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…

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strip tease
Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin in the story "The Overcoat"
The Gogol story “The Overcoat” (see its full text, summary and analysis) depicts a petty, downtrodden and pathetic official Akaky Akakiyevich Bashmachkin (see his description in the text of the…

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Two crosses of Konstantin Batiushkov
This year marks the 230th anniversary of the birth of Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov (1787–1855) and the 200th anniversary of the release of his only book, the two-volume book Experiments in…

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after the edition

Gogol “Wii”

When analyzing the novel “Viy”, it immediately catches the eye that it is a work in which, like in Gogol’s other early stories, romanticism is inextricably mixed with realism: genre paintings are replaced by fantastic, fictional images, some kind of frightened imagination people and the author himself, stand next to the most ordinary people. The pictures of idyllic-peaceful nature are mixed here with Gogol with landscapes full of mystical horror and anxiety.

Romantic element in “Viy” Continue reading

Bulgakov “Crimson Island”

But – yet, how much more I read in the house of E.S. [Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova]. At first I reached for the “Crimson Island” (1927) – a brilliant satire, to a production that was banned at the root at the same time, only slightly flashed in the Chamber Theater …

Parses laughter already from the subtitle of the play [1] and the confused list of characters. A double theater, a theater in a theater, the spirit of theatrical life – just a playwright cannot write such a thing, but a natural theater theater, which Bulgakov was. Continue reading

Boyardo, Matteo Maria, and his “Roland in Love”

Matteo Maria Boyardo (1434 or 1441-1494) was descended from a noble surname, who zealously served the Este family (who owned Ferrara and Modena) and received from him in 1423 fief possession the county of Scandiano. Count Matteo Maria Boyardo studied in Ferrara, acquired a thorough acquaintance with Greek and Latin literatures, received the degree of Ph.D. and jurisprudence. The dukes of ferrara showed great respect for him; he married a girl from the Gonzag dynasty. From 1478 until his death, he almost continuously served as ruler of Reggio (in Lombardy). Modern lawyers blamed him for being too gentle, saying that he is better able to write poetry than to punish crimes. Continue reading

Vasily Belov “Everything is ahead”
"Everything is ahead" (1986). - After a ravnavnogo immersion in the irrevocable Russian past, Belov, the more painful it was to feel inappropriate in the uncomfortable present, in the swarming…

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Bogdanovich "Darling"
The content of “Darling” is taken from La Fontaine’s prose work “The Love of Psyche and Cupid” (“Les amours de Psyché et de Cupidon”). The content of this work, in…

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