Чем знаменит гоголь на английском
Nikolai Gogol short biography
Nikolai Gogol biography is summarized in this article.
Nikolai Gogol short biography
Gogol began his education in 1821 at the Nizhyn High School of Higher Sciences. In 1828, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg, where he served as an official.
There he was a little disappointed, as there were not enough means of subsistence, he was not accepted into the actors, literary activity was not successful. Under the pseudonym V. Alov in 1829, he wrote the romantic work «Ganz Küchelgarten.» After sharp criticism of the book, he himself destroyed its circulation.
Gogol’s first story “Basavryuk” appeared in 1830 in the journal “Domestic Notes”. Gradually, he began to make acquaintances with the literary circle of St. Petersburg. He spoke with O. Somov, Baron Delvig, P. Pletnev, Pushkin and Zhukovsky.
Gradually appeared in print new works of Gogol. Among them, “An Evening Before Ivan Kupala”, “Sorochinsk Fair”, “May Night”. In the almanac “Northern Flowers”, the chapter of the historical novel “Hetman” was printed. However, his first major literary success was “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 fully engaged in the study of the history of Ukraine, which then formed the basis of the plan of “Taras Bulba” (1835).
Realizing the full power of the theater, Gogol took up drama. Gogol’s work “The Examiner” was written in 1835, and in 1836 it was first staged. Due to the negative reaction of the public to the production of The Examiner, the writer leaves the country.
Shortly afterwards, the writer went abroad to Switzerland, Paris, where he completed his work, Dead Souls. In 1841, having returned to Russia, with the help of Belinsky, he ensured that the first volume of Dead Souls was published. The second volume reflects a spiritual crisis that overtook the writer by then.
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian writer. He contributed to Russian literature through his magnificently crafted dramas, novels and short stories. He was one of the major proponents of the natural school of Russian literary realism. His notable works include Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, The Government Inspector and “The Portrait”.
Born on March 31, 1809 in Sorochyntsi, Poltava Governorate, Ukraine, Gogol was raised by a Polish mother and an amateur Ukrainian playwright and poet father. His family spoke both Russian and Ukrainian. From a very young age Gogol developed a keen interest in Ukrainian-language plays and helped his uncle stage them. His father died when he was fifteen. During 1820’s, Gogol received education from higher art school in Nizhyn. It is here that he learned the art of writing and practiced his skills. He became an outcast in his class and his fellow students called him a “mysterious dwarf”. Such incidents engendered a situation for him to embrace his dark side secretly.
Upon completion of his studies, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg to join civil service. His lack of wealth and social connections made him realize that in order to attain a respectable job he would have to work hard. He had already penned a Romantic poem on German idyllic life, titled Hans Küchelgarten. He published it at his own expense, under the pseudonym V. Alov. As he met rejection and ridicule of the publishing magazine he destroyed all the copies of his poem in utter dejection. Later, he embezzled his mother’s money on a trip to Germany but eventually returned and became an underpaid government employee.
However, he became a preeminent figure in short story writing as he occasionally wrote for a periodical. The young storyteller achieved overnight success. He was endowed with great respect by twentieth century literary giants like Alexander Pushkin and Vasily Zhukovsky for his contributions. In 1834, he was offered position of a senior professor of medieval history at St. Petersburg University. Feeling ill-equipped for the job, he left after teaching a year long.
Gogol’s first collection of Ukrainian stories, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, was published in 1931. It was followed by a number of volumes, one of them entitled Mirgorod. The subject matter of his stories varies sometimes from devils and witches to idyllic village life. His miscellaneous prose was published in a volume, titled Arabesques. The critics applauded his work for having a distinct Ukrainian voice. Gogol’s literary work highlighted the supposed difference between Ukrainian and Russian social aspects. His early prose was inspired by contemporary writers, such as Vasily Narezhny and Hryhory Kvitka-Osnovyanenko. Still his work had a distinctive quality that is his use of unconventional and sophisticated satire. Moreover, the colloquial nature of the prose became a breath of fresh air in Russian literature.
