French classic prose
Introduction
French classicism was most clearly manifested in dramaturgy, however, in prose, where the requirements for observing aesthetic norms were less strict, it created a peculiar genre inherent in it - we mean the genre of aphorism. In France XVII century, several aphorist writers appeared. We call so those writers who did not create novels, short stories, or short stories, but only brief, extremely compressed prose miniatures or wrote down their thoughts - the fruit of life's observations and reflections.
Aphorism as a literary genre has not yet found either its historian or its interpreter. Meanwhile, this genre is firmly established in the literature. La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère, Vauvenargues, Chamfort - brilliant masters of aphorism - gave classic examples of this genre. Its origins should be sought in the "Characters" of the ancient Greek writer Theophrastus. However, the previous writers named French literature already created special artistic techniques, on the basis of which the genre of aphorism was born as a literary genre (“Experiments” by Montaigne). The genre of aphorism requires great skill. The word in it is worth its weight in gold. There is not, there should not be anything superfluous. Conciseness is one of the main advantages of aphorism.
Aphorists
A brilliant master of aphorism was La Rochefoucauld (1613–1689). An aristocrat, a member of the Fronde, who spent a stormy youth, he turned to literature in his declining years and wrote the book Meditations, or Moral Sayings and Maxims (1665). The writer created a kind of model of "man in general", outlined a kind of universal psychology suitable for all times and peoples. A moral portrait of humanity drawn with a skillful and cold pen French author, is completely devoid of any attractiveness. There is not a single tolerable feature. The picture is rather bleak. The writer does not believe in truth or goodness. Even in acts of humanity and nobility, he is inclined to see hidden hostility, a spectacular pose, a mask covering self-interest and selfishness.
Here are some examples. A certain man took pity on his enemy. "How noble it is!" we say. La Rochefoucauld will smile skeptically and declare: "There is more pride here than kindness." Isn't it nice to humiliate your enemy with compassion To him? Old man wants to help the young man with his life experience. La Rochefoucauld, with bitter sarcasm, will throw a sardonic phrase: "Old madmen are much worse than young ones!" or "Old age is a tyrant who forbids, under pain of death, all the joys of youth." Lovers keep touching fidelity to each other. We admire their persistence. La Rochefoucauld will try to dispel our illusions: "They hold on to their first lover for a long time when they cannot find another." About women of strict morals, he ironically responds: "Most decent women are like hidden treasures, which are only safe because they are not looked for."
There are holy tears, tears of compassion, sadness, tears of separation, tears of a happy meeting. La Rochefoucauld believes nothing of this: everywhere he sees lies and vanity. “There are tears that often deceive ourselves, after deceiving others”; "There is nothing worse than smart fool»; "There is nothing rarer than true kindness; what is called kindness is usually only connivance or weakness. The selfish interest of man, his pride, his vanity, his selfishness governs the world. These misanthropic observations, presented with the brilliance of a great stylist, struck reading France. "High society" recognized itself. Psychological studies of La Rochefoucauld, as we have already said, claimed universal universality.
The technique of abstraction, the ultimate exposure of an idea in an artistic image is, perhaps, the most important thing that connects La Rochefoucauld with the artistic method of classicism. His “characters”, if viewed from the point of view of literary skill, are nothing more than classicist images-ideas, brought to the limit of generalization, to the complete absence of any specific features of the individual.
Molière, a year after the publication of the Sayings, La Rochefoucauld staged his comedy The Misanthrope in the theater, in which he brought up for public discussion the questions posed in La Rochefoucauld's book.
With a characteristic of French society second half of XVII century was made by La Bruyère (1645-1696). In 1688 he published Theophrastus Characters, translated from the Greek. The book with each new edition was replenished and repeatedly corrected by the author. The original idea of a simple translation of the text of the ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Aristotle, eventually resulted in an independent original work"Characters or mores of our age."
The son of a bourgeois, La Bruyère differed significantly in his views from the aristocrat La Rochefoucauld. His reviews of the nobility are very dismissive; and vice versa, judgments about the people are full of deep sympathy. We have already quoted his statement about the French peasants. La Bruyère also reveals many vices of human nature, but his view of life is brighter. The people in his view are by no means as terrible as in the gloomy picture of La Rochefoucauld. The system of La Bruyère's characters is sustained in the spirit of the classic theory. Here is the same striving for the universal universality of types, as was the case with La Rochefoucauld.
However, La Bruyère classifies his characters according to class characteristics (usurers, monks, nobles, bourgeois, peasants, etc.). It is impossible not to cite here the writer's observations relating to the world of the rising bourgeoisie in his day. “There are vile souls,” writes La Bruyère, “ fashioned from dirt and garbage, in love with good and profit, as noble souls are in love with V glory and virtue; They. capable of only one pleasure - to gain or lose nothing; curious and greedy only for rumors of a ten percent benefit; busy only with their debtors; always concerned about devaluation or depreciation of money; mired in contracts, deals and papers. Such creatures are no longer people, they are the owners of money.
The Princess of Cleves by Madame de Lafayette
In 1678 Claude Barbin, publisher of Boileau, La Fontaine, Racine, La Rochefoucauld and other famous writers of the 17th century, published the novel unknown author"Princess of Cleves". A narrow circle of the French nobility immediately guessed the author of the novel in Madame de Lafayette, already a well-known novelist at that time, who had previously published several of her works.
The Comtesse de Lafayette (1634–1693) is one of the regular visitors to Madame de Rambouillet's salon. A deep friendship connected her with La Rochefoucauld, one of the veterans of the noble opposition to absolutism. It was not without the influence of this sober, skeptical mind that the whole style of the novel, free from pomposity, took shape.
If speak about literary traditions, the novel of Madame de Lafayette is sustained in the spirit of memoir narratives. Memoirs were written in XVI century(Vuatur, Margaret of Navarre, and others), the 17th century is full of memoirs (Cardinal de Retz, and others). The advantage of this genre lies in the accuracy of the descriptions with maximum avarice. visual means. Writers-memoirists avoided rhetorical embellishments, but very carefully followed the correct transfer of the portrait resemblance of the things they saw. historical persons. A historical anecdote, a winged word accidentally thrown by someone, was eagerly picked up by memoirists, so that later they could take their place in a kind of protocol record of memoirs. From the genre of memoirs, he borrowed the novel of Madame de Lafayette and the mean severity of the narrative, and sober truthfulness.
