In 1935, he wrote to Pushkin: "Do me a favor, give me a plot, the spirit will be a comedy of five acts and, I swear, it will be funnier than the devil." The history of the comedy The Inspector General dates back to 1934. Gogol was sure that the comedy genre is the future of Russian literature.
Gogol came up with the idea to write a comedy based on a “purely Russian anecdote” while working on Dead Souls. Obviously, the work on "Dead Souls" influenced the direction in which Gogol began to develop the plot of the comedy. It took Gogol only two months to complete his creative plan (October-November 1835), but work on the comedy continued.
About N. V. Gogol's comedy "The Government Inspector"
The premiere of the comedy took place on April 19, 1836. The emperor himself, Nicholas I, was present. Gogol was dejected by what he saw: the idea of the comedy was not understood by either the actors or the audience. During the performance of the comedy, Gogol remarked that "the beginning of the fourth act is pale and bears a sign of some kind of fatigue." Gogol listened to the remark of one of the actors that "it's not so clever that Khlestakov is the first to ask for a loan and that it would be better if the officials themselves offered him."
The final edition of the comedy refers to 1842. The Inspector General, staged and published in the press, caused numerous and contradictory responses. Gogol felt the need to explain the meaning of his comedy. In a word, it was the same “purely Russian anecdote” that Gogol needed to realize his plan.
The play was allowed to be staged far from immediately, and only after V. Zhukovsky personally had to convince the emperor of the trustworthiness of the comedy. Everyone got it, but I got it the most.” Even if these words were not actually said, it well reflects how the public perceived Gogol's bold creation.
As you can see, the history of the creation of the play "The Inspector General" indicates that the writing of this work was not so easy for the author, taking away a lot of both his strength and time. Gogol began work on the play in the autumn of 1835. It is traditionally believed that the plot was suggested to him by A. S. Pushkin. It seemed that Gogol's only concern was how to delve into the subject, new to him, and how to more accurately convey his own impression. Gogol's own drawing for the last scene of the Government Inspector.
In the comedy "The Government Inspector" there are actually no positive characters. They are not even outside the scene and outside the plot. The relief image of the image of city officials and, above all, the mayor, complements the satirical meaning of the comedy. But Nicholas I decided to fight comedy in his own way. Gogol was disappointed by the public talk and the unsuccessful St. Petersburg production of the comedy and refused to take part in the preparation of the Moscow premiere.
Perhaps, for the first time in all those eight decades that the stage history of The Government Inspector has, it has finally appeared on the Russian stage! The inserts were borrowed not only from the primary editions of the play, but also from other works by Gogol.
The images of Avdotya and Parashka, servants in the mayor's house, were expanded. Comedy had a significant impact on Russian literature in general and dramaturgy in particular. Gogol's contemporaries noted her innovative style, depth of generalization and convexity of images. Immediately after the first readings and publications, Gogol's work was admired by Pushkin, Belinsky, Annenkov, Herzen, Shchepkin. The history of the creation of this play is connected with the name of Pushkin. And, according to Gogol, Pushkin really suggested a new plot, telling a story about a certain gentleman who in the provinces pretended to be an important Petersburg official.
But for all its typicality and comicality, the story of the imaginary auditor, in essence, did not contain anything remarkable. But under the pen of Gogol, it unfolded into the broadest "laughing panorama", embracing almost the entire society of that time. One of the literary critics of that time wrote: “... those who think that this comedy is funny, and nothing more, are mistaken. Despite the obvious success of the premiere of The Government Inspector at the Alexandrinsky Theatre, Gogol was dissatisfied with his play.
About when the writer began to work on the creation of a comedy, the researchers cannot give an exact answer, just as they do not agree on any opinion. We invite the reader to get acquainted with the birth of the imperishable classics and plunge into the world of the brilliant writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol.
It was his father who instilled in young Nikolai a love of literature, and in part the history of the creation of The Inspector General and other brilliant works of Gogol began precisely when Nikolai was a child. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's mother, Maria Ivanovna, was half her husband's age. He decides to discuss this with Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, and he, in turn, tells him a story-an anecdote about a false auditor who arrived in the city of Ustyuzhna and famously robbed all its inhabitants.
