If The Golovlevs are the highest achievement in the genre of the social psychological novel in Shchedrin's work, then " Modern idyll”, along with The History of a City, can serve as an example of a satirical political novel, the purpose of which this time was to expose not so much the directly administrative principles of monarchism as the mass manifestations of political and social reaction generated by the latter.
"Modern idyll", despite the diversity of content that reflected the fluid political material of our time, and also despite the fact that more than four years have passed between the time of the appearance of the first eleven chapters (1877-1878) and subsequent ones (1882-1883), has a harmonious composition, not yielding in this respect to the Golovlevs, and a single tone of satirical narration.
The composition of the novel is characterized by the presence of chapters that include different genre forms - a fairy tale, a feuilleton, a dramatic scene.
However, this is by no means a departure from main idea and from the main plot, but peculiar and in the highest degree the original development of the main theme: moreover: such, for example, "inserted" episodes as "The Tale of the Zealous Boss" or the dramatic scene "The Unfortunate Squeaker" are focuses of the ideas developed in the novel.
In the composition of "Modern Idyll" the "free attitude to form" characteristic of Shchedrin, the art of creating an organic fusion of contrasting genre elements, which give the narrative multicolor and expose the subject of satire in relief and witty illumination, was especially clearly and naturally manifested.
Liberal critic K. K. Arseniev wrote in Vestnik Evropy with a review of Modern Idyll called The New Shchedrin Collection. In this regard, Shchedrin wrote to A. N. Pypin, an employee of the journal, in a letter dated November 1, 1883: “Modern Idyll is called the Collection, but I don’t understand why. This thing is completely coherent, imbued from beginning to end with one thought, which is carried out by the same "heroes"<...>If you take the point of view of Vestnik Evropy, then Zapiski Pickwick Club', and 'Don Quixote', ' Dead Souls“will have to be called ‘collections’.”
And indeed, with the works listed by Shchedrin, "Modern Idyll" is related primarily to the genre satirical review novel, in which the variety of scenes and persons, widely covering the life of the society of their time, is compositionally cemented into a single picture by the motif of "traveling" characters. At the same time, Shchedrin's novel, unlike its genre predecessors, is entirely immersed directly in the atmosphere of political life.
The heroes of "Modern Idyll" rush about in space, being pushed out of their homes by the raging political reaction, which forced them to flee in panic, spy, inform, exterminate each other, get involved in criminal and political adventures.
In "Modern Idyll" the satirist most vividly realized his plan for such a novel, the "drama" of which goes beyond the domestic framework into the street, unfolds in the public political arena and is resolved in the most diverse, almost unforeseen ways.
The action of "Modern Idyll" begins in a private apartment, from here it is transferred to a police station, a lawyer's office, a merchant's house, gradually captures more and more wide circle persons and phenomena, then it is transferred from the capital to the cities and villages of the province, and finally returns again to the capital. All this motley flow of persons and events in the work is caused by the intrusion of "internal politics" into the fate of people.
The main theme of the novel is the exposure of the political and social reaction, cowardice and renegade behavior of those sections of the liberal intelligentsia, which during the years of reaction had sunk to the limit of ideological, moral and political decline.
The central characters of "Modern Idyll" are two moderate liberals - Glumov and the narrator. Suspected by the authorities that they are "dissolving the revolution" while sitting in apartments, Glumov and the narrator plan a program, the implementation of which would restore their reputation as well-meaning.
Initially following the advice of their friend Alexei Stepanych Molchalin, who recommended them to “moderate their ardor”, “wait a minute”, they stop reasoning, indulge exclusively in physical pleasures and bodily exercises. However, this evidence of reliability is not enough. Once, for the purpose of selfish self-preservation, on the path of good intentions, the heroes of the novel are rapidly falling lower and lower.
