Writing is a complex and energy-consuming process. You need to have a rich imagination and good powers of observation for the reader to believe the literary character and immerse himself in a fascinating read. Sometimes intellectual work takes a lot of energy, and in order to restore balance, many famous writers resorted to very eccentric methods of “unloading”, which turned out to be effective for them. We present to your attention a selection of habits and hobbies of great writers that raise bewilderment and many questions. But, as Agatha Christie aptly put it, “A habit is something that you no longer notice in yourself.”
Tom Sawyer's "Papa" loved to write in bed. For his love of comfort, he was even nicknamed the “absolutely horizontal author.” While working on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain lived on the Querrey farm. The owners of the farm were so kind that they made the writer a separate gazebo-office. There he worked from morning until evening, and if his loved ones needed him, they blew a special horn for notification. It was forbidden to disturb the writer over trifles. To work comfortably, Twain opened all the windows and sat in bed with sheets of paper. In addition, the writer abused cigars, which required him to ventilate the rooms for a long time to remove the pungent smell, and to “treat” insomnia he preferred strong alcohol.
The writer was afraid of the dark since childhood, perhaps this was caused by the fact that school teacher mathematicians conducted lessons for the young writer and his classmates at the local cemetery. In addition to his fear of the dark, the writer was afraid of being buried alive and often experienced visual and auditory hallucinations. He was also fond of mysticism, was a member of the Brotherhood of the Moon and attached greater importance to everything unknown. His works were dark and difficult to understand, and Edgar Allan Poe wrote the texts themselves on long pieces of paper sealed with wax. This made it difficult not only to edit the text, but also to read it. However, this is exactly what was convenient for the writer. From his pen came wonderful works that became famous throughout the world only many years later. Despite his passion for occult sciences, it was Poe who invented the brilliant detective Auguste Dupin, who uses the method of deduction that does not tolerate anything “otherworldly.”
Arthur Conan Doyle
Before becoming a writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle received a medical education and tried himself in various fields. He worked as a doctor on the ship, was fond of sports, participated in car racing and was a member of the Golden Dawn occult society. However, his “crazy” passion for spiritualism began after the death of his son during the First World War. The writer believed in the mediums so much that he almost quarreled with his friend Harry Houdini, who saw the true intentions of the mystics who frequented Doyle’s house.
The French writer, having settled on the island of Guernsey, loved to work in a completely glazed observation deck on the roof of the Hauteville house. After waking up, Victor Hugo drank two raw eggs, then went to the observation deck, where he worked until noon. Afterwards he went to the roof where he rinsed off ice water from a barrel. The tempering water procedures could be observed by random passers-by and by his beloved Justine, who lived not far from the writer.
Before moving to Guernsey, the writer often asked servants to take all his clothes from the house so that he could not go out and therefore finish the book on time. One day, a writer cut off half of his hair to stay at home, otherwise he might be ridiculed. Such a “sacrifice” gave the writer time free from social events - he was not distracted and completed the work on time.
The writer considered absolute silence to be the key to his productivity. His office had a double door for soundproofing, and objects on his desk were always arranged in a strictly defined way. The walls of the room were hung with mirrors, in front of which the writer loved to make faces. Apparently, this helped him better think through the character of the characters in the books. He started writing after breakfast, usually locked himself in his office at 9 am and worked until 2 pm. After lunch, he would go for a three-hour walk to meditate and reflect on the current manuscript. The writer's son noted in his memoirs that his father was always punctual and pedantic, so that any London clerk could envy him. Needless to say that the writer was never late for meetings?
Another, gloomy feature of the writer is that he loved visiting morgues. He liked to look at dead people; he himself said that he was drawn to morgues by some unknown force. Sometimes the writer could spend several hours in this not very comfortable place, contemplating the “dead beauty.”
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Nikolai Gogol
According to the recollections of those familiar with Nikolai Gogol, the writer was distinguished by his modest character and mysterious behavior. For example, he was afraid of thunderstorms, death, and when meeting a stranger, he could silently leave the room for no reason at all. In addition, when working on a piece, he liked to roll balls out of bread. This helped him concentrate better and think through the plot. Sweets also helped to distract from sad thoughts. The writer always had them in large quantities. He preferred to work on his work while standing, and liked to sleep while sitting. According to him, sketches of a future work could be made “...even if poorly, watery, but absolutely everything, and forget about this notebook.” Then Gogol returned to the draft after some time, re-read it, made corrections and put the notes aside again. He did this until the notebook ran out. After this, he took a long break and again returned to the draft, looked through it, corrected it, noting the “strengthening of the syllable and the purification of phrases.” Gogol could do this kind of “literary montage” up to eight times to achieve the perfect result.
The French writer was distinguished by his love of the nocturnal lifestyle, which was supported by huge amounts of coffee. The writer preferred to drink the strong drink without sugar or milk. Honoré de Balzac had great creative ambitions, so he slept very little while working on The Human Comedy. The number of cups of coffee per day could reach up to 50. Balzac’s creative process began at one in the morning, and he worked on the work for seven hours in a row. At 8 am he allowed himself a little rest, after which he worked from 9:30 to 16:00, drinking one cup of coffee after another. Afterwards, he walked on the street, talked with friends and acquaintances, and at 18:00 he went to bed, only to wake up again at one in the morning and write until the morning. Excessive caffeine consumption, a “ragged” daily routine and increased stress had an extremely negative impact on the writer’s health.
Franz Kafka worked as an insurance specialist for industrial injuries. He hated boring service and dreamed of literature. Despite his busy work schedule and cramped apartment, in which his sisters also lived, Kafka found time to write. This usually happened after 11-12 o'clock at night, when there was silence in a noisy house. Kafka wrote until two or three in the morning, and if he had enough strength, then until the morning, before the start of the service. A busy schedule and poor health took their toll. In addition, due to childhood psychological trauma, he often suffered from migraines and insomnia. He switched to a vegetarian diet and drank unpasteurized cow's milk. The situation was aggravated by the writer’s uncertainty and vulnerability. It was difficult for him to communicate with girls, he broke off several engagements, and preferred to communicate with his lovers through letters. It is worth noting that his love correspondence was very literary.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald
In 1917, the future writer served in the army and managed, in short moments of rest, to write a novel on scraps of paper that he carried in his pockets. After demobilization, Francis Scott Fitzgerald set aside weekends entirely for writing. On Saturdays, his work began at one o'clock in the afternoon and ended at midnight, and on Sunday - from six in the morning until six in the evening. This is how the novel “This Side of Paradise” was born, after which fame came to the 24-year-old debutant.
