Leonid Andreyev
Encyclopedia
Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev was a Russian
playwright, novelist and short-story writer. He is one of the most talented and prolific representatives of the Silver Age
period in Russian history. Andreyev's style combines elements of realist
, naturalist
and symbolist
schools in literature.
province of Russia
within a middle class family, Andreyev originally studied law in Moscow
and in Saint Petersburg
. He became police-court reporter for a Moscow daily, performing the routine of his humble calling without attracting any particular attention. At this time he wrote poetry and made a few efforts to publish it but was refused by most publishers. In 1898 his first short story, "Bargamot and Garaska" ("Баргамот и Гараська"), was published in the "Kurier" newspaper in Moscow. This story came to the attention of the burgeoning Maxim Gorky
who recommended that Andreyev concentrate on his literary work. Andreyev eventually gave up his law practice, fast becoming a literary celebrity, and the two writers remained friends for many years to come. Through Gorky, Andreyev became a member of the Moscow Sreda
literary group, and published many of his works in Gorky's Znanie
collections.
Andreyev's first collection of short stories and short novels (повести) appeared in 1901, and sold a quarter-million copies in short time. He was hailed as a new star in Russia, where his name soon became the trend. In 1902, he published "In the Fog" and "The Abyss". These two stories caused great commotion because of their candid and audicious treatment of sex. In the years between 1898 and 1905 Andreyev published numerous short stories on many subjects, including life in Russian provincial settings, court and prison incidents (here he was drawing material from his own professional life), medical settings. His particular interest in psychology and psychiatry gave him an opportunity to discover insights into the human psyche and to depict memorable personalities who later became classic characters of Russian literature ("Thought" 1902).
During the time of the first Russian revolution Andreyev actively participated in the social and political debate defending his democratic ideals. Several of his stories such as The Red Laugh ("Красный смех" (1904), Governor ("Губернатор") (1905) and The Seven Who Were Hanged
"Рассказ о семи повешенных") (1908) captured the spirit of this period. Starting from 1905 he also produced many theater dramas including The Life of Man (1906), Tsar Hunger (1907), Black Masks (1908), Anathema (1909), and The days of our life (1909). The Life of Man was staged by both Stanislavski (with his Moscow Art Theatre
) and Meyerhold
(in Saint Petersburg), the two main highlights of Russian theatre of the twentieth century, in 1907.
Andreyev's works of the period after the revolution often represent the evocation of absolute pessimism and a depairing mood. By the beginning of the second decade of the century he began losing fame as new literary powers such as Futurists
were fast arising.
Aside from his political writings, Andreyev published little after 1914. In 1916, he became the editor for the literary section of the newspaper "Russian Will." He later supported the February Revolution, but he foresaw Bolsheviks coming into power as catastrophic. In 1917, he moved to Finland. From his house in Finland
he addressed manifestos to the world at large against the excesses of the Bolshevik
s. Idealist and rebel, Andreyev spent his last years in bitter poverty, and his premature death from heart failure may have been hastened by his anguish over the results of the Bolshevik Revolution. His last novel was Satan's Diary, but he died before he finished it.
A play, The Sorrows of Belgium, was written at the beginning of the War to celebrate the heroism of the Belgians against the invading German army. It was produced in the United States
, as were the plays, The Life of Man (1917), The Rape of the Sabine Women
(1922), He Who Gets Slapped (1922), and Anathema (1923). A popular and acclaimed film version of He Who Gets Slapped
was produced by MGM Studios in 1924.
Poor Murderer
, an adaptation of his short story Thought made by Pavel Kohout
, opened on Broadway in 1976.
He was married to Countess Anna Wielhorska, a niece of Taras Shevchenko
. Their son was Daniil Andreyev
, a poet and mystic, author of Roza Mira
.
Leonid Andreyev's granddaughter, the American writer Olga Andrejew Carlisle, published a collection of his short stories, Visions, in 1987.
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
playwright, novelist and short-story writer. He is one of the most talented and prolific representatives of the Silver Age
Silver age
A silver age is a name often given to a particular period within a history, typically as a lesser and later successor to a golden age, the metal silver generally being valuable, but less so than gold.-Greek myth:...
period in Russian history. Andreyev's style combines elements of realist
Literary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
, naturalist
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
and symbolist
Russian Symbolism
Russian symbolism was an intellectual and artistic movement predominant at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It represented the Russian branch of the symbolist movement in European art, and was mostly known for its contributions to Russian poetry.-Russian symbolism in...
schools in literature.
Biography
Born in the OryolOryol
Oryol or Orel is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow...
province of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
within a middle class family, Andreyev originally studied law in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. He became police-court reporter for a Moscow daily, performing the routine of his humble calling without attracting any particular attention. At this time he wrote poetry and made a few efforts to publish it but was refused by most publishers. In 1898 his first short story, "Bargamot and Garaska" ("Баргамот и Гараська"), was published in the "Kurier" newspaper in Moscow. This story came to the attention of the burgeoning Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
who recommended that Andreyev concentrate on his literary work. Andreyev eventually gave up his law practice, fast becoming a literary celebrity, and the two writers remained friends for many years to come. Through Gorky, Andreyev became a member of the Moscow Sreda
Sreda (literary group)
The Moscow Literary Sreda was a Moscow literary group founded in 1899 by Nikolay Teleshov. The name Sreda means Wednesday, taken from the day of the week on which writers and other artists met at Teleshov's home. The last meeting of the Sreda took place in 1916...
literary group, and published many of his works in Gorky's Znanie
Znanie (publishing company)
Znanie , was a publishing company based in St. Petersburg, Russia founded by Konstantin Pyatnitsky and other members of the Committee for Literacy. It operated from 1898 until 1913.-History:...
collections.
