Theater as a serious and popular matter
It also started recently for us,
began in earnest with Ostrovsky.

A.A. Grigoriev

Childhood and youth

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky (1823–1886) was born in the old merchant and bureaucratic district of Zamoskvorechye. In Moscow, on Malaya Ordynka it is still preserved two-story house, in which the future was born on April 12 (March 31), 1823 great playwright. Here, in Zamoskvorechye - on Malaya Ordynka, Pyatnitskaya, Zhitnaya streets - he spent his childhood and youth.

The writer's father, Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, was the son of a priest, but after graduating from the theological academy he chose a secular profession - he became a judicial official. The mother of the future writer, Lyubov Ivanovna, also came from among the clergy. She died when the boy was 8 years old. After 5 years, the father married again, this time to a noblewoman. Successfully advancing in his career, Nikolai Fedorovich received the title of nobility in 1839, and in 1842 he retired and began to engage in private legal practice. With income from clients - mostly wealthy merchants - he acquired several estates and in 1848, having retired from business, he moved to the village of Shchelykovo, Kostroma province, and became a landowner.

In 1835, Alexander Nikolaevich entered the 1st Moscow Gymnasium and graduated in 1840. Even during his gymnasium years, Ostrovsky was attracted to literature and theater. By the will of his father, the young man entered the law faculty of Moscow University, but the Maly Theater, in which the great Russian actors Shchepkin and Mochalov played, attracts him to itself like a magnet. This was not the empty desire of a rich scoundrel who saw pleasant entertainment in the theater: for Ostrovsky the stage became life. These interests forced him to leave the university in the spring of 1843. “From a young age, I gave up everything and devoted myself entirely to art,” he later recalled.

His father still hoped that his son would become an official, and appointed him as a scribe to the Moscow Conscientious Court, which dealt mainly with family property disputes. In 1845, Alexander Nikolaevich was transferred to the office of the Moscow Commercial Court as an official at the “verbal table”, i.e. upon receipt of oral requests from applicants.

His father's law practice, life in Zamoskvorechye and service in court, which lasted almost eight years, gave Ostrovsky many subjects for his works.

1847–1851 – early period

Ostrovsky began writing back in student years. His literary views were formed under the influence of Belinsky and Gogol: from the very beginning of his literary career, the young man declared himself an adherent of the realistic school. Ostrovsky's first essays and dramatic sketches were written in Gogol's style.

In 1847, the newspaper "Moscow City Listok" published two scenes from the comedy "The Insolvent Debtor" - the first version of the comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered!" - the comedy "Picture of Family Happiness" and the essay "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident."

In 1849, Ostrovsky completed work on his first big comedy, “Our People – Let’s Be Numbered!”

The comedy ridicules the rude and greedy tyrant merchant Samson Silych Bolshov. His tyranny knows no bounds as long as he feels solid ground beneath him - wealth. But greed destroys him. Wanting to get even richer, Bolshov, on the advice of the clever and cunning clerk Podkhalyuzin, transfers all his property into his name and declares himself an insolvent debtor. Podkhalyuzin, having married Bolshov’s daughter, appropriates his father-in-law’s property and, refusing to pay even a small part of his debts, leaves Bolshov in debtor’s prison. Lipochka, Bolshov’s daughter, who became Podkhalyuzin’s wife, does not feel any pity for her father.

In the play "Our People - Let's Be Numbered" the main features of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy have already appeared: the ability to show important all-Russian problems through family and everyday conflict, to create bright and recognizable characters not only of the main ones, but also minor characters. His plays sound juicy, lively, folk speech. And each of them has a complicated, thought-provoking ending. Then nothing found in the first experiments will disappear, but only new features will “grow in.”

The position of an “unreliable” writer complicated Ostrovsky’s already difficult living conditions. In the summer of 1849, against the will of his father and without a church wedding, he married a simple bourgeois Agafya Ivanovna. The angry father refused his son further financial support. The young family was in dire need. Despite his precarious situation, Ostrovsky refused service in January 1851 and devoted himself entirely to literary activity.