In France, he and his wife Zelda became friends with the wealthy American couple Murphy. Often at their parties, the famous writer behaved provocatively. For example, it is known that once he wanted to repeat the trick of “sawing” a person, but the waiter, fortunately, avoided the fate of the “guinea pig.” With such a bohemian lifestyle, Fitzgerald woke up late, began writing in the late afternoon, sometimes worked until four in the morning, but most often spent most of his time in cafes and bars. If he did sit down at the table, he managed to write 7000-8000 words at a time, which was quite enough for a story. This was not enough for a novel, and then strong gin came to the “help”. Binges prevented Fitzgerald, no matter how ironic it may sound, from thinking soberly, and he gradually lost his grip as a writer.
In addition to his love of cats, strong drinks and early rises, Ernest Hemingway was distinguished by his enviable consistency in the matter of word count. He wrote only 500 words a day, after which he stopped working and continued only the next day. The writer's work process began at 5:30 or 6 in the morning, even if he had gone to bed late or had been drinking before that. “At this time, no one will bother you, the air is cool or even cold, you sit down to work and warm up.” The work usually lasted until noon, and the writer always worked while standing. He wrote down his thoughts on sheets of paper, and if the work went well, he typed on a typewriter, which was piled up on a bookshelf. The height of the shelf reached chest level, which allowed the writer to work with a straight back and concentrate on the process.
Today literature is in a state where every author, especially a newcomer, is simply obliged to build an entire promotion system around himself and create an army of fans, often even before his first line is printed. The number of Twitter followers and unique visits to a personal page today are one of the most important arguments for publishers, because they can say a lot about what sales of an author’s new work will be. It becomes difficult to imagine a completely confidential and private life, especially in the case of a writer, since his success largely depends on publicity. However, this was not always the case.
Even in those days when fans eagerly awaited any printed text from their idol - not just books, any articles and interviews - there were those who refused to even slightly lift the veil of secrecy hanging over their biography. These authors refused interviews and photographs, no matter for what reasons - whether they considered the craft of writing incompatible with publicity or simply did not like to be photographed. They were and remain mysteries.
We will tell you about 5 of the most mysterious of these writers.
About those whose autobiographies are not sold in any bookstores.
B. Traven
If you want to know all about this esteemed writer, best known as the author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ( "Der Schatz der Sierra Madre"), you will be greatly disappointed. All you'll see are constant question marks in parentheses after dates, the word "alleged" before every significant fact, and "subject to dispute" in footnotes and notes.
B. Traven is a fictitious name. Even his publishers stated that they had never met him in person, the only contact information being a post restante address in Mexico City. Traven himself attached great importance to this secrecy, declaring that "a writer should have no other biography than his works."
Even more interesting are the hypotheses about who B. Traven really was. The most popular theory was that the author was none other than Ret Marut, a theater actor and anarchist who moved to Mexico. All of these hypotheses had their problems and shortcomings. (It’s funny that the identity of Marut himself was also the subject of controversy - they said that under this surname was hiding the Pole Otto Feij, for whom it became one of many, but the most famous, by the way, and the last).
Traven maintained his anonymity quite easily until the 1946 film adaptation of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by John Huston ( John Huston). Houston tried to meet with the author, but a certain Hal Croves showed up for the meeting ( Hal Croves), who had power of attorney to make decisions on behalf of Traven. Croves took part in the filming as a technical adviser, but strongly denied all suggestions that he was the mysterious author of the filmed work. Some critics are still not convinced that this was not true, especially since Warner Bros. fueled public interest. The film was a box office hit - nothing opens people's wallets like mystery.
After the film's premiere, Croves quickly disappeared. An American reporter went to Mexico to look for him, Traven, or both. There, following information from the Bank of Mexico, he found an American named Traven Thorsven hiding in a hotel. Traven Torsvan). The reporter stated that he had found evidence that this person, Croves and B. Traven are the same person. The evidence was a package with the inscription “B. Traven”, in which checks were found for copyrights for the film adaptation of the book “Treasures of the Sierra Madre”. After the publication of the article about the exposure, Torsvan issued a furious denial in the press. And, of course, he immediately disappeared.
Here are some more hypotheses about B. Traven: the author of his works was actually Jack London ( Jack London), who faked his suicide and fled to Mexico; Ambrose Bierce ( Ambrose Bierce) disappeared to begin a new writing career under the pseudonym B. Traven; B. Traven - illegitimate son German Emperor Wilhelm II.
Hal Croves (the translator who worked on the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) showed up again in the fifties - he opened a literary agency and participated in the premiere of the German version of the film adaptation of the same Traven novel. However, he still denied being its author.
After his death, his widow stated that he was, after all, B. Traven. She said that in early years he, in order to avoid death penalty for publishing an anti-war magazine, he moved from Germany to Mexico under the name Reta Maruta. This version is the most plausible, but there are also doubters - their number is increased by numerous chronological errors in the story of the Croves widow.
Traven probably died in the sixties. At least someone who was thought to be Traven died. His life remained a mystery.
J.D. Salinger
Of course, he couldn’t help but be on our list. Remember his most famous photo - a handsome young man with a forced smile? This is one of the few things that remained after him.
After Salinger published famous novel"The Catcher in the Rye" ( The Catcher In The Rye), he gradually began to fade into the shadows, appearing less and less in public. He died in 2010, but his last story was published in 1965, and his last collection was published 2 years earlier.
At first, he continued to communicate with some residents of the city of Cornish, New Hampshire - his new home, inviting local students to chat and listen to music. He even agreed to an interview with a local school newspaper and... severed all ties after it was published. All that is known about his life after this point is very vague, be it the memories of his old friends and lovers (the most famous of them is Joyce Maynard ( Joyce Naynard) wrote a book about their relationship) or the contradictory statements of his children - his daughter wrote about her father's attacks on alternative methods treatments and Eastern philosophy, and her brother refuted her “Gothic tales of an imaginary childhood.”
Many curious travelers - writers and others - came to the Corniche in the hope of visiting the reclusive author. Locals desperately defended Salinger's loneliness, and can you really blame them? If he wanted to be left alone, that was his own business. He didn't leave the house until his death just over two years ago.
Despite the small amount of published material, Salinger remains one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.
After his death it was discovered huge amount unpublished texts - the fruits of two decades of seclusion.
