In 1846, Goncharov finished his first novel and, as he later recalled, “with terrible excitement” he handed it over to the court of V. G. Belinsky, who extremely highly appreciated the new work and dedicated a number of laudatory pages to it in the article “A Look at Russian Literature 1847” year." The novel was published in Sovremennik and created a real sensation in the capital.
The action of the novel covers about fourteen years, starting from 1830 and ending in 1843. This fairly extensive temporal capture of life allowed the writer to recreate a broad picture of the reality of the 30s and 40s, showing the most diverse social strata of the capital and provinces: bureaucracy, philistinism, bourgeoisie, secular world, patriarchal village landowners. The main conflict of the work was the clash between a romantic young man and a bourgeois man, a “collision” all the more acute because the novel depicts the martial arts between a nephew and an uncle.
Construction of the novel " An ordinary story"Goncharov (it consists of two parts, each of which has six chapters, and an epilogue) conveys a clear rhythm, sequence and methodical execution of an ordinary story - the transformation of Aduev Jr. into the likeness of Aduev Sr. The lessons of the latter benefited Alexander. The epilogue reports on the nephew's marriage without love, but with strict calculation: 500 souls and a dowry of 30 thousand rubles await him. “Arithmetic common sense” prevailed and did not fail. The implementation of the law of symmetry and contrast is noticeable in the composition; both parts are held together by a single intrigue, giving the novel a rare harmony, and a common expressive conflict. The book is written in a clear, clean and flexible language that enhances the integrity of the work despite the differences speech characteristics nephew and uncle.
Public and literary significance Goncharov's works are enormous. It dealt a double blow: against romanticism, provincial daydreaming, divorced from life, and soulless bourgeois businessmanism, forgetting about man. (Each of these properties and aspirations, as the author showed, has its own flaws and obvious disadvantages.) It outlined the leading trends in life of that time, painted the image of a “hero of the time,” recreated true pictures of reality, established realism in life and art, and revealed the author’s main method - “realism of an objective attitude towards the hero” (Belinsky), contributed to the development of the socio-psychological novel. L.N. Tolstoy called this book “charm.” He wrote: “This is where you learn to live. You see different views on life, on love, with which you may not agree with any of them, but your own becomes smarter and clearer.”
Goncharov’s work “An Ordinary Story” is distinguished by its exceptional topicality. It makes the reader of our day think about “how to live.” This is exactly what playwright Viktor Rozov titled his article about this novel. It is curious that, having read this novel for the first time, the writer immediately decided to make a play out of it and stage it on stage. This idea was realized at the Sovremennik Theater. This was not accidental and quite significant. V. S. Rozov wrote: “... this novel is modern. For me personally, it was precisely this modernity that was most important. That’s why I wanted to translate it into a play.” Ultimately, the novel by I. A. Goncharov and the play by V. S. Rozov became works about love for man and devotion to high spiritual ideals, which are the highest values in our lives.
Elements of satire in “Ordinary History”. Despite Goncharov’s critically noted feature as an objective artist, he loved to introduce a satirical element into his works. And in each of his major works this element of satire is found. Thus, in his first novel, “Ordinary History,” the author does not limit himself to objectively reproducing pictures of urban and rural life and their types, but compares two figures, each of which sets off the somewhat comic character of the other, and in their depiction the author makes it possible to notice his somewhat sarcastic attitude towards him.
An ordinary story. Movie. Part 1
In the first half of the novel, one can feel the author’s slight mockery of the sentimentalism and “beautiful soul” of young Aduev. An exalted young man, rushing around with his exceptional, poetic figure, brought up in the lazy freedom of the countryside, comes to St. Petersburg. The young man imagines arms open for him everywhere, recognition of his genius, fame and incense of fame; he speaks in a high style and writes sentimental poems and stories. All the sobriety and dry efficiency of the capital city is embodied for the young romantic in his uncle, the elder Aduev. The venerable official, with his neatness, sobriety of views and efficiency, sets off the absurd enthusiasm of his nephew, which the author laughs at.