Significant changes to the text of the comedy were made in 1836, during the production of The Inspector General on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. From the deep meaning invested in the play, nothing was extracted. The comedy was taken for an ordinary vaudeville. When preparing the second edition of the comedy "The Inspector General", the first four phenomena of this act were remade. Almost everyone present was delighted with the play. However, the history of the "Inspector" was still far from over.
To understand Gogol's intention, first of all, one should turn to the most important thought formulated by him in the 1847 article "Author's Confession": "I saw that in my writings I laugh for nothing, in vain, without knowing why. If you laugh, then it's better to laugh hard and at what is really worthy of universal ridicule. In The Government Inspector, I decided to gather together everything that was bad in Russia, which I then knew, all the injustices that are being done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required of a person, and to laugh at everything at once. But this, as you know, had a tremendous effect. Through laughter, which had never appeared in me in such strength, the reader heard sadness. I myself felt that my laughter was not the same as it was before. "
For Gogol, who highly respected the genius of Pushkin, Pushkin's assessments and advice were always important. And it's not that when Gogol took his first timid steps in literature, Pushkin was in the prime of his creative powers and lifetime fame. The fact is that Gogol was aware of the "simplicity, grandeur and strength" of Pushkin's work, saw in him not just a writer, but an original and unique national Russian writer. Gogol said this in a wonderful article "A few words about Pushkin." Started in 1832, it was printed in 1835. Gogol took Pushkin's death as his personal tragedy. Since that time, the feeling of creative loneliness has not left the writer, intensifying over the years.
N.V. Gogol. Artist Goryunov. 1835
Gogol claimed that the plot of The Inspector General was suggested to him by Pushkin. In a letter dated October 7, 1835, he addressed Pushkin: “Do yourself a favour, give some kind of plot, at least some kind of funny or not funny, but a purely Russian anecdote. The hand is trembling to write a comedy in the meantime. In The Author's Confession, Gogol pointed out: "The idea of the Inspector General belongs ... to Pushkin."
The comedy was begun in October and finished on December 4, 1835, in less than two months. In the spring of 1836, a separate edition of The Inspector General was published. Gogol repeatedly revised the text. In 1841, the comedy came out in a second edition with some changes. And only in 1842 the "Inspector General" appeared in its final form. In this edition, the text was significantly revised (Khlestakov’s lies were given an inspired hyperbolic character, the final scene was redone, the mayor’s appeal to the public was inserted: “What are you laughing at? - You are laughing at yourself! ..”, etc.). The text of the last edition, printed in all editions of Gogol, sounded from the stage only in 1870.
"Inspector". Title page of the first edition of the comedy. 1836
For you curious
Not all researchers of The Inspector General unconditionally recognize Pushkin's role in the creation of this comedy. Here is how I.P. sets out this problem in the book Gogol. Zolotussky: “Of course, Pushkin could remember the anecdote he wrote down in his diary, which refers to a certain Crispin, who comes to the province for a fair and is mistaken for an important person. Such a case was with Svinin, and he himself told Pushkin about it. Yes, and Pushkin himself once got into a similar story, when, during a trip to Nizhny Novgorod and Orenburg, he was mistaken for a man sent to revise the province.
But by the time Pushkin could offer this plot to Gogol, Kvitka’s comedy “A Visitor from the Capital, or Turmoil in a District Town” already existed, where exactly the same story was beaten. And in 1835 in the “Library for Reading”, which Gogol diligently read, A. Veltman's story "Provincial Actors" appeared, where again everything resembled the same plot. Actor Zaretsky, without having time to change into an ordinary dress, arrives in the county town in the costume of Marquis Lafast. Being very drunk, he falls out of the carts on the outskirts of the city, and the people who picked him up take him for a real general.By that time, the city is waiting for the governor-general.Thinking that this is him, officials and townsfolk are horrified.
The arrival of Zaretsky is preceded by a description of the name day in the mayor's house. The firemen of the fire brigade sing to the father of the city for many years, and the merchants present bags to his wife to replenish the household economy. In the midst of the celebration, the county treasurer, who was the first to discover Zaretsky, bursts into the rooms and announces that the governor-general is already in the city. Panic breaks out. “In an instant, the sleepless police team is on its feet; the blue-nosed clerk sat down to draw up a report on the welfare of the city and a list of the convicts held in prison, others ran to catch carts and workers in the market to clean the streets. "The city doctor in uniform and a sword comes to the still drunk Zaretsky. Respectfully remains at the door.Not understanding what is happening around, Zaretsky pours out monologues from the play "The Virtuous Criminal, or the Criminal from Love." Since the names of the characters in the play and the names of those present are the same, this produces a stunning effect. Everyone is amazed that the "governor general" knows everyone by sight. The lofty tone of his speeches, their accusatory and frantic intonations make everyone in awe. And only the exposure of the imaginary governor general, associated with the arrival of the rest of the actors in the city, saves the situation.
