Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich was born on March 31, 1823. In the big city - Moscow. In a merchant family. At the age of 8, his mother dies. His father's dream was to see his son as a lawyer, but he began to show interest in literature. After graduating from high school, he enters the university at the Faculty of Law, but because of his love for theater and literature, he does not leave him. At his father's behest, he works as a court clerk.
The work "Own people - let's settle!" brought fame to the novice writer This creation was appreciated by the great writers of that time. Despite censorship, many books and plays under his authorship were released at that time.
The writer himself was very fond of the theater. He even created the Artistic Circle (1866), which helped develop many promising artists. He was very fond of the theater and everything connected with it.
Ostrovsky was the head of the community of Russian drama and opera writers (1874).
Ostrovsky was the head of the theater school, and also managed the repertoire of theaters in Moscow.
Ostrovsky lived all his life in a lack of finances. He wanted to revive acting, but did not have time.
Biography by dates and interesting facts. The most important.
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Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky is a Russian playwright and writer, on whose works the classical repertoire of Russian theaters is built. His life is full of interesting events, and his literary heritage amounts to dozens of plays.
Alexander Ostrovsky was born in the spring of 1823 in Zamoskvorechye, in a merchant's house on Malaya Ordynka. In this area, the playwright spent his early years, and the house where he was born exists to this day. Ostrovsky's father was the son of a priest. After graduating from the theological academy, the young man decided to devote himself to a secular profession and went to the judiciary.
Mother Lyubov Ostrovskaya died when her son was 8 years old. 5 years after the death of his wife, Ostrovsky Sr. married again. Unlike the first marriage with a girl from the world of the clergy, this time the father turned his attention to a woman from the nobility.
The career of Nikolai Ostrovsky went uphill, he received the title of nobility, devoted himself to private practice and lived on income from providing services to wealthy merchants. Several estates became his property, and by the end of his career, he moved to the Kostroma province, to the village of Shchelykovo, where he became a landowner.
The son entered the First Moscow Gymnasium in 1835 and graduated in 1840. Already in his youth, the boy was fond of literature and theatrical business. Indulging his father, he entered the Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. During the years of study there, Ostrovsky spent all his free time at the Maly Theater, where actors Pavel Mochalov and Mikhail Shchepkin shone. The young man's passion made him leave the institute in 1843.
The father hoped that this was a whim, and tried to attach his son to a profitable position. Alexander Nikolaevich had to go to work as a clerk in the Moscow Conscientious Court, and in 1845 in the office of the Moscow Commercial Court. In the latter, he became an official who received petitioners orally. The playwright often used this experience in his work, recalling many interesting cases he heard during his practice.
Ostrovsky became interested in literature in his youth, reading the works and. To some extent, the young man imitated his idols in the first works. In 1847, the writer made his debut in the Moscow City Leaflet newspaper. The publishing house published two scenes from the comedy "Insolvent Debtor". This is the first version of the play known to readers, "Our people - we will settle down."
In 1849, the author completed work on it. The characteristic manner of the writer can be seen in his very first work. He describes national themes through the prism of family conflict. The characters in Ostrovsky's plays have colorful and recognizable personalities.
The language of the works is light and simple, and the finale is marked by a moral background. After the play was published in the Moskvityanin magazine, Ostrovsky was a success, although the censorship committee forbade the production and re-publication of the work.
Ostrovsky was included in the list of "unreliable" authors, which made his position disadvantageous. The situation was complicated by the playwright's marriage to a bourgeois, who was not blessed by his father. Ostrovsky Sr. refused to finance his son, and young people were in need. Even the difficult financial situation did not prevent the writer from refusing to serve and from 1851 to devote himself entirely to literature.
The plays “Do not sit in your sleigh” and “Poverty is not a vice” were allowed to be staged on the stage. With their creation, Ostrovsky made a revolution in the theater. The audience went to look at a simple life, and this, in turn, required a different actor's approach to the embodiment of images. Declamation and frank theatricality had to be replaced by the naturalness of existence in the proposed circumstances.
Since 1850, Ostrovsky became a member of the “young editorial board” of the Moskvityanin magazine, but this did not fix the financial problem. The editor was stingy with paying for the large amount of work that the author did. From 1855 to 1860, Ostrovsky was inspired by revolutionary ideas that influenced his worldview. He became close with and became an employee of the Sovremennik magazine.
