home Educational literature Who wrote an ordinary story. Ivan Goncharov is an ordinary story. Psychological breakdown of Aduev Jr.

Who wrote an ordinary story. Ivan Goncharov is an ordinary story. Psychological breakdown of Aduev Jr.

Writers explore life in two ways - mentally, starting with reflections on the phenomena of life, and artistically, the essence of which is the comprehension of the same phenomena not with the mind (or, rather, not only with the mind), but with their entire human essence, or, as they say, intuitively.

Intellectual knowledge of life leads the author to a logical presentation of the material studied by him, artistic - to the expression of the essence of the same phenomena through the system artistic images. The writer-fiction writer, as it were, gives a picture of life, but not just a copy from it, but transformed into a new artistic reality, which is why the phenomena that interested the author and illuminated bright light his genius or talent, appear before us especially visible, and sometimes visible through and through.

It is assumed that a true writer gives us life only in the form of its artistic representation. But in reality there are not so many such "pure" authors, and perhaps they do not exist at all. More often than not, a writer is both an artist and a thinker.

Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov has long been considered one of the most objective Russian writers, that is, a writer in whose works personal sympathies or antipathies are not set as a measure of one or another life values. He gives artistic pictures of life objectively, as if “listening to good and evil with indifference”, leaving the reader to judge and pass judgment on his own, with his own mind.

It is in the novel “An Ordinary Story” that Goncharov, through the mouth of a magazine employee, expresses this idea in its purest form: “... the writer only, firstly, writes efficiently when he is not under the influence of personal passion and predilection. He must survey the dead and bright look life and people in general - otherwise it will express only its own I that no one cares about." And in the article “Better late than never,” Goncharov notes: “... I will first say about myself that I belong to the latter category, that is, I am most fond of (as Belinsky noted about me) “my ability to draw.”

And in his first novel, Goncharov painted a picture of Russian life in a small country estate and in St. Petersburg in the 40s of the 19th century. Of course, Goncharov could not give a complete picture of life in the countryside and St. Petersburg, just as no author can do this, because life is always more diverse than any of its images. Let's see if the depicted picture turned out to be objective, as the author wished, or some side considerations made this picture subjective.

The dramatic content of the novel is that peculiar duel waged by its two main characters: the young man Alexander Aduev and his uncle Pyotr Ivanovich. The duel is exciting, dynamic, in which success falls to the lot of one side or the other. A fight for the right to live life according to your ideals. And the ideals of uncle and nephew are directly opposite.

Young Alexander comes to Petersburg straight from the warm embrace of his mother, dressed from head to toe in the armor of lofty and noble spiritual impulses, comes to the capital not out of idle curiosity, but in order to engage in a decisive battle with everything soulless, prudent, vile. “I was attracted by some irresistible desire, a thirst for noble activity,” exclaims this naive idealist. And he challenged not just anyone, but the whole world of evil. Such a little homegrown donquixote! And after all, he also read and heard all sorts of noble nonsense.

The subtle irony of Goncharov, with which he describes at the beginning of his novel young hero- his departure from home, vows of eternal love to Sonechka and his friend Pospelov, his first timid steps in St. Petersburg - it is this very mocking look of Goncharov on his young hero that makes the image of Aduev Jr. dear to our hearts, but already predetermines the outcome of the nephew's struggle and uncles. True heroes capable of great deeds are not treated with irony by the authors.

And here is the opposite side: a resident of the capital, the owner of a glass and porcelain factory, an official on special assignments, a man of a sober mind and practical sense, thirty-nine-year-old Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev is the second hero of the novel. Goncharov endows him with humor and even sarcasm, but he himself does not treat this creation of his with irony, which makes us assume: here it is, true hero novel, here is the one on whom the author suggests that we take alignment.

These two characters that interested the Gonchars were the brightest types of their time. The ancestor of the first was Vladimir Lensky, the second - Eugene Onegin himself, although in a greatly transformed form. I will note here in brackets that the coldness of Onegin, his experience suffer exactly the same collapse as the experience and significance of the life of Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev.

Still vaguely feeling the integrity of his novel, Goncharov writes: “... in the meeting of the soft, spoiled by laziness and lordship, dreamer-nephew with a practical uncle, there was a hint of a motive that had just begun to play out in the liveliest center - in St. Petersburg. This motive is a faint flicker of consciousness of the need for work, a real, not routine, but a living thing in the fight against the all-Russian stagnation.

Goncharov really wants to take this particular person of “living work” as a model for himself, and not only for himself, but also to offer him to the reader’s attention precisely as a model.

