In Bad Company: A Novella

Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko 1853–1921 - a Russian writer, publicist, editor of the leading Petersburg magazine Russian Wealth, public figure, author of urgent works such as The Dream of Makariy, The Murderer, The Blind Musician, and others. In 1900, along with... L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov, and V. Solovyov, he was elected an honorary academician of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the field of fine literature. Korolenko was born in Zhitomir to a district judge, whose character - strict but fair - became the basis for the creation of the father of the main character in the novella In Bad Company. A sharp dislike of injustice led Korolenko, still a student, to join the revolutionary narodniki - for this he was expelled from the Petrov Agricultural Academy and exiled to Kronstadt. There were other exiles, a political status, imprisonment, but it was under such harsh conditions that his literary talent emerged. The famous novella In Bad Company was written by Korolenko during a 6-year exile in Yakutia after he refused the oath of allegiance to the tsar. Not only the father, but, as the author himself wrote, many traits were taken from life; there is also a prototype for the old castle - it is the palace of the Lubomirski princes in Rivne. The novella was published in 1886 in the book Essays and Stories, but that same year a shortened version appeared in the children's magazine Rodnik under the title Children of the Underground: in this abbreviated form it was republished many times. Korolenko did not approve of the adaptations: I have a certain prejudice against special editions for youth: after all, one must obtain special approvals for school libraries. In Bad Company, for example, is sold in tens of thousands of copies in cheap editions in a shortened and abridged form. And I completely do not understand why youth should first become acquainted with the writer in this abridged form and only later receive it in full. In this edition, the novella is published in its full version, without abbreviations.