Movement along inclined plane towards the reaction turns them into active participants in that very “clownish tragedy”, from which they initially tried to stay away. They make acquaintance with the police officials of the district district, the detective, all sorts of notorious scoundrels, get entangled in a dirty story with imaginary bigamy, in fraud with counterfeit bills, etc.
In a word, they "become participants in crimes in the hope that the general criminal code will protect them from the claims of the criminal-political code." And indeed, having fallen on trial, they come out whitewashed and, as people who have proven their good intentions, are honored to work as employees in the newspaper Verbal Fertilizer, published by the manufacturer Kubyshkin.
Shchedrin never recognized the importance of the liberal intelligentsia as the leading liberating force in the social struggle, moreover, he saw and understood the whole danger of the conciliatory policy of liberalism. But for all his immense and well-founded skepticism, Shchedrin did not abandon the thought of the possibility of singling out from the ranks of the liberal intelligentsia its best elements capable of assisting the liberation movement. This manifested itself in the "Modern Idyll". The epic of the reactionary adventures of two liberal intellectuals ends in the novel with the awakening of a sense of shame in them.
Fear of reaction drove them to undertake the humiliating "feat" of self-preservation. But, while striving for the reputation of politically well-intentioned people, they realized that they were doing precisely meanness and vulgarity, and nothing else, and inwardly remained opposed to the reaction. The discord between immoral behavior and a critical line of thought was finally resolved by "anguish of awakened shame."
Shchedrin considered it possible and suggested such an outcome for a certain part of the cultured and critically thinking, but disgraced liberal intelligentsia. And there is nothing unrealizable in this. When the old socio-political system, which has outlived its historical period, disintegrates, then their most conscious and honest representatives still begin to depart from the ruling classes.
For all that, introducing the motif of awakened shame into The Modern Idyll, Shchedrin was not at all inclined to associate any far-reaching hopes in the sense of social transformations with the factor of shame. “They say Shame cleanses people, and I readily believe it.
But when they tell me that the action of Shame captures far, that Shame educates and conquers, I look around, recall those isolated calls of Shame that, from time to time, broke through among the masses of Shamelessness, and then nevertheless disappeared into eternity .. .and evade answering.
These are last words"Modern idyll". Objectively, they are polemical in relation to all kinds of moralistic concepts of the transformation of society and, in particular, in relation to the moral teaching of Leo Tolstoy, which was becoming popular at that time. And although Shchedrin evaded a definitive answer, his thought regarding the social role of shame is nevertheless clear enough.
Shame helps correct people, cleanse individual representatives of the ruling part of society from the heavy burden of class inheritance, shame serves as a prerequisite for the social liberation struggle, but the effect of shame does not capture far and does not cancel the need for an active mass struggle.
The exposure of liberal renegades in Modern Idyll has grown into a broad satirical picture of political and social backlash. In this regard, Modern Idyll, while being neither Shchedrin's first nor last blow against reaction, retains the significance of a work that is most striking in its force, ruthlessness, and mastery of satirical exposure and denunciation of both government reaction and its pernicious influence on broad strata. Russian society.
The novel, for the most part, was written at a time when autocracy during the reign of Alexander III revealed all its reactionary potentialities. Having dealt with the Narodnaya Volya, it demanded more and more new victims.
Terror, espionage, an epidemic of suspicion raged in the country, and in connection with this, panic spread in society, mass betrayal by the liberal intelligentsia, and servile opportunism. The government's call for assistance in the struggle against the revolution and socialism was answered primarily by various human scum; in the sarcastic expression of the author of "Modern Idyll", the scoundrel has become "the ruler of the thoughts of modernity."
All this found its relief reflection in the satirical mirror of Modern Idyll. Shchedrin caustically ridiculed the authorities, distraught in their reactionary zeal, completing the exposure with the famous "Tale of the Zealous Chief." He branded with contempt the morally corrupted "heroes" of reaction, giving them a generalized portrait in a feuilleton about the scoundrel "The Ruler of Thoughts."