The novelist, slyly rejecting authorship, wrote about her work: “I find it very pleasant, is it well written? immaculate, unpolished, full of delightful subtleties, it can be read over and over again, and especially what I find in it is a beautiful depiction of court society and its way of life. There is nothing romantic in it, nothing out of the ordinary, as if it were not a novel; in fact, this is a memoir, so the book was originally called, as I was told, and only then the name was changed. Here, sir, is my opinion of The Princess of Cleves. Madame de Lafayette was on friendly terms with Racine. This friendship stemmed from common literary interests. Racine's contribution to French tragedy, namely the deepest penetration into the life of the heart, Madame de Lafayette made the property of the novel.
The tragedy of Racine, with her superbly sculpted psychological portraits became a school psychological skill for writers. Madame de Lafayette was the first to use the playwright's achievements in a different genre - in the novel. And the subsequent French literature followed the path opened by her. In the 19th century Stendhal opposed artistic method Madame de Lafayette (the true portrayal of characters as the main task of the novelist) to the method of Walter Scott, censuring English writer for an excessive tendency to depict historical realities, or, as the French romantics of the 20s said. XIX century, local color.
Anatole France, in his article on The Princess of Cleves, wrote: “Mme de Lafayette was the first to introduce the natural into the novel, she was the first to draw human characters and genuine feelings in it, she worthily entered the concert of the classics, harmoniously echoing Molière, Lafontaine, Boileau and Racine, who turned the Muses to nature and truth. "Andromache" dates back to 1667, "Princess of Cleves" - 1678, modern literature is coming from these two dates. "Princess of Cleves" - the first french novel, in which main interest focused on the truth of the passions."
The plot of the novel is simple. It can be stated in several lines. The young wife of the aging Prince of Cleves meets the equally young Prince Nemours at a ball. Young people fall in love with each other. Not wanting to hide anything from her husband, who is deeply respected by her, the Princess of Cleves tells him about her new feelings. This confession kills the husband who is ardently in love with his wife. The Princess of Cleves remains true to the memory of the deceased, removing her beloved forever from herself. That's the whole story.
Anna Gavalda. "Ensemble, c" est tout "(the best and the last). Now I'm reading. A film was made based on the book with Audrey Tautou. Very vital French, everyday turns, vocabulary different words society.
Michel Tournier. Academician of the Goncourt Prize (the most prestigious award in France). "Vendredi ou les limbes du pacifique". "Le roi des Aulnes". Both novels received the Prix Goncourt at the time. The second film was recently released. One of the most revered contemporary writers.
http://www.academie-goncourt.fr/m_tournier.htm
Paul Coelho. Brazilian writer. All Paris reads.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho
Marc Levi. Writer-philosopher. They say the lover of Ségolène Royale. "Mes amis Mes amours". "Si, cétait vrai". Also every third in the subway.
Harlan Coben, American writer.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Coben. "Ne le dis à personne". The movie is out.
Kennedy Douglas. The English writer lives in Paris and writes about Paris. "La femme du Ve"
http://www.amazon.fr/femme-du-Ve-Kennedy-Douglas/dp/2714441904/ref=pd_ts_b_73/403-1162454-2840466?ie=UTF8&s=books
Regine Deforge. Saga. "La bibyclette bleue". Watched the movie and read the book. Charming work. In the film, the main character is played by Laéticia Casta. French "Gone with the Wind" from the Second World War. Bordeaux. Germans. Gorgeous. Entrepreneurial young man. Life before the war and during.
M. Houellebecq. I would call him the number one writer of our time. Read Les particules elementaire. It shocks and makes you think about the meaning of life. The work that made the strongest impression on me in life. La possibilité d "une île. A new novel. They say cool.
Andrew Makine. Le testement francais. Goncourt Prize. Very juicy syllable despite Russian origin. Juicier than Houellebecq's. A story about the life of his French grandmother in the USSR.
Christine Angot ("Inceste")
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Angot
Amelie Nothomb. Stupeur et Tremblements. Belgian writer, the daughter of a diplomat who lived in Japan.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amélie_Nothomb
Frederic Beigbeder. Journalist. The most glamorous author. Born in Neilly (the most expensive city in France).
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frédéric_Beigbeder. I read "L" amour dure trois ans ". Slightly superficial and vulgar. Although with humor. Like Zadornov.
Isabelle Alexis. "Des le premier soir". The name speaks for itself. Very funny book and easy to read. Super modern. A film was made based on the book Tu vas rire mais je te quitte.
Tyne O "Connell. Australian writer living in London. Trente ans ou presque. Very cool and vital. One of my favorites. There are other novels.
Laure Caldwell. "Mefiez vous de vos voeux". The author is American. As a result, the book is strong in the originality of the plot.
Evelyne Lever. Marie Antoinette. Several books appeared last year for the release of the film of the same name.
Francoise Sagan. "De Guerre Lasse". A very well written novel. Bonjour, tristesse. I can't get past this block.
Stephen Clarke. "The year in the merde". Hit last year. It is advisable to read in English. About the life of an Englishman in Paris.
Sebastian Japrisot. Among other things, the last filmed novel: Un long dimanche de fiançailles, prix Interallié 1991 (Denoël, 1991). NB: roman adapté au cinéma par Jean-Pierre Jeunet, avec Audrey Tautou.
Francois Cavanna. "Le voyage", "Les Ritals", "Les Russkoffs". Lots of humorous novels.
Francis Veber."Le dîner de cons". Humorist. Many films based on his scripts.
Umberto Eco. Famous contemporary Italian writer."Le Pendule de Foucault", "Le Nom de la rose".