With what brilliance the dialogues between uncle and nephew are written! How calmly, confidently, categorically the uncle breaks his hot, but not armed with a terrible weapon of logic and experience, nephew! And every critical phrase is deadly, irresistible. Irresistible because he speaks the truth. Heavy, sometimes even offensive and merciless, but the truth.

Here he ridicules “material signs ... of immaterial relations” - a ring and a curl presented by Sonechka at parting to her beloved Sashenka leaving for the capital. “And it was you who was carrying a thousand five hundred miles? .. It would be better if you brought another bag of dried raspberries,” advises the uncle and throws symbols of eternal love, priceless for Alexander, through the window. Alexander's uncle's words and his actions seem wild and cold. Can he forget his Sonya? Never!..

Alas, my uncle was right. Very little time has passed, and Alexander falls in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya, falls in love with all the ardor of youth, with passion inherent in his nature, unconsciously, thoughtlessly! .. Sonechka is completely forgotten. Not only will he never remember her, but he will also forget her name. Love for Nadenka will fill Alexander completely! .. There will be no end to his radiant happiness. What business can there be here, about which my uncle keeps talking, what work, when, one might say, he disappears day and night outside the city with the Lyubetskys! Oh, this uncle, he only has business on his mind. Insensitive! .. How his tongue turns to say that Nadenka, his Nadenka, this deity, this perfection, can fool him. "She will cheat! This angel, this personified sincerity…” exclaims young Alexander. “But still a woman, and probably will deceive,” the uncle replies. Oh, this sober, merciless mind and experience. It's hard!.. But it's true: Nadya deceived me. She fell in love with the count, and Alexander gets his resignation. All life immediately turned black. And uncle keeps saying: I warned you! ..

Alexander fails decisively in all respects - in love, in friendship, in impulses for creativity, in work. Everything, absolutely everything that his teachers and books taught, everything turned out to be nonsense and with a slight crunch shattered under the iron tread of sober reason and practical deeds. In the most tense scene of the novel, when Alexander is driven to despair, drunk, sank, his will is atrophied, his interest in life has completely disappeared, the uncle retorts the last babble of his nephew's excuse: “What I demanded from you - I didn’t make it all up.” “Who? - asked Lizaveta Alexandrovna (wife of Pyotr Ivanych - V.R.). - Vek.

This is where the main motivation for the behavior of Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev was revealed. Decree of the century! Century demanded! “Look,” he cries, “at the youth of today: what a fine fellow! How everything boils with mental activity, energy, how deftly and easily they deal with all this nonsense, which in your old language is called anxiety, suffering ... and the devil knows what else!

Ordinary History

Sasha Aduev, the protagonist of the novel, lives in the village in an Oblomov-style carelessly. Mother with a lot of kisses and instructions sends him to St. Petersburg to his uncle - Peter Ivanovich Aduev. With squeamish bewilderment, the uncle reads a letter from a girl (now she is already an old woman), whom she was fond of in her youth: what provincial sentimentality! Another letter from Sasha's mother (the wife of the late brother Pyotr Ivanovich) - she hands over her child to the "dear little girl." In vain did the woman hope that her uncle would settle his nephew in his place and would “cover his mouth with a handkerchief from flies”. Pyotr Ivanovich rents a room for Sasha and gives him his first lessons in urban practicality. He is amused by the naive romanticism of his nephew, his magnificent speeches, his naive poems. Uncle even rejects his nephew's education: all these "philosophies" and "rhetoric" are unsuitable for business. Sashenka is arranged to copy papers in the office. There is also a "literary" job for him (he knows languages!) - translating articles on manure and potato molasses for an economic journal.

Several years pass. A touch of provinciality fell from young Aduev. He dresses fashionably, acquired a metropolitan gloss. He is appreciated in the service. His uncle no longer pastes over utility rooms with his poems and prose, but reads with interest. But then Aduev decided to tell his uncle about his love - the only one in the world. Uncle ridicules him: young romantic feelings, in his opinion, are worth nothing. And of course, this feeling cannot be eternal: someone will “cheat” someone. The uncle himself was also going to get married, not "by calculation" (to marry money), but "with the calculation" - so that his wife would suit him as a person. The main thing is to do the job. And Sashenka, because of love, doesn’t even submit articles to the editor on time.

