Ostrovsky direction. Brief Biography A

playwright, whose work became the most important stage in the development of the Russian national theater

Alexander Ostrovsky

short biography

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky April 12, 1823 in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka. His father, Nikolai Fedorovich, was the son of a priest, he himself graduated from the Kostroma Seminary, then the Moscow Theological Academy, but began to practice as a court lawyer, dealing with property and commercial matters; rose to the rank of collegiate assessor, and in 1839 received the nobility. Mother, Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina, the daughter of a sexton and a prosvir, died when Alexander was not yet nine years old. There were four children in the family (four more died in infancy). The younger brother is the statesman M. N. Ostrovsky. Thanks to the position of Nikolai Fedorovich, the family lived in prosperity, great attention was paid to the study of children who received home education. Five years after the death of Alexander's mother, his father married Baroness Emily Andreevna von Tessin, the daughter of a Swedish nobleman. The children were lucky with their stepmother: she surrounded them with care and continued to teach them.

Ostrovsky's childhood and part of his youth were spent in the center of Zamoskvorechye. Thanks to his father's large library, he was early acquainted with Russian literature and felt a penchant for writing, but his father wanted to make him a lawyer. In 1835, Ostrovsky entered the third grade of the 1st Moscow Provincial Gymnasium, after which in 1840 he became a student at the law faculty of Moscow University. He failed to complete the university course: without passing the exam in Roman law, Ostrovsky wrote a letter of resignation (he studied until 1843). At the request of his father, Ostrovsky entered the service of a clerk in the Constituent Court and served in the Moscow courts until 1850; his first salary was 4 rubles a month, after a while it increased to 16 rubles (transferred to the Commercial Court in 1845).

By 1846, Ostrovsky had already written many scenes from merchant life and conceived the comedy "Insolvent Debtor" (later - "Own people - let's settle!"). The very first publication was a short play “A Picture of Family Life” and an essay “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident” - they were published in one of the issues of the “Moscow City List” in 1847. Professor of Moscow University S.P. Shevyrev, after Ostrovsky read the play at his home on February 14, 1847, solemnly congratulated the audience on "the appearance of a new dramatic luminary in Russian literature."

A. N. Ostrovsky.

Literary fame for Ostrovsky was brought by the comedy “Our people - let's settle!”, Published in 1850 in the journal of the university professor M. P. Pogodin “Moskvityanin”. Under the text was: "A. ABOUT." (Alexander Ostrovsky) and "D. G.". Under the middle initials was Dmitry Gorev-Tarasenkov, a provincial actor who offered Ostrovsky cooperation. This collaboration did not go beyond one scene, and subsequently served as a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky, since it gave his detractors a reason to accuse him of plagiarism (1856). However, the play evoked favorable responses from H. V. Gogol, I. A. Goncharov. The influential Moscow merchants, offended by their estate, complained to the "bosses"; as a result, the comedy was banned from staging, and the author was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision on the personal order of Nicholas I. Supervision was removed after the accession of Alexander II, and the play was allowed to be staged only in 1861.

Ostrovsky's first play, which was able to get on the stage, was Don't Get into Your Sleigh, written in 1852 and staged for the first time in Moscow on the stage of the Maly Theater on January 14, 1853.

For more than thirty years, since 1853, new plays by Ostrovsky appeared almost every season in the Moscow Maly and Alexandrinsky theaters in St. Petersburg. Since 1856, Ostrovsky became a permanent contributor to the Sovremennik magazine. In the same year, in accordance with the wishes of the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, a business trip of outstanding writers took place to study and describe various areas of Russia in industrial and domestic terms. Ostrovsky took over the study of the Volga from the upper reaches to Nizhny Novgorod.

A. N. Ostrovsky, 1856

In 1859, with the assistance of Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, the first collected works of Ostrovsky were published in two volumes. Thanks to this edition, Ostrovsky received a brilliant assessment from N. A. Dobrolyubov, which secured him the fame of a depicter of the “dark kingdom”. In 1860, the Thunderstorm appeared in print, to which Dobrolyubov dedicated the article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom”. From the second half of the 1860s, Ostrovsky took up the history of the Time of Troubles and entered into correspondence with Kostomarov. Five “historical chronicles in verse” became the fruit of the work: “Kuzma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”, “Vasilisa Melentyeva”, “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky”, etc.

In 1863, Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize (for the play The Thunderstorm) and was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1866 (according to other sources - in 1865), Ostrovsky founded the Artistic Circle, which later gave the Moscow stage many talented figures. Ostrovsky's house was visited by I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, I. S. Turgenev, A. F. Pisemsky, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. E. Turchaninov, P. M. Sadovsky, L. P. Kositskaya-Nikulina, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. N. Ermolova, G. N. Fedotova.

