Tolstoy kissed my companion Sh. amiably and affectionately (*1*)
How are you, Lev Nikolaevich?
Excellent, excellent ... I am writing to Chertkov that I am so healthy that I have even become stupid,
He joked as he let us into the dining room.
Again, the same feeling of spaciousness and comfort that all of Yasnaya Polyana is full of.
High ceilings and windows on both sides flood the entire room with light. in the middle
long dining table. Old furniture mahogany, somewhat soft,
deep armchairs, couch, mirror.
On the white stucco walls are dark portraits of ancestors in faded
golden frames. Nothing superfluous, luxurious, fashionable. Real noble
a nest made not for show, but for oneself. And the owner has simplicity, friendliness
and the subtle good manners of the old gentleman.
Our arrival took him away from work. He did not immediately go to his room, but sat down immediately
around the table, while tea was being served to us, he asked Sh.
acquaintances, jokingly recalled all sorts of trifles and details of their former frequent
meetings. My companion was once a Tolstoyan, but then he gave himself over entirely to the Zemstvo and
political work. The conversation soon turned to the public topic. It was in
the most dark times Dominion Plehve (*2*), on the eve of the Japanese war.
Yes, yes, it's hard for us. Darkness and violence, - moving shaggy eyebrows,
Tolstoy said,
Difficult, but still Lately there is hope, comes alive
life is moving, - my companion noticed and began to talk about congresses, about
attempts at organizations, about all the trickles that were already breaking through
out. Tolstoy looked inquisitively at the lively face of his interlocutor.
Indeed, something is being done among the people ... Stundists ... And from the military
duties begin to be refused. They have a spirit. But the main thing is
spirit. You don't create a better life until people get better.
And can they become better under the current political forms? - asked
Here, here, this very thing is the most harmful, - Lev spoke passionately.
Nikolaevich. - This is the pursuit of appearance, it only distracts from the main thing, from
internal improvement. Politics is external, but one must think
constantly think about the spirit. We still have so many unresolved moral
problems. For example, children - should they be baptized or not? Or soldier...
Or here's the simplest thing in life. There is a procession. Take off my hat or
I thought he was joking. What is it, we're talking about the constitution, oh
lawlessness, about the general reorganization of life, and then suddenly take off your hat or not!
But Tolstoy's face was serious and thoughtful. He began to tell us how
his neighbor, a peasant, denying ritualism, took all the icons out of the hut, and for this
ended up in Siberia, Lev Nikolaevich worked hard and hard for him, but nothing
could do.
He tells it very well. Brightly, aptly, briefly, in one or two words, drawing
face, picture, everyday detail. In a word, as it should be told
So you find that we are fighting in vain because of politics. If so, why
did you care about this guy? Let him go to hard labor if the form is nothing
Tolstoy immediately became angry, with a restrained, not obvious annoyance of a very well-mannered
person. But still in deep small eyes a blaze flared up.
Well, yes, I tried, because I wanted to. Not for him, but for yourself.
Who knows what I'll do for anyone. If you ask me for sugar, I will give, even
vodka ladies, although I know that it is useless, that it is not important. only soul
I didn't want to annoy him, so I kept quiet. Then during the day I
several times noticed this intolerance of Tolstoy to objections, to
opposite opinion. In this, perhaps, the passion also affected everything.
still undeparted mighty stormy nature, and the self-confidence of a person,
who considers himself the owner absolute truth. Or maybe the atmosphere
which is shrouded great writer.
Most biographers and observers speak of the influence of c. Sophia
Andreevna, who introduces a narrowly practical, earthy note into Tolstoy's life.
I didn't get to see her, she wasn't in Yasnaya Polyana. In general, no one from the family
did not have. There were only a few people, apparently close acquaintances and
regular visitors. And in their attitude to the old artist, in their
conversations and stories there was something so stifling, so lamp-like, that I
for some reason, I remembered childhood, when my father took us to the monastery, to pay homage to
old abbess. The windows in her room were always tightly closed; novices
glided silently with downcast eyes, and the guests, after every word
bowed to the abbess.
The hardest thing was that we clearly saw how this atmosphere isolates
Tolstoy, even from his artistic insight
meaning of life new Russia. Later we had to, with even greater bitterness, in
to be convinced of this when the great writer spoke with his little
denunciations of the entire liberation movement.
This particularly struck my companion, who had not seen
Tolstoy and found him very changed.
Among the regulars was a young and impersonal Muscovite, pink, rich and
very passionate about handling. He spoke respectfully about Dobrolyubov (*3*).
