Brief biography of N.V. Gogol: the most important and basic things about life and work. Brief biography of Gogol the most important literary work of Gogol

Years of life: from 03/20/1809 to 02/21/1852

Outstanding Russian writer, playwright, poet, critic, publicist. The works are included in the classics of domestic and world literature. Gogol's works had and still have a huge influence on writers and readers.

Childhood and youth

The beginning of a literary career, rapprochement with A.S. Pushkin.

The most fruitful period of life

Last years of life. Creative and spiritual crisis of the writer.

Information about the works:

At the Nizhyn gymnasium, Gogol was not a diligent student, but had an excellent memory, prepared for exams in a few days and moved from class to class; he was very weak in languages ​​and made progress only in drawing and Russian literature.

It was Gogol, in his article “A few words about Pushkin,” who was the first to call Pushkin the greatest Russian national poet.

The morning after the burning of the manuscripts, Gogol told Count Tolstoy that he wanted to burn only some things that had been prepared in advance, but he burned everything under the influence of an evil spirit.

A bronze cross was installed on Gogol’s grave, standing on a black tombstone (“Golgotha”). In 1952, a new monument was erected on the grave instead of Golgotha, but Golgotha, as unnecessary, was for some time in the workshops of the Novodevichy cemetery, where it was discovered by the widow of E. S. Bulgakov. Elena Sergeevna bought the tombstone, after which it was installed over the grave of Mikhail Afanasyevich.

The 1909 film Viy is considered the first Russian “horror film.” Yes, the film has not survived to this day. And the film adaptation of the same Viy in 1967 is the only Soviet “horror film”.

Bibliography

Poems

attachments to the Auditor are partly of a journalistic nature
unfinished

Journalism

Film adaptations of works, theatrical performances

The number of theatrical productions of Gogol's plays throughout the world cannot be estimated. Only the Inspector General, and only in Moscow and St. Petersburg (Leningrad), was staged more than 20 times. A huge number of feature films have been made based on Gogol’s works. This is not a complete list of domestic film adaptations:
Viy (1909) dir. V. Goncharov, short film
Dead Souls (1909) dir. P. Chardynin, short film
The Night Before Christmas (1913) dir. V. Starevich
Portrait (1915) dir. V. Starevich
Viy (1916) dir. V. Starevich
How Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich (1941) dir. A. Kustov
May Night, or the Drowned Woman (1952) dir. A. Rowe
The Inspector General (1952) dir. V. Petrov
The Overcoat (1959) dir. A. Batalov
Dead Souls (1960) dir. L. Trauberg
Evenings on a farm near Dikanka (1961) dir. A. Rowe
Viy (1967) dir. K. Ershov
Marriage (1977) dir. V. Melnikov
Incognito from St. Petersburg (1977) dir. L. Gaidai, based on the play The Inspector General
The Nose (1977) dir. R. Bykov
Dead Souls (1984) dir. M. Schweitzer, serial
The Inspector General (1996) dir. S. Gazarov
Evenings on a farm near Dikanka (2002) dir. S. Gorov, musical
The Case of “Dead Souls” (2005) dir. P. Lungin, television series
The Witch (2006) dir. O. Fesenko, based on the story by Viy
Russian Game (2007) dir. P. Chukhrai, based on the play Players
Taras Bulba (2009) dir. V. Bortko
Happy Ending (2010) dir. J. Chevazhevsky, modern version based on the story Nose

3. "Mirgorod"

4. "Petersburg Tales"

1. Characteristics of N.V.’s creativity Gogol

The work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809-1852) represents an important stage in the development of Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century. His work is very closely connected with Ukrainian culture, and its themes and plots predominate in it, since the writer was born in Ukraine. Gogol's works include the following major works:

✓ collection of stories "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka";

✓ collection of stories "Mirgorod";

✓ collection "Petersburg Stories";

✓ comedy "The Inspector General";

✓ novel-poem "Dead Souls".

2. "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka"

The collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” is the first in his work, and the stories included in this collection brought Gogol popularity. The collection consists of two books and includes the following stories:

✓ in the first book:

. "Christmas Eve";

. "May Night";

. "Sorochinskaya Fair";

. "The Missing Letter";

✓ in the second book:

. "The Night Before Christmas" (transferred by the author from the first edition);

. "Terrible revenge";

. "Enchanted Place";

. "Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt."

The collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” as a literary work can be characterized as follows:

✓ a poetic image of Ukraine and its nature is conveyed;

✓ Ukrainian folk tales, legends, traditions are used and presented in a new way;

✓ Ukrainian folk village life is described vividly and interestingly;

✓ folklore techniques of artistic expression are used;

✓ the heroes embody the best traits of the people's character, harmoniously combining appearance and moral health;

✓ awakens the interest of the Russian reader of that time in Little Russia;

✓ is an example of the romantic trend in Russian literature of that time, and romanticism in the collection is expressed as follows:

The real life of the people has the features of poetry, aspirations for the beautiful and sublime;

The prose and disorder of life are contrasted with the ideal world;

Folklore and techniques used in the work have the following features of romanticism:

Fairy tales;

The poetics of the mysterious and enigmatic, filling legends;

Appeal to the country's past, which is filled with heroic deeds;

Reality is intertwined with fiction, and the epic with the lyrical;

✓ A particularly important place is occupied by the fantastic, which has the following features in the story:

Painted with everyday features;

Depicted as vulgar, petty;

Presented in a comic light;

✓ is of a comic nature, which is expressed in humor, jokes and laughter that accompany the characters throughout the entire narrative.

3. "Mirgorod"

The collection "Mirgorod" (1835) combines a number of stories written in St. Petersburg, and includes the following stories:

✓ "Old World Landowners";

✓ "Taras Bulba";

✓ “The story of how Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich quarreled”;

✓ "Viy".

The collection "Mirgorod" as a literary work can be characterized as follows:

✓ The stories included in this collection are strikingly different from each other in the following ways:

Content;

The tonality of the work;

Genre;

Art form;

✓ despite such obvious differences, the stories are united by the author’s view of the purpose of man, which is expressed in the subtext;

✓ each story is unique in its character and style: there is an idyllic shade, heroic features, a satirical beginning, and fantastic elements;

✓ the collection is a new phase of the writer’s creativity, in which the realistic method of depicting reality is actively developing, which is expressed in the stories as follows:

More voluminous and multifaceted character characteristics;

A convincingly realistic depiction of everyday life, the circumstances of the characters’ lives and reality itself;

Rich speech characteristics of the characters and their dialogues;

✓ a deeper and more thorough penetration into the historical past of the Ukrainian Cossacks (The Tale "Taras Bulba").