Thomas Pynchon
A great author, famous for his disinclination to communicate with journalists (this is evidenced by the fact that he once jumped out of a window just to avoid meeting with representatives of the press). Pynchon never gave interviews. He allowed only a few photographs of himself to be taken - all of them dating back to the fifties - in these black and white photographs you can see a young smiling Pynchon.
In 1997, CNN managed to film the writer walking down the street, but Pynchon immediately called the channel and asked not to air the recording. A compromise was reached - the footage was released, but who in the crowd of Pynchon passers-by was not identified.
This reluctance to play by generally accepted rules also had consequences, because sooner or later people who do not receive enough reliable information begin to spread fictitious information - rumors. The theory that Pynchon is the famous Unabomber shows how ridiculous and wild people's conclusions can be based only on the resolute silence of a celebrity.
In addition, at one time it was believed that Wanda Tinaski ( Wanda Tynaski) - a beggar woman living under a bridge, who published a whole series of comic, but at the same time intellectual letters to newspapers in the 80s - this is just a pseudonym for Pynchon. (It is now widely believed that the little-known beat poet Tom Hawkins worked under this name.) Style of the novels mysterious writer strongly reminiscent of the Tinaski letters.
Thomas Pynchon sometimes broke the silence that surrounded him. So his voice can be heard in the trailer for his latest novel“Congenital defect” ( Inherent Vice) - he briefly retells the contents of the book before the frames with the cost of the book. He also voices himself in two episodes of the animated series The Simpsons (where he is depicted as a complete egomaniac, cultivating an atmosphere of mystery, wearing a bag decorated with a huge question mark on his head).
The author's followers everywhere shout that they know much more about him than anyone else. Anyone who has read at least one of his novels understands how limitless his knowledge is. Something keeps coming out of his mouth. We can only wait.
Henry Darger
Henry Darger lived the last 43 years of his life in the same apartment in Chicago. He closed in on himself. His only close friend - they corresponded for 25 years - died 10 years before him. Darger's only hobbies were picking up trash on the streets, taking notes, and keeping a daily weather journal. He died in 1973, completely alone.
After his death, the manuscript (more than 15,000 single-spaced pages) of a fantasy epic entitled “ The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion" The title is also a summary of this work. It should also be mentioned that the book contained several hundred watercolors and pencil sketches as illustrations.
Several others were included with this manuscript. In particular, the continuation of the first 10,000 pages of handwritten text entitled “ Crazy House: Further Adventures in Chicago”
Even more interesting is Darger's discovered autobiography. The first 206 pages are devoted to his walks through poor neighborhoods, and the next 4,672 are devoted to a description of the fictional hurricane “Sweet Pie.”
Today Darger is one of the most important figures in outsider art. His drawings sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Books are published in summary- There is hardly a publisher willing to release these thousands of pages in full. Documentary “In the Realms of the Unreal” contains details of Henry Darger's biography and extracts from his manuscripts.
Darger clearly had no interest in recognition for his work. He is the only author on this list whose fame came only after death. If this had happened a little earlier, maybe he would have felt proud of his creations, or maybe he would have started to shy away from their authorship.
“January 1, 1973. I had the worst Christmas ever. I've never had a good Christmas or New Year in my life, but this year... I'm very sad, but fortunately I'm not vindictive. I feel that somewhere there must be people like me...”
Krystian Bala
He is in his early 30s, he receives guests and gives interviews. I (the author of the article - approx. per) would never have known anything about him if not for the article in the book by David Grann. The Devil & Sherlock Holmes" You probably know that K. Bala is in prison. He is convicted of murder in 2000, a murder whose details are central to his book. And only the killer could know these details.
Sales of the book immediately increased, because everyone wanted to find the key to this secret in Bala's book.
The author, sentenced to 25 years, stubbornly denies his involvement in this crime, claiming that he gleaned all the details from newspapers and television.
Christian Bala made this list for a slightly different reason than other writers.
He is talkative, maybe even charming and ready to cooperate with journalists. His secret is the question, did he commit this crime? And if so, was it done for the sake of writing a novel, or vice versa - is the novel a way to brag and relive this event?
Bala spoke about the triumph of justice and was himself convicted. It is unlikely that he will ever admit to what he did or explain his motives.
Police say they found evidence on his computer that he was planning a second murder, which was to be the subject of his next novel.
Conclusion.
The charm that often accompanies mystery - good advertising. Could an author's popularity be the result of a carefully planned and deliberate refusal to go public? It is possible, but it should be noted that interest in the lives of all the authors listed (and many others whose names are not mentioned here) was based on the books they wrote, which they loved and talked about. Try to try on the biographies described here for yourself.
The romantic aura of mystery will melt, and loneliness, on the contrary, will approach.
If you're not comfortable with the level of public interaction that's required of you as a writer, relax. Being an introvert is not the easiest task. Wait a little - make a name for yourself and calmly retreat into the shadows. And please don't kill anyone. This ends badly.
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But the biggest loss was the demolition of the wonderful Church of the Assumption Holy Mother of God(1765, architect F. Rastrelli), which was popularly called Spas-on-Sennaya. It was blown up in 1961. In her place now shopping mall and metro stations "Sennaya Ploshchad" and "Spasskaya".
Reconstruction of Sennaya Square continues, they promise to restore the temple.
Sennaya market
The remains of the Sennaya Market have survived to this day between Moskovsky Avenue (formerly Obukhovsky, a little later Zabalkansky) and Efimova Street (under Dostoevsky - Gorstkina).
During the time of Dostoevsky, the market was the main one in St. Petersburg for the sale of vegetables, although they also sold meat and fish.
Journalist A. Bakhtiarov described the morning at the market as follows: “While the inhabitants of the capital are still sleeping, numerous convoys are already stretching from the outskirts of St. Petersburg: German colonists are bringing potatoes, Chukhny - fish, Chukhon butter and milk, gardeners - greens. All this, neither light nor dawn, is concentrated near the Hay market, where the so-called cart trade takes place. Some traders, in order to take a more advantageous position, arrive with goods even in the evening, around ten o’clock. Tall dray trucks with cumbersome carts stand in continuous rows of several hundred fathoms. The carts are not unpacked, but in order to show which cart contains which goods, in front of each cart there is a sample of this product on the ground, for example a bunch of onions, a bunch of carrots, etc.
Portly, red-cheeked greengrocers in white aprons of immaculate cleanliness walk around the market, waiting for the opening of trading. To prevent entry into the vegetable rows ahead of time, the entrance to the market is closed with a chain.
