Anna Sherer description. Salon A.P

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The salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer becomes an important element in social life. In the salon of Anna Pavlovna, the fates of both the main and secondary characters of the epic novel are decided. Thanks to her energy and enterprise, the woman manages to keep the interest of aristocrats in her salon for a long time. The idea that the most influential people are going to visit her flatters a woman's pride.

Image prototype

In the process of writing the novel, Tolstoy significantly transformed the image of Anna Pavlovna Sherer. According to the original idea, the role of Anna Pavlovna was to be performed by a certain lady-in-waiting Annette D., she was supposed to be a nice lady.

Presumably, Alexandra Andreevna Tolstaya, Lev Nikolayevich's aunt, became her prototype. In one of his letters to her, Tolstoy described the owner of the salon as follows: “She was smart, mocking and sensitive, and if she was not positively truthful, she differed from the crowd like her in her truthfulness.” However, later Tolstoy’s plans for this image changed significantly.

Brief description of personality

Anna Pavlovna Sherer was a 40-year-old unmarried noblewoman. In the old days, she belonged to the ladies-in-waiting of Empress Maria Feodorovna. Anna Pavlovna regards her activities within the secular salon as significant and treats it accordingly - Scherer constantly looks for unusual, interesting characters for her parties, so in most cases guests do not get bored in her salon. It is important for her to maintain her authority.

Anna Pavlovna is a rather pleasant woman, she has an exceptional upbringing and excellent manners.

However, not everything in the image of Anna Pavlovna is so beautiful - she is inherently a rather insidious woman, as well as a pimp.

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All Anna Pavlovna's actions are devoid of sincerity - her friendliness is just a successful mask. All the guests of Anna Pavlovna also follow the example of the hostess - their friendliness and courtesy are just a game behind which lies and ridicule are hidden.

Meetings in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Sherer

June 1805

Various guests gather at Anna Pavlovna Sherer's party. Vasily Kuragin is the first to arrive. The hostess, as usual, asks the guest about his health and business. Then the conversation turns to Kuragin's children. Prince Vasily believes that children are his cross. Anna Pavlovna supports the guest and advises him to marry Anatole, for example, to Marie Bolkonskaya and promises to talk to Liza, the wife of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, on this matter.

Then other guests appear - the little princess Bolkonskaya with her husband, Ippolit Kuragin, Abbot Morio, Mottemar, Anna Mikhailovna and Boris Drubetsky.

Among the guests appears the unattractive figure of Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of Kirill Bezukhov. Pierre spent 10 years studying abroad and came to Russia for the first time.

For Pierre, this exit was exciting - he is in anticipation of the upcoming event and is afraid of showing himself badly.

In society, Pierre tries to take part in "learned" conversations. His bold statements and discussions make Anna Pavlovna nervous - after all, she, like a talented spider, has wove a web for her guests and is afraid that Bezukhov's liberties could harm her salon and spoil his reputation. Soon Sherer finds a way out - she asks Andrei Bolkonsky to distract Pierre.

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the novel by L. N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”.

At the same time, other guests are trying to resolve their personal issues, for example, Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya asks Vasily Kuragin to intercede for his son for military service.

Early 1806

The second meeting, described by Tolstoy in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Sherer, takes place in 1806. This time, Anna Pavlovna lures her guests with a German diplomat who has come from Berlin. Pierre Bezukhov was also one of the guests. By that time, Count Kirill had died, and Pierre had become a rich heir, and therefore a priori everyone's favorite. Arriving, Pierre noted that everyone turned to him with a certain shade of sadness (due to the death of his father) and thus expressed their respect. This attitude is incredibly flattering to Bezukhov.

Anna Pavlovna, as usual, organized "interest groups" from her guests and successfully maneuvered between them. The woman focuses Pierre's attention on Elena Kuragina and tries to woo the girl Pierre. Bezukhov, not being experienced in love affairs, is in some confusion - on the one hand, Elena causes a surge of passion in him, but at the same time, Pierre finds the girl rather stupid. However, thanks to Scherer, the shadow of doubt and the shadow of love for Elena still settles in Pierre.

End of 1806

Throughout the year, Anna Pavlovna organizes dinner parties. She definitely has a talent for this business - for every evening she invites some new person who had influence, mainly in politics, less often in other areas than she interests her guests.