Tale " Old world landowners

✓ the originality of the author's attitude towards the heroes, which lies in the duality of the assessment of the heroes and irony towards them;

✓ denial and condemnation of the patriarchal way of life, isolation from public life, lack of public interests.

Tale " Taras Bulba"has the following features:

✓ the heroic principle expressed in the author’s description of the struggle of the Ukrainian people for their freedom;

✓ historicism combined with fiction when events are described XV - XVII centuries, but the characters often do not have real historical prototypes;

✓ an element of idealization of democratic equality;

✓ the abundance of Ukrainian folklore, expressed in various folk legends, songs, depictions of battles in the spirit of the exploits of epic heroes;

✓ hyperbole, exaggeration when constructing the image of Taras Bulba;

✓ genre of folk heroic epic;

✓ the originality of the compositional structure, which is organized as an alternation of bright battle and peace scenes with a gradual separation from peaceful life and the transition of all participants in the narrative to the world of struggle;

✓ the dominance of the romantic method in the depiction of reality.

4. "Petersburg Tales"

Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" (1835-1842) represent an important type in the writer's work for the following reasons:

✓ It is in this collection that the author actively develops the method of realism, which was later reflected in Gogol’s great poem “Dead Souls”;

✓ The picture of Russian life is significantly expanded, as the setting of the stories is transferred from the provinces to the capital of the Russian Empire.

The collection includes the following stories:

✓ "Nevsky Avenue";

✓ "Diary of a Madman";

✓ "Portrait";

✓ "Nose";

✓ "Stroller";

✓ "Overcoat";

✓ "Rome" (not finished by the author).

The collection "Petersburg Stories" can be characterized as follows:

✓ All stories are combined according to the following criteria:

One location (excluding "Rome");

General problems, the main motive of which is the dominance of rank and money in the modern world;

The relatedness of the activities and characteristics of the main characters, who, as a rule, appear as “little people”;

A close ideological orientation, which is expressed in revealing the injustice of those social relations that have developed in society;

Similar artistic style;

✓ expose the life of St. Petersburg with all its social contradictions and injustice, the contrast of the spiritual and material;

✓ in the depiction of the capital, many motifs from Pushkin’s “Station Warden” and “The Bronze Horseman” continue, when it is not the pomp of palaces that is depicted, but the wretchedness of the outskirts, not wealth, but poverty;

✓ have a new character of fantasy and grotesque, the use of which was due to Gogol’s appeal to such techniques for depicting St. Petersburg reality as fantastic metamorphoses, deception and “miracles” in order to display it most accurately and truthfully.

Tale " Nose" (1836) is a shining example of Gogol's talent, and it can be characterized as follows:

✓ a plot that is fantastic in nature and realizes rich artistic possibilities;

✓ external romance, due to fantastic elements, flows into the realistic nature of the story;

✓ fantastic elements - are used for a realistic depiction and exposure of vices, the paradoxical nature of the surrounding world, and this is what distinguishes Gogol from his predecessors, for whom the fantastic plot is interesting in itself;

✓ techniques of satire and grotesquery in the form of non-combination of elements necessary for each other - the face and nose and their grotesque separation; Many techniques precede the play "The Inspector General", and these elements include:

Social description of the world of officials;

Mistaking a nonentity for an important significant person;

Incorporating ordinary events into the world of the extraordinary.

Tale " Overcoat"(1842) occupies a special place in the collection and has the following artistic features:

✓ the plot is based on an everyday anecdote, which was retold by Annenkov in “Literary Memoirs”, but Gogol has a deep socio-psychological meaning, which consists in considering the psychology of a lonely “little” person, and this plot has been developed more than once by Gogol and other Russian writers of the first half of the 19th century (Pushkin, Lermontov);

✓ there is an acute grotesque - a combination of incompatible things, when an initially quiet hero, after acquiring an overcoat, begins to live actively and “noisily”;

✓ the construction features of the story ensure its artistic originality, and the composition is characterized by the gradual revelation of the character of the main character and the condensation of tragic situations around him;

✓ the genre is unique, which is ensured by the close connection in the story of the comic, tragic and lyrical, which is given by the author himself;

✓ The theme of the “little man” influenced many Russian writers, in particular Dostoevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Turgenev, Bunin, Chekhov.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was born on March 20, 1809 in the small village of Sorochintsy, Poltava province. A short biography of the writer with the most interesting facts is presented in the article.

Nikolai Vasilyevich's father was a creative person. He wrote scripts for home theater and was an excellent storyteller. In many ways, this influenced his son - from childhood he was passionate about theatrical art.

The mother of the future writer, Maria Ivanovna, was very beautiful. At fourteen she married a man twice her age. During her life she gave birth to twelve children. Two sons were born dead. Then Kolya was born.

He was very sickly in his childhood, but survived, unlike his brothers. The fourth child in the family, Ivan, also died in infancy, as did the future writer’s sister, Maria.

I must say that my mother was a very impressionable woman. She devoted her life to religion and mystical phenomena. This incredibly strongly influenced Nikolai Vasilyevich as a child and accompanied him until the end of his days.

When the boy was ten years old, his parents moved to Poltava to prepare him for studying at the gymnasium. Gogol completed his training successfully and soon became a student at the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in the city of Nizhyn.

It cannot be said that he studied flawlessly, but the teachers praised the boy for his good memory, which allowed him to pass exams well. The weak point of the high school student was foreign languages. But Kolya was good at literature and drawing.

Young Gogol loved to spend time in the company of his friends. He communicated well with Gerasim Vysotsky, Alexander Danilevsky, Nikolai Prokopovich, Nestor Kukolnik. Together the guys decided to create a handwritten journal, and the talented teenager wrote a lot of poetry.

After the death of his father, Kolya had to take care of the family. He reassured his mother as best he could - he was her hope and support in everything. Maria Ivanovna considered her son a genius and also did not spare anything for him. Later, Nikolai renounced his share of the inheritance, giving it to his sisters. The young man’s only hobby at that time was literature.

Nikolai Vasilyevich dreamed of devoting himself to military service, but due to health reasons he could not do this. In his youth, he talks a lot about what mission was entrusted to him from above. Simple, everyday life seemed uninteresting and boring to him.

Moving to St. Petersburg

Since 1828, Nikolai Vasilyevich has lived in St. Petersburg. The young man hoped to become famous, to become famous, but this turned out to be difficult. There was not enough money to live on, but Gogol hoped that everything would be fine in the future. He was unusually strong in character and very enterprising. The young man tried his hand at bureaucratic activity, acting and, of course, literature.