Rubbing their hands with pleasure, the greengrocers return to their shops. Trucks with vegetable goods from Nikolskaya Square drive up to the Sennoy Market, which around four o’clock is surrounded on all sides by carts. At four o’clock the “keyman” comes and opens the Sennaya Market. At this time, the vegetable goods are unloaded from the gardener’s cart to the merchant’s shop. Thus, the inhabitants of the capital buy various greens second-hand, so that not a single cucumber will pass through the hands of the greengrocer. The merchants and traders buy everything and at night they put the goods in their shops. Built of stone and iron, the Hay Market consists of three huge buildings with glass roofs; up to 500 shops are located in four lines. All shops are renumbered, and above each of them is the name of the merchant; Each merchant maintains clerks and so-called fellows who are busy distributing goods, so that up to 2,000 people are busy trading in the market every day.
In the meat aisle, for hygienic purposes, the walls of the shops are covered with zinc sheets. All the shops are cluttered with meat carcasses suspended by the hind legs on hooks. Drops of blood, flowing down, fall into wooden sawdust, deliberately sprinkled on the floor. On the counters lie piles of “lungs” and “livers,” shimmering with dark red colors. Hundreds of frozen hares are hanging upside down as if alive, with their eyes open, and Novgorod peasants bring them in the thousands, selling them for 50 kopecks per pair. On the shelves, with their legs stretched up and their heads hanging down, lies various game wrapped in paper: grouse, hazel grouse, etc. Plucked and frozen sparrows, waxwings and great snipes are laid out in baskets in regular rows. Often in one basket there are up to 1000 sparrows, which are sold at 5 kopecks per dozen. Here you can also find plucked pigeons, which are sold under the name “dudes.” Under the benches are huge baskets of goose offal: the cut off head and crow's feet are carefully tied and sold separately from the goose. Entire herds of frozen pork are laid out on the floor. On each pork carcass, an incision is made in the skin along the spine to show the thickness of the fat layer. Pork is brought to St. Petersburg from grain-producing provinces, for example from Tambov, where pigs are usually fattened on stillage. In the capital, the main consumers of pork are suburban farmers, big hunters of pork fat.
The butchers wear white aprons and leather armlets. On a wide leather belt hangs a sheathed butcher knife for chopping beef. In the middle of the bench there is a huge wooden cabinet on which meat is cut, and an ax lies right there. Each merchant lures the buyer to his shop.
In the evenings, the owners of all kinds of kitchens and restaurants come to the Sennaya Market. The inhabitants of furnished rooms are the most reliable visitors to these ill-fated kitchens, where for 30 kopecks you can get a “third course” lunch.
Beggars roam the Hay market in droves: old people, women and children. The merchants do not refuse and serve “in kind” - some meat, some fish, some greens.
The overnight shelter, located near the Hay market, receives food at the expense of this market. Every morning, one of the shelters leaves the shelter for provisions to the market: he puts a deep wicker basket on his shoulders with straps, and with it he walks around all the rows of the Hay Market. The basket bears the inscription “in favor of the lodging house.” The basket is divided into two compartments with the inscription: “for meat” and “for greens”. Most of the Haymarket traders donate to the shelter.”
"Vyazemskaya Lavra"
The Sadovaya area, and especially Sennaya Square, were full of beggars, thieves, and all kinds of lumpen people. Sennaya was crowded, dirty, and famous for its low-quality establishments, taverns, and taverns. The Vyazemskaya Lavra, a slum quarter south of the square, was especially famous.
The Vyazemsky house faced two large wings onto Zabalkansky (now Moskovsky) Avenue and one onto the Fontanka. The outbuildings along Zabalkansky Prospekt housed a tavern, “family baths”, a drinking house and many trading establishments.
In the courtyard of the Vyazemsky house there were four more residential outbuildings, bathhouses and many different storerooms where the goods of the Sennaya Market traders were stored. These outbuildings housed an inn and a teahouse, which the local inhabitants called a “mousetrap”: the detective police often looked here in search of criminals and returned each time with a catch.
About one hundred and fifty apartments in the wings of the Vyazemsk Lavra were occupied not even by the poor, but by those whom Gorky would in the future call tramps: people who had gone to the extreme, ready to commit a crime, who had lost their way, who had lost their human appearance, half naked and half hungry. On Saturday evenings and Sundays, almost everyone got drunk, which resulted in noise, uproar, ugly songs, bloody fights and orgies.
In “Crime and Punishment,” talking about his turbulent biography, Svidrigailov, as the last stage of his fall, says: “in the old days I spent the night in Vyazemsky’s house on Sennaya.”
As it is said in “Crime and Punishment”: “... the quarter was such that it was difficult to surprise anyone with a costume here. The proximity of the Sennaya, the abundance of famous establishments and, predominantly, the guild and craft population, crowded in these central St. Petersburg streets and alleys, sometimes replete the general panorama with such subjects that it would be strange to be surprised when meeting another figure.”
So Raskolnikov’s rags did not cause anyone’s surprise here. Only “one drunk, who was being transported along the street at that time in a huge cart drawn by a huge draft horse, unknown why and where, suddenly shouted to him as he passed: “Hey you, German hatter!” Here “...near the taverns in the lower floors, on the dirty and the stinking courtyards of the houses on Sennaya Square, and especially near the taverns, there was a crowd of many different types of industrialists and rags.”
Vyazemsky's house was rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century.
Hay market guardhouse
Sadovaya street, 37
One of the few buildings preserved on the square from the time of Dostoevsky is the Sennaya Market Guardhouse - an elegant pavilion in the classicist style opposite the Sennaya Ploshchad metro station (1820, architect V. Beretti). In the 19th century, a military guard was located here to supervise order in the market, and there were also premises for short-term detention of prisoners.
In 1873, while editing the magazine “Citizen,” Dostoevsky placed on its pages a note by Vladimir Meshchersky “Kyrgyz deputies in St. Petersburg,” which quoted the words of Alexander II addressed to the deputies (in themselves absolutely insignificant). However, according to the current law, the emperor's words could only be published with the permission of the minister of the imperial court. Dostoevsky did not know this rule and was sentenced to a small fine and two days of arrest in the guardhouse. The writer’s friends secured the opportunity for him to serve his sentence at a time when it would be most convenient for him.