In 1874, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was formed, of which Ostrovsky remained the permanent chairman until his death. Working in the commission "for the revision of legal provisions in all parts of the theater management", established in 1881 under the directorate of the Imperial Theaters, he achieved many changes that significantly improved the position of artists. In 1885, Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertoire of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school.

Despite the fact that his plays made good collections and that in 1883 Emperor Alexander III granted him an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, money problems did not leave Ostrovsky until the last days of his life. Health did not meet the plans that he set for himself. Hard work exhausted the body.

On June 2 (14), 1886, on Spirits Day, Ostrovsky died in his Kostroma estate Shchelykovo. His last work was the translation of "Antony and Cleopatra" by William Shakespeare - Alexander Nikolayevich's favorite playwright. The writer was buried next to his father at the church cemetery near the Temple in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province. For the burial, Alexander III granted 3,000 rubles from the sums of the cabinet; the widow, inseparably with 2 children, was assigned a pension of 3,000 rubles, and for the upbringing of three sons and a daughter - 2,400 rubles a year. Subsequently, the widow of the writer M.V. Ostrovskaya, an actress of the Maly Theater, and the daughter of M.A. Shatelen were buried in the family necropolis.

After the death of the playwright, the Moscow Duma set up a reading room named after A. N. Ostrovsky in Moscow.

Family

• The younger brother is the statesman M. N. Ostrovsky.

Alexander Nikolaevich had a deep passion for the actress Lyubov Kositskaya, but both of them had a family. However, even after becoming a widow in 1862, Kositskaya continued to reject Ostrovsky's feelings, and soon she began a close relationship with the son of a wealthy merchant, who eventually squandered her entire fortune; She wrote to Ostrovsky: "... I do not want to take away your love from anyone."

The playwright lived in cohabitation with the commoner Agafya Ivanovna, but all their children died at an early age. Having no education, but being a smart woman, with a subtle, easily vulnerable soul, she understood the playwright and was the very first reader and critic of his works. Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for about twenty years, and in 1869, two years after her death, he married the actress Maria Vasilyevna Bakhmetyeva, who bore him four sons and two daughters.

Creation

"Columbus Zamoskvorechye"

The play Poverty is Not a Vice (1853) was first staged on January 15, 1869 at the Maly Theater for a benefit performance by Prov Mikhailovich Sadovsky.

Ostrovsky Theater

Russian theater in its modern sense begins with A. N. Ostrovsky: the playwright created a theater school and an integral concept of theatrical production.

The essence of Ostrovsky's theater is the absence of extreme situations and opposition to the actor's gut. Alexander Nikolaevich's plays depict ordinary situations with ordinary people, whose dramas go into everyday life and human psychology.

The main ideas of the theater reform:

• the theater should be built on conventions (there is a 4th wall separating the audience from the actors);
• invariability of attitude to language: mastery of speech characteristics, expressing almost everything about the characters;
• betting on more than one actor;

“A good play will please the public and be successful, but will not last long on the repertoire if poorly played: the public goes to the theater to see a good performance of good plays, and not the play itself; play can be read. Othello is no doubt a good play; but the public did not want to watch it when Charsky played the role of Othello. The interest of the performance is a complex matter: both the play and the performance are equally involved in it. When both are good, the performance is interesting; when one thing is bad, then the performance loses its interest.

- "Note on the draft "Rules on the Imperial Theater Prizes for Dramatic Works""

Ostrovsky's theater demanded a new stage aesthetics, new actors. In accordance with this, Ostrovsky creates an ensemble of actors, which includes such actors as Martynov, Sergei Vasiliev, Evgeny Samoilov, Prov Sadovsky.

Naturally, innovations met opponents. They were, for example, Shchepkin. The dramaturgy of Ostrovsky demanded from the actor a detachment from his personality, which MS Shchepkin did not do. For example, he left the dress rehearsal of The Thunderstorm, being very dissatisfied with the author of the play.

Ostrovsky's ideas were brought to their logical end by K. S. Stanislavsky and M. A. Bulgakov.

Folk myths and national history in the dramaturgy of Ostrovsky

In 1881, the successful premiere of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden, which the composer called his best work, took place on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater. A. N. Ostrovsky himself appreciated the work of Rimsky-Korsakov:

“The music for my The Snow Maiden is amazing, I could never imagine anything more suitable for it and so vividly expressing all the poetry of the Russian pagan cult and this first snow-cold, and then irresistibly passionate heroine of a fairy tale.”