The second volume, Arabesques brings out the realism as it shows a romantic’s struggle to expose the evil and duplicity of the world that he can neither embrace nor evade. Gogol’s highly acclaimed satirical play, The Government Inspector, is a comedy of errors. It draws attention to politically corrupt Imperial Russia by underlining human attributes, like greed and foolishness. Gogol is held in esteemed regard for constructing original work that avoids clichéd sympathetic characters and love interest. Another of one of his play, Dead Souls, lampoonsthe double-standards of Imperial Russia. Afterwards, his creative genius took a sudden nosedive and eventually deserted him. He died on 4 th of March, 1852 after burning up some of his manuscript and refusing to eat food.
Nikolai Gogol
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
( 1809-03-20 ) 20 March 1809 [1] (OS) / ( 1809-04-01 ) 1 April 1809 (NS)
Sorochyntsi, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire
Moscow, Russian Empire
Petersburg Tales [fr] (1833–1842)
Gogol was one of the first to use the techniques of surrealism and the grotesque in his works («The Nose», «Viy», «The Overcoat», «Nevsky Prospekt»). According to Viktor Shklovsky, Gogol’s strange style of writing resembles the «ostranenie» technique. [14] His early works, such as Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, were influenced by his Ukrainian upbringing, Ukrainian culture and folklore. [15] [16] His later writing satirised political corruption in the Russian Empire (The Government Inspector, Dead Souls). The novel Taras Bulba (1835) and the play Marriage (1842), along with the short stories «Diary of a Madman», «The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich», «The Portrait» and «The Carriage», are also among his best-known works.
Many writers and critics have recognized Gogol’s huge influence on Russian and world literature. Gogol’s influence was acknowledged by Mikhail Bulgakov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Flannery O’Connor, Franz Kafka and others. [17] [18]
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol: biography
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol’s life is so extensive and multicolored that historians are still exploring his biography and epistolary materials of the great writer and documentarists are making movies that tell the story of the enigmatic literary genius. For two hundred years, the interest in the playwright has not weakened – not only because of his lyric and epic works but also because Gogol is one of the mysterious figures in the 19-century Russian literature.
Childhood and youth
Nowadays, it is unknown when Nikolai Vasilievich was born. Some chroniclers believe it was March 20, others are sure it was April 1, 1809.
Nikolai Vasilievich
The master of phantasmagoria spent his childhood in Ukraine, in a picturesque village Sorochyntsi in Poltava Governorate. He was brought up in a large family – there were 5 boys and 6 girls except for him (some of them died in infancy).
The great writer had an interesting bloodline going back to the Cossack noble dynasty of Gogol-Yanovskyi. According to the family legend, the playwright’s grandfather Afanasy Demjanovich Yanovskyi added the second part of his surname to prove he had blood ties to Cossack hetman Ostap Gogol who lived in the 17th century.
Vasily Afanasyevich, Nikolai Gogol’s father
The writer’s father Vasily Afanasyevich worked in Little Russia Governorate in the postal administration; in 1805, he resigned as a collegiate assessor. Later, Gogol-Yanovskyi went to his estate Vasylevka (Yanovshchina) and engaged himself in keeping the household. Vasily Afanasyevich was known as a poet, writer, and playwright: he owned his friend Troschinsky’s home theater and also performed as an actor.
For these performances, he wrote comedies based on Ukrainian ballads and legends. However, only one work of Gogol Sr – “The Simpleton, or the Woman’s Deceit Deceived by a Soldier” – was preserved. It was the father who instilled love of the literary art and talent in Nikolai Vasilievich: it is known that Gogol Jr started writing poetry in his childhood. Vasily Afanasyevich died when Nikolai was 15.
Maria Ivanovna, Nikolai Gogol’s mother
According to the contemporaries’ memories, the writer’s mother, Maria Ivanovna, nee Kosyarovskaya, was pretty – she was considered the most beautiful woman in the village. Everybody who was acquainted with her said she was a religious person and paid much attention to her children’s moral education. However, Gogol-Yanovskaya’s education was limited to the Last Judgement prophesies, not Christian rites and prayers.