The comedy of the collision of a rural romantic with the sober metropolitan reality is emphasized by the memory of patriarchal relations in the village, of the mother’s worries about feeding and comfortably settling her son. But the sober official is not the author’s ideal; in the second half of the novel the whole foundation of this positive person is collapsing. He, who preached to his nephew the need to curry favor, marry a rich woman, etc., sees that he himself, having achieved all external blessings, lost true, spiritual happiness in the pursuit of them. Young Aduev, who ultimately fulfills his uncle’s behests, has abandoned his pompous ideals, acquired a paunch and a rich bride, and wears an order with great dignity, is depicted in a rather comical form.
Thus, both types, the enthusiastic romantic and the dry practitioner, served the author as an object for reproducing the artistic and satirical.
Household paintings. Young Aduev. But these two figures are drawn against the backdrop of sweeping epic pictures of life. The author made me feel quiet serenity village life, in whose bosom the young dreamer Aduev grew up and was brought up; the situation of village life is described in detail, and the details are not piled up chaotically, but give an overall harmonious and full picture village life. In the same way, in the city, following the various experiences of his hero, the author calmly and impartially depicts the figures and appearances of the people around him, describing the hobbies and disappointments of young Aduev. He is disappointed in everything: in his literary dreams, and in love, and in people. He seeks solace in carousing and finally decides to return to the village, saying goodbye to the capital in a magnificent rhetorical monologue. “Farewell,” the disappointed dreamer addresses the city, “the magnificent tomb of deep, strong, gentle and warm movements of the soul.”
An ordinary story. Movie. Part 2
The author's sarcastic attitude towards to the young hero and his romantic dreams are justified in the second half of the novel, showing that poetry and daydreaming were not the main properties of his nature, but were externally borrowed from fashionable literary movements modernity. Plunging back into rural peace and a worry-free lazy life, young Aduev returns to the city completely transformed. He lost his daydreaming and, in his enthusiasm, acquired in return a sober and practical view of things, settled down and lived like everyone else, submitting to ordinary worldly wisdom.
The general conclusion of the novel “An Ordinary Story” can be considered pessimistic. Poetry and high hobbies turn out to be something superficial, external, and cannot withstand the resistance of everyday practicality; but the latter does not provide a lasting foundation human life, because the acquisition of external benefits occurs at the expense of the most important thing: happiness and mental satisfaction in life.
But Goncharov does not impose any conclusions on the reader: as an impartial artist, he described what exists, what he saw around him in life. His task was to give readers a complete, harmonious and truthful image. Both types - the phrase-mongering dreamer and the dry bureaucrat - were strikingly striking at that time, and the artist aptly depicted them.
We present to your attention the work of I.A. (summary). This article describes the main events of the novel, first published in 1847.
Part one
One summer, from the estate of Anna Pavlovna Adueva, a poor landowner from the village of Grachi, Alexander Fedorovich, her only son, fair-haired, was sent to St. Petersburg for service. young man in the bloom of strength, years and health. His valet, Yevsey, also travels with him.
Seeing off
Anna Pavlovna grieves and gives her son the last instructions. He is also accompanied by the strict and Agrafena, struggling to contain her emotions. Neighbor Marya Karpovna and her daughter Sofia come to see him off. The hero has an affair with the latter; his beloved gives him a lock of cut hair and a ring as a farewell.
They swear loyalty and eternal love. Pospelov, Alexander’s friend, also appears, having come from afar just to hug his comrade.
Petr Ivanovich
Let us continue to present the events of the novel “An Ordinary Story”. Summary works will tell about further development narratives.
Finally, Alexander and Yevsey hit the road. The uncle of the main character, Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev, was also sent to St. Petersburg by Alexander’s father and lived in this city for 17 years, without communicating with relatives for a long time. He served as an official of special assignments under one important person, occupied a very good apartment, had several servants. Uncle, a reserved man, was considered a businesslike and active member of society. He always dressed tastefully and carefully, one might even say dapper. When Pyotr Ivanovich found out about the arrival of his nephew, he first decided to get rid of him under the first pretext. The uncle throws out letters from relatives without even reading them (including from Alexandra’s aunt, with whom he had an affair in his youth and who never married). But in the letter to his nephew’s mother, something touches him; he remembers how, many years ago, Anna Pavlovna cried as she saw him off to St. Petersburg. Pyotr Ivanovich is horrified that the latter orders him to stand up for his son before his superiors, to baptize him at night and to cover his mouth from flies with a handkerchief.
