sins and those of others, and how papa amassed our wealth; I know everything. All this must be prayed for, it must be prayed for."

Pages from the collection "Symbols and Emblem", published in Amsterdam in 1705 and in St. Petersburg in 1719

The collection consisted of 840 engravings with symbols and allegories. This mysterious book was the only reading of the impressionable and pale child Fedya Lavretsky. The Lavretskys had one of the early 19th century reprints revised by Nestor Maksimovich-Ambodik: Turgenev himself read this book as a child

What is a noble nest?

Turgenev himself wrote in an elegiac tone about “noble nests” in the story “My Neighbor Radilov”: “When choosing a place to live, our great-grandfathers certainly beat off two tithes of good land for an orchard with linden alleys. Fifty, many seventy years later, these estates, “noble nests”, gradually disappeared from the face of the earth, houses rotted or were sold for removal, stone services turned into piles of ruins, apple trees died out and went for firewood, fences and wattle fences were exterminated. Some lindens still grew to their glory and now, surrounded by plowed fields, they say to our windy tribe about “fathers and brothers who have died before.” It is not difficult to notice parallels with the "Nest of the Nobles": on the one hand, the reader is not Oblomovka, but the image of a cultural, Europeanized estate, where alleys are planted and music is listened to; on the other hand, this estate is doomed to gradual destruction and oblivion. In The Nest of Nobles, apparently, this is exactly the fate destined for the Lavretsky estate, whose family will be interrupted by the main character (his daughter, judging by the epilogue of the novel, will not live long).

The village of Shablykino, where Turgenev often hunted. Lithograph by Rudolf Zhukovsky based on his own drawing. 1840 State Memorial and Natural Museum-Reserve of I. S. Turgenev "Spasskoe-Lutovinovo"

Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Does Liza Kalitina look like the stereotype of the "Turgenev girl"?

Lisa Kalitina is probably now one of the most famous Turgenev images. The unusualness of this heroine was repeatedly tried to be explained by the existence of some special prototype - here they also pointed to the countess Elizabeth Lambert Elizaveta Yegorovna Lambert (nee Kankrina; 1821-1883) - maid of honor of the imperial court. Daughter of the Minister of Finance, Count Yegor Kankrin. In 1843 she married Count Joseph Lambert. She was friends with Tyutchev, was in a long correspondence with Turgenev. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, she was deeply religious. From a letter from Turgenev, Lambert dated April 29, 1867: “From all the doors into which I am a bad Christian, but following the gospel rule, I pushed, your doors opened easier and more often than others.” ⁠ , a secular acquaintance of Turgenev and the addressee of his numerous letters filled with philosophical reasoning, and on Varvara Sokovnin Varvara Mikhailovna Sokovnina (in the monasticism Seraphim; 1779-1845) - nun. Sokovnina was born into a wealthy noble family, at the age of 20 she left home for the Sevsky Trinity Monastery, took monastic tonsure, and then the schema (the highest monastic level, requiring severe asceticism). She lived in seclusion for 22 years. In 1821 she was elevated to the rank of abbess of the Oryol maiden monastery, she ruled it until her death. In 1837, Abbess Seraphim was visited by Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Emperor Nicholas I. ⁠ (in the monasticism of Seraphim), whose fate is very similar to the story of Lisa.

Probably, first of all, the stereotypical image of the “Turgenev girl” is built around Lisa, which is usually written about in popular publications and which is often sorted out at school. At the same time, this stereotype hardly corresponds to Turgenev's text. Lisa can hardly be called a particularly refined nature or an elevated idealist. She is shown as a person of exceptionally strong will, decisive, independent and internally independent. In this sense, her image was rather influenced not by Turgenev's desire to create the image of an ideal young lady, but by the writer's ideas about the need for emancipation and the desire to show an internally free girl so that this internal freedom does not deprive her of poetry. A nightly date with Lavretsky in the garden for a girl of that time was completely obscene behavior - the fact that Lisa decided on him shows her complete inner independence from the opinions of others. The “poetic” effect of her image is given by a very peculiar manner of description. The narrator usually reports on Lisa’s feelings in rhythmic prose, very metaphorical, sometimes even using sound repetitions: “No one knows, no one has seen and will never see how, from bathroom to life and flourishing, poured and zre no zer but in the womb ze ml. The analogy between the love growing in the heart of the heroine and the natural process is not intended to explain any psychological properties of the heroine, but rather to hint at something that is beyond the capabilities of ordinary language. It is no coincidence that Lisa herself says that she “has no words of her own” - in the same way, for example, in the finale of the novel, the narrator refuses to talk about the experiences of her and Lavretsky: “What did they think that they both felt? Who will know? Who will say? There are such moments in life, such feelings ... You can only point to them - and pass by.

"Noble Nest". Directed by Andrey Konchalovsky. 1969

Vladimir Panov. Illustration for the novel "The Nest of Nobles". 1988

Why do Turgenev's heroes suffer all the time?