1852–1855 – “Moscow period”

The first plays allowed to be staged were “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh” and “Poverty is Not a Vice.” Their appearance was the beginning of a revolution in everything theater arts. For the first time on stage, the viewer saw simple everyday life. This also required a new style of acting: the truth of life began to displace pompous declamation and “theatrical” gestures.

In 1850, Ostrovsky became a member of the so-called “young editorial staff” of the Slavophile magazine “Moskvityanin”. But relations with editor-in-chief Pogodin are not easy. Despite the enormous work he was doing, Ostrovsky remained indebted to the magazine all the time. Pogodin paid sparingly.

1855–1860 – pre-reform period

At this time, the playwright's rapprochement with the revolutionary-democratic camp took place. Ostrovsky's worldview is finally determined. In 1856, he became close to the Sovremennik magazine and became its permanent contributor. He established friendly relations with I.S. Turgenev and L.N. Tolstoy, who collaborated in Sovremennik.

In 1856, together with other Russian writers, Ostrovsky took part in the famous literary and ethnographic expedition organized by the Maritime Ministry to “describe the life, everyday life and trades of the population living along the shores of the seas, lakes and rivers of European Russia.” Ostrovsky was entrusted with surveying the upper reaches of the Volga. He visited Tver, Gorodnya, Torzhok, Ostashkov, Rzhev, etc. All observations were used by Ostrovsky in his works.

1860–1886 – post-reform period

In 1862, Ostrovsky visited Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, France and England.

In 1865 he founded an artistic circle in Moscow. Ostrovsky was one of its leaders. The artistic circle became a school for talented amateurs - future wonderful Russian artists: O.O. Sadovskoy, M.P. Sadovsky, P.A. Strepetova, M.I. Pisarev and many others. In 1870, on the initiative of the playwright, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers was created in Moscow; from 1874 until the end of his life, Ostrovsky was its permanent chairman.

Having worked for the Russian stage for almost forty years, Ostrovsky created a whole repertoire - fifty-four plays. “I wrote down all of Russian life” - from prehistoric, fairy-tale times (“The Snow Maiden”), and events of the past (the chronicle “Kozma Zakharyich Minin, Sukhoruk”) to topical reality. Ostrovsky's works remain on stage at the end of the 20th century. His dramas often sound so modern that they make those who recognize themselves on stage angry.

In addition, Ostrovsky penned numerous translations from Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goldoni, etc. His work covers a huge period: from the 40s. - the times of serfdom and until the mid-80s, marked by the rapid development of capitalism and the growth of the labor movement.

IN last decades life Ostrovsky creates a kind of artistic monument domestic theater. In 1872 he wrote verse comedy"Comedian XVII century"about the birth of the first Russian theater at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, father of Peter I. But Ostrovsky’s plays about his contemporary theater are much better known - “Talents and Admirers” (1881) and “Guilty Without Guilt” (18983). Here he showed how tempting and difficult the life of an actress is.

In a sense, we can say that Ostrovsky loved the theater the same way he loved Russia: he did not turn a blind eye to the bad and did not lose sight of what was most precious and important.

On June 14, 1886, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky died in his beloved Trans-Volga estate Shchelykovo, in the Kostroma dense forests, on the hilly banks of small winding rivers.

In connection with the thirty-fifth anniversary dramaturgical activity A.N. Ostrovsky Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov wrote:

"You have donated a whole library to literature. works of art, they created their own special world for the stage. You alone completed the building, the foundation of which was laid by Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol. But only after you, we Russians can proudly say: “We have our own Russian, national theater.” It, in fairness, should be called: “Ostrovsky Theater.”

