V. Odoevsky "Colorful tales

In Motley Tales, Odoevsky collected images and characters that he then used in his later work. The original name with the epithet “terry”, according to the author, more successfully reflected his idea - to depict the negative qualities of people under the cover of external decency, in the manner of a fable. The final version - motley - only reflected the diversity of genres and topics of presentation.

Unusual stories alternate like pieces of glass in a kaleidoscope, each time laying out an unpredictable fantastic plot. Fairy tales are written on behalf of Iriney Modestovich Gomozeyka, Master of Philosophy and member of various societies. They contain the attitude of the author to contemporary issues. With the words of an imp, he ridicules secular society: “Day-to-day you cook, cook, fry, fry, but only the joys that soot and water come out of the retort ...”. Fairy tales are not written for children at all, they are ironic grotesque stories with impossible situations that fabulous way meet in real life, like, for example, the tale of a dead body belonging to no one knows who - about a clever bribe-taking official who knows how to turn any case in his favor.

The story of a collegiate adviser with a speaking name Ivan Bogdanovich is also real. Attitude. Who has not met an official copying endless papers, "not paying attention either to deeds or petitioners"? Or Igoshka - a fairy tale in style folklore about the legless - armless Igosh - the fruit popular superstition on which people blame their failures and misfortunes.

In one of the stories, the thought slips through that people may turn out to be a handful of insects caught in a giant jar, which are watched by giants. It is in their will to starve us, or throw the entire globe out the window. Through frivolous tales, the reader gets the idea that modern man has fallen into the delusion that he is smarter than his ancestors. People stopped doubting themselves. Previous achievements seem random, but the fact is that with this approach, a person’s imagination stops working, he exists within his own limits of the possible and impossible, and in order to do something really new, these limits must be crossed.

Picture or drawing Colorful fairy tales

Other retellings for the reader's diary

• Summary Gogol Dead Souls briefly and chapter by chapter

  In the work, the story is about a gentleman whose identity remains a mystery. This man arrives in a small town, the name of which the author did not voice, in order to give free rein to the reader's imagination. The character's name is Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov.

• Summary Gorky Summer Residents

  At one of the summer dachas, a company of Russian intellectuals, tired of secular life seeking peace and quiet.

• Summary Tales of mother Tsvetaeva

  This story is autobiographical. The story was written by Marina Tsvetaeva three decades after the events described, at a time when she was on vacation in Germany with her mother in need

• Summary of Aitmatov Piebald dog running along the edge of the sea

  The story of the story takes place on the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, when the Great Fish Woman, the founder of mankind, ruled.

• Summary of Vampilov Eldest son

  Evening. Freshly. Two friends with beauties arrived in an unfamiliar town. Friends counted on the hospitality of the girls, but they were offended and closed the doors in front of the boyfriends.

The variety of hobbies of Prince Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky (1804 - 1869) could not but affect his literary career. Studies in philosophy, natural sciences, music, history, linguistics allowed the writer to create an unusual, colorful, thematically versatile cycle of works, united under the fairy tale genre. In connection with the divergent views of the writer, it is not surprising that his fairy tales differ from traditional didactic and moralizing ones. Along with these definitions, the works of V.F. Odoevsky can be called sci-fi and socio-philosophical. Fairy tales are aimed not only at children, but also at adult readers. In this chapter, we will consider the first collection of this kind, "Colorful tales with a red word ...", highlight the history of its creation, reviews literary critics and contemporaries of the writer, as well as the state of the issue in modern literary criticism.

The history of the creation of "Motley Tales" by V.F. Odoevsky

By his own admission, V.F. Odoevsky, the creation of "Harlequin" fairy tales, written with kind sadness and irony, addressed to modern society, evoking sympathy for the ridiculous hardships of man, coincided with the "most bitter moments" of his life, associated with N.N. Lanskoy. The writer notes that he was guided by the "triumph of the will", which, perhaps, explains the structure and formality of the cycle, the interconnection of its components, the strict following one after the other without any author's digressions. Adherence to the will also refers to the lack of inspiration and lifelessness of fairy tales, noted by many.

“Colorful fairy tales…” is one of the artist's first embodied ideas, in which the appearance of themes and motifs characteristic of the writer's late work is observed. The collection shows us the formation artistic principles V.F. Odoevsky, his philosophical and aesthetic searches. It contains "examples of philosophical grotesque, social and moralistic story, folklore, "everyday" and "psychological" fiction".

The final name of the cycle was preceded by something else - "Terry Tales". This was the name of the collection throughout the entire stage of work on it. A few days before the fairy tales were published, on February 12, 1833, A.I. Koshelev handed over to V.F. Odoevsky in a letter to I.V. Kireevsky. He regretted replacing "the original title 'Terry Tales' with the title 'Motley Tales', which is reminiscent of Balzac's 'Contes bruns' (Naughty Tales"). Perhaps V.F. Odoevsky initially intended in the content of the cycle to give preference to the image of the negative qualities of people, their true essence, under the guise of a favorable appearance. The epithet "terry" is also a tribute to the traditional, rooted fairy tale, focused on folklore and moralizing. Rethinking the tasks set for himself, the writer decided to leave only an indication of the heterogeneity of fairy tales, their diversity, reflected in the thematic diversity. The conclusion about the predominance of a negative or positive beginning in the heroes of fairy tales, he allows the reader to make himself, without giving direct instructions.

The idea of ​​the cycle was born in a new literary atmosphere. In Moscow, the writer was the chairman of the "Society of Philosophy" (1823 - 1825), which was created to discuss philosophical issues and study the works of Western philosophers, characterized by adherence to German idealism. “Until now, a philosopher cannot be imagined otherwise than in the image of a French talker of the 18th century; therefore, for distinction, we call true philosophers philosophies, ”wrote V.F. Odoevsky. Hence the philosophical orientation of early fairy tales, the denunciation of social vices. At the same time, cooperation with V.K. Küchelbecker - edition of the almanac "Mnemosyne". Having moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 1826, the author of "Motley Fairy Tales" enters a different literary environment. V.F. Odoevsky begins to get involved in the mystical philosophy of Saint-Martin, medieval magic and alchemy, but along with this, he is firmly established among the writers of the “Pushkin circle”, and the characteristic spirit of “intellectual artistry” begins to influence him and is reflected in fairy-tale creativity.