Violence and aggression permeate Turgenev's whole life; the living being seems to suffer. In Turgenev's story "The Diary of a Superfluous Man" (1850), the hero was opposed to nature, because he was endowed with self-consciousness and acutely felt the approaching death. In The Nest of Nobles, however, the desire for destruction and self-destruction is shown as characteristic not only of people, but of all nature. Marfa Timofeevna tells Lavretsky that no happiness for a living being is possible in principle: yes, once at night I heard a fly whining in the paws of a spider - no, I think there is a thunderstorm on them too. On his simpler level, Lavretsky’s old servant Anton, who knew his aunt Glafira who cursed him, speaks about self-destruction: “He told Lavretsky how Glafira Petrovna had bitten her hand before her death, and after a pause, he said with a sigh:“ Every person, the gentleman-priest, is devoted to himself to be devoured. Turgenev's heroes live in a terrible and indifferent world, and here, in contrast to historical circumstances, nothing can probably be corrected.

Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was a German philosopher. According to his main work, The World as Will and Representation, the world is perceived by the mind, and therefore is a subjective representation. Will is the objective reality and organizing principle in man. But this will is blind and irrational, therefore it turns life into a series of suffering, and the world in which we live, into “the worst of all possible worlds”.⁠ - and the researchers drew attention to some parallels between the novel and the main book of the German thinker "The World as Will and Representation". Indeed, both natural and historical life in Turgenev's novel is full of violence and destruction, while the world of art turns out to be much more ambivalent: music carries both the power of passion and a kind of liberation from the power of the real world.

Andrei Rakovich. Interior. 1839 Private collection

Why do Turgenev talk so much about happiness and duty?

The key disputes between Lisa and Lavretsky are about the human right to happiness and the need for humility and renunciation. For the heroes of the novel, the theme of religion is of exceptional importance: the unbeliever Lavretsky refuses to agree with Liza. Turgenev does not try to decide which of them is right, but shows that duty and humility are necessary not only for a religious person - duty is also significant for public life, especially for people with such a historical background as Turgenev's heroes: the Russian nobility is not depicted in the novel only as a bearer of high culture, but also as an estate, whose representatives for centuries oppressed both each other and the people around them. Conclusions from the disputes, however, are ambiguous. On the one hand, the new generation, free from the heavy burden of the past, easily achieves happiness - perhaps, however, that this is possible due to a more fortunate combination of historical circumstances. At the end of the novel, Lavretsky addresses the younger generation with a mental monologue: “Play, have fun, grow up, young forces ... your life is ahead of you, and it will be easier for you to live: you don’t have to, like us, find your way, fight, fall and get up in the midst of darkness; we were busy trying to survive - and how many of us did not survive! “But you need to do business, work, and the blessing of our brother, the old man, will be with you.” On the other hand, Lavretsky himself renounces his claims to happiness and largely agrees with Liza. Considering that tragedy, according to Turgenev, is generally inherent in human life, the fun and joy of the “new people” turn out to be largely a sign of their naivety, and the experience of misfortune that Lavretsky went through can be no less valuable for the reader.

bibliography

• Annenkov P.V. Our society in Turgenev's "Noble Nest" // Annenkov P.V. Critical essays. St. Petersburg: RKhGI Publ., 2000, pp. 202–232.
• Batyuto A. I. Turgenev is a novelist. L.: Nauka, 1972.
• Ginzburg L. Ya. About psychological prose. L.: Hood. lit., 1976. S. 295.
• Gippius V. V. On the composition of Turgenev's novels // Wreath to Turgenev. 1818–1918 Digest of articles. Odessa: Book publishing house A. A. Ivasenko, 1918. S. 25–55.

• Grigoriev A. A. I. S. Turgenev and his activities. Regarding the novel "The Nest of Nobles" ("Contemporary", 1859, No. 1). Letters to G. G. A. K. B. // Grigoriev A. A. Literary criticism. M.: Hood. lit., 1967, pp. 240–366.
• Markovich V. M. About Turgenev. Works of different years. St. Petersburg: Rostock, 2018.
• Movnina N. S. The concept of duty in I. S. Turgenev's novel "The Nest of Nobles" in the context of ethical searches of the middle of the 19th century. // Bulletin of St. Petersburg University. Series 9. 2016. No. 3. P. 92–100.
• Ovsyaniko-Kulikovskiy D. N. Etudes about the work of I. S. Turgenev. Kharkov: Type. or T. Zilberberg, 1896, pp. 167–239.
• Pumpyansky L. V. Turgenev's novels and the novel "On the Eve". Historical and literary essay // Pumpyansky L.V. Classical tradition. Collection of works on the history of Russian literature. M.: Languages ​​of Russian culture, 2000. S. 381–402.
• Turgenev I. S. Full. coll. op. and letters: In 30 volumes. Works: In 12 volumes. T. 6. M .: Nauka, 1981.
• Fisher V.M. Turgenev's story and novel // Turgenev's work: Collection of articles. Moscow: Zadruga, 1920.
• Shchukin V. G. Russian genius of enlightenment: research in the field of mythopoetics and the history of ideas. M.: ROSSPEN, 2007. S. 272–296.
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• Woodword J. B. Metaphysical Conflict: A Study of the Major Novels of Ivan Turgenev. Munich: Peter Lang GmbH, 1990.