At the upcoming party in her salon, Boris Drubetskoy, who arrived as a courier from the Prussian army, became the highlight of the program. Against the background of military events in Europe, the information that Boris could tell would be extremely interesting.

Anna Pavlovna was not mistaken - conversations on military and political topics did not subside all evening. At first, Boris was the center of everyone's attention, such an attitude towards his person incredibly amused him - in most cases, Drubetskoy was on the periphery of society - he was not rich, and besides, he did not have significant talents, so it was always difficult for him to capture attention. Later, attention was captured by Ippolit Kuragin, who told a joke about Napoleon and Frederick's sword.
At the end of the evening, the conversation turned to the awards bestowed by the sovereign.

July 1812

After the successful marriage of Elena Kuragina with Pierre Bezukhov, Anna Pavlovna has a competitor in the field of social life - the young Bezukhova also actively leads social life and organizes her own salon.

For some time the salons were at enmity, but then returned to their usual rhythm. The military events with Napoleon provided a significant basis for discussions and conversations. In the salon of Anna Pavlovna, the patriotic orientation of conversations is actively supported, while news from the front is furnished in the most encouraging way.

August 1812

On August 26, on the day of the Battle of Borodino, Anna Pavlovna Sherer hosted a soiree. It was assumed that the highlight would be the reading of the letter "the Right Reverend, written when sending the image of St. Sergius to the sovereign." Vasily Kuragin, who was famous for his ability to read publicly, was supposed to read it.
However, as a result, the news about the illness of Elena Bezukhova excited the guests more. Those around her actively discussed this topic, as if they did not know at all that her illness was connected with the inability to marry two men at the same time. The conversation then turned to political topics.

Thus, Anna Pavlovna is a woman who knows how to successfully play on two fronts and pretend to be sweet and welcoming. In the salon of Anna Pavlovna, topical issues are discussed, and the bright personalities invited to her salon only stir up the interest of society.

Anna Pavlovna Sherer and her salon in the novel "War and Peace": image and characteristics, visitors to the salon of Anna Sherer

In "War and Peace", it would seem that the scene in Scherer's salon, which opens the work, is by no means repeated. It's just that we kind of plunge into the thick of things, immediately find ourselves among the heroes of the book, captured by the flow of life. But the meaning of the scene is not only in this. In it, of course, although not as clearly as in the first episodes of Dostoevsky's novel, all the main problems of the work are outlined, the very first words that sound in the salon are discussions about Napoleon, about wars, about the Antichrist. In the future, this will find a continuation in Pierre's attempt to kill Napoleon, in his calculations of the numerical value of the name of this "Antichrist". The whole theme of the book is war and peace, the true greatness of man and false idols, divine and diabolical.

Let's go back to Dnna Pavlovna's salon. The main thing for us is to trace how the main lines of the characters in the book are tied in this first scene. Pierre, of course, will become a Decembrist, this is clear from his behavior from the very first pages. V. Kuragin is a sly man, somewhat reminiscent of Famusov, but without his warmth and eloquence, which, however, Griboedov portrayed not without sympathy ... The St. Petersburg public is still not a Moscow nobility. Vasily Kuragin is a prudent, cold rogue, although he is a prince, he will continue to look for clever moves "to the cross, to the town." Anatole, his son, whom he mentions in a conversation with Scherer, "a restless fool", will cause much grief to Rostov and Volkonsky. Other children of Kuragin - Ippolit and Helen - are immoral destroyers of other people's destinies. Helen is already in this first scene far from being as harmless as it might seem at first glance. There was not yet a shadow of coquetry in her, but she is fully aware of her beauty, “giving everyone the right to admire? Significant detail! Her smile is “unchanging” (the most terrible thing that can be in a person, according to Tolstoy, is his spiritual immobility), and Helen’s expression completely depends on the expression on Anna Pavlovna’s face - Tolstoy specifically emphasizes this. Three women in the salon, Scherer, Helen and Lisa, play the role of three parks, goddesses of fate. M. Gasparov interestingly compares Sherer's "spinning workshop" with the work of goddesses spinning the thread of human destiny. Another motif linking War and Peace with antiquity is the ancient beauty of Helene. The same antique beauty makes her look like a soulless statue.

In significant works, as a rule, the first pages contain the grain of the whole idea. This can be said about Dead Souls, Crime and Punishment, Warrior and Peace. L. Tolstoy himself said about Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" that further "it is told and repeated what you read in the first chapters ...".