First of all, he learns the traditions of A.S. Pushkin. In 1831, The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin was published, published under the pseudonym A.P., which played one of the main roles in the formation of the cycle. The kinship of the works is indicated from the very beginning by epigraphs like A.S. Pushkin, and V.F. Odoevsky, taken from "Undergrowth" by D.I. Fonvizin. “Then, my father, he is still a hunter for stories” A.S. Pushkin and “What is the story. In another you will fly to distant lands for the distant kingdom ”V.F. Odoevsky point us to the content of the cycles - to "history". "Stories" means short stories from the point of view of the narrator. In the 19th century they were also called anecdotes, i.e. entertaining stories about any case, any person. Narrative of unusual incidents with ordinary people we find in the "Motley Tales". The discovery of the author of "Tales ..." hero-narrator Ivan Petrovich Belkin served as the appearance of Iriney Modestovich Gomozeika, which will be discussed later.

The fairy-tale-fantastic world of Ukrainian folklore, recreated by N.V. Gogol in "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", whose stories were collected and published by the "old beekeeper Rudy Panka". V.F. Odoevsky considered them "both in fiction, and in story, and in style" above all that has been published so far "under the name of Russian novels."

M.A. Turyan points to the presence of Chatsky's traits in Gomozeika. She defines the hero as a "crazy", a person who breaks out of life stereotypes legalized by human opinion and light and habitual ideas". A similar type of personality, according to the researcher, can be found in the development of novels and preparatory materials assigned to the "House of Lunatics".

Mother V.F. Odoevsky saw her own son in the narrator of "Motley Tales". This testifies to the autobiographical nature of the cycle: “... But most of all I liked this one sitting in the corner and saying, leave me alone, it is very similar to you ... however, there is no living room in which you would not feel stuffy .. .» . Irinei Modestovich also opposed “methodism”, about the subject of which the author himself wrote to M. P. Pogodin: “... so that I, a Russian person, that is, who comes from people who invented the words freedom and what other language - to draw out according to Basurman Methodism? .. So don’t be surprised that I still don’t go to bed at 11, don’t get up at 6, don’t dine at 3 ... ".

The cycle "Colorful tales with a red word, collected by Irenaeus Modestovich Gomozeika, Master of Philosophy and a member of various learned societies, published by V. Bezglasy" includes the chapter "From the Publisher", which presents us with the history of the appearance of fairy tales; "A writer's preface", from which we learn about the hero-narrator. The tales of the cycle can be divided according to thematic orientation. Socio-philosophical tales with elements science fiction- "Retort", a fairy tale story "The life and adventures of one of the local inhabitants in a glass jar, or New Joko", which can also be called imitative. satirical tales on everyday material - “The tale of the occasion on which occasion the collegiate adviser Ivan Bogdanovich Relation failed to congratulate the bosses on the holiday on Bright Sunday”, “The tale of a dead body belonging to no one knows who”. A literary fairy tale based on folklore - "Igosha". Phantasmagoria with elements of moralizing - "Just a fairy tale." Socially accusatory - “The Tale of How Dangerous It Is for Girls to Walk in a Crowd along Nevsky Prospekt” and “The Same Tale, Only in a Curve” with “The Wooden Guest, or the Tale of the Waking Doll and Mr. Kivakel”, the philosophical “Epilogue” adjoining him.

Motley Tales was published at the beginning of 1833: the date of censorship permission was February 19 (signed by the censor V. N. Semenov), the release ticket was April 8 (signed by P. I. Gaevsky in the Register of Printed Books). In early April, Molva, in the Literary Rumors section, announced the release of Motley Tales: “In St. complete collection them under the title "Motley tales" ". On February 12, 1833, A. I. Koshelev wrote from Moscow: “I have fulfilled your instructions, dear friend Odoevsky. For "Molva" we even made an article with Kireevsky. They promised to place an announcement about your fairy tales soon. However, the article did not appear in Molva. On the 8th of April in the "Northern Bee" (1833, No. 37) an announcement was printed that Odoevsky's book "these days will go on sale."

In the British Library in London there is a copy of "Colorful Tales" with pencil marks by V.F. Odoevsky, representing the author's correction of the printed text. "Colorful Tales" from the British Library are among the gift copies, as evidenced by VF Odoevsky's own note: "These copies have never been put on sale." Three bookplates faithfully restore the history of the book. The first of them belongs to Count P.K. Sukhtelen, a well-known bibliophile, in last years life - Russian ambassador in Sweden. The count died in 1836, after which the book returned to the author. V.F. Odoevsky put his bookplate on it, and "Colorful Tales" took a place in his book collection.

Approximately seven years later, V.F. Odoevsky began editing the tales, making a number of corrections to this copy. Twenty years later he presented it to his friend and famous bibliophile S. A. Sobolevsky with the inscription: “Gifted to the library of another equally famous bibliophile Sergei Alexandrovich Sobolevsky. July 15, 1864. Book. V. Odoevsky. The third ex-libris appeared on the book - its new owner.

After the death of S.A. Sobolevsky, his book collection was inherited by S. N. Lvova, who sold it to Germany. At the Leipzig auction of the Liszt and Frank bookselling company, Motley Tales, among a significant part of the collection of S.A. Sobolevsky, was acquired by the British Museum for its library on October 9, 1873. has been identified so far.

Corrections made by V.F. Odoevsky in the "Sukhtelenovsky" copy, were the first revision of the text, where he made the most significant semantic corrections and corrected the typographical errors noticed. The following correction seems interesting and significant: in the "Retort" the writer restored a phrase that was not passed by censorship ("... a candle for that, a candle for another ..."). In the "Sukhtelenovsky" copy, the title of the final text is crossed out: "Epilogue".

In the fund of V.F. Odoevsky in the National Library of Russia there is another copy of "Motley Tales" with an ex-libris by S.A. Sobolevsky, but without a dedicatory inscription and litter.

In the library of the University of Cambridge are stored "Colorful Tales" of 1833 with anonymous records concerning the participation of N.V. Gogol in writing the collection of V.F. Odoevsky.