The reality of the era of ferocious government reaction is presented in Modern Idyll as a tragedy of the life of an entire society, a tragedy that stretched out into countless sudden acts, gripped a huge mass of people and, moreover, was complicated by buffoonery.
Heroes of cruel buffoonery - police officials and spies (Ivan Timofeich, Prudentov, Kshepshitsyulsky, a lot of police officers and "pea coats"), bureaucrats-dignitaries (Perekusikhins), conquerors-adventurers (Rededya), capitalists (Paramonov, Vzdoshnikov, Oshmyansky), out of their minds landowning princes (Rukosuy-Poshekhonsky), notorious scoundrels (Gadyuk-Ochishchenny, Balalaykin, and others), "ideally well-intentioned brutes" from among the liberals (Glumov and the narrator) - all these comedians of the old, rotten, bankrupt order are exhibited in the "Modern idylls” to public disgrace and ridicule.
The humor of contempt, malicious and merciless humor - this is the main weapon that the author of "Modern Idyll" unleashed on the types and phenomena that personify the autocratic police state of landlords and capitalists. The desire to reveal the cruel comedy of reality, to tear off the "decent" covers from the enemy and present him in a ridiculous and disgusting form - this is the whole bright, multi-colored poetics of the tragicomic novel, sparkling with wit and merciless denunciations.
Engaged in The Modern Idyll mainly by exposing the "clownish" aspect of social tragedy, Shchedrin touched directly on tragic collisions. tragic side reactionary buffoonery is the suffering and death of the masses of people of honest thought and honest work. Representatives of the advanced Russian intelligentsia, fighters who became victims of police terror ("The trial of the ill-fated scribbler") are experiencing a truly human tragedy.
The bitterest "habitual" tragedy hung over the impoverished, crushed village, robbed by the kulaks and the authorities (a statistical description of the village of Blagoveshchensky in Chapter XXVI), over the village, where "there was not an inch of land that would not hide the word of reproof in its bowels."
Tragedy village life aggravated by the fact that along with material poverty was the spiritual poverty of the peasant masses, their political backwardness, which helped the forces of reaction to use the people as their obedient tool.
The police authorities and the rural bourgeoisie, frightening with the specter of revolution and corrupting with the promise of monetary rewards, incited the peasants to "catch the Sicilists." With bitter irony and harsh truthfulness, Shchedrin notes that there were many who wanted to hunt for "Sicilists". Spring is in full swing, the peasants say, but they have not begun to sow.
“What is it?
“We catch all the Sicilists. The other day, with all the guards, they spent two days in the forest, looking for him - but he, a convict, ran away in front of everyone!
The village in Modern Idyll is a village from the early 1980s. She is still in the grip of age-old prejudices, she is intimidated by the authorities, corrupted by the reaction, her ideas about the revolution are wild and false. At the same time, this village is only two decades separated from the one that will join the mass action during the years of the first Russian revolution. Penetratingly new ideas in the peasant masses and signs of fermentation that began under the influence of their fermentation in the traditional consciousness of the masses are reflected in the "Modern Idyll".
Shchedrin was not in a position to talk about this directly. He limited himself to separate, but rather transparent hints. The word "Sicilists", we read in the novel, "acquired the right of citizenship in the village and was repeated in the most diverse senses." Some - and, of course, these were the majority - identified socialists with traitors and convicts; others, albeit vaguely, following a purely peasant model, began to listen and ponder the meaning of revolutionary propaganda. The representative of the latter is the soldier mentioned in the novel, who came to the village on a visit. He told his fellow villagers that soon "the earth, and water, and air - everything will be state-owned, and the treasury will distribute it to everyone on its own."
"Modern Idyll" gives a vivid picture of satirical skill Shchedrin. The pictorial arsenal of the satirist is demonstrated in "Modern Idyll" more widely and fully than in any other single work of Shchedrin. Not without reason, in connection with the "Modern Idyll", Turgenev wrote to Shchedrin: "The strength of your talent has now reached the point of "agility", as the late Pisemsky expressed it."
