Leo Tolstoy “Confession”
The first of the works of Leo Tolstoy, in which he preached the moral-religious teaching (Tolstoyanism) that appeared in his mature age, was Confession (started in 1879 and completed in 1882). At one time she was not missed by Russian censorship. Printed in Geneva and in Russia distributed in lists. Confession is above all that he wrote afterwards; in purely literary terms, this is a masterpiece that is on a par with such things as the Book of Job, Ecclesiastes, and Confession of Blazh. Augustine. It is one of the greatest and forever living expressions of the human soul in the face of the eternal mystery of life and death. Continue reading
Corneille “Sid” – analysis with quotes
In the best works of the founder of the classic tragedy Pierre Corneille (1606 – 1684), speaking in the early period of classicism, at the time of absolute monarchy flourishing, the majestic images of harsh, volitional heroes express the idea of patriotic duty understood as serving the state in the person of the king. A characteristic theme of classicism — the clash of personal interests with public debt — is permitted by Corneille in favor of debt, although he also portrays with great force the tragedy of human feeling suppressed by absolutist statehood. Continue reading
Katerina Akhmakova in Dostoevsky’s “Teenager”
To the unearthly friend of his, Sofia Andreevna, the main character of the “Teenager” Versilov faces a bright face. Dark, he turned to the earth of his love – Katerina Nikolaevna Akhmakova. Throughout the first two parts of the novel, the truth of this love is closed from us by a thick veil of gossip, slander, and vile suspicion. Versilov’s son, Arkady, heard that his father abroad had some kind of suspicious history with this woman and that they were shared by an old feud. He is prejudiced against Akhmakova and, having met her for the first time at Prince Sokolsky, sees him as an enemy. “She somehow raised her face, looked at me badly and. smiled cheekily. And yet its beauty strikes him. The author repeats the technique he used in “Idiot” to portray Nastasya Filippovna: the hero first sees a portrait of a beautiful woman, and then her own. Continue reading
Image and theme of the war in Tolstoy’s “Sevastopol Stories”
In the military stories (“Raid”, “Forest Cutting”, “Sevastopol in December 1854, in May and August 1855”) Tolstoy dwells on the question of how legitimate war, demanding so many bloody victims, is legitimate . This idea is particularly clear in his “Sevastopol Tales” (see their analysis), which describe the famous defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War.
Battles and wars were depicted many times in Russian and foreign literature … – Almost always, these pictures are different, “poetizatsii”, elevated tone, a kind of “militarism, glorifying the exploits of warriors and leaders … Continue reading
The value of “Hunter’s notes” in Russian literature
The artistic significance of Turgenev’s Hunter’s Notes is very great: there are many beautiful descriptions of the “endless” nature of the middle part of Russia – the nature whose beauty was first appreciated by Pushkin — a long series of types that are characteristic, purely folk, well-worn Russian life, and , at the same time, often marked by the features of “universal”. In the descriptions of nature, Turgenev was able to identify the most diverse moods, because the content of the story, usually, he responds and mood, the nature of the landscape, against which one or the other, a scene from human life. Continue reading