It is known that Maria married Gogol-Yanovsky at 14. Nikolai Vasilievich was close to his mother and even asked her for a piece of advice concerning his manuscripts. Some authors believe that Gogol’s art is full of fantasy and mysticism due to Maria Ivanovna’s influence.
Nikolai Gogol’s childhood house
Nikolai Vasilievich’s childhood and youth were marked with the presence of peasant and pan life; they were filled with the bourgeois features that the playwright described in detail in his works.
When Nikolai was 10, he was sent to Poltava to study at the secondary school; later, the local teacher Gavriila Sorochinskyi taught him. Having received the classical training, the 16-year-old boy became a student of the Highest Sciences Grammar School in the town Nezhino, Chernigov region. The would-be classic of literature had weak health and was never good at studies, although he had an exceptional memory. Sciences were difficult for Nikolai, but he succeeded in Russian Language Arts and Literature.
Nikolai Gogol
Some biographers state that his handicapped education was the school’s fault, not the young writer’s. In those years, weak teachers worked in the school – they could not organize the proper educational process. For example, in moral education lessons, knowledge was never transferred through the famous philosophers’ works – corporal punishment was used; the teacher of literature was not in step with the times and preferred the 18-century classics to Pushkin.
During his studies, Gogol was attracted by creativity and gladly took part in theater performances. Among his friends, Gogol was considered a comic and a perky person. The writer communicated with Nikolai Prokopovich, Alexander Danilevskyi, Nestor Kukolnik, and others.
Literature
When Gogol was a student, he began to be interested in writing. He admired A.S. Pushkin, although his first works were stylistically different from the great poet’s style and reminded of Bestuzhev-Marlinskyi’s works.
Pushkin at Gogol’s. The painting by the academician M.P. Klodt
He composed elegies, feuilletons, poems, tried writing prose and works of other genres. During his studies, he wrote the satire “Something about Nezhin, or As the Fool Thinks, So the Bell Clinks” which did not survive to the present days. It is peculiar that his interest in art the young man viewed as a hobby, not the work of his life.
For Gogol, writing was “a ray of light in the realm of darkness” that helped him take his mind off his mental agony. At that time, Nikolai Vasilievich had no clear plans, but he wanted to serve his motherland and be useful for his people, believing its future would be great.
Nikolai Gogol’s books
In winter 1828, Gogol went to the cultural capital – St. Petersburg. In the cold, gloomy city, Nikolai Vasilievich was disappointed. He tried to become a civil servant or become a theater employee, but all his attempts failed. Only literature gave him the opportunity to earn money and express himself.
However, writing also brought bad luck – the magazines published only two Gogol’s works, the poem “Italy” and the romantic poem “Hans Kuchelgarten” which was published under a pseudonym V. Alov. The critics perceived “The Idyll in Pictures” negatively and sarcastically. After this defeat, Gogol bought all editions of the poem and burned them in his room. Still, Nikolai Vasilievich did not give up literature after this high-profile failure – the setback gave him the opportunity to change the genre.
The illustration to Nikolai Gogol’s novella “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”
In 1830, the reputable magazine “Otechestvennye Zapiski” (“Notes of the Fatherland”) published the mystic novella by Gogol “St. John’s Eve.”
Later, the writer met baron Delvig, and his works began to be published in his “Literaturnaya Gazeta” (“Literary Newspaper”) and “Severnye Tsvety” (“North Flowers”).
After this success, Gogol was welcomed in the literary company. He began to communicate with Pushkin and Zhukovsky. Spiced with the mixture of the Ukrainian epos and earthy humor, his works “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” “Christmas Eve,” “A Bewitched Place” impressed the Russian poets.
Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Pushkin, and Vasily Zhukovsky
Alexander Sergeevich is said to have given Nikolai Vasilievich the backhistory for his new works. He helped with the plot ideas of the poem “Dead Souls” (1842”) and comedy “The Government Inspector” (1836). However, P.V. Annenkov believes that Pushkin “gave away his treasure reluctantly.”