Time has passed. Nadenka (the one and only) preferred Count Novinsky to Alexander. The count (a young, handsome secular lion) visits every day, rides with a girl on horseback. Sashenka suffers. He curses female infidelity, wants to challenge the count to a duel. With all this, he comes to his uncle. Pyotr Aduev tries to explain to his nephew that Nadenka is not to blame for falling in love with another, that the count is not to blame if he managed to capture the girl's imagination. But Aduev does not listen to his uncle, he seems to him a cynic, heartless. The uncle's young wife, Lizaveta Alexandrovna (ta tante), consoles Alexander. She also has a drama: her husband seems too rational to her, he does not tell her about his love. It’s not enough for a young sensitive woman that he remembers all her desires, he is ready to provide the contents of his wallet to satisfy her whims - and after all, money means a lot to Peter Aduev.

Sasha Aduev manages to be disappointed in friendship: why didn’t a friend of his youth pour tears on his chest, but only invited him to dinner and began to ask about business? He is also disappointed in magazines that are not able to evaluate his literary work (very grandiloquent and abstract arguments from life). The uncle welcomes the renunciation of literary works (Alexander has no talent) and forces his nephew to burn all his sublime writings. Aunt Lizaveta takes a kind of patronage over Sashenka. Taking care of Alexander, ma tante (aunt), as it were, makes up for that share of sentimentality that her soul seeks.

The uncle gives his nephew an important assignment: to "fall in love" with the widow Yulia Tafaeva. This is necessary because the uncle's partner in the porcelain factory, the amorous and smart Surkov, spends too much money on this widow. Seeing that his place is taken, Surkov will not waste his money. The assignment was carried out with brilliance: Sashenka carried away the sentimental nervous widow, and he himself was carried away. They are so similar! Julia also does not imagine "simple quiet love", it is absolutely necessary for her to "fall at her feet" and swear "with all the powers of the soul." At first, Alexander is so inspired by the relationship of souls and the beauty of Julia that he is ready to marry. However, the widow is too intrusive, too submissive in her feelings - and young Aduev begins to be weary of this relationship. He doesn’t even know how to get rid of the widow, but his uncle saves him after talking with Tafaeva.

Disillusioned, Alexander falls into apathy. He is not interested in promotion, work in the editorial office. He dresses casually, often spending whole days on the couch. He is entertained only by summer fishing. While sitting with a fishing rod, he meets a poor girl Lisa - and is already ready to seduce her, without burdening himself with the obligations of marriage.

Lisa's father gives the younger Aduev a turn from the gate. Indifference to everything overcomes Alexander. He is unable to follow in his uncle's footsteps and find himself in society and in business (as they would say now - "in business"). Enough money for a modest life? And enough! Uncle tries to distract him and in response receives accusations that the younger Aduev, through the fault of Aduev Sr., has grown old in soul before he has gained the necessary experience for this.

Pyotr Aduev received his “reward” for his diligent service to the cause (and for playing cards every night) - he has a backache. Alexander Aduev’s lower back certainly won’t hurt! That's what my uncle thinks. Alexander does not see joy in the "case". Therefore, he needs to go to the village. The nephew heeded the advice and departed. My aunt cried all day.

In the village, Alexander first rests, then gets bored, then returns to journal (economic) work. He is going to return to Petersburg, but does not know how to announce this to his mother. The old woman relieves him of these troubles - she dies.

In the epilogue, the reader encounters Aunt Lizaveta's unexpected illness - she is struck by a deep indifference to life. This gave rise to the "methodical and dryness" of her husband's attitude towards her. Pyotr Ivanovich would be happy to correct this (he resigns and sells the plant!), but his wife's illness has gone too far, she does not want victims - nothing can revive her. Uncle is going to take her to Italy - his wife's well-being has become the highest value for him.

But Alexander triumphs - he marries a rich (very rich!) young girl (does it matter what she feels!), He is doing great in the service and in magazines. He is finally happy with himself. The only bad thing is that the lower back began to ache a little ...

Year of writing:

1847

Reading time:

Description of the work:

The debut novel An Ordinary Story was written by Ivan Goncharov in 1847. The novel was published in the same year by the Sovremennik magazine. Some consider the novel An Ordinary Story to be part of an informal trilogy, in which the novels "Oblomov" and later appeared.

Goncharov wrote the novel An Ordinary Story quite quickly, unlike Oblomov and The Cliff, which were characterized by Goncharov's slowness and doubts.

Read below summary novel An Ordinary Story.