Zaretsky, in his costume with foil stars, is taken to a lunatic asylum. He sits there on the bed and recites, now 'imagining himself an ambitious Fiesco', now 'the Marquis Lafast'. The unfortunate drunkard, mistaken for a significant person, and then for a rebel, really goes crazy. From now on, his stage is a cell in a yellow house, and the audience is crazy. They "forget their mania ... and ... carefully, silently, with their mouths open, marvel at the frenzied art of Zaretsky."
Let the respectable public, as they say, judge where and from whom Gogol got the plot for the comedy. Was it Pushkin's idea, which he so happily played with, a reworking and transformation of what he had already read and heard, or was reality itself throwing this "Russian anecdote" to Gogol.
The situation described by Kvitka and Veltman, contained in Pushkin's plot, was repeated hourly on Russian roads, in county and provincial cities, as well as in the capital itself, where before the appearance of the auditor from the auditors - the emperor - everything came into brilliance and awe.
The history of the creation of Gogol's "Inspector General" begins in the 1830s. During this period, the author worked on the poem "Dead Souls", and in the process of prescribing the exaggerated features of Russian reality, he had the idea to display these features in a comedy; "the hand trembles to write ... a comedy." Earlier, Gogol had already made a successful debut in this genre with the play "Marriage", in which both the comic techniques characteristic of the author and the realistic orientation characteristic of subsequent works have already been outlined. In 1835, he wrote to Pushkin: "Do me a favor, give me a plot, the spirit will be a comedy of five acts and, I swear, it will be funnier than the devil."
The plot suggested by Pushkin
The story proposed by Pushkin to Gogol as a plot actually happened to the publisher of the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski P.P. Svinin in Bessarabia: in one of the county towns he was mistaken for a government official. There was a similar case with Pushkin himself: he was mistaken for an auditor in Nizhny Novgorod, where he went to collect material on the Pugachev rebellion. In a word, it was the same “purely Russian anecdote” that Gogol needed to realize his plan.
Work on the play took only two months - October and November 1835. In January 1836, the author read the finished comedy at the evening at V. Zhukovsky's in the presence of many famous writers, including Pushkin, who suggested the idea. Almost everyone present was delighted with the play. However, the history of the "Inspector" was still far from over.
“In The Inspector General, I decided to put together everything that was bad in Russia, which I then knew, all the injustices that are being done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required of a person, and at one time laugh at everything” - this is how Gogol spoke about his play; it was precisely such a purpose that he saw for her - a merciless mockery, purifying satire, a tool to combat the abominations and injustices that reign in society. However, almost no one, even among his fellow writers, saw in The Inspector General anything more than a solid, high-quality "situation comedy". The play was allowed to be staged far from immediately, and only after V. Zhukovsky personally had to convince the emperor of the trustworthiness of the comedy.
The first premiere of "The Inspector"
The first edition of the play premiered in 1836 at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Gogol was disappointed with the production: the actors either did not understand the satirical direction of the comedy, or were afraid to act in accordance with it; the performance turned out to be too vaudeville, primitive comic. Only I.I. Sosnitsky, who played the role of the Governor, managed to convey the author's intention, to bring satirical notes into the image. However, performed even in such a form, very far from the author's desire, the comedy caused a stormy and ambiguous reaction. The “tops” of society, denounced by Gogol, nevertheless felt ridicule; the comedy was declared "an impossibility, a slander and a farce"; according to unconfirmed reports, Nicholas I himself, who was present at the premiere, said: “Well, what a play!
Everyone got it, but I got it the most.” Even if these words were not actually said, it well reflects how the public perceived Gogol's bold creation.
And, nevertheless, the autocrat liked the play: the risky comedy was allowed for further productions. Taking into account his own observations of the game, as well as the comments of the actors, the author repeatedly made changes to the text; the creation of the play "The Inspector General" by Gogol in its final version continued for many years after the first production. The last edition of the play dates back to 1842 - this is the version that is known to the modern reader.