Dostoevsky spent March 21 and 22, 1874 in the Sennoy Market guardhouse. The conclusion was not onerous. Fyodor Mikhailovich had his own bedding and Hugo's Les Misérables, which he reread with pleasure. There was another artisan in the cell who was constantly sleeping. I visited the writer five times in two days loving wife, he had an old friend who lived nearby, the poet A. Maikov, and a young writer Vs. Soloviev. The children were told that their father had left for Moscow. On the third day they met him cheerful and with toys (on the way, Dostoevsky stopped at Gostiny Dvor).
Meinhardt House
Sadovaya street, 44
At the corner of Sadovaya Street and Tairov Lane (now Brinko Lane) is Meynhardt’s house. Initially it belonged to the homeowner Tairov, after whom the lane was named. In 1831, at the height of the cholera epidemic, this house housed a hospital. A crowd of rabble, considering German doctors to be the culprits of the epidemic, broke into the hospital and killed several of them.
In 1856, the house was rebuilt for the homeowner Meingard by the architect A. Lange. This is one of the first apartment buildings in St. Petersburg, in which, in the spirit of the eclecticism that was then beginning to dominate, the style of Louis XV was used - early classicism. The combination of wide display windows on the ground floor with stucco facade in the spirit of the mid-15th century makes the composition of the building contradictory.
This typical example Dostoevsky’s disliked, contemporary architecture, in which the owner’s order to the architect is formulated, in his words, like this: “Brother, you must install Dozhev’s window for me, because I’m worse than some of their naked doges; Well, you still have to let me let the tenants in on five floors; a window is a window, and floors are floors; I can’t lose all our capital because of toys.” In Meinghardt's house there was most likely the Crystal Palace tavern, in which Raskolnikov at first half-confides to Zametov about committed crime, and then listens to Svidrigailov’s confession.
A local police doctor reported the following about such taverns in the Spasskaya part: “Most of the taverns are intended for a certain type of regular visitors, the minority are intended for the casual public. The population here consists of the merchant and working class. Tens of thousands of peddlers, artisans, artisans, corner residents, often cold, tired or wanting to treat their relatives, friends, and not having any amenities in their corner, in the apartment, shoot here and from early morning until late evening one crowd replaces another...
The black public brings with them into the tavern a specific smell, shag smoke, and dirt; after each such visitor, a radical cleaning of the place where he was sitting is required. Every tavern consists of two sections: a clean half and a black half. The first one is on the second floor, the second one is more often on the first floor. There is a buffet in the first room of the clean half. In this room, like in all the others, there are tables covered with white tablecloths and upholstered furniture. There is an organ in one room. IN different angles In the rooms there are chests of drawers with table linen. Doors and windows are covered with draperies, which are otherwise torn, covered with dust and only add to the overall untidiness of the room.
The black half consists of 2–4 rooms and a separate corner for the baker, the furniture here is simple, the tables are covered with colored tablecloths, the wallpaper is simpler, greasy and often torn. In the kitchen there is a stove with two copper cubes for boiling water, a cook and a kitchen man.
Most taverns sell only vodka, tea and boiling water; they do not prepare anything edible at all and only keep salty snacks on the buffet for drinking. In the kitchen, for a special fee, they allow food to be prepared for those living in the house and cook for themselves only for their employees. But since a visitor may require food, to satisfy this need there is a baker at the tavern who rents a corner where he sells rolls and various provisions like a snack shop.”
In the same tavern, in the dark half, the meeting between Raskolnikov and Marmeladov takes place in the novel.
Tairov Lane (now Brinko Lane)
Curved at a right angle, Tairov Lane leads from Sennaya Square to Sadovaya Street. This lane was memorable to Dostoevsky from his youth. Here, in the house of de Roberti (now house number 4), the same magazine “Repertoire and Pantheon” was published, where its first publication appeared in 1844 - a translation of “Eugenia Grande”.
“Petersburg. The calendar for 1870" reported: "Near Sennaya, on Tairov Lane, there are three brothels in the basement of a house with doors directly onto the street. At these doors, starting from 10 o'clock every night, prostitutes stand on duty and loudly with immodest gestures invite you into their shelter. The shelters in Tairov Lane are so bad and so dirty that a sour and disgusting smell pierces the passerby. summer time even across the alley on the opposite sidewalk. The unfortunate victims, sent by their mistresses on duty, stand in the cold and rain, covered with some kind of rags. The very premises of the above-mentioned houses are dirty, cramped and smelly to the point that the writer of these lines could not stay in them for more than half an hour without feeling dizzy. The women are almost always drunk, dressed unbearably dirty, unkempt, and behave with extreme cynicism.”
This area was generally a hotbed of prostitution. Of the 155 brothels in 1869, 46 were located in Spasskaya, and 31 in the Kazan part - that is, where almost all the heroes of Crime and Punishment live. According to official statistics, there were 6,366 prostitutes in the city in the same year (one for every 52 women and 68 men living in St. Petersburg). Of these, 26% were previously employees or laborers; 9% – seamstresses; 8%, like Sonechka Marmeladova, lived “with relatives”; 14% of prostitutes were under 20 years old (like that drunken girl whom Raskolnikov met on Konnogvardeisky Boulevard and tried to save from a depraved scoundrel); 37% - between 20 and 25, 26% - between 25 and 30 years. More than a third of prostitutes had venereal diseases.
In this area there also lived those whose source of income was trading in “living goods” (like Svidrigailov’s friend Madame Resslich). The author of a special study reported about them: “These sales agents... can most often be seen walking on the streets, sitting on boulevard benches, standing near those shops where housewives most often send their craftswomen or servants for various purchases. Here they guard their victims: as soon as a young girl sent for something appears, a decently dressed lady or man approaches her and asks if she needs a new, “very good” place... These people try to acquire as wide an acquaintance as possible , penetrate into families where they are not even aware of their craft, and come up with their proposals at the moment when material adversity befalls this family.”
Tairov Lane entered from Sennaya Square Raskolnikov. “Before, he often passed by this short alley, making a knee and leading from the square to Sadovaya... There is big house, all under taverns and other eating and drinking establishments; Women constantly ran out of them, dressed “as they walk in the neighborhood” - bare-haired and wearing nothing but dresses. In two or three places they crowded on the sidewalk in groups, mainly at the exits to the lower floor, where, by two steps, one could go down to various very entertaining establishments. In one of them, at that moment, there was knocking and hubbub throughout the entire street, a guitar was strumming, songs were being sung, and it was a lot of fun. A large group of women crowded around the entrance; some sat on the steps, others on the sidewalk, others stood and talked. Nearby, on the pavement, a drunken soldier with a cigarette was hanging around, swearing loudly, and seemed to want to go somewhere, but seemed to have forgotten where. One ragamuffin was arguing with another ragamuffin, and some dead drunk was lying across the street.”
