It is known that Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was very afraid of being buried alive. And even seven years before his death, he wrote a will in which he asked not to bury the body until signs of decomposition appeared. In addition, Gogol always had sweets in his pockets - lumps of sugar, bagels, candies. He gnawed on them while talking or working. By the way, many of Gogol’s fellow writers had strange habits.
Honore de Balzac believed that the best time to work was at night. He made sure to light six candles and sit at his desk all night. At the same time, the writer’s biographers assured that he could work for 18 hours straight. So, he didn’t just write at night? Balzac knew how to “cheat” time - he tightly closed the shutters on the windows, drew the curtains and moved the hands of the clock, turning day into night. In addition, the writer drank a lot of coffee - up to 50 cups a day.
Our great poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin also loved coffee. But he loved lemonade even more. As soon as the poet sat down at his desk, a decanter of lemonade was placed in front of him. According to the recollections of Konstantin Danzas, Pushkin’s friend from the time of the lyceum, even before the duel, Alexander Sergeevich drank a glass of lemonade in a pastry shop.
Among the Parisians who protested against the construction of the Eiffel Tower in the city was Guy de Maupassant. He insisted that this clumsy structure distorted the appearance of the French capital. However, the writer found a way out - he went every day to a restaurant located in the tower, explaining that the restaurant is the only place in Paris from where it is not visible.
To be honest, rotten apples don't have the most flavorful smell. But, on the contrary, they encouraged the German poet Friedrich Schiller to be creative, so he filled his desk drawer with them. In Schiller's office, the curtains were always red, and while working, he dipped his feet in a trough of ice water. He said that this procedure invigorates and inspires him.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky collected material for his works in an original way: on the street he could stop a random passerby and have a long conversation with him on various topics. While working, Dostoevsky read the text aloud. Moreover, sometimes he did it so menacingly that the lackeys were afraid to enter the writer’s office.
Vladimir Nabokov wrote most of his texts on small pieces of paper, which he then sewed together into a kind of book. And he liked to write with a pencil with a rubber eraser at the end. Nabokov also often walked around with a net and caught insects, of which he compiled an impressive collection. He managed to discover about two dozen new species of butterflies.
Victor Hugo often abandoned an unfinished work, and could not bring himself to return to it later. I even had to use a trick. For example, while working on the novel “Notre Dame Cathedral,” the writer shaved half his head bald and threw away the razor so that there would be no temptation to go outside. And, while working on another novel, he completely undressed and ordered the servants to take his clothes out of the house.
Ernest Hemingway started working early in the morning. At first he wrote the text by hand, then retyped it on a typewriter. Hemingway never wrote after lunch; at noon he began to count the number of words in the text, as if summing up the work done.
The name “Leo Tolstoy” is heard and a man with a beautiful gray beard immediately appears, bending over the manuscript “War and Peace”. “Bulgakov” - and a portrait of a handsome, imposing man in a hat immediately appears in my thoughts, and next to him the cat Behemoth speaking in a human voice. Did you know that the world recognized Lev Nikolaevich only thanks to the efforts of his faithful wife Sofia Andreevna?
No one else could make out the writer's scribbles. He, in turn, forced Sophia to rewrite her works tirelessly in order to have time to convey his genius to the world. Nabokov collected butterflies, Dickens adored morgues and corpses, preferring them to living people, and Gogol did not want to live without goat's milk, in which strong rum had previously been diluted.
Victor Hugo: he was afraid of his manuscripts
The Frenchman, who created “Notre Dame Cathedral,” the novel “The Man Who Laughs” and dozens of other landmark works, was physically afraid of his manuscripts. During Victor’s writing, books were created “by hand” in the literal sense of the word. As the stack of sheets with his handwriting grew on the table, Victor began to become nervous and restless. As a result, he abandoned the unfinished novel and started another.
It happened that after working for a year he could not finish several of his works at once. Being a logical person, he figured out how to force himself to finish what he started. The only way out is not to leave the house, but there must be a good reason for this. Once he shaved half of his head bald, but left the other half as it was, and threw the razor out the window. Another time he ordered the maid to take all the clothes out of the house, leaving only one sheet on. Such extremes did not allow the author to go out into polite society until, for example, his hair grew back, or when someone visited him and could give the writer his coat.