The speed of plot development, the organic inclusion in the narrative of a fairy tale, a feuilleton, a dramatic scene, a parody, a pamphlet, transparent allusions to specific political phenomena, polemical arrows directed at political and literary opponents, a variety of Aesopian figures of allegory, interweaving of the real and the fantastic, witty satirical exaggeration persons and events with the use of hyperbole and grotesque, laconism of portrait sketches, masterful dialogues, an abundance of striking satirical formulas, for the first time it was here that the technique of statistical exposure was brilliantly used (the biography of the merchant Paramonov in figures, a statistical description of the village of Blagoveshchensky), etc., etc. etc. - all this is a multi-color combination visual techniques and means of painting creates a complex satirical symphony of "Modern Idyll", forms its original, inimitable poetics.
In "Modern Idyll" Shchedrin masterfully uses the method of calling to his literary predecessors, which he has tried more than once. Here we meet quotations, reminiscences and images from Derzhavin, Krylov, Sukhovo-Kobylin, Hugo.
A significant place in the work was occupied by disputes on literary themes, sparkling with the sharpness of thought, judgments about the novel and tragedy, satirical remarks about the pedantry of Pushkin bibliographers and about theater repertoire, parodies of love story and on pseudo-folk collectors of folklore, etc.
In the novel, such a characteristic creative method of the satirist as a typological connection this work with previous work. Already previously known from a number of other works, the images of Glumov, the narrator, Balalaykin in "Modern Idyll" act as the main actors, and here their image is brought to completion.
"Modern Idyll" refers to those works of Shchedrin, where the satirist's wit breaks through in a stormy stream, where his humor shines with all colors, manifests itself in all gradations.
Playful, sparkling with jokes in scenes depicting Balalaykin's fictitious marriage to the merchant Fainushka, caustic, saturated with poisonous irony on the pages depicting heroes working out the "Charter on Decency", he turns into loud laughter when Shchedrin tells "The Tale of the Zealous Boss", and in a feuilleton about a scoundrel, "The Ruler of Thoughts" is expressed in contemptuous sarcasm.
The humorous element pervades all elements of the plot and poetics of the novel. It even captures the landscape, which in Russian literature is almost the property of Shchedrin alone. It is in "Modern Idyll" that we find remarkable examples of Shchedrin's satirical landscape, unexpectedly and witty bringing together the phenomena of political reality with the phenomena of the natural world.
Here, for example, in the morning: "... as soon as the golden-fingered Aurora splashed the first sheaves of flame in the far east, the local police officer was already fulfilling his duty." Here is the onset of autumn: “The leaves are still firmly attached to the branches of trees and only slightly begin to turn brown; dahlias, stockroses, mignonette, sweet peas - all this has paled slightly under the influence of matinees, but is still in full bloom; and everywhere buzz myriads of bees, who, like officials before the reform, are in a hurry to get the last bribes.
"Modern Idyll" produced strong impression on Turgenev by the flight of "crazy-humorous fantasy". He wrote to Shchedrin in 1882: "...the vis comica that was born to you has never manifested itself with greater brilliance." In turn, Goncharov, describing the impression made by Shchedrin's humor, recalled: "... the reader angrily laughs with the author over some "modern idyll"".
Shchedrin's laughter in Sovremennaya Idyll is laughter that exposes the "heroes" of political and social reaction to shame and arouses the energy of public indignation towards them.
"Modern idyll", despite its fantastic flavor, relies - even in many details - on the facts of reality. On the whole, the novel is a murderous pamphlet on the epoch of reaction. In it, Shchedrin made many caustic attacks on government officials, titled and non-titled ideologues and lackeys of the reaction.
The novel parodies the Code of Laws (“Charter on Decency”) and the court spy-terrorist organization “Sacred Squad” (“Club of Agitated Lazybones”), ridicules the tsarist bureaucracy and the court, the official and official press, exposes the entire police system of the autocracy, etc. d.