Raskolnikov entered into a conversation with prostitutes and gave one of them, Duklida, 15 kopecks.
Yusupov (Yusupovsky) garden
The lack of greenery in the center of St. Petersburg and the disgusting sanitary condition of most of the city made every garden or square significant for the townspeople. A landscape garden with a picturesque pond was part of the huge estate of the Yusupov princes. Main facade The Yusupov Palace, built by Quarenghi, overlooks the Fontanka; a white-columned portico and a long terrace with a wide staircase face the park.
The pond was flooded in winter and there was one of the few and therefore especially popular public skating rinks in the city. During the time of Dostoevsky, the garden was not particularly presentable. As V. Mikhnevich, a writer of everyday life in St. Petersburg, noted, “it has trees, bushes, a pond, and even a fountain; but all this “nature” has some kind of boiled and rotten appearance. In its alleys one meets mainly the sick, the wretched, the humiliated and the insulted.” Raskolnikov, “passing by the Yusupov Garden... was even very busy thinking about building tall fountains and how well they would freshen the air in all the squares. Little by little he came to the conviction that if the Summer Garden were extended to the entire Field of Mars and even connected with the palace Mikhailovsky Garden, it would be a wonderful and most useful thing for the city.”
Apartment of Apollo Maykov
Sadovaya street, 51
The poet A. N. Maikov (1821–1897) is the same age and closest acquaintance of Dostoevsky for most of his life. From the 1840s, when Dostoevsky first met him, until the death of Fyodor Mikhailovich, the poet lived in Adam’s house opposite the Yusupov Garden.
Maykov's father is Nikolai Apollonovich, a famous painter of Nikolaev's time; younger brothers - Valerian (who died early, a promising literary critic), Leonid (philologist, academician) and Vladimir (translator) - lived in literature, history, and art. From the mid-1840s, their house became a popular literary salon, especially significant for Dostoevsky after his break with Belinsky’s circle. The home teacher of the older Maykov children, the future famous Russian writer I. Goncharov, recalled: “The house... was seething with life, people who brought here inexhaustible content from the sphere of thought, science, art, young scientists, musicians, painters, many writers from the circle of the 30s and the 40s, everyone crowded into the not vast, not brilliant, but sheltered halls of the apartment, and everyone, together with the owners, formed some kind of fraternal family or school, where everyone learned from each other, exchanged what they occupied at that time Russian society thoughts, news of science, arts. Old Maykov rejoiced to tears at every success and... every forward movement in everything that was accessible to his mind and imagination.”
Dostoevsky recalled the hospitable Maykov family in the Peter and Paul Fortress, writing to A. Maykov from Siberia. Maikov introduced Dostoevsky to the new literary situation in the capital after his return from hard labor, and expanded the circle of his literary acquaintances. Their political position and aesthetic views remained almost identical. “Dearest and most precious friend Apollo Nikolaevich” (as Dostoevsky called him in his letters) took care of Dostoevsky’s literary and everyday affairs while he was away from St. Petersburg. Maikov was the godfather of Dostoevsky’s daughters, Sonya and Lyuba. When Dostoevsky’s wife and children went to Staraya Russa for the summer, Dostoevsky dined with the Maykovs. In a word, the poet and his family were Dostoevsky’s closest friends in the literary world.
Kokushkin Bridge
The shortest lane in St. Petersburg, Kokushkin Lane, leads from Sadovaya Street to the Ekaterininsky Canal (now the Griboyedov Canal). In its area is the Kokushkin Bridge. The bridge has existed here since the 1780s; in Dostoevsky’s time it was made of wood. In 1946, the existing steel one was built in its place.
The first lines of “Crime and Punishment”: “At the beginning of July, in an extremely hot time, in the evening, one young man came out of his closet, which he had rented from tenants in S-th Lane, onto the street and slowly, as if in indecision, went to the K-nu bridge." Lane - Stolyarny, bridge - Kokushkin.
The bridge is also known for Pushkin’s autoepigram:
Here I crossed the Kokushkin bridge,
Leaning on the granite,
Alexander Sergeich Pushkin himself
Standing with Monsieur Onegin.
Without giving a glance
The stronghold of fatal power,
He stood proudly with his back towards the fortress:
Don't spit in the well, my dear.
On the Kokushkin Bridge, the day after the murder, Raskolnikov decided to “bury the loose ends”: “throw everything in the ditch, and the ends into the water, and that’s the end of it.” But this seemed impossible - there were a lot of people on the embankments at that hour: “He had been wandering along the embankment of the Catherine Canal for half an hour, or maybe more, and several times looked at the descents into the ditch, where he met them. But it was impossible to even think of fulfilling the intention: either the rafts were standing right next to the gatherings and the washerwomen were washing clothes on them, or the boats were moored, and people were swarming everywhere..."
After meeting with Svidrigailov in a tavern on Zabalkansky, Raskolnikov stood on this bridge leading to his house, “stopped at the railing and began to look thoughtfully at the water. Meanwhile, Avdotya Romanovna stood over him.” Dunya did not call out to her brother, “she noticed Svidrigailov hastily approaching from the direction of Sennaya... He did not climb onto the bridge, but stood to the side, on the sidewalk, trying with all his might so that Raskolnikov would not see him.”
Zverkov's house
Griboyedov Canal Embankment, 69
Near the Kokushkin Bridge at the corner of Stolyarny Lane and the Griboyedov Canal there is one of the largest in St. Petersburg mid-19th centuries of apartment buildings - Zverkov's house. This first five-story residential building in St. Petersburg was built in 1827. At the beginning of the next century, another sixth floor was added to it.
Zverkov is a well-known moneylender in the city, Pushkin’s creditor. Young Gogol lived in this house from 1829 to 1833. He remembered Zverkov’s house in the endless monologue of Poprishchin, the hero of “Notes of a Madman.” The mad official Poprishchin overheard a conversation between two dogs Fidel and Medzhi and followed them: “We crossed to Gorokhovaya, turned to Meshchanskaya, from there to Stolyarnaya, finally to the Kokushkin Bridge and stopped in front of a large house. “I know this house,” I said to myself. “This is Zverkov’s house.” What a car! What kind of people don’t live there: how many cooks, how many visitors! and our brother officials are like dogs, one sits on top of the other.”