Edgar Allan Poe: Afraid of the Dark
It's hard to believe, but the founder of the horror genre in literature was the happy owner of a phobia of darkness. The writer's biographers emphasized that Poe could only fall asleep in bright light, or at least with a constantly burning candle. The fear was so strong that Edgar refused to go on the road in the dark, or to attend performances where the lights in the auditorium were turned off.
Poe's fear was caused by mental childhood trauma. Without money for a decent education, the parents sent their son to the cheapest school, which did not have basic means for the learning process: books, notebooks or teaching aids. The teacher came up with the idea of teaching children the basics of mathematics in a cemetery. The teacher assigned each child to a separate grave, on the monument of which the little student had to remember, add and subtract numbers dating birth and death. So the mentor showed how to add and subtract four-digit numbers, and as a result, the children gave the age at which the person lying in the grave died.
Honore de Balzac: afraid of daylight
If Honore de Balzac lived in our time, it would be he who would become the main character in the Twilight saga. The brilliant Frenchman wrote his first works at night. Noticing that his Muse came to him more willingly only at night, Balzac curtained the windows during the day with several layers of heavy curtains.
Later, for the author, working at night began to bring pleasure, and daytime caused irritation and rejection. During the day, Honore took sleeping pills in order not to feel the nervous pressure of sunlight, and waking up late in the evening, he drank countless amounts of strong coffee and got to work. It was he who came up with the assumption that became an aphorism: “If necessary, the night can last indefinitely.”
George Gordon Byron: afraid of getting sunburned
They called the wrong man Casanova! If humanity learned about the adventures of the loving Giacomo from his own memoirs, then the ladies themselves spoke about Byron in their personal diaries. Nonsense: the British poet, who went down in the history of English and world literature, was extremely ugly. Byron was severely overweight, had skin problems, and also had one leg shorter than the other, which caused him to limp. The writer’s biographers counted about 250 women, whose connections were confirmed by envelopes with cut… hair. After contacting the lady, the writer asked for some hair as a souvenir and placed it in a separate envelope, which he flourished and signed with the name of his “love.”
In pursuit of beauty, George constantly went on diets. But his biggest phobia was the fear of losing his snow-white skin color. During the author’s adventures, white skin was a sign of the aristocracy and intelligentsia. In pursuit of this fashion, Byron tried a recipe: take vinegar, slightly diluted with water, daily. The acid irritated the stomach and intestines, the man turned pale from cramps and pain. This, by the way, was the cause of the death of the womanizer-novelist.
Mikhail Bulgakov: afraid to sleep
Mikhail Afanasyevich’s phobia of sleep manifested itself during that period of his life when the author was controlled by morphine. It is no secret to fans of the writer’s work that the creator of “The Heart of a Dog” and “The Master and Margarita” was a famous morphine addict. In the diaries of the husband of the classic's sister, there is evidence that Bulgakov was afraid to sleep on those days when he did not have money for an injection. In a state of “sober mind,” the writer had terrible nightmares, and due to a depressed state of mind, he lost the boundary between reality and dreams.
According to the memoirs of relatives, Bulgakov could wake up and run away from the house, fleeing, or catching up with ghosts. When he regained consciousness, he was exposed to a terrible understanding of what was happening to him, hence the added fear of going to bed again. As you know, in the last period of his life he completely got rid of morphine addiction, but, unfortunately, this did not prolong his life.
The talent of recognized writers is undeniable. Many generations worship their perfect style or profundity. But genius often hides some oddities. Some authors loved to work, surrounded by the smell of rotten apples, others drank coffee in heavy doses, and still others stripped naked. This review will discuss the strangest antics and passions of famous writers.
1. Nikolai Gogol
Image Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol all shrouded in mystery and strangeness. The writer worked while standing and slept while sitting. Many of his contemporaries noticed with surprise how lovingly he cut out his scarves and patched his vests. But another oddity for sure was the passion for rolling bread balls. Gogol did this when he wrote his works, when he thought about the meaning of life, or simply, bored, during lunch. The writer rolled balls and tossed them into the soup of those sitting next to him.