All bibliography

As usual, the news of Lavretsky's return was first brought to the Kalitins' house by Gedeonovsky. Maria Dmitrievna, the widow of the former provincial prosecutor, who at her fifty years of age retained a certain pleasantness in her features, favors him, and her house is one of the most pleasant in the city of O ... But Marfa Timofeevna Pestova, the seventy-year-old sister of Maria Dmitrievna's father, does not favor Gedeonovsky for his tendency to add and talkativeness. But what to take - a priest, although a state adviser.
However, Marfa Timofeevna is generally tricky to please. After all, she does not favor Panshin either - everyone's favorite, an enviable groom, the first gentleman. Vladimir Nikolayevich plays the piano, composes romances in his own words, draws well, recites. He is quite a man of the world, educated and dexterous. In general, he is a Petersburg official for special assignments, a chamber junker who arrived in O ... with some kind of assignment. He visits the Kalitins for the sake of Lisa, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Maria Dmitrievna. And it looks like his intentions are serious. But Marfa Timofeevna is sure: her favorite is not such a husband. The music teacher Khristofor Fedorovich Lemm, a middle-aged, unattractive and not very successful German, who is secretly in love with his student, puts Panshin and Lizin low.
The arrival of Fyodor Ivanovich Lavretsky from abroad is a notable event for the city. Its history passes from mouth to mouth. In Paris, he accidentally convicted his wife of treason. Moreover, after the breakup, the beautiful Varvara Pavlovna received scandalous European fame.
The inhabitants of the Kalitinsky house, however, did not think that he looked like a victim. It still exudes steppe health, long-lasting strength. Only in the eyes is visible fatigue.
In fact, Fedor Ivanovich is a strong breed. His great-grandfather was a tough, daring, smart and crafty man. The great-grandmother, a quick-tempered, vindictive gypsy, was in no way inferior to her husband. Grandfather Peter, however, was already a simple steppe gentleman. His son Ivan (father of Fyodor Ivanovich) was brought up, however, by a Frenchman, an admirer of Jean Jacques Rousseau: this was the order of the aunt with whom he lived. (His sister Glafira grew up with her parents.) Wisdom of the 18th century. the teacher poured into his head entirely, where she stayed, without mixing with blood, without penetrating into the soul.
Upon returning to his parents, Ivan felt dirty and wild in his own home. This did not prevent him from turning his attention to Matushka Malanya's maid, a very pretty, intelligent and meek girl. A scandal broke out: Ivan's father disinherited, and ordered the girl to be sent to a distant village. Ivan Petrovich recaptured Malanya along the way and married her. Having attached a young wife to the relatives of the Pestovs, Dmitry Timofeevich and Marfa Timofeevna, he himself went to St. Petersburg, and then abroad. In the village of Pestovykh, Fedor was born on August 20, 1807. Almost a year passed before Malanya Sergeevna was able to appear with her son at the Lavretskys. And even then only because Ivan's mother, before her death, asked for the stern Peter Andreevich for her son and daughter-in-law.
The happy father of the baby finally returned to Russia only after twelve years. Malanya Sergeevna had died by this time, and the boy was brought up by his aunt Glafira Andreevna, ugly, envious, unkind and domineering. Fedya was taken away from his mother and handed over to Glafira during her lifetime. He did not see his mother every day and loved her passionately, but vaguely felt that between him and her there was an indestructible barrier. Aunt Fedya was afraid, he did not dare to utter a word in front of her.
Returning, Ivan Petrovich himself took up the upbringing of his son. I dressed him in Scottish fashion and hired him a porter. Gymnastics, natural sciences, international law, mathematics, carpentry and heraldry formed the core of the educational system. They woke up the boy at four in the morning; doused with cold water, forced to run around the pole on a rope; fed once a day; taught to ride and shoot with a crossbow. When Fedya was sixteen years old, his father began to instill in him contempt for women.
A few years later, having buried his father, Lavretsky went to Moscow and entered the university at the age of twenty-three. A strange upbringing has paid off. He did not know how to get along with people, he did not dare to look a single woman in the eye. He got along only with Mikhalevich, an enthusiast and a poet. It was this Mikhalevich who introduced his friend to the family of the beautiful Varvara Pavlovna Korobyina. A twenty-six-year-old child only now understood what it was worth living for. Varenka was charming, intelligent and well educated, she could talk about the theater and played the piano.
Six months later, the young arrived in Lavriki. The university was abandoned (not to marry a student), and a happy life began. Glafira was removed, and General Korobin, Varvara Pavlovna's father, arrived in the place of the steward; and the couple drove off to Petersburg, where they had a son, who soon died. On the advice of doctors, they went abroad and settled in Paris. Varvara Pavlovna instantly settled down here and began to shine in society ...