The final composition of "Colorful Tales" in comparison with the original plan was significantly expanded. The writer paid special attention to the artistic design of the book. It belonged to E. N. Riss, P. Roussel, and partly to A. F. Grekov.

Since the "Colorful Tales" were largely experimental in nature, V.F. Odoevsky, as a kind of linguistic experiment, considered it possible to resort to "Spanish" punctuation and some other punctuation features, specifically stipulating them in the chapter "From the Publisher". The spelling of "Motley Fairy Tales" is also distinguished by deliberate archaism; for example, a writer deliberately introduces the spelling of the letter e instead of e. Later, having included a number of fairy tales in his “Works” of 1844, V.F. Odoevsky abandoned "Spanish" punctuation and archaic orthography.

During the life of V.F. Odoevsky's "Motley Tales" as a complete cycle was not reprinted. The writer included six of the nine tales in the third volume of his "Works" in 1844: five of them made up the section "Excerpts from" Motley Tales "", the sixth - "Igosha" - was included in the section "Experiments in the story of ancient and new legends" ". In the 20th century, the cycle was republished in 1991. by the publishing house "Kniga", in 1996 in the series "Literary monuments" the publishing house "Nauka" published a work prepared by M.A. Turyan. The edition includes full cycle"Colorful Tales", additions concerning the history of the image of I.M. Homozeikas, reviews of contemporaries, excerpts from the editions of fairy tales and author's corrections, photoinserts of the cover of the first edition, as well as an article by a scientist devoted to the study of the cycle by V.F. Odoevsky. Since 1996, Motley Tales has not been reprinted in the original series.

Reviews of contemporaries V.F. Odoevsky on "Motley Tales" were controversial. He spoke negatively about the cycle of N.A. Field. He noted the lifelessness of fairy tales; pointing to Hoffmann’s skill, the critic noted that “it is necessary to believe the miraculous, of course, not with the feeling of a commoner, but with the feeling of a poet, and believe sincerely in order to make those people to whom you want to convey your feelings succumb to charm.” According to him, V.F. Odoevsky did not become a good-natured storyteller, but "only put on a mask made so unskillfully that his own physiognomy is visible from under it." He compared the form and the internal meaning with allegory and moralizing, respectively, thereby convicting the writer of referring to "a kind of widespread fable that is inconsistent with our age." ON THE. Polevoy saw in the works only coldness, colorlessness and "an allegory that says nothing." The critic accuses V.F. Odoevsky in replacing pure, kind, sincere and bright “wit dust”, erudition and fakeness, and concludes the article that “there are many other fields for the mind” .

The views of V.G. Belinsky. In the article “The Works of Prince V.F. Odoevsky”, he noted in “Motley Tales” “several excellent humorous essays”, such as “The Tale of a Dead Body Belonging to an Unknown Person” and “The Tale of the Occasion of Collegiate Councilor Ivan Bogdanovich’s Relations failed to congratulate the bosses on the holiday on Bright Sunday. The critic of the fantastic "play" "Igosh" did not understand at all. He saw in it an imitation of Hoffmann and warned the writer: fantasy german romance was his nature, he "in the most absurd tomfoolery of his imagination" was faithful to the idea, therefore it is dangerous to imitate him - "you can borrow and even exaggerate his shortcomings without borrowing his virtues." A talented presentation notes V.G. Belinsky in "The Tale of How Dangerous it Is for Girls to Walk in a Crowd along Nevsky Prospekt" and "The Same Tale, Only in a Curve".

Already at the end of his life, preparing his "Works" for the second edition, in the "Note to the" Russian Nights "" V.F. Odoevsky summed up the numerous comparisons or oppositions of his E.T.A. Hoffmann. He finally formulated his understanding artistic method German writer: “Hoffmann ... invented a special kind of miraculous ... found the only thread through which this element can be carried in our time in word art» .

V.F. Odoevsky noted two sides of the miraculous: purely fantastic and real. He said that the reader is not obliged to believe everything unusual in the work: "in the setting of the story, everything is exhibited by which this very incident can be explained very simply." Thus, the writer noted, E.T.A. Hoffmann was able to reconcile the inclination towards the miraculous and the thirst for analysis, which "was a matter of true talent."

A completely opposite opinion was expressed by E.F. Rosen. Tales of V.F. He calls Odoevsky a kind of miraculous, in which “not only the idea of ​​the whole, but also the meaning of each particular action and phenomenon must come out, for a clear, unraveled meaning gives entertainment to ugliness itself, there is - so to speak - the necessary light in this magic lantern". The Baron noted the originality of the author's views, "a piercing philosophical mind", "an inexhaustible wealth of fantasy". The high score of the collection is visible in last paragraph articles where the reviewer speaks of the luxurious edition of fairy tales, adding: ""Motley fairy tales" and the luxury of publication are news on our Parnassus.

He spoke positively about the collection of E.V. Bienemann. In a letter to V.F. He wrote to Odoevsky: “this is the focus of delightful elegance and grace, this particle of the Thousand and One Nights; but at least it is obvious that the tales of Scheherazade could not amuse me as much as these "Colorful Tales" .

M.P. Pogodin spoke of the author's love for humanity, "his entire line is permeated with feeling and conviction." The language of fairy tales is witty, correct and pure. However, he also noted that the inclination towards the extraordinary sometimes goes beyond the boundaries and causes bewilderment. An interesting review of the reader A.I. Saburova: “The thoughts of Mr. Aduevsky, having the imprint of a caustic allegory, quite rightly and skillfully relate to objects that are often found in the hostel and society ... In general, this style is pure in the book and the thoughts are diverse and witty.”