Acute political content novel, published in a legal magazine during the years of fierce censorship persecution, obliged the satirist to resort to the complex system of Aesopian conspiracy. According to the skill of Aesopian allegory, next to the "Modern Idyll" only "The History of a City" and "Tales" can be placed.
But if in the "History of a City" satirist rescued primarily historical form narratives, and in "Tales" - folk fiction, then in "Modern Idyll", aimed directly at the political topic of the day. Shedrin needed a more complex system of artistic disguise.
The art of Aesopian allegory is brought to the point of utmost virtuosity in A Modern Idyll and is a high example of the intellectual victory of an advanced artist of the word over the reactionary censorship policy of the autocracy. Let's just touch on some of the most characteristic features allegorical poetics of "Modern Idyll".
First of all, attention is drawn to the low rank of the representatives of the tsarist bureaucracy acting in the novel. These are, firstly, the officials of the metropolitan quarter section and, secondly, the county officials.
But at the same time, representatives of the district administration are clearly acting out of order. The quarterly clerk of the Prudents drafts the "Charter on the decent behavior of the inhabitants in their lives", i.e., composes laws, which in reality was the prerogative of the highest government bureaucracy. Undoubtedly, the ridicule of this latter is the hidden purpose of describing Prudentov's legislative activity.
As Shchedrin himself explained in a letter to A. N. Pypin dated November 1, 1883, the “Statute of Decency” refers to the exposure of the XIV volume of the Code of Laws. Story about future fate figures of the district administration, surviving each other from service with denunciations, transparently alludes to leapfrog in the Ministry of the Interior, which was consistently headed in the 80s. M. T. Loris-Melikov, N. P. Ignatiev, D. A. Tolstoy.
Thus, Shchedrin aimed his "Modern Idyll" in that part of it that concerns the bureaucracy in the highest government spheres, prudently disguising his intentions with the apparently modest task of describing the eccentric searchlights of the block district.
At the same time, as is usually the case with Shchedrin, the described Aesopian device also performed a directly satirical function. The image of a naive chronicler in The History of a City served the satirist not only as a protective mask, but also made it possible to expose the exposed object in all its direct, rude nature. Similarly, Shchedrin took advantage of the naive frankness of the clerk Prudentov to put the Code of Laws to shame. “We keep in mind one circumstance: so that there is as little anxiety as possible for the authorities - we are adjusting to this,” - this is how Prudentov formulates the main idea of the “Charter on Decency” he is compiling.
It should, however, be noted that in the "Modern Idyll" there are representatives of the bureaucracy of high rank, shown without lowering their "nominal value". Such, for example, are "two venerable dignitaries" - Privy Councilors Perekusikhin 1st and Perekusikhin 2nd and Colonel Rededya. The satirist gave them the most devastating characterization, prudently - in order to avoid censorship nit-picking - presenting them as unofficial persons "dismissed from service."
The "Modern Idyll" is characterized by a dense fantastic flavor. The fiction of the novel appears in various functions. It also serves to express the "magic" of reality, which is in the grip of panic and arbitrariness, and humorous painting, and Aesopian allegory.
The fantastic element, coloring the whole narrative in Modern Idyll, forms in separate chapters whole fantastic plots included in overall composition works in the form of fairy tales. In addition to the famous "Tale of the Zealous Chief", there is another tale in the novel, the title of which is not highlighted - "The Tale of a State Councilor" or "The Fruits of Subordinate Debauchery".
Close to the fairy tale genre is the dramatic scene "The Unfortunate Piskar". It is quite obvious that this fabulous fantasy was intended to veil sharply political subjects, dangerous in terms of censorship.