The talented decadent poet had only just managed to surprise Moscow with his
turning into a pilgrimage wanderer, his coarse caftan, his asceticism and
harsh denunciation of someone else's pampering. The young man in innocence told such
dashes, in which the panache and theatricality of the former aesthete clearly affected,
became a preacher. But Tolstoy listened so attentively, so sympathetically,
which was hard and painful.
Yes Yes. I had him too. Came in sandals. Male talk. I'm with him two
He talked for hours and did not suspect who he was, thought a real wanderer. A
he kept telling me how I live and that my life goes against my thoughts.
That's exactly what he said.
Lev Nikolaevich talked about this with a kind of childish reverence,
absolutely not going to his senile, bearded face, which is known
smart people all over the world.
Why did he need to speak like a man? - with a slightly noticeable
my companion asked with a grin.
The pink Muscovite began to diligently, choking, to prove that this is how it should be. But
Tolstoy glanced at both of us with a quick glance and immediately changed the conversation. It is seen
it was that these sharp eyes, penetrating into the very depths of man, read in us
complete denial of both bast shoes, and a staff, and all this accusatory comedy. WITH
confident simplicity excellent interlocutor Lev Nikolaevich changed the subject and
talked about his work. He was then writing a preface to a book
enthusiasm, or with annoyance, Tolstoy proved to us that Shakespeare is not
a particularly talented compiler, deftly able to use other people's
works. He has neither style, nor the ability to create character, nor
true understanding human psychology. It turned out that way, just
misunderstanding people for centuries read the English playwright. We are lazy
objected and were very glad when they finally managed to translate Tolstoy into
another topic.
It turned out that he had another job planned (*5*). I don't remember - started
whether he did it then, or just collected materials. It was a life story
Nicholas I. Or rather, his whole life.
Remember how Catherine the Second looked at her little grandchildren and regretted that
did she not immediately designate Nicholas as king? And then - the end. Sevastopol already
given away Everything is falling down. Nicholas the First dies. He can no longer speak
only clenches his fist, gestures to the young heir, how to
keep Russia.
Again we saw in front of us a mighty artist who wields a magical
gift to rivet and conquer the attention of others. I don't know if it seemed to me or
it really was so, but only when he spoke, as if with
passion, about Dobrolyubov, about non-resistance, about Shakespeare, there was something in his
speeches frozen, unnecessary. Green light flickering in small eyes
dimmed, gone somewhere. The starchestvo spoke more sharply and undoubtedly. was hiding
ageless youth of the spirit.
But when he, in separate strokes, bright pictures, told us about
Nicholas I, now about Herzen, now about the Decembrists - his whole face was transformed.
It was already the second half of the day. Outside the windows vaguely blackened the tops of large and
old trees. A lamp with a wide shade cosily illuminated the dining room, Leo
Nikolayevich climbed onto the soft, comfortable couch and, apparently
memories, and images, spoke in his quiet, flexible voice. And we,
happy that we listen and see that Tolstoy, whom we have always loved
strong, unchanging love, greedily hung on every word.
The Decembrists were especially vital to us. He personally and
family traditions knew them well and, apparently, intended to bring all this
in the story of Nicholas. Somehow I could not believe that all this mass of artistic
images will remain unborn, and some unnecessary, absurd article about
Shakespeare has been absorbing his attention for several months now.
With penetrating simplicity he told us new details. picture
demolition, which was led by a man who himself belonged to the Union
Prosperity, Lev Nikolaevich conveyed with such force that my companion did not
withstood:
Lord, Lev Nikolayevich, give up on Shakespeare. Write soon
Nicholas. After all, this is again something like "War and Peace" will come out. Why
deprive us...
And suddenly a sly and contented smile spread across the old man's face. He
I felt in these words such sincere, such ardent devotion
Tolstoy the artist, Tolstoy the great writer of the Russian land, that even
he, spoiled by praise in all possible languages, was flattered.
Yes, I’ll write, I’ll write, ”he said good-naturedly, looking affectionately at
reproachful face Sh.
Perhaps softened by the artistry of his own stories, he
In the evening he began to graciously talk to us about politics. This time after
After a short argument, he admitted that, of course, he was against the political
he has no freedom.
Well, of course, you can’t drive an adult in a short dress,
need to make a new one. Only this is not the main thing, the main thing is the soul.
We did not argue about this.
Both of us did not want to leave this dining room, this old manor
house, which, like an impregnable fortress, towered above the rest
Russia. No matter how black the night was all around, no matter how great was the enmity against
Tolstoy, but at the threshold of this house she turned out to be powerless.
It was a real kingdom real victory spirit. This calm, sweet,
a simple old man with sharp eyes and the face of Socrates owned the secret of genius,
making him invulnerable.