The appearance of the poetic play by Ostrovsky "The Snow Maiden", created on the basis of the fabulous, song and song-ritual material of Russian poetry, was caused by an accidental circumstance. In 1873, the Maly Theater was closed for major repairs, and its troupe moved to the building of the Bolshoi Theatre. The Commission for the Management of the Imperial Moscow Theaters decided to put on an extravaganza performance in which all three troupes would participate: drama, opera and ballet. With a proposal to write such a play in a very short time, they turned to A.N. Ostrovsky, who willingly agreed to this, deciding to use the plot from the folk tale "The Snow Maiden Girl". The music for the play, at the request of Ostrovsky, was commissioned by the young P. I. Tchaikovsky. Both the playwright and the composer worked on the play with great enthusiasm, very quickly, in close creative contact. On March 31, on his fiftieth birthday, Ostrovsky finished The Snow Maiden. The first performance took place on May 11, 1873 at the Bolshoi Theatre.

While working on The Snow Maiden, Ostrovsky carefully searched for the size of the poems, consulted with historians, archaeologists, experts in ancient life, turned to a large amount of historical and folklore material, including The Tale of Igor's Campaign. He himself highly appreciated this play of his, and wrote, "I<…>in this work I go out on a new road”; he spoke enthusiastically about Tchaikovsky's music: "Tchaikovsky's music for The Snow Maiden is charming." I. S. Turgenev was “captivated by the beauty and lightness of the language of the Snegurochka.” P. I. Tchaikovsky, working on The Snow Maiden, wrote: “I have been sitting at work without getting up for about a month; I am writing music for Ostrovsky’s magic play “The Snow Maiden,” he considered the dramatic work itself to be the pearl of Ostrovsky’s creations, and said this about his music for him: “This is one of my favorite brainchildren. The spring was wonderful, my soul was good ... I liked Ostrovsky's play, and in three weeks, without any effort, I wrote the music.

Later, in 1880, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote an opera based on the same plot. M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov writes in his memoirs: “With some special warmth, Alexander Nikolayevich spoke about Tchaikovsky’s music for The Snow Maiden, which, obviously, greatly prevented him from admiring Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden. Undoubtedly ... Tchaikovsky's sincere music ... was closer to Ostrovsky's soul, and he did not hide the fact that she was dearer to him, as a populist.

Here is how K. S. Stanislavsky spoke about The Snow Maiden: “The Snow Maiden is a fairy tale, a dream, a national legend, written, told in Ostrovsky's magnificent sonorous verses. One might think that this playwright, the so-called realist and everyday worker, never wrote anything but wonderful poems, and was not interested in anything other than pure poetry and romance.

Criticism

Ostrovsky's work became the subject of fierce debate among critics of both the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 19th century, Dobrolyubov (the articles "Dark Kingdom" and "Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom") and Apollon Grigoriev wrote about him from opposite positions. In the XX century - Mikhail Lobanov (in the book "Ostrovsky", published in the series "ZhZL"), M. A. Bulgakov and V. Ya. Lakshin.

Memory

• Central Library named after A. N. Ostrovsky (Rzhev, Tver region).
• Moscow Regional Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Kostroma State Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Ural Regional Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Irbit Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky (Irbit, Sverdlovsk region).
• Kineshma Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky (Ivanovo region).
• Tashkent State Theater and Art Institute named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Streets in a number of cities of the former USSR.
• On May 27, 1929, a monument to Ostrovsky was unveiled in front of the Maly Theater (sculptor N. A. Andreev, architect I. P. Mashkov) (the jury preferred it over the monument to Ostrovsky, submitted to the competition by A. S. Golubkina, who depicted the great playwright at the moment captivating spectator creative impulse).
• In 1984, in Zamoskvorechye, in the house where the great playwright was born - a cultural monument of the early 20s of the XIX century, a branch of the Theater Museum named after. A. A. Bakhrushin - House-Museum of A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Now in Shchelykovo (Kostroma region) there is a memorial and natural museum-reserve of the playwright.
• Once every five years, since 1973, the All-Russian Theater Festival "Ostrovsky's Days in Kostroma" lights up the stage, which is supervised by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation (All-Russian Theater Society).
• A memorial plaque in Tver, on Sovetskaya (former Millionnaya) Street, house 7, informs that the playwright lived in this house, the Barsukov hotel, in the spring and summer of 1856, during his trip to the Upper Volga region.
• Every two years, since 1993, the Maly Theater hosts the Ostrovsky in the Ostrovsky House festival, to which theaters from all over Russia bring their performances based on the plays of the playwright to Moscow.
• Ostrovsky's plays never leave the stage. Many of his works have been filmed or served as the basis for the creation of film and television scripts.
• Among the film adaptations most popular in Russia is Konstantin Voinov's comedy Balzaminov's Marriage (1964, starring G. Vitsin).
• The film "Cruel Romance", filmed by Eldar Ryazanov based on "Dowry" (1984), received considerable popularity.
• In 2005, director Evgeny Ginzburg received the main prize ( Grand Prix "Garnet Bracelet") of the eleventh Russian festival "Literature and cinema" (Gatchina) " for the amazing interpretation of the great play by A. N. Ostrovsky "Guilty Without Guilt" in the film "Anna""(2005, screenplay by G. Danelia and Rustam Ibragimbekov; starring opera singer Lyubov Kazarnovskaya).