But the fairy-tale form of fantasy is conditioned in Modern Idyll not only by the desire for artistic conspiracy. Fantasy was the means where satirical and allegorical functions found the most harmonious artistic combination. Therefore, the fairy tale form, which has long been outlined in the work of the satirist, acquired in the reactionary years special meaning. Following The Modern Idyll, Shchedrin began to work intensively on a cycle of fairy tales.
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983
satirical novel
satirical novel
Literary encyclopedia. - In 11 tons; M .: publishing house of the Communist Academy, Soviet Encyclopedia, Fiction. Edited by V. M. Friche, A. V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939 .
See what "Satiric novel" is in other dictionaries:
satirical, satirical, satirical. 1. adj. to satire in 1 value; being satire (lit.). satirical literature. satirical novel. 2. Characteristic of satire, mocking, sarcastically ironic. satirical image life.… … Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov
Novel. The history of the term. The problem of the novel. The emergence of the genre From the history of the genre. Conclusions. The novel as a bourgeois epic. The fate of the theory of the novel. The specificity of the form of the novel. The origin of the novel. The novel's conquest of everyday reality... Literary Encyclopedia
NOVEL (French roman, German Roman; English novel / romance; Spanish novela, Italian romanzo), the central genre (see GENRE) of European literature of the New Age (see NEW TIME (in history)), fictional, in difference from the adjacent genre of the story (see ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
NOVEL- (French roman, German Roman, English novel; originally, in late medieval, any work written in Romance and not in Latin), epic work, in which the narrative is focused on the fate of an individual ... ... Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary
novel- (from French roman originally: a work written in one of the Romance (i.e., modern, living) languages, as opposed to written in Latin) epic genre: a large epic work in which life is comprehensively depicted ... ... Dictionary of literary terms
This term has other meanings, see Satyricon. Satyricon (lat. Satiricon, options: Satyricon; Saturae; Satyrae; Satirae; Satirarum libri) work ... Wikipedia
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Covers of some Russian editions of the novel "Oh wonderful new world» "Brave New World" ("Brave New World") (Eng. Brave New World) dystopian, satirical novel English writer Aldous Huxley (1932). A line from ... ... Wikipedia
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The mayors of Glupov: Organchik (Brusty), Pimple (Stuffed Head), Borodavkin, Negodyaev, Interception-Zalikhvatsky, Gloomy-Grumbling - personify autocracy and arbitrariness. This novel uses all the artistic techniques of Shchedrin's satire - satirical fantasy, grotesque, merciless irony and cheerful, triumphant humor. This fantasy is in its essence truthful, realistic, only the external features of images and events are unreal. “They talk about caricature and exaggeration, but you just need to look around for this accusation to fall by itself ...
Who is writing this cartoon? Is it not reality itself? Isn't she at every step accusing herself of exaggeration? - wrote Saltykov-Shchedrin. The busty Organchik, despite all the fantasticness of his appearance (instead of a brain he has a primitive mechanism - an organ), performs actions that are no different from the actions of real-life rulers. At the entrance to the province, he flogged the coachmen, then day and night he wrote "more and more urges." According to his orders, "they seize and catch, flog and flog, describe and sell."
Such management has been tested for centuries, and in order to manage in this way, it was enough to have an “empty vessel” instead of a head. It is not for nothing that the superintendent of a public school answered the question of the Foolovites: “Have there been examples in history of people giving orders, waging wars and concluding treaties, having an empty vessel on their shoulders?” - replies that this is quite possible that a certain ruler "Charles the Innocent ... had on his shoulders, although not empty, but still, as it were, an empty vessel, and waged wars and concluded treatises." In addition to "ruin!" and “I won’t stand it!” The organ didn’t need any other words due to the nature of its activity. “There are people,” writes Shchedrin, “whose entire existence is exhausted by these two romances.”
In the image of Organchik, the features of automatism and callousness of the rulers are sharpened to the limit. The mayor Vasilisk Borodavkin, famous for his “wars for enlightenment”, for the introduction of mustard and Persian chamomile into the life of the Foolovites, also appears as an evil, soulless doll and wages his wild wars with the assistance of tin soldiers. But the actions of Wartkin are by no means more fantastic than the actions of any tyrant ruler. Borodavkin "burned down thirty-three villages and with the help of these measures recovered the arrears of two rubles and a half."