And no matter how double the impression between Tolstoy the reasoner and Tolstoy the poet,
the strength of his personal charm, simple and irresistible, erased all corners and
fettered one general impression deep and inexpressible.
"Comments"
A. Vergezhsky - pseudonym of Ariadna Vladimirovna Borman, nee Tyrkova
In a letter to his wife, S. A. Tolstoy, Lev Nikolaevich noted this visit: "We have
Yesterday I was Shakhovskaya with a liberal newspaper collaborator" (vol. 84, p. 364).
1* Dmitry Ivanovich Shakhovskoy (1861-1940), zemstvo and political figure.
Acquainted with Tolstoy since 1895.
2* Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Plehve (1846-1904), Minister of the Interior and chief
gendarmes in 1902-1904
3* Alexander Mikhailovich Dobrolyubov (1876-1944?), Russian poet.
He began his literary activity as a symbolist. Joining the sectarians
refused military service, served a prison sentence. After 1905
abandoned literary activity.
4* Ernst Crosby (1846-1906), American writer, since 1894 familiar with
Tolstoy. Tolstoy wrote a preface to his article on Shakespeare, which
grew into a great work "On Shakespeare and Drama" (1903-1904).
5* While working on the chapters about Nicholas I for "Hadji Murad" in 1903, Tolstoy
became interested in the topic "Nicholas I and the Decembrists" and at one time thought of writing
independent work about this theme.
The language of Leo Tolstoy's works
The language of Tolstoy's works? a complex literary phenomenon, the essence of which hardly fits into the framework of ordinary brief definitions virtues artistic speech. Has he experienced a profound evolution, and should he be considered in connection with how Tolstoy grew and changed? artist and thinker.
At the beginning of his creative activity (50s), Tolstoy's style was formed under the influence of the speech style of the most cultured, intelligent part of the noble class. He explains the naturalness of this style in his diary for 1853 as follows: “A writer who describes a certain class of people involuntarily instills the character of the expression of this class into the syllable.”
In the years that have passed since the death of Pushkin, there have been significant changes in artistic Russian prose. The influence of Gogol, Lermontov and Turgenev had a particularly strong effect on her. Tolstoy, with his concentrated interest in psychological analysis, was bound to feel the influence of these writers, especially Gogol and Lermontov. Tolstoy's style is further development Russian literary language, developed in the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol and their successors. He uses the language of art and scientific literature(Russian and European), on the other? colloquial speech noble intelligentsia, and with the third? folk speech, mainly peasant. The language of the novel "War and Peace" is unusually rich and varied.
Here we meet, firstly, the speech style historical documents, memoirs of the early 19th century, which convey the features of the language of the depicted era. Such, for example, is the speech of the rhetor at the entry of Pierre into the Freemasons. It is painted in the official clerical and Church Slavonic coloring characteristic of that era: “Not only with words, but by other means that, perhaps, affect a true seeker of wisdom and virtue more than just verbal explanations.” The main characters of the novel - the nobles speak either French or Russian. But even in their Russian language there are many gallicisms, i.e. their speech is built according to the norms of the syntax of the French language. But at the same time, there is a lot of everyday Russian speech in Tolstoy's language. For example, "threshing floor", "across the wolf." Pushkin's prose no longer satisfies him. In the same 1853, after rereading Pushkin's work " Captain's daughter”, he writes in his diary: “I must confess that now Pushkin’s prose is old not in style, but in the manner of presentation. Now it is true in the new direction that the interest in the details of feeling replaces the interest in the events themselves. Pushkin's stories are naked somehow.
However, in fiction In the 1950s and 1960s, many things did not satisfy Tolstoy. A stern truth seeker, an enemy of all artificiality and falsehood, Tolstoy and in literary work strives, first of all, for the naturalness of language and form. He is annoyed by the sophistication of his contemporary literary style. Even the roundness of the syllable seems to him literary, mannerisms, a violation of the color of the living spoken language. In the 1960s and 1970s, Tolstoy's striving for naturalness and accuracy of language found expression in his novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
These works are recognized as masterpieces of world literature. Everything - both the display of the era, the characteristics of the images, and the language - is done here by the hand of a first-class realist. So let's take a look at the individual figurative means the language of these novels to trace the realistic manner of Tolstoy.
Let us dwell on epithets and comparisons.
Tolstoy believed that "unnecessary epithets and embellishments ... only discourage the reader." Words, from his point of view, should reveal the natural essence of the phenomenon. Hence the concreteness and accuracy of his epithets. Here is a description of mowing in the novel Anna Karenina:
“Cut with a juicy sound and spicy-smelling grass lay in high rows. Mowers huddled in short rows from all sides, rattling with cranberries and sounding either as colliding scythes, or as a whistle of a bar on a honed scythe, or with cheerful shouts, urged each other on.