This summer morning in the village of Grachi began unusually: at dawn, all the inhabitants of the house of the poor landowner Anna Pavlovna Adueva were already on their feet. Only the culprit of this fuss, the son of Adueva, Alexander, slept, "as a twenty-year-old youth should sleep, with a heroic dream." The turmoil reigned in Grachi because Alexander was going to St. Petersburg to serve: the knowledge he received at the university, according to the young man, must be applied in practice serving the Fatherland.

The grief of Anna Pavlovna, parting with her only son, is akin to the sadness of the "first minister in the economy" of the landowner Agra-fena - together with Alexander, his valet Yevsey, Agrafena's cordial friend, is sent to Petersburg - how many pleasant evenings this tender couple spent playing cards!. Alexander's beloved Sonechka also suffers - the first impulses of his exalted soul were dedicated to her. Best friend Adueva, Pospelov, bursts into Grachi at the last minute to finally hug the one with whom they spent the best hours of university life in conversations about honor and dignity, about serving the Fatherland and the charms of love ...

Yes, and Alexander himself is sorry to part with his usual way of life. If lofty goals and the feeling of his destination did not push him on a long journey, he, of course, would have remained in Grachi, with his infinitely loving mother and sister, the old maid Maria Gorbatova, among hospitable and hospitable neighbors, next to his first love. But ambitious dreams drive the young man to the capital, closer to glory.

In St. Petersburg, Alexander immediately goes to his relative, Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev, who at one time, like Alexander, "was sent to Petersburg by his elder brother, Alexander's father, at the age of twenty, and lived there without a break for seventeen years." Not maintaining contact with his widow and son, who remained after the death of his brother in Grachi, Pyotr Ivanovich was greatly surprised and annoyed by the appearance of an enthusiastic young man who expects care, attention and, most importantly, the separation of his increased sensitivity from his uncle. From the very first minutes of their acquaintance, Pyotr Ivanovich has to almost forcefully restrain Alexander from outpourings of feelings with an attempt to embrace a relative. Together with Alexander, a letter arrives from Anna Pavlovna, from which Pyotr Ivanovich learns that great hopes are placed on him: not only by an almost forgotten daughter-in-law, who hopes that Pyotr Ivanovich will sleep with Alexander in the same room and cover the young man's mouth from flies. The letter contains many requests from neighbors, which Pyotr Ivanovich has forgotten to think about for almost two decades now. One of these letters was written by Marya Gorbatova, Anna Pavlovna's sister, who remembered for the rest of her life the day when the young Pyotr Ivanovich, walking with her around the countryside, climbed knee-deep into the lake and plucked a yellow flower for her memory ...

From the very first meeting, Pyotr Ivanovich, a rather dry and businesslike man, begins to educate his enthusiastic nephew: he rents an apartment for Alexander in the same house where he lives himself, advises where and how to eat, with whom to communicate. Later, he finds a very specific case for him: service and - for the soul! - translations of articles devoted to the problems of agriculture. Ridiculing, sometimes quite cruelly, Alexander's addiction to everything "unearthly", sublime, Pyotr Ivanovich is gradually trying to destroy the fictional world in which his romantic nephew lives. So two years pass.

After this time, we meet Alexander already partly accustomed to the complexities of St. Petersburg life. And - without memory in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya. During this time, Alexander managed to advance in the service, and achieved some success in translations. Now he has become a rather important person in the journal: “he was engaged in selection, translation, and correction of other people's articles, he himself wrote various theoretical views on agriculture". He continued to write both poetry and prose. But falling in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya seems to close the whole world in front of Alexander Aduev - now he lives from meeting to meeting, drugged by that "sweet bliss at which Peter Ivanovich was angry."

She is in love with Alexander and Nadenka, but, perhaps, only with that “little love in anticipation of a big one,” which Alexander himself experienced for Sophia, who is now forgotten by him. Alexander's happiness is fragile - Count Novinsky, the neighbor of the Lyubetskys in the country, gets on the way to eternal bliss.

Pyotr Ivanovich is unable to heal Alexander from raging passions: Aduev Jr. is ready to challenge the count to a duel, to take revenge on an ungrateful girl who is unable to appreciate his high feelings, he sobs and burns with anger ... To help the distraught young man is the wife of Pyotr Ivanovich, Lizaveta Alexandrovna ; she comes to Alexander when Pyotr Ivanovich turns out to be powerless, and we don’t know exactly what, with what words, with what participation, the young woman succeeds in what her smart, reasonable husband did not succeed. “An hour later he (Alexander) came out thoughtful, but with a smile, and fell asleep for the first time calmly after many sleepless nights.”

