Maybe that stories about imaginary auditors were known to Gogol from other sources. In any case, from the words of A. S. Danilevsky, Gogol’s friend from the gymnasium, V. I. Shenrok wrote down that in 1835, returning from his summer trip through Kyiv, Gogol, along with Pashchenko and Danilevsky, acted out “The Inspector General” on the way to St. Petersburg . “The original rehearsal of The Inspector General was performed here, with which Gogol was intensely occupied at that time. Gogol wanted to thoroughly study the impression he would make on stationmasters his revision with an imaginary incognito.
For this purpose, he asked Pashchenko to go ahead and spread the word everywhere that an auditor was following him, carefully concealing the real purpose of his trip. Paschenko left several hours early and arranged it so that everyone at the stations was already prepared for the arrival and meeting of the imaginary auditor. Thanks to this maneuver, which was remarkably successful, all three rode with extraordinary speed, whereas other times they often had to wait for several hours for horses, etc.” .
The fear of audits and auditors lived constantly among officials. This fear forced us to take every unusual traveler who found himself in one city or another as an auditor. For example, composer M.I. Glinka tells how he was once also mistaken for an auditor. He wrote about this to P.V. Kukolnik on June 19, 1838: “I will tell you about the details of the trip orally, when we meet, in general it is boring and difficult, but there were some funny and amusing things that often brought Gogol to mind. In Pereyaslavl, I could have played the role of an auditor - they were expecting a governor-general official there, and they took me for him, the mayor himself came to me in full robes, but I was content with mercilessly robbing the bishop’s choir.”2 M. I. Glinka spoke about this in his “Notes”.
Researchers do not have a unanimous opinion about the beginning of Gogol’s work on The Inspector General.
Commentators full meeting works of Gogol, V.V. Gippius and V.L. Komarovich write that, having returned to St. Petersburg on October 23, 1835, Pushkin, in one of his first meetings with Gogol, gave him the plot of “The Inspector General”. From this time, that is, from the end of October - early November 1835, Gogol's work on the comedy began. Its first draft edition was written very quickly: Gogol’s letter to Pogodin dated December 6, 1835 already speaks of the completion of not only this, but also the second draft edition of The Inspector General.
A. S. Dolinin doubts the possibility of such a quick completion of the first two draft editions of The Inspector General. Gogol, who, according to him, usually “honed” his works for a long time, could not write about thirteen printed pages in a month and a half. Pushkin, Dolinin suggests, could have conveyed his plot to Gogol much earlier, even in the first years of their acquaintance. “The story remained in Gogol’s memory, - at first, - so to speak, - without movement; resurrected when the thought of the last comedy came..., that is, back in the first half of 1835"
It is likely that Pushkin could have conveyed the plot of The Government Inspector to Gogol in 1835, but regarding the “almost supernaturally fast” completion of the two draft editions of the comedy, it should be noted that the rough drafts were almost always done by Gogol very quickly; a lot of time was spent on the subsequent “honing” of the work.
A. S. Dolinin is inclined to consider the letter to Pushkin dated October 7, 1835 as one of those letters from Gogol in which it is not easy to establish the line between fiction and reality. Without insisting on his hypotheses, A. S. Dolinin suggests that by the time of the meeting with Pushkin (late October - early November 1835), Gogol already had the first draft edition of “The Inspector General” ready. He believes that during this meeting the writers talked
about the plot of the comedy and Pushkin reminded (or told Gogol for the first time) about his Orenburg journey and Buturlin’s letter to Perovsky. This story changed Khlestakov’s path: “instead of Tula - Penza, instead of Ekaterinoslav - Saratov province. The handwritten editions are quite consistent with this: Khlestakov’s path through Tula to the Ekaterinoslav province, that is, along Svinin’s route - in the first draft edition, written, in our opinion, before the October meeting with Pushkin. The second edition, which Gogol has in mind in his letter to Pogodin, was written after the meeting with Pushkin, and Khlestakov’s route is already wavering: the province still remains Ekaterinoslav, immediately corrected to Saratov, and he plays cards in Penza, and not in Tula . The comedy was not created by “spirit” at all: a month and a half... was spent not on creating, but on revising the draft version.”