In works preceding The History of a City, Shchedrin wrote that vile pimples spring up on the “physiognomy of society”, testifying to its rottenness, internal illness. It is precisely this personification of the disease of the exploitative system that the mayor Pryshch is. The main feature of the mayor Pimple (aka Stuffed Head) is animality.
Pimple invariably stimulates the appetite of the leader of the nobility - his head, stuffed with truffles, spreads a seductive smell. In the episode where the leader of the nobility eats the head of the mayor, Pimple completely loses his human appearance: “The mayor suddenly jumped up and began to wipe with his paws those parts of his body that the leader had poured with vinegar. Then he twirled in one place and suddenly his whole body crashed to the floor. Even the image of Grim-Burcheev - this symbol of oppression and arbitrariness - has absorbed many specific features of the anti-people rulers of Russia. The images of mayors lack psychological depth.
And this is no coincidence. Gloomy-Grumblings are alien to feelings of grief, joy, doubt. They are not people, but mechanical puppets. They are the exact opposite of living people, suffering and thinking. Shchedrin draws mayors in a sharply sarcastic and grotesque manner, but sometimes he uses both irony and even cheerful humor. Shchedrin loved the oppressed people of Russia with all his heart, but this did not prevent him from condemning their ignorance and humility.
When Shchedrin was accused of mocking the people, he replied: “It seems to me that two concepts should be distinguished in the word “people”: a historical people and a people representing the idea of democracy. I really cannot sympathize with the first, who bears the Wartkins, Burcheevs, etc. on his shoulders. I have always sympathized with the latter, and all my writings are full of this sympathy. In The History of a City, Shchedrin predicted the death of the autocracy. Humiliated, driven to despair, the Foolovites eventually begin to understand the impossibility of their existence under the conditions of the despotic regime of Ugryum-Burcheev.
The writer tangibly conveys the growing anger of the people, the atmosphere preceding the explosion. With a picture of this powerful explosion that shook the city, Shchedrin ends his chronicle. Gloomy-Grumbling disappeared, "as if melted in the air," and "history stopped its course," the story of a gloomy city, its downtrodden and obedient inhabitants, insane rulers. A new period begins in the life of the liberated people.
The true history of mankind is endless, it is like a mountain river, the mighty movement of which was powerless to be stopped by Grim-Burcheev. “The river did not let up. As before, she flowed, breathed, murmured and wriggled; as before, one bank of it was steep, and the other represented a meadow lowland, flooded into a distant space with water in springtime. With a premonition of great historical changes in Foolov is connected bright look Shchedrin for the future, vividly embodied in his book. The chronicle is written in a colorful, very complex language.
It widely uses the high syllable of ancient speech - for example, in the appeal of an archivist-chronicler to the reader - and folk sayings and proverbs, and the heavy, unreadable syllable of stationery papers in a parodic arrangement (the so-called "Certifying Documents" attached to the chronicle), and journalistic style contemporary Shchedrin journalism.
The combination of the tale-like manner of the "chronicler" with the author's transcription of his notes allowed Shchedrin to sometimes give the story a somewhat archaic character. historical evidence, then again bring into it clear echoes of modernity. Shchedrin's satire has always been on the side of those who fought for the triumph of justice and truth. The writer believed in the collapse of the Foolovian system of life on earth, in the victory of the immortal ideas of democracy and progress.
The first significant collaboration between Ilf and Petrov was the novel The Twelve Chairs, published in 1928 in the journal 30 Days. In the same year, the novel was published as a separate book. The novel immediately won the recognition of readers.
