Aleksey Pisemsky
Encyclopedia
Aleksey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky ( – ) was a Russian novelist and dramatist who was regarded as an equal of Ivan Turgenev
and Fyodor Dostoevsky
during his lifetime, but whose reputation suffered a spectacular decline in the 20th century. A realistic playwright, along with Aleksandr Ostrovsky he was responsible for first dramatising ordinary people in the theatre of Russia. D.S. Mirsky said: "Pisemsky's great narrative gift and exceptionally strong grip on reality make him one of the best Russian novelists."
His first novel Boyarschina (Боярщина, 1847 [published 1858]) was originally forbidden for its unflattering description of the Russian nobility. His principal novels are The Muff (Тюфяк- translated into English as The Simpleton), 1850; One Thousand Souls (Тысяча душ, 1858), which is considered his best work of the kind; and Troubled Seas (Взбаламученное море), giving a picture of the excited state of Russian society about the year 1862. He also wrote plays, including A Bitter Fate
(Горькая судьбина, also translated as "A Hard Lot"), which depicts the dark sides of the Russian peasantry. The play has been called the first Russian realistic tragedy; it won the Uvarov prize of the Russian Academy.
in the province of Kostroma
. In his autobiography, he describes his family as belonging to the ancient Russian nobility, but his more immediate progenitors were all very poor and unable to read or write. His grandfather ploughed the fields as a simple peasant
, and his father, as Pisemsky himself said, was washed and clothed by a rich relative, and placed as a soldier
in the army
, from which he retired as a major after thirty years of service. During childhood, Pisemsky read eagerly the translated works of Walter Scott
and Victor Hugo
, and later those of Shakespeare, Schiller, Goethe, Rousseau, Voltaire
and George Sand
.
of Kostroma he passed through Moscow State University
, and in 1844 entered the government service as a clerk in his native province. Between 1854 and 1872, when he finally quit the civil service
, he occupied similar posts in St.Petersburg and Moscow. His early works exhibit a profound disbelief in the higher qualities of humanity, and a disdain for the opposite sex, although he appears to have been attached to a particularly devoted and sensible wife.
His first work to appear in print was the obscure short story Nina, in 1848. His short novel The Simpleton, the story of a young idealist who dies after his illusions have been destroyed, gained him more attention. With the publication of The Simpleton, and with the help of his friend Alexander Ostrovsky, he was soon accepted into the circle of the leading Moscow literary journal of the 1850s Moskvityanin. There he published his first play The Hypochondriac, and his first work in a three part cycle called Sketches of Peasant life, which made his reputation as a chronicler of the life of the common people.
In 1854 he moved from Kostroma to St.Petersburg. The literary society of St. Petersburg regarded him as a coarse peasant with few social graces and a provincial accent. This didn't prevent him, however, from achieving a solid career in literature, and by the end of the 1850s his reputation was at its peak.
In 1856 he was sent, together with other literary men, to report on the ethnographical
and commercial condition of the Russian interior, his particular field of inquiry being Astrakhan
and the region of the Caspian Sea
.
In 1858 he joined the staff of the literary journal Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya, and later became its editor. He also published his popular novel One Thousand Souls in 1858. The Title One Thousand Souls refers to the number of serfs a landowner had to have in order to be considered wealthy. His play A Bitter Fate was published in 1859, and his short novel An Old Man's Sin in 1861.
His scepticism in regard to the liberal
reforms of the sixties made him very unpopular among the more progressive writers of that time. During the early 1860s he published a series of satirical articles attacking the radical intelligentsia. The negative response to them led Pisemsky to move to Moscow in 1863, where he lived for the rest of his life. He made a fictional reply to his enemies with the publication of his long novel Troubled Seas (1863).
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
and Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....
during his lifetime, but whose reputation suffered a spectacular decline in the 20th century. A realistic playwright, along with Aleksandr Ostrovsky he was responsible for first dramatising ordinary people in the theatre of Russia. D.S. Mirsky said: "Pisemsky's great narrative gift and exceptionally strong grip on reality make him one of the best Russian novelists."
His first novel Boyarschina (Боярщина, 1847 [published 1858]) was originally forbidden for its unflattering description of the Russian nobility. His principal novels are The Muff (Тюфяк- translated into English as The Simpleton), 1850; One Thousand Souls (Тысяча душ, 1858), which is considered his best work of the kind; and Troubled Seas (Взбаламученное море), giving a picture of the excited state of Russian society about the year 1862. He also wrote plays, including A Bitter Fate
A Bitter Fate
A Bitter Fate , also translated as A Bitter Lot, is an 1859 realistic play by Aleksey Pisemsky. The play tackles serfdom in Russia and the social and moral divisions that it creates by means of a story that focuses on a provincial ménage à trois...