Family libraries of children's literature have hardly changed compared to our childhood. If you look at what are on the shelves in most Orthodox families, it turns out that they are the same as 10 years ago, and 20, and 30. With rare exceptions. And to the question what modern books your children read, answer: "Harry Potter." In fact, there are wonderful books that we hardly know about. Anastasia Otroshchenko, Mercy.ru, talks about them, especially for Orthodoxy and the world.
Speaking of modern literature, books of the 21st century, one cannot pass over in silence the most amazing, absolutely Christian collection of stories by the French writer Philippe Delerme “The First Sip of Beer and Other Small Pleasures of Life”.
"I had a very happy childhood"
Philippe Delerme was born in 1950, the book we are talking about was written in 1997 and brought the author world fame(in Russia it was first published in 2002). For almost all his life, Delerme taught literature at a school in a small Normandy town, interrupting his teaching career only in 2007, for the sake of writer's work. Interestingly, the writer is also very fond of sports in 2004, and in 2008 he was invited by French television as a commentator on the Olympic Games.
But not a single biographical note, and even the story of the writer himself about himself, will introduce us to this writer as closely as any of his tiny stories-experiences can.
"Go down to the basement. And suddenly ... It smells like apples laid out for drying on overturned fruit boxes. You are taken by surprise. I did not expect and did not ask for your soul to be so overwhelmed. But it's too late. The apple spirit, like a wave, covered my head. And it’s already incomprehensible: how could you live without this sugary astringency of childhood?
There is nothing tastier than these wrinkled slices: seemingly dry crusts, but each groove is saturated with condensed sweetness. However, they do not want to eat. So that the vague element of smell does not turn into an easily recognizable taste. To say that it smells very nice or very strong? Not in this case. And in the internal sense of smell - this is the smell of a happy time. It's school autumn. Here you are bending over a notebook and drawing letters in purple ink. The rain is drumming on the window, a long evening has come ... "
"I know it"
Any story (they are very short in size, literally a sketch) is always an impressionistic transmission of some small fragment of life. The smell of apples, transferring to happy childhood, or news heard on the road, or glass bowl, shaking which, you can admire the snow flakes falling on a small house.
In a few paragraphs of any Delerme essay, everything is said so that the reader feels the joy of remembering some happy moment life, and sadness, because it already happened. Here is a smell that brings you back to childhood (“Apple Spirit”), or an unexpected wonderful guest who ran in like a neighbor for dinner (“Inadvertently Visiting”), or an interesting sports program that I accidentally turned on on TV (“Tour de France”) .
Another experience that takes us far, far away is immersion in the world of Agatha Christie's books. So you remember summer holidays or a school illness, when you can do nothing, but only read, as the parents said, “nonsense”, sitting comfortably in bed under the covers. Delerme will never call it "nonsense", on the contrary, he recalls that in the novels of Agatha Christie there is always a special flavor - English lawns, bay windows, double chintz curtains, tea sets, framed photographs, a piano and a fireplace - "everything is peaceful and calmly, despite a string of murders":
“Of course, the main thing in a detective story is not the murder itself, but intrigue, the search for the killer. But what's the point of competing with the gray cells of Poirot and the skill of Agatha? She still manages to surprise you on the last page, that's her right.
And so we build ourselves a cozy little world in the interval between committing a crime and exposing the criminal. In these English cottages ... everything is missing: booming voices from Victoria Station, the resort boredom of Brighton, sedate walks along the esplanade with cane umbrellas and even gloomy corridors from David Copperfield ... "
This nibbling on the treats we once indulged in takes us to some distant happy cloudless times. Not necessarily childhood (although it should be noted that the world of the child is especially interesting to the writer due to many years of teaching experience), but simply into some other dimension.
When the circulation of the book in question exceeded one hundred thousand copies, Delerme said in an interview: “I did not intend to write in retro style, but simply wanted readers to share with me these small joys of life, moments of uncomplicated happiness ... Vaguely personal the form in which the narrative is sustained invites the reader to try everything on himself, to think: "I know this" ... "
Philippe Delerme is one of the most famous French writers of our time, whose works should never be read "eagerly", they can be enjoyed, admired and sipped in small sips. The admiration of living every minute of life, the perception of literally every little thing as something incredibly beautiful, the daily discovery of the world - this is the leitmotif of each story of this amazing little book. I really envy those who have not yet read it, because ahead of you is an immersion in a miracle.
Today the naughty Frederic Beigbeder celebrates 50 years. We took advantage of this occasion and remembered the best French writers of our time.
Thanks to Begbeder, Houellebecq, Levy, Werber and Gavalde, modern French literature is read and loved far beyond the borders of France. There is an opinion, for example, that Begbeder and Welbeck are more popular abroad than at home. This can be explained by the fact that the publishing business in France, although it does not flourish and smells, does not stop either - new writers appear here every week, but we still managed to single out the most read ones.
Frederic Begbeder
An employee of an advertising agency easily survived his dismissal - the reason for the dismissal was scandalous romance 99 francs (today - 14.99 euros), telling about the side of the advertising business, hidden from the townsfolk. Coming from a non-poor family, Begbeder, in principle, could not work or write, but after 99 francs he could not be stopped - with a slight delay, the book Love Lives Three Years, released three years earlier, and then any equally cynical and snobbish became popular , Begbeder's creation was a hit with the public simply because of his last name on the cover.
Michel Houellebecq
The most famous French writer outside of France. Houellebecq's novels are sharp, juicy, and often psychologically difficult. In each work there are reflections of an intellectual, attempts to understand the world and at the same time not lose respect for people. Read: Expanding the Space of Struggle, Elementary particles, Possibility of the island.
Daniel Pennack
The charming intellectual-humorist is known in France for his children's books (The Dog the Dog, The Eye of the Wolf), and then found himself in the ironic detective genre, starting a series of novels about the underdog Benjamin Malossin . The cartoon Ernest and Celestine: The Adventures of the Mouse and the Bear, filmed according to the script by Pennack, received the French Cesar Award (Oscar's colleague).