First difficulties
We present to you a description of the first difficulties that the young man encountered and their summary. Goncharov's "Ordinary History" continues its narrative chapter by chapter. The hero's first troubles were as follows. His uncle does not allow him to hug him, shows him a room that he can rent, instead of inviting him to live with him. This makes the emotional and exalted Alexander sad, who is accustomed to sincere outpourings and friendly disposition. Romantic attitude the young man's approach to life is completely unacceptable in the eyes of Pyotr Ivanovich. He ridicules his nephew’s manner of expressing himself in romantic cliches, throws away Sophia’s hair and ring, and pastes the poems that the young man was so proud of on the wall. Pyotr Ivanovich gradually brings Alexander down to earth and assigns him to serve. The nephew dreams of a dizzying career, imagining it extremely vaguely. He talks about this uncle, about his projects, which, in the latter’s opinion, have either already been completed or do not need to be done at all. Knowing that the young man dreams of becoming a writer, his uncle is looking for translations for him for an agricultural magazine.
New life
Begins new stage in the life of the main character of the work "An Ordinary Story". Its brief summary consists of the following events. Two years later, Alexander is already mastering graceful manners, becoming more self-confident and balanced. Pyotr Ivanovich was about to decide that he was on the right path, when suddenly the young man falls in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya and forgets about everything in the world: his career, education, responsibilities. The uncle tries to explain that it is too early for him to get married, since in order to support his family, he must have a decent income. In addition, you need to be able to win a woman with your intelligence and cunning, but your nephew is primitive. His infatuation with Nadya will quickly pass, his uncle warns. Alexander is indignant upon learning that his uncle himself is going to get married and reproaches him for an arranged marriage.
Nadenka Lyubetskaya
Goncharov's "Ordinary History" continues its development in a brief summary. Alexander begins to visit the Lyubetskys' house. His beloved was impressionable to the extreme, had a fickle and wayward heart and an ardent mind. At first, she is satisfied with conversations about nothing, loving glances and walks under the moonlight. Alexander visits Pyotr Ivanovich less and less, abandons his career, begins to write again, but publishers do not accept his works, pointing out their unnaturalness and immaturity. Gradually Nadya gets bored with her admirer. The year she assigned to Alexander is ending probationary period, and she tries to avoid explanation. One of the reasons was a visit to Count Novinsky, a well-educated and well-mannered young man, a socialite. He begins to visit Nadenka and teaches her horse riding. Alexander, seeing that he is being avoided, falls into melancholy, then into panic, then decides to disappear for a while so that they will start looking for him, but this does not happen. The young man finally dares to call his beloved for a decisive conversation. Nadenka admits that she likes the Count. Alexander, leaving the house, sobs.
The summary of the book "Ordinary History" continues. In the middle of the night, the hero runs to Pyotr Ivanovich in order to arouse sympathy for himself, asks his uncle to agree to be his second during the duel with Novinsky. Pyotr Ivanovich speaks about the meaninglessness of the duel: Nadenka cannot be returned, but her hatred can be acquired if you harm the count. In addition, in case of murder, hard labor or exile awaits him. In return, he offers to beat his opponent, to convince Nadenka of his superiority over the count, first of all, intellectually. The uncle proves that his beloved is not to blame for choosing Novinsky. At the end of the conversation, the nephew bursts into tears. Pyotr Ivanovich's wife, Lizaveta Alexandrovna, comes to console him.
Part two
We have reached the second part of the novel "An Ordinary Story". Its summary is as follows.
Another year has passed. Alexander turned to cold despondency. Auntie spends a lot of time consoling him. The nephew likes the role of the sufferer. To her objection that true love does not strive to demonstrate himself to everyone, Alexander immodestly notes that his love for Pyotr Ivanovich’s wife is hidden very deeply, so that it is completely invisible. Mentally, the aunt agrees with him. Although she has no right to complain about her husband, who provides her with everything, Lizaveta Alexandrovna still sometimes wants a greater manifestation of feelings.