Author's commentary on comedy
The long and difficult history of the creation of the comedy The Inspector General is inseparable from Gogol's numerous articles and comments on his play. The misunderstanding of the idea by the public and the actors forced him to write again and again in an attempt to clarify his idea: in 1842, after staging the comedy in its final edition, he publishes “Forewarning for those who would like to play the “Inspector General” properly, then “Theatrical tour after the presentation of the new comedy", later, in 1856 - "The denouement of the Inspector General".
Conclusion
As you can see, the history of the creation of the play "The Inspector General" indicates that the writing of this work was not so easy for the author, taking away a lot of both his strength and time. And, nevertheless, comedy has found its connoisseurs among enlightened and thinking people. The Government Inspector received very high marks from many leading critics; so, V. Belinsky writes in his article: “There are no best scenes in The Inspector General, because there are no worse ones, but all are excellent, like necessary parts, artistically forming a single whole ...” . A similar opinion was shared by many other representatives of an enlightened society, despite the stream of criticism against the comedy and the author himself. To date, the play "The Inspector General" occupies a well-deserved place among the masterpieces of Russian classical literature and is a brilliant example of social satire.
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Draft editions of The Inspector General
gogol inspector comedy dramaturgy
As you know, Nikolai Vasilievich painstakingly worked on the text of The Inspector General for about 17 years. Approximately a year before his own death, the writer read the proofreadings of volume IV of the Complete Collection of His Own Works, where both preliminary editions of his comedy and printed versions of The Government Inspector were printed, and, having reached one of the very final remarks of the fourth act of this work, he introduced some very significant changes.
The most recent edition of the Inspector General is considered to be the text printed in the first collection of 1842, which included all the corrections that Gogol made after this edition. The final edition of Volume IV of the Complete Works of N.V. Gogol included corrections that had not been read until that time. It also included corrections made by Gogol for the Second Collected Works, which was being prepared in 1851.
In total, Gogol wrote two non-final versions of the comedy, two editions - the first and second. During the life of N.V. Gogol, three editions of The Inspector General were printed:
1. First edition. "Inspector". Comedy in five acts, Op. N. V. Gogol. SPb., 1836.
2. The second, corrected, with applications. The Inspector General, a comedy in five acts, Op. N. Gogol. SPb., 1841.
3. Third edition. Op. Nikolai Gogol, vol. IV. SPb., 1842, pp. 1-216, "Inspector" and applications. .
The foundation of the text of the comedy itself and its appendices already in the fourth edition, which was published in 1855, were the proofreadings corrected by the playwright himself in 1851.
As Voitolovskaya notes, Gogol worked especially hard on the auditor at the end of 1835 and at the beginning of 1836. After six months of diligent work on drafts, the text of the work was written, which was published in the first edition of The Government Inspector.
Creating a comedy, which has not yet been in Russia, drawing what was of an up-to-date nature, Nikolai Vasilyevich without regrets removes from The Inspector General everything that prevents, in his opinion, from realizing a large and serious plan. The playwright preferred to build a comedy without an unnecessary and banal love affair, without external and carefree comedy. He sought to free comedy from theatrical stereotypes, from the usual tradition of a love plot.
Thus, the following places were excluded from the Auditor:
1. The mayor's dream about dogs "with inhuman muzzles." .
2. Reflections of the mayor about the teacher who teaches rhetoric.
3. The place where Khlestakov talks about how, together with the director of the school, he was trailing "for one pretty one." .
First and second editions of The Inspector
Gogol had to make several cuts in the stage and printed texts of the comedy. This was dictated by the requirements of the theatrical stage: limited time for the performance, as well as the tendency to convey all the tension in the development of the plot.
On July 26, 1841, censorship permission was received for the second edition of the work. Already in the fall, as the author of The Inspector General himself wanted, the comedy went on sale. Gogol nevertheless made a number of amendments to the second edition, they mainly concerned the beginning of the fourth act of The Inspector General. For example, in the first phenomenon of this action, the scene where Khlestakov is alone was replaced with the scene of a conversation between officials about how best to bribe Khlestakov. Without this lively, comical scene, where the characters of officials are drawn so clearly and truthfully, it is very difficult to imagine a comedy.
After the first performance of The Inspector General, Gogol realized that there was still much to be changed. These same changes are included in the second edition. In "An Excerpt from a Letter..." Nikolai Vasilyevich wrote: "Now it seems to be a little stronger, at least more natural and more relevant." .