Bernard Werber
Philosopher and graphomaniac, Werber filled all the bookstores - and not only at home. Most famous works- a trilogy about ants (Ants, Day of the Ant, Revolution of the Ants - practically the Matrix, in general!) and very pretentious star butterfly drawing obsessive parallels with the Bible.
Guillaume Musso
Relatively young French novelist wildly popular among French female readers. As soon as Musso's new novel comes out, you immediately see it in the hands of every second one in the subway and in a restaurant. Read: After... (two literary awards and film adaptation Hostage of Death, 2008), Paper Girl, Tomorrow.
Antoine Volodin
The author wrote more than 30 works in different genres- and signed them different names. The real name of the author is still kept secret - it is known only about the Russian grandmother, the birth in Burgundy, the translation of Tokareva, the Strugatskys, Limonov and others into French. Without giving critics the opportunity to attribute it to any literary movement, Volodin rushes between genres and asks his style to be called post-exoticism. Read: Dondog and everything you find in Russian.
Andrey Makin
Andrei Sergeevich Makin is the grandson of a French emigrant who settled in Russia since 1917. He studied in Moscow, then went to France and asked for asylum. He taught Russian to the French and wrote books that they did not want to publish - then he passed them off as a translation of Russian works into French. After that, they began to print him - and already for his third novel (French Testament) he received the most prestigious literary award in France - the Gongur Prize.
Pascal Quinard
Laureate of the Gongur Prize, essayist, poet, prose writer - writes both novels and philosophical essays, and poetry. Read: Sex and Fear (about the evolution of eroticism in ancient art), Stairs of Chambord (studying the architecture of the castle of Chambord in the Loire, designed by Leonardo da Vinci, the protagonist reflects on happiness and human relationships), All mornings of the world (about art and love).
Mark Levy
The prolific novelist once built a business in Silicon Valley- was engaged computer graphics. After the success of his first book (Only if it was true - the book was removed Hollywood movie Between heaven and earth with Reese Witherspoon) stops doing business and devotes himself entirely to literature. Levy is a popular writer among housewives and quiet intellectuals. To a person accustomed to aggressive and intellectual prose, his books may seem like something of an exquisite Daria Dontsova.
Anna Gavalda
Only eight novels - and what popularity! Ever since the first novel - I loved her. I loved him - it became clear that the laurels of Francoise Sagan haunt Anna. In the future, she found her own way: each of her works is a story about love, to one degree or another, and about how it adorns every person. Read: Just Together, A consolation game of petanque.
French classic prose
INTRODUCTION
French classicism most clearly manifested itself in dramaturgy, however, in prose, where the requirements for observing aesthetic norms were less strict, it created a peculiar genre inherent in it - we mean the genre of aphorism. In France XVII century, several aphorist writers appeared. We call so those writers who did not create novels, short stories, or short stories, but only brief, extremely compressed prose miniatures or wrote down their thoughts - the fruit of life's observations and reflections.
Aphorism as a literary genre has not yet found either its historian or its interpreter. Meanwhile, this genre is firmly established in the literature. La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère, Vauvenargues, Chamfort - brilliant masters of aphorism - gave classic examples of this genre. Its origins should be sought in the "Characters" of the ancient Greek writer Theophrastus. At the same time, French literature that preceded the named writers had already created special artistic techniques, on the basis of which the genre of aphorism was born as a literary genre (“Experiments” by Montaigne). The genre of aphorism requires great skill. The word in it is worth its weight in gold. There is not, there should not be anything superfluous. Conciseness is one of the main advantages of aphorism.
Aphorists
A brilliant master of aphorism was La Rochefoucauld (1613-1689). An aristocrat, a member of the Fronde, who spent a stormy youth, he turned to literature in his declining years and wrote the book Meditations, or Moral Sayings and Maxims (1665). The writer created a kind of model of "man in general", outlined a kind of universal psychology suitable for all times and peoples. The moral portrait of humanity, drawn by the skillful and cold pen of a French author, is completely devoid of any attractiveness. There is not a single tolerable feature. The picture is rather bleak. The writer does not believe in truth or goodness. Even in acts of humanity and nobility, he is inclined to see hidden hostility, a spectacular pose, a mask covering self-interest and selfishness.
Here are some examples. A certain man took pity on his enemy. "How noble it is!" we say. La Rochefoucauld will smile skeptically and declare: "There is more pride here than kindness." Isn't it nice to humiliate your enemy with compassion To him? An elderly man wants to help a young man with his life experience. La Rochefoucauld, with bitter sarcasm, will throw a sardonic phrase: "Old madmen are much worse than young ones!" or "Old age is a tyrant who forbids, on pain of death, all the joys of youth." Lovers keep touching fidelity to each other. We admire their persistence. La Rochefoucauld will try to dispel our illusions: "They hold on to their first lover for a long time when they cannot find another." About women of strict morals, he ironically responds: "Most decent women are like hidden treasures, which are only safe because they are not looked for."
There are holy tears, tears of compassion, sadness, tears of separation, tears of a happy meeting. La Rochefoucauld believes nothing of this: everywhere he sees lies and vanity. “There are tears that often deceive ourselves, after deceiving others”; "There is nothing more obnoxious than a smart fool"; “There is nothing rarer than true kindness; what is called kindness is usually only connivance or weakness. The selfish interest of man, his pride, his vanity, his selfishness governs the world. These misanthropic observations, presented with the brilliance of a great stylist, struck reading France. "High society" recognized itself. Psychological studies of La Rochefoucauld, as we have already said, claimed universal universality.
The technique of abstraction, the ultimate exposure of an idea in an artistic image - this is perhaps the most important thing that connects La Rochefoucauld with the artistic method of classicism. His “characters”, if viewed from the point of view of literary skill, are nothing more than classicist images-ideas, brought to the limit of generalization, to the complete absence of any specific features of the individual.
Molière, a year after the publication of the Sayings, La Rochefoucauld staged his comedy The Misanthrope in the theater, in which he brought up for public discussion the questions posed in La Rochefoucauld's book.