Meeting with a friend
This is how it unfolds further events Goncharov I. A. ("Ordinary History"). The chapter summary that you are reading continues with the meeting of the main character with an old friend. One day Alexander comes to his aunt and tells her about the betrayal of a friend whom he has not seen for many years. He met him on Nevsky Prospekt. He did not respond to the sincere outpourings, dryly inquiring about the service and inviting him to come to his place the next day for dinner, which was attended by about a dozen guests. Here he offers to play cards, as well as money if he needs it. Alexander begins to talk about unhappy love, but his friend just laughs. Nephew reads quotes to aunt and uncle French novelists, who defined friendship in a very pretentious way. This angers Pyotr Ivanovich, he declares that his friend behaved decently towards him. The uncle reprimands the young man that it’s time to stop complaining about people and whining when he has friends, among whom he also counts himself and his wife.
Alexander's Tale
Let us describe further events and their brief content. Goncharov's "Ordinary History" continues its development. Pyotr Ivanovich reminds his nephew that he has not written to his mother for 4 months. Alexander is completely crushed. To console him, his aunt advises him to take up literature again. A young man writes a story, the action of which takes place in a Tambov village, and the heroes are liars, slanderers and monsters. He reads it aloud to his aunt and uncle. Pyotr Ivanovich writes a letter to an editor he knows, in which he states that the story was written by himself, and he intends to publish it for a fee. He reads the editor's response to his nephew. He saw through the deception, noticing that the author was a young man, not stupid, but angry at the whole world. The reasons for this, in his opinion, are daydreaming, pride, premature development of the heart and immobility of the mind, leading to laziness. Work, science, practical work should help this young man. According to the editor, the author of the story has no talent.
Relationship with Yulia Tafaeva
After the events described above, Alexander burns all his literary works. His uncle asks him for help: to compete with Surkov, his partner. He is in love (Peter Ivanovich believes that he only thinks he is in love) with a certain Yulia Tafaeva, a young widow. He intends to throw money away for her sake and take it from Uncle Alexander. The young man begins to visit Tafaeva, with whom they have a lot in common (gloomy view of the world, dreaminess). He soon falls in love, and Tafaeva, who was brought up on French sentimental literature and married early to a man much older than her, reciprocates his feelings.
New disappointment
The hero will again be disappointed with the further development of events. Here is a brief summary of them. Goncharov's "An Ordinary Story" is already approaching its finale. Preparations for the wedding are underway. Alexander asks Lizaveta Alexandrovna for secret help from his uncle. Aunt pays a visit to Yulia, the girl is amazed by her beauty and youth. Tafaeva protests against her lover’s communication with the Aduevs. Alexander behaves despotically with Yulia, demands obedience and fulfillment of any whim (fences her off from male acquaintances, forbids her to travel). Julia puts up with this, but after a while they become bored, and the hero begins to find fault with his beloved. He realizes that he has wasted two whole years, once again his career suffered. He wants to communicate with friends, work, go out into society, but she despotically demands that Alexander belong only to her. Julia is humiliated and even begs to marry her on the condition that the hero be given complete freedom. Alexander doesn’t want this, but doesn’t know how to refuse. He turns to his uncle for advice. Julia has a nervous attack, Pyotr Ivanovich comes to her and settles the matter, saying that Alexander does not know how to love. The nephew falls into apathy. He doesn’t strive for anything, doesn’t show up to visit his uncle. The young man notices that there is not a single hope or dream left; in front of him there is only bare reality, which he is not ready to confront.
Lisa
The author, however, does not end the novel “Ordinary History” here. The summary will tell you how this story will end. Main character goes fishing with old man Kostikov, a curmudgeon and a grouch.
One day they meet an elderly summer resident and his daughter Lisa, who falls in love with the hero. He plays the role of uncle, teaches her to have a sober attitude towards love and life. Lisa's father kicks him out. The young man is contemplating suicide, but the bridge on which he is standing is at that moment raised, and he jumps onto a solid support. After some time, he receives a note from his aunt asking him to take her to a concert, since his uncle is sick. The music makes a strong impression on Alexander, he cries right in the hall, they laugh at him.
