Dante “Hell”
In the two greatest creations of Dante Alighieri – “New Life” and in the “Divine Comedy” (see its summary) – the same idea has been carried out. Both are bound by the thought that pure love ennobles human nature, and the knowledge of the frailty of sensual bliss brings a person closer to God. But “New Life” is only a series of lyrical poems, and “Divine Comedy” represents a whole poem in three parts, containing up to one hundred songs, each of which contains about one hundred and forty verses. Continue reading
Grossman “Life and Fate”
How strikingly disappeared all the Soviet spells and formulas, enumerated above! [cm. Grossman’s article “For the Right Cause” – analysis by A. Solzhenitsyn] – and no one will say that this is from the author’s insight of 50 years? And what Grossman really didn’t know and didn’t feel until 1953–1956, he managed to catch up in the last years of work on Volume 2, and now, with passion, it’s all missed into the fabric of the novel.
Now we learn that not only in Hitler Germany, but also here: the mutual suspicion of people towards each other; It is a matter of suspicion if people talk over a glass of tea. Continue reading
Bitter “Chelkash”
The hero of Maxim Gorky’s story “Chelkash” is Grishka Chelkash, an old wounded man, an avid drinker and a clever, courageous thief and smuggler in one of the southern Black Sea ports. Barefoot, in old, worn plush pants, in a dirty calico shirt, with a torn collar, which opened it with moving, angular, dry bones covered with brown skin, long, bony, slightly stooping, he immediately drew attention to himself by his resemblance to a steppe hawk, his with a predatory thinness and aiming gait, as smooth and calm in appearance, but internally agitated, with a sharp look, like the flight of an angry, nervous bird that he resembled. Continue reading
Goncharov “Zion of agony”
In his article “Zion of agony”, I. A. Goncharov begins the characterization of the comedy “Woe from Wit” (see the summary, analysis and full text) with an indication of its unusual “youthfulness, freshness” – “she, like a hundred-year old man, about of which everyone, having lived out his turn in turn, dies and falls, and he walks, vigorous and fresh, between the graves of old people and the cradles of new people. ” Although “the significance of Pushkin in the history of Russian literature was incomparably greater than that of Griboedov – he occupied with himself his whole epoch, he himself created another, gave birth to schools of artists” – nevertheless, the heroes of his works (eg, Onegin) faded, became a thing of the past . Lermontov Pechorin also outlived his time, not to mention the heroes of Fonvizin. Meanwhile, Chatsky – the image is still bright. Continue reading
Homeric epic
Epic means nothing more than a word about exploits (in Greek “epic” – “word”), songs that were performed by wandering singers. To the accompaniment of the lyre, they were sung or aed – the songwriter, or the rhapsodist – the performer and collector of heroic tales.
Tradition considers the creator of the ancient Greek epic of Homer, a blind stray aed, a beggar singer. Already in ancient Greece, his name was surrounded by legends. Many later considered this name to be a household name. “Homer” in one of the Greek dialects means “blind.” Many scientists, not understanding how one person could create verbally and keep in memory thousands of poems of the Iliad and Odyssey, questioned the existence of Homer himself (see Homer’s question). Continue reading