The view of A.S. Pushkin to read "Colorful tales with a red word." According to V.A. Sollogub, in one of the meetings on Nevsky Prospekt A.S. Pushkin and V.F. Odoevsky, a conversation took place between them regarding the published collection: “Pushkin got off with commonplaces: “I read ... nothing ... good ...”, etc. Seeing that you can’t get anything from him, Odoevsky added only what to write fantastic tales are extremely difficult ... Here Pushkin laughed again with his ringing ... laughter ... and said: “Yes, if it is so difficult, why does he write them? Who is forcing him? Fantastic tales are only good when they are easy to write. These memoirs appeared in the press after the death of VF Odoevsky. However, even during the life of the writer, in 1860, P.V. Dolgorukov on the pages of the journal "Future" published by him in Paris. In a libelous article, in an effort to discredit the friendly nature of Pushkin's relationship with the prince, he retold the episode later described by V.A. Sollogub as gossip. V.F. Odoevsky did not accept this statement and rewrote part of the article in his diary, providing the author's comments. And later, “Answer V.F. Odoevsky P.V. Dolgorukov", where the prince says that "an anecdote invented by a dishonest slanderer, both in time and in the nature of our relationship with Pushkin, could not exist in any form and under no circumstances". However, it is impossible to completely refute this “slander”, since the testimony of a lawyer and musician, a visitor to the salon V.F. Odoevsky, V. Lenz. “Odoevsky also writes fantastic plays,” said Pushkin with inimitable sarcasm in his tone, “recalls V. Lenz. Echoes of the ironic attitude of A.S. Pushkin to science fiction are heard in the memoirs of Y. Arnold, according to which, A.S. Pushkin called V.F. Odoevsky "a drop of Hoffmann".

Thus, we see that many did not accept the sci-fi origin in fairy tales, noted the imperfection of the "Motley Tales" in artistic terms, statements about the lack of ideas of allegories that have not only a fantastic basis, but also philosophical overtones are unjustified. V.F. Odoevsky later confirmed the formal meaning of the cycle by including in his “Works” fairy tales that have “purely literary significance". But it should be noted that thanks to the first experience in this genre, we are witnessing the development of creative ideas and the emergence of the writer's artistic method. M.A. Turyan notes that in fairy tales “practically all directions of further artistic searches of the writer, who became almost the only exponent of “philosophical romanticism” in our literature, were indicated. This largely speaks to the importance of studying the "Colorful Tales" for understanding the origins of ideas and directions. artistic thought subsequent works by V.F. Odoevsky.

In modern literary criticism, the study of "Motley Tales" by V.F. Odoevsky is given insufficient attention. The main focus of the works is focused on the second cycle of "Tales of Grandfather Iriney", which included "Town in a Snuffbox" known to everyone since childhood (1834), "Moroz Ivanovich" (1841), "Broken Jug" (1841) etc., which have become recognized classical works children's Russian literature. But, without revealing the originality of the first cycle, the role of the hero-narrator, it is impossible to trace the development of the author's thought and features of V.F. Odoevsky.

M.A. Turyan, who prepared them separate edition in " literary monuments". A great contribution to the development of literary criticism about V.F. Odoevsky at the beginning of the 20th century was introduced by P.N. Sakkulin with his two-volume book about the life and work of the writer. Many scientists today rely on his work. The articles of A.V. Botnikova, N. Lebedeva, A.T. Gryaznova. Communication N.V. Gogol and V.F. Odoevsky is considered by V.I. Sakharov, M.V. Lobytsina, L.A. Emirova, N. Genina; A.S. Yanushkevich devoted an article to the formation of a philosophical narrative in Russian prose. You can find several works devoted to the connection of V.F. Odoevsky and A.S. Pushkin, as well as the role of the first in the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The genre poetics of the cycle was considered by O.I. Timanov in the article “Principles of fairy-tale cyclization in the work of V.F. Odoevsky". In connection with the thematic content of "Motley Fairy Tales", articles devoted to pedagogical activity writer, his social, philosophical and scientific views (I.F. Khudushina, A.V. Kovalenko, N.M. Mikhailovskaya, S.A. Sokolovskaya, T.P. Shumkova, etc.).

What's the story. In another, you will fly to distant lands in the kingdom of the thirtieth.

Fonvizin in "Undergrowth"

Writer's Preface

Dear Reader

First of all, I consider it my duty to confess to you, dear sir, in my unfortunate weakness ... What should I do? everyone has his own sin, and one must be indulgent towards one's neighbor; this, as you know, is the undeniable truth; one of all the truths that have ever sought the honor of pleasing the human race; one that has reached the axiom; one, miraculously surviving from the raid of the southern barbarians of the 18th century, like a lonely cross in a spacious cemetery. So, find out my shortcoming, my misfortune, the eternal stain of my surname, as the late grandmother said, - I, respected reader, I am from scientists, that is, unfortunately, not from those scientists about whom Pascal said that they do not read anything , write little and crawl a lot - no! I am just an empty scientist, that is, I know all possible languages: living, dead and half-dead; I know all the sciences that are taught and not taught in all European departments; I can argue about all subjects known to me and unknown to me, and most of all I like to rack my brains over the beginning of things and other such non-bread subjects.

After this, you can imagine what a miserable role I play in this world. True, in order to improve my unfortunate reputation, I try to infiltrate into all known houses; I don’t miss anyone’s name day or birth and show my figure at balls and receptions; but, unfortunately, I don't dance, I don't play for five or fifty; not a master at clearing rooms, or eavesdropping on city news, or even talking about these subjects; through my intermediary it is impossible to obtain either a place or a rank, or to find out some clerical secret ... When you meet somewhere in the corner of the living room little man, thin, short, in a black tailcoat, very clean, with smoothed hair, on whose face it is written: “For God's sake, leave me alone,” and who, for this reason, laying his fingers in apartments, bows to everyone with the deepest respect, tries to talk now with one, then with another, or with reverence examines the thoughtful expression on the faces of the respectable elders sitting at the cards, and with participation asks about winning and losing, in a word, he tries in every possible way to show that he is also a decent person and nothing sensible in this world does; who, meanwhile, is afraid to stretch out his hand to a friend, lest the familiar turn away in absent-mindedness - it's me, dear sir, I am your most humble servant.

Imagine my suffering! I, who have spent my whole soul on feelings, burdened with a numerous family of thoughts, dejected by the thoroughness of my knowledge, sometimes I really want to shine with them in society; but as soon as the mouth is open, some fine fellow with a mustache will appear, tightened, tightened, and interrupt my speech with remarks about the state of temperature in the rooms, or some respectable man will attract everyone's attention with a story about those incomprehensible circumstances that accompanied the big helmet he lost; meanwhile, the evening passes, and I go home with parched lips.