As a person interested in the history of Little Russia, Nikolai Vasilievich became the author of the collection “Mirgorod” where several works including “Taras Bulba” were published. In his letters to his mother Maria Ivanovna, Gogol asked her to tell about the ordinary people’s lives.
The frame of the movie “Viy,” 2014
In 1835, the novella “Viy” about a demonic character of the Russian epos was published. As the story runs, three seminarists lose their way and find a mysterious farm whose hostess is a real witch. The main character Khoma has to face phenomenal creatures, church rites, and the sorceress flying in a coffin.
In 1967, the directors Konstantin Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov created the first Soviet horror movie based on Gogol’s “Viy.” The movie starred Leonid Kuravlyov and Natalya Varley.
Leonid Kuravlyov and Natalya Varley in the movie ‘Viy,” 1967
In 1841, Gogol wrote his prominent novella “The Overcoat.” In this work, Nikolai Vasilievich told the story of a “small person” Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin who became so poor that an ordinary item of clothing became his source of joy and inspiration.
Personal life
Speaking about the personality of the writer, it should be noted that Gogol inherited from his father Vasily Afanasyevich not only the affinity to literature but also the tragic fate – the mental illness and fear of early death that the playwright had since his adolescence. The publicist V.G. Korolenko and doctor Bazhenov wrote about it referring to Gogol’s autobiographical materials and epistolary heritage.
Nikolai Gogol was a shy person
While in the Soviet period, Nikolai Vasilievich’s mental disorders were silenced, a modern cultured reader is interested in such details. Since childhood, Gogol is considered to have been suffering from manic depressive psychosis (bipolar mania): funny, joyful mood of the author could suddenly change into depression, hypochondria, and desperation.
Gogol was bothered by it until his last days. In his letters, he admitted he could hear “gloomy” voices that called him far away. Living in constant fear, Gogol became a religious person and lived ascetically. He loved women, but only at a distance: he used to tell Maria Ivanovna that he would go abroad to some lady.
He corresponded with pretty girls of various social groups (Maria Balabina, Countess Anna Vielgorskaya, and others) and courted them romantically and humbly. The writer did not like to expose his personal life, especially love affairs. It is known that Nikolai Vasilievich had no children. Because the writer was not married, there is a theory he was gay. Other researchers believe that he had never had relationships except platonic ones.
Death
Nikolai Vasilievich’s early death – at the age of 42 – is still disturbing scientists, historians, and biographers. Mysterious legends about Gogol are being created, and the actual reason for his death is the subject of arguments today.
The Nikolai Gogol monument in Poltava
In his last years, Nikolai Vasilievich had a writer’s block connected with Khomyakov’s wife’s early death and the archpriest Matthew Konstantinovsky’s fierce criticism: he believed the writer was not virtuous enough. Dark thoughts overwhelmed the writer’s mind. Since 5 February, he refused to eat; on 10 February, because of “the evil spirit,” he burned his manuscripts, and on 18 February, lentening, he fell ill.
Nikolai Gogol on his deathbed
The writer refused medical help and waited for his death. The doctors who had identified bowel inflammation, possible typhoid, and indigestion, finally diagnosed meningitis and prescribed dangerous bloodletting against his will which only worsened his mental and physical condition. On 21 February 1852, in the morning, Nikolai Vasilievich died in count Tolstoy’s mansion in Moscow.
Memory
The writer’s works are compulsory at schools and higher education institutes. In honor of Nikolai Vasilievich, postage stamps were created in USSR and other countries. Many streets, a dramatical theater, pedagogical institute, and even a crater on Mercury are named after Gogol.
The master of hyperbola and grotesque’s works are the basis for modern theater performances; works of cinema art are being created as well. For example, in 2017, the Russian audience viewed the premiere of the gothic detective series “Gogol. The Beginning” starring Alexander Petrov and Oleg Menshikov.