2. Friedrich Schiller
The famous German poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller There was also a slight oddity. He couldn't work without a box of rotten apples nearby. One day his friend Johann Wolfgang Goethe came to visit the poet. But he was not at home, and Goethe decided to wait for Schiller in his office. But then he felt the smell of rotting, which really made his head spin. To Goethe's question about rotten apples, Schiller's wife replied that her husband simply could not live without them.
3. William Burroughs
On September 6, 1951, during one of the parties, the writer William Burroughs, being drunk, wanted to repeat William Tell's trick when he hit the apple standing on his son's head. William Burroughs placed a glass of water on the top of his wife Joan Vollmer's head and fired. Unfortunately, the writer missed and killed his wife.
4. Victor Hugo
One day Victor Hugo I urgently needed to get the book into print. Then he ordered the servant to take all his clothes out of the house so as not to be able to leave the premises. It was then that the writer, wrapped only in a blanket, was finally able to finish his novel Notre-Dame de Paris. Subsequently, Victor Hugo often resorted to this method in order to finish writing his works on time.
5. Honore de Balzac
To say that the French novelist Honore de Balzac loved coffee - that's an understatement. The writer drank up to 50 cups of an invigorating drink a day without adding sugar or milk. Some researchers claim that Honoré de Balzac hardly slept when he wrote his famous “Human Comedy”. Of course, coffee affects people differently, but the writer’s addiction still affected his health: severe stomach pain, heart problems and high blood pressure.
6. Alexandre Dumas
Alexandr Duma, author of The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo and many other literary masterpieces, used a color writing system during his work. For decades, the French writer used blue to indicate fantasy novels, pink to indicate non-fiction works or articles, and yellow to indicate poetry.
In addition, Alexandre Dumas was prone to adventurous actions. Once he had the opportunity to participate in a duel, where the duelists drew lots. Anyone who was unlucky had to shoot himself. Dumas turned out to be the unlucky one. He took the pistol and went into the next room, in which a shot then rang out. Dumas walked out of there as if nothing had happened, while saying: “I shot, but missed.”
7. Mark Twain
Mark Twain He wrote his masterpieces only while lying down. As the author himself noted, he found the right words and inspiration while he was in the comfort of his bed. Some comrades called Twain "a completely horizontal author."
Another interesting fact in the biography of Mark Twain is Halley's Comet. Two weeks before the author's birth in 1835, this comet flew close to the Earth. And in 1909, the writer wrote that he “came into this world with a comet, and he will leave with it.” Mark Twain died in 1910, the day after Halley's Comet appeared.
8. Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens I just went crazy over the bodies of the dead. He could look at them for hours, watching as the corpses were examined, autopsied and prepared for burial. The writer often said that he was “pulled by the invisible hand of death.”
Writers weren't the only ones with quirks. Probably all creative individuals have their own characteristics. can be seen as attracting the attention they need from the viewer.
Writing is a complex and energy-consuming process. You need to have a rich imagination and good powers of observation for the reader to believe the literary character and immerse himself in a fascinating read. Sometimes intellectual work takes a lot of energy, and in order to restore balance, many famous writers resorted to very eccentric methods of “unloading”, which turned out to be effective for them. We present to your attention a selection of habits and hobbies of great writers that raise bewilderment and many questions. But, as Agatha Christie aptly put it, “A habit is something that you no longer notice in yourself.”
Tom Sawyer's "Papa" loved to write in bed. For his love of comfort, he was even nicknamed the “absolutely horizontal author.” While working on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain lived on the Querrey farm. The owners of the farm were so kind that they made the writer a separate gazebo-office. There he worked from morning until evening, and if his loved ones needed him, they blew a special horn for notification. It was forbidden to disturb the writer over trifles. To work comfortably, Twain opened all the windows and sat in bed with sheets of paper. In addition, the writer abused cigars, which required him to ventilate the rooms for a long time to remove the pungent smell, and to “treat” insomnia he preferred strong alcohol.