Another year has passed since that memorable night. From the gloomy despair that Lizaveta Alexandrovna managed to melt, Aduev Jr. moved on to despondency and indifference. “He somehow liked to play the role of the sufferer. He was quiet, important, foggy, like a man who, in his words, withstood the blow of fate ... ”And the blow was not slow to repeat: an unexpected meeting with an old friend Pospelov on Nevsky Prospekt, a meeting, all the more accidental that Alexander did not even know about the move his soul mate to the capital, - brings confusion into the already disturbed heart of Aduev Jr. The friend turns out to be completely different from what he remembers from his years at the university: he is strikingly similar to Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev - he does not appreciate the wounds of the heart experienced by Alexander, he talks about a career, about money, he welcomes an old friend in his house, but special signs of attention does not show to him.

It turns out to be almost impossible to heal the sensitive Alexander from this blow - and who knows what our hero would have reached this time if uncle had not applied the “extreme measure” to him! .. Arguing with Alexander about the bonds of love and friendship, Pyotr Ivanovich cruelly reproaches Alexander in that he closed himself only in own feelings not knowing how to appreciate the one who is faithful to him. He does not consider his uncle and aunt his friends, he has not written to his mother for a long time, living only thoughts about her only son. This "medicine" turns out to be effective - Alexander again turns to literary creativity. This time he writes a story and reads it to Pyotr Ivanovich and Lizaveta Alexandrovna. Aduev Sr. invites Alexander to send the story to the magazine in order to find out the true value of his nephew's work. Pyotr Ivanovich does this under his own name, believing that this will be a fairer trial and better for the fate of the work. The answer was not slow to come - he puts the last point in the hopes of the ambitious Aduev Jr. ...

And just at that time, Pyotr Ivanovich needed the service of a nephew: his factory companion Surkov suddenly falls in love with the young widow of a former friend of Pyotr Ivanovich, Yulia Pavlovna Tafaeva, and completely abandons things. Above all else, appreciating the cause, Pyotr Ivanovich asks Alexander to “fall in love with himself” Tafaeva, ousting Surkov from her home and heart. As a reward, Peter Ivanovich offers Alexander two vases that Aduev Jr. liked so much.

The case, however, takes an unexpected turn: Alexander falls in love with a young widow and evokes a reciprocal feeling in her. Moreover, the feeling is so strong, so romantic and sublime that the “culprit” himself is unable to withstand the impulses of passion and jealousy that Tafaeva brings down on him. Brought up on love stories, married too early to a rich and unloved man, Yulia Pavlovna, having met Alexander, seems to be throwing herself into a whirlpool: everything that was read and dreamed about is now falling on her chosen one. And Alexander does not stand the test ...

After Pyotr Ivanovich succeeded in bringing Tafaev to his senses through arguments unknown to us, another three months passed in which Alexander's life after the shock he experienced is unknown to us. We meet him again when he, disappointed in everything that he lived before, "plays checkers with some eccentrics or fishes." His apathy is deep and inescapable, nothing seems to be able to bring Aduev Jr. out of dull indifference. Alexander no longer believes in love or friendship. He begins to go to Kostikov, about whom Za-ezzhalov, a neighbor in Grachi, once wrote in a letter to Pyotr Ivanovich, wanting to introduce Aduev Sr. to his old friend. This man turned out to be most welcome for Alexander: he young man"Couldn't arouse spiritual unrest."

And one day on the shore, where they were fishing, unexpected spectators appeared - an old man and a pretty young girl. They appeared more and more often. Lisa (that was the name of the girl) began to try to captivate the yearning Alexander with various female tricks. In part, the girl succeeds, but the offended father comes to the meeting in the gazebo instead of her. After explaining with him, Alexander has no choice but to change the place of fishing. However, he does not remember Lisa for long ...

Still wanting to awaken Alexander from the sleep of the soul, the aunt asks him one day to accompany her to a concert: "some artist, a European celebrity, has arrived." The shock experienced by Alexander from meeting with beautiful music strengthens the decision that had matured even earlier to give up everything and return to his mother, in Grachi. Alexander Fedorovich Aduev leaves the capital along the same road that he entered St. Petersburg several years ago, intending to conquer it with his talents and high appointment ...