The information given by A. S. Danilevsky above confirms some of the considerations of A. S. Dolinin. O. M. Bodyansky also writes that Gogol associated the first thought about the “imaginary auditor” with the story of Svinin’s trip to Bessarabia that he heard from Pushkin. It is possible that this actually determined Khlestakov’s original route. However, all this does not serve as proof of A.S. Dolinin’s assumption that by the time of his meeting with Pushkin in the fall of 1835, Gogol had already written a draft edition of The Inspector General.
Need to download an essay? Click and save - » The history of Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General”. And the finished essay appeared in my bookmarks.The idea of writing a comedy came to Gogol while working on another famous work "Dead Souls". In correspondence with Pushkin, he asked him to write the plot of a comedy of five acts.
It is clear that parallel work on Dead souls influenced the writing of comedy. In his confession, he reported that he had collected in one work all the worst things in Russia and all the injustice that he had ever seen.
It took him about two months to complete his idea, but even after writing and editing the comedy, work on it continued long time. The author made major changes to the works after the production at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The premiere took place in 1836. Even Nicholas I himself, the Emperor of Russia, was there. The author was upset by the production, since the audience and actors did not understand the meaning of the author's idea. The actors noticed that some scenes were completely awkward, for example, when Khlestakov is the first to ask for a loan, the actor playing his role thought that it would be better if they were the first to offer him money, so the author changed the scene, and the first four scenes were also reworked.
The final version of the comedy was published in 1842. "The Inspector General", which was staged on stage and published in print publications quite a few times, aroused controversial and ambiguous opinions. Polevoy, in a newspaper called “Russian Herald,” wrote about the comedy that it was very ambiguous and criticized the plot for its lack of goals and “bad language.”
And Belinsky, unlike Polevoy, praised the comedy and said that there are no best moments in the work, since there are no worst ones.
But still, Gogol was constantly haunted by the feeling that his comedy was not always understood correctly, so he constantly wrote articles about how to play correctly and what the true meaning of comedy was.
The history of the comedy The Inspector General in detail
Russian literature is rich in names outstanding writers who worked in different time. Among them, N.V. Gogol (1809 – 1852) stands out, whose name is inscribed in golden letters in the history of world literature. Nature generously rewarded him creative abilities. He proved himself to be an outstanding prose writer, interesting artist, a talented publicist, a wonderful playwright.
N.V. Gogol's play "The Inspector General" was published and first staged at the Alexandria Theater in the spring of 1836. Writer long years I was thinking about creating a comedy on the theme of Russian life. In 1832, in a conversation with Sergei Aksakov, he spoke about the desire to “gather everything bad in Russia into one pile” and laugh at all the shortcomings of Russian life at once. To Aksakov’s doubt that there is material in life for writing such a book, N.V. Gogol objected that “the comic is hidden everywhere.” As soon as the Master describes him, “we will laugh at ourselves.”
A.S. Pushkin was a friendly and open person, so other authors often turned to him for advice and support. In October 1835 N.V. Gogol in a letter to him asked for advice interesting story from life Russian society. In response, A.S. Pushkin described an incident that happened with their mutual friend. N.V. Gogol really liked the presented plot. He quickly set to work creating the play, which was written in two months. Pushkin’s letter talked about the writer and publisher of the journal “Otechestvennye zapiski” Pavel Petrovich Svinin, whose figure is interesting because he was constantly mistaken for someone else. Being a gentle and accommodating person, he not only got used to confusion, but did not even resist it and skillfully used it for his own purposes. In St. Petersburg society, tales from his life were retold from mouth to mouth with laughter. Thus, A.S. Pushkin in his message told how P.P. Svinin in Bessarabia pretended to be some famous official, but was stopped when he went far and, apparently, already believed in his miraculous reincarnation. Feeling that the hour of reckoning was near, he retreated.
N.V. Gogol’s communication with him cannot be called pleasant. Having moved to St. Petersburg, the young writer began collaborating with a popular magazine published by P. P. Svinin. In 1829, he brought his story “Basavryuk, or the Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” to the magazine. The work was published a year later, but without mentioning the author's name. In 1830, the magazine published an article by N.V. Gogol “Poltava”, telling about his small homeland. The publisher not only distorted part of the author's text and inserted his own opinions there. The most offensive thing was that he put his name on someone else's work. Of course, any author would be outraged by such an attitude from the publisher. N.V. Gogol responded to the behavior of P.P. Svinin by publishing the book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” was included as a separate chapter. The writer removed all of Svinin’s corrections and added an introduction about how sexton Foma Grigorievich listens to the reading of the publication of his story and scolds the publisher. But best of all, N.V. Gogol paid off his offender by creating a brilliant play about a man - the shape-shifter Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, whose prototype was P.P. Svinin.