Literature

Based on materials from the Encyclopedia for Children. Literature Part I, Avanta+, M., 1999

A. N. Ostrovsky

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is one of the most outstanding Russian playwrights, whose work has become important stage in development Russian literature And national theater. We can safely say that it was Ostrovsky’s works that laid the foundation for the Russian repertoire in the theater.

Ostrovsky's plays are known and loved by many generations of Russian viewers and readers. Filmed based on them feature films, the questions that Ostrovsky raises in his works are still relevant today.

Childhood and youth

The Russian playwright was born on March 13, 1823 in Moscow, in the family of a court official. The future playwright's mother died early; there were six children in the family. Ostrovsky's father really wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. After graduating from the Moscow Gymnasium, Alexander entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. Ostrovsky never finished it.

In 1843, Ostrovsky was hired as a court scribe and worked in various Moscow courts until 1851. This period of his life greatly helped Ostrovsky in his future work. While working in the courts, he perfectly studied the world of the Russian merchants and the philistine class, which he later brilliantly described in his works. Many characters were taken by the playwright from his real life.

First plays

In 1847, Ostrovsky’s essays entitled “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident” were published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Gorodnogo Leaflet”. However, the playwright gained wide popularity after the publication of the play “Our People - We Will Be Numbered.” This work, written in the comedy genre, was enthusiastically received by the public and received excellent reviews from critics. Gogol and Goncharov spoke approvingly of this play.

However, representatives of the merchant class did not like the work very much and after their complaint to the authorities, the play was banned from being staged, and its author was fired from his job. “We Will Be Numbered Our Own People” was allowed to be staged only after the death of Emperor Nicholas, in 1861. With the second play, Alexander Nikolaevich was much more fortunate. “Don’t Sit in Your Own Sleigh” was written by him in 1852 and already in 1853 appeared on the stage of theaters. Since 1856, Ostrovsky has been constantly working for the Sovremennik magazine.

Since 1853, every year Moscow and St. Petersburg theaters staged new plays by the playwright, and all of them were favorably received by both the public and domestic critics.

At the peak of popularity

In 1856, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky went to the Volga region to study the way of life of the inhabitants of the region. It was after this trip that Ostrovsky wrote one of his most striking plays, “The Thunderstorm.” In 1859, the first collected works of Ostrovsky were published, which were enthusiastically received by critics. In the 1860s, Ostrovsky began to study Russian history, he was especially interested in the period of the Time of Troubles.

In 1863 he was awarded the Uvarov Prize and became a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In the 60s, the playwright founded the Artistic Circle, which gave a start in life to many future stars Russian stage. In 1874, on the initiative of Ostrovsky, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was founded. In 1885, Alexander Nikolaevich became the head of the repertoire of all Moscow theaters.

All his life Ostrovsky worked extremely hard, this seriously undermined his health. In June 1886, he died on his estate in the Kostroma province. Emperor Alexander III granted a large sum for the funeral of the playwright, and also awarded a pension to his widow and allocated funds for the education of his children.

Ostrovsky's significance for Russian literature and his role in the development of Russian theater are undeniable and enormous. For Russian theater he was a figure of the same magnitude as Moliere for the French theater, and Shakespeare for the English. He has 47 plays written by him personally, and several more were written in collaboration.

Ostrovsky's plays show the life and everyday life of ordinary people; his works are very realistic, but at the same time pose deep and eternal problems to the viewer.

Ostrovsky can be called the founder of the Russian theater; he created a new drama school and a new concept of acting.

Alexander Ostrovsky
Vasily Perov. Portrait of A.N. Ostrovsky ( 1877 )
Birth name:	Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky
Date of birth:
Place of birth:	Moscow , Russian Empire
Date of death:
Place of death:	Shchelyko ́ in , Kostroma province , Russian Empire
Type of activity:	playwright

Alexa ́ ndr Nikola ́ Evich Ostro ́ Vsky(March 31 ( April 12) 1823 - June 2 (14) 1886 ) - outstanding Russian playwright, corresponding member St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences .

Origin

The father of the future playwright, a graduate of the Moscow theological seminary, served in the Moscow City Court. His mother, from a family of the clergy, died in childbirth when Alexander was seven years old.

The younger brother is a statesman M. N. Ostrovsky .

Childhood and youth

The writer's childhood and youth passed in Zamoskvorechye. The father married a second time to the daughter of a Russified Swedish baron, who was not very involved in raising the children from her husband’s first marriage. Ostrovsky was left to his own devices and became addicted to reading as a child.

Beginning of literary activity: choice in favor of dramaturgy

IN 1840 upon graduating from high school he was enrolled in legal faculty Moscow University, but in 1843 I left because I didn’t want to retake the exam. At the same time he entered the office of the Moscow Conscientious Court, and later served in the Commercial Court ( 1845 -1851 ). This experience played a significant role in Ostrovsky's work.

He entered the literary field in the second half of the 1840s. as a follower Gogolian tradition oriented towards creative principles natural school . At this time, Ostrovsky created a prose essay “ Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky resident", first comedy(play " Family picture "was read by the author on February 14 1847 in the professor's circle S. P. Shevyreva and was approved by him).

The satirical comedy “Bankrupt” brought wide fame to the playwright (“ Our people - let's be numbered », 1849 ). Based on the plot (false bankruptcy of a merchant Bolshova, the deceit and callousness of his family members - daughter Lipochka and the clerk, and then son-in-law Podkhalyuzin, who did not buy out his old father from the debt hole, Bolshov’s later insight) were based on Ostrovsky’s observations on the analysis of family litigation, obtained during his service in the conscientious court. Ostrovsky’s strengthened mastery, a new word sounded on the Russian stage, were reflected, in particular, in the combination of the spectacularly developing intrigue and vivid everyday descriptive inserts (matchmaker’s speech, bickering between mother and daughter), slowing down the action, but also giving a sense of the specifics of life and customs merchant environment. Special role here a unique, at the same time class and individual psychological coloring played a role character speeches .

Ostrovsky - "undoubtedly the first dramatic writer"

"Columbus of Zamoskvorechye"

Already in " Bankrupt"the cross-cutting theme of Ostrovsky's dramatic work has emerged: patriarchal, traditional life, as it was preserved in the merchant and bourgeois environment, and its gradual degeneration and collapse, as well as the complex relationships into which a person enters with a gradually changing way of life. Having created in forty years literary work fifty plays (some co-authored), which became the basis of the Russian public repertoire, democratic theater, Ostrovsky at different stages of his creative path imagined main topic of your creativity. So, having become in 1850 employee known for his pochvennicheskie direction of the magazine " Moskvitian"(editor M. P. Pogodin, employees A. A. Grigoriev , T. I. Filippov etc.), Ostrovsky, who was part of the so-called “young editorial staff,” tried to give the magazine a new direction - to focus on the ideas of national identity and identity, but not the peasantry (unlike the “old” Slavophiles), A patriarchal merchants .

In his subsequent plays " Don't get in your own sleigh », « Poverty is not a vice », « Don't live the way you want » ( 1852 -1855 ) the playwright tried to reflect the poetry of folk life: “In order to have the right to correct the people without offending them, you need to show them that you know what is good about them; This is what I’m doing now, combining the sublime with the comic,” he wrote during his “Muscovite” period. At the same time, the playwright became involved with the girl Agafya Ivanovna (who had four children from him), which led to a break in relations with his father. According to eyewitnesses, she was a kind, warm-hearted woman, to whom Ostrovsky owed much of his knowledge of Moscow life.