The story of the search for Madame Petukhova's jewels hidden in one of the twelve chairs, which in the plot sense did not represent novelty, did not have a self-contained significance in the novel. Its merit lay in the multitude of satirical characteristics, scenes and details brilliant in execution, the material for which was topical life observations.
Ilf and Petrov created a bright, sparkling character, the image of which is still relevant and popular with the reader - the main character of the novel, Ostap Bender, a great schemer, a rogue, a subtle psychologist who plays on the vices of man and the imperfection of society. Ostap is a man who so contradictory combined shamelessness and - charm, arrogance and - subtle humor, cynicism and - unexpected generosity.
Along with the presentation of the process of finding chairs, the authors open before us a panorama of the miserable little world of the inhabitants of that time. These are the “cannibal” Ellochka Shchukina, whose vocabulary was thirty words, and the master of witticisms, Absalom Vladimirovich Iznurenkov, and the “poet” Nikifor Lyapis-Trubetskoy, who sold his third-rate poems about the many-sided Gavrila to various tabloid publications:
And so, in the end, the chair was found, but - alas ... The diamonds managed to turn into a chic house of culture.
At the end of the novel, Kitty Vorobyaninov, overwhelmed by greed, cuts the throat of the great strategist with a razor. The authors, as they themselves write in their memoirs, had a major quarrel over the following issue: should they kill the main character of "12 Chairs" Ostap Bender or leave him alive? The fate of the hero was decided by lot. Two pieces of paper were placed in the sugar bowl, on one of which a skull and two chicken bones were depicted with a trembling hand. The skull came out - and in half an hour the great strategist was gone.
Readers disagreed with this ending. In numerous letters they demanded that Ostap's life be extended. And the authors did not let the hero die.
Both novels by Ilf and Petrov are replete with phrases that later became catchphrases: “I will command the parade!”, “The ice has broken, gentlemen of the jury!”, “The key to the apartment where the money is”, “Money in the morning - chairs in the evening”, “ Saving the drowning is the work of the drowning themselves”, “Foreign countries will help us!”, “A car is not a luxury, but a means of transportation”, “Breathe deeply: you are excited!”, “Saw, Shura, saw!” and etc.
Just like The Twelve Chairs, The Golden Calf is a satirical novel. But this does not fully exhaust its originality. The satire here is merged with humor. In a cheerful, mischievous, mocking narration, the live voice of the authors is directly felt all the time - uniquely witty and restrainedly lyrical.
The one who begins to separate satire from others will be deeply mistaken literary genres and childbirth. We can say that satire is lyrics driven to rage, slaying lyrics.
This is how the novels of Ilf and Petrov appear before us - merciless, but not hopeless, striking and - humane. They not only draw characters with "distorted" moral character, with a flawed nature, but also reminds of what a person can and should be.
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SATIRICAL NOVEL - see Satire and Roman.
Meanings in other dictionaries
Satire
SATIRE - a kind of comic (see Aesthetics), which differs from other types (humor, irony) by the sharpness of the denunciation. S. at its inception was a certain lyrical genre. It was a poem, often significant in volume, the content of which contained a mockery of certain persons or events. S. as a genre originated in Roman literature. The very word "S." comes from la...
Satyricon
"SATIRIKON" is a weekly "thin" magazine of satire and humor. Published in St. Petersburg from 1908 to 1914 (No. 16 - the last one) by M. Kornfeld. The first 8 numbers "S." published under the editorship of A.A. Radakova, after which A.G. Averchenko became the permanent editor. "WITH." - the most popular satirical magazine of its time. He united around him a cadre of talented writers and comic artists. In addition to A.G. Averchenko, pr...
Saturnian verse
SATURN VERSE - initial poetic size among the ancient Romans; its antiquity is indicated by its name from the ancient Italic god Saturn. The rhythmic structure of S.S. has not yet been fully elucidated. It is based on iambic and trocheic (choreic) rhythm, which is close to prose speech. The most common form C.s.:---U --U || -UU U-UCesura is an obligatory element of it...
