The novel “The Precipice” was published in the magazine “Bulletin of Europe” (1869).

History of creation

It is usually pointed out that “The Precipice” was written for almost twenty years with interruptions. In fact, Goncharov rather took on over the course of these years some heterogeneous, albeit related, plans that were not completed. The writer began writing the novel “The Artist” - this is how the image of Boris Raisky arose, and a corresponding emphasis was placed on the artistic psychology of the hero. From the beginning of the unfinished plan, the fragment “Sofya Nikolaevna Belovodova” sprang off and was published as a story (1860). The following year they were printed as independent works fragments “Grandmother” and “Portrait”. There is information that work was underway on the novel “Vera” - that is, the intended central image, and the available supplies at this stage, apparently, were internally redistributed and re-emphasized accordingly.

The “seams” and “joints” remaining in the final text of the novel after combining several “semi-finished products” into one whole are noticeable upon careful observation. The autonomy of its corresponding sections has been preserved.

The main events associated with the “Cliff” symbol, which became the final title of the work, unfold in the Volga town. But the sketches prepared for “The Artist” ended up in the text of “The Precipice”, and a viscous “biographical” beginning appeared, describing Raisky’s childhood and growing up, as well as the story of his sensitive friendship on the verge of flirting with his “first cousin” Belovodova. It is clear that these sections additionally highlight the image of Raisky (“Cliff”), but this could clearly be done in other ways and means, faster and more energetically. However, disproportions, lengthy sections and other compositional features, which it is natural to recognize as shortcomings of the narrative, sometimes turn out to be a kind of advantages. Thus, making the novel as a whole undoubtedly looser, they allow Goncharov to achieve an artistic psychologism previously unknown to him in his depiction of the image of Paradise ("Cliff").

The image of Raisky

IN final version Boris Raisky is still an artistic and creative person. In Russian literature it is difficult to find other examples of an equally insightful, detailed and attentive depiction of a personality of this type. Already in childhood it turned out that Raisky was somehow different from other people.
This hero is characterized by extraordinary observation, combined with the inability to think logically consistently in simple situations, when other children do this without difficulty, but he is sometimes able, through some incredible insight, in a non-trivial way (“through a guess sparkling in his head”) to get to the result before others .

It was Raisky with specific features his personality is chosen by Goncharov to play the role of the hero, around whom the multifaceted plot of “The Precipice” is built - both its St. Petersburg and its Volga vicissitudes. Raisky comes to the city on the Volga twice. For the first time - as a young man. Goncharov, who paid little attention landscape descriptions in the first two novels, in “The Precipice” he suddenly turns out to be a master of verbal painting. This facet of his writing talent is helped to reveal here, undoubtedly, by the fact that the native places of the author himself are described:

Marfenka and Vera

By the time of Raisky’s second visit to the Volga, his six- to seven-year-old nieces had already grown into adult girls. It seems that the reader is looking at a pair of sisters, well known in Russian literature, “Olga and Tatyana” - this time their names are Marfenka and Vera. However, the author puts unexpected meaning into their images. It is the simple and sincere Marfenka, and not the self-absorbed, but prone to arrogant judgments and “original” antics, Vera who is closer to Goncharov. Marfenka, who loves children, was created for her husband and family, and in general literally radiates moral health, is almost in Goncharov’s novel his new literary ideal of a female heroine. Vera (essentially, the spiritual successor of the main heroines “ Ordinary history" and "Oblomov") will find herself on the pages of the novel a victim of those everyday temptations from which Marfenka is absolutely protected by her naturalness, faith in God and clear morality.

Image of Mark Volokhov

In the novel, in accordance with the logic of his emotional nature, Raisky, in turn, unsuccessfully falls in love with all three of his cousins ​​(Sofya Belovodova, Marfenka and Vera). Vera is secretly friends with the local twenty-seven-year-old nihilist Mark Volokhov, who is used to constantly teasing the residents of the town with the unusualness of his appearance and behavior in life. The bitter paradox is that Vera, naturally intelligent, well-read, but prone to extravagance (and at the same time completely inexperienced), is attracted to this gentleman, who has turned his life into a continuous cheap theater, boasting that “he’s already used to doing everything in life without permission.” . Such “freedom” is not at all necessary for Marfenka, but deep down it is attractive to Vera (however, Goncharov shows that Mark is not stupid and is not without a special insidious charm, so his buffoonish impudent antics at first arouse a certain interest, mixed with pity, even in the mature Raisky). As a result, at a certain moment, at the peak of her passion, Vera gives in to Mark, committing together with him an act that is physically irreparable and according to the sound standards of Russian public morality of the 19th century. unacceptable for a girl. After this, she quickly realizes the insignificance of this “new man” and contemptuously rejects his hesitant proposals to “get married.”

Image of Tushin ("Cliff")

Unlike some heroines of “anti-nihilistic” novels of the 60s and 70s of the 19th century. Faith does not die. Her unexpected savior turns out to be the noble and magnanimous Ivan Ivanovich Tushin, who embodies in the novel Goncharov’s new ideal of a Russian person - by no means “Stolz under a Russian name.”