As usual, Gedeonovsky was the first to bring the news of Lavretsky's return to the Kalitins' house. Maria Dmitrievna, the widow of the former provincial prosecutor, who at her fifty years of age retained a certain pleasantness in her features, favors him, and her house is one of the most pleasant in the city of O ... But Marfa Timofeevna Pestova, the seventy-year-old sister of Maria Dmitrievna's father, does not favor Gedeonovsky for his inclination to compose and talkativeness. But what to take - a priest, although a state adviser.

However, Marfa Timofeevna is generally tricky to please. After all, she does not favor Panshin either - everyone's favorite, an enviable groom, the first gentleman. Vladimir Nikolayevich plays the piano, composes romances in his own words, draws well, recites. He is quite a man of the world, educated and dexterous. In general, he is a Petersburg official on special assignments, a chamber junker who arrived in O ... with some kind of assignment. He visits the Kalitins for the sake of Lisa, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Maria Dmitrievna. And it looks like his intentions are serious. But Marfa Timofeevna is sure: her favorite is not such a husband. The music teacher Khristofor Fedorovich Lemm, a middle-aged, unattractive and not very successful German, who is secretly in love with his student, puts Panshin and Lizin low.

The arrival of Fyodor Ivanovich Lavretsky from abroad is a notable event for the city. Its history passes from mouth to mouth. In Paris, he accidentally convicted his wife of treason. Moreover, after the breakup, the beautiful Varvara Pavlovna received scandalous European fame.

The inhabitants of the Kalitinsky house, however, did not think that he looked like a victim. It still exudes steppe health, long-lasting strength. Only in the eyes is visible fatigue.

In fact, Fedor Ivanovich is a strong breed. His great-grandfather was a tough, daring, smart and crafty man. The great-grandmother, a quick-tempered, vindictive gypsy, was in no way inferior to her husband. Grandfather Peter, however, was already a simple steppe gentleman. His son Ivan (father of Fyodor Ivanovich) was brought up, however, by a Frenchman, an admirer of Jean Jacques Rousseau: this was the order of the aunt with whom he lived. (His sister Glafira grew up with her parents.) Wisdom of the 18th century. the teacher poured into his head entirely, where she stayed, without mixing with blood, without penetrating into the soul.

Upon returning to his parents, Ivan felt dirty and wild in his own home. This did not prevent him from turning his attention to Matushka Malanya's maid, a very pretty, intelligent and meek girl. A scandal broke out: Ivan's father disinherited, and ordered the girl to be sent to a distant village. Ivan Petrovich recaptured Malanya along the way and married her. Having attached a young wife to the relatives of the Pestovs, Dmitry Timofeevich and Marfa Timofeevna, he himself went to St. Petersburg, and then abroad. In the village of Pestovykh, Fedor was born on August 20, 1807. Almost a year passed before Malanya Sergeevna was able to appear with her son at the Lavretskys. And even then only because Ivan's mother, before her death, asked for the stern Peter Andreevich for her son and daughter-in-law.

The happy father of the baby finally returned to Russia only after twelve years. Malanya Sergeevna had died by this time, and the boy was brought up by his aunt Glafira Andreevna, ugly, envious, unkind and domineering. Fedya was taken away from her mother and handed over to Glafira during her lifetime. He did not see his mother every day and loved her passionately, but vaguely felt that between him and her there was an indestructible barrier. Aunt Fedya was afraid, he did not dare to utter a word in front of her.

Returning, Ivan Petrovich himself took up the upbringing of his son. I dressed him in Scottish fashion and hired him a porter. Gymnastics, natural sciences, international law, mathematics, carpentry and heraldry formed the core of the educational system. They woke up the boy at four in the morning; doused with cold water, forced to run around the pole on a rope; fed once a day; taught to ride and shoot with a crossbow. When Fedya was sixteen years old, his father began to instill in him contempt for women.

A few years later, having buried his father, Lavretsky went to Moscow and entered the university at the age of twenty-three. A strange upbringing has paid off. He did not know how to get along with people, he did not dare to look a single woman in the eye. He got along only with Mikhalevich, an enthusiast and a poet. It was this Mikhalevich who introduced his friend to the family of the beautiful Varvara Pavlovna Korobyina. A twenty-six-year-old child only now understood what it was worth living for. Varenka was charming, intelligent and well educated, she could talk about the theater and played the piano.

Six months later, the young arrived in Lavriki. The university was abandoned (not to marry a student), and a happy life began. Glafira was removed, and General Korobin, Varvara Pavlovna's father, arrived in the place of the steward; and the couple drove off to Petersburg, where they had a son, who soon died. On the advice of doctors, they went abroad and settled in Paris. Varvara Pavlovna instantly settled down here and began to shine in society. Soon, however, a love note fell into Lavretsky's hands, addressed to his wife, whom he so blindly trusted. At first he was seized with rage, a desire to kill both (“my great-grandfather hung men by the ribs”), but then, having disposed of a letter about the annual allowance to his wife and about the departure of General Korobin from the estate, he went to Italy. Newspapers circulated bad rumors about his wife. From them he learned that he had a daughter. There was indifference to everything. And yet, after four years, he wanted to return home, to the city of O ..., but he did not want to settle in Lavriky, where he and Varya spent their first happy days.