La Bruyère (1645-1696) made a characterization of French society in the second half of the 17th century. In 1688 he published Theophrastus Characters, translated from the Greek. The book with each new edition was replenished and repeatedly corrected by the author. The initial idea of a simple translation of the text of the ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Aristotle, eventually resulted in an independent original work - "Characters or mores of our century."
The son of a bourgeois, La Bruyère differed significantly in his views from the aristocrat La Rochefoucauld. His reviews of the nobility are very dismissive; and vice versa, judgments about the people are full of deep sympathy. We have already quoted his statement about the French peasants. La Bruyère also reveals many vices of human nature, but his view of life is brighter. The people in his view are by no means as terrible as in the gloomy picture of La Rochefoucauld. The system of La Bruyère's characters is sustained in the spirit of the classic theory. Here is the same striving for the universal universality of types, as was the case with La Rochefoucauld.
At the same time, La Bruyère classifies his characters according to class characteristics (usurers, monks, nobles, bourgeois, peasants, etc.). It is impossible not to cite here the writer's observations relating to the world of the rising bourgeoisie in his day. “There are vile souls,” writes La Bruyère, “ fashioned from dirt and garbage, in love with good and profit, as noble souls are in love with V glory and virtue; They. capable of only one pleasure - to gain or lose nothing; curious and greedy only for rumors of a ten percent benefit; busy only with their debtors; always concerned about devaluation or depreciation of money; mired in contracts, deals and papers. Such creatures are no longer people, they are the owners of money.
"Princesssa Cleve" Madame de Lafayette
In 1678, Claude Barbin, publisher of Boileau, La Fontaine, Racine, La Rochefoucauld, and other famous writers of the 17th century, published a novel by an unknown author, The Princess of Cleves. A narrow circle of the French nobility immediately guessed the author of the novel in Madame de Lafayette, already a well-known novelist at that time, who had previously published several of her works.
The Countess de Lafayette (1634-1693) is one of the regular visitors to the salon of Madame de Rambouillet. A deep friendship connected her with La Rochefoucauld, one of the veterans of the noble opposition to absolutism. It was not without the influence of this sober, skeptical mind that the whole style of the novel, free from pomposity, took shape.
If we talk about literary traditions, then Madame de Lafayette's novel is sustained in the spirit of memoir narratives. Memoirs were written in the 16th century (Vuatur, Marguerite of Navarre, and others), the 17th century is full of memoirs (Cardinal de Retz, and others). The advantage of this genre lies in the accuracy of the descriptions with the maximum avarice of pictorial means. Writers-memoirists avoided rhetorical embellishments, but very carefully followed the correct transfer of the portrait resemblance of the historical persons they saw. A historical anecdote, a winged word accidentally thrown by someone, was eagerly picked up by memoirists, so that later they could take their place in a kind of protocol record of memoirs. From the genre of memoirs, he borrowed the novel of Madame de Lafayette and the mean severity of the narrative, and sober truthfulness.
The novelist, slyly rejecting authorship, wrote about her work: “I find it very pleasant, is it well written? immaculate, unpolished, full of delightful subtleties, it can be read over and over again, and especially what I find in it is a beautiful depiction of court society and its way of life. There is nothing romantic in it, nothing out of the ordinary, as if it were not a novel; in fact, this is a memoir, so the book was originally called, as I was told, and only then the name was changed. Here, sir, is my opinion of The Princess of Cleves. Madame de Lafayette was on friendly terms with Racine. This friendship stemmed from common literary interests. Racine's contribution to French tragedy, namely the deepest penetration into the life of the heart, Madame de Lafayette made the property of the novel.
The tragedy of Racine, with its magnificently sculpted psychological portraits, became a school of psychological skill for writers. Madame de Lafayette was the first to use the playwright's achievements in a different genre - in the novel. And the subsequent French literature followed the path opened by her. In the 19th century Stendhal contrasted the artistic method of Madame de Lafayette (the correct depiction of characters as the main task of the novelist) with the method of Walter Scott, censuring the English writer for his excessive penchant for depicting historical realities, or, as the French romantics of the 20s said. XIX century, local color.
Anatole France, in his article on The Princess of Cleves, wrote: “Mme de Lafayette was the first to introduce the natural into the novel, she was the first to draw human characters and genuine feelings in it, she worthily entered the concert of the classics, harmoniously echoing Molière, Lafontaine, Boileau and Racine, who turned the Muses to nature and truth. "Andromache" dates from 1667, "Princess of Cleves" - 1678, modern literature comes from these two dates. The Princess of Cleves is the first French novel in which the main interest is centered on the truth of the passions.
The plot of the novel is simple. It can be stated in several lines. The young wife of the aging Prince of Cleves meets the equally young Prince Nemours at a ball. Young people fall in love with each other. Not wanting to hide anything from her husband, who is deeply respected by her, the Princess of Cleves tells him about her new feelings. This confession kills the husband who is ardently in love with his wife. The Princess of Cleves remains true to the memory of the deceased, removing her beloved forever from herself. That's the whole story.
lit yourself some cunning. She does not love her husband, but she does not love anyone else either. She is still cheerful and carefree, only her mother, a woman wise by life experience, foresees a sad denouement, fears for the fate of her daughter and vigilantly watches her. The first excitement that the Princess of Cleves experienced when she saw Prince Nemours did not hide from the all-seeing eye of her mother. But the young woman does not yet know the danger, she herself does not know that a new feeling, never experienced by her - love - has knocked on her heart.
Once, one of the society gossips told her that Prince Nemours was in the favor of the princess of the blood, and not unrequitedly. The young woman's face changed. What with her? Why do the feelings of a person, a stranger to her, bother her so much? Shouldn't she be completely indifferent to it? Doesn't she love? Thus comes the first comprehension of the sad truth. Her mother, dying, tells her that she has long guessed her feelings for Prince Nemour, and warns her. “You are on the edge of the abyss, leave the yard. Take heart, my daughter, do not be afraid to take the most drastic measures towards yourself, no matter how terrible they may seem to you, they will be much more gratifying than the consequences that gallant adventures will bring you.