Tushin has the nickname “forest ranger” in the novel, since “he lived in the thicket of the forest.” This hero set up the only steam saw plant in the area, kept a “knowledgeable German”, a forestry specialist, “but did not give himself over to his tutelage,” and in free time loved to read French novels, went hunting and from time to time surprised the city with a “huge feast.” Tushin has long been in love with Vera, and it is he who she chooses to convey to Mark the refusal of further meetings. Enraged and humiliated, Mark disappears from the city, and the selfless, determined Tushin declares to his grandmother: “Give me Vera Vasilievna, give her to me!” Meanwhile, Raisky, following fresh traces of events, begins to compose the novel “Vera”...

The novel "The Break": criticism

It should be noted that there was a generally negative attitude towards his novel from “revolutionary-democratic” criticism. However, the cumbersome “Precipice” was also coolly received by critics of other directions. Such facts, however, do not provide real grounds to consider the work a “failure” of Goncharov. The judgment of contemporaries is not always fair. IN beginning of XXI V. Questions that once worried criticism, such as whether the image of Mark Volokhov is a caricature of a democratic revolutionary or, on the contrary, is not a sharp enough exposure of him, are hardly relevant anymore. The novel has many aspects that are strong in purely artistic terms.

Thus, Goncharov proved himself to be an excellent writer of everyday life in The Precipice. Word pictures The life of the Volga town amazes with the author's observation and in its visibility resembles canvases of genre painting.

Pet natural school unexpectedly affected famous writer, who resourcefully and naturally applies the literary “technique” of physiological essays from the time of his youth, saturating the narrative and description with many specific life details.

In the novel "The Cliff" Goncharov created a whole series brightly written colorful characters (chairman of the state chamber Nil Andreevich, grandmother’s old friend Tit Nikonich Vatutin, provincial “lioness” Polina Karpovna Kritskaya, university friend of Raisky teacher Leonty Kozlov and his wife Ulenka, courtyard Savely and his wife Marina, etc.).

Erotic issues

Goncharov for the first time in The Precipice paid a generous tribute to erotic issues, which until then had been a kind of prerogative of such a major contemporary novelist as A.F. Pisemsky, but was not one of the characteristic features works of Goncharov himself. It is impossible not to notice that what ultimately happened to Vera takes place in “The Precipice” against the backdrop of colorful eroticism - the reader is, as it were, prepared for this drama by the author. It is clearly no coincidence that Goncharov describes in detail, with the same picturesqueness, the adventures of two loving beauties - Ulenka and Marina. This should also include Polina Karpovna, who is in constant readiness to flirt with any new person. Yes, and Raisky is once brought into such a state by the “passionate serpent” that only Marfenka’s innocent simplicity saves the girl herself and sobers up the “brother.” Naturally, all this is depicted in such detail by the writer, since it highlights the unfavorable moral state modern society, contributing to the troubles that youth find themselves in. However, Goncharov, perhaps, sometimes gets too carried away in escalating such conflicts, almost hiddenly admiring the same Marina.

Boris Pavlovich Raisky takes the main role in the novel by Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov. He lives a calm and trouble-free life. On the one hand, he does everything and then nothing. He tries to find himself in art, wanting to be an artist, a poet, and a sculptor. But due to his intolerance and lack of desire to work and work, he fails to succeed in more than one area.

Then Boris decides to take a breath and relax at his country estate in Malinovka, which is looked after by his relative Tatyana Markovna. She lives there with her two great-nieces Vera and Marfenka, who were left without parents.

Boris immediately begins to take an interest in Marfenka, tells her about art, trying to instill beauty in her. But Vera, who was visiting her friend, returns to the estate and immediately turns Raisky’s attention to herself. But unfortunately for Boris, he finds out that the girl is attracted to a very difficult guy, who is also under police control. Raisky catches the lovers; a strong disgust for Vera immediately awakens in him. And the girl herself is very worried and very sick because of what happened.

After Tatyana Markovna finds out what happened to Vera, she gets very upset and blames herself for it. Tatyana Markovna says that in her youth she also committed a very deplorable offense, thanks to which she still has to repent.

Boris is overcome by the feeling that he has finally found his path and he decides to go to Europe to pursue his dream. Marfenka marries her neighbor Vikenty and lives a calm and carefree life. Vera remains with Tatyana Markovna, and they both try together to atone for their sins. As a result, the essence of the novel remains that you should not look for your break in life, but it is better to follow the right and conscientious path, working on yourself and your ideals.

Picture or drawing Break

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"Cliff"

The St. Petersburg day is approaching evening, and everyone who usually gathers at the card table begins to put themselves in appropriate shape by this hour. Two friends - Boris Pavlovich Raisky and Ivan Ivanovich Ayanov - are going to spend this evening again in the Pakhotin house, where the owner himself, Nikolai Vasilyevich, his two sisters, old maids Anna Vasilievna and Nadezhda Vasilievna, live, as well as a young widow, Pakhotin’s daughter, a beauty Sofya Belovodova, who is the main interest in this house for Boris Pavlovich.