Lisa from the first meeting attracted his attention. He also noticed Panshin near her. Maria Dmitrievna did not hide the fact that the chamber junker was crazy about her daughter. Marfa Timofeevna, however, still believed that Lisa would not be with Panshin.

In Vasilyevsky Lavretsky examined the house, the garden with the pond: the estate had managed to run wild. The silence of a leisurely solitary life surrounded him. And what strength, what health was in this inactive silence. The days passed monotonously, but he did not get bored: he did housework, rode horseback, read.

About three weeks later I went to O ... to the Kalitins. Lemma found them. In the evening, going to see him off, I stayed with him. The old man was touched and admitted that he writes music, played and sang something.

In Vasilyevsky, the conversation about poetry and music imperceptibly turned into a conversation about Liza and Panshin. Lemm was categorical: she does not love him, she simply obeys her mother. Liza can love one beautiful thing, but he is not beautiful, i.e. his soul is not beautiful

Lisa and Lavretsky trusted each other more and more. Not without embarrassment, she once asked about the reasons for his break with his wife: how can one tear apart what God has united? You must forgive. She is sure that it is necessary to forgive and submit. This was taught to her in childhood by her nanny Agafya, who told the life of the most pure virgin, the lives of saints and hermits, who took her to church. Her own example brought up humility, meekness and a sense of duty.

Suddenly, Mikhalevich appeared in Vasilyevsky. He grew old, it was clear that he was not succeeding, but he spoke as passionately as in his youth, read his own poems: "... And I burned everything that I worshiped, / Bowed to everything that I burned."

Then the friends argued long and loudly, disturbing Lemm, who continued to visit. You can't just want happiness in life. It means to build on sand. Faith is needed, and without it Lavretsky is a miserable Voltairian. No faith - no revelation, no understanding of what to do. It needs a pure, unearthly being who will pull him out of his apathy.

After Mikhalevich, the Kalitins arrived in Vasilyevskoye. The days passed happily and carefree. “I talk to her as if I were not an obsolete person,” Lavretsky thought about Lisa. Seeing off their carriage on horseback, he asked: “Are we friends now? ..” She nodded in response.

The next evening, looking through French magazines and newspapers, Fyodor Ivanovich came across a message about the sudden death of the queen of fashionable Parisian salons, Madame Lavretskaya. The next morning he was at the Kalitins'. "What's wrong with you?" Lisa asked. He gave her the text of the message. Now he is free. “You don’t have to think about that now, but about forgiveness ...” she objected, and at the end of the conversation she repaid the same confidence: Panshin asks for her hand. She is not at all in love with him, but is ready to obey her mother. Lavretsky begged Lisa to think about not marrying without love, out of a sense of duty. That same evening, Lisa asked Panshin not to rush her with an answer and informed Lavretsky about this. All the following days a secret anxiety was felt in her, as if she even avoided Lavretsky. And he was also alarmed by the lack of confirmation of the death of his wife. Yes, and Lisa, when asked if she decided to give an answer to Panshin, said that she knew nothing. Doesn't know herself.

One summer evening in the living room, Panshin began to reproach the newest generation, saying that Russia had lagged behind Europe (we didn’t even invent mousetraps). He spoke beautifully, but with secret bitterness. Lavretsky unexpectedly began to object and defeated the enemy, proving the impossibility of leaps and arrogant alterations, demanded recognition of the people's truth and humility before it. The irritated Panshin exclaimed; what does he intend to do? Plow the land and try to plow it as best as possible.

Liza was on Lavretsky's side throughout the argument. The secular official's contempt for Russia offended her. Both of them realized that they loved and did not love the same thing, but differed only in one, but Lisa secretly hoped to lead him to God. The embarrassment of the last days is gone.

Everyone dispersed little by little, and Lavretsky quietly went out into the night garden and sat down on a bench. There was light in the lower windows. It was Lisa walking with a candle in her hand. He quietly called her and, seating her under the lindens, said: "... It brought me here ... I love you."

Returning through the sleeping streets, full of joyful feeling, he heard the wondrous sounds of music. He turned to where they came from and called: Lemme! The old man appeared at the window and, recognizing him, threw down the key. Lavretsky had not heard anything like this for a long time. He came up and hugged the old man. He paused, then smiled and cried: "I did this, for I am a great musician."

The next day Lavretsky went to Vasilyevskoye and returned to the city in the evening. In the hallway he was greeted by the smell of strong perfumes, trunks stood right there. Crossing the threshold of the living room, he saw his wife. Inconsistently and verbosely, she began to beg to forgive her, if only for the sake of her daughter, who was not guilty of anything before him: Ada, ask your father with me. He invited her to settle in Lavriky, but never count on a resumption of relations. Varvara Pavlovna was meekness itself, but on the same day she visited the Kalitins. Liza and Panshin's final explanation had already taken place there. Maria Dmitrievna was in despair. Varvara Pavlovna managed to occupy, and then arrange her in her favor, hinted that Fyodor Ivanovich had not completely deprived her of "his presence." Lisa received a note from Lavretsky, and the meeting with his wife was not a surprise for her (“It Serves Me Right”). She was stoic in the presence of a woman whom "he" had once loved.