In this predicament I have taken the liberty of addressing you, venerable reader, for, speaking without flattery, I know that you are a nice and educated person, and, moreover, have no means of silenced me; read, don't read, close or open the book, and yet the printed letters will not stop speaking. So, willingly or unwillingly, listen: and if you like my story, then I won’t take my thoughts, I will talk with you until the end of time.

Retort

Retort - cornue - retorte - distillation vessel; a kind of bottle with a round bottom in the form of a pear with a long neck ...

words. chem. (part 3, p. 260)

…Place the amalgam in a round glass vessel; cork it and put it in the ashes, then on a slight heat, adding heat until the vessel is completely hot, then you will see all the flowers that are in the world ...

Isaac Holland in the book on The Hand of the Philosophers (p. 54)

Chapter I
Introduction

In the old days there were strange sciences, which were studied by strange people. These people were formerly feared and respected; then burned and respected; then they ceased to be afraid, but still respected; it occurred to us alone not to be afraid, and not to respect them. And truly, we have full right! These people were doing what do you think? they sought for the body such a medicine that would heal all diseases; for society, such a state in which each of the members would prosper; for nature, such a language that stone, and bird, and all elements would obey; they dreamed of eternal peace, of the inner inviolable tranquility of kingdoms, of lofty humility of spirit! There was a wide field for the imagination; it encompassed both earth and sky, and life and death, and the mystery of creation and the mystery of destruction; it flew over distant lands to the thirtieth kingdom, and from this journey it brought such things that neither more nor less than changed the dress of the whole human race; things that - I don't know why - do not seem to be found today, or all our discoveries were carried by the wheels of a steam engine.

Let's not talk about majestic antiquity: alas! she has become salty from old age; you will take my word for it that I know her better than the address-calendar of some director of the department, and that I could easily fill a whole book with a description of her; no, we will remember the recent.

Do you know, dear sir, that there was a time when all the products of nature were good only when nature produced them; flowers in spring, fruits in autumn; and in winter - not a flower ... Isn't it true that it was very boring? There was a monk named Albert; he foresaw how necessary it would be for us in winter to cover the walls of the anterooms and stairs with flowers, and he found a means to help this grief - and he found it in this way, in between times, because at that time he was engaged in a very important subject: he was looking for means to create flowers, fruits and other works of nature, not even excluding man.

There was a time when people were furious at a duel, lost their temper, in this criminal state of mind they went to the next world and without repentance, trembling, biting their lips, with a hat on one side appeared before the face of Minos; Monk Bacon put saltpeter with coal in a crucible, put it in the oven along with other preparations for the philosopher's stone and found cold-blooded gunpowder, through which you can - without getting angry, crossing yourself, praying and in the most calm and cheerful mood - put your opponent on his back in front of you or stretch out themselves at once, which no less produces pleasure.

There was a time when there was no - how to call it? (we gave this potion a name that could smell like my book and attract the attention of some knight of the Merry Image, which I don’t want at all) - when that - that didn’t exist, without which you, dear reader, would have nothing to pour on your censer; to the old dandy on his handkerchief and on himself; without which it would be impossible to keep freaks in the Kunstkamera; there would be nothing for a Russian person to cheer up his heart; in a word, what the new Latins and French called water of life. Imagine what a bulkhead the discovery of Arnold de Villanova had to make at that time, when he let alcohol around the world, collecting various supplies in a pumpkin to create a person in his own image and likeness.

Tell me, who would have been killed by modern medicine if Mr. Bombastus Paracelsius had not taken it into his head to discover the preparation of mineral medicines? What would our venerable parents read if Bruce hadn't written his own calendar? If Vasily Valentin ...

But, however, this is a long story; You won't get everyone, you'll just get bored. The fact is that all the discoveries of those times produced the same extensive influence on mankind that the connection of a steam engine with a balloon could now produce - a discovery, in passing, it was said that it rose, and sat down and, like grapes, is not given our age.

Were all these discoveries really accidental? Didn't Albert the Great's automaton require profound mechanical considerations? Don't the antimonium of Basil Valentin and the discoveries of Paracelsius imply deep chemical knowledge? How could Raymond Lull's Ars magna come out of a head not accustomed to difficult philosophical calculations; unless, perhaps... Yes, if these discoveries were accidental, then why don’t these cases happen now, when not a hundred monks scattered across monasteries between a dozen manuscripts and the fire of the Inquisition, but thousands of scientists surrounded by dictionaries, machines, on easy chairs, in crosses, ranks and on a good salary, work, write, calculate, draw out, measure out nature and constantly communicate their measurements to each other? Which of their many discoveries can boast that it has done as much joy on the globe as the discoveries of Arnold de Villanova and company?

And it seems that we are smarter than our ancestors: we have clipped the wings of the imagination; we have compiled for the whole system, tables; we have set a limit beyond which the human mind must not cross; we have determined what can and should be done, so that now he no longer needs to waste time and rush into the country of delusions.

But isn't that our problem? Is it not because our ancestors gave more free rein to their imagination, is it not because their thoughts were wider than ours and, embracing a larger space in the desert of the infinite, discovered something that we will never discover in our mouse horizon.

True, we have no time; we do a lot the most important things: we compose systems for social welfare, by which the whole society prospers, and each of the members suffers - like a physician who would cover the whole body of the patient with Spanish flies and begin to assure him that his inner health comes from it; we draw up statistical tables - by means of which we find that in one direction, with the increase of education, crimes decrease, and in the other increase - and in perplexity we puzzle over this very difficult question; we draw up a framework of moral philosophy for a special kind of creatures, which are called images without faces, and we try to bring under it all faces with small, medium and large noses; we look for ways to spend the whole day without missing a single thought in our head, not a single feeling in our heart; how to manage without love, without faith, without thinking, without moving from one place; in a word, without all this flannel, from which it is awkward, woolly, disturbing; we are looking for a way to mold our life in such a way that its history will be accepted in the next world as the account book of a church elder - [a candle for one, a candle for another] - and we must admit that we have had enough time in all this; and in medicine? we worked and worked and discovered the gases, and, mind you, at the same time that the chemist Becker killed alchemy, we sorted out all the metals and salts in order; connected, connected, decomposed, decomposed; they found ferrous-cyanogen potassium, put it in a crucible, melted it, crushed it into powder, added hydrochloric acid, passed it through dry calcium chloride, and so on. and so on. – how much work! - and after all these labors, we finally obtained a most amiable liquid with a wonderful smell of bitter almonds, which scientists call hydrocyanic acid, acide hydrocyanique, acidum borussicum, and other acide prussique, but which, in any case, extinguishes a person at once, in spirit - like a candle dipped in mephitic air; we give this liquid to our patients in all sorts of illnesses and do not regret it at all when the sick do not recover ...