Ivan Ivanovich is a simple, unpretentious man; he goes to the Pakhotins only to play cards with inveterate gamblers and old maids. Another thing is Raisky; he needs to stir up Sophia, his distant relative, turning her from cold marble statue into a living, passionate woman.

Boris Pavlovich Raisky is obsessed with passions: he draws a little, writes a little, plays music, putting the strength and passion of his soul into all his activities. But this is not enough - Raisky needs to awaken the passions around him in order to constantly feel himself in the boiling of life, at that point of contact of everything with everything, which he calls Ayanov: “Life is a novel, and a novel is life.” We get to know him at the moment when “Raisky is over thirty years old, and he has not yet sowed, reaped, or walked on any of the ruts that those who come from inside Russia walk on.”

Having once arrived in St. Petersburg from a family estate, Raisky, having learned a little of everything, did not find his calling in anything.

He understood only one thing: the main thing for him was art; something that particularly touches the soul, making it burn with passionate fire. In this mood, Boris Pavlovich goes on vacation to the estate, which, after the death of his parents, is managed by his great-aunt Tatyana Markovna Berezhkova, an old maid who, in time immemorial, was not allowed by her parents to marry her chosen one, Tit Nikonovich Vatutin. He remained a bachelor and he continues to visit Tatyana Markovna all his life, never forgetting gifts for her and the two girls relatives whom she raises - the orphans Verochka and Marfenka.

Malinovka, Raisky's estate, a blessed corner in which there is a place for everything pleasing to the eye. Only the terrible cliff that ends the garden frightens the inhabitants of the house: according to legend, at the bottom of it there is a distant times“killed his wife and rival for infidelity, and then stabbed himself to death, alone jealous husband, a tailor from the city. The suicide was buried here, at the crime scene.”

Tatyana Markovna joyfully greeted her grandson who had arrived for the holidays - she tried to introduce him to the business, show him the farm, get him interested in it, but Boris Pavlovich remained indifferent to both the farm and the necessary visits. His soul could only be touched by poetic impressions, and they had nothing to do with either the thunder of the city, Nil Andreevich, to whom his grandmother certainly wanted to introduce him, or with the provincial coquette Polina Karpovna Kritskaya, or with the popular popular family of old men Molochkovs, like Philemon and Baucis who had lived their lives inseparable...

The holidays flew by, and Raisky returned to St. Petersburg. Here, at the university, he became close to Leonty Kozlov, the son of a deacon, “clogged with poverty and timidity.” It is unclear what could bring such different young people together: a young man dreaming of becoming a teacher somewhere in a remote Russian corner, and a restless poet, artist, obsessed with the passions of a romantic young man. However, they became truly close to each other.

But university life is over, Leonty left for the province, and Raisky still cannot find a real job in life, continuing to be an amateur. And his white marble cousin Sophia still seems to Boris Pavlovich to be the most important goal in life: to awaken a fire in her, to make her experience what the “thunderstorm of life” is, to write a novel about her, to draw her portrait... He spends all the evenings with the Pakhotins, preaching to Sophia the truth of life. On one of these evenings, Sophia’s father, Nikolai Vasilyevich, brings Count Milari, “an excellent musician and a most amiable young man,” to the house.

Returning home on that memorable evening, Boris Pavlovich cannot find a place for himself: he either peers at the portrait of Sophia he began, or rereads the essay he once started about a young woman in whom he managed to awaken passion and even lead her to a “fall” - alas , Natasha is no longer alive, and the true feeling was never captured in the pages he wrote. “The episode, turned into a memory, seemed to him like an alien event.”

Meanwhile, summer came, Raisky received a letter from Tatyana Markovna, in which she called her grandson to the blessed Malinovka, and a letter also came from Leonty Kozlov, who lived near Raisky’s family estate. “This is fate sending me...” decided Boris Pavlovich, already bored with awakening passions in Sofya Belovodova. In addition, there was a slight embarrassment - Raisky decided to show the portrait he painted of Sofia to Ayanov, and he, looking at Boris Pavlovich’s work, pronounced his verdict: “She looks like she’s drunk here.” The artist Semyon Semenovich Kirilov did not appreciate the portrait, but Sofia herself found that Raisky flattered her - she is not like that...

The first person that Raisky meets in the estate is a young charming girl, not noticing him, busy feeding poultry. Her whole appearance breathes such freshness, purity, and grace that Raisky understands that here, in Malinovka, he is destined to find the beauty in search of which he languished in cold Petersburg.

Raisky is joyfully greeted by Tatyana Markovna, Marfenka (she turned out to be that same girl), and the servants. Only cousin Vera is visiting her priest friend across the Volga. And again, the grandmother tries to captivate Raisky with household chores, which still do not interest Boris Pavlovich at all - he is ready to give the estate to Vera and Marfenka, which angers Tatyana Markovna...

In Malinovka, despite the joyful worries associated with Raisky’s arrival, everyday life goes on: the servant Savely is called upon to give an account of everything to the arriving landowner, Leonty Kozlov teaches the children.

But here's a surprise: Kozlov turned out to be married, and to whom! On Ulenka, the flirtatious daughter of “the housekeeper of some government institution in Moscow,” where they kept a table for incoming students. They were all a little in love with Ulenka then, only Kozlov did not notice her cameo profile, but it was him who she eventually married and went to the far corner of Russia, to the Volga. Various rumors are circulating about her around the city, Ulenka warns Raisky about what he might hear, and asks in advance not to believe anything - obviously in the hope that he, Boris Pavlovich, will not remain indifferent to her charms...

Returning home, Raisky finds an estate full of guests - Tit Nikonovich, Polina Karpovna, everyone has come to look at the matured owner of the estate, his grandmother’s pride. And many sent congratulations on your arrival. And the usual one rolled along the well-trodden rut village life with all its charms and joys. Raisky gets to know the surrounding area and delves into the lives of people close to him. The courtyards sort out their relationship, and Raisky becomes a witness wild jealousy Savely to his unfaithful wife Marina, Vera's trusted servant. This is where true passions boil!..

And Polina Karpovna Kritskaya? Who would willingly succumb to Raisky’s sermons if it occurred to him to captivate this aging coquette! She literally goes out of her way to attract his attention, and then spread the news throughout the town that Boris Pavlovich could not resist her. But Raisky shrinks away in horror from the love-crazed lady.

Quietly, calmly the days drag on in Malinovka. Only Vera still doesn’t return from the priesthood; Boris Pavlovich does not waste time - he tries to “educate” Marfenka, slowly finding out her tastes and passions in literature and painting, so that he can begin to awaken true life in her. Sometimes he goes to Kozlov’s house. And one day he meets Mark Volokhov there: “fifteenth grade, an official under police supervision, an involuntary citizen of the local city,” as he himself recommends.

Mark seems to Raisky to be a funny person - he has already heard a lot of horrors about him from his grandmother, but now, having met him, he invites him to dinner. Their impromptu dinner with the inevitable burning in Boris Pavlovich’s room awakens Tatyana Markovna, who is afraid of fires, and she is horrified by the presence in the house of this man, who has fallen asleep like a little dog - without a pillow, curled up in a ball.

Mark Volokhov also considers it his duty to awaken people - only, unlike Raisky, not a specific woman from the sleep of the soul to the storm of life, but abstract people - to worries, dangers, reading forbidden books. He does not think of hiding his simple and cynical philosophy, which almost all boils down to his personal benefit, and is even charming in his own way in such childish openness. And Raisky is carried away by Mark - his nebula, his mystery, but it is at this moment that the long-awaited Vera returns from across the Volga.

She turns out to be completely different from what Boris Pavlovich expected to see her - closed, not willing to openly confess and talk, with her little ones and big secrets, riddles. Raisky understands how necessary it is for him to unravel his cousin, to know her secret life, the existence of which he does not doubt for a moment...

And gradually the wild Savely awakens in the refined Raisky: just as this servant watches his wife Marina, so Raisky “knew at every minute where she was, what she was doing. In general, his abilities, focused on one subject that occupied him, were refined to incredible subtlety, and now, in this silent observation of Vera, they reached the degree of clairvoyance.”

Meanwhile, grandmother Tatyana Markovna dreams of marrying Boris Pavlovich to the daughter of a tax farmer, so that he can settle in his native land forever. Raisky refuses such an honor - there are so many mysterious things around, things that need to be unraveled, and he suddenly falls into such prose at his grandmother's will!.. Moreover, a lot of events are actually unfolding around Boris Pavlovich. A young man, Vikentyev, appears, and Raisky instantly sees the beginning of his romance with Marfenka, their mutual attraction. Vera is still killing Raisky with her indifference, Mark Volokhov has disappeared somewhere, and Boris Pavlovich goes to look for him. However, this time Mark is not able to entertain Boris Pavlovich - he keeps hinting that he knows well about Raisky’s attitude towards Vera, about her indifference and the fruitless attempts of the capital’s cousin to awaken the provincial girl. living soul. Finally, Vera herself cannot stand it: she resolutely asks Raisky not to spy on her everywhere, to leave her alone. The conversation ends as if with reconciliation: now Raisky and Vera can calmly and seriously talk about books, about people, about each of them’s understanding of life. But this is not enough for Raisky...

Tatyana Markovna Berezhkova nevertheless insisted on something, and one fine day the entire city society was invited to Malinovka for a gala dinner in honor of Boris Pavlovich. But a decent acquaintance does not work out - a scandal breaks out in the house, Boris Pavlovich openly tells the venerable Nil Andreevich Tychkov everything that he thinks about him, and Tatyana Markovna herself, unexpectedly for herself, takes the side of her grandson: “Bloated with pride, and pride is a drunken vice , brings oblivion. Sober up, stand up and bow: Tatyana Markovna Berezhkova stands before you!” Tychkov is expelled from Malinovka in disgrace, and Vera, conquered by Paradise’s honesty, kisses him for the first time. But this kiss, alas, does not mean anything, and Raisky is going to return to St. Petersburg, to his usual life, his usual surroundings.

True, neither Vera nor Mark Volokhov believe in his imminent departure, and Raisky himself cannot leave, feeling the movement of life around him, inaccessible to him. Moreover, Vera is again leaving for the Volga to visit her friend.

In her absence, Raisky tries to find out from Tatyana Markovna: what kind of person Vera is, what exactly are the hidden features of her character. And he learns that the grandmother considers herself unusually close to Vera, loves her with a deep, respectful, compassionate love, seeing in her, in a sense, her own repetition. From her, Raisky also learns about a man who does not know “how to approach, how to woo” Vera. This is the forester Ivan Ivanovich Tushin.

Not knowing how to get rid of thoughts about Vera, Boris Pavlovich allows Kritskaya to take him to her house, from there he goes to Kozlov, where Ulenka meets him with open arms. And Raisky could not resist her charms...

On a stormy night, Tushin brings Vera on his horses - finally, Raisky has the opportunity to see the man Tatyana Markovna told him about. And again he is obsessed with jealousy and is going to St. Petersburg. And again he remains, unable to leave without unraveling the mystery of Vera.

Raisky even manages to alarm Tatyana Markovna with constant thoughts and speculations that Vera is in love, and her grandmother is planning an experiment: family reading an edifying book about Cunegonde, who fell in love against the will of her parents and ended her days in a monastery. The effect turns out to be completely unexpected: Vera remains indifferent and almost falls asleep over the book, and Marfenka and Vikentyev, thanks to the edifying novel, declare their love to the nightingale singing. The next day, Vikentiev’s mother, Marya Egorovna, arrives in Malinovka - official matchmaking and conspiracy take place. Marfenka becomes a bride.

And Vera?.. Her chosen one is Mark Volokhov. It is he who goes on dates to the cliff where a jealous suicide is buried; it is him who she dreams of calling her husband, first remaking him in her own image and likeness. Vera and Mark are separated by too much: all the concepts of morality, goodness, decency, but Vera hopes to persuade her chosen one to what is right in the “old truth.” Love and honor are not empty words for her. Their love is more like a duel of two beliefs, two truths, but in this duel the characters of Mark and Vera become more and more clearly evident.

Raisky still does not know who was chosen as his cousin. He is still immersed in a mystery, still looks gloomily at his surroundings. Meanwhile, the peace of the town is shaken by Ulenka’s flight from Kozlov with her teacher Monsieur Charles. Leonty's despair is boundless; Raisky and Mark are trying to bring Kozlov to his senses.

Yes, passions are truly boiling around Boris Pavlovich! A letter from Ayanov has already been received from St. Petersburg, in which an old friend talks about Sophia’s affair with Count Milari - in a strict sense, what happened between them was not an affair at all, but the world regarded a certain “false step” of Belovodova as compromising her, and thus the relationship between the Pakhotin house and the count ended.

The letter, which could have hurt Raisky quite recently, does not make a particularly strong impression on him: all the thoughts, all the feelings of Boris Pavlovich are completely occupied with Vera. The evening comes unnoticed on the eve of Marfenka's engagement. Vera again goes into the cliff, and Raisky is waiting for her on the very edge, understanding why, where and to whom his unfortunate cousin, obsessed with love, went. An orange bouquet, ordered for Marfenka for her celebration, which coincided with her birthday, is cruelly thrown out of the window by Raisky to Vera, who falls unconscious at the sight of this gift...

The next day, Vera falls ill - her horror lies in the fact that she needs to tell her grandmother about her fall, but she is unable to do this, especially since the house is full of guests, and Marfenka is being escorted to the Vikentyevs. Having revealed everything to Raisky, and then to Tushin, Vera calms down for a while - Boris Pavlovich, at Vera’s request, tells Tatyana Markovna about what happened.

Day and night Tatyana Markovna nurses her misfortune - she walks non-stop around the house, in the garden, in the fields around Malinovka, and no one can stop her: “God has visited me, I’m not walking on my own. Its strength carries - it must be endured to the end. If I fall, pick me up...” Tatyana Markovna says to her grandson. After a long vigil, Tatyana Markovna comes to Vera, who is lying in a fever.

Having left Vera, Tatyana Markovna understands how necessary it is for both of them to ease their souls: and then Vera hears her grandmother’s terrible confession about her long-standing sin. Once in her youth, an unloved man who wooed her found Tatyana Markovna in the greenhouse with Tit Nikonovich and took an oath from her never to marry...

The main character of the novel, Boris Pavlovich Raisky, is a student who has absolutely no idea what he wants to devote his life to. He draws a little, writes a little, good location the spirit plays music, but all this pursues only one goal - to create vanity, passion and ebullience of life around itself. In St. Petersburg, he spends all his evenings with the Pakhotins, where all his attention is focused on the young widow - the daughter of the owner of the house - Sofya Belovodova. Raisky is literally obsessed with the girl and her complete indifference to him only increases his desire to turn this cold beauty into a passionate, truly living woman.

Raisky occasionally has to break away from his hobby to travel to the family estate - Malinovka. Everything there is run by his grandmother - Tatyana Markovna Berezhkova, an old maid who devoted her life to farming and raising two orphaned nieces - Marfenka and Vera. Thanks to her efforts, the estate is thriving, but the grandson, despite all her persuasion, remains indifferent to management and is going to transfer it to his nieces. Raisky likes this house. Only the cliff at the edge of the site, where, according to legend, a suicidal criminal is buried, makes him sad.

The hero did not stay long in Malinovka and returned again to St. Petersburg, to his impregnable Sophia. At the university, he became friends with a person completely opposite to him - Leonty Kozlov, who dreams of teaching in some Russian outback. But the difference in views and hobbies did not prevent them from becoming true friends. The next summer it turned out that Kozlov had been assigned to teach near Malinovka, and Raisky seriously thought about staying on the estate longer. There was nothing keeping him in St. Petersburg: Sophia was seriously interested in the respectable Count Milari.

Arriving in Malinovka, Raisky is the first to meet Marfenka, who has matured and become prettier. The hero even thought that his heart could be healed by Sophia, but then the stormy village life did not allow these thoughts to develop. Raisky visited Kozlov, who by that time had already married and, as it turned out, to a very flighty person with a bad reputation - the girl Ulenka. The grandmother still did not lose hope of getting her grandson interested in farming, but he found himself in the grip of two new feelings: he fell in love with Vera, who came from a friend, and met Mark Volokhov, who sought to awaken people, force them to read forbidden literature, but at the same time The goal was his own benefit. Raisky followed Vera all day, and in the evenings he drank burnt drink with Volokhov.

The girl was very cold towards Raisky and once even dared to have a frank conversation, after which he realized that her heart belonged to someone else. Raisky was tormented by the unknown, he wanted to find out who this lucky person was. One night the hero followed Vera and became numb: Vera met with Volokhov on a cliff, she sought to make him better and dreamed of connecting her life with him. Tatyana Markovna finds out about everything, Vera falls ill with a fever from frustration. Later, Berezhkova reveals a secret to the girl: many years ago she, too, was in love and even cheated on her fiancé.

The novel was first published in the magazine "Bulletin of Europe" in 1869. It was conceived in 1849 under the title "The Artist". The work went in parallel with the work on Oblomov. She was stopped during trip around the world Goncharova. In 1858, the writer again turned to the idea of ​​the novel. Some excerpts have been published. The title of the novel changed along with the idea: “The Artist”, “The Artist of Paradise”, “Paradise”, “Faith” and “Precipice”.

Literary direction

From the anti-romantic realism of the 40s in Ordinary History, Goncharov moved to psychological realism in Oblomov and Obryv. All conflicts are revealed through the image of the inner world of the individual. External everyday events are just a frame for depicting tragic or dramatic experiences. This is how Raisky himself describes the concept of his novel: the city is a frame for describing Marfinka, and the only thing missing is passion.

Genre

"The Precipice" is a psychological novel that describes inner world and its changes under the influence of current events and against the background of external circumstances. Raisky changes, but the main features of his personality: admiration for beauty, talent, inconstancy, laziness - remain the same. The characters change the more, the greater the tragedy or drama they have experienced (Vera, grandmother).

Issues and conflict

The main conflict of the novel is the conflict between the old and the new. The heroes are forced to reckon with the traditions of antiquity, with what people will say. Meanwhile, the greatness of the individual is manifested precisely in the violation of generally accepted traditions for the sake of “common sense.” For everyone, internal rules (morality) dictate different things, in contrast to external rules (morality). For Raisky, love for a noblewoman is connected primarily with marriage; Mark never wants to get married, because this is a restriction of his freedom. Marfinka considers it a sin that Vikentyev declared his love to her without first asking permission from her grandmother; for Vera it is a sin - love relationship out of wedlock. And for Marina or Ulyana, love justifies adultery.

Goncharov is outraged by the double public morality. Chairman Tychkov is a well-known moralizer, but the whole society knows that he took away his niece’s estate and sent her to an insane asylum. The grandmother finds the strength to forgive Vera’s fall, not least because she herself experienced a similar drama in her youth. Society, even her own grandchildren, consider her a model of integrity, a saint. An interesting image is the widow Kritskaya, who in words seems to be cheeky and lascivious, but in reality she is chaste. Public morality does not condemn her for chatter.

The novel's problems are related to changes in private and public life Russia. Landowners manage their estates in different ways. Raisky wants to let all the peasants go and does not care about the farm. Grandma runs it the old fashioned way.

Main characters

Goncharov admitted that there are three main characters in the novel - Raisky, grandmother and Vera. As the action progresses, the focus shifts from Raisky to the grandmother and Vera in the last two parts.

Paradise - a person endowed with beautiful spiritual qualities, talented, but lazy. Most of all, he appreciates beauty, especially female beauty, and observes life in all its manifestations. The image of Raisky develops the images of the main characters of two previous novels - Aduev Jr. and Oblomov.

His antipode is Mark Volokhov. This is a young man under police surveillance, distributing prohibited literature to young people, breaking the law and protesting against traditional morality. He is a representative of the “new people”, nihilists. Goncharov was accused of bias, the hero turned out to be very unsympathetic, and it was not even clear (to Raisky and the reader) why Vera fell in love with him.

Landowner Ivan Ivanovich Tushin is a harmonious person. He is a continuation of the ideas of Aduev Sr. from Ordinary History and Stolz from Oblomov. Tushin is a man of action, and at the same time he has a noble heart. His marriage to Vera is a way out and a path for her.

Female images are Goncharov’s main achievement. Vera had a prototype - E. Maykova, who was carried away by the ideas of “new people” and left her husband. Goncharov, like Raisky, tried to influence her. He endowed his heroine Vera with high moral qualities who did not allow her to commit a rash act.

Grandmother Tatyana Markovna is the keeper of the Raisky estate and all the traditions of antiquity. On the one hand, she does not allow departure from the way of life of her ancestors even in everyday life (matchmaking, traditional cap when visiting guests); on the other hand, the grandmother, who in her youth experienced love drama, understands and forgives Vera’s mistakes.

Marfinka is a happy child under the protection of her grandmother. She has no doubt that one must live according to the traditions of antiquity, and is happy with this way of life.

Style, plot and composition

The plot of the novel is built around Raisky's search for material for his novel. This is the novel that he writes, and novels with different women. Raisky's passion fades away as soon as the woman rejects him. Literary novel Raisky is also dedicated to women, whose beauty the artist admires. He abandons each plot the moment he switches to a new object of passion, so a coherent narrative never emerges. All of Raisky's works are imperfect or unfinished. The cliff is the most important symbol of the novel.

The novel consists of 5 parts. The first part talks about the personality of Raisky. Time flows slowly in this part; it serves as an extended epilogue with a retrospective (the story of studying at the gymnasium and university, the first visit to Malinovka).

The second part describes Raisky’s life in Malinovka, his passion for both sisters in turn. The novel has many intertwined storylines, but they are all united by the theme of love or family relations. The narration of this part is leisurely.

In the third part, conflicts are outlined: the grandmother kicks out Tychkov, with whom she was friends for 40 years, Raisky is jealous of Vera for the author of the letter, and enters into a love affair with Kozlov’s wife. The part ends with the reader (but not Raisky) learning that Vera loves Mark.

From this moment on, events begin to develop rapidly. The fourth part is a story about the fall of the Faith, which is the culmination of the main storyline, and the fifth is about her repentance and a kind of spiritual rebirth. In this part special role plays the grandmother, who has forgiven everything and is ready to reveal her secret.

The day in St. Petersburg is drawing to a close, and “ secular people", accustomed to spending evenings at each other's houses playing cards, begin to prepare for their next visits. Two friends, Ivan Ayanov and Boris Raisky, are also planning to spend the upcoming evening at the Pakhotins’, where, in addition to the owner himself, his unmarried sisters live, as well as his daughter Sophia, an attractive widow who interests Raisky most of all.

At the same time, Ivan Ayanov is not used to burdening himself with special thoughts; for him, everything is usually simple, and he makes visits only for the sake of an extra game of cards. But for Boris Pavlovich Raisky, the situation is completely different; he seeks to captivate and stir up Sophia, who is his distant relative, wanting to turn the “ice statue” into a real, living woman with feelings and passions.

Raisky himself has many hobbies; he does a little painting and music, and tries himself in literary creativity, and he really puts his whole soul into his studies. But this is not enough for Boris; he strives to ensure that the life around him is just as full of life, in which he dreams of actively participating. However, he is already more than 30 years old, but Raisky has not yet managed to create, sow, or reap anything, he only continues to make plans for the future. Arriving in the capital from his parents’ estate, Boris Pavlovich studied various types of activities, but could not see his true calling in anything, concluding only that art still came first for him.

In a state of complete uncertainty about the future and his own place in life, Raisky goes for the summer to the estate run by Boris’s great-aunt Tatyana Markovna Berezhkova. Once upon a time in teenage years she failed to marry her lover Tit Vatutin, and Tatyana Markovna remained lonely. Tit Nikonovich also did not marry any woman and continues to visit his old friend, constantly bringing gifts to both her and the orphan girls under her care, Marfenka and Verochka.

Upon arrival in Malinovka, as Raisky’s property is called, Boris feels that he is in a truly blessed place, everything here really makes him happy. The only thing that scares the local residents is the nearby cliff; according to one of the legends, it was at its bottom that a terrible tragedy once occurred.

Tatyana Markovna greets her grandson very warmly, she tries to teach him the basics of housekeeping, but Raisky remains completely indifferent to these issues. The people with whom his grandmother wants to introduce him also do not arouse Boris Pavlovich’s interest, because they in no way correspond to his poetic and idealized ideas about life.

At the end of the holidays, the young man returns to St. Petersburg and begins his studies. At the university he makes a new friend, a certain Leonty Kozlov, a timid young man from a poor family. It would seem that there is nothing in common between them, but the students become closest comrades.

Finally, Raisky’s student time is completely over. His friend Leonty immediately leaves for the province, while Boris is still unable to find a real business for himself, making only amateurish attempts to create something in various types art. Cousin Sophia, who still behaves reservedly and distantly with him, remains in the eyes of Raisky the main goal; the young man never ceases to dream of “awakening” a real thirst for life in her. He spends evening after evening at her father’s house, but the situation does not change at all, Sophia is still absolutely indifferent to him.

Summer comes again, and Boris Pavlovich’s grandmother again calls him to Malinovka. At the same time, a letter arrives from Leonty, who also lives not far from the Raisky estate. The young man, deciding that fate itself is sending him to these parts, willingly goes to the estate, because he is simply tired of useless efforts in relation to Sophia.

In the family estate, Boris immediately meets a charming young girl, Marfenka, who arouses his sympathy much more than the cold, secular beauties of St. Petersburg. Tatyana Markovna is still trying to captivate her grandson with concerns about the estate, but Raisky is not at all interested in the farm now. Moreover, he is even inclined to give the village to Marfenka and Vera, which causes an extremely negative reaction from the grandmother.

Boris Pavlovich discovers that his old friend Kozlov is successfully teaching local children, moreover, he even managed to marry a certain Ulenka. Tatyana Markovna proudly introduces her grown and mature grandson to her acquaintances and friends, and from this day a peaceful and calm village life begins for Raisky. True, Vera is staying late visiting her friend, the priest’s wife, but at this time Boris is intensively talking with Marfenka about painting, music, and literature.

By coincidence, Raisky makes a new acquaintance, Mark Volokhov, who is under police surveillance. Tatyana Markovna is horrified by just the name of this man, but Boris Pavlovich enjoys communicating with him, he is interested in Volokhov’s ideas about awakening people to fight for their own happiness. But it is at this moment that Vera finally arrives at the estate again.

The girl behaves completely differently than Boris initially expected; she keeps herself withdrawn and does not want to have any frank conversations that he was counting on. Raisky constantly watches his cousin, trying to figure out what she is hiding from others, and trying to understand her.

Meanwhile, Tatyana Markovna has the idea of ​​marrying her grandson to the daughter of the local tax farmer, but Boris himself absolutely does not want such a turn of fate. One day, Vera quite sharply asks him to stop spying on her and leave her alone. From this day on, relations between the young people become more even and friendly, they talk about books and views on life, although this is not enough for Raisky himself.

During a dinner party attended by all of Boris's grandmother's friends, the man finds himself unable to contain himself. negative emotions and firmly expresses to one of them his true attitude. Tatyana Markovna unexpectedly takes his side, and Vera, impressed by Raisky’s honesty and directness, finally decides to kiss him. However, this does not change the real situation, and Boris is already thinking about leaving for St. Petersburg.

But Raisky still lingers on the estate, while Vera again goes to visit her friend. In her absence, Boris tries to find out from his grandmother what kind of person this girl really is, and Tatyana Markovna reveals to him that she deeply and sincerely loves Vera and that there is a person nearby who has long dreamed of wooing her, but does not dare to take the appropriate step , we are talking about the forester Tushin.

The moment comes when Marfenka becomes the official bride of her beloved Vikentyev, while Vera is actually in love with Mark Volokhov and secretly meets with him in a cliff. But Raisky still has no idea who his cousin’s chosen one is.

Leonty's wife runs away from him with a French teacher, Boris's friend falls into despair, and Raisky tries to somehow help his friend. At the same time, he receives a letter from Ayanov, which says that Sophia had a bad experience. nice story with one of the visitors to her father’s house, but this news no longer makes any impression on Boris, he now thinks only about Vera.

On the eve of Marfenka's planned engagement, the girl again goes to the cliff, while Raisky is waiting for her on the edge, knowing exactly who the girl went to and why. Without hesitation, he throws a bouquet of flowers intended for tomorrow’s holiday through Vera’s window.

The next morning, Vera feels completely sick, realizing that she needs to confess everything to her grandmother, but she does not have enough mental strength for this, because there are many guests in the house, today Marfenka must finally move in with her groom. But she still decides to have a frank conversation with Raisky, and he talks to Tatyana Markovna instead of her.

The elderly woman is truly horrified by what she hears, but then begins to diligently care for Vera, who is in a state of fever. When the girl feels a little better, her grandmother tells her about what happened to her in her youth. An unloved man saw her in the greenhouse with her lover Titus and insisted that she promise never to marry.