Panshin appeared. Varvara Pavlovna immediately found a tone with him. She sang a romance, talked about literature, about Paris, engaged in half-secular, half-artistic chatter. Parting, Maria Dmitrievna expressed her readiness to try to reconcile her with her husband.

Lavretsky reappeared at the Kalitinsky house when he received a note from Liza with an invitation to visit them. He immediately went up to Marfa Timofeyevna. She found an excuse to leave them alone with Lisa. The girl came to say that they had to do their duty. Fyodor Ivanovich must make peace with his wife. Doesn't he see for himself now: happiness does not depend on people, but on God.

When Lavretsky went downstairs, the footman invited him to Marya Dmitrievna. She spoke about the repentance of his wife, asked to forgive her, and then, offering to take her from hand to hand, led Varvara Pavlovna out from behind the screen. Requests and already familiar scenes were repeated. Lavretsky finally promised that he would live with her under the same roof, but would consider the contract violated if she allowed herself to leave Lavrikov.

The next morning he took his wife and daughter to Lavriki and left for Moscow a week later. A day later, Panshin visited Varvara Pavlovna and stayed for three days.

A year later, the news reached Lavretsky that Liza had taken her hair in a monastery in one of the remote regions of Russia. After some time he visited this monastery. Liza walked close to him - and did not look, only her eyelashes trembled a little and the fingers holding the rosary clenched even more tightly.

And Varvara Pavlovna very soon moved to St. Petersburg, then to Paris. A new suitor appeared beside her, a guard of extraordinary strength. She never invites him to her fashionable evenings, but otherwise he enjoys her favor completely.

Eight years have passed. Lavretsky again visited O... The elder inhabitants of the Kalitinsky house had already died, and the youth reigned here: Lisa's younger sister, Lenochka, and her fiancé. It was fun and noisy. Fyodor Ivanovich walked through all the rooms. The same piano stood in the living room, the same hoop stood by the window as then. Only the wallpaper was different.

In the garden he saw the same bench and walked along the same alley. His sadness was agonizing, although he was already making that turning point, without which it is impossible to remain a decent person: he stopped thinking about his own happiness.

retold

As usual, the news of Lavretsky's return was first brought to the Kalitins' house by Gedeonovsky. Maria Dmitrievna, the widow of the former provincial prosecutor, who at her fifty years of age retained a certain pleasantness in her features, favors him, and her house is one of the most pleasant in the city of O ... But Marfa Timofeevna Pestova, the seventy-year-old sister of Maria Dmitrievna's father, does not favor Gedeonovsky for his tendency to add and talkativeness. But what to take - a priest, although a state adviser.

However, Marfa Timofeevna is generally tricky to please. After all, she does not favor Panshin either - everyone's favorite, an enviable groom, the first gentleman. Vladimir Nikolayevich plays the piano, composes romances in his own words, draws well, recites. He is quite a man of the world, educated and dexterous. In general, he is a Petersburg official for special assignments, a chamber junker who arrived in O ... with some kind of assignment. He visits the Kalitins for the sake of Lisa, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Maria Dmitrievna. And it looks like his intentions are serious. But Marfa Timofeevna is sure: her favorite is not such a husband. The music teacher Khristofor Fedorovich Lemm, a middle-aged, unattractive and not very successful German, who is secretly in love with his student, puts Panshin and Lizin low.

The arrival of Fyodor Ivanovich Lavretsky from abroad is a notable event for the city. Its history passes from mouth to mouth. In Paris, he accidentally convicted his wife of treason. Moreover, after the breakup, the beautiful Varvara Pavlovna received scandalous European fame.

The inhabitants of the Kalitinsky house, however, did not think that he looked like a victim. It still exudes steppe health, long-lasting strength. Only in the eyes is visible fatigue.

In fact, Fedor Ivanovich is a strong breed. His great-grandfather was a tough, daring, smart and crafty man. The great-grandmother, a quick-tempered, vindictive gypsy, was in no way inferior to her husband. Grandfather Peter, however, was already a simple steppe gentleman. His son Ivan (father of Fyodor Ivanovich) was brought up, however, by a Frenchman, an admirer of Jean Jacques Rousseau: this was the order of the aunt with whom he lived. (His sister Glafira grew up with her parents.) Wisdom of the 18th century. the teacher poured into his head entirely, where she stayed, without mixing with blood, without penetrating into the soul.