For "Moscowites" plays are characterized by famous utopianism in resolving conflicts between generations (in the comedy " Poverty is not a vice », 1854 , a happy accident upsets the marriage imposed by the tyrant father and hated by the daughter, arranges the marriage of a rich bride - Lyubov Gordeevna- with the poor clerk Mitya). But this feature of Ostrovsky’s “Muscovite” dramaturgy does not negate the realistic quality of the works of this circle. The image turns out to be complex, dialectically connecting seemingly opposite qualities. Lyubima Tortsova, the drunken brother of a tyrant merchant Gordeya Tortsova in written significantly later in the play « Warm heart » ( 1868 ). We love makes Gordey, who has lost his sober outlook on life because of his own vanity and passion, see the light false values. The play was staged for the first time January 15 1869 V Maly Theater to the benefit Provo Mikhailovich Sadovsky .

IN 1855 playwright, dissatisfied with his position in " Muscovite"(constant conflicts and meager fees), left the magazine and became close to the editors of the St. Petersburg " Contemporary » ( N. A. Nekrasov considered Ostrovsky “undoubtedly the first dramatic writer”). IN 1859 The first collected works of the playwright were published, which brought him both fame and human joy.

"Storm"

Subsequently, two trends in illuminating the traditional way of life - critical, accusatory and poetic - fully manifested themselves and were combined in Ostrovsky's tragedy " Storm » ( 1859 ). A work written within a genre framework social drama, is simultaneously endowed with the tragic depth and historical significance of the conflict. Collision of two female characters - Katerina Kabanova and her mother-in-law Marfa Ignatievna ( Kabanikha) - in scale far exceeds the conflict between generations traditional for Ostrovsky’s theater. Character main character(named N. A. Dobrolyubov"a ray of light in dark kingdom") consists of several dominants: the ability to love, the desire for freedom, a sensitive, vulnerable conscience. Showing the naturalness and inner freedom of Katerina, the playwright simultaneously emphasizes that she is nevertheless flesh and blood patriarchal way of life .

Living traditional values Katerina, having cheated on her husband, surrendering to her love for Boris, takes the path of breaking with these values ​​and is acutely aware of this. The drama of Katerina, who exposed herself to everyone and committed suicide, turns out to be endowed with the features of the tragedy of an entire historical structure, which is gradually being destroyed and becoming a thing of the past. Seal eschatologism, the feeling of the end also marks the attitude of Marfa Kabanova, Katerina’s main antagonist. At the same time, Ostrovsky’s play is deeply imbued with the experience of “poetry folk life» ( Apollon Grigoriev), song and folklore elements, a sense of natural beauty (features of the landscape are present in the stage directions and appear in the characters’ remarks).

Late stage of creativity

New heroes

The subsequent long period of the playwright’s work ( 1861 -1886 ) reveals the closeness of Ostrovsky’s search to the development paths of the contemporary Russian novel - from “ Messrs. Golovlevs » M. E. Saltykova-Shchedrina to psychological novels L. N. Tolstoy And F. M. Dostoevsky. The theme of “mad money”, greed, and shameless careerism of representatives of the impoverished nobility, combined with the wealth of psychological characteristics of the characters, and the ever-increasing art of plot-building by the playwright, sounds powerful in the comedies of the “post-reform” years. Thus, the “anti-hero” of the play “ Simplicity is enough for every wise man » ( 1868 ) Egor Glumov somewhat reminiscent Griboyedovsky Molchalina. But this is Molchalin new era: Glumov’s inventive mind and cynicism for the time being contribute to his dizzying career that had just begun. These same qualities, the playwright hints, in the finale of the comedy will not allow Glumov to disappear even after his exposure. The theme of the redistribution of life's goods, the emergence of a new social and psychological type- businessman (“ Mad money », 1869 , Vasilkov), or even a predatory businessman from the nobility (“ Wolves and sheep », 1875 , Berkutov) existed in Ostrovsky’s work until the end of his writing career. IN 1869 Ostrovsky joined new marriage after death Agafya Ivanovna from tuberculosis. From his second marriage the writer had five children.