In philately

Postage stamps of the USSR

Portrait of A. N. Ostrovsky - postage stamp of the USSR. 1948

Portrait of A. N. Ostrovsky based on a painting by V. Perov (1871, State Tretyakov Gallery) Postage stamp of the USSR. 1948

Postage stamp of the USSR, 1959.

Playwright A. N. Ostrovsky (1823-1886), actors M. N. Ermolova (1853-1928), P. S. Mochalov (1800-1848), M. S. Shchepkin (1788-1863) and P. M. Sadovsky (1818-1872). Postage stamp of the USSR 1949.

Plays

• "Family Picture" (1847)
• "Own people - let's count" (1849)
• "An Unexpected Case" (1850)
• "Young Man's Morning" (1850)
• "Poor Bride" (1851)
• "Do not get into your sleigh" (1852)
• "Poverty is no vice" (1853)
• "Do not live as you like" (1854)
• "Hangover at a stranger's feast" (1856) text. The play was first staged on the stage of the theater on January 9, 1856 at the Maly Theater for the benefit performance of Prov Mikhailovich Sadovsky, and then, on January 18, in St. Petersburg on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater for the benefit performance of Vladimirova.
• "Profitable Place" (1856) text The play was first staged on the stage of the theater on September 27, 1863 at the Alexandrinsky Theater for Levkeeva's benefit performance. It was first staged at the Maly Theater on October 14 of the same year for a benefit performance by E. N. Vasilyeva.
• "Festive Sleep Before Dinner" (1857)
• "Did not get along!" (1858)
• "Pupil" (1859)
• "Thunderstorm" (1859)
• "An old friend is better than two new ones" (1860)
• “Your own dogs squabble, don’t pester someone else’s” (1861)
• "The Marriage of Balzaminov" (1861)
• "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk" (1861, 2nd edition 1866)
• "Hard Days" (1863)
• "Sin and trouble does not live on anyone" (1863)
• Voevoda (1864; 2nd edition 1885)
• "Joker" (1864)
• "In a Busy Place" (1865)
• "Abyss" (1866)
• "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" (1866)
• "Tushino" (1866)
• "Vasilisa Melentyeva" (co-authored with S. A. Gedeonov) (1867)
• "Sufficient Simplicity for Every Wise Man" (1868)
• "Hot Heart" (1869)
• "Mad Money" (1870)
• "Forest" (1870)
• "Not everything is Shrovetide for the cat" (1871)
• “There was not a penny, but suddenly an altyn” (1872) text On December 10, 1872, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• "Comedian of the 17th century" (1873)
• "Snow Maiden" (1873) text. In 1881, the premiere of the opera by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov took place on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater
• "Late Love" (1874) text On November 22, 1874, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• Labor Bread (1874) text On November 28, 1874, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• "Wolves and Sheep" (1875)
• "Rich Brides" (1876) text On November 30, 1876, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• “Truth is good, but happiness is better” (1877) text On November 18, 1877, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• "The Marriage of Belugin" (1877), together with Nikolai Solovyov
• The Last Victim (1878)
• "Dowry" (1878) text On November 10, 1878, the first performance of the drama took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• "Good gentleman" (1879)
• "Wild Woman" (1879), together with Nikolai Solovyov
• "Heart is not a stone" (1880)
• "Slaves" (1881)
• "Shines, but does not warm" (1881), together with Nikolai Solovyov text. Premiere November 14, 1881 in St. Petersburg, at the Alexandrinsky Theater, in the benefit of F. A. Burdin.
• "Guilty Without Guilt" (1881-1883)
• "Talents and Admirers" (1882)
• "Handsome Man" (1883)
• "Not of this world" (1885)

