Dubrovsky: A Tale

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin 1799–1837 - the greatest Russian poet and prose writer. In Russian literature, Pushkin stands apart: the sun of our poetry, in the words of the writer V. Odoyevsky, was the first to lay the foundations of realism... in Russian literature and transformed the language so much that the works of the 19th century are read as contemporary. Alexander Sergeyevich was born in Moscow, in the family of a military adviser, a poet-amateur, and a society lady, the granddaughter of the African Hannibal Abram Hannibal, who was a servant and protégé of Peter I, and later became a general; from an old noble but poor family. He began writing poetry while still in the Lyceum - a prestigious noble educational institution, and at the age of 15, at an open examination, he caused a sensation by reciting his Memories in Tsarskoye Selo and earned the enthusiastic approval of the living classic - Gavriil Derzhavin. Pushkin was not deprived of fame during his lifetime: he was called a genius and the first Russian poet in the press, Emperor Nicholas I favored him, and each of his creations became an event for the reading public, but in his work as a civil servant, Pushkin served as a titular adviser and censorship restrictions constrained his talent. However, the concentration of what he created in 37 years of life is astonishing: these are both piercing poems, and a great novel in verse, and lovely fairy tales, and brilliant prose, and, of course, wonderful poems. A remarkable feature of Pushkin's work is the vivid poetic power and accuracy of images alongside brevity. Dubrovsky 1833 was conceived as a bandit novel in Russian. The plot was suggested to Pushkin by a friend's story about a poor nobleman, with the surname Ostrovsky, who was driven out of his estate and, left with only peasants, began to rob. The impossible love of the children of enemies, the story is sad, complemented the canvas. Near the village of Kistenyovka, the ancestral estate of the Dubrovskys, there is also an original: the village of Kistenyovo, a paternal gift in honor of the poet's future marriage, and Egorovna was based on a serf of the Pushkins, the nurse Arina Rodionovna. Pushkin did not finish Dubrovsky, possibly anticipating censorship difficulties, or deciding to focus on documentary prose - The History of Pugachev. The tale was published four years after his death.