Gradually, literature becomes the only thing that completely occupies him and allows him to express himself. Gogol writes about his native land. He understands that people are interested in this topic.

This is interesting! Gogol's pseudonym at the very beginning of his career was V. Alov. This is how he signs the romantic story “Hanz Küchelgarten”, published in 1829. He wrote it in Nizhyn, two years earlier. This work was imbued with the dreams of the young author. After its release, Gogol destroyed the entire circulation of the book due to negative reaction from critics.

Nikolai could no longer stay in the city where he could not realize himself, and decided to move abroad, to Lubeck. Gogol imagined America as an ideal country, but the reality differed from his hopes.

In 1831, Nikolai Vasilyevich met his idol, and V. A. Zhukovsky. This event greatly influenced his activities in the future.

Gogol communicated with Zhukovsky with great pleasure. Both of them were interested in art, religion and inexplicable mystical phenomena, and on this basis they became very close.

The idea to write about life in Little Russia was born in Nikolai’s head. He turned to his mother with a request to write to him more about customs and traditions, to tell him interesting details - about costumes, signs, legends, about the way of life in general. He also carefully studies documents written by ancestors and ancient manuscripts.

Another known pseudonym for Gogol is G. Yanov. He signs some of his works this way. The author was very concerned about how the public perceived unusual works, because the peculiarity of his work during this period was his attraction to mysticism.

• In 1830, “The Night on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” was published in the publication Otechestvennye zapiski. And in 1929, “May Night” and “Sorochinskaya Fair” were published.
• Afterwards, the collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” was published in two parts. The writer was able to describe the daily life of his native Ukrainians very accurately and interestingly. And this made an impression not only on ordinary people, but also on the famous Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.

In 1832 he temporarily stopped working due to personal concerns, but the following year he took up the matter with renewed vigor:

• He writes the collections “Arabesques” and “Mirgorod”, which were published in 1835. At this time, their author was already a famous writer, whom many loved and appreciated. It is interesting that “Mirgorod” is, in fact, a continuation of “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. It includes such famous works of the writer as “Taras Bulba”, “Old World Landowners”, “Viy”.
• In 1842, he completely rewrote the novel, introducing many historical details into the plot and clearly describing each of the characters. The prerequisite for writing the novel was real events - the Cossack uprising. It is believed that the writer read the diaries of an eyewitness to these events in Ukraine - a soldier from Poland, Simon Okolsky.
• The play “The Inspector General,” written at the end of 1835, was a great success. The very next year it was staged at the Alexandrinsky Theater. In this play, with amazing accuracy, the author managed to convey Russian reality without embellishment. Some admired the work. Others took up arms against the writer for harsh criticism of the way of life in society.

Gogol, unable to withstand the tension in society about his person and tired of hard work, decides to go on a long trip abroad. In 1836, he fulfilled his intention, which he never regretted later.

Life of a writer abroad

Nikolai Vasilyevich lived outside Russia for about ten years - in Germany, Paris and Switzerland.

I really fell in love with Rome, where in 1845 the only photo of the brilliant author was taken. I studied cultural monuments and art galleries with interest.

To those who visited the writer at that time, he was happy to show this city and share his impressions. Periodically he came to his native land, but not for long.

Note! Abroad, Nikolai Vasilyevich writes one of his most famous works -. The public reacts ambiguously. Gogol becomes convinced that he has talent and is able to influence the lives of his contemporaries. The writer considers himself a prophet, and wants to direct his gift for the benefit of others.

Nikolai Vasilyevich was convinced that it was important to constantly improve oneself spiritually, and for this to devote a lot of time to knowing God. The serious illnesses that he suffered due to poor health only strengthened his faith.

But such thoughts of the writer did not always find support in society and even among friends. Because of this, Nikolai Vasilyevich experienced severe mental suffering. Succumbing to emotions, the author set fire to the continuation of the book “Dead Souls,” which he had been working on for a long time. And Gogol also makes a will - life is no longer sweet to him.

The writer wants to spend the rest of his days in a monastic monastery. Here, far from the bustle of the world, the author created another work - “Selected passages from correspondence with friends.” In it, Gogol tells readers about the main mission that humanity must achieve - to improve itself spiritually. The book was published in the capital in 1839, after the writer returned from the monastery, but was accepted by society without enthusiasm.

The writer also takes his next failure with great difficulty. He comes to the conclusion that all failures in life occur due to a spiritual crisis. Gogol finds consolation in the thought that he must certainly go to Jerusalem and venerate the Holy Sepulcher. In 1847–1848 he fulfilled his dream, hoping that it would open up new ideas, thoughts, that he would finally be able to convey to people the idea of ​​the need to develop spiritually.

Return to Russia

The trip does not bring Gogol any relief. Standing at the coffin, the writer realizes how much arrogance he has. In 1848, Nikolai Vasilyevich came to his homeland and wrote a sequel to “Dead Souls”. Many times the author rewrites the novel under the influence of his mood. In addition, the writer is becoming weaker. Strength and health leave him at a young age.

However, Gogol is so afraid of dying that he can no longer write anything. One day, Gogol habitually spent the evening in prayer, and suddenly he clearly heard the words that the end of his life was near. Since then, the writer has never left home. Friends were worried and suggested that they see doctors, but Gogol no longer needed this. Before leaving for another world, the writer asked the man who worked in the house to open the stove damper and threw his works into the blazing fire. He later explained this as the influence of dark forces on him. On February 21, 1852, the talented writer passed away.

* This work is not a scientific work, is not a final qualification work and is the result of processing, structuring and formatting the collected information intended for use as a source of material for independent preparation of educational works.

Abstract on the topic

“The life and work of N.V. Gogol"