These once famous sciences, namely: astrological, chiromantic, parthenomantic, oneiromantic, kabbalistic, magical, and so on. and so on ... I have conceived, sir, to study, and I am firmly convinced that someday I will make a discovery like Arnold Villanova! - and now, although I have not gone far in these sciences, I have already made a very important observation: I have learned what an important role philosophical calcination, sublimation and distillation plays in the world.

I will tell you, dear reader, if you have hitherto had the patience to wade through the thorny path of my immense learning, - I will tell you the incident that happened to me and - believe me - I will tell you the absolute truth, without adding a single word of myself; I will tell you what I saw, saw, saw with my own eyes ...

Chapter II
How did the writer know what makes living rooms stuffy

I was at the ball; the ball was beautiful; an abyss of card tables, yet more people, more candles, and even more candy and ice cream. The ball was very cheerful and lively; everyone was busy: the musicians played, the players also, the ladies were looking for, the girls did not find gentlemen, the gentlemen hid from the ladies: some were chasing partners, others wandered from room to room; others gathered in a circle, communicated to each other the observations they had collected about the air temperature, and dispersed; in a word, everyone had his own occupation, but meanwhile the crampedness and stuffiness was such that everyone was beside themselves with admiration. I was also busy: to my extreme surprise and joy, from crowding - or so, on occasion - I managed to corner some gentleman who had just lost 12 roberts in a row; and I began to tell him as a consolation: about the campaign of Napoleon in 1812, about the murder of Dimitri Tsarevich, about the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, and spoke so eloquently that my listener had convulsions with pleasure and his eyes involuntarily began to turn from side to side; Encouraged by my success, I was ready to begin the analysis of the Nestor Chronicle, when the venerable elder approached us: tall, stout, but pale, in a blue tailcoat, with sunken eyes, with a majestic expression on his face, approached, grabbed my comrade by the arm and said in a low, mysterious voice: “Are you playing at fifty?”. As soon as he uttered these words, the old man in the blue frock coat and my comrade disappeared - and I was just starting to talk about the fact that Nestor copied his chronicle from Grigory Armatola ... I turned around and asked those around me with surprised eyes for an explanation of this strange incident ...

“How could you not be ashamed,” someone said to me, “to keep this unfortunate man for so long? He was looking for a partner to recoup, and you whole hour interfering…”

I blushed with vexation, but soon consoled my vanity by judging that the words mysterious person were nothing more than the slogan of some secret society, to which my friend probably also belonged; I confess that this discovery did not please me in the least, and, thinking about how I could get out of trouble, and suffocating from the heat, I went to the window, which the beneficent owner ordered to open directly against the dancing ladies ...

To my extreme surprise, no one came out of the open window. Fresh air and meanwhile it was 20 degrees below zero outside—who could know this better than me, me, who ran on foot from Kolomna to Nevsky Prospekt wearing nothing but shoes? I set out to resolve this issue, stretched out my neck, looked through the window, I looked: what was shining behind it - fire is not fire, a mirror is not a mirror; I called for help all my cabalistic knowledge, well, to calculate, calculate, inquire - and what did I see? behind the window was curved glass, the edges of which, continuing both up and down, were lost from view; I immediately guessed that someone was doing wonders on us; went out the door - the same glass before my eyes; walked around the whole house, looked out, looked out and opened it - what would you think? - that some prankster had planted the whole house, the furniture, the chandeliers, the card-tables, and the whole respectable audience, and me and her together, in a glass retort with a curved nose! This struck me as rather curious. Wishing to know how this leprosy would end, I took advantage of the moment when the gentlemen and the ladies dozed off in the mazurka, climbed out through the window and carefully went down to the bottom of the retort; then I found out what made the living room so stuffy! the accursed chemist brought a lamp under us and, without any mercy, distilled the venerable public! ..

Motley fairy tales with a red word, collected by Iriney Modestovich Gomozeykoy, Master of Philosophy and a member of various learned societies, published by V. Bezglasny. What is History. In another, you will fly to distant lands for the distant kingdom. Fon-Vizin, Undergrowth. SPb., type. Expeditions for the preparation of state papers, 1833. , XIV, 156, p. 12°. Printed publishing covers with lace ornaments. The frontispiece was painted by P Roussel, carved on wood by E. Riss. Title page, in a colored decorative Greek-Byzantine frame and printed in six colors: each letter in the word "fairy tales" has its own color. 10 illus. Excellent selection of fonts and improvised decorations. The text on the pages is taken in a thin frame. In p / c binding of his time. The condition is satisfactory. A masterpiece of Russian printing art!

Bibliographic description:

1. Smirnov-Sokolsky N. "My Library", vol. 1, M., "Book", 1969. No. 911

2. Obolyaninov N., No. 2028.

3. Vereshchagin V. “Russian illustrations. publications”, St. Petersburg, 1898, No. 42.

4. Materials, no. 2, No. 367.

Odoevsky,Vladimir Fedorovich , prince(1804-1869). Writer and public figure, a prominent musicologist and talented popularizer of scientific knowledge. He began his literary activity with articles inspired by philosophical ideas Schelling. Together with Venevitinov, he organized the "Society of Philosophy" and was its chairman. Together with V. K. Kuchelbeker, he published the almanac "Mnemosyne", in which Griboyedov and Pushkin were published. Baratynsky, Languages. Closely associated with the best literary forces of his time, Odoevsky was an active employee of Pushkin's Sovremennik, participated in the almanac Northern Flowers, in the Moscow Observer magazine, and others. Particularly widely known among his works were his Russian Nights, main character whom, Faust, was identified by his contemporaries with the personality of Odoevsky himself. He was "Faust" in life. His office, filled with books and retorts, was the shelter of Pushkin, Vyazemsky, Krylov, Gogol, Zhukovsky, Glinka. In this office, his fantastic short stories were written, short stories in a realistic spirit - "Princess Mimi", "Princess Zizi", etc., lovely children's tales, which adults read with keen interest. A particularly strong impression on contemporaries was made by “Russian Nights” - the book as a whole and its individual short stories: “Beethoven's Last Quartet”, “Sebastian Bach”, a short story about Piranesi, etc. (“Russian Nights,” Küchelbecker wrote in his “Diary” - one of the smartest books in Russian ... How many questions he (Odoevsky) raises! Of course, almost none of them are resolved, but thanks also for raising them - and in a Russian book! ”In a letter written in that In 1845, Küchelbecker once again returns to this book: “In your Russian nights there are many thoughts, a lot of depth, a lot of joyful and great things, a lot of completely true and new, and, moreover, sharply and eloquently expressed”). Odoevsky's literary activity has always been connected with life, with reality, with modernity. He lived and worked with an unshakable faith in science, art, and in the moral development of mankind. He said: "I do not understand life without science, just as I do not understand science without application to life." Highly remarkable is his striving to make the achievements of science accessible to the people. Let us recall only one of his undertakings in this area - the publication of the collection "Rural Reading", so highly appreciated by Belinsky. Three years before his death, he wrote the article "Not Enough", in which he ardently opposed Turgenev's gloomy pessimistic reflections in his widely famous work"Enough...". We did not say anything about Odoevsky's diverse connections with music, with musicology, about his tireless propaganda musical culture. Those interested in this side of his activity are referred to the book: VF Odoevsky. Musical and literary heritage. Prepared for publication by G. B. Bernandt. M., Muzgiz, 1956.

Article by the famous Voronezh bibliophile O. Lasunsky, Moscow, 1989:

"SECRETS OF THE LITERARY MASK"