A young woman struggles with herself, with her feelings, avoids meeting with Prince Nemours, but love, like something fatal, haunts her. Once, in her house, in the presence of guests, Prince Nemours, imperceptibly from everyone, took her portrait out of the frame and hid it in his pocket. While committing this theft, he involuntarily glanced at the Princess of Cleves. Their eyes met. What to do? To convict the prince of theft is to reveal his love to everyone; to remain silent means to become his accomplice herself, to reveal her own own feelings. And the Princess of Cleves lowered her eyes, pretending not to notice anything. So this first declaration of love happened, a declaration without words, in front of everyone and secretly from everyone.
On another occasion, during the usual entertainment of the court, she saw Prince Nemours in terrible danger: he was nearly thrown off by an unbroken horse. A deadly pallor covered the face of the woman in love. This is not. might not have noticed. The Prince de Guise, who had long sought her love, declared to her with a feeling of wounded pride: "Today I have lost my last consolation - to think that everyone who dares to look at you is as unhappy as I am." Madame Clevskaya loved deeply. She could not overcome the irresistible attraction to Prince Nemur, but she found enough will in herself to erect an insurmountable wall between herself and her loved one.
Prince Nemours is very reminiscent of the young heroes of Racine, soft, deeply honest and incapable of fighting, of purposefully defending their interests. Such are Bayazet and Britannicus in the tragedies of the same name by Racine, such is Hippolytus in the tragedy Phaedra, Orestes in the tragedy Andromache. Madame de La Fayette painted her hero in the same colors. From the very beginning, the reader sees in the young appearance of Prince Nemours something melancholy, suffering. The prince loves Madame Clevskaya hopelessly, does not want to open up to her, so as not to deprive himself of the last happiness of seeing her at least occasionally, hearing her voice, exchanging two or three words with her. The confession was made against the will of both, and all are unhappy. The husband of Madame Clevskoy lost his peace. He is jealous and ashamed of his jealousy, he trusts his wife and cannot get rid of tormenting doubts. His explanation to his wife reminds us of the pathos of Corneille's dialogues. “I do not consider myself worthy of you, and you do not seem to me worthy of me, I adore you and hate you, I offend you and beg you to forgive me, I admire you and am ashamed of this admiration, and there is no peace or reason in me anymore.”
The strongest of all three was the Princess of Cleves.
Anatole France rightly sees in her that willpower, that perseverance that allows the heroes of Corneille to overcome the passions raging in their hearts. Anatole France wrote about Madame de Lafayette: “She remains heroic in her simplicity, like the author of Zypna, she keeps in herself a glorious and sublime ideal of life. In essence, the character of her heroine is similar to Emilia, this is the “Beautiful Fury”, if you like, this is the fury of chastity. Anatole France, a supporter of humane Epicurean philosophy, condemns the Princess of Cleves: “You ask yourself whether this arrogant virtue is based on some kind of pride that consoles her in everything, even in the evil that she has committed,” and the writer sees “in beautiful blond the hair of the Princess of Cleves several snake heads. She remains faithful to the person she has never loved, and brings misfortune to the one she loves. For what? Isn't this a commitment to empty and cold etiquette, to far-fetched and false principles, a heroic resistance to the laws of nature - and they boil down to arranging the happiness of man on earth - isn't this the chivalry of madness? Thus argues the most humane Anatole France.
Madame de Lafayette dated the life of her heroes to the time of the reign of King Henry II. At the same time, we have before us the court, customs and people of the second half of the 17th century. The writer does not idealize her contemporaries at all. The envy and malice of the aristocrats, their hostility towards each other, the cruel coldness of their hearts are covered with exquisite politeness. Palace intrigues and gossip entangles every member of court society. A thread of lies, insidious intent, overt or covert mockery is always woven into the finest lace of court compliments. And no one is exempt from slander, not even the person of the king. At the ball, the courtiers mockingly discuss intimate relationship Henry II and his mistress Diane de Poitiers, who was once the mistress of his father, Francis I. Madame de Lafayette writes about court customs as something natural, without anger and censure: “At court, people were in an atmosphere of some kind of constant restless activity , but without the mess, and that made him very attractive, but also very dangerous for a young man."
At court, feelings are restrained, no one raises his voice, smiles, but does not laugh out loud, sheds tears, but does not sob. Here joys and sufferings are hidden under the cover of refined “secularism”. The same spirit reigns in Madame de Lafayette's novel. The tragedy of lovers is played out within the framework of strict secular moderation. Feelings, no matter how strong they are, are manifested with restraint. Neither screams, nor frenzy, nor screams are heard in the novel. The raging passions are, as it were, enclosed in stone channels, they do not splash out, making them even grander because of this. “This is a triumph of etiquette, etiquette that sometimes requires heroism, because sometimes you need to have more courage and fortitude to smile in a banquet hall than on a battlefield,” writes Anatole France.
Madame de Lafayette - a sober and deep mind. From the time of humanism she borrowed a skeptical attitude towards religion. Her novel never mentions the name of a god. She is accustomed to a secular way of life, but neither the king nor the people around him inspire her with either awe or respect. “She, strictly moral, pious and aristocratic, I suspect that she doubts virtue, has little faith in God and, which is especially surprising for that era, hates the king. I think it's mind terrible force. She did not reveal her secret even in The Princess of Cleves, writes Anatole France about Madame de Lafayette.
Lafontaine(1621 -1695 )
The genre of the fable is as ancient as the world, and universal. IN Ancient Greece Aesop existed, Ancient Rome- Phaedrus, in India - the author of "Panchatantra". In France, the fable arose in the 17th century, during the era of the dominance of classicism. And it is not surprising: the fable genre itself contained features close to the "spirit and letter" of classicism. “The story and the goal are the essence of the fable,” Belinsky wrote, “in other words, the observation and didacticism inherent in classicism. The conciseness of the presentation, the unity of the action, brought to the limit, allowing no deviations to the side, no additional elements, and the principle of generalization - all this makes the fable a very suitable genre for the normative aesthetics of classicism. And in France there was a magnificent fabulist - Jean La Fontaine.