Screen versions of works

• 1911 - Vasilisa Melentyeva
• 1911 - In a lively place (film, 1911)
• 1916 - Guilty without guilt
• 1916 - In a busy place (film, 1916, Chardynin)
• 1916 - In a lively place (film, 1916, Sabinsky) (Another name On the big road)
• 1933 - Storm
• 1936 - Dowry
• 1945 - Guilty without guilt
• 1951 - Truth is good, but happiness is better (film-play)
• 1952 - Wolves and sheep (teleplay)
• 1952 - Enough simplicity for every wise man (teleplay)
• 1952 - Snow Maiden (cartoon)
• 1953 - Hot Heart (film-play)
• 1955 - In a lively place (film-play)
• 1955 - Talents and Admirers (film-play)
• 1958 - Depths (TV film, screen version of the performance of the Leningrad Academic Drama Theater named after M.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky V.G. Perov. Portrait of A.N. Ostrovsky (1877) Date of birth: March 31 (April 12) 1823 (18230412) Place of birth ... Wikipedia

Ostrovsky, Alexander Nikolaevich- Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. (1823-86), Russian playwright. Creativity Ostrovsky laid the foundation for the national repertoire of the Russian theater. In comedies and socio-psychological dramas, Ostrovsky brought a gallery ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Ostrovsky, Alexander Nikolaevich, famous dramatic writer. Born March 31, 1823 in Moscow, where his father served in the civil chamber, and then engaged in private advocacy. Ostrovsky lost his mother in childhood and no ... ... Biographical Dictionary

Russian playwright. Born in the family of a lawyer official; mother - comes from the lower clergy. He spent his childhood and early youth in Zamoskvorechye - special ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich- (18231886), playwright. He came to St. Petersburg repeatedly from 1853, was closely connected with the social, literary and cultural life of the capital. Most of Ostrovsky's plays were first published in St. Petersburg in the journals Sovremennik, ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

- (1823 86) Russian playwright, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1863). Creativity Ostrovsky laid the foundation for the national repertoire of the Russian theater. In comedies and socio-psychological dramas, Ostrovsky brought out a gallery of types from those covered by ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1823 1886), playwright. He came to St. Petersburg repeatedly from 1853, was closely connected with the social, literary and cultural life of the capital. Most of O.'s plays were first published in St. Petersburg in the journals Sovremennik and Vremya. In the journal… … St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Dramatic writer, head of the repertoire of the Imperial Moscow Theater and director of the Moscow Theater School. A. N. Ostrovsky was born in Moscow on January 31, 1823. His father, Nikolai Fedorovich, came from a spiritual rank, and according to ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia

- (1823 1886), Russian playwright, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1863). Brother of M. N. Ostrovsky. Creativity Ostrovsky laid the foundation for the national repertoire of the Russian theater. In comedies and socio-psychological dramas, Ostrovsky brought out ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

OSTROVSKY Alexander Nikolaevich- (182386), Russian playwright. Organizer and Prev. About va rus. dramatic writers and opera composers (since 1870). Plays (comedies and dramas): in prose "Family Picture" (1847, post. 1855), "Our people let's get along" (1850, post. 1861), ... ... Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• Dowry. Thunderstorm (CDmp3), Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich, Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich (1823 - 1886) - Russian playwright, whose work laid the foundation for the national repertoire of the Russian theater. In the plays of A. N. Ostrovsky, the color is captured ... Category: Classical domestic literature Series: Russian Classics Publisher: Equilibrium ID, audiobook
• Plays: Ostrovsky A. N., Chekhov A. P., Gorky M., Gorky Maxim, Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich, Chekhov Anton Pavlovich, A. Ostrovsky, A. Chekhov and M. Gorky - brilliant reformers and innovators of the scene, who radically changed theater. This book includes five famous plays by great playwrights - "Thunderstorm", ... Category:

Theater as a serious business
We also started recently
began in a real way with Ostrovsky.

A.A. Grigoriev

Childhood and youth

Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (1823-1886) was born in the old merchant and bureaucratic district - Zamoskvorechye. In Moscow, on Malaya Ordynka, a two-story house is still preserved, in which the future great playwright was born on April 12 (March 31), 1823. Here, in Zamoskvorechye - on Malaya Ordynka, Pyatnitskaya, Zhitnaya streets - he spent his childhood and youth.

The writer's father, Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, was the son of a priest, but after graduating from the theological academy he chose a secular profession - he became a judicial officer. From among the clergy came the mother of the future writer, Lyubov Ivanovna. She died when the boy was 8 years old. After 5 years, my father married a second time, this time to a noblewoman. Successfully advancing in his career, Nikolai Fedorovich received a noble title in 1839, and in 1842 he retired and began to engage in private legal practice. With income from clients - mostly wealthy merchants - he acquired several estates and in 1848, having retired, he moved to the village of Shchelykovo in the Kostroma province and became a landowner.