Of course, the author of “The Inspector General” had his own reasons to ridicule the shameless deceiver, but he never hid that the idea of a comedy about an imaginary inspector belonged to A. S. Pushkin and was always grateful to him for it. This work became one of the best creations of N.V. Gogol. Written almost two hundred years ago, the play does not leave us indifferent today. “The Inspector” teaches us to perform all duties with dignity and responsibility, so that we are not ashamed of our work; be honest and sincere towards people, so that you don’t have to hide for fear of exposure; avoid fawning and kowtowing to anyone.
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Many books and articles have been written about how Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol created his comedy, but the most authoritative, in our opinion, are the works of M. B. Khrapchenko and E. L. Voitolovskaya.
In his letter, dated October 7, 1835, Gogol asks Pushkin’s opinion about “Marriage,” and for one thing, since he was looking for support and was waiting for advice from Alexander Sergeevich, asks him to suggest a plot, “... at least some kind of funny or not funny, but a purely Russian joke. My hand is trembling to write a comedy in the meantime. If this doesn’t happen, then my time will be wasted, and I don’t know what to do with my circumstances... Do me a favor, let me have a comedy in spirit; five acts and, I swear, it will be funnier than the devil." Pushkin responded to Gogol’s request and shared with him a plot that worried him too. Pushkin told him the story of Pavel Petrovich Svinin, who, during a trip to Bessarabia, began to pretend to be very important and significant person, for a St. Petersburg official, and was stopped only when he began to accept petitions. Later, already in 1913, literary historian N.O. Lerner in his work “Pushkin’s plan for the “Inspector General” // Speech. 1913.” , having analyzed both Pushkin’s letters and the text of “The Inspector General” itself, he came to the conclusion that some features of Svinin and Khlestakov coincide. The prototype of Khlestakov turned out to be a painter, historian, and creator of "Notes of the Fatherland" quite well known to his contemporaries. Lerner identified Khlestakov’s lies with Svinin’s lies, and believed that their adventures were extremely similar.
After the plot was transferred by Pushkin to Gogol in 1835, Nikolai Vasilyevich began work on “The Inspector General”. The first version of the comedy was written quite quickly, as evidenced by Gogol’s letter to Pogodin, dated December 6, 1835, in which the writer talks about the completion of the first two draft editions of The Inspector General.
Researcher A. S. Dolinin in “Scientific Notes of the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute” still expresses doubt that Gogol could have accomplished such a huge and painstaking work, because, according to him, the writer “honed” his works for quite a long time. Dolinin believes that Pushkin conveyed the plot to Gogol much earlier, perhaps in the first years of acquaintance. The story about Svinin simply remained in the writer’s memory, and he decided to implement the plot when the idea of writing the latest comedy came.
And yet, most researchers of the history of literature believe that Gogol always wrote rough drafts quite quickly, but it took much more time to “perfect” them.
Voitolovskaya believes that a connection has been established between the idea of Pushkin’s plot and Gogol’s “The Inspector General,” although it is not clear exact date started working on a comedy.
The first version of "The Inspector General" was significantly reworked, as a result of which the comedy acquired a more holistic structure. But even after the second edition, the writer again made a number of changes, after which the play was finally sent to print and sent to the theater censor. But even after receiving permission to theatrical production, which was given on March 2, Gogol never ceased to improve his “The Inspector General.” The latest corrections were accepted by theater censors just a few days before the comedy hit the stage.
During the creation of The Inspector General, Gogol did not feel the difficulties that could accompany the writer’s work on a great work. The images that run through the entire play were formed immediately; already in the first edition we see everything key events, all the main characters with their distinctive features. Therefore the complexity creative process was not at all about searching storylines, but in a more vivid and accurate disclosure of the characters’ characters.
Nikolai Vasilyevich gave this work great importance, because this is precisely what can explain the fact that he continued to work on the text even after the first edition of the play. When Pogodin asked Gogol about publishing the second edition of The Inspector General, the writer replied that he needed to wait a little, since he began to redo some scenes, which, in his opinion, were executed carelessly. First of all, the scenes of the meeting of officials with Khlestakov at the beginning of the fourth act were corrected; they became more natural and energetic. After these changes, the second edition of the comedy was published in 1841, but Gogol understands that his work on The Inspector General is not yet finished. And in the fall of 1842, the writer again polished the entire play. It's all a process artistic treatment the author of his work, as a result of which the expressiveness of every detail is noticeable. There were very few scenes in the comedy that Gogol did not redo, trying to achieve depth of images and speech. Only the sixth edition of The Inspector General became final.