N.V. Gogol was born in the town of Velikie Sorochintsy, Mirgorod district, Poltava province, into the family of a landowner. The Gogols had over 1000 acres of land and about 400 serfs. The writer's father, V. A. Gogol-Yanovsky (1777-1825), served at the Little Russian Post Office, in 1805 he retired with the rank of collegiate assessor and married M. I. Kosyarovskaya (1791-1868), according to legend, the first beauty in the Poltava region. There were six children in the family: in addition to Nicholas, son Ivan (died in 1819), daughters Marya (1811-1844), Anna (1821-1893), Lisa (1823-1864) and Olga (1825-1907).
Gogol spent his childhood years on his parents' estate Vasilyevka (another name is Yanovshchina). The cultural center of the region was Kibintsy, the estate of D. P. Troshchinsky (1754-1829), a distant relative of the Gogols, a former minister elected to the district marshals (district leaders of the nobility); Gogol's father acted as his secretary. In Kibintsy there was a large library, there was a home theater, for which Father Gogol wrote comedies, being also its actor and conductor.
As a child, Gogol wrote poetry. The mother showed great concern for the religious education of her son, who, however, was influenced not so much by the ritual side of Christianity as by its prophecy of the Last Judgment and the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bretribution after death.
In 1818-19, Gogol, together with his brother Ivan, studied at the Poltava district school, and then, in 1820-1821, took lessons from the Poltava teacher Gabriel Sorochinsky, living in his apartment. In May 1821 he entered the gymnasium of higher sciences in Nizhyn. Here he is engaged in painting, participates in performances - as a set designer and as an actor, and with particular success he plays comic roles. He also tries himself in various literary genres (writes elegiac poems, tragedies, historical poems, stories). At the same time he writes the satire “Something about Nezhin, or the law is not written for fools” (not preserved). However, the thought of writing has not yet “come to mind” for Gogol; all his aspirations are connected with “public service”; he dreams of a legal career. Gogol’s decision to make this was greatly influenced by Prof. N. G. Belousov, who taught a course in natural law, as well as a general strengthening of freedom-loving sentiments in the gymnasium. In 1827, the “case of freethinking” arose here, which ended with the dismissal of leading professors, including Belousov; Gogol, who sympathized with him, testified in his favor during the investigation.
Having graduated from the gymnasium in 1828, Gogol, together with another graduate A. S. Danilevsky (1809-1888), went to St. Petersburg in December. Experiencing financial difficulties, unsuccessfully fussing about a place, Gogol made his first literary attempts: at the beginning of 1829 the poem “Italy” appeared, and in the spring of the same year, under the pseudonym “V. Alov”, Gogol published the “idyll in pictures” “Ganz Küchelgarten”. The poem evoked harsh and mocking reviews from N. A. Polevoy and later a condescending and sympathetic review from O. M. Somov (1830), which intensified Gogol’s difficult mood. In July 1829, he burns unsold copies of the book and suddenly leaves abroad, to Germany, and by the end of September, almost as suddenly, returns to St. Petersburg. Gogol explained his step as an escape from a love feeling that unexpectedly took possession of him. Before leaving abroad or shortly after his return, Gogol experiences another setback - his attempt to enter the stage as a dramatic actor is unsuccessful.
At the end of 1829, he managed to decide to serve in the department of state economy and public buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. From April 1830 to March 1831 he served in the department of appanages (first as a scribe, then as an assistant to the clerk), under the command of the famous idyllic poet V.I. Panaev. His stay in the offices caused Gogol deep disappointment in the “state service,” but it provided him with rich material for future works that depicted bureaucratic life and the functioning of the state machine. By this time, Gogol was devoting more and more time to literary work. Following the first story “Bisavryuk, or the Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” (1830), Gogol published a number of works of art and articles: “Chapter from a Historical Novel” (1831), “Teacher. From a Little Russian story: “The Scary Boar” (1831 .), "Woman" (1831). The story "Woman" was the first work signed by the author's real name. Gogol meets Zhukovsky, P. A. Pletnev, Pushkin. By the summer of 1831, his relationship with Pushkin’s circle became quite close: living in Pavlovsk, Gogol often visited Pushkin and Zhukovsky in Tsarskoye Selo; carries out instructions for the publication of Belkin's Tales. Gogol’s financial situation is strengthened thanks to his pedagogical work: he gives private lessons in the houses of P.I. Balabin, N.M. Longinov, A.V. Vasilchikov, and from March 1831, at the request of Pletnev, he became a history teacher at the Patriotic Institute (where he later assigned his sisters, Anna and Lisa).
During this period, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” (1831-1832) was published. They aroused almost universal admiration.
After the release of the 2nd part of “Evenings,” Gogol came to Moscow in June 1832 as a famous writer. He meets M. P. Pogodin, S. T. Aksakov and his family, M. N. Zagoskin, I. I. Dmitriev. On this visit or on the second one (on the way back through Moscow from Vasilievka), he also meets I.V. and P.V. Kireevsky, M.S. Shchepkin, and becomes close to M.A. Maksimovich. The next year, 1833, was one of the most intense for Gogol, full of painful searches for a further path. Gogol writes his first comedy, “Vladimir of the 3rd Degree,” however, experiencing creative difficulties and foreseeing censorship complications, he stops working. Gogol considers the study of history - Ukrainian and world - to be very important, perhaps the main direction of his activity.
Numerous preliminary developments remained (in particular, “Plan for teaching general history”, “Excerpt from the history of Little Russia...”, both - 1834; later, under changed names, they were included in “Arabesques”) of the writer. Gogol is trying to occupy the department of general history at the newly opened Kiev University, but to no avail. In June 1834, however, he was appointed associate professor in the department of general history at St. Petersburg University. Simultaneously with his pedagogical work and works on history, about which Gogol quite widely informs his friends, he in deep secret wrote the stories that made up his two subsequent collections - “Mirgorod” and “Arabesques”. Their harbinger was “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” (first published in the book “Housewarming” in 1834).
The publication of "Arabesque" (1835) and "Mirgorod" (1835) marked Gogol's step towards realism, consolidating and deepening the trend that had emerged in "Evenings". The desire for the “ordinary” meant a change in the subject of the image: instead of strong and sharp characters - the vulgarity and facelessness of ordinary people, instead of poetic and deep feelings - sluggish, almost reflexive movements. In the stories from St. Petersburg life, “ordinary” life itself became illusory. Manifestations of ghostliness are an endless series of unmotivated, illogical or internally inconsistent movements, facts and phenomena, from the actions of characters to the isolation and autonomy of toilet details, external surroundings, as well as organs and parts of the human face and body. The pinnacle of Gogol’s fiction is the “St. Petersburg story” “The Nose” (1835; published in 1836), an extremely bold grotesque that anticipated some trends in twentieth-century art. In contrast to both the provincial and metropolitan world was the story "Taras Bulba", which captured that moment in the national past when the people ("Cossacks"), defending their sovereignty, acted integrally, together and, moreover, as a force that determined the nature of pan-European history.