"Forest"

Genre and compositionally complex, full of literary allusions, hidden and direct quotes from Russian and foreign literature. classical literature (Gogol , Cervantes , Shakespeare , Moliere , Schiller) comedy " Forest » ( 1870 ) sums up the first post-reform decade. The play touches on themes developed by Russian psychological prose, - the gradual ruin of the “nests of the nobility”, the spiritual decline of their owners, the stratification of the second estate and the moral conflicts in which people find themselves involved in new historical and social conditions. In this social, everyday and moral chaos, the bearer of humanity and nobility turns out to be a man of art - a declassed nobleman and provincial actor Neschastlivtsev.

In the drama genre

In addition to the “national tragedy” (“ Storm »), satirical comedy (« Forest"), Ostrovsky, at a later stage of his creativity, creates exemplary works in the genre of psychological drama (" Dowryless », 1878 , « Talents and fans », 1881 , « Guilty without guilt », 1884 ). In these plays, the playwright expands and psychologically enriches the stage characters. Correlating with traditional stage roles and commonly used dramatic moves, characters and situations are capable of changing in unexpected ways, thereby demonstrating ambiguity and inconsistency inner life human, the unpredictability of every everyday situation. Paratov- this is not only a “fatal man”, a fatal lover Larisa Ogudalova, but also a man of simple, rough everyday calculation; Karandyshev- not only " little man”, tolerating the cynical “masters of life”, but also a person with immense, painful pride; Larisa is not only a lovelorn heroine, ideally different from her environment, but also under the influence of false ideals (“ Dowryless"). The playwright’s character is equally psychologically ambiguous. Negina (« Talents and fans"): the young actress not only chooses the path of serving art, preferring it to love and personal happiness, but also agrees to the fate of a kept woman, that is, she “practically reinforces” her choice. In the fate of a famous artist Kruchinina (« Guilty without guilt") and the ascent to theatrical Olympus and a terrible personal drama are intertwined. Thus, Ostrovsky follows a path comparable to the paths of his contemporary Russian realistic prose, - ways of increasingly deeper awareness of the complexity of the inner life of the individual, the paradoxical nature of the choices he makes.

Ostrovsky Theater

Monument to Ostrovsky at the Maly Theater in Moscow

It is with Ostrovsky that Russian theater in its modern understanding begins: the writer created a theater school and a holistic concept of acting in the theater.

The essence of Ostrovsky's theater lies in the absence of extreme situations and opposition to the actor's gut. Alexander Nikolaevich's plays depict ordinary situations with ordinary people, whose dramas go into everyday life and human psychology.

The main ideas of theater reform:

• the theater must be built on conventions (there is a 4th wall separating the audience from the actors);
• constancy of attitude towards language: mastery speech characteristics, expressing almost everything about the heroes;
• the bet is on the entire troupe, and not on one actor;
• “People go to watch the game, not the play itself - you can read it.”

Ostrovsky's theater required a new stage aesthetics, new actors. In accordance with this, Ostrovsky creates an acting ensemble, which includes such actors as Martynov , Sergey Vasiliev , Evgeny Samoilov , Prov Sadovsky .

Naturally, innovations met opponents. He was, for example, Shchepkin. Ostrovsky's dramaturgy required the actor to detach himself from his personality, which M. S. Shchepkin did not do. For example, he left the dress rehearsal of “The Thunderstorm” being very dissatisfied with the author of the play.

Ostrovsky's ideas were brought to their logical conclusion Stanislavsky .