The history of the creation of Gogol's The Inspector General begins in the 1830s. During this period, the author worked on the poem “Dead Souls”, and in the process of describing the exaggerated features of Russian reality, he had the idea to display these features in comedy; “my hand is shaking to write... a comedy.” Previously, Gogol had already made a successful debut in this genre with the play “Marriage,” in which the author’s characteristics had already been outlined. comic devices, and the realistic orientation characteristic of subsequent works. In 1835, he wrote to Pushkin: “Do me a favor, give me a plot, the spirit will be a comedy of five acts and, I swear, it will be funnier than the devil.”
The plot suggested by Pushkin
The story proposed by Pushkin to Gogol as a plot actually happened to the publisher of the journal “Otechestvennye zapiski” P.P. Svinin in Bessarabia: in one of the district towns he was mistaken for a government official. There was a similar incident with Pushkin himself: he was mistaken for an auditor in Nizhny Novgorod, where he went to collect material about the Pugachev rebellion. In a word, this was the very “purely Russian anecdote” that Gogol needed to realize his plan.
Work on the play took only two months - October and November 1835. In January 1836, the author read out the finished comedy at an evening with V. Zhukovsky in the presence of many famous writers, including Pushkin, who suggested the idea. Almost everyone present was delighted with the play. However, the story of “The Inspector General” was still far from over.
“In The Inspector General, I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are being done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required from a person, and at one time laugh at everything.” - this is how Gogol spoke about his play; This is exactly the purpose he saw for it - merciless ridicule, cleansing satire, a weapon in the fight against the abominations and injustices that reign in society. However, almost no one, even among his fellow writers, saw in “The Inspector General” anything more than a solid, high-quality “situation comedy.” The play was not allowed to be staged immediately and only after V. Zhukovsky personally had to convince the emperor of the comedy’s reliability.
First premiere of "The Inspector General"
The premiere of the play in its first edition took place in 1836 at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Gogol was disappointed with the production: the actors either did not understand the satirical orientation of the comedy, or were afraid to play in accordance with it; the performance turned out to be too vaudeville, primitively comic. Only I.I. Sosnitsky, who played the role of the Mayor, managed to convey the author's intention and introduce satirical notes into the image. However, performed even in such a form, which was very far from the author’s desire, the comedy caused a stormy and controversial reaction. The “tops” of society, denounced by Gogol, still felt ridicule; the comedy was declared “impossibility, slander and farce”; According to unconfirmed reports, Nicholas I himself, who was present at the premiere, said: “Well, what a play!
Everyone got it, and I got it the most.” Even if these words were not actually spoken, it reflects well how the public perceived Gogol's bold creation.
And yet, the autocrat liked the play: the risky comedy was allowed for further productions. Taking into account his own observations of the game, as well as the comments of the actors, the author repeatedly made edits to the text; The creation of the play “The Inspector General” by Gogol in its final version continued for many years after the first production. The latest edition of the play dates back to 1842 - this is the version that is known to the modern reader.
Author's commentary on the comedy
The long and difficult history of the creation of the comedy “The Inspector General” is inseparable from Gogol’s numerous articles and comments on his play. The lack of understanding of the concept by the public and the actors forced him to write again and again in attempts to clarify his concept: in 1842, after staging the comedy in its final version, he published “A warning for those who would like to play “The Inspector General” properly, then “ Theater crossing after the presentation of the new comedy,” later, in 1856, “The denouement of The Inspector General.”
Conclusion
As we can see, the history of the creation of the play “The Inspector General” indicates that writing this work was not so easy for the author, taking away a lot of both his strength and time. And, nevertheless, comedy found its connoisseurs among enlightened and thinking people. The Inspector General received very high marks from many leading critics; Thus, V. Belinsky writes in his article: “In The Inspector General there are no better scenes, because there are no worse ones, but all are excellent, as necessary parts that artistically form a single whole...”. Many other representatives of enlightened society shared a similar opinion, despite the flow of criticism against the comedy and the author himself. Today, the play “The Inspector General” occupies a well-deserved place among the masterpieces of Russian classical literature and is a brilliant example of social satire.