Andreyev's first collection of short stories and short novels (повести) appeared in 1901, and sold a quarter-million copies in short time. He was hailed as a new star in Russia, where his name soon became the trend. In 1902, he published "In the Fog" and "The Abyss". These two stories caused great commotion because of their candid and audicious treatment of sex. In the years between 1898 and 1905 Andreyev published numerous short stories on many subjects, including life in Russian provincial settings, court and prison incidents (here he was drawing material from his own professional life), medical settings. His particular interest in psychology and psychiatry gave him an opportunity to discover insights into the human psyche and to depict memorable personalities who later became classic characters of Russian literature ("Thought" 1902).
During the time of the first Russian revolution Andreyev actively participated in the social and political debate defending his democratic ideals. Several of his stories such as The Red Laugh ("Красный смех" (1904), Governor ("Губернатор") (1905) and The Seven Who Were Hanged
The Seven Who Were Hanged
The Seven That Were Hanged is a 1909 novel by Russian author Leonid Andreyev. Herman Bernstein translated the novel from Russian to English.-Plot:...
"Рассказ о семи повешенных") (1908) captured the spirit of this period. Starting from 1905 he also produced many theater dramas including The Life of Man (1906), Tsar Hunger (1907), Black Masks (1908), Anathema (1909), and The days of our life (1909). The Life of Man was staged by both Stanislavski (with his Moscow Art Theatre
Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
) and Meyerhold
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...
(in Saint Petersburg), the two main highlights of Russian theatre of the twentieth century, in 1907.
Andreyev's works of the period after the revolution often represent the evocation of absolute pessimism and a depairing mood. By the beginning of the second decade of the century he began losing fame as new literary powers such as Futurists
Russian Futurism
Russian Futurism is the term used to denote a group of Russian poets and artists who adopted the principles of Filippo Marinetti's "Manifesto of Futurism"...
were fast arising.
Aside from his political writings, Andreyev published little after 1914. In 1916, he became the editor for the literary section of the newspaper "Russian Will." He later supported the February Revolution, but he foresaw Bolsheviks coming into power as catastrophic. In 1917, he moved to Finland. From his house in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
he addressed manifestos to the world at large against the excesses of the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s. Idealist and rebel, Andreyev spent his last years in bitter poverty, and his premature death from heart failure may have been hastened by his anguish over the results of the Bolshevik Revolution. His last novel was Satan's Diary, but he died before he finished it.
A play, The Sorrows of Belgium, was written at the beginning of the War to celebrate the heroism of the Belgians against the invading German army. It was produced in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as were the plays, The Life of Man (1917), The Rape of the Sabine Women
The Rape of the Sabine Women
The Rape of the Sabine Women is an episode in the legendary history of Rome in which the first generation of Roman men acquired wives for themselves from the neighboring Sabine families. The English word "rape" is a conventional translation of Latin raptio, which in this context means "abduction"...
(1922), He Who Gets Slapped (1922), and Anathema (1923). A popular and acclaimed film version of He Who Gets Slapped
He Who Gets Slapped
He Who Gets Slapped is a 1924 film starring Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert. It was directed by Victor Sjöström. The film is based on the Russian play Тот, кто получает пощёчины by playwright Leonid Andreyev, which was published in 1914 and in English, as He Who Gets Slapped, in 1922...
was produced by MGM Studios in 1924.
Poor Murderer
Poor Murderer
Poor Murderer was a 1976 Broadway play written by Pavel Kohout that premiered at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on October 20, 1976 and closed on January 2, 1977 after 87 performances.-Setting:...
, an adaptation of his short story Thought made by Pavel Kohout
Pavel Kohout
Pavel Kohout is a Czech and Austrian novelist, playwright, and poet. He was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, a Prague Spring exponent and dissident in 1970s until he was expelled to Austria...
, opened on Broadway in 1976.
Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko -Life:Born into a serf family of Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven...
. Their son was Daniil Andreyev
Daniil Andreyev
Daniil Leonidovich Andreyev was a Russian writer, poet, and Christian mystic.- Biography :...
, a poet and mystic, author of Roza Mira
Roza Mira
Roza Mira is the title of the main book by Russian mystic Daniil Andreev. It is also the name of the predicted new universal religion, to emerge and unite all people of the world before the advent of the Antichrist, described by Andreev in his book...
.
Leonid Andreyev's granddaughter, the American writer Olga Andrejew Carlisle, published a collection of his short stories, Visions, in 1987.
Sources
- Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521434378.
- Benedetti, Jean. 1999. Stanislavski: His Life and Art. Revised edition. Original edition published in 1988. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413525201.
- Carnicke, Sharon M. 2000. "Stanislavsky's System: Pathways for the Actor". In Twentieth Century Actor Training. Ed. Alison Hodge. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415194520. p. 11-36.
- "Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 06 Oct. 2010
Trivia
- Copies of his The Seven Who Were Hanged and The Red Laugh were found in the library of horror writer H. P. LovecraftH. P. LovecraftHoward Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
, as listed in the "Lovecraft's Library" catalogue by S.T. Joshi.