Salon A.P. Scherer in "War and Peace"

L. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" begins with a description of a party in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Sherer. And this is somewhat symbolic, because the salon acts as a miniature copy of the society to which all the main characters of the work belong without exception. As if under a microscope, the writer closely examines regular and casual visitors to the salon. He listens to their statements, evaluates their mood, guesses their thoughts and feelings, follows their movements, gestures, facial expressions.

The invited guests are courtiers, aristocrats, military and bureaucratic nobility. They all know each other well and for a long time. They gather, talk peacefully and exchange news. But gradually there is a conviction that external benevolence, thoughtful conversations are all falsehood and pretense. Before us are “decency pulled together masks” of prudent, selfish, politically limited, morally unscrupulous, empty and insignificant, and sometimes simply stupid and rude people.

The salon has its own unwritten rules of conduct. The hostess herself sets the tone and general direction of empty and useless conversations - "the famous Anna Pavlovna Scherer, the maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna." In the manners, the conversation, the participation in the fate of each of the guests, the imaginary sensitivity of Anna Pavlovna, the falseness and pretense are most visible. L. Tolstoy notes that she “was full of animation and impulses”, that “being an enthusiast became her social position, and sometimes, when she didn’t even want to, she, in order not to deceive the expectations of people who knew her, became an enthusiast. The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna's face, although it did not go to her obsolete features, expressed, like in spoiled children, the constant consciousness of her sweet shortcoming, from which she does not want, cannot and does not find it necessary to correct herself.

As if imitating the hostess of the salon, her guests behave and behave in the same way. They speak because something needs to be said; they smile because otherwise they will be considered impolite; they show imaginary feelings because they do not want to appear indifferent and selfish.

But soon we begin to understand that the real essence of the salon's visitors is just the opposite. In fact, some of them come here to show off in public in their outfits, others - to listen to secular gossip, others (like Princess Drubetskaya) - to successfully attach their son to the service, and the fourth - to make the necessary acquaintances to advance through the ranks. After all, "influence in the world is a capital that must be protected so that it does not disappear."

Anna Pavlovna “very seriously led each new guest to a little old woman in high bows who swam out of another room,” whom she called ma tante - my aunt, called by name, “slowly shifting her eyes from the guest to ma tante, and then departed.” Paying tribute to the hypocrisy of secular society, “all the guests performed the ceremony of greeting an unknown, uninteresting and useless aunt. Anna Pavlovna followed their greetings with sad, solemn sympathy, tacitly approving them. Ma tante spoke to everyone in the same terms about his health, about her health and about the health of Her Majesty, which today was, thank God, better. All those who approached, out of decency, not showing haste, with a sense of relief from the heavy duty they had performed, departed from the old woman, so that they would never go up to her all evening.

The assembled society “divided into three circles. In one, more masculine, the center was the abbot; in another, young one, the beautiful Princess Helen, daughter of Prince Vasily, and the pretty, ruddy, too plump for her youth, little Princess Bolkonskaya. In the third - Mortemar and Anna Pavlovna. Anna Pavlovna, “like the owner of a spinning workshop, having put the workers in their places, walks around the institution, noticing the immobility or the unusual, creaking, too loud sound of the spindle, hurriedly walks, restrains or starts it in the proper course” .

It is no coincidence that L. Tolstoy compares the Scherer salon with a spinning workshop. This comparison very accurately conveys the true atmosphere of a "correctly ordered" society. The workshop is the mechanisms. And the property of mechanisms is the performance of a certain, initially set function. Mechanisms do not know how to think and feel. They are just soulless executors of someone else's will. The same mechanisms are a significant part of the guests of the salon.

“Anna Pavlovna’s evening was started ...”

"High society" in the novel by L. N. Tolstoy "War and Peace". Analysis of scenes from Volume I, Part I.

Goals : analyze episodes from the life of St. Petersburg and Moscow secular society; give an idea of ​​the characters, behavior, interests, relationships of heroes, representatives of the highest nobility; highlight the defining features of secular society and the artistic means by which this society is characterized; to determine the author's attitude to secular society and his own.