Interesting facts
The enigmatic playwright’s biography contains many interesting facts – even a whole book would not be enough to describe them all.
Биография Николая Гоголя на английском языке
Здесь вы можете прочитать биографию Николая Гоголя на английском языке.
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was born on 20 March 1809 in the village of Sorochyntsi. It was situated in Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire. Now this territory belongs to Ukraine. The ancestors of Gogol’s mother were Polish landowners. It is known that his father, Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, composed poetry both in Russian and Ukrainian. He died when Nikolai was fifteen years old. The whole family spoke both Ukrainian and Russian. When Nikolai was a child he helped his uncle with various plays in his home theater.
From 1820 to 1828 Gogol studied at a school of higher art which was located in Nizhyn. At that time he started to write. Gogol did not have many friends at school and some of his classmates called him “mysterious dwarf”. At the same time two or three of his schoolmates became his close friends.
At an early age Gogol developed taciturn temperament which was expressed by distressing self-consciousness and infinite ambition. He additionally developed a faculty for mimicry. Consequently Gogol became an incomparable reader of his writings and had an idea to be an actor.
In 1828 he left the school and moved to St Petersburg. Gogol dreamt of being literary celebrity and brought with him a poem Hans Kuchelgarten. It was later published entitled “V. Alov”. Gogol sent his work to different magazines but most of them ridiculed it. Afterwards he bought all the magazines and destroyed them. After that Gogol swore that he’d never begin writing again.
In 1831Gogol presented Ukrainian stories (Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka). This work was a great success. In a year he presented the second volume of these stories. In 1835 two volumes were in the collection of stories called Mirgorod. During this time Russian critics saw in Gogol the emergence of a Ukrainian, rather than Russian. Afterwards his writings were used for illustrating differences between Ukrainian and Russian national characters. At the same time Gogol became interested in Ukrainian history. He tried to get a job at the history department at Kiev University. The Russian minister of education and Pushkin tried to help him but eventually Gogol couldn’t obtain an appointment at this university.
Gogol’s interest in history was an incitement to him to write a fictional story Taras Bulba where he described Ukrainian Cossacks. At this time Gogol became friends with Mykhaylo Maksymovych who was a naturalist and historian. In 1834 he became Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg.
From 1832 to 1836 Gogol worked hard and during this time he was in touch with Pushkin. In April 1836 he presented his comedy The Government Inspector (Revizor). This work was an enormous success and after this event other Russian critics such as Vissarion Belinsky and Stepan Shevyrev reclassified Gogol from a Ukrainian to a Russian writer.
Between 1836 and 1848 Gogol travelled abroad. His tour included a visit to Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy and other countries. In the winter of 1836-1837 Gogol stayed in Paris where he was in touch with Polish exiles and Russian expatriates. He spent a lot of time with the Polish poets Bohdan Zalesky and Adam Mickievicz. Gogol finally moved to Rome where he spent most of his twelve years from 1836. He became interested in Italian literature, opera and art. In 1838 Gogol made the acquaintance of Count Ioseph Vielhorskiy who was 23 years old. He suffered from tuberculosis and Gogol tried to help him but Vielhorskiy died in a year.
In 1837 Pushkin died and this event made a lasting impression on Gogol. After Pushkin’s death his main work was the satirical epic Dead Souls. At the same time Gogol amended The Portrait and Taras Bulba. Moreover he wrote the second comedy Marriage (Zhenitba) and started working on his noted short story, The Overcoat.
In 1841 Gogol completed the first part of Dead Souls and brought it to Russia. This work was presented in 1842. The censorship insisted on renaming of the book. Eventually it was entitled The Adventures of Chichikov. This work made Gogol famous.
Gogol spent his last years travelling throughout the country. He also spent a lot of time with his friends such as Osyp Bodiansky, Sergei Aksakov, Maksymovych and others. His health declined. In February 1852 Gogol destroyed some of his manuscripts including the second part of Dead Souls. 9 days later he died. Gogol was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.