Folk myths and national history in Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy

A special place in Ostrovsky’s heritage is occupied by “ spring fairy tale» « Snow Maiden » ( 1873 ). At the beginning of 1873 Maly Theater was closed for renovation. Three troupes of the imperial Moscow theaters, drama, opera and ballet, were to perform on stage Bolshoi Theater , and performances were needed in which all three troupes could be involved. The directorate approached Ostrovsky with a proposal to write a corresponding play. At the personal request of the playwright, the music was ordered for the 33-year-old P.I. Tchaikovsky, a young professor at the Moscow Conservatory, who was already the author of two outstanding symphonies and three operas. "The Snow Maiden" became a bridge on his creative path from his first compositional experiments and brilliant insights to " Swan Lake", "To Eugene Onegin". In "The Snow Maiden" Ostrovsky's poetic and utopian views on the possibility of harmonious relations between people are clothed in the form of a literary "fairy tale for the theater", in which images appear related to the images Slavic mythology . IN 1881 year on stage Mariinsky Theater the opera premiered successfully N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov "Snow Maiden", which the composer called his best work. A. N. Ostrovsky himself appreciated the creation Rimsky-Korsakov: "Music to my" Snow Maiden“amazing, I could never imagine anything more suitable for her and so vividly expressing all the poetry of the Russian pagan cult and this first snow-cold, and then uncontrollably passionate heroine of the fairy tale.”

The playwright also addresses historical genres - chronicles , tragedies , comedies written on topics Russian history : « Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk » ( 1861 , 2nd edition 1866 ), « Voivode » ( 1864 , 2nd edition 1885 ), « Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky » ( 1866 ) etc. National history provides Ostrovsky with material for creating large, energetic characters, for the widespread use of the heroic principle in drama.

Demise

At the end of his life, Ostrovsky finally achieved material wealth (he received a lifetime pension of 3 thousand rubles), and also in 1884 took the position of head of the repertory department of Moscow theaters (the playwright dreamed of serving the theater all his life). But his health was undermined, his strength was exhausted. He died on his estate Shchelykovo from a hereditary disease - angina pectoris .

Municipal educational institution "Lyceum "School of Managers"

"The Life and Work of A.N. Ostrovsky"

Students of class 9B

Poltorykhina Anastasia.

Novomoskovsk 2010

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Biography, life story of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky

Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich, the great Russian playwright, was born on Malaya Ordynka in Moscow in 1823 on the 12th of April (or according to the old style on March 31) in the family of a judicial official Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky. His mother, Lyubov Ivanovna, née Savvina, passed away when the boy was only eight years old. Alexander received an excellent education at home. At the age of 12, the boy was sent to the First Moscow Gymnasium, from which he graduated five years later in 1840. At the same time, Alexander entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. However, he left him already in 1843: jurisprudence ceased to interest the future playwright and Ostrovsky seriously decided to take up literature. Nevertheless, at the insistence of his father, he entered the service of the conscientious court in Moscow, and in 1845 he went to work in the office of the commercial court.

Serving in the courts for almost eight years and his father's practice as a lawyer gave the future playwright a wealth of material for plays. By 1846, Ostrovsky had already written a lot interesting scenes from merchant life and had already sketched the comedy “The Insolvent Debtor,” which appeared in the magazine “Moskvityanin” in 1849 under the final title “Our People - We Will Be Numbered.” Alexander Nikolaevich became an employee of this magazine in 1851, leaving his service in court in order to finally devote himself to professional literary creativity. It should be noted that although the play evoked quite approving responses and influential Moscow merchants She was offended by her class and began to complain to the “boss.” As a result, the comedy was banned from production, and Ostrovsky, by personal order of Emperor Nicholas I, was placed under police supervision. The supervision was lifted only after the accession of Emperor Alexander II. In 1861, the play was allowed to be staged in theaters.

Since 1853, for more than thirty years, almost every season, new plays by Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky appeared in the St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky and Moscow Maly theaters.