Upon returning to his parents, Ivan felt dirty and wild in his own home. This did not prevent him from turning his attention to Matushka Malanya's maid, a very pretty, intelligent and meek girl. A scandal broke out: Ivan's father disinherited, and ordered the girl to be sent to a distant village. Ivan Petrovich recaptured Malanya along the way and married her. Having attached a young wife to the relatives of the Pestovs, Dmitry Timofeevich and Marfa Timofeevna, he himself went to St. Petersburg, and then abroad. In the village of Pestovykh, Fedor was born on August 20, 1807. Almost a year passed before Malanya Sergeevna was able to appear with her son at the Lavretskys. And even then only because Ivan's mother, before her death, asked for the stern Peter Andreevich for her son and daughter-in-law.

The happy father of the baby finally returned to Russia only after twelve years. Malanya Sergeevna had died by this time, and the boy was brought up by his aunt Glafira Andreevna, ugly, envious, unkind and domineering. Fedya was taken away from her mother and handed over to Glafira during her lifetime. He did not see his mother every day and loved her passionately, but vaguely felt that between him and her there was an indestructible barrier. Aunt Fedya was afraid, he did not dare to utter a word in front of her.

Returning, Ivan Petrovich himself took up the upbringing of his son. I dressed him in Scottish fashion and hired him a porter. Gymnastics, natural sciences, international law, mathematics, carpentry and heraldry formed the core of the educational system. They woke up the boy at four in the morning; doused with cold water, forced to run around the pole on a rope; fed once a day; taught to ride and shoot with a crossbow. When Fedya was sixteen years old, his father began to instill in him contempt for women.

A few years later, having buried his father, Lavretsky went to Moscow and entered the university at the age of twenty-three. A strange upbringing has paid off. He did not know how to get along with people, he did not dare to look a single woman in the eye. He got along only with Mikhalevich, an enthusiast and a poet. It was this Mikhalevich who introduced his friend to the family of the beautiful Varvara Pavlovna Korobyina. A twenty-six-year-old child only now understood what it was worth living for. Varenka was charming, intelligent and well educated, she could talk about the theater and played the piano.

Six months later, the young arrived in Lavriki. The university was abandoned (not to marry a student), and a happy life began. Glafira was removed, and General Korobin, Varvara Pavlovna's father, arrived in the place of the steward; and the couple drove off to Petersburg, where they had a son, who soon died. On the advice of doctors, they went abroad and settled in Paris. Varvara Pavlovna instantly settled down here and began to shine in society. Soon, however, a love note fell into Lavretsky's hands, addressed to his wife, whom he so blindly trusted. At first he was seized with rage, a desire to kill both (“my great-grandfather hung men by the ribs”), but then, having disposed of a letter about the annual allowance to his wife and about the departure of General Korobin from the estate, he went to Italy. Newspapers circulated bad rumors about his wife. From them he learned that he had a daughter. There was indifference to everything. And yet, after four years, he wanted to return home, to the city of O ..., but he did not want to settle in Lavriky, where he and Varya spent their first happy days.

Lisa from the first meeting attracted his attention. He also noticed Panshin near her. Maria Dmitrievna did not hide the fact that the chamber junker was crazy about her daughter. Marfa Timofeevna, however, still believed that Lisa would not be with Panshin.

In Vasilyevsky Lavretsky examined the house, the garden with the pond: the estate had managed to run wild. The silence of a leisurely solitary life surrounded him. And what strength, what health was in this inactive silence. The days passed monotonously, but he did not get bored: he did housework, rode horseback, read.

Three weeks later I went to O ... to the Kalitins. Lemma found them. In the evening, going to see him off, I stayed with him. The old man was touched and admitted that he writes music, played and sang something.

In Vasilyevsky, the conversation about poetry and music imperceptibly turned into a conversation about Liza and Panshin. Lemm was categorical: she does not love him, she simply obeys her mother. Liza can love one beautiful thing, but he is not beautiful, i.e. his soul is not beautiful

Lisa and Lavretsky trusted each other more and more. Not without embarrassment, she once asked about the reasons for his break with his wife: how can one tear apart what God has united? You must forgive. She is sure that it is necessary to forgive and submit. This-

which was taught to her in childhood by her nanny Agafya, who told the life of the most pure virgin, the lives of saints and hermits, who took her to church. Her own example brought up humility, meekness and a sense of duty.

Suddenly, Mikhalevich appeared in Vasilyevsky. He grew old, it was clear that he was not succeeding, but he spoke as fervently as in his youth, recited his own poems: “... And I burned everything that I worshiped, / Bowed to everything that I burned.”

Then the friends argued long and loudly, disturbing Lemm, who continued to visit. You can't just want happiness in life. It means to build on sand. Faith is needed, and without it Lavretsky is a miserable Voltairian. No faith - no revelation, no understanding of what to do. It needs a pure, unearthly being who will pull him out of his apathy.

After Mikhalevich, the Kalitins arrived in Vasilyevskoye. The days passed happily and carefree. “I talk to her as if I were not an obsolete person,” Lavretsky thought about Lisa. Seeing off their carriage on horseback, he asked: “Are we friends now? ..” She nodded in response.