In 1835, Alexander Nikolayevich entered the 1st Moscow gymnasium, graduating from it in 1840. Even in his gymnasium years, Ostrovsky was attracted by literature and theater. By the will of his father, the young man entered the law faculty of Moscow University, but the Maly Theater, in which the great Russian actors Shchepkin and Mochalov played, attracts him like a magnet. This was not an empty attraction of a rich varmint who sees pleasant entertainment in the theater: for Ostrovsky, the stage became life. These interests forced him to leave the university in the spring of 1843. “From my youth I gave up everything and devoted myself entirely to art,” he later recalled.

His father still hoped that his son would become an official, and appointed him as a scribe to the Moscow conscientious court, which dealt mainly with family property disputes. In 1845, Alexander Nikolaevich transferred to the office of the Moscow Commercial Court as an official on the "verbal table", i.e. accepting oral requests from petitioners.

His father's legal practice, life in Zamoskvorechye and court service, which lasted almost eight years, gave Ostrovsky many plots for his works.

1847–1851 - early period

Ostrovsky began to write in his student years. His literary views were formed under the influence of Belinsky and Gogol: from the very beginning of his literary career, the young man declared himself an adherent of the realistic school. Ostrovsky's first essays and dramatic sketches were written in Gogol's manner.

In 1847, the Moscow City Listok newspaper published two scenes from the comedy The Insolvent Debtor - the first version of the comedy Let's Settle Our Own People - the comedy Picture of Family Happiness and the essay Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident.

In 1849, Ostrovsky finished work on the first big comedy "Our people - let's settle!".

The comedy ridicules the rude and greedy tyrant merchant Samson Silych Bolshov. His tyranny knows no bounds, as long as he feels solid ground under him - wealth. But greed destroys him. Wanting to get richer even more, Bolshov, on the advice of the clever and cunning clerk Podkhalyuzin, transfers all his property to his name and declares himself an insolvent debtor. Podkhalyuzin, having married Bolshov's daughter, appropriates his father-in-law's property and, refusing to pay even a small part of the debts, leaves Bolshov in a debtor's prison. Lipochka, Bolshov's daughter, who became Podkhalyuzin's wife, does not feel any pity for her father either.

In the play "Our People - Let's Settle" the main features of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy have already appeared: the ability to show important all-Russian problems through family conflict, to create vivid and recognizable characters not only of the main, but also of secondary characters. Juicy, lively, folk speech sounds in his plays. And each of them has a difficult, thought-provoking ending. Then nothing found in the first experiments will disappear, but only new features will "grow".

The position of the "unreliable" writer complicated the already difficult living conditions of Ostrovsky. In the summer of 1849, against the will of his father and without a church wedding, he married a simple bourgeois Agafya Ivanovna. The angry father refused his son further financial support. The young family was in dire need. Despite his unsecured position, Ostrovsky in January 1851 refuses to serve and devotes himself entirely to literary activity.

1852–1855 - "Moscow period"

The first plays allowed to be staged were "Do not sit in your sleigh" and "Poverty is not a vice." Their appearance was the beginning of a revolution in all theatrical art. For the first time on stage, the viewer saw a simple everyday life. This also required a new style of acting: the truth of life began to supplant the pompous declamation and the "theatricality" of gestures.

In 1850, Ostrovsky became a member of the so-called "young editorial board" of the Slavophile magazine Moskvityanin. But relations with the editor-in-chief Pogodin are not easy. Despite the enormous work performed, Ostrovsky remained indebted to the magazine all the time. Pogodin paid sparingly.

1855–1860 - pre-reform period

At this time there is a rapprochement between the playwright and the revolutionary-democratic camp. The outlook of Ostrovsky is finally determined. In 1856, he became close to the Sovremennik magazine and became its permanent collaborator. Friendly relations were established between him and I.S. Turgenev and L.N. Tolstoy, who collaborated in Sovremennik.

In 1856, together with other Russian writers, Ostrovsky took part in a well-known literary and ethnographic expedition organized by the Naval Ministry to "describe the life, life and crafts of the population living along the shores of the seas, lakes and rivers of European Russia." Ostrovsky was entrusted with the survey of the upper reaches of the Volga. He visited Tver, Gorodnya, Torzhok, Ostashkov, Rzhev, etc. All observations were used by Ostrovsky in his works.

1860–1886 - post-reform period

In 1862 Ostrovsky visited Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, France and England.

In 1865 he founded an artistic circle in Moscow. Ostrovsky was one of its leaders. The artistic circle has become a school for talented amateurs - future wonderful Russian artists: O.O. Sadovskaya, M.P. Sadovsky, P.A. Strepetova, M.I. Pisarev and many others. In 1870, on the initiative of the playwright, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers was created in Moscow, from 1874 until the end of his life Ostrovsky was its permanent chairman.