CONTINUED BELOW

The playwright created about 50 plays. The treasury of Russian drama included “A Profitable Place” (1856) and “The Thunderstorm” (1859), to which Nikolai Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov dedicated famous article, included in the golden fund of domestic criticism - “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom.” Next came “Mad Money” (1869), the play “The Forest” (1870), the charming fairy tale “The Snow Maiden” (1873), the cruel “Dowry” (1878) and many other wonderful plays. One might say, a whole brilliant era in the development of Russian theater is associated with the name of Alexander Nikolaevich. Ostrovsky also worked on translations of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Goldoni, and Terence. Ostrovsky's creativity covered a huge period in the development of Russia in the nineteenth century - beginning in the era of serfdom in the forties and marking the development of capitalism in the eighties. In 1856, Ostrovsky became a permanent contributor to Sovremennik, the famous magazine published by.

It was Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy that played decisive role in the development of the Russian theater, in the establishment of a bright and original repertoire on the Russian stage, contributed to the actual formation of the Russian national stage school. Ostrovsky founded an artistic circle in Moscow in 1865, becoming one of its leaders. On his initiative, the Society of Dramatic Russian Writers was formed in 1870. Alexander Nikolaevich was its permanent chairman from 1874 until the very end of his life.

In the period 1881-1884, Ostrovsky took an active part in the work of the state commission, whose task was to revise the regulations on the Imperial Theaters. On January 1, 1886, the great playwright was appointed head of the repertoire department of Moscow theaters. However, by this time, Alexander Nikolaevich’s health had already deteriorated greatly and he died on his Shchelykovo estate, which is located in the Kostroma province and where the Ostrovsky Museum-Reserve is now located, on the 14th (2nd old style) of June 1886.

Alexander Nikolaevich had an extremely deep personal relationship with one of the Maly Theater actresses, Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya-Nikulina, but both of them had families. Ostrovsky initially lived with the Moscow bourgeois Agafya Ivanovna in a civil marriage, but all their children early age died. Uneducated but smart woman, with an easily vulnerable and very subtle soul, she understood the playwright perfectly and was for him the very first reader of his plays and a critic of all his works. Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for about twenty years, and then in 1869, two years after her death, he married another artist of the Maly Theater, Maria Vasilievna Bakhmetyeva. She gave birth to Alexander Nikolaevich two daughters and four sons.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ALEXANDER OSTROVSKY

Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich (1823-1886), playwright

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on April 12, 1823 in Moscow into the family of a judicial official. Received a good home education. At the age of 12 he was sent to the 1st Moscow Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1840. Then he entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. In 1843 he left the university: legal sciences ceased to interest him, and decided to seriously study literature. However, at the insistence of his father, he entered the service of the Moscow Conscientious Court, and then (1845) moved to the office of the Moscow Commercial Court.

His father's legal practice and service in court for almost eight years gave the future playwright rich material for his plays. In 1849, the comedy “Our People Are Numbered” was published in the Moskvityanin magazine, and Ostrovsky became an employee of the magazine. In 1851, he left the service to devote himself to literary creativity.

Ostrovsky created about 50 plays (“Profitable Place”, 1856; “The Thunderstorm”, 1859; “Mad Money”, 1869; “Forest”, 1870; “Snow Maiden”, 1873; “Dowry”) ", 1878, and many others). An entire era in the development of Russian theater is associated with the name of Ostrovsky. He is the author of translations from Cervantes, Shakespeare, Terence, Goldoni. His work covers a huge period of Russian development in the 19th century. - from the era of serfdom in the 40s. before the development of capitalism in the 80s.

Ostrovsky's dramaturgy played a decisive role in establishing an original and vibrant repertoire on the Russian stage and contributed to the formation of a national stage school. In 1865, Ostrovsky founded an artistic circle in Moscow and became one of its leaders. In 1870, on his initiative, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers was created, of which he was the permanent chairman from 1874 until the end of his life.

In 1881-1884. Ostrovsky took part in the work of the commission to revise the regulations on the Imperial Theaters. On January 1, 1886, he was appointed head of the repertoire department of Moscow theaters. But by this time the playwright’s health had already deteriorated greatly, and on June 14, 1886, Ostrovsky died on the Shchelykovo estate in Kossush, Troma province.