(Горькая судьбина, also translated as "A Hard Lot"), which depicts the dark sides of the Russian peasantry. The play has been called the first Russian realistic tragedy; it won the Uvarov prize of the Russian Academy.
Early life
Aleksey Pisemsky was born on his father's estateEstate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
in the province of Kostroma
Kostroma
Kostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma Rivers...
. In his autobiography, he describes his family as belonging to the ancient Russian nobility, but his more immediate progenitors were all very poor and unable to read or write. His grandfather ploughed the fields as a simple peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
, and his father, as Pisemsky himself said, was washed and clothed by a rich relative, and placed as a soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
in the army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
, from which he retired as a major after thirty years of service. During childhood, Pisemsky read eagerly the translated works of Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
and Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
, and later those of Shakespeare, Schiller, Goethe, Rousseau, Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
and George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
.
Career
From the gymnasiumGymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
of Kostroma he passed through Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
, and in 1844 entered the government service as a clerk in his native province. Between 1854 and 1872, when he finally quit the civil service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
, he occupied similar posts in St.Petersburg and Moscow. His early works exhibit a profound disbelief in the higher qualities of humanity, and a disdain for the opposite sex, although he appears to have been attached to a particularly devoted and sensible wife.
His first work to appear in print was the obscure short story Nina, in 1848. His short novel The Simpleton, the story of a young idealist who dies after his illusions have been destroyed, gained him more attention. With the publication of The Simpleton, and with the help of his friend Alexander Ostrovsky, he was soon accepted into the circle of the leading Moscow literary journal of the 1850s Moskvityanin. There he published his first play The Hypochondriac, and his first work in a three part cycle called Sketches of Peasant life, which made his reputation as a chronicler of the life of the common people.
In 1854 he moved from Kostroma to St.Petersburg. The literary society of St. Petersburg regarded him as a coarse peasant with few social graces and a provincial accent. This didn't prevent him, however, from achieving a solid career in literature, and by the end of the 1850s his reputation was at its peak.
In 1856 he was sent, together with other literary men, to report on the ethnographical
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
and commercial condition of the Russian interior, his particular field of inquiry being Astrakhan
Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...
and the region of the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
.
In 1858 he joined the staff of the literary journal Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya, and later became its editor. He also published his popular novel One Thousand Souls in 1858. The Title One Thousand Souls refers to the number of serfs a landowner had to have in order to be considered wealthy. His play A Bitter Fate was published in 1859, and his short novel An Old Man's Sin in 1861.
His scepticism in regard to the liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
reforms of the sixties made him very unpopular among the more progressive writers of that time. During the early 1860s he published a series of satirical articles attacking the radical intelligentsia. The negative response to them led Pisemsky to move to Moscow in 1863, where he lived for the rest of his life. He made a fictional reply to his enemies with the publication of his long novel Troubled Seas (1863).
Later life
He started to drink heavily, and avoided appearing in public during the last decade of his life. He died in Moscow in 1881, only a week before the death of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.Works
Fiction
- Nina (1848)
- The Simpleton/The Muff (1850)
- The Comic Actor (1851)
- Boyarschina (1858)
- One Thousand Souls (1858)
- An Old Man's Sin (1861)
- Troubled Seas (1863)
- Men of the Forties (1869)
- In the Vortex (1871)
- The Mason (1880)
Drama
- The Hypochondriac (Ипохондрик, 1852)
- The Allotment (1852)
- A Bitter FateA Bitter FateA Bitter Fate , also translated as A Bitter Lot, is an 1859 realistic play by Aleksey Pisemsky. The play tackles serfdom in Russia and the social and moral divisions that it creates by means of a story that focuses on a provincial ménage à trois...
(1859) - Lieutenant Gladkov (1864)
- The Warriors and Those Who Wait (1864)
- Men Above the Law (Самоуправцы, 1868)
- Predators (1872)
- Baal (Ваал, 1873)
- The Financial Genius (1876)
English Translations
- The Old Proprietress, (Story), from Anthology of Russian Literature, Vol 2, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1903.
- One Thousand Souls, (Novel), Grove Press, NY, 1959.
- A Bitter Fate, (Play), from Masterpieces of the Russian Drama, Vol 1, Dover Publications, NY, 1961.
- Nina, The Comic Actor, and An Old Man's Sin, (Short Novels), Ardis Publishers, 1988.
- The Simpleton, (Novel), Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow.
Sources
- Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN 0-521-43437-8.
- Bibliography- Introduction to Nina, The Comic Actor, and An Old Man's Sin, Maya Jenkins, Ardis Publishers, 1988.
- Bibliography- Handbook of Russian Literature, Victor Terras, Yale University Press 1990.
- Bibliography- McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, Volume 1, Stanley Hochman, McGraw-Hill, 1984.