Having worked for the Russian stage for almost forty years, Ostrovsky created a whole repertoire - fifty-four plays. "He wrote down the whole Russian life" - from prehistoric, fairy-tale times ("The Snow Maiden"), and the events of the past (the chronicle "Kozma Zakharyich Minin, Sukhoruk") to topical reality. The works of Ostrovsky remain on stage at the end of the 20th century. His dramas often sound so modern that they make those who recognize themselves on stage angry.

In addition, Ostrovsky wrote numerous translations from Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goldoni, etc. His work covers a huge period: from the 40s. - the times of serfdom and until the mid-80s, marked by the rapid development of capitalism and the growth of the labor movement.

In the last decades of his life, Ostrovsky created a kind of artistic monument to the national theater. In 1872, he wrote the poetic comedy "Comedian of the 17th century" about the birth of the first Russian theater at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, father of Peter I. But Ostrovsky's plays about his contemporary theater are much more famous - "Talents and Admirers" (1881) and " Guilty without guilt" (18983). Here he showed how tempting and difficult the life of an actress is.

In a sense, we can say that Ostrovsky loved the theater just as he loved Russia: he did not turn a blind eye to the bad and did not lose sight of the most precious and important.

On June 14, 1886, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky died in his beloved Zavolzhsky estate Shchelykovo, in the dense forests of Kostroma, on the hilly banks of small winding rivers.

In connection with the thirty-fifth anniversary of the dramatic activity of A.N. Ostrovsky Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov wrote:

“You brought a whole library of works of art as a gift to literature, you created your own special world for the stage. You alone completed the building, at the base of which you laid the cornerstones of Fonvizin, Griboedov, Gogol. But only after you, we Russians can proudly say: “U we have our own Russian, national theatre", It, in fairness, should be called: "Ostrovsky's Theatre".

Literature

Based on materials from the Encyclopedia for Children. Literature part I, Avanta +, M., 1999

Ostrovsky's chronological table helps to highlight the main stages of the writer's life. This article presents information about the life and work of Ostrovsky by dates in a convenient form. Information about the biography of A.N. Ostrovsky, a famous Russian playwright, will be of interest to schoolchildren and everyone who is interested in Russian classical literature.

Ostrovsky made a unique contribution to theatrical art. Theatrical work occupies an honorable place in Ostrovsky's life. The periodization of his creative path reflects the dates of the development of the Russian theater associated with the founding of the Artistic Circle. The works of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky in the table are listed in chronological order. You can learn more about the work of the playwright in a special section.

1823 March 31- Born A.N. Ostrovsky in Moscow in the family of the official of the Moscow departments of the Senate Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky and his wife Lyubov Ivanovna.

1831 - Death of mother A.N. Ostrovsky.

1835 - Admission to the third grade of the 1st Moscow gymnasium.

1840 – Admission to the law faculty of Moscow University.

determined to serve in the Moscow conscientious court.

1847 February 14- Reading the play "The Picture of Family Happiness" by S.P. Shevyreva, the first success.

1853 January 14- Premiere on the stage of the Maly Theater of the comedy "Do not get into your sleigh" - the first play by A. N. Ostrovsky, staged at the theater.

1856 – Collaboration with the Sovremennik magazine.

1860 January– The play "Thunderstorm" was first published in No. 1 of the Library for Reading magazine.

1865, March-April– The charter of the Moscow artistic circle was approved (A.N. Ostrovsky, V.F. Odoevsky, N.G. Rubinshtein).

opening of the Artistic circle.

1868 November– In issue 11 of Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine, the comedy “Enough Stupidity is Enough for Every Wise Man” was published.

1870 November– On the initiative of A. N. Ostrovsky, the Assembly of Russian Dramatic Writers was established in Moscow, later transformed into the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers.

1874 - A. N. Ostrovsky was unanimously elected chairman of the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers.

1879 – In No. 5 of “Notes of the Fatherland” the drama “Dowry” was published.

"A table word about Pushkin".

1882 January- The comedy Talents and Admirers was published in No. 1 of Otechestvennye Zapiski.

1882 February- Honoring A. N. Ostrovsky on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of his creative activity.

1886 June 2- Death of A.N. Ostrovsky. He was buried in the cemetery in Nikolo-Berezhki near Shchelykovo.

The most popular materials of July for your class.

“Columbus of Zamoskvorechye”, the author of plays that turned Russian drama into “real” literature, is A. N. Ostrovsky, whose works from the middle of the 19th century became the main ones in the repertoire of the Maly Theater in Moscow. Everything that he wrote was done not for reading, but for staging on stage. The result of 40 years was the original (about 50), co-authored, revised and translated plays.