The writer was afraid of the dark since childhood, perhaps this was caused by the fact that the school mathematics teacher taught lessons for the young writer and his classmates at the local cemetery. In addition to his fear of the dark, the writer was afraid of being buried alive and often experienced visual and auditory hallucinations. He was also fond of mysticism, was a member of the Brotherhood of the Moon and attached greater importance to everything unknown. His works were dark and difficult to understand, and Edgar Allan Poe wrote the texts themselves on long pieces of paper sealed with wax. This made it difficult not only to edit the text, but also to read it. However, this is exactly what was convenient for the writer. From his pen came wonderful works that became famous throughout the world only many years later. Despite his passion for occult sciences, it was Poe who invented the brilliant detective Auguste Dupin, who uses the method of deduction that does not tolerate anything “otherworldly” in his work.
Arthur Conan Doyle
Before becoming a writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle received a medical education and tried himself in various fields. He worked as a doctor on the ship, was fond of sports, participated in car racing and was a member of the Golden Dawn occult society. However, his “craze” passion for spiritualism began after the death of his son during the First World War. The writer believed in the mediums so much that he almost quarreled with his friend Harry Houdini, who saw the true intentions of the mystics who frequented Doyle’s house.
The French writer, having settled on the island of Guernsey, loved to work in a completely glazed observation deck on the roof of the Hauteville house. After waking up, Victor Hugo drank two raw eggs, then went to the observation deck, where he worked until noon. Afterwards he went to the roof, where he rinsed with ice water from a barrel. The tempering water procedures could be observed by random passers-by and by his beloved Justine, who lived not far from the writer.
Before moving to Guernsey, the writer often asked servants to take all his clothes from the house so that he could not go out and therefore finish the book on time. One day, a writer cut off half of his hair to stay at home, otherwise he might be ridiculed. Such a “sacrifice” gave the writer time free from social events - he was not distracted and completed the work on time.
The writer considered absolute silence to be the key to his productivity. His office had a double door for soundproofing, and objects on his desk were always arranged in a strictly defined way. The walls of the room were hung with mirrors, in front of which the writer loved to make faces. Apparently, this helped him better think through the character of the characters in the books. He began writing after breakfast, usually locked himself in his office at 9 am and worked until 2 pm. After lunch, he would go for a three-hour walk to meditate and reflect on the current manuscript. The writer's son noted in his memoirs that his father was always punctual and pedantic, so that any London clerk could envy him. Needless to say that the writer was never late for meetings?
Another, gloomy feature of the writer is that he loved visiting morgues. He liked to look at dead people; he himself said that he was drawn to morgues by some unknown force. Sometimes the writer could spend several hours in this not very comfortable place, contemplating the “dead beauty.”
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Nikolay Gogol
According to the recollections of those familiar with Nikolai Gogol, the writer was distinguished by his modest character and mysterious behavior. For example, he was afraid of thunderstorms, death, and when meeting a stranger, he could silently leave the room for no reason at all. In addition, when working on a piece, he liked to roll balls out of bread. This helped him concentrate better and think through the plot. Sweets also helped to distract from sad thoughts. The writer always had them in large quantities. He preferred to work on his work while standing, and liked to sleep while sitting. According to him, sketches of the future work could be made “...even if poorly, watery, but absolutely everything, and forget about this notebook.” Then Gogol returned to the draft after some time, re-read it, made corrections and put the notes aside again. He did this until the notebook ran out. After this, he took a long break and again returned to the draft, looked through it, corrected it, noting the “strengthening of the syllable and the purification of phrases.” Gogol could do this kind of “literary montage” up to eight times to achieve the perfect result.
The French writer was distinguished by his love of the nocturnal lifestyle, which was supported by huge amounts of coffee. The writer preferred to drink the strong drink without sugar or milk. Honoré de Balzac had great creative ambitions, so he slept very little while working on The Human Comedy. The number of cups of coffee per day could reach up to 50. Balzac’s creative process began at one in the morning, and he worked on the work for seven hours in a row. At 8 am he allowed himself a little rest, after which he worked from 9:30 to 16:00, drinking one cup of coffee after another. Afterwards, he walked on the street, talked with friends and acquaintances, and at 18:00 he went to bed, only to wake up again at one in the morning and write until the morning. Excessive caffeine consumption, a “ragged” daily routine and increased stress had an extremely negative impact on the writer’s health.