And in the village, life seemed to have stopped its run: the same hospitable neighbors, only older, the same infinitely loving mother, Anna Pavlovna; she just got married without waiting for her Sashenka, Sofya, but her aunt, Marya Gorbatova, still remembers the yellow flower. Shocked by the changes that have taken place with her son, Anna Pavlovna asks Yevsey for a long time how Alexander lived in St. Petersburg, and comes to the conclusion that life in the capital itself is so unhealthy that it aged her son and dulled his feelings. Days pass after days, Anna Pavlovna still hopes that Alexander's hair will grow again and his eyes will shine, and he thinks about how to return to St. Petersburg, where so much has been experienced and irretrievably lost.

The death of his mother relieves Alexander of the torment of conscience, which does not allow Anna Pavlovna to admit that he again planned to escape from the village, and, having written to Pyotr Ivanovich, Alexander Aduev again goes to Petersburg ...

Four years pass after Alexander's re-arrival in the capital. Many changes have taken place with the main characters of the novel. Lizaveta Alexandrovna was tired of fighting her husband's coldness and turned into a calm, reasonable woman, devoid of any aspirations and desires. Pyotr Ivanovich, upset by the change in his wife's character and suspecting her of a dangerous illness, is ready to give up his career as a court adviser and resign in order to take Lizaveta Alexandrovna away from St. Petersburg at least for a while. adviser, good state maintenance, extraneous labors ”earns a lot of money and is also preparing to marry, taking three hundred thousand and five hundred souls for the bride ...

On this we part with the heroes of the novel. What an ordinary story indeed!

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Please note that the summary of the novel An Ordinary Story does not reflect the full picture of the events and characterization of the characters. We recommend you to read full version novel.

The novel, first published in Sovremennik in 1847, is autobiographical: Ivan Goncharov is easily recognizable in Sasha Aduev at a time when he devoted all his free time from service to writing poetry and prose. “I then drowned the stoves with piles of scribbled paper,” the writer recalled. "An Ordinary Story" is the first work with which Goncharov decided to go public. In the poems attributed to Sasha, literary critics recognize the author's original poems (remaining in drafts). In Sasha's poems, the "common places" of romanticism are sung: both melancholy and joy are causeless, have nothing to do with reality, "swoop in like a sudden cloud", etc., etc.

Literary direction

Goncharov is a bright representative of that literary generation which, in the words of the contemporary researcher V.G. realism was in the 1840s. something like self-rehabilitation, calculation with a romantic past.

Genre

An Ordinary Story is a typical upbringing novel, depicting a fundamental change in the outlook and character of the protagonist - a typical young man of his generation - under the influence of changes in society and everyday ups and downs.

Issues

The problem of the inevitability of changes in a person under the influence of changes in society is the main one in the novel, but the attitude towards it is by no means unambiguous: the title itself contains a share of bitter irony, regret for the naive, but pure ideals of youth. And hence the second important problem, which consists in the fact that an individual, perfectly adapted socially, is by no means capable of guaranteeing simple universal human values ( physical health, moral satisfaction, family happiness) neither to himself nor to his loved ones.

Main characters

Aduev Jr. (Alexander) is a beautiful-hearted young man with whom, in the course of the novel, an “ordinary story” of maturation and hardening takes place.

Aduev Sr. (Pyotr Ivanovich), Alexander's uncle, is a "man of action."

Lizaveta Alexandrovna is the young wife of Pyotr Ivanovich, she loves and respects her husband, but sincerely sympathizes with her nephew.

Style, plot and composition

Goncharova's novel is an exceptional case of stylistic maturity, the true mastery of a debut work. The irony that permeates the author's presentation is subtle, sometimes elusive and manifests itself in hindsight, when the simple but elegant composition of the novel makes the reader return to some plot conflicts. Like a conductor, the author controls the tempo and rhythm of reading, forcing you to read a particular phrase, or even go back.

At the beginning of the novel, Sasha, having completed the course of science, lives in his village. His mother and servant pray for him, his neighbor Sophia is in love with him, his best friend Pospelov writes long letters and receives the same answers. Sasha is firmly convinced that the capital is looking forward to him, and there is a brilliant career in it.

In St. Petersburg, Sasha lives in an apartment next to his uncle, forgets Sonechka and falls in love with Nadenka, to whom he dedicates romantic poems. Nadia, soon forgetting her vows, is carried away by a more adult and interesting person. So life teaches Sasha the first lesson, which is not as easy to brush aside as from failures in poetry, in the service. However, Alexander's "negative" love experience was waiting in the wings and was in demand when he himself had the opportunity to recapture the young widow Yulia Tafaeva from her uncle's companion in love with her. Subconsciously, Alexander longed for "revenge": Yulia, who was soon abandoned by him, was to suffer instead of Nadia.