Sources of inspiration"

All Ostrovsky's works are based on constant observations of the life of various classes, mainly merchants and the local nobility.

The childhood and youth of the playwright were spent in Zamoskvorechye - the old district of Moscow, which was mainly inhabited by the townspeople. Therefore, Ostrovsky was well acquainted with their way of life and the peculiarities of the intra-family, and by the middle of the 19th century, more and more so-called "dealers" appeared here - they would enter the new merchant class.

Very useful was the work in the office of the Moscow where Alexander Nikolayevich entered in 1843. 8 years of observation of numerous lawsuits and quarrels between merchants and relatives made it possible to accumulate valuable material, on the basis of which Ostrovsky's best works will be written.

In the work of the playwright, it is customary to distinguish 4 main periods. Each was marked by a special approach to depicting reality and the appearance of vivid plays.

1847-1851 years. First experiences

Essays written in the spirit of the "natural school" and in accordance with the traditions laid down by Gogol, brought the novice writer the title of "Columbus of Zamoskvorechye". But pretty soon they were replaced by plays that completely supplanted the epic genres.

Ostrovsky's first work is "The Family Picture", read for the first time by the author at the evening at S. Shevyrev's. However, fame brings "Bankrut", later renamed "Our people - let's settle!" The response to the play was immediate. Censorship immediately banned it (it was written in 1849, hit the stage only in 1861), and V. Odoevsky put it on a par with "The Undergrowth", "Woe from Wit" and "The Inspector General". For several years, the work was successfully read in circles and at literary evenings, providing the young author with universal recognition.

1852-1855 years. "Moscow" period

This is the time when Ostrovsky joined the "young editorial board" of the magazine, which preached the ideas of pochvenism and had an interest in the merchant class. Representatives of the social class, not associated with serfdom and not cut off from the people, could become, according to A. Grigoriev, a new force capable of influencing the development of Russia. Only 3 works by Ostrovsky belong to this period, one of which is “Poverty is not a vice”.

The plot is based on the image of relations in the family of the merchant Tortsov. The domineering and despotic father, Gordey, plans to marry off his daughter, who is in love with a poor clerk, for the clever and rich Korshunov. a new generation that will never miss its own. Lyubim manages to convince his tyrant brother - prone to drunkenness, not amassing a fortune, but in everything following moral laws. As a result, the matter is resolved successfully for Lyuba, and the playwright asserts the victory of Russian and traditions over European ones.

1856-1860 years. Rapprochement with Sovremennik

The works of this period: "Profitable place", "Hangover in someone else's feast" and, of course, "Thunderstorm" - were the result of a rethinking of the role of the patriarchal merchants in the life of the country. It no longer attracted the playwright, but more and more acquired the features of tyranny and desperately tried to resist everything new and democratic (the result of the influence of the raznochintsy from Sovremennik). This "dark kingdom" was most clearly shown in the playwright's only tragedy, The Thunderstorm. Here there are young people who do not want to put up with the house-building laws.

Analyzing the works created in the 40-50s, he called A. N. Ostrovsky a truly “folk poet”, which emphasized the scale of the paintings he depicted.

1861-1886 years. Mature creativity

During the 25 post-reform years of his activity, the playwright wrote vivid works, diverse in genre and subject matter. They can be combined into several groups.

1. A comedy about the life of the merchants: “True is good, but happiness is better”, “Not everything is Shrovetide for a cat”.
2. Satire: "Wolves and Sheep", "Mad Money", "Forest", etc.
3. “Pictures of Moscow life” and “prices from the outback” about “little” people: “Hard days”, “An old friend is better than two new ones”, etc.
4. Chronicles on a historical theme: “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”, etc.
5. Psychological drama: "The Last Victim", "Dowry".

The play-tale "The Snow Maiden" stands apart.

The works of recent decades are acquiring tragic and philosophical and psychological features and are distinguished by artistic perfection and a realistic approach to depiction.

Founder of the National Theater

Centuries pass, but the works of Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolayevich still collect full houses on the leading stages of the country, confirming the phrase of I. Goncharov: "... after you, we ... can proudly say: we have our own Russian national theater." “Poor bride” and “Don’t get into your sleigh”, “Balzaminov’s marriage” and “Heart is not a stone”, “There was not a penny, but suddenly Altyn” and “Enough simplicity for every wise man” ... This list is known to every theater-goer The titles of Ostrovsky's plays can be continued for a long time. Thanks to the skill of the playwright, a special world came to life on stage, filled with problems that will always worry humanity.