Tolstoy's comparisons are distinguished by the same accuracy, simplicity and at the same time justification in revealing the psychology of the characters. Comparisons, according to Tolstoy, should make it easier for the reader to understand the author's thoughts, help him, and not surprise him with the effects of unexpected comparisons. Here are some examples of Tolstoy's comparisons. Here is a description of Natasha's smile (in Chapter 16, Volume 4). Natasha, exhausted by the suffering caused by 
the death of Prince Andrei and Petya, looked at Pierre - "... and a face with attentive eyes with difficulty, with an effort, like a rusty door opens, smiled." Anna Karenina defines the meaning of Vronsky's love for her as follows: "I am like a hungry person who was given food." The description of Vronsky’s move to Petersburg is accompanied by the following comparison: “He entered old way of life like putting your feet in old shoes.” The mood of Karenin, who felt relieved after the formal relationship between him and Anna was determined, is compared in Tolstoy with the mood of a man who pulled out a bad tooth. For Kitty (Anna Karenina), her “treatment seemed as ridiculous as the restoration of pieces broken vase". One can see, without resorting to other examples, how precise, simple and natural Tolstoy's comparisons are.
Pondering, reading the text, the students will certainly make out
Tolstoy's desire for naturalness and accuracy in depicting life. And they will conclude that this left a peculiar imprint even on the syntactic structure of his speech. Speaking about the language of the novel "War and Peace", I have already pointed out the cumbersomeness and heaviness of its individual phrases. I will give an example complex sentence Tolstoy with numerous subordinate clauses and with a heap of alliances if, what, to: “What would Sonya do if she didn’t have the joyful consciousness that she had not undressed for three nights in order to be ready, to fulfill exactly all the doctor’s prescriptions, and that she now he doesn’t sleep at night in order not to miss the hours when you need to give pills ... ”. Here is another example of a confusing syntactic phrase from the novel Anna Karenina: At first she (Dolly) thought about the children, about whom, although the princess, and most importantly Kitty (she hoped more for her) promised to look after them, she was still worried ... "
Students, comparing and comparing the speech of the characters, will undoubtedly make the right conclusion regarding the vocabulary of the work, and will be able to find the answer to the question: can their structure, their cumbersomeness and awkwardness be explained by the author's oversight? In no case. Tolstoy is a master artistic word. He carefully edited his manuscripts. Some chapters of the novel "War and Peace" he altered seven times, and the novel "Anna Karenina" - twelve times. At the heart of his syntactic prolixity lies not negligence, but a deliberate, conscious desire for the most accurate expression of his creative ideas. Tolstoy "sculpted" his images, as he sculpts works sculptor. He usually strove not to tell, but to show the mental process in all its integrity and indivisibility. This desire sometimes led him to cumbersome syntactic constructions. On the other hand, the fight against the artificiality of literary book language, with its sophistication and roundness of style, deliberately led Tolstoy along the path of his peculiar syntactic innovation. This heaviness is quite natural, since it reflects the complexity of those mental states as described by Tolstoy.
In the field of language, as in all artistic work, Tolstoy fights for truth and simplicity, for realism, for the merciless exposure of verbal cliches, for an accurate depiction of life in artistic and journalistic word. Such a word is created by Tolstoy, relying on the language of the people.
The artistic style developed by Tolstoy in the 60s and 70s, however, proved to be unstable. As early as the beginning of the 1960s, motifs of the folk peasant language ("Polikushka") persistently began to sound in his works. Even stronger elements of the folk language make themselves felt in the novel "War and Peace". The world of nature, the world of things acquires a special meaning, for which specific words appear: not a dog, but a survivor, a wolf does not have a tail, but a log; he is not young, but profitable. In the novel “War and Peace”, there is a lot of professionalism in the hunting scenes.
Work with the artistic word will undoubtedly be no less interesting, and after analyzing the students, they will come to the conclusion that there is one more feature in the vocabulary of these chapters. Here in the author's speech there are more than in other parts of the novel, folk words associated with village life: across, ripened, give, opposite.
Love for nature, like love for life, is palpable in the description of the landscape. For example, hunting scenes begin with the following description: “There were already winters, morning frosts shackled the ground moistened with autumn rains, the greenery had already shriveled up and bright green separated from the stripes of brown, knocked out by cattle, winter and light yellow spring stubble with red stripes of buckwheat. The peaks and forests, which at the end of August were still green islands between the black fields of winter and stubble, became golden and bright red islands in the middle bright green winter."