If we talk about the "Excerpt from a letter ..." itself, then N. S. Tikhonravov, one of the most prominent historians of Russian literature, questions both the addressee of the letter, Pushkin, and the date of its writing, May 25, 1836. Archaeographer Tikhonravov believes that the drafts of the Fragment ... were written by Gogol abroad, at the same time when the writer, in 1841, was preparing the second edition of The Government Inspector. To prove his version, he emphasizes that "Excerpt ..." was written on paper marked London. . Tikhonravov also points out that some passages from the drafts of the letter resemble Gogol's letter to Shchepkin, written on May 10, 1836, which means that they could have been written earlier than the rest.
V. V. Gippius and V. L. Komarovich believed that Tikhonravov was able to prove the doubtfulness of the playwright’s story about the reason and date of writing the “Excerpt ...”, and also managed to convince them that this letter was written, only at the beginning 1841 in Italy, when Nikolai Vasilievich wrote additions to the comedy.
A. G. Gukasova in her work “An excerpt from a letter written by the author shortly after the first presentation of the Inspector General to a writer” expressed her disagreement with the point of view of Tikhonravov in 1957. She believes that the radical and incorrect evidence of the historian not only allows Gogol to be called an inventor, but also testifies to a “break in relations” between Gogol and Pushkin. . Gukasova, after analyzing all of Gogol's letters to Alexander Sergeevich, as well as their statements about each other, came to the conclusion that in the most difficult moments the playwright turned to Pushkin, so the "Excerpt ..." is addressed to him. The letter was written exactly on May 25, 1836, as Gogol indicated, and in 1841 he only gave it the appearance that was necessary for publication.
Tikhonravov criticizes N. Ya. Pokopovich, the editor of Nikolai Gogol's Works, because, in his opinion, he changed the author's text, changed the language and style of the playwright. Here Tikhonravov is supported by V. V. Gippius and V. L. Komarovich, who carefully studied all the corrections of Gogol, which he made on a copy of the comedy of the printed edition of 1836.
E. I. Prokhorov justifies the work of Prokopovich, citing a number of convincing arguments not in favor of Tikhonravov's point of view, considering the 1842 edition of the text of the Inspector General to be the main source of the text. .
The premiere of Gogol's The Government Inspector took place on April 19, 1836. Today this comedy is in the repertoire list of all leading Russian theaters. Over the past years, many of the most talented actors and directors have invested all their skills in order to convey to the audience the deep wisdom of Gogol's work in a way that they themselves understood it.
The memoirs of various performers of roles in The Inspector General have been preserved, which testified to the inexplicable mysteries associated with the play. It used to be, at times, not clear why the images of comedy should be presented on stage in this way.
After the premiere of the comedy, no less incomprehensible things happened at the Alexandrinsky Theater. There was confusion among the artists, critics responded extremely contradictory, and Gogol was literally indignant. For the Russian theatrical audience of that time, the auditor was a very controversial work. And we are trying to understand all its incomprehensible facets and deep underlying meaning to this day.
To grasp this play in its entirety, one must study the explanations of the author himself, his personal correspondence. Comedy is the focus of special literature and research. Previously, attention was paid mainly to the social orientation of the play. But over time, Gogol's work acquires spiritual fullness, its meaning of appeal to the human soul, striving to gain the Truth, God.
The idea of comedy came to Gogol from Pushkin, with whom they were friends. Pushkin once told Gogol a funny incident that took place in the city of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod Region. Nicholas
Vasilyevich Gogol based the plot of his "Inspector General" on this incident.
Gogol shared with the poet how work on The Inspector General was going. The work was given to Gogol not simply. He repeatedly tried to quit working on it, about which he wrote to Pushkin. But the poet categorically opposed this, and The Inspector General was completed. The first reading of the play took place in the presence of Pushkin. He was from comedy in incredible admiration.
The Inspector General was created literally in one breath. In two months, the first edition of the work was created, then immediately the second. Immediately, editing was done, amendments were made and the final version was written.
Gogol's comedy overcame the censorship obstacles that immediately arose thanks to the help of Zhukovsky and Pushkin. They always supported Gogol and stood up for his defense. As soon as the "Inspector General" was approved by the emperor, he was immediately published in March 1836. And already in April it premiered at the Alexandrinsky Theatre.