Franz Kafka worked as an industrial injury insurance specialist. He hated boring service and dreamed of literature. Despite his busy work schedule and cramped apartment, in which his sisters also lived, Kafka found time to write. This usually happened after 11-12 o'clock at night, when there was silence in a noisy house. Kafka wrote until two or three in the morning, and if he had enough strength, then until the morning, before the start of the service. A busy schedule and poor health took their toll. In addition, due to childhood psychological trauma, he often suffered from migraines and insomnia. He switched to a vegetarian diet and drank unpasteurized cow's milk. The situation was aggravated by the writer’s uncertainty and vulnerability. It was difficult for him to communicate with girls, he broke off several engagements, and preferred to communicate with his lovers through letters. It is worth noting that his love correspondence was very literary.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald
In 1917, the future writer served in the army and managed, in short moments of rest, to write a novel on scraps of paper that he carried in his pockets. After demobilization, Francis Scott Fitzgerald set aside weekends entirely for writing. On Saturdays, his work began at one o'clock in the afternoon and ended at midnight, and on Sunday - from six in the morning until six in the evening. This is how the novel “This Side of Paradise” was born, after which fame came to the 24-year-old debutant.
In France, he and his wife Zelda became friends with the wealthy American couple Murphy. Often at their parties, the famous writer behaved provocatively. For example, it is known that once he wanted to repeat the trick of “sawing” a person, but the waiter, fortunately, avoided the fate of the “guinea pig.” With such a bohemian lifestyle, Fitzgerald woke up late, began writing in the late afternoon, sometimes worked until four in the morning, but most often spent most of his time in cafes and bars. If he did sit down at the table, he managed to write 7000-8000 words at a time, which was quite enough for a story. This was not enough for a novel, and then strong gin came to the “help”. Binges prevented Fitzgerald, no matter how ironic it may sound, from thinking soberly, and he gradually lost his grip as a writer.
In addition to his love of cats, strong drinks and early rises, Ernest Hemingway was distinguished by his enviable consistency in the matter of word count. He wrote only 500 words a day, after which he stopped working and continued only the next day. The writer's work process began at 5:30 or 6 in the morning, even if he had gone to bed late or had been drinking before that. “At this time, no one will bother you, the air is cool or even cold, you sit down to work and warm up.” The work usually lasted until noon, and the writer always worked while standing. He wrote down his thoughts on sheets of paper, and if the work went well, he typed on a typewriter, which was piled up on a bookshelf. The height of the shelf reached chest level, which allowed the writer to work with a straight back and concentrate on the process.
Let’s immediately make a reservation that the term “Swedish family” exists exclusively in Russian and has nothing to do with real Sweden. In the rest of the world, a polyamorous family is usually called ménage à trois - literally translated as “household for three.” Living in this way, all participants, or only some of them, can be intimate with each other.
Nikolay Nekrasov and Panaevs
“What outraged everyone was not that Nekrasov was a polygamist, a polygamist, incapable of monogamous love. Almost all lyricists are like that...” wrote Korney Chukovsky in his article “The Poet’s Girlfriends.”
The personal life of the “Russian woman singer” was indeed not easy. At 26 years old, Nekrasov falls madly in love with the beautiful Avdotya Panaeva. And although Panaeva was far from the poet’s first sweetheart, she is traditionally considered his muse and inspiration.
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Avdotya Panaeva was smart, beautiful, very talented... and married to another Russian writer, Ivan Panaev. And although the girl at first steadfastly rejected the advances of the young rake, she soon gave in. During one of the trips, Panaeva and Nekrasov confessed their feelings to each other.
What Ivan Panaev felt about this is unknown, but, apparently, this did not interfere with their friendship. And considering that all three soon lived happily in the Panayevs’ apartment, their union turned out to be stronger than it seemed.
In collaboration with Panaeva, Nekrasov wrote several novels - Avdotya then wrote under a male pseudonym, which was common in those days. According to rumors, Nekrasov repeatedly staged scenes of jealousy for Panaev, but disagreements did not prevent the partners from living together for 16 years - until Panaev’s death.
During this time, Avdotya managed to become pregnant by Nekrasov, but, unfortunately, the child soon died. After Panaev's death, Avdotya and Nikolai also did not live together for long. Apparently, the “third” in their bizarre friendship was not out of place.