Work test
In a letter to Pushkin dated October 7, 1835, Gogol writes: “Do me a favor, give me some kind of story, at least something, funny or not funny, but a purely Russian joke. My hand is trembling to write a comedy in the meantime.” And a few lines later, finishing the letter, Gogol repeats the request: “Do me a favor, give me a plot, the spirit will be a comedy of five acts, and, I swear, it will be funnier than the devil.” The contents of this letter show that Gogol was already thinking about the future comedy and, perhaps, making sketches for it. Pushkin, having returned to St. Petersburg from Mikhailovsky on October 23, one of the next days told Gogol the plot of a possible comedy, in which an imaginary auditor appeared. Thus, October 1835 should be considered the beginning active work Gogol's "The Inspector General".
Nevertheless, it is incorrect to believe that the credit for the appearance of the plot with the imaginary auditor belongs exclusively to Pushkin. Firstly, by the time “The Inspector General” was written, there were works with a similar plot: “Provincial Actors” (1835) by A.F. Veltman and “A Visitor from the Capital, or Turmoil in a District Town” (1827) by G.F. Kvitki-Osnovyanenko. In addition, this kind of joke or practical joke was found in real life, and the situation of a false identity itself has always been popular. And yet, the close creative relationship between the two great Russian writers in the first half of the 1830s brought rich fruits. Communication with Pushkin certainly inspired Gogol, perhaps that’s why the comedy was finished in December 1835.
The premiere of The Inspector General took place on April 19, 1836 at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The main roles were played by best actors of that time: Ivan Sosnitsky (Governor) and Nikolai Dur (Khlestakov). The play received the highest approval at the premiere; Nicholas I and his heir were present at the theater. The Emperor laughed a lot and expressed his opinion like this: “What a play! Everyone got it, and I got it more than anyone else!” Gogol was disappointed because the actors, it seemed to him, did not understand their roles and did not understand the idea of the work itself well enough. Gogol especially did not like the performance of the role of Khlestakov: in his opinion, Khlestakov was played as one of the “vaudeville jesters.” Subsequently, the author repeatedly explained his comedy, both in a specially written play for this purpose, “Theatrical Travel After the Presentation of a New Comedy” (1836-1842), and in a kind of instruction to the actors, “A warning for those who would like to play The Inspector General properly” ( 1846), and in an explanation of the ending of the comedy - “The Denouement of The Inspector General” (1846). The above examples clearly characterize Gogol as a caring, demanding artist, who is entrusted with the high responsibility of “telling the word of truth,” as Gogol himself declares in the poem “Dead Souls.”
Genre of "The Inspector General" as social comedy was determined thanks to a deeply thought-out social plot. Mine general plan Gogol expressed in famous saying: “In The Inspector General, I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are being done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required from a person, and at once laugh at everything "("Author's Confession", 1847). Gogol chose the place of action county town, the power structure in which is easily projected onto any other city in Russia, and the morals of the residents - onto the entire population of the country. Focus satirical image officials were caught abusing their position. At the same time, the criminal behavior of the city officials is depicted with such convincingness that the thought of their exclusivity does not even arise - this happens everywhere, the differences are only in the scale of abuses and the nature of their manifestation.
The image of a county town is collective. In addition to officials, it consists of portraits of city landowners, merchants, philistines, and servants. Big role play in the depiction of urban morals female images. The plot of The Inspector General is shaped by themes of provincial Russian city, officialdom and citizenship.
The plot is based on two situations: a county town living its usual life ( main character in this plot situation - the mayor), and the district city, in which a petty St. Petersburg official, an imaginary auditor, finds himself (it was called a “mirage” situation or a “situation of delusion”, and the main character in it is Khlestakov). The conflict in comedy does not arise as a result of the collision of these situations - the conflict is that they reflect, albeit in different ways, the unrighteous attitude of people towards life, duty, responsibilities, their criminal or immoral behavior. The problems of the work are formed as the conflict in the plot of the comedy is revealed. In The Inspector General there are two levels of problems - social and moral. Social issues are revealed when depicting social crimes and violations, moral - moral vices and shortcomings. The uniqueness of the social and moral layers of the work can be expressed as follows: what is in social life a crime, in a moral sense - a sin.