We feel the simplicity and accuracy of this description. Only a villager who knows nature very well can draw nature in this way. The fact that it is the villager who is speaking is also evidenced by the vocabulary, which is distinguished by amazing simplicity and accuracy. Folk words give it a specific color (winter, stubble, shriveled). These words are needed not because he is trying to imitate folk speech, but because he does not find other words in the literary, bookish language to accurately designate the life of nature.
The painstaking work associated with finding a description will allow students to enrich their lexicon. For example, let's take the following description: during the day "it was frosty and sharp, but in the evening it began to rejuvenate and warm up." What synonyms can replace the word rejuvenate? Let's try to put it instead: the sky began to frown, clouded over with fog, became cloudy. But such a replacement changes the emotional sound of the landscape, since the word rejuvenate is involuntarily associated in our minds with the word youth and gives the picture a joyful flavor. And why does it say warmer, and not the usual warmer? It got warmer - it means it became very warm, and it got warmer - it became only a little warmer. In addition, this word also creates a certain emotional mood: it is associated with the word thaw, reminiscent of spring.
The feeling of fullness of life, youth is associated with a feature autumn landscape. Despite the rains and fogs, we are struck by the amazing richness and variety of colors that are achieved through the use of vivid epithets. For example, such as: greenery "bright green separated from light yellow stubble"; "red stripes of buckwheat", "black fields"; the forests "became golden and bright red islands in the midst of bright green winters."
Man in the novel becomes a particle of nature. The boundaries are erased. Both hunters and even dogs live the same life. Therefore, in especially tense moments, it is quite natural, not at all funny, such strange appeals to dogs sound: “Karayushka! Father!”, “Darling, mother!”, “Erzynka, sister.” Therefore, from the fullness of feeling, a person expresses his joy ingenuously, directly, like an animal. The words are often repeated in the novel: bright light, bright music, girls with bare thick legs and thin arms, bare shoulders, thanks to which it shows the falsity and false brilliance of the heroes.
Sometimes, instead of commonly used words denoting a particular subject, the writer finds words that seem to remove the outer covers from this subject. So, instead of describing the scenery in the theater, depicting a garden or a forest, trees, the sky, the moon. Tolstoy uses such words, denoting not the appearance of the scenery, but the material from which they are made: “There were even boards in the middle on the stage, painted cardboard depicting trees stood on the sides, a canvas on the boards was stretched behind” Thus, falseness is felt through the lines theatrical performance that both Natasha and Tolstoy see.
In the chapters devoted to describing the places where the battle is to take place, the author uses the names of roads, villages, rivers, villages, the terrain is accurately determined, which gives a businesslike character. “The road through the descents and ascents wound higher and higher ... To the right, along the course of the Kolocha and Moscow rivers, the area was gorge and mountainous ...”. Important landmarks are indicated: “a village with a white church, lying five hundred paces ahead of the mound”, a bridge, the bell tower of the Kolotsky monastery. Some numerical data are also indicated: “five hundred steps”, “six miles”. The description of the Borodino panorama is dominated by metaphors of fire and light, epithets highlighting bright, light colors: “rays of the bright sun”, “light with a golden and pink tint”, “shiny bayonets”. If for the first time, reading the description of the Borodino field, we saw “a birch and spruce forest turning yellow on the horizon”, now we have before us “distant forests ... as if carved from some precious yellow-green stone”, if earlier we saw “fields with bread”, now we have “golden fields shining”.
When reading the scene “On the Raevsky battery”, students can come across frequently repeated words: “affectionate and playful participation”, “tenderly laughed among themselves”, soldiers “with cheerful and affectionate faces"," Cheerful conversation and jokes were heard from all sides "and will conclude that Tolstoy often repeats one word: affectionately, thereby showing simplicity, kindness, true humanity, true greatness of the soul.
Note one feature: often repeated in the scene on the barrow battery and in subsequent chapters keyword- People.
Such words are often emphasized in the novel. author's attitude to phenomena (remember how the epithet naked was repeated in the description of the theater, and the word crowd was repeated in the scene at the Augusta dam).
In the scene on Raevsky's battery, one more key word is repeated more than once - family. The hidden warmth of a single feeling common to all is what makes people a participant in the battle and turns them into a friendly family.
When we see the Borodino panorama for the third time, the keyword people again sounds: not enemies, enemies, soldiers, warriors, opponents, but “people of both sides”. All of them were equally exhausted (in the above passage, many epithets characterize in equal measure the suffering of Russians and French soldiers), in “each soul the question was equally raised: “Why, for whom should I kill and be killed? Kill whoever you want, do whatever you want, and I don't want any more!"