In his obituary, published in Sovremennik (1862, No. 2), Chernyshevsky wrote: “... Panaev was loved by everyone who knew him: there was so much kindness, gentleness and that attractiveness in him that is imparted to a person by the predominance of good spiritual qualities in him... »
Ivan Turgenev and Viardot: “on the edge of someone else’s nest”
, a famous French writer and art critic, and opera diva Pauline Garcia were married in 1840. He was already forty, and the girl was only twenty. They were introduced by the writer George Sand, who, although she was a close friend of Louis, still admitted that he was “dull as a nightcap.”Polina found a decent husband in Louis, but this peace of mind was not enough for her. “As you promised me, I found in Louis a sublime mind, a deep soul and a noble character... Excellent qualities for a husband, but is this enough?” - wrote Pauline Georges Sand.
Three years after the wedding, a reason arose to dispel the boring family life. In the fall of 1843, 25-year-old Ivan Turgenev was among the spectators of an opera performance. And after some time, Turgenev met Louis, then already the director of the Italian theater in Paris. The opera diva did not particularly distinguish Turgenev among the crowd of her fans, but when her tour in St. Petersburg ended, Ivan Turgenev rushed after the Viardot family. For his attachment to the “damned gypsy,” his mother did not give him money for three years. Turgenev travels across Europe: to Berlin, then to London, Paris, a tour of France and again to St. Petersburg, all this time living with the Viardot family “on the edge of someone else’s nest,” according to his own statements. In the early 1860s, the Viardot family settled in Baden-Baden, and with them Turgenev (“Villa Tourgueneff”). Thanks to the Viardot family and Ivan Turgenev, their villa became an interesting musical and artistic center.
Turgenev loved her four children (among whom were his) as if they were his own. The true nature of the relationship between Pauline Viardot and Turgenev is still a matter of debate. There is a version that after Louis Viardot was paralyzed due to a stroke, Polina and Turgenev actually entered into a marital relationship. According to one version, in this love triangle there were also men to whom Polina Viardot was disposed...
Grevs, in his “The Story of a Love,” wondering whether the relationship between Turgenev and Viardot could have been a relationship between spouses, says: “It turns out that the three of us cohabitate, which does not quite fit with the natural feelings of people... On what moral principles did it develop? With some strange friendship between Turgenev and the husband of his beloved woman, based on common hunting hobbies, something is not good.”
Mayakovsky, Osya and the “muse of the Russian avant-garde”
“Volodya didn’t just fall in love with me - he attacked me, it was an attack. For two and a half years I didn’t have a single free minute—literally. I was frightened by his assertiveness, his height, his bulk, his irrepressible, unbridled passion. His love was immeasurable,” his muse Lilya Brik wrote about Mayakovsky.
In Mayakovsky’s autobiography, the day of his meeting with Brik in July 1915 is defined as “the most joyful date.” A stormy romance very quickly broke out between Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik, which was not prevented by Lilya Brik’s husband Osip. In the summer of 1918, Mayakovsky and Briki began to live together, moving from apartment to apartment. According to the memoirs of the Soviet poet Voznesensky, in her old age Lilya Brik confessed to him: “I loved making love with Osya. We then locked Volodya in the kitchen. He was eager, wanted to come to us, scratched at the door and cried ... "
However, there are versions that everything was quite the opposite - Osip did not have enough strength and health to make love with his wife, and he gave up his place to a younger lover.
Mayakovsky, Lilya and Osip Brik
Lidia Korneevna Chukovskaya recalled her visit to the Briks, not without hostility: “It was difficult for me to communicate with them, the whole style of the house was not to my liking. It also seemed to me that Lilya Yuryevna had no interest in Mayakovsky’s poems. I didn’t like the hazel grouse on the table or the jokes at the table...”
In his suicide notes, Mayakovsky called Lilya Brik and Veronica Polonskaya, as well as his mother and sisters, members of his family, and asked that the poems be given to the Briks.
Alexander Herzen and the “three stars”
Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was a Russian poet, philosopher and a man of very free views. In 1838, he married his cousin Natalya Zakharyina, and within seven years Natalya bore him six children, three of whom, however, died almost immediately after birth.