The writer spends the summer of 1835 in Vasilyevka, Crimea, and also in Kyiv, where he stays with Maksimovich and, together with Danilevsky, studies architectural monuments. In September he returns to St. Petersburg and leaves teaching (in June he leaves the Patriotic Institute, in December - from the university).
In the fall of 1835, he began writing “The Inspector General,” the plot of which was suggested by Pushkin; the work progressed so successfully that on January 18, 1836 he read a comedy at an evening with Zhukovsky (in the presence of Pushkin, P. A. Vyazemsky and others), and in February-March he was already busy staging it on the stage of the Alexandria Theater. The play premiered on April 19. May 25 - premiere in Moscow, at the Maly Theater.
The depth of the comedy was not reflected in its first productions, which gave it a touch of vaudeville and farce; The image of Khlestakov was especially depleted by N. O. Durom in St. Petersburg and D. T. Lensky in Moscow who played this role. Much greater understanding was found by critics who noted the originality of the comedy and called the author “the great comedian of real life.” However, the first to be heard were sharply unkind reviews from F.V. Bulgarin, who accused the writer of slandering Russia, and O.I. Senkovsky, who believed that the comedy was devoid of a serious idea and was not formalized in plot and composition. On Gogol, who had time to read only these reviews before going abroad, they had a depressing effect, reinforced by many more oral judgments.
The writer's state of mind was aggravated by the complications of his relationship with Pushkin; the reasons for this are not yet clear enough, but one of them was friction during the editing of Sovremennik, for which Pushkin invited Gogol to collaborate. In 1836, the story “The Stroller,” the dramatic scene “The Morning of a Business Man,” and several reviews and articles were published. Some expressions of the latter seemed risky and incorrect to Pushkin; in the editorial note he made it clear that the article was not a Sovremennik program.
In June 1836, Gogol left St. Petersburg for Germany (in total, he lived abroad for about 12 years). He spends the end of summer and autumn in Switzerland, where he begins to work on the continuation of Dead Souls. The plot was also suggested by Pushkin. The work began back in 1835, before the writing of The Inspector General, and immediately acquired a wide scope. In St. Petersburg, several chapters were read to Pushkin, causing him both approval and at the same time a depressing feeling.
In November 1836, Gogol moved to Paris, where he met A. Mickiewicz. Here in February 1837, in the midst of work on “Dead Souls,” he received the shocking news of Pushkin’s death. In a fit of “inexpressible melancholy” and bitterness, Gogol feels the “present work” as the “sacred testament” of the poet. At the beginning of March 1837, he came to Rome for the first time, where he spent time in the company of the artist A. A. Ivanov, I. S. Shapovalov, as well as Princess Z. A. Volkonskaya. At the end of summer, Gogol was on the road again: Turin, Baden-Baden, Frankfurt, Geneva. In October he came to Rome for the second time, where the final stage of work on the 1st volume of the poem took place. A number of new important meetings date back to this time: in 1838 in Rome, the writer became close to the amateur composer Count M. Yu. Vielgorsky and his family; Gogol became especially attached to his son I. M. Vielgorsky, whose early death (in 1839 in Rome) the writer bitterly mourned in the work “Nights at the Villa” (not finished, published 1856); in the summer of 1839 in Hanau am Main he met N. M. Yazykov, who soon became one of his closest friends.
In September 1839, accompanied by Pogodin, Gogol came to Moscow and began reading chapters of “Dead Souls” - first in the Aksakovs’ house, then, after moving to St. Petersburg in October, at Zhukovsky’s and Prokopovich’s in the presence of his old friends. A total of 6 chapters have been read. There was universal delight.
On May 9, 1840, at the celebration of his name day, organized in Pogodin’s house in Moscow, Gogol met with M. Yu. Lermontov. After 9 days, he leaves Moscow again, heading to Italy for the final finishing of the 1st volume. But at the end of the summer of 1840 in Vienna, where Gogol stopped to continue work on the drama from Zaporozhye history that he had begun in 1839 ("For a Shaved Mustache"; the author burned the manuscript in 1840; fragments were published in 1861), he suddenly suffered from an attack of severe nervous illness . From the end of September 1840 to August 1841, Gogol lived in Rome, where he completed the 1st volume of the poem. In October, through him, Petersburg returns to Moscow; reads the last 5 chapters in the Aksakovs' house. In January 1842, the writer, fearing the banning of the poem, sent the manuscript to V.G. Belinsky to the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee, also asking for the assistance of St. Petersburg friends. On March 9, the book was approved by censor A.V. Nikitenko, however, with a change in the title and without “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” the text of which Gogol was forced to rework. In May, “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls” (vol. 1, M., 1842) was published.
After the first, brief, but very commendable reviews, the initiative was seized by Gogol’s detractors, who accused him of being a caricature, a farce and slandering reality. Later, N.A. Polevoy came up with an article that bordered on denunciation.
All this controversy took place in the absence of Gogol, who went abroad in June 1842. Before leaving, he entrusts Prokopovich with the publication of the first collection of his works. Gogol spends the summer in Germany; in October, together with N. M. Yazykov, he moves to Rome. He is working on the 2nd volume of Dead Souls, which apparently began back in 1840; He devotes a lot of time to preparing his collected works. “The Works of Nikolai Gogol” in four volumes was published at the beginning of 1843, as censorship suspended the two volumes that had already been printed for a month.
The three years (1842-1845), which followed the writer’s departure abroad, was a period of intense and difficult work on the 2nd “Dead Souls”.
Writing "Dead Souls" is extremely difficult, with long stops. The work became somewhat livelier with the move to Nice, where Gogol spent the winter of 1843-1844, living in the Vielgorsky apartment. Gogol forces himself to write, overcoming mental fatigue and creative doubts. In Ostend in the summer of 1844 he became especially close to A.P. Tolstoy, the former Tver governor and Odessa military governor. Conversations with him regarding the duties of senior officials then formed the basis of letter XXVIII from “Selected Places...” - “To one who occupies an important place.”
The process of writing a poem is increasingly turning into a process of building one’s life, and through oneself, everyone around us. Thus, from the work on “Dead Souls,” the idea of ​​a book of “letters” sprang up, the first articles for which Gogol began to think about back in 1844-1845.
At the beginning of 1845, Gogol showed signs of a new mental crisis. The writer goes to Paris to rest and “recuperate”, but returns to Frankfurt in March. A period of treatment and consultations with various medical celebrities begins, moving from one resort to another - now in Halle, now in Berlin, now in Dresden, now in Carlsbad. At the end of June or beginning of July 1845, in a state of sharp exacerbation of the disease, Gogol burns the manuscript of the 2nd volume. Subsequently (in “Four Letters to Various Persons Regarding “Dead Souls” - “Selected Places”) Gogol explained this step by saying that the book did not show “paths and roads” clearly enough.
Slow, beautiful and very exciting. The wives freed themselves from their clothes. Our patience was running out. We were afraid that we would cum in our pants. The girls took pity on us. They quickly freed our members from captivity and grabbed them with their lips. My dick ended up in Lena's mouth. The lips and tongue were doing some incredible things. There was no longer any strength to hold back. I started to cum. Sperm hit my throat in tight streams. Lena was able to somehow swallow it all without spilling a drop.

I looked at my neighbors. Sergei's eyes were in some kind of fog. He was cumming. Masha drank the sperm, choking with pleasure, helping to keep it in her mouth with her fingers. She licked and pulled everything out of Seryoga
Yulka moved Sanya's penis away from her mouth and used it to catch the sperm that shot out of it. Not everything got into her mouth, but Yulka collected it with her hand and licked it off.
Then our ladies lifted us from the sofa and, dancing in front of us, began to undress us. They took off our clothes, while their kisses excited us, giving us new strength. They caressed us with their bodies, pressed themselves against us, and at the same time did not allow us to respond to their caresses. After they had freed us from our clothes, they turned our backs to them and asked each of us to say a number from one to ten. I named ten, Sergei – three, and Sanya – six. Our wives clapped wildly and said that Yulka lost, so all men should now seduce her. We were happy about this loss. We approached Yulia and began to kiss and caress her. Our hands stroked her everywhere, all over her body. Sanya and I began to kiss Yulka’s breasts. Her nipples have grown. We began to bite them, Yulka began to moan.
Seryoga felt the clitoris. His fingers were doing something there. We picked Yulia up and carried her to the sofa. Seryoga stuck his tongue into Yulka’s pussy. It was so wet there that he had difficulty swallowing what flowed from there. Sanya and I continued to bite our breasts. True, our bites became stronger and stronger. Yulka started screaming. This scream turned Masha and Lena on. They began to seduce each other. They kissed, bit, caressed and loudly expressed their emotions. There was a cry of pleasure in the house. Sergei lay down on his back and sat Yulka on his penis. She began to dance on it. I put mine to her mouth and she began to kiss it. Lips, teeth, tongue - all this brought me into a state of some kind of euphoria. Sanya joined Yulka's little butt. He drove his dignity into her. Yulka began to wheeze. We found some common rhythm and began to fuck my wife. Yulka screamed, moaned, and squealed with pleasure. She had an orgasm. She grabbed my penis with her hands so that it would not jump out of her mouth.
My sperm poured into Yulka’s mouth like a stream. She swallowed it, and smeared what didn’t fit in her mouth all over her face. Then Sanya finished. He poured part of his sperm into Yulka’s ass, and the rest onto her back. And he smeared it with his hand. Sergei held on the longest. His orgasm was so powerful that he howled with pleasure. It seemed to us that from his powerful streams of sperm that poured into Yulka, she began to jump. We freed Yulka from ourselves. But our girls rushed to her and began to lick the sperm from her. We looked at it with pleasure. Lena began to lick Yulka’s pussy, drinking a cocktail that consisted of male sperm and woman’s juices. She licked her ass, from which the remaining sperm flowed out. Lena licked all the sperm from Yulka's back and then licked her face.
An improvement in Gogol's physical condition began only in the fall. In October he is already in Rome. From May to November 1846 Gogol was on the road again. In November he settled in Naples with S.P. Apraksina, sister of A.P. Tolstoy. Here the news of the death of N. M. Yazykov (1847) is hard to bear.
Gogol continues to work on the 2nd volume, however, experiencing increasing difficulties, he is distracted by other matters: he composes the preface to the 2nd edition of the poem (published 1846) “To the Reader from the Author,” writes “The Inspector’s Denouement” (published 1856), in in which the idea of ​​a “prefabricated city” in the spirit of the theological tradition (“On the City of God” by St. Augustine) was refracted into the subjective plane of the “spiritual city” of an individual person, which brought to the fore the requirements of spiritual education and improvement of everyone.
In 1847, “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” was published in St. Petersburg. The book performed a dual function - both an explanation of why the 2nd volume has not yet been written, and some compensation for it: Gogol proceeded to present his main ideas - doubt about the effective, teaching function of fiction, a utopian program for all “classes” to fulfill their duty and "ranks", from peasant to high officials and king.
The release of Selected Places brought a real critical storm upon its author. L.V. Brant, Senkovsky, E.F. Rosen and others wrote about Gogol's defeat, about his excessive and unjustified claims. N. F. Pavlov reproached Gogol for contradictions and false grounds. Many of his friends, especially S.T. Aksakov, accused Gogol of betraying his calling. P. A. Vyazemsky and A. A. Grigoriev wrote about the need for a more careful approach to the book. “Selected Places” was sharply criticized by V.G. Belinsky.
All these responses overtook the writer on the road: in May 1847 he went from Naples to Paris, then to Germany. Gogol cannot recover from the “blows” he received: “My health... was shaken by this devastating story for me about my book... I marvel at how I was still alive.” To deflect the blows and justify himself, Gogol undertakes “a confession of my literary work” (published in 1855), where he insists that his creative path was consistent and continuous, that he did not betray art and his previous creations. Nevertheless, he acknowledges the failure of Selected Places and expresses his desire to avoid the shortcomings of the book in the upcoming 2nd volume. Among the critics of “Selected Places” was Rzhev Archpriest Father Matvey (Konstantinovsky), who inclined the writer to even greater rigorism and steady moral self-improvement. Gogol succumbed to the influence of this sermon, although he defended his right to artistic creativity.
Gogol again spent the winter of 1847-1848 in Naples, intensively reading Russian periodicals, new fiction, historical and folklore books - “in order to plunge deeper into the indigenous Russian spirit.” At the same time, he is preparing for a long-planned pilgrimage to holy places. In January 1848 he went to Jerusalem by sea. In April he returns to Odessa. Gogol spends the summer of 1848 in Odessa, Vasilievka; in September in St. Petersburg, at an evening with the poet and teacher of Russian literature A. A. Komarov, he met young writers: N. A. Nekrasov, I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, A. V. Druzhinin.
In mid-October, Gogol lives in Moscow. In 1849–1850, Gogol reads individual chapters of the 2nd volume of Dead Souls to his friends. General approval and delight inspire the writer, who now works with redoubled energy. In the spring of 1850, Gogol makes his first and last attempt to arrange his family life - he proposes to A. M. Vielgorskaya, but is refused.
In June 1850, Gogol took a trip (together with Maksimovich “for a long time”) to his native place; On the way he visits A. O. Smirnova in Kaluga, then visits Optina Pustyn. He spends the summer and early autumn in Vasilyevka, meets with Danilevsky, and continues to work on the 2nd volume.
In October he arrives in Odessa. His condition is improving; he is active, cheerful, cheerful; willingly gets along with the actors of the Odessa troupe, to whom he gives lessons in reading comedy works, with L. S. Pushkin, with local writers. In March 1851 he left Odessa and, after spending the spring and early summer in his native places, returned to Moscow in June. A new round of readings follows of the 2nd volume of the poem; In total, up to 7 chapters were read. In October he attended “The Inspector General” at the Maly Theater, with S. V. Shumsky in the role of Khlestakov, and was pleased with the performance; in November he reads “The Inspector General” to a group of actors, including I. S. Turgenev.
On January 1, 1852, Gogol informs Arnoldi that the 2nd volume is “completely finished.” But in the last days of the month, signs of a new crisis were clearly revealed, the impetus for which was the death of E. M. Khomyakova, sister of N. M. Yazykov, a person spiritually close to Gogol. He is tormented by a premonition of imminent death, aggravated by newly intensified doubts about the beneficialness of his writing career and the success of the work being carried out. At the end of January - beginning of February, Gogol meets Father Matvey (Konstantinovsky) who arrived in Moscow; the content of their conversations remained unknown, but there is an indication that Father Matvey advised destroying part of the chapters of the poem, motivating this step by the harmful influence they would have. Gogol, for his part, could reinterpret his reaction in the sense that the 2nd volume remained artistically unconvincing. On February 7, Gogol confesses and receives communion, and on the night of 11 to 12 he burns the white manuscript of the 2nd volume (only 5 chapters have survived in incomplete form, relating to various draft editions; published 1855). On the morning of February 21, Gogol died in his last apartment in the Talyzin house in Moscow.

This article will discuss the life of Gogol. This writer created many immortal works that rightfully occupy their rightful place in the annals of world literature. There are many rumors and legends associated with his name, some of which Nikolai Vasilyevich spread about himself. He was a great inventor and mystifier, which certainly affected his work.

Parents

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich, whose biography is discussed in this article, was born in 1809, on March 20, in the settlement of Velikiye Sorochintsy in the Poltava province. On the father's side, the future writer's family included church ministers, but the boy's grandfather, Afanasy Demyanovich, left his spiritual career and began working in the hetman's office. It was he who subsequently added to the surname Yanovsky received at birth another, more famous one - Gogol. Thus, Nikolai Vasilyevich’s ancestor sought to emphasize his relationship with Colonel Ostap Gogol, famous in Ukrainian history, who lived in the 17th century.

The father of the future writer, Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol-Yanovsky, was an exalted and dreamy man. This can be judged by the history of his marriage to the daughter of a local landowner, Maria Ivanovna Kosyarovskaya. As a thirteen-year-old teenager, Vasily Afanasyevich saw in a dream the Mother of God, pointing him to a little unfamiliar girl as his future wife. After some time, the boy recognized the heroine of his dream in the seven-month-old daughter of the Kosyarovsky neighbors. From an early age, he carefully looked after his chosen one and married Maria Ivanovna when she was barely 14 years old. Gogol's family lived in great love and harmony. The writer's biography began in 1809, when the couple finally had their first child, Nikolai. The parents were kind to the baby and tried in every possible way to protect him from any troubles and shocks.

Childhood

Gogol's biography, a brief summary of which will be useful for everyone to know, began in truly hothouse conditions. Dad and mom adored the baby and did not deny him anything. Besides him, there were eleven more children in the family, but most of them died in middle age. However, Nikolai, of course, enjoyed the greatest love.

The writer spent his childhood years in Vasilyevka, his parents' estate. The town of Kibintsy was considered the cultural center of this region. This was D.T.'s domain. Troshchinsky, a former minister and distant relative of the Yanovsky-Gogols. He held the post of povet marshal (that is, he was the district leader of the nobility), and Vasily Afanasyevich was listed as his secretary. Theatrical performances were often held in Kibitsy, in which the father of the future writer took an active part. Nikolai often attended rehearsals, was very proud of it, and at home, inspired by his dad’s work, he wrote good poetry. However, Gogol's first literary experiments have not survived. As a child, he drew well and even organized an exhibition of his paintings on his parents’ estate.

Education

Together with his younger brother Ivan, Nikolai Gogol was sent to the Poltava district school in 1818. The biography of a home boy, accustomed to greenhouse conditions, followed a completely different scenario. His comfortable childhood was quickly ending. At school he was taught very strict discipline, but Nikolai never showed any particular zeal for science. The very first holidays ended in a terrible tragedy - brother Ivan died from an unknown disease. After his death, all the parents' hopes were placed on Nikolai. He needed to get a better education, for which he was sent to study at the Nizhyn classical gymnasium. The conditions here were very harsh: children were raised every day at 5.30 am, and classes lasted from 9.00 to 17.00. During the remaining time, the students were supposed to study their lessons and pray diligently.

However, the future writer managed to get used to the local order. Soon he made friends, famous and respected people in the future: Nestor Kukolnik, Nikolai Prokopovich, Konstantin Basili, Alexander Danilevsky. All of them, having matured, became famous writers. And this is not surprising! While still high school students, they founded several handwritten magazines: “Meteor of Literature”, “Dawn of the North”, “Zvezda” and others. In addition, teenagers were passionate about theater. Moreover, Gogol’s creative biography could well have been different - many predicted the fate of a famous actor for him. However, the young man dreamed of public service and, after graduating from high school, he decisively headed to St. Petersburg to pursue a career.

Official

Together with his friend from the gymnasium, Danilevsky, in 1828 Gogol went to the capital. St. Petersburg greeted young people with inhospitability; they were constantly in need of money and unsuccessfully tried to find decent work. At this time, Nikolai Vasilyevich is trying to make a living through literary experiments. However, his first poem "Hanz Küchelgarten" was not successful. In 1829, the writer began serving in the department of state economy and public buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then worked for almost a year in the department of appanages under the supervision of the famous poet V.I. Panaeva. Staying in the offices of various departments helped Nikolai Vasilyevich collect a wealth of material for future works. However, the civil service forever disappointed the writer. Fortunately, he soon experienced truly stunning success in the literary field.

Fame

In 1831, Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka was published. “This is real gaiety, sincere, unconstrained...” - Pushkin said about this work. Now the personality and biography of Gogol have become interesting to the most famous people in Russia. His talent was readily recognized by everyone. Nikolai Vasilyevich was overjoyed and constantly wrote letters to his mother and sisters asking them to send him more material about Little Russian folk customs.

In 1836, the writer's famous "Petersburg story" - "The Nose" - was published. This work, extremely bold for its time, ridicules admiration for rank in its smallest and sometimes disgusting manifestations. At the same time, Gogol created the work “Taras Bulba”. The writer's biography and work are inextricably linked with his dear homeland - Ukraine. In "Taras Bulba" Nikolai Vasilyevich talks about the heroic past of his country, about how representatives of the people (Cossacks) fearlessly defended their own independence from the Polish invaders.

"Inspector"

How much trouble this play caused the author! Being a brilliant writer and playwright who far anticipated his time, Nikolai Vasilyevich was never able to convey to his contemporaries the meaning of his immortal work. The plot of The Inspector General was given to Gogol by Pushkin. Inspired by the great poet, the author wrote it literally for a few months. In the fall of 1835, the first sketches appeared, and in 1836, on January 18, the first hearing of the play took place at an evening with Zhukovsky. On April 19, the premiere of “The Inspector General” took place on the stage of the Alexandria Theater. Nicholas the First himself came to her, along with his heir. They say that after watching the emperor said: “Well, it’s a play! Everyone got it, and I got it more than everyone else!” However, Nikolai Vasilyevich was not amused. He, a convinced monarchist, was accused of revolutionary sentiments, undermining the foundations of society, and God knows what else. But he was simply trying to ridicule the abuse of local officials; his goal was morality, and not politics at all. The distressed writer left the country and went on a long trip abroad.

Abroad

An interesting biography of Gogol abroad deserves special attention. In total, the writer spent twelve years on “rescue” travels. In 1936, Nikolai Vasilyevich did not limit himself in anything: at the beginning of the summer he settled in Germany, spent the autumn in Switzerland, and came to Paris for the winter. During this time, he made great progress in writing the novel “Dead Souls.” The plot of the work was suggested to the author by the same Pushkin. He highly appreciated the first chapters of the novel, admitting that Russia is, in essence, a very sad country.

In February 1837, Gogol, whose biography is interesting and instructive, moved to Rome. Here he learned about the death of Alexander Sergeevich. In despair, Nikolai Vasilyevich decided that “Dead Souls” was the poet’s “sacred testament”, which must definitely see the light of day. In 1838, Zhukovsky arrived in Rome. Gogol enjoyed walking the streets of the city with the poet, drawing local landscapes with him.

Return to Russia

In 1839, in September, the writer returned to Moscow. Now the publication of “Dead Souls” is devoted to the creative biography of Gogol. The summary of the work is already known to many of Nikolai Vasilyevich’s friends. He read individual chapters of the novel in the Aksakovs’ house, at Prokopovich’s and Zhukovsky’s. His closest circle of friends became his listeners. They were all delighted with Gogol's creation. In 1842, in May, the first publication of Dead Souls was published. At first, reviews of the work were mostly positive, then the initiative was seized by Nikolai Vasilyevich’s ill-wishers. They accused the writer of slander, caricature, and farce. A truly devastating article was written by N.A. Polevoy. However, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol did not take part in this entire controversy. The writer's biography continued abroad again.

Matters of the heart

Gogol never married. Very little is known about his serious relationships with women. His longtime and devoted friend was Smirnova Alexandra Osipovna. When she came to Rome, Nikolai Vasilyevich became her guide around the ancient city. In addition, there was a very lively correspondence between friends. However, the woman was married, so the relationship between her and the writer was only platonic. The biography of Gogol is decorated with another heartfelt passion. A brief history of his personal relationships with women says: one day the writer decided to get married. He became interested in the young Countess Anna Vilyegorskaya and proposed to her in the late 1940s. The girl's parents were against this marriage, and the writer was refused. Nikolai Vasilyevich was very depressed by this story, and since then he has not tried to arrange his personal life.

Work on the second volume

Before leaving, the author of “Dead Souls” decided to publish the first collection of his own works. He, as always, needed money. However, he himself did not want to deal with this troublesome matter and entrusted this matter to his friend Prokopovich. In the summer of 1842, the writer was in Germany, and in the fall he moved to Rome. Here he worked on the second volume of Dead Souls. Almost the entire creative biography of Gogol is devoted to the writing of this novel. The most important thing that he wanted to do at that moment was to show the image of an ideal citizen of Russia: smart, strong and principled. However, the work progressed with great difficulty and at the beginning of 1845 the writer began to show the first signs of a large-scale mental crisis.

Last years

The writer continued to write his novel, but was increasingly distracted by other matters. For example, he composed “The Inspector's Denouement,” which radically changed the entire previous interpretation of the play. Then, in 1847, “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” was published in St. Petersburg. In this book, Nikolai Vasilyevich tried to explain why the second volume of Dead Souls has not yet been written, and expressed doubt about the educational role of fiction.

A whole storm of public indignation hit the writer. “Selected places...” is the most controversial point that marks Gogol’s creative biography. A brief history of the creation of this work suggests that it was written in a moment of mental turmoil of the writer, his desire to move away from his previous positions and start a new life.

Burning of manuscripts

In general, the writer burned his works more than once. This, one might say, was his bad habit. In 1829, he did this with his poem “Hans Küchelgarten,” and in 1840, with the Little Russian tragedy “The Shaved Mustache,” which he could not impress Zhukovsky with. At the beginning of 1845, the writer’s health deteriorated sharply; he constantly consulted with various medical celebrities and went to water resorts for treatment. He visited Dresden, Berlin, Halle, but was unable to improve his health. The writer's religious exaltation gradually increased. He often communicated with his confessor, Father Matvey. He believed that literary creativity distracts from inner life and demanded that the writer renounce his divine gift. As a result, on February 11, 1852, Gogol’s biography was marked by a fateful event. The most important creation of his life - the second volume of Dead Souls - was mercilessly burned by him.

Death

In April 1848, Gogol returned to Russia. He spent most of his time in Moscow, sometimes coming to St. Petersburg and his homeland, Ukraine. The writer read individual chapters from the second volume of “Dead Souls” to friends, and again basked in the rays of universal love and worship. Nikolai Vasilyevich came to the production of “The Inspector General” at the Maly Theater and was pleased with the performance. In January 1852 it became known that the novel was “completely over.” However, soon a new spiritual crisis marked Gogol’s biography. The main work of his whole life - literary creativity - seemed useless to him. He burned the second volume of Dead Souls and a few days later (February 21, 1852) died in Moscow. He was buried in the cemetery of the St. Daniel's Monastery, and in 1931 he was moved to the Novodevichy cemetery.

Posthumous will

This is the biography of Gogol. Interesting facts from his life are largely related to his posthumous will. It is well known that he asked not to erect a monument over his grave and not to bury him for several weeks, since sometimes the writer fell into a kind of lethargic sleep. Both of the writer's wishes were violated. Gogol was buried a few days after his death, and in 1957, a marble bust by Nikolai Tomsk was installed at the burial site of Nikolai Vasilyevich.