I. Checking homework.

Conversation on questions :

1. Tell us about the history of writing War and Peace. How did the idea of ​​the novel change in the process of writing?

2. Explain the meaning of the name - "War and Peace".

3. Why is War and Peace called an epic novel?

4. What do you see as the features of the composition and originality of the plot of the novel "War and Peace"?

5. What are your initial impressions of what you read?

Salon of Anna Pavlovna Sherer (observation plan)

• What characters, and in what sequence, does Tolstoy introduce the reader to in the first chapters of the novel?
• See how the author unmasks his characters.
• P. Bezukhov and A. Bolkonsky as strangers in Scherer's living room.
• "Anecdote" of Prince Hippolyte at the end of the evening. French and Russian languages ​​in the description of Anna Pavlovna's salon.

Conversation on:

 Petersburg. July 1805. Salon of Anna Pavlovna Sherer.

• Who is the hostess of the evening? For what purpose does she gather guests at her place?
• Tell us about the regulars of the Scherer salon. Pay attention to the appearance of the characters, their behavior, manner of communication.

To expose the falsity and unnaturalness of these people, Tolstoy uses method of "tearing off all and sundry masks" (“First of all, tell me, how is your health, dear friend? Calm me down,” said Prince Vasily in a tone in which, due to decency and participation, indifference and even mockery shone through).

3. Why did Prince Vasily Kuragin arrive first?

In pursuit of profit, he is ready for anything. The goal is to try to attach sons: Ippolit (“calm fool”) to the embassy in Vienna and Anatole (“restless fool”) to marry a rich bride.

Who is the main guest at the party?

Viscount emigrant.

The outfits of the guests amaze with luxury and splendor; clothing "covers" the facelessness and spiritual emptiness of aristocrats.

5. Why are conversations in the Scherer salon predominantly in French?

The language of the “high society” is French, this is the norm. Expressions and turns in French have become familiar clichés used in secular conversation. Tolstoy emphasizes the ignorance of the heroes of their native language, separation from the people, i.e. the French language is a means of characterizing the nobility with its anti-national orientation.

By simply using either Russian or French, Tolstoy shows his attitude to what is happening. Pierre's words, although he speaks excellent French and is more accustomed to it abroad, the author quotes only in Russian. A. Bolkonsky’s remarks are also given, mainly in Russian, with the exception of two cases: Prince Andrei, entering the salon, answers Anna Pavlovna’s question in French, posed in French, and quotes Napoleon in French.

As a rule, where lies and evil are described, French or, later, German language breaks in.

6. What are they talking about in the salon? Let's pay attention to political disputes (ch. 4).

The guests talk about the French Revolution, about Napoleon and his strivings for conquest, about the role of Prussia and Austria in European affairs...

The story of the anti-Napoleonic conspiracy of the Duke of Enghien turns into a cute secular anecdote in the salon, which everyone finds charming. When Pierre tries to enter into a conversation about Napoleon, Anna Pavlovna does not allow this.

7. Highlight the defining features of a secular society.

8. What do Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov have in common? How do they differ from other salon guests?

9. What artistic means does the author use to characterize secular society?

8. Name the details that reveal the spiritual closeness of Pierre and A. Bolkonsky.

Only from Bolkonsky Pierre does not take his “joyful, friendly eyes”, and Prince Andrei, who looked at everyone in the living room with a “tired, bored look”, smiled only at Pierre with an “unexpectedly kind and pleasant smile”.

Pierre's violation of the etiquette established by Anna Pavlovna, his clumsiness once again confirms that he is a foreign body in the high society living room. Prince Vasily says to Anna Pavlovna: "Educate me this bear."

9. What is the friendship between Pierre and Andrei Bolkonsky based on?

The friendship of the heroes is built on the commonality of their interests, therefore, as a more experienced person, Prince Andrei recommends that Pierre not be friends with Kuragin.

10. Let's pay attention to the features of Tolstoy's portraits:

 the naturalness of the first acquaintance with the hero through his appearance, as happens in life;

 deep psychological filling of the portrait, expression through it of changing feelings and moods;

 the selection of 1-2 permanent signs (the bright expression of the flat face of Prince Vasily; the enthusiastic, as if glued smile of Anna Pavlovna; the intelligent and timid look of Pierre ...).

11. What episode ends the evening with Anna Pavlovna Sherer?

Stupid anecdote of Hippolytus, which everyone greeted as a social courtesy.

III. Work on the episode “In the House of Count Bezukhov” (vol. I, part I, ch. 7, ch. 18–21).

Conversation on:

Homogeneous in style with the description of Scherer's salon is the scene of the death of Count Bezukhov and the struggle for a mosaic portfolio - the story of the struggle for the inheritance of the dying Count Bezukhov. Here is the same method of removing masks in society.