Gogol also remembered this area adjacent to Sennaya from the north in “Nevsky Prospekt” when, chasing a pretty blonde, the hero of the story, Lieutenant Pirogov, found himself in Meshchanskaya Street - a street of “tobacco and small shops, German artisans and Chukhon nymphs.” Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin, the hero of “The Overcoat,” apparently lived somewhere here.
Here, at the Kokushkin Bridge, the action of M. Lermontov’s fantastic St. Petersburg story “Shtoss” took place. “Only occasionally did an official’s galoshes clap along the sidewalks, and sometimes there was noise and laughter in the underground beer shop when a drunken fellow in a green frieze overcoat and an oilcloth cap was pushed out. Of course, you would only encounter these paintings in remote parts of the city, such as... near the Kokushkin Bridge.” In this area, in the Stoss house, in Stolyarny Lane (“Dirty Lane, in which there were no more than 10 tall buildings on each side”), driven by a desire incomprehensible to him, the hero of the story, the artist Lugin, settled.
Astafieva's house
Kaznacheyskaya street, 1
Here, on the corner of the Ekaterininsky Canal (now the Griboyedov Canal) and Kaznacheyskaya (in those days it was called Malaya Meshchanskaya) streets, Dostoevsky lived from September 1861 to August 1863. His five-room apartment (in which he lived with his first wife M.D. Isaeva and stepson P. Isaev) was located on the second floor. Dostoevsky's elder brother Mikhail lived in the same house with his large family. The editors of the magazine “Time,” which the Dostoevsky brothers began publishing in January 1861, became obsessed with his apartment.
The magazine began to quickly gain popularity and increase its circulation. Dostoevsky’s biographer, publicist and ideologist of the magazine N. Strakhov wrote: “The reasons for such a quick and enormous success of “Time” must be considered, first of all, the name of F. M. Dostoevsky, which was very loud, the story of his exile to hard labor was known to everyone, it supported and increased his literary fame... “My name is worth a million,” he once told me in Switzerland with some pride.”
Most of the permanent employees lived near Malaya Meshchanskaya. The magazine's editorial office was also a literary salon, where regular authors gathered. “The first place in the circle was, of course, occupied by Fyodor Mikhailovich,” writes Strakhov, “he was considered by everyone to be a major writer and excelled not only in his fame, but also in the abundance of thoughts and the fervor with which he expressed them.”
Dostoevsky published in Vremya a memoir of hard labor, Notes from the House of the Dead, a novel, The Humiliated and Insulted, and a long article about his first trip abroad, Winter Notes on Summer Impressions. He led a feuilleton and participated in ordering and selecting materials for the magazine.
Overwork exacerbated Dostoevsky's disease - epilepsy. Attacks of the disease occurred to him about once a month, and after them he was unable to work for some time. Constant lack of money, abundance urgent work led to the fact that, according to Strakhov, “he usually had to rush, write on time, rush work and often be late with work... He had no management and restraint in expenses... And so all his life he walked, as if in a snare, in his debts and wrote all his life hastily and intensified. He wrote almost without exception at night. At about twelve o'clock, when the whole house had gone to bed, he was left alone with the samovar and, drinking not very strong and almost cold tea, wrote until five and six o'clock in the morning. I had to get up at two, even three o’clock in the afternoon, and the day was spent receiving guests, walking and visiting friends.”
Dostoevsky's family life brought him little joy. Maria Dmitrievna was already seriously ill. She had, according to Dostoevsky, a “strange, suspicious and morbidly fantastic” character. There were no children in this marriage and there could no longer be, and Dostoevsky dreamed of “the great and only human happiness - to have a child of his own.” In recent years, the couple have spent more time apart than together. M. Isaeva-Dostoevskaya, who was dying of tuberculosis, could not stand the St. Petersburg climate and lived mainly in Vladimir and Moscow. Other heartfelt interests of the writer of this time were also unsuccessful, first of all, the relationship with A.P. Suslova, who served as the prototype for many “fatal” women from his novels (Polina from “The Player”, partly Grushenka from “The Brothers Karamazov” and Nastasya Filippovna from “ Idiot").
The beginning of the 1860s was the time of the Great Reforms of the reign of Alexander II: the release of political prisoners, a significant weakening of censorship, and the fall of serfdom. The overwhelming majority of press organs, which traditionally played the role of quasi-parties in Russia, enthusiastically welcomed these liberal steps. At first, Dostoevsky’s magazine was no exception. At that time, it published writers who soon became ideological opponents of Fyodor Mikhailovich: M. Saltykov-Shedrin, N. Nekrasov, N. Leskov; The largest Russian playwright A. Ostrovsky was also close to the magazine. Translations occupied a prominent place: E. Poe, V. Hugo, G. Heine, I. Ten, B. Auerbach, E. Renan, F. Spielhagen were published.
A circle of regular authors was formed around the magazine, united by common political and ideological views and personal friendship. Most of them are Dostoevsky’s peers: at the time described, they were close to forty years old. The writer became close to some of them from the time of the Petrashevites circle. These are the poets A. Maikov, Y. Polonsky, A. Pleshcheev, critics A. Grigoriev and N. Strakhov. Nikolai Strakhov recalled: “In the summer of 1861 I moved with Vasilyevsky Island on Bolshaya Meshchanskaya (now Kazanskaya) in a house opposite Stolyarny Lane. The editorial office was owned by Mikhail Mikhailovich, who lived in Malaya Meshchanskaya, in a coal house overlooking the Catherine Canal... Ap. Grigoriev... huddled in furnished rooms on Voznesensky Prospekt... we were close to each other; but I vividly remembered the low-lying character of these streets at that time, rather dirty and densely populated by third-party St. Petersburg people. In many novels, especially in Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Mikhailovich amazingly captured the physiognomy of these streets and these inhabitants.”
Meanwhile, the political situation in the country was changing. The sympathies of students and radical intelligentsia leaned towards the party, represented in print by the Sovremennik magazine, headed by N. Chernyshevsky, N. Nekrasov and M. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Sovremennik professed consistent Westernism with a socialist and materialist tint; in literature, its authors adhered to accusatory realism.
“Vremya,” on the contrary, increasingly defined itself as an organ of the “soil people”—Russian nationalists. Polemics with the “nihilists”, adherents of Sovremennik, became one of the main tasks of the magazine. On both sides it was fought fiercely, accompanied by personal insults.