Return to the village
These were the main events before returning to the village (briefly). Goncharov’s “ordinary story” is already unfolding in Rrachi. The young man completely loses faith in humanity and decides to return to the village. He tells his uncle that he does not blame him for opening his eyes, but having seen things in their true light, he was completely disillusioned with life. In the village, Alexander learns that he ex-lover Sophia has been married for a long time and is expecting her sixth child. The mother begins to fatten the young man, allows him to do nothing, hints that the time has come to get married, but the hero refuses.
New trip to St. Petersburg
Our ordinary story continues. Brief development events looks like this. A thirst for activity gradually awakens in the hero, and a desire arises to return to the capital. He writes letters to his aunt and uncle, in which he admits his selfishness. He also brings evidence to his uncle - a letter to his aunt from Rooks, in which he once talked in a romantic way.
Epilogue
4 years after the young man’s next visit to St. Petersburg, he announces to his uncle his intention to marry. He takes a large dowry, but barely remembers the bride herself. The uncle, however, cannot fully support his nephew, since during that time he himself experienced big changes. Pyotr Ivanovich began to treat his wife differently. He tries to show his feelings, but it’s too late: she doesn’t care, she lives only in silent submission to her husband, without reacting in any way to these attempts. The doctor discovers at the aunt's strange disease, one of the reasons for which, in his opinion, is that she did not have children. Pyotr Ivanovich decides to sell the plant, retire and go on a trip with his wife. But she is not ready to accept such sacrifices. She doesn't need belated love or freedom. Lizaveta Alexandrovna feels sorry for the old Alexander. Pyotr Ivanovich hugs his nephew for the first time since they met.
This is the plot of the work “An Ordinary Story,” briefly described in this article. We hope it helps you as you study this novel.
Brief Analysis
In this work, every person at all stages of life and development will find the necessary lesson for themselves. In a business atmosphere, Alexander Aduev’s sentimentality and naivety are ridiculous. His pathos is false, and his ideas about life and the loftiness of his speeches are far from reality. However, the uncle cannot be called an ideal: a respected man, a breeder, he is afraid of living feelings and goes too far in his practicality. He turns out to be unable to show warm feelings for his wife, which leads to her nervous disorder. There is a lot of irony in the teachings of this hero, and the nephew, being a simple, ingenuous person, accepts them too directly.
Alexander Aduev, having lost his former false ideals, does not acquire other, genuine ones. He simply turns into a calculating vulgar. Goncharov is ironic that such a path is far from an exception. Youthful ideals disappear - this is a common story. Few people can withstand the pressure on their soul and mind large city and bourgeois society. At the end of the work, the cynical uncle is much more humane than his student-nephew. Alexander became business person, for whom only money and career matter. And the city awaits new victims - the inexperienced and naive.
The novel, first published in Sovremennik in 1847, is autobiographical: Sasha Aduev is easily recognizable as Ivan Goncharov at the time when he devoted all his free time from service to writing poetry and prose. “I then stoked the stoves with piles of written paper,” the writer recalled. “An Ordinary Story” is the first work with which Goncharov decided to go public. In the poems attributed to Sasha, literary scholars recognize the author's original poems (remaining in drafts). Sasha’s poems rehash the “commonplaces” of romanticism: both melancholy and joy are causeless, have no connection with reality, “swoop in like a sudden cloud,” etc., etc.
Literary direction
Goncharov is a bright representative of that literary generation which, in the words of modern researcher V.G. Shchukin, “tried with all his might to emphasize their hostility to the romantic worldview they had overcome (of which they constantly convinced themselves and those around them)”: for him “anti-romantic realism was around in the 1840s. something like self-rehabilitation, reckoning with the romantic past.”
Genre
“An Ordinary Story” is a typical novel of education, depicting fundamental changes in the worldview and character of the main character - a typical young man of his generation - under the influence of changes in society and everyday vicissitudes.
Issues
The problem of the inevitability of changes in a person under the influence of changes in society is the main one in the novel, but the attitude towards it is by no means unambiguous: in the title itself there is a grain of bitter irony, regret about the naive but pure ideals of youth. And hence the second important problem, which consists in the fact that an individual, perfectly adapted socially, is by no means capable of guaranteeing simple universal human values(physical health, moral satisfaction, family happiness) neither to yourself nor to your loved ones.
Main characters
Aduev Jr. (Alexander) is a beautiful-hearted young man, with whom, in the course of the novel, an “ordinary story” of maturation and hardening occurs.
Aduev Sr. (Peter Ivanovich), Alexander’s uncle, is a “man of action.”
Lizaveta Aleksandrovna is the young wife of Pyotr Ivanovich, she loves and respects her husband, but she sincerely sympathizes with her nephew.
Style, plot and composition
Goncharov’s novel is an exceptional case of stylistic maturity and true mastery of a debut work. The irony that permeates the author’s presentation is subtle, sometimes elusive and manifests itself retroactively, when the simple but elegant composition of the novel forces the reader to return to some plot collisions. Like a conductor, the author controls the tempo and rhythm of the reading, forcing you to read into this or that phrase, or even go back.
At the beginning of the novel, Sasha, having completed a course in science, lives in his village. His mother and servants pray to him, his neighbor Sophia is in love with him, best friend Pospelov writes long letters and gets the same answers. Sasha is firmly convinced that the capital is looking forward to him, and there is a brilliant career in it.
In St. Petersburg, Sasha lives in the apartment next to his uncle, forgets Sonechka and falls in love with Nadenka, to whom he dedicates romantic poems. Nadya, soon forgetting her vows, becomes interested in more adult and interesting person. This is how life teaches Sasha the first lesson, which is not as easy to dismiss as failures in poetry or in the service. However, Alexander’s “negative” love experience was waiting in the wings and was in demand when he himself had the opportunity to recapture the young widow Yulia Tafaeva from her uncle’s companion who was in love with her. Subconsciously, Alexander longed for “revenge”: Julia, soon abandoned by him, had to suffer in Nadya’s place.
And now, when Sasha is gradually beginning to understand life, he is disgusted with her. Work - whether in the service or in literature - requires work, and not just “inspiration.” And love is work, and it has its own laws, everyday life, and trials. Sasha confesses to Lisa: “I have known all the emptiness and all the insignificance of life - and I deeply despise it.”
And here, in the midst of Sasha’s “suffering,” a true sufferer appears: an uncle enters, unbearably suffering from pain in the lower back. And the ruthless nephew also accuses him of the fact that his life did not work out. The reader now has a second reason to feel sorry for Aduev Sr. - in the form of a suspicion that things didn’t work out not only with his lower back, but also with his wife. But it would seem that he has achieved success: he will soon receive the position of director of the chancellery, the title of actual state councilor; he is a rich capitalist, a “breeder,” while Aduev Jr. is at the very bottom of the everyday abyss. 8 years have passed since his arrival in the capital. 28-year-old Alexander returns to the village in disgrace. “It was worth coming! You have disgraced the Aduev family!” - Pyotr Ivanovich concludes their argument.
After living in the village for a year and a half and burying his mother, Sasha writes smart, affectionate letters to his uncle and aunt, informing them of his desire to return to the capital and asking for friendship, advice and protection. These letters end the dispute, and the plot of the novel itself. That seems to be the whole “ordinary story”: the uncle turned out to be right, the nephew came to his senses... However, the epilogue of the novel turns out to be unexpected.
...4 years after Alexander’s second visit to St. Petersburg, he appears again, 34 years old, plump, bald, but with dignity wearing “his cross” - an order around his neck. In the posture of his uncle, who has already “celebrated his 50th anniversary,” dignity and self-confidence have diminished: his wife Lisa is ill, and perhaps dangerously. The husband tells her that he has decided to quit his service, sells the plant and takes her to Italy to devote “the rest of his life” to her.
The nephew comes to his uncle with good news: he has his eye on a young and rich bride, and her father has already given him his consent: “Go, he says, only in the footsteps of your uncle!”
“Do you remember what letter you wrote to me from the village? – Lisa tells him. “There you understood, explained life to yourself...” And the reader involuntarily has to go back: “Not to be involved in suffering means not to be involved in the fullness of life.” Why did Alexander consciously abandon the found correspondence between life and his own character? What made him cynically prefer a career for the sake of a career and marriage for the sake of wealth and without any interest in the feelings of not only the rich, but the young and, apparently, beautiful bride, who, like Liza, “needs a little something else besides common sense!”?.. There is no room left in the epilogue to answer all these questions, and the reader must simply believe in such a rebirth of the romantic poet into boring cynic, but he must guess the reasons himself.
I. A. Goncharov’s first novel, “Ordinary History,” was published on the pages of the Sovremennik magazine in the March and April issues of 1847. At the center of the novel is the clash of two characters, two philosophies of life, nurtured on the basis of two social structures: patriarchal, rural (Alexander Aduev) and bourgeois-business metropolitan (his uncle Pyotr Aduev).
Alexander Aduev is a young man who has just graduated from university, filled with lofty hopes for eternal love, for poetic success, for the glory of the outstanding public figure. These hopes call him from the patriarchal estate of Grachi to St. Petersburg. Leaving the village, he swears eternal fidelity to the neighbor's girl Sophia, and promises friendship until death to his university friend Pospelov. Alexander's romanticism fuels many things. Firstly, university science is far from real life. Secondly, youth, with its wide horizons calling into the distance, with its spiritual impatience and maximalism. Finally, this dreaminess is associated with the Russian province, with the old Russian patriarchal way of life. Much in Alexander comes from the naive gullibility characteristic of a provincial. He is ready to see a friend in everyone he meets; he is used to seeing people’s eyes radiating human warmth and sympathy. These dreams of a naive provincial are severely tested by metropolitan, St. Petersburg life.
“He went out into the street - there was turmoil, everyone was running somewhere, preoccupied only with themselves, barely glancing at passers-by, and then only so as not to bump into each other. He remembered his provincial town, where every meeting with someone is interesting for some reason... With whomever you meet, you bow and say a few words, and with whomever you don’t bow, you know who he is, where he is going and why.”
The provincial believes in good family feelings. He hopes that his relatives in the capital will welcome him with open arms, as is customary in rural estate life. But even here a lesson awaits the young romantic provincial! "Where! They barely look at him, frown, excuse themselves by doing their activities; if there is something to do, then they set an hour when they don’t have lunch or dinner...”
This is exactly how the St. Petersburg uncle Pyotr Aduev greets the enthusiastic Alexander. At first glance, he compares favorably with his nephew in his lack of excessive enthusiasm and his ability to look at things soberly and efficiently. But gradually the reader begins to notice in this sobriety the dryness and prudence, the business egoism of a wingless man. With some kind of unpleasant, demonic pleasure, Pyotr Aduev “sobers up” the young man. He is merciless to the young soul with its beautiful impulses. He uses Alexander’s poems to paste the partition, a talisman with a lock of her hair, a gift from his beloved Sophia - “a material sign of immaterial relationships” - he deftly throws it out the window, instead of poetry he offers translations of agronomic articles on manure, instead of serious government activities identifies the nephew as an official busy with the correspondence of business papers. Under the influence of his uncle, Alexander's romantic illusions are destroyed. Hopes for eternal love are dying. Ideals fade eternal friendship. Dreams of glory as a poet and statesman are shattered. The hero’s disappointments are no less to blame for the sober, soulless practicality of metropolitan life that the young man encounters.
After 10-12 years we see Alexander in the role of a successful businessman. He serves conscientiously and is on the path to “career and fortune.” An “ordinary story” happens to him - the story of the transformation of a romantic into a businessman.
And completely involuntarily, Goncharov, who proves to us the advantages of sober reason and calculation, screams that love for people is higher than any soulless deed.
So how to live - by feeling or by reason and calculation? This question worries today’s younger generation as well. And although Goncharov’s old novel “Ordinary History” does not give a direct answer, it makes you think about it. And this is not so little.