And now, when Sasha is gradually beginning to understand life, she is disgusted with him. Work - even in the service, even in literature - requires labor, and not just "inspiration". And love is work, and it has its own laws, everyday life, trials. Sasha confesses to Lisa: "I have experienced all the emptiness and all the insignificance of life - and I deeply despise her."

And here, in the midst of Sasha's "suffering", a real sufferer appears: an uncle enters, suffering unbearably from pain in the lower back. And his ruthless nephew also blames him for the fact that his life did not work out either. The reader already has a second reason to regret Aduev Sr. - in the form of a suspicion that he did not work out not only with his lower back, but also with his wife. But, it would seem, he achieved success: he will soon receive the post of director of the office, the title of a real state councilor; he is a wealthy capitalist, a "breeder", while Aduev Jr. is at the very bottom of the worldly abyss. 8 years have passed since his arrival in the capital. 28-year-old Alexander returns to the village in disgrace. “It was worth coming! He shamed the Aduev family!” - Pyotr Ivanovich concludes their dispute.

Having lived in the village for a year and a half and having buried his mother, Sasha writes smart, affectionate letters to his uncle and aunt, informing them of his desire to return to the capital and asking for friendship, advice and patronage. These letters end the dispute, and the very plot of the novel. That seems to be the whole “ordinary story”: the uncle turned out to be right, the nephew took up his mind ... However, the epilogue of the novel turns out to be unexpected.

... 4 years after Alexander's second arrival in St. Petersburg, he reappears, 34-year-old, plump, bald, but with dignity wearing "his cross" - an order around his neck. In the posture of his uncle, who has already “celebrated his 50th birthday”, dignity and self-confidence have diminished: his wife Liza is ill, and perhaps dangerous. The husband tells her that he decided to quit the service, sells the factory and takes her to Italy to dedicate "the rest of his life" to her.

The nephew comes to his uncle with good news: he has looked after himself a young and rich bride, and her father has already given him his consent: “Go, he says, only in the footsteps of your uncle!”

“Do you remember what letter you wrote me from the village? Lisa tells him. - There you understood, explained life to yourself ... "And the reader involuntarily has to go back: "Not to be involved in suffering means not to be involved in the fullness of life." Why did Alexander consciously reject the found correspondence between life and his own character? What made him cynically prefer a career for the sake of a career and marriage for the sake of wealth and without any interest in the feelings of not only a rich, but a young and, apparently, beautiful bride, who, like Liza, “needs a little more than a healthy meaning! ”?.. There is no space left in the epilogue to answer all these questions, and the reader must simply believe in such a degeneration of the romantic poet into a boring cynic, and must guess the reasons for himself.

The grief of Anna Pavlovna, parting with her only son, is akin to the sadness of the "first minister in the economy" of the landowner Agra-fena - together with Alexander, his valet Yevsey, Agrafena's cordial friend, is sent to Petersburg - how many pleasant evenings this tender couple spent playing cards!. Alexander's beloved Sonechka also suffers - the first impulses of his exalted soul were dedicated to her. Aduev's best friend, Pospelov, bursts into Grachi at the last minute to finally hug the one with whom they spent the best hours of university life in conversations about honor and dignity, about serving the Fatherland and the delights of love ...

Yes, and Alexander himself is sorry to part with his usual way of life. If lofty goals and a sense of his destination had not pushed him on a long journey, he would, of course, have remained in Grachi, with his mother and sister, who loved him infinitely, the old maid Maria Gorbatova, among hospitable and hospitable neighbors, next to his first love. But ambitious dreams drive the young man to the capital, closer to glory.

In St. Petersburg, Alexander immediately goes to his relative, Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev, who at one time, like Alexander, "was sent to Petersburg by his elder brother, Alexander's father, at the age of twenty, and lived there without a break for seventeen years." Not maintaining contact with his widow and son, who remained after the death of his brother in Grachi, Pyotr Ivanovich was greatly surprised and annoyed by the appearance of an enthusiastic young man who expects care, attention and, most importantly, the separation of his increased sensitivity from his uncle. From the very first minutes of their acquaintance, Pyotr Ivanovich has to almost forcefully restrain Alexander from outpourings of feelings with an attempt to embrace a relative. Together with Alexander, a letter arrives from Anna Pavlovna, from which Pyotr Ivanovich learns that great hopes are placed on him: not only by an almost forgotten daughter-in-law, who hopes that Pyotr Ivanovich will sleep with Alexander in the same room and cover the young man's mouth from flies. The letter contains many requests from neighbors, which Pyotr Ivanovich has forgotten to think about for almost two decades now. One of these letters was written by Marya Gorbatova, Anna Pavlovna's sister, who remembered for the rest of her life the day when the young Pyotr Ivanovich, walking with her through the countryside, climbed knee-deep into the lake and plucked a yellow flower for her memory...