In the second part, the results of the great battle are summed up. The word people is no longer used here, other words are used instead: Russians and French. And this time we feel a sharp line between these "people of both sides" The invasion of the French is opposed by the heroic rebuff of the Russian army. Speaking about the Russian army, the writer repeats the verb to stand: "... in the same way they continued to stand at the end of the battle, as they stood at the beginning of it", the Russian people "stood just as formidably at the end as at the beginning of the battle" It was the moral greatness of the peaceful people gave the Russian strength to resist the invincible enemy.
In the 80s there was a final change in the writer's speech manner. Tolstoy's connection with folk speech was especially clearly manifested in his folk stories. Here is the beginning of the story “How do people live?”: “A shoemaker lived with his wife and children in a peasant’s apartment. He had neither his own house nor land, and he lived with his family by shoemaking. So simply, rejecting complicated sentences, Tolstoy writes his folk stories.
However, he did not abandon the literary style of the 60s and 70s. A number of works last period creativity (“Resurrection”, “Hadji Murad”, “After the Ball”) was written by him in the same manner. Tolstoy again uses his artistic comparisons and epithets, cumbersome syntactic constructions.
What artistic features can be considered typical of Tolstoy's language? Clarity, accuracy and expressiveness of the phrase, obtained as a result of great work, sincerity and truthfulness of tone, richness of vocabulary and concreteness of presentation - these are the main properties and advantages of Tolstoy's style.
Tolstoy knows that the speech of the heroes in its content does not always truthfully characterize them, especially secular society, deceitful and using the word not so much to reveal, but to cover up their true thoughts, feelings and moods. Therefore, the writer, in order to unmask the heroes, to show their true face, widely and skillfully uses gestures, smiles, intonations, involuntary movements of his heroes, which are more difficult to fake. Remarkably in this regard, the scene of the meeting of Vasily Kuragin with the maid of honor Sherer (at the very beginning of the novel) is built. The language of the novel Tolstoy's style is a further development of the Russian literary language developed in the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol and their successors. It feeds, on the one hand, on the speech of the people, mainly peasants, on the other, the language of fiction and scientific literature, and on the third, the colloquial speech of the noble intelligentsia. The author's speech is based on the national Russian literary language. But at the same time, Tolstoy's language contains many everyday Russian words, features of regional dialects, for example: greenery, threshing floors, opposite, winters, across the wolf, etc. Tolstoy's simple folk language comes out clearly in those places where he talks about the people. Talking about guerrilla warfare, Tolstoy writes: people's war rose with all its formidable and majestic strength and ... sank and nailed the French until the entire invasion died.
Living folk speech is especially expressive for heroes from the masses: Tikhon Shcherbaty, Platon Karataev, soldiers. Here Tikhon is talking to Denisov: “But why be angry,” said Tikhon, “well, I didn’t see your French? Here, let it get dark, I’ll give you whatever you want, at least I’ll bring three. Angry, darkens, whatever you like - these are all words and expressions of artless peasant speech. The artlessness of the speech of the heroes is especially noticeable in phrases where the people replace the neuter gender with the feminine. One of the soldiers says at a halt, by the fire: “You will warm your back, but your belly is frozen. That's a miracle." Such turnover folk speech has been preserved in some regions of our country to this day (see the novel by M. A. Sholokhov “Virgin Soil Upturned”).
But Tolstoy's novel - historical novel. Tolstoy needed to accurately convey the color of the literary and colloquial language of the first quarter XIX V. He sought to ensure that the novel sounded an "echo" of the voices of the depicted era. Tolstoy achieved this. Here is how, for example, a member of the Freemasonic lodge says when Pierre joins the Masons: “Not only with words, but by other means that, perhaps, act on a true seeker of wisdom and virtue, perhaps more strongly than verbal explanations only ...” And the heavy syntactic construction of this phrase , and the word tokmo (meaning only) are typical for solemn speeches late XVIII and the beginning of the 19th century. Tolstoy's desire to preserve the flavor of the speech of the early 19th century. also explains the abundance of so-called "historicisms" in the language of the novel, i.e., words that disappeared along with objects and phenomena characteristic of one or another historical era(breguet, i.e., watches, clavichords, etc.).