“You have to be a connoisseur to appreciate the poet in La Fontaine, to understand how many possibilities he found in poetry and what riches he extracted from it. The bold metaphors of the expressions he created are usually overlooked, for they are so appropriate that it seems that nothing could be easier to apply them. None of our poets so fluently mastered the language, none, in particular, so easily subordinated French verse to all its forms. The monotony in which our versification is reproached disappears completely with him, ”one of the famous French critics La Harpe wrote about La Fontaine.
Lafontaine tried his hand at all literary genres, wrote tragedies, comedies, odes, messages, novels, fables, epigrams, songs, but his talent manifested itself fully in two genres - a fable and a short poetic novel. Lafontaine is first and foremost a storyteller. Light, graceful, somewhat frivolous, his stories in the form of a fable or a poetic novel are always cheerful. “If he writes, then in a manner good fairy tale; he makes animals, trees, stones speak -¦ that is, that which does not speak; we find lightness, grace, beautiful naturalness and grace in his creations, ”said La Bruyère, an outstanding contemporary of his, about him.
Jean La Fontaine was born on July 8, 1621 in Château Thierry. His father was an insignificant official and a poor man. The future poet studied first at a village school, then at a college in Reims. Since he was supposed to inherit the position of tax collector from his father, he also studied law for some time.
He began to write late, thirty-three years old (in 1654). He published the comedy "The Eunuch" - the work is still a student, the fruit of his readings of Terentius. Introduced to the then influential Minister Fouquet, he was favored by the latter, received a pension and, having sold his position and real estate in Château Thierry, moved to Paris permanently. Here Lafontaine became close to Boileau, Molière and Racine (the latter was 18 years younger than him). He loved his friends so much that he placed them under the names of Arista (Boileau), Gelasta (Molière), Akanda (Racine) in his novel Psyche's Love Adventures. In 1665, his Poetic Tales and Stories were published, in 1668, Selected Fables in Verse. La Fontaine was very simple-hearted, naive, and sometimes extremely forgetful and distracted in everyday affairs. Presented to the king, with whom he sought an audience, in order to present him with a volume of his poems, he was forced to confess that he had forgotten the book at home. His frivolous short stories, written in the spirit of Boccaccio, brought him the dislike of the church and the king, who at one time opposed the poet's election to the Academy. There were many anecdotes about him; they said that he loves only three things in the world - poetry, idleness and women. The latter was associated with his frivolous short stories.
Lafontaine did not argue and once, already in his old age, he wrote to his friend the poet Maukroy: “I assure you that your best friend won't even last two weeks. For two months now I have not left the house, except for the Academy, and then because it amuses me. Yesterday, when I was returning, I was suddenly attacked by such weakness in Chantre Street that I thought that my last hour had come. Oh my dear! To die is nothing; but imagine how I stand before God? You know how I lived."
The Capuchin, releasing his sins, demanded a donation in favor of the church. “My father, I don’t have a penny for my soul,” Lafontaine answered contritely, “however, a book of my poetic short stories should soon come out of print, take 100 copies and sell them,” he added slyly. (A frivolous and anti-ascetic spirit reigned in these short stories.)
fables
Fables are international. Their plots are similar. At the same time, each nation brings its own, original, peculiar to the presentation of the fable plot. At La Fontaine we will find fables known to us from other sources about a crow and a fox, about a wolf and a lamb, about a dragonfly and an ant, and many others.
“Of course, not a single Frenchman will dare to put anyone above Lafontaine,” Pushkin wrote, “but we seem to be able to prefer Krylov to him. Both of them will forever remain the favorites of their fellow countrymen. Someone rightly remarked that simplicity is an innate property of the French people; on the contrary, a distinguishing feature in our morals is some kind of cheerful cunning of the mind, mockery and a picturesque way of speaking: La Fontaine and Krylov are representatives of the spirit of both peoples.
La Fontaine's political fables are by no means harmless. They are caustic enough and reveal his democratic sympathies. Let us cite the fable "Beasts during the plague." The plague mowed down the animals. Leo took advice. “Friends,” he addressed them, “the sky is angry with us. The gods are waiting for a redemptive sacrifice. Let's look for the most guilty among us and put him to death, maybe the gods will have mercy.
I, - he began the story of his sins, - ate a lot of sheep, I confess that I had to eat shepherds too.
Oh, sir, you slander yourself too much! - made a fox. - Eat sheep! Yes, you did them a great honor! As for the shepherds, it serves them right, what fears they bring upon us!
The speech of the fox caused a loud applause of the animals. They acquitted the tiger, and the bear, and other dignitaries of the forest. But then the donkey spoke:
I picked a tuft of grass in a meadow, and the meadow, to tell the truth, did not belong to me. I was hungry, and the demon beguiled me! the donkey confessed ruefully.
A! - cried the animals. - Tear grass in someone else's meadow! A monstrous crime! To execution! To execution! - And the donkey was executed.
The court judges by whether you are powerful or powerless, ”La Fontaine concludes his fable.
In the fable "The Rooster and the Fox" - a subtle irony typical of the French. An old and experienced rooster on a branch, on duty. He is a sentry. A running fox addresses him with a sweet voice: “- Brother, we are no longer in a quarrel, common peace this time. I came running to tell you about him. Come down quickly, I will hug you, do not hesitate, I still have to run around twenty outposts.
What are you saying, my dear! Here's the news! And how nice it is for me to hear it from you! Wait, I will call two greyhounds, they will immediately come running and how happy they will be to kiss you for the good news.
No, better another time, goodbye! - Lisa hurried and, throwing off her fashionable shoes, ran away. And the old Rooster grinned. Still would! To deceive a deceiver is a double pleasure."
The fables of Lafontaine are folk in their lightness, graceful humor, so characteristic of the French people, according to common sense folk sense invested in them, but they are also refined, gallant and salon-like. Here is how, for example, the fox argues in the fable “The Wolf and the Fox” (the fox sits in a bucket at the bottom of the well, where she unreasonably sank down, looking for some kind of prey, and now she is persuading the wolf to take her place, because she can’t finish her meal the cheese that was there): “Friend, I want to treat you, do you see this object? This is a special cheese. God Faun prepared it. The cow Io gave her milk, even Jupiter, and even if he was sick, an appetite for this dish would play out. As you can see, the fox is very learned, obviously, no less knowledgeable than her ancient mythology and the wolf, since the fox turned to him with similar literary reminiscences.