The next evening, looking through French magazines and newspapers, Fyodor Ivanovich came across a message about the sudden death of the queen of fashionable Parisian salons, Madame Lavretskaya. The next morning he was at the Kalitins'. "What's wrong with you?" Lisa asked. He gave her the text of the message. Now he is free. “You don’t need to think about this now, but about forgiveness ...” she objected, and at the end of the conversation she repaid the same trust: Panshin asks for her hand. She is not at all in love with him, but is ready to obey her mother. Lavretsky begged Lisa to think about not marrying without love, out of a sense of duty. That same evening, Lisa asked Panshin not to rush her with an answer and informed Lavretsky about this. All the following days a secret anxiety was felt in her, as if she even avoided Lavretsky. And he was also alarmed by the lack of confirmation of the death of his wife. Yes, and Lisa, when asked if she decided to give an answer to Panshin, said that she knew nothing. Doesn't know herself.

One summer evening in the living room, Panshin began to reproach the newest generation, saying that Russia had lagged behind Europe (we didn’t even invent mousetraps). He spoke beautifully, but with secret bitterness. Lavretsky unexpectedly began to object and defeated the enemy, proving the impossibility of leaps and arrogant alterations, demanded recognition of the people's truth and humility before it. The irritated Panshin exclaimed; what does he intend to do? Plow the land and try to plow it as best as possible.

Liza was on Lavretsky's side throughout the argument. The secular official's contempt for Russia offended her. Both of them realized that they loved and did not love the same thing, but differed only in one, but Lisa secretly hoped to lead him to God. The embarrassment of the last days is gone.

Everyone dispersed little by little, and Lavretsky quietly went out into the night garden and sat down on a bench. There was light in the lower windows. It was Lisa walking with a candle in her hand. He quietly called her and, seating her under the lindens, said: "... It brought me here ... I love you."

Returning through the sleeping streets, full of joyful feeling, he heard the wondrous sounds of music. He turned to where they came from and called: Lemme! The old man appeared at the window and, recognizing him, threw down the key. Lavretsky had not heard anything like this for a long time. He came up and hugged the old man. He paused, then smiled and cried: "I did this, for I am a great musician."

The next day Lavretsky went to Vasilyevskoye and returned to the city in the evening. In the hallway he was greeted by the smell of strong perfumes, trunks stood right there. Crossing the threshold of the living room, he saw his wife. Inconsistently and verbosely, she began to beg to forgive her, if only for the sake of her daughter, who was not guilty of anything before him: Ada, ask your father with me. He invited her to settle in Lavriky, but never count on a resumption of relations. Varvara Pavlovna was meekness itself, but on the same day she visited the Kalitins. Liza and Panshin's final explanation had already taken place there. Maria Dmitrievna was in despair. Varvara Pavlovna managed to occupy, and then arrange her in her favor, hinted that Fyodor Ivanovich had not completely deprived her of "his presence." Liza received a note from Lavretsky, and the meeting with his wife was not a surprise to her (“It Serves Me Right”). She was stoic in the presence of a woman whom "he" had once loved.

Panshin appeared. Varvara Pavlovna immediately found a tone with him. She sang a romance, talked about literature, about Paris, engaged in semi-social, semi-artistic chatter. Parting, Maria Dmitrievna expressed her readiness to try to reconcile her with her husband.

Lavretsky reappeared at the Kalitinsky house when he received a note from Liza with an invitation to visit them. He immediately went up to Marfa Timofeyevna. She found an excuse to leave them alone with Lisa. The girl came to say that they had to do their duty. Fyodor Ivanovich must make peace with his wife. Doesn't he see for himself now: happiness does not depend on people, but on God.

When Lavretsky went downstairs, the footman invited him to Marya Dmitrievna. She spoke about the repentance of his wife, asked to forgive her, and then, offering to take her from hand to hand, led Varvara Pavlovna out from behind the screen. Requests and already familiar scenes were repeated. Lavretsky finally promised that he would live with her under the same roof, but would consider the contract violated if she allowed herself to leave Lavrikov.

The next morning he took his wife and daughter to Lavriki and left for Moscow a week later. A day later, Panshin visited Varvara Pavlovna and stayed for three days.

A year later, news reached Lavretsky that Lisa had taken her hair in a monastery in one of the remote regions of Russia. After some time he visited this monastery. Liza walked close to him - and did not look, only her eyelashes trembled a little and the fingers holding the rosary clenched even more tightly.

And Varvara Pavlovna very soon moved to St. Petersburg, then to Paris. A new suitor appeared beside her, a guardsman of extraordinary strength. She never invites him to her fashionable evenings, but otherwise he enjoys her favor completely.

Eight years have passed. Lavretsky again visited O ... The older inhabitants of the Kalitinsky house had already died, and youth reigned here: Lisa's younger sister, Lenochka, and her fiancé. It was fun and noisy. Fyodor Ivanovich walked through all the rooms. The same piano stood in the living room, the same hoop stood by the window as then. Only the wallpaper was different.

In the garden he saw the same bench and walked along the same alley. His sadness was agonizing, although he was already making that turning point, without which it is impossible to remain a decent person: he stopped thinking about his own happiness.