As you know, there are many miracles in the world, but what happened once to a certain St. Petersburg writer is simply incomprehensible to the mind. And here's what happened. Once this writer, a fan of palmistry and cabalism, was present at the ball. Feeling the smell of sulfur, he became interested in this circumstance and soon discovered: the hall with dancing couples, and the whole house, and he himself in a strange way sealed in a large glass retort with a curved nose. The most unpleasant thing, however, was that a fire was burning under the retort, and an imp sitting on top was blowing hellish flames with bellows. The writer's attempts to get out were unsuccessful. On the contrary, a disgruntled satan put it into a thick Latin dictionary where the poor man met with other captives. Flattened with sheets, they have long turned from people ... into fairy tales. A similar metamorphosis takes place with our hero: his eyes became an epigraph, several chapters emerged from his head, his torso became a text, and his nails and hair took the place where a list of misprints usually takes place. All this devilry ended in the fact that the guests, leaving the ball, broke the retort, the imp rushed to their heels and in a hurry dropped several pages from the dictionary with the prisoners imprisoned between them. The writer, who had not yet had time to completely disappear, casually rolled other people who turned into fairy tales into a ball, put it in his pocket, and now he is presenting to the court of the most respectable public ... What a sophisticated fantasy! What a brilliant cascade of imagination, isn't it? The short story "Retort" opened with itself a collection of narrations of the same bizarre plot. It was called so - "Motley fairy tales." The collection came to light early spring 1833 on the Neva banks. The circulation was not stale in the shops. Fans of entertaining reading were in a hurry to buy a book about which the most incredible rumors went around St. Petersburg. The publication really was with a lot of "secrets" over which it was necessary to break one's head. Start at least with authorship. The title page says: “Colorful fairy tales with a red word, collected by Iriney Modestovich Gomozeykoy, master of philosophy and member of various learned societies, published by V. Bezglany ...” Do not work in vain, trying to remember who he is, the writer I.M. Homozeika! It never existed. It's nothing more than a fictional character. Yes, and the mysterious publisher V. Bezglasny - too. ... In the 1830s, the fashion for literary deceptions, so characteristic of the art of romanticism, reached its peak. The authors tried, as it were, to outdo each other: who can fool the ingenuous reader more witty? There were all sorts of tricks going on. The writers and the public played a kind of game of wits - both sides seemed to like it. Could Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoevsky avoid this temptation? Probably not. A man of a cheerful and restless disposition, by nature he was prone to various kinds of hoaxes. It was he who hid under the double mask of pseudonyms - Irinei Modestovich Gomozeika and V. Bezglasny. Later, he will publish his moralizing parables for children under the name of “grandfather Iriney” ... On the Russian Parnassus, this figure was one of the most noticeable. Fate placed VF Odoevsky at the epicenter of many events that determined the face of Russian culture at the time of its rise. An aristocrat by birth (however, his mother was a “commoner” before marriage), he was invariably drawn to people of advanced convictions. Vladimir Fedorovich was a cousin and friend of the Decembrist poet A.I. Odoevsky, the creator of the legendary phrase: “A flame will ignite from a spark.” At the secret meetings of the Moscow Society of Philosophy - V.F. Odoevsky presided over it - there were also those who would soon come out with weapons in their hands. Senate Square. V.G. Belinsky, who can hardly be accused of biased assessments, once remarked: "Prince Odoevsky is one of the most respected of contemporary Russian writers." Odoevsky became close friends with the author of "Eugene Onegin", he saw in him the foremost bard of Russia. The echo of the fatal shot on the Black River had not yet subsided, and the famous obituary on Pushkin's death appeared in the Literary Supplements to the Russian Invalid. It began with the words that every schoolchild now knows by heart: “The sun of Russian poetry has set ...” These lines came from the pen of V.F. Odoevsky. In the St. Petersburg apartment of the prince, the doors were open to everyone. Here the cavalier of St. Andrew was politely talking to an official in a pea coat, the senator was shaking hands with the titular adviser. Under this roof, equality reigned, at least outwardly. The atmosphere of simplicity and impudence attracted writers, musicians, and scientists to the salon of Vladimir Fedorovich and Olga Stepanovna. Their favorite haunt was the decrepit leather sofa in the prince's office. According to the memoirist V.A. Sollogub, here Pushkin listened reverently to Zhukovsky; Countess Rostopchina read her last poem to Lermontov; Gogol eavesdropped on secular speeches; Glinka asked Count Vielgorsky about resolving counterpoint problems; Dargomyzhsky plotted new opera and dreamed of a librettist. The then professor S.P. Shevyrev: "All the literature is on Odoevsky's sofa..." ... The reception day was Saturday. The hall in the wing was filled in the evening with numerous visitors. The owner was revered in the city for his gentle character, gift for writing and super-encyclopedic knowledge. While the ladies chirped about Parisian fashions, the men gathered to smoke in the prince's office. Everything here was amazing. The office immediately looked like a cabinet of curiosities of antiquities and a laboratory of a medieval alchemist. On the wall is a portrait painted from Beethoven, with a piano underneath. In the front corner stood a human skeleton: the skull philosophically contemplated what was happening around with the gaps of its eye sockets. In the most inappropriate places, chemical flasks and flasks gurgled suspiciously, saltpeter with coal melted in a crucible. It seemed that something was about to explode, burn with fire, some kind of violent reaction would occur. And everywhere books, books. Their owner, in a long black frock coat and a black silk cap hanging to one side, with spectacles raised instead of a bridge over his forehead, radiated undisguised contentment. He liked these friendly gatherings. On one of the March Saturdays of 1833, the most zealous admirers of their salon came to the Odoevskys. The evening flew by lively conversations. Kindest Vladimir Fedorovich beamed more than usual. And there was a very good reason for that. Each habitue of the decrepit sofa was given his new edition by the owner. Every now and then, enthusiastic exclamations were heard: like everything in this house, it was distinguished by originality ... Yes, “Colorful Tales” by V.F. Odoevsky - the most curious monument of Russian book culture. Fictional merit successfully combined with the sophisticated skill of typographers. The author himself said that he wanted to prove the possibility of luxury publications in Russia. In addition to the “Retort” already familiar to us, the collection contains: “The Tale of a Dead Body Belonging to No One Knows”, “The Life and Adventures of One of the Local Residents in a Glass Jar ...”, “Igosha”, “The Tale of How Dangerous girls to walk in a crowd along Nevsky Prospekt”, “The same fairy tale only in reverse”, etc. These works, romantic in their worldview, in a conditionally grotesque form, denounced the lack of spirituality of modern society, the atmosphere of hypocrisy and hypocrisy that reigned in the capital’s noble life. The best of the tales preceded the appearance of Gogol's "Petersburg stories". Others are close to the phantasmagoria of Hoffmann; they are deliberately complicated, intricate: the narrator himself admits that it is not easy to wade through the thorny path of his immense learning. The writing art of Odoevsky pleased even experienced writers. What is worth, for example, the language of "Colorful Tales" - juicy, clean, with some kind of cunning! It was not for nothing that Vladimir Ivanovich Dal, that "academician of the Russian word," admired him... Bibliophiles in "Parkye Tales" were immediately intrigued by their charming appearance. The book fascinated already with a cover with an ornament of lace patterns. Petr Andreevich Vyazemsky in a letter to Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky, not yet seeing the publication itself, spoke of it, from someone else's voice, as "flirtatious". There is a lot of truth in this epithet. Take, for example, the title page - it is printed in six colors: each letter in the word "fairy tales" has its own color. As if a rainbow descended from the damp sky and obediently lay down on paper. The color scheme is inimitable... Pleases with the magnificent selection of fonts and improvised decorations. The text on the pages is taken in a thin frame - this also gives elegance. However, one can hardly be surprised: after all, the book was typed, typeset and printed by the Expedition for the Procurement of State Papers, which had an exemplary printing house for those times. The director of its technical department, Yakov Yakovlevich Reichel, a renowned medalist and numismatist, was a friend of the author and, of course, tried to make "Colorful Tales" a masterpiece even for the Expedition. The printing of the circulation, at the request of Odoevsky, was directly observed by N.V. Gogol. For one of the tales, he even sketched a drawing, which, however, remained in the draft. In the history of the design of Russian books, the work of “Master of Philosophy Irinei Modestovich Gomozeika” constitutes an entire era. This is one of the first secular publications in the country, where, after a long break, there is a return to woodcuts, that is, woodcuts (until then, illustrators turned to engravings on metal and lithography). All thirteen headpieces and the frontispiece were carved on wood in St. Petersburg by the artist P. Roussel based on sketches by F. Riess (both of them are French by origin). Taking a great interest in applied chemistry, Prince Odoevsky did not deny himself the pleasure of conducting a small experiment. What he repented of in 1844 to readers: “For the history of art and for the sake of bibliomaniacs who have preserved copies of Motley Tales, I note that on p. 145 there is a polytypage unique of its kind.” It turns out that, instigated by the itch of experimentation, Vladimir Fedorovich decided to test whether it was possible to make a bulge on a lithographic stone not with a cutter, but with a special chemical composition. To help in this undertook the artist A.F. Greeks. However, nothing good came of it: the “one-of-a-kind” print on page 145 with the image of the wooden man Kivakel with a chubuk in his hand is undoubtedly dirtier and more unsuccessful than the others made from wooden boards. The meticulous prince, in addition, allowed himself to throw out a leprosy at all: he set out to tickle the nerves of readers with grammatical tricks. Having shifted all responsibility for his act onto the shoulders of the mythical Homozeika, Vladimir Fedorovich introduces punctuation that is unacceptable in everyday life. With a serious air, he assures us that punctuation marks are placed here as if on purpose so that the book could not be read the first time. In order to eliminate this shortcoming, the author defiantly refuses to put the usual comma before the words “what” and “which”. And in general, punctuation marks are treated too freely. The eye stumbles literally at every step. Following the example of the Spanish language, as the writer reports, at the beginning of each interrogative sentence a second question mark looms upside down. Iriney Modestovich protests against the abundance of commas, but obviously does not skimp on dashes and dots. On top of that, not a single letter “e” can be found in the whole collection - for some reason it was expelled from the Russian alphabet.