In the fables of Lafontaine we find literary names. The names of Molière's Tartuffe and the medieval lawyer Patelin are already used here as common nouns. “The Cat and the Fox, like two little saints, went on a pilgrimage. Those were two tartuffes, two archipatelens, two rogues…” - this is how the fable “The Cat and the Fox” begins.
La Fontaine's fables are philosophical. In one of them, he reflects on the genius and the crowd. Compatriots turned to Hippocrates, the famous physician, asking him to cure the philosopher Democritus of insanity. “He lost his mind, reading ruined him ... What does he say? - The world is endless... It's not enough for him. He is still talking about some kind of atoms,” lament the simple-hearted Abderites, calling on Hippocrates.
The subject of the fable is often not only the vices of people, but also psychological observations, in the spirit of La Rochefoucauld or La Bruyere. In the fable "Husband, Wife and Thief" he talks about how a certain husband, deeply in love with his wife, did not, however, enjoy her location. Neither a flattering response, nor a tender look, nor a word of friendship, nor a sweet smile was found in his wife by the unfortunate husband. But then one day she threw herself into his arms. It turns out that the thief frightened her, and, fleeing from him, she resorted to protecting her husband. For the first time, a husband in love knew true happiness and, grateful, allowed the thief to take whatever he wanted. “Fear is sometimes the strongest feeling and even disgust wins,” La Fontaine concludes his fable. - And love is stronger. An example is this lover who would burn down his house just to kiss his lady and carry her out of the flames. I like this hobby, ”the poet admits.
In the fable of the "aged lion" we are talking about humiliation, or rather, the limits of humiliation that a person can endure. There is a limit to everything, and the most terrible humiliation is an insult inflicted by a despised creature. The lion, the thunderstorm and the horror of the forests, has grown old under the weight of years, he mourns, mourning his former power, and is persecuted by even his subjects, "who have become strong by his weakness." The horse kicked him with its hoof, the wolf jerked his teeth, the bull stabbed him with his horn. The lion, unable even to roar, silently endures beatings and insults, meekly awaiting death. But then the donkey went towards him. “Oh, this is too much! - exclaimed the lion. “I am ready to die, but to be subjected to your beatings - doesn’t it mean to die twice.”
Another fable tells that Love and Madness, once playing together, argued, quarreled and fought. Love received such a strong blow to the head that she lost her sight. The gods gathered, among them Jupiter and Nemesis. What to do? How to help blinded Love? And they decided to give Love an eternal companion - the guide Madness.
La Fontaine, in the preface to his fables, pointed out the originality of his art. He said that he did not achieve the laconism of Phaedrus (the ancient Roman fabulist), but redeemed this lack of gaiety. “I call gaiety not something that causes laughter, but a certain special charm, a general joyful coloring that can be given to any subject, even the most serious.”
Lessing later spoke rather harshly about the French fabulist, accusing him of not knowing the basics of the fable genre, that the fable does not belong to poetry, but to philosophy. “Don't the French value gaiety above all else? Is not gaiety the opposite of a sense of grace? the critic grumbled. However, I think he was wrong. A fable without humor, without that cheerful gaiety of which La Fontaine spoke, would have lost all its charm. Moreover, "gaiety" never interfered with serious thought.
Fairy tales and novels
The spirit of cheerful simplicity of human relations and sensuality reigns in Lafontaine's poetic short stories. The poet here is all in the traditions of the Renaissance and glorifies life. Here the sky is cloudless, the sun caresses and warms, but does not burn, here people are not evil, they are tolerant of human weaknesses are not vengeful. They indulge in sorrows, but not for long, because the world is beautiful, and if there are flaws, then a person can’t fix them anyway, and they are not so great. In a word, why darken yourself with sadness if there are a few small spots on the sun?
Pushkin appreciated this cheerful, light, elegant playfulness of fairy tales and short stories. French poet. In January 1825, he wrote to Ryleyev from Mikhailovsky: “Bestuzhev writes me a lot about Onegin, tell him that he is wrong: does he really want to expel everything light and cheerful from poetry?” And here Pushkin mentions Ariosto, Voltaire ("The Virgin of Orleans") and "Tales" by La Fontaine.
The plot of the short stories is borrowed from Margarita of Navarre, then from Boccaccio, then from Ariosto. They do not have the rough but powerful thought of the Renaissance, they are frivolous, seasoned with light wit and gallant paraphrases, fashionable in the salons of the 17th century. Such is the spicy, in the spirit Arabian tales the short story "La Gioconda", written in light, elegant verse.
Some short stories are very short, in a few poetic lines. These are rather short stories-jokes, all the sharpness of which is in unexpected logical turns. Such is the short story "Sister Jeanne". A certain Jeanne in virginity had a child and, in order to atone for her sin, retired to a monastery. There she indulged in increased piety and, with her religious zeal, attracted the attention of the abbess. She called the nuns to her and told them: "Be as diligent in serving God as Sister Jeanne." - "If we could experience the same as she, ah, then we would be diligent," the nuns answered her with a sigh.
Ministers of the church are subjected to subtle mockery here. At the same time, this is not the purposeful, resolute, philosophically justified condemnation of religious asceticism, which was made by the humanists of the 15th-16th centuries, but only elegant libertinage, light free-thinking, which was condescendingly treated in aristocratic circles, especially in the circles of some former Fronders in XVII century. At the same time, this also brought attacks on the poet by churchmen. He was accused of forgetting all moral norms. Even in the 19th century, during the sanctimonious period of the Bourbon restoration (1815-1830), his name was synonymous with depravity. Stendhal in the novel "Red and Black" expressive episode from the salon life of the French province during the Restoration. Julien Sorel, to the general roar of approval of the royalists in the house of Renal, calls La Fontaine's fables immoral.
