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PUSHKIN, ALEXANDER (1799-1837)
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See also:PUSHKIN, See also: In the See also:Lay concerning the See also:Wise See also:Oleg we see how the See also:influence of See also:Karamzin's See also:History had led the Russians to take a greater See also:interest in the See also:early records of their See also:country. The next See also:long poem was the See also:Gipsies (Tzuigani), an See also:Oriental See also:tale of love and vengeance, in which Pushkin has admirably delineated these nomads, whose See also:strange mode of See also:life fascinated him. During his stay in southern Russia he allowed himself to get mixed up with the See also:secret See also:societies then rife throughout the country. He also became embroiled with his See also:chief, See also:Count Vorontzov, who sent him to See also:report upon the See also:damages which had been committed by locustsin the southern See also:part of Bessarabia. Pushkin took this as a premeditated insult, and sent in his resignation; and Count Vorontzov in his official report requested the See also:government to remove the poet, " as he was surrounded by a society of See also:political and See also:literary fanatics, whose praises might turn his See also:head and make him believe that he was a great writer, whereas he was only a feeble imitator of See also:Lord Byron, an See also:original not much to be commended." The poet quitted See also:Odessa in 1824, and on leaving wrote a fine Ode to the Sea. Before the See also:close of the year he had returned to his See also:father's seat at Mikhailovskoe, near See also:Pskov, where he soon involved himself in trouble on all sides. In his retirement he devoted a great See also:deal of time to the study of the old Russian popular See also:poetry, the builinas, of which he became a great admirer. Recollections of Byron and See also:Andre See also:Chenier gave the inspiration to some fine lines consecrated to the latter, in which Pushkin appeared more conservative than was his wont, and wrote in a spirit antagonistic to the See also:French Revolution. In 1825 he published his tragedy Boris Godunov, a bold effort to imitate the See also:style of See also:Shakespeare. Up to this time the traditions of the Russian See also:stage, such as it was, had been French. In 1825 the See also:conspiracy of the Dekabrists See also:broke out. Many of the conspirators were See also:personal See also:friends of Pushkin, especially Kuchelbecker and Pustchin. The poet himself was to a certain extent compromised, but he succeeded in getting to his See also:house at Mikhailovskoe and burning all the papers which might have been prejudicial to him. Through influential friends he succeeded in making his See also:peace with the See also:emperor, to whom he was presented at Moscow soon after his See also:coronation. The story goes that See also:Nicholas said to Count Bludov on the same evening, " I have just been conversing with the most witty man in Russia." In 1828 appeared See also:Poltava, a spirited narrative poem, in which the expedition of See also: Notwithstanding this he aroused Pushkin's See also:jealousy by some attentions which he paid Natalia; but the grounds for the poet's anger, it must be confessed, do not appear very great. Pushkin died, after two days' suffering, on the afternoon of See also:Friday the loth of See also:February. D'Anthes was tried. by court-See also:martial and expelled the country. In 188o a statue of the poet was erected at the See also:Tver Barrier at Moscow, and fetes were held in his See also:honour, on which occasion many interesting memorials of him were exhibited to his admiring countrymen and a few foreigners who had congregated for the festivities. Pushkin See also:left four See also:children; his widow was afterwards married to an officer in the See also:army, named Lanskoi; she died in 1863. Pushkin's poetical tales are spirited and full of dramatic See also:power. The influence of Byron is undoubtedly seen in them, but they are not imitations, still less is anything in them plagiarized. Boris Godunov is a fine tragedy; on the whole Eugene Onyegin must be considered Pushkin's masterpiece. Here we have a great variety of styles—See also:satire, pathos and See also:humour mixed together. The See also:character-See also:painting is See also:good, and the descriptions of scenery introduced faithful to nature. The poem in many places reminds us of Byron, who himself in his mixture of the pathetic and the humorous was a See also:disciple of the Italian school. Pushkin also wrote a great many lyrical pieces. Interspersed among the poet's See also:minor works will be found many epigrams, but some of the best composed by him were not so fortunate as to pass the censorship, and must be read in a supplementary See also:volume published at See also:Berlin. As a prose writer Pushkin has considerable merits. Besides his History of the Revolt of Pugachev, which is perhaps too much of a compilation, he published a small volume of tales under the nom de plume of See also:Ivan Byelkin. These all show considerable dramatic power: the best are The Captain's Daughter, a tale of the times of Catherine II.; The Undertaker, a very ghostly story, which will remind the See also:English reader of some of the tales of See also:Edgar See also:Poe; The See also:Pistol Shot; and The See also:Queen of Spades. The See also:academy of St Petersburg has recently issued a See also:complete edition of the works of Pushkin, including his letters. See the bibliography in the See also:editions of Gennadi (7 vols., St Petersburg, 1861) and Annenkov (6 vols., St Petersburg, 1855). (W. R. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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