After this time, we meet Alexander already partly accustomed to the complexities of St. Petersburg life. And - without memory in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya. During this time, Alexander managed to advance in the service, and achieved some success in translations. Now he has become quite an important person in the journal: "he was engaged in the selection, and translation, and correction of other people's articles, he himself wrote various theoretical views on agriculture." He continued to write both poetry and prose. But falling in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya seems to close the whole world in front of Alexander Aduev - now he lives from meeting to meeting, drugged by that "sweet bliss at which Peter Ivanovich was angry."

Pyotr Ivanovich is unable to heal Alexander from raging passions: Aduev Jr. is ready to challenge the count to a duel, to take revenge on an ungrateful girl who is not able to appreciate his high feelings, he sobs and burns with anger ... The wife of Pyotr Ivanovich comes to the aid of the distraught young man with grief, Lizaveta Alexandrovna; she comes to Alexander when Pyotr Ivanovich turns out to be powerless, and we don’t know exactly what, with what words, with what participation, the young woman succeeds in what her smart, reasonable husband did not succeed. “An hour later he (Alexander) came out thoughtful, but with a smile, and fell asleep for the first time calmly after many sleepless nights.”

brings confusion into the already disturbed heart of Aduev Jr. The friend turns out to be completely different from what he remembers from his years at the university: he is strikingly similar to Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev - he does not appreciate the wounds of the heart experienced by Alexander, he talks about a career, about money, he welcomes an old friend in his house, but special signs of attention does not show to him.

It turns out to be almost impossible to heal the sensitive Alexander from this blow - and who knows what our hero would have reached this time if uncle had not applied the “extreme measure” to him! .. Arguing with Alexander about the bonds of love and friendship, Pyotr Ivanovich cruelly reproaches Alexander in the fact that he closed himself only in his own feelings, not knowing how to appreciate the one who is faithful to him. He does not consider his uncle and aunt his friends, he has not written to his mother for a long time, living only thoughts about her only son. This "medicine" turns out to be effective - Alexander again turns to literary creativity. This time he writes a story and reads it to Pyotr Ivanovich and Lizaveta Alexandrovna. Aduev Sr. invites Alexander to send the story to the magazine in order to find out the true value of his nephew's work. Pyotr Ivanovich does this under his own name, believing that this will be a fairer trial and better for the fate of the work. The answer did not take long to appear - it puts the last point in the hopes of the ambitious Aduev Jr. ...

Still wanting to awaken Alexander from the sleep of his soul, the aunt asks him one day to accompany her to a concert: "some artist, a European celebrity, has arrived." The shock experienced by Alexander from meeting with beautiful music strengthens the decision that had matured even earlier to give up everything and return to his mother, in Grachi. Alexander Fedorovich Aduev leaves the capital along the same road that he entered St. Petersburg several years ago, intending to conquer it with his talents and high appointment ...

And in the village, life seemed to have stopped its run: the same hospitable neighbors, only older, the same infinitely loving mother, Anna Pavlovna; she just got married without waiting for her Sashenka, Sofya, but her aunt, Marya Gorbatova, still remembers the yellow flower. Shocked by the changes that have taken place with her son, Anna Pavlovna asks Yevsey for a long time how Alexander lived in St. Petersburg, and comes to the conclusion that life in the capital itself is so unhealthy that it aged her son and dulled his feelings. Days pass after days, Anna Pavlovna keeps hoping that Alexander's hair will grow again and his eyes will shine, and he thinks about how to return to St. Petersburg, where so much has been experienced and irretrievably lost.

Four years pass after Alexander's re-arrival in the capital. Many changes have taken place with the main characters of the novel. Lizaveta Alexandrovna was tired of fighting her husband's coldness and turned into a calm, reasonable woman, devoid of any aspirations and desires. Pyotr Ivanovich, upset by the change in his wife's character and suspecting her of a dangerous illness, is ready to give up his career as a court adviser and resign in order to take Lizaveta Alexandrovna away from St. Petersburg at least for a while. adviser, good state content, extraneous labors ”earns a lot of money and is also preparing to marry, taking three hundred thousand and five hundred souls for the bride ...

On this we part with the heroes of the novel. What an ordinary story indeed!

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