Moscow. 1805. House of Count Bezukhov.

• List everyone who was in the house of the dying Count Bezukhov.

2. For what purpose did Prince Vasily come? Why is it difficult for him to maintain a pose of outward dignity?

3. Tell us about the struggle for the will of the old count. Who became the owner of the mosaic portfolio?

The scene of a dispute and a fight over a briefcase with a will is given in the perception of Pierre, who hears how women are kind to each other, but both hold the briefcase tenaciously, as their nerves gradually fail.

4. How did the attitude towards Pierre change when he became unspeakably rich?

He was respected: "With your extraordinary kindness ...", "with your beautiful heart ...". Life, behavior of secular society is subordinated only to the desire for wealth.

conclusions . Tolstoy gives a satirical coverage of the regulars of the salon and its mistress A.P. Sherer. “The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna’s face, although it did not go to her obsolete features, expressed, like in spoiled children, the constant consciousness of her sweet shortcoming ...” Behind this brief description is the author's irony.

How do representatives of the aristocratic nobility live? Court intrigues, gossip, the desire to get rich at all costs, to "make" a career - these are the interests and goals.

The defining feature of the "high society" N. N. Naumova calls "all-pervading falsity of behavior." Everything in the cabin is saturated with falsehood, heartlessness and lies.

Homework:

1. Reading the novel "War and Peace". 2. "In the Rostov House" - volume 1, part 1, ch. 7 - 11 (name day scenes), ch. 12 - 13 (scenes of the count's illness), 14 - 17 (scenes at the Rostovs). 3. "In the estate of the Bolkonsky Bald Mountains" (ch. 22 - 25).

Individually: reports about the Rostov and Bolkonsky families. "The Rostov Family" (condensed retelling);

"The Bolkonsky Family" (condensed retelling).

The author of the epic novel "War and Peace" is the outstanding Russian writer and thinker Leo Tolstoy. The novel is quite diverse in its subject matter, it raises many problems and presents about five hundred heroes, among which there are many historical characters. All characters of the work are divided into positive and negative. Some of them are pleasant to the author, while others, on the contrary, are alien.

Acquaintance with many of the main characters takes place at the very beginning of the novel, in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Sherer, which is intended to receive all worthy representatives of St. Petersburg society.

The hostess of the salon is the forty-year-old wife of an old general, a socialite who sees the meaning of her life in receiving guests. She has good court manners and can boast of dignified behavior in society. The author of the novel gives a rather interesting characterization of Anna Pavlovna: he compares her with a spinning machine, because she is in motion all evening, full of liveliness and energy, entertains her guests with secular and political conversations, and is engaged in pandering. However, we see that her behavior is completely insincere, because the owner of the salon simply puts on the mask of an enthusiast. Enthusiasm and liveliness become her social position.

The salon of Anna Pavlovna is visited by Prince Vasily Kuragin, his sons Anatole and Ippolit, daughter Helen, Andrei and Elizaveta Bolkonsky, Bilibin, Viscount Mortemar, Princess Anna Drubetskaya with her son Boris, and Pierre Bezukhov. Each of these guests is looking for some benefit in visiting the salon. For example, Prince Vasily seeks to ensure a profitable marriage for his children, and Princess Drubetskaya worries about the fate of her son and tries to arrange it with the help of Prince Vasily.

All guests communicate with each other quite politely and decently, but lies, falsehood, indifference and even ridicule are hidden behind the mask of secular tact and grace. Certain rules force all visitors to the salon not to go beyond the bounds of decency and wear masks of worthy members of secular society.

Only two people differ from all the guests of the salon - Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky. Pierre behaves quite frankly, which is extremely shocking to the whole environment. Anna Pavlovna is afraid that Bezukhov will ruin her evening, because because of him all the guests can deviate from their usual behavior and tear off their masks.

Prince Andrei is completely fed up with such a pastime. He was tired of the imposed rules of behavior in society, because even his wife is no different from all the other visitors and has become so accustomed to the role of an aristocrat that she does not deviate from her even at home.

So, with the help of the guests of the salon and Anna Pavlovna Sherer herself, Leo Tolstoy depicts all the shortcomings characteristic of the secular society of that time: lies, falsehood, hypocrisy, indifference and selfishness. The whole secular society is opposed by frank and sincere people - Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky.