Biography of Gogol brief summary. Brief creative biography of Gogol

GOGOL Nikolai Vasilievich (1809 1852), Russian. writer. Lit. G. brought fame to Sat. “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” (1831 32), rich in Ukrainian. ethnographic and folklore material, marked by romanticism. moods, lyricism and humor. The stories from the collections “Mirgorod” and “Arabesques” (both 1835) reveal realism. period of creativity G. Theme of humiliation " little man" was most fully embodied in the play "The Overcoat" (1842), with which the formation of the naturalistic school is associated. The grotesque beginning of "Petersburg. stories" ("The Nose", "Portrait", etc.) was developed into the comedy "The Inspector General" (post. 1836) as a phantasmagoria of the bureaucratic-bureaucratic world. In the poem-novel "Dead Souls" (1st volume 1842) satirical ridicule of landowner Russia was combined with the pathos of the spiritual transformation of man. The religious-journalistic book “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” (1847) evoked a critical letter from V. G. Belinsky. In 1852, he burned the manuscript of the 2nd volume "Dead Souls" G. had a decisive influence on the establishment of humanistic and democratic principles in Russian literature.

Biography

Born on March 20 (April 1, n.s.) in the town of Velikiye Sorochintsy, Mirgorod district, Poltava province, in the family of a poor landowner. My childhood years were spent on my parents’ estate Vasilyevka, near the village of Dikanka, the land of legends, beliefs, historical legends. His father, Vasily Afanasyevich, a passionate admirer of art, a theater lover, and the author of poetry and witty comedies, played a certain role in the upbringing of the future writer.

After home education, Gogol spent two years at the Poltava district school, then entered the Nizhyn Gymnasium of Higher Sciences, created like the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum for children provincial nobility. Here he learned to play the violin, studied painting, played in plays, playing comic roles. Thinking about his future, he focuses on justice, dreaming of “stopping injustice.”

After graduating from the Nizhyn gymnasium in June 1828, in December he went to St. Petersburg with the hope of starting extensive activities. It was not possible to get a job; the first literary attempts were unsuccessful. Disappointed, in the summer of 1829 he went abroad, but soon returned. In November 1829 he received the position of a minor official. The gray bureaucratic life was brightened up by painting classes in the evening classes of the Academy of Arts. In addition, literature powerfully attracted me.

In 1830 in the magazine " Domestic notes" Gogol's first story "Basavryuk" appeared, later revised into the story "The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala". In December, a chapter from Delvig's almanac "Northern Flowers" was published historical novel"Hetman". Gogol became close to Delvig, Zhukovsky, Pushkin, friendship with whom had great importance for development public views and the literary talent of young Gogol. Pushkin introduced him into his circle, where Krylov, Vyazemsky, Odoevsky, the artist Bryullov were, and gave him plots for The Inspector General and Dead Souls. “When I was creating,” Gogol testified, “I saw only Pushkin in front of me... His eternal and immutable word was dear to me.”

Gogol's literary fame was brought to him by "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" (1831 32), the story " Sorochinskaya fair", "May Night", etc. In 1833 he decided to devote himself to scientific and pedagogical work and in 1834 he was appointed associate professor in the department general history at St. Petersburg University. The study of works on the history of Ukraine formed the basis of the plan for "Taras Bulba". In 1835 he left the university and devoted himself entirely to literary creativity. In the same year, a collection of stories “Mirgorod” appeared, which included “Old World Landowners”, “Taras Bulba”, “Viy”, etc., and a collection “Arabesques” (on themes of St. Petersburg life). The story "The Overcoat" was the most significant work Petersburg cycle, a draft version was read to Pushkin in 1836, and completed in 1842. While working on the stories. Gogol also tried his hand at drama. The theater seemed to him great power which is of exceptional importance in public education. “The Inspector General” was written in 1835 and already staged in Moscow in 1836 with the participation of Shchepkin.

Soon after the production of "The Inspector General", hounded by the reactionary press and the "secular rabble", Gogol went abroad, settling first in Switzerland, then in Paris, and continued work on " Dead souls", begun in Russia. The news of Pushkin's death was a terrible blow for him. In March 1837 he settled in Rome. During his visit to Russia in 1839 1840, he read chapters from the first volume to friends" Dead souls", which was completed in Rome in 1840 1841.

Returning to Russia in October 1841, Gogol, with the assistance of Belinsky and others, achieved the publication of the first volume (1842). Belinsky called the poem “a creation, deep in thought, social, public and historical.”

Work on the second volume of Dead Souls coincided with the writer’s deep spiritual crisis and, above all, reflected his doubts about the effectiveness of fiction, which brought Gogol to the brink of renouncing his previous creations.

In 1847 he published “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” which Belinsky subjected to scathing criticism in a letter to Gogol, condemning his religious and mystical ideas as reactionary.

In April 1848, after traveling to Jerusalem, to the Holy Sepulcher, he finally settled in Russia. Living in St. Petersburg, Odessa, and Moscow, he continued to work on the second volume of Dead Souls. He was increasingly possessed by religious and mystical moods, and his health deteriorated. In 1852, Gogol began meeting with Archpriest Matvey Konstantinovsky, a fanatic and mystic.

On February 11, 1852, being in a difficult mental state, the writer burned the manuscript of the second volume of the poem. On the morning of February 21, Gogol died in his last apartment on Nikitsky Boulevard.

Gogol was buried in the cemetery of the Danilov Monastery; after the revolution, his ashes were transferred to the Novodevichy cemetery.

Nikolai Vasilievich was born in large family, Vasily and Maria, Gogol’s parents, had 12 children. Gogol’s father saw his wife in a dream, considering this dream a prophecy, his father was looking for the one he saw in a dream. He found it very close, since childhood he had tenderly and reverently courted the neighbor’s girl Maria. It was the mother who instilled little Nikolai Gogol-Yanovsky's love for literature and mysticism, Gogol's father was a writer and playwright. It is interesting that Gogol's great-great-grandfather, Ostap, was the hetman of Right Bank Ukraine.

Nikolai studied poorly, he only drew well and knew Russian grammar, but his teacher denied the importance of the works of Pushkin and Zhukovsky, welcomed foreign literature, thereby interested Gogol in romanticism and the classics, aroused admiration for Pushkin and Zhukovsky. After graduating from high school, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg, his city dreams. Not finding himself in the civil service, Gogol begins to write. Having published his first poem " Hanz Kuchelgarten"Under the pseudonym Alov, Gogol was criticized to smithereens. He bought the entire edition, burned it and went abroad, but returned a month later. After a while, Rudy Panko tells St. Petersburg about "Evenings on a Farm", the Little Russian author was greeted by St. Petersburg with a "Hurray" ! ", Gogol is recognizable in his pseudonym, Belinsky in print asks the author to show his face, not to hide behind masks. Gogol begins to create under his own name, world masterpieces come from the pen of the writer: "The Inspector General", "Marriage", "Petersburg Tales", “The Overcoat”, “Notes of a Madman”. Having complexes because of his appearance, Gogol writes “The Nose”, and the love for miracles and mysticism gives birth to “Viya”, “Ivan Kupala”.

Gogol is famous and recognized, he is part of the circle of Pushkin, Belinsky, Pletnev, Zhukovsky. The image of St. Petersburg is a symbol of new life in the writer’s work. Gogol does not leave his historical homeland, he is a patriot and passionately loves his people, dedicates many works to her, “Taras Bulba” is the most monumental. He asks his mother to send him all the news, folk songs and legends, costumes from Ukraine. Mirgorod was the name of his land classic.

His personal life did not work out, Gogol was rejected by his bride’s parents, but the brilliant work “Marriage” was born, and the writer himself gave up trying to arrange his personal life.

The uniqueness of writing, a special manner, truthfulness - all this makes the writer’s work unique. Gogol’s critical realism is a unique phenomenon of that time. Creative nature, a penchant for mysticism, belief in traditions and tales, all this made Gogol’s work and life mysterious, and his biography - controversial. Frequent mental breakdowns led the writer to depression and departures abroad. Negative reaction and criticism to the production of “The Inspector General” lead to another flight of the writer. Returning to Russia, Gogol works on the second volume of “Dead Souls,” but a mental crisis prevents him from finishing this work. The author burns the second volume, and 10 days later the writer died.

Gogol's biography causes more controversy than it illuminates the facts. There are more questions than answers about the life of the mysterious genius, about his work and descendants. In his will, Gogol asked not to erect a monument on his grave and not to bury him; immediately after his death, he suffered from bouts of lethargic sleep. But the will was violated, he was buried in the Svyato cemetery -Danilov Monastery, erecting a monument on the grave. Later, Gogol was reburied, the ashes were transferred to the Novodevichy cemetery, but the writer’s skull disappeared from the coffin. Mysticism, vandalism, fans - history remains silent. This incident was reflected in Bulgakov in “The Master and Margarita”, in the form of the head of the writer Berlioz stolen from the coffin, cut off by a tram on the Patriarch's Ponds. Even after death, Gogol excited the imagination of writers, gave food for their creativity.

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol - genius Russian writer, a person who is known, first of all, as the author of the timeless work “Dead Souls”, a person with tragic fate, which is still shrouded in a halo of mystery.

Brief biography and creative path

Gogol was born on March 20 (or April 1 according to the new style) 1809 in Sorochintsy, Poltava province, in a large family of a landowner. Gogol's childhood They were brought up on the principles of mutual respect, love of nature and literary creativity. After graduating from the Poltava School, the young man entered the Nizhyn Gymnasium to study justice. He was interested in painting, delved into the principles of Russian literature, but did not write very skillfully in those years.

Literary achievements

With Gogol's move to northern capital in 1828 it began literary path as a unique author. But everything didn’t work out smoothly right away: Nikolai Vasilyevich served as an official studied painting at the Academy of Arts and even made attempts to become an actor, but none of the activities mentioned brought the expected satisfaction.

Acquaintance with such influential figures in society as, and Delvig helped Gogol to show the originality of his talent. His first published work was “Basavryuk”, then “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”, which gave the writer his first fame. Later world literature began to recognize Gogol from original plays such as “The Inspector General,” short stories (“The Nose”) and stories with a Ukrainian flavor (“Sorochinskaya Fair”)

Completion of life's journey

One of the last turns of the writer’s biography was traveling abroad influenced negative reaction public for the production of The Inspector General. In Rome, he works on “Dead Souls,” the first volume of which he publishes after returning to his homeland. But it seems that the author is not happy with anything: he falls into depression, breaks down spiritually, and on the eve of his death, February 21, 1852, he simply burned the second volume of the completed work.

Mysterious death

Surprisingly, there are rumors about what exactly did the great Russian writer die from? still haven't subsided. Even modern doctors cannot make an accurate diagnosis, although according to biographers, Gogol was a sickly child from childhood. Despite the variety of diagnoses that could lead to death - from cancer to meningitis, from typhus to insanity - even version of poisoning writer with mercury.

Oddities and eccentricities

Russian and world literature knows Gogol as a man whose immortal creations call for good light, true reason and spiritual perfection. While the life of the writer himself is full of very strange and ambiguous phenomena. Some researchers are confident that Nikolai Vasilyevich suffered from schizophrenia, as well as attacks of psychosis and claustrophobia. The writer personally claimed that he had displaced organs in his body, some of which were placed upside down. Contemporaries said that he amazed everyone with atypical attachments for a person of his level, for example, needlework, sleeping in a sitting position, and writing, on the contrary, only while standing. The prose writer also had passion for rolling bread balls.

To others unusual facts From the writer’s biographical path, the following can be included:

• Gogol never married. He proposed to a woman only once, but was rejected.
• Nikolai Vasilyevich loved cooking and cooking, often treating his acquaintances to home-cooked dishes, including a special drink containing rum called “nog-mogol”.
• The writer always had sweets with him, which he never tired of chewing.
• He was a shy person and was very embarrassed about his own nose.
• Fears occupied a special place in Gogol’s life: a strong thunderstorm got on his nerves, and in general, he was a man not alien to religious, mystical and superstitious considerations. Perhaps this is why mysticism has always haunted the prose writer: for example, he himself said that his story “Viy” is nothing more than folk legend, which he once heard and simply re-recorded. But neither historians, nor folklorists, nor researchers in other fields have found any mention of this.

Not only fate and creativity, but even the death of a writer is one continuous mystery. After all, during reburial, he was found turned to one side.

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Nikolai Gogol biography briefly outlined in this article.

Nikolai Gogol short biography

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol- Russian prose writer, playwright, poet, critic, publicist, recognized as one of the classics of Russian literature.

Born in the village of Sorochintsy, Poltava province, into a poor landowner family April 1 in 1809.

Gogol began his education in 1821 at the Nizhyn Gymnasium of Higher Sciences. In 1828, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg, where he served as an official.

There he was a little disappointed, since there was not enough money to survive, he was not accepted as an actor, literary activity didn't work out. Under the pseudonym V. Alov in 1829 he wrote romantic work"Hanz Küchelgarten". After harsh criticism of the book, he himself destroyed its circulation.

Gogol's first story "Basavryuk" appeared in 1830 in the magazine "Otechestvennye zapiski". Gradually he began to make acquaintances with the literary circle of St. Petersburg. He communicated with O. Somov, Baron Delvig, P. Pletnev, and Zhukovsky.

Gradually new works of Gogol appeared in print. Among them are “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”, “Sorochinsk Fair”, “May Night”. The almanac “Northern Flowers” ​​published a chapter of the historical novel “Hetman”. However, his first major literary success became “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”. In these stories, the author incredibly vividly depicted Ukrainian life, using fun and subtle humor.

In 1833, the writer decided to devote himself to teaching, and a year later he was appointed assistant professor at the department of history of St. Petersburg University. During this period, he became fully engaged in studying the history of Ukraine, which later formed the basis for the plan of “Taras Bulba” (1835).

Realizing the power of the theater, Gogol took up drama. Gogol's work "The Inspector General" was written in 1835, and first staged in 1836. Due to the negative reaction of the public to the production of “The Inspector General,” the writer leaves the country.

Soon after this, the writer went abroad to Switzerland, Paris, where he completed his work “Dead Souls”. In 1841, returning to Russia, with the help of Belinsky, he ensured that the first volume of Dead Souls was published. The second volume reflected spiritual crisis, which had overtaken the writer by that time.

Soon state of mind Gogol got worse. On the night of February 11, 1852, Gogol burned the second volume, and February 21 died.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol lived a short but eventful life. They talk a lot about him to this day, more than one generation has grown up on his works, they are in demand in schools, and based on them, art paintings. The name of this writer certainly left a significant mark on history.

Childhood

In 1809, in the spring of March 20, a boy was born into the family of a simple landowner Gogol, who began to be called Nikolai, by his patronymic - Vasilyevich. His family lived in a small town in the Poltava province. Then it was called the Great Sorochintsy.

The future writer spent his childhood near the village of Dikanka, where his parents had their own estate. Creative nature in little Gogol it was revealed by his father, who was a fan of art and theater, a writer of comedies and poetry. The boy received his education within the walls of the house.

Youth

After completing home schooling, Gogol spent 2 years at the district school of the Poltava province, after which he successfully entered the gymnasium in Nezhin. This institution was created to educate provincial noble children.

Young Gogol learned to draw, play on stage and play the violin here. In his future, he saw himself as a lawyer, dreaming of dispensing justice. But literature took precedence over his dreams.

Despite the unsuccessful auditions, which he failed in December, after graduating from high school (1828), his attitude towards literature and the desire to develop in this direction did not fade.

In 1829 he became a minor official. His monotonous, boring life was brightened up by painting, which he studied at the Academy of Arts, and literature.

Creation

In 1830, Gogol wrote his first work. It was the story “Basavryuk”, which was later reworked into “The Evening on the Eve of I. Kupala”.

In his social circles, young Gogol had many famous people: Pushkin, Vyazemsky, Bryullov and many others. Such acquaintances broadened his horizons, helping in the development of his activities. He was friends with Pushkin.

Literary famous Nikolai Vasilyevich became after the publication of the book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” to the creation of which he devoted 1831-32 years of his life. It includes the famous story “Sorochinskaya Fair”.

The following year, Gogol decided to connect his activities with scientific and pedagogical practice, and already in 1834 he was appointed associate professor at the university St. Petersburg(Department of General History). This experience and study Ukrainian history served as the basis for the creation of his new work “Taras Bulba”.

A year after his appointment, Gogol left the department and became completely absorbed in literary work, having written such works as: “Viy”, “Taras Bulba”, “The Inspector General” and collections of stories “Mirgorod” and “Arabesques” ...

Most significant work, dedicated to St. Petersburg, was the story “The Overcoat”. Nikolai Vasilyevich worked on this work for about 7 years, finishing only in 1842, although the draft version was ready already in 1836. At the same time, he was working on other works. In 1841 he wrote Dead Souls, the first volume of which was published a year later. Since the creation of this work, the writer began to experience attacks of nervous disorders.

From 1837 to 39, Gogol traveled, and he left after the unsuccessful production of The Inspector General. He visited Switzerland, Paris and Rome. Afterwards he returned, left Russia again (he spent more than a year in Vienna), then again ended up in his homeland.

Work on the second volume of Dead Souls coincided with a writer's crisis. His works were criticized, Belinsky condemned the writer’s religiosity and mysticism. All this influenced the writer’s state of mind and drove him to despair.

In 1852, the writer began to communicate with Archpriest Matvey Konstantinovsky, who was a mystic and fanatic. In the same year, in a state of severe mental breakdown, the writer burned his works of the second volume of the poem about dead souls.

Gogol died in 1852, 10 days after the destruction of the second volume of the poem. On February 21, the writer passed away.

• “Portrait”, analysis of Gogol’s story, essay
• “Dead Souls”, analysis of Gogol’s work