Researchers draw a number of analogies between the language of Tolstoy's novel and the language of Pushkin's era. So, Tolstoy has a phrase: "Nothing prevented Napoleon from going" these midday provinces. In Pushkin we read: "The lands of noon are magical lands." Tolstoy says: "Nikolai sat down at the clavichord." Pushkin: “He sat down at the clavichord”, etc. Since noble society first quarter of the 19th century was. Widely used fashionable French, then the high society in Tolstoy's novel speaks half-Russian, half-French. “Oh yes, ta hagpe (“ma tant - auntie); "You know, top speg" (my cher is my dear); “To tell you the truth, ephge poiz ...” (antr well - between us). So Tolstoy conveys the features of the salon speech of the noble aristocracy. Tolstoy wrote: "When I write historical, I like to be true to reality to the smallest detail." The speech of the heroes of the novel, like the description historical events, he always true to reality. Tolstoy's realistic manner is also characterized by the figurative means of the language of the novel. Tolstoy's comparisons are distinguished by their simplicity and accuracy. Tolstoy believed that they should make it easier for the reader to understand the author's thoughts, and not surprise with the effects of unexpected comparisons.
Here is a description of Natasha's smile in chapter XVI of the fourth volume of the novel. Natasha, exhausted by the suffering caused by the death of Prince Andrei and Petit, looked at Pierre - “and the face with attentive eyes with difficulty, with effort, like a rusty door opens, smiled ...” Another example: when Bagration appeared, “the guests scattered in different rooms, like shaken rye on a shovel, gathered in one heap.
Tolstoy's epithets are also precise and specific. The desire for accuracy in depicting emotional moods explains the abundance of complex adjectives in the novel. The author defines the look of the characters as interrogative and angry, then as dissatisfied and interrogative, then as mockingly defiant, then as happily calm, etc. A particular difficulty for each writer is the depiction of complex spiritual moods. In these cases, writers usually use the technique homogeneous definitions, selected on the basis of synonymy (for example: tired, suffering, unhappy look). Tolstoy and in this case turns out to be an original artist. To depict a complex psychological experience, he often resorts not to the selection of synonyms, but, on the contrary, to the use of antonyms. So, in the novel, Antonyms are words that have mutually opposite meanings (for example: sick - healthy).
Tolstoy's desire for naturalness and accuracy in depicting life left a peculiar imprint even on the syntactic structure of his speech. Speaking about the language of the novel "War and Peace", we have already pointed out the cumbersomeness and heaviness of its individual phrases. Let's give an example of Tolstoy's complex sentence with numerous subordinate clauses and with conjunctions if, what, to: “What would Sonya do if she did not have the joyful consciousness that she did not undress for three nights in order to be ready to perform exactly all the prescriptions of the doctor, and that she now does not sleep at night in order not to miss the hours at which pills must be given ... ”Tolstoy was a master of the artistic word and carefully finished his manuscripts. At the heart of his syntactic lengths lies a deliberate, conscious desire for the most accurate expression of his creative ideas. Tolstoy "sculpted" his images, as a sculptor sculpts works. He usually strove not to tell, but to show the mental process in all its integrity and indivisibility. This desire sometimes led him to cumbersome syntactic constructions. On the other hand, the struggle against the artificiality of the literary and bookish language, with its sophistication and roundness of style, consciously led Tolstoy along the path of his peculiar syntactic innovation. It can be said, therefore, that Tolstoy's syntax is wholly conditioned by his striving for strict realism.
In the field of language, as in all his artistic work, Tolstoy fights for truth and simplicity, for realism, for the merciless exposure of verbal clichés, current phrases, for an accurate, unadorned depiction of life in artistic and journalistic word.
90-volume collected works"SPEECH IN DEFENSE OF PRIVATE VASILY SHABUNIN". 1866
In June 1866, having learned about the case of Vasily Shabunin, who hit his commander (65th Moscow Infantry Regiment, located not far from Yasnaya Polyana), Tolstoy became so interested in him that he decides to act as a defender of a soldier at a military court.
The Shabunin case was submitted to the commander of the Moscow Military District, Adjutant General Gildenshtubbe, who forwarded the case to the Minister of War Milyutin, who reported Shabunin's act to the tsar. Alexander II ordered the clerk to be judged according to field military laws.
The trial was scheduled for July 16. One of the members of the court was A. M. Stasyulevich, a Caucasian acquaintance of Tolstoy since 1853.
Stasyulevich was then demoted from officer to rank and file because several convicts escaped from the Tiflis prison while on duty; shortly before the incident with Shabunin, he was promoted from soldier to ensign. At the trial, he alone took the side of Tolstoy.
Defending the soldier, Tolstoy in his speech sought to prove the insanity of the defendant and, as a result, the impossibility of applying to him the article of military criminal law, which threatened the death penalty.
But Shabunin was sentenced to death penalty- to be shot.
Tolstoy's speech was at the same time published in the Tula Spravochnoe Leaflet. He petitioned the tsar to pardon Shabunin. But, excited by the verdict of the court, Tolstoy did not indicate in his letter which regiment Shabunin was. Time was lost: the verdict of the court-martial was approved.