The result of the liberal excitement of the early 1860s was the uprising that broke out in the spring of 1863 in Russian Poland. The followers of Sovremennik supported, openly or tacitly, the Poles; Most of Russian society, including Dostoevsky, were Polonophobic.
Ironically, Vremya was closed in May 1863 precisely because of events in Poland. N. Strakhov’s anti-Polish article “The Fatal Question” was interpreted by the censors as poonophiliac.
Soon Dostoevsky went to Paris to visit his then fatal lover Apollinaria Suslova.
Wheel chocks
Kaznacheyskaya street, 4
Near the arch of the passage yard in house No. 4 on Kaznacheyskaya Street, as in the time of Dostoevsky, there are two granite wheel chocks. A decree of 1816 prescribed that wheel guards should be installed along the edges of sidewalks at a distance of “2 to 3 fathoms from one another. These columns will be 3 feet high. House owners can use cast iron or granite columns, but their size and shape must be according to this model.”
The bollards that separated the roadway from the sidewalk were later removed as unnecessary. In some places, like in this house, wheel chocks have been preserved. They were needed to “knock off the wheels” of carriages and carriages, preventing them from hitting the corners of the walls. Granite or cast iron pillars with a diameter of 30–40 centimeters and a height of 140–150 centimeters were dug to a depth of about 30 centimeters. Every stone house with a courtyard had four such pedestals - on the outside and inner sides arches
“You are the strangest person I know. It’s good that you are a genius,” this phrase from Edgar Degas perfectly describes all the heroes of our publication. Hobbies and habits, phobias and quirks - we reveal Russian writers, artists and composers from a new side.
Ivan Krylov: fires
Ivan Eggink. I.A. Krylov.1834
The writer loved long journeys - he once sailed in a sailboat from Saratov to Astrakhan. He wrote in his diary: “It was very poetic and full of charm for me because of the newness of the places and the very way of traveling”. And his afternoon walks often lasted for three hours, and several times Tolstoy left Yasnaya Polyana on foot to Tula. The writer explained his passion for physical activity by his love of movement. If he sits at home all day, he argued, by the evening he will be irritable and will not be able to sleep. Konstantin Korovin, his neighbor in the workshop, recalled how Vrubel spent 20 rubles (considerable money in those days) on perfume in order to pour the entire bottle into basin and wash with this aromatic water. “Then he lit an iron stove in the workshop and put four eggs there and ate them baked with bread.”, Korovin recalled.
Once, for a fee of 5,000 rubles, the artist threw a feast in a hotel: with gypsies, an orchestra, actors, expensive champagne. All the guests were invited to the party. However, there was not enough money, and Vrubel had to work hard for several more months to pay off the debt. Another time, the artist threw such a grand party that he could not even buy a canvas for a new painting. Then he began to paint over the portrait of a merchant, who posed for him for a long time. He, seeing the ruined work, quarreled with Vrubel for a long time and even planned to sue him.
The talent of recognized writers is undeniable. Many generations worship their perfect style or profundity. But genius often hides some oddities. Some authors loved to work, surrounded by the smell of rotten apples, others drank coffee in heavy doses, and still others stripped naked. This review will talk about the strangest antics and addictions famous writers.
1. Nikolai Gogol
Image Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol all shrouded in mystery and strangeness. The writer worked while standing and slept while sitting. Many of his contemporaries noticed with surprise how lovingly he cut out his scarves and patched his vests. But another oddity for sure was the passion for rolling bread balls. Gogol did this when he wrote his works, when he thought about the meaning of life, or simply, bored, during lunch. The writer rolled balls and tossed them into the soup of those sitting next to him.
2. Friedrich Schiller
The famous German poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller There was also a slight oddity. He couldn't work without a box of rotten apples nearby. One day his friend Johann Wolfgang Goethe came to visit the poet. But he was not at home, and Goethe decided to wait for Schiller in his office. But then he felt the smell of rotting, which really made his head spin. To Goethe's question about rotten apples, Schiller's wife replied that her husband simply could not live without them.
3. William Burroughs
On September 6, 1951, during one of the parties, the writer William Burroughs, being drunk, wanted to repeat William Tell's trick when he hit the apple standing on his son's head. William Burroughs placed a glass of water on the top of his wife Joan Vollmer's head and fired. Unfortunately, the writer missed and killed his wife.
4. Victor Hugo
One day Victor Hugo I urgently needed to get the book into print. Then he ordered the servant to take all his clothes out of the house so as not to be able to leave the premises. It was then that the writer, wrapped only in a blanket, was finally able to finish his novel Notre-Dame de Paris. Subsequently, Victor Hugo often resorted to this method in order to finish writing his works on time.
5. Honore de Balzac
To say that the French novelist Honore de Balzac loved coffee - that's an understatement. The writer drank up to 50 cups of an invigorating drink a day without adding sugar or milk. Some researchers claim that Honoré de Balzac hardly slept when he wrote his famous “ The human comedy" Of course, coffee affects people differently, but the writer’s addiction still affected his health: severe stomach pain, heart problems and high blood pressure.
6. Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo and many other literary masterpieces, used a color writing system during his work. For many decades French writer used blue to indicate fantasy novels, pink to indicate non-fiction works or articles, and yellow to indicate poetry.
In addition, Alexandre Dumas was prone to adventurous actions. Once he had the opportunity to participate in a duel, where the duelists drew lots. Anyone who was unlucky had to shoot himself. Dumas turned out to be the unlucky one. He took the pistol and went into the next room, in which a shot then rang out. Dumas walked out of there as if nothing had happened, while saying: “I shot, but missed.”
7. Mark Twain
Mark Twain He wrote his masterpieces only while lying down. As the author himself noted, he found the right words and inspiration while he was in the comfort of his bed. Some comrades called Twain "a completely horizontal author."
Another interesting fact in the biography of Mark Twain is Halley's Comet. Two weeks before the author's birth in 1835, this comet flew close to the Earth. And in 1909, the writer wrote that he “came into this world with a comet, and he will leave with it.” Mark Twain died in 1910, the day after Halley's Comet appeared.
8. Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens I just went crazy over the bodies of the dead. He could look at them for hours, watching as the corpses were examined, autopsied and prepared for burial. The writer often said that he was “pulled by the invisible hand of death.”
Writers weren't the only ones with quirks. Probably everything creative personalities have their own characteristics. can be seen as attracting the attention they need from the viewer.