On the morning of August 9, Shabunin, accompanied by a priest dressed in a black robe, was led past the entire line and stopped in the middle to hear the verdict. At the beginning of the reading of the sentence, he crossed himself several times; after hearing the verdict, calmly venerated the cross. They tied his hands, blindfolded him, put on a shroud. There was a beat of drums. The twelve shooters assigned in advance approached 15 steps and fired a volley ...
“This incident,” Tolstoy informed his first biographer P.I. Biryukov, “had much more influence on my whole life than all the seemingly more important events life: loss or improvement of fortune, success or failure in literature, even the loss of loved ones.
For the first time "Tolstoy's speech in defense of private Vasily Shabunin, delivered in court in 1866" published by the Russian press in the anniversary year of 1903: the writer turned 75 years old.
In 1908 Tolstoy wrote Memoirs of the Trial of a Soldier (see later in the book).
The trial of Shabunin and his execution struck Tolstoy, as well as the death penalty he had seen earlier in Paris. Tolstoy repeatedly spoke out against the death penalty in his letters and articles, one of which became the program of his journalism - "I can not be silent" (1908). As was his last article, The Real Remedy (1910).
Gracious sovereigns. My election as a member of the society flattered my vanity and sincerely rejoiced me. This flattering election I attribute not so much to mine. weak attempts in literature, how much to the sympathy expressed by this election for the field of literature in which these attempts were made. In the last two years, political and, in particular, incriminating literature, having borrowed the means of art for its purposes and found remarkably intelligent, honest and talented representatives who passionately and decisively answered every question of the minute, every temporary wound in society, seemed to have absorbed all the attention of the public. and deprived fiction all its meaning. The majority of the public began to think that the task of all literature is only to denounce evil, to discuss and correct it, in a word, to develop civil feeling in society. In the past two years, I have read and heard opinions that the times of fables and rhymes have passed irrevocably, that the time is coming when Pushkin will be forgotten and will no longer be re-read, that pure art it is impossible that literature is only an instrument for the civil development of society, etc. True, at that time the voices of Fet, Turgenev, Ostrovsky, drowned out by political noise, were heard, renewed in criticism, alien to us talk about art for art's sake, but society knew that it did, continued to sympathize with one political literature and consider it one - literature. This passion was noble, necessary, and even temporarily justified. In order to have the strength to take those huge strides forward that our society has made recently, it had to be one-sided, it had to be carried away beyond the goal, in order to achieve it, it had to see this goal alone in front of it. And really, was it possible to think about poetry at a time when for the first time a picture of the evil surrounding us was revealed before our eyes and an opportunity was presented to get rid of it. How to think about the beautiful when it hurts! It is not for us, who enjoy the fruits of this passion, to reproach him for it. The unconscious needs of respect for literature that are widespread in society, which have arisen public opinion I will even say that self-government, which our political literature has replaced for us, is the fruit of this noble passion. But no matter how noble and beneficial this one-sided infatuation was, it could not continue, like any other infatuation. The literature of the people is its full, all-round consciousness, in which both folk love to goodness and truth, and the popular contemplation of beauty in a certain era of development. Now that the first irritation of the newly discovered activity has passed, the triumph of success has also passed, when the long-restrained political current that had broken through and threatened to swallow up all literature had subsided and subsided in its course, society realized the one-sidedness of its enthusiasm. Rumors were heard that the dark pictures of evil were tired, that it was useless to describe what we all know, etc. And the society was right. This naively expressed dissatisfaction meant that society now understood, not only from critical articles, but learned from experience, lived through that seemingly simple truth that, no matter how great the significance political literature reflecting the temporary interests of society, no matter how necessary it is for people's development, there is another literature that reflects in itself the eternal, universal interests, the most dear, sincere consciousness of the people, literature accessible to a person of any people and any time, and literature without which not a single people developed, having strength and juiciness.
This recent conviction is doubly joyful for me. It is joyful for me personally, as for a one-sided lover of belles-lettres, which I sincerely acknowledge myself to be, and joyful in general, as a new proof of the strength and maturity of our society and literature. The consciousness that has penetrated into society of the necessity and significance of two separate kinds of literature serves as the best proof that our literature is not at all, as many still think, children's fun transferred from foreign soil, but that it stands on its own solid foundations, responds to the diverse needs of its own. society, has said and still has much to say, and there is a serious consciousness of a serious people.
In our time of maturity of our literature, more than ever one can be proud of the title of a Russian writer, rejoice at the resumption of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature and sincerely thank for the honor of being elected a member of this venerable society.