In 1856 he participated in a literary and ethnographic journey from the Naval Ministry. Ostrovsky visited the upper reaches of the Volga and used memories and impressions in his work.
Alexander Ostrovsky in old age 1862 was marked by a trip to Europe. The writer visited England, France, Germany, Italy, Austria and Hungary. In 1865, he was among the founders and leaders of the artistic circle, from which talented Russian artists emerged: Sadovsky, Strepetova, Pisareva and others. In 1870, Ostrovsky organized the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and was its chairman from 1874 until the last days of his life.
Throughout his life, the playwright created 54 plays, translated works of foreign classics: Goldoni,. The popular works of the author include "The Snow Maiden", "Thunderstorm", "Dowry", "The Marriage of Balzaminov", "Guilty Without Guilt" and other plays. The biography of the writer was closely connected with literature, theater and love for the motherland.
Creativity Ostrovsky was no less interesting than his personal life. He was in a civil marriage with his wife for 20 years. They met in 1847. Agafya Ivanovna, together with her young sister, settled near the writer's house. The lonely girl became the chosen one of the playwright. Nobody knew how they met.
Ostrovsky's father was against this connection. After his departure to Shchelykovo, young people began to live together. The common-law wife was next to Ostrovsky, no matter what drama took place in his life. Need and deprivation did not extinguish their feelings.
Mind and cordiality Ostrovsky and his friends especially appreciated in Agafya Ivanovna. She was famous for her hospitality and understanding. Her husband often turned to her for advice while working on a new play.
Their marriage did not become legal even after the death of the writer's father. The children of Alexander Ostrovsky were illegitimate. The younger ones died in childhood. The eldest son Alexei survived.
Ostrovsky turned out to be an unfaithful husband. He had an affair with the actress Lyubov Kositskaya-Nikulina, who played a role in the premiere performance of The Thunderstorm in 1859. The actress preferred a rich merchant to the writer.
The next lover was Maria Bakhmeteva. Agafya Ivanovna knew about the betrayals, but did not lose her pride and endured the family drama steadfastly. She died in 1867. The location of the woman's grave is unknown.
After the death of his wife, Ostrovsky lived alone for two years. His beloved Maria Vasilievna Bakhmetyeva became the first official wife of the playwright. The woman bore him two daughters and four sons. The marriage with the actress was happy. Ostrovsky lived with her until the end of his life.
Ostrovsky's health was depleted in proportion to the load that the writer took on. He led a stormy social and creative activity, but all the time he found himself in debt. Performances of plays brought considerable fees. Ostrovsky also had a pension of 3,000 rubles, but these funds were always insufficient.
The poor financial situation could not but affect the author's well-being. He was in the worries and troubles that affected the work of the heart. Active and lively, Ostrovsky was in a string of new plans and ideas that needed to be implemented as soon as possible.
Many creative ideas were not realized due to the deterioration of the writer's health. On June 2, 1886, he died at the Shchelykovo estate in Kostroma. The cause of death is believed to be angina pectoris. The funeral of the playwright took place near the family nest, in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki. The grave of the writer is located in the cemetery of the church.
The funeral of the writer was organized by a donation ordered by the emperor. He gave the relatives of the deceased 3,000 rubles and assigned the same pension to Ostrovsky's widow. The state allocated 2,400 rubles annually for the upbringing of the writer's children.
Monument to Alexander Ostrovsky in the Shchelykovo estate The works of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky were repeatedly reprinted. He became an iconic figure for classical Russian drama and theatre. His plays are still staged on the stages of Russian and foreign theaters. The work of the playwright contributed to the development of the literary genre, directing and acting skills.
The books that contain Ostrovsky's plays are sold in large numbers several decades after his death, and the works are sorted into quotations and aphorisms. Photos of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky are published on the Internet.
Alien soul - darkness.
There is nothing worse than this shame, when you have to be ashamed of others.
Why, jealous people get jealous for no reason.
As long as you don’t know a person, you believe him, but as you find out about his deeds, the price is according to his deeds.
You don't have to laugh at stupid people, you have to be able to take advantage of their weaknesses.
The greatest Russian playwright Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka.
The father of Alexander Nikolayevich first graduated from the Kostroma Theological Seminary, then the Moscow Theological Academy, but in the end he began to work, in modern terms, as a lawyer. In 1839 he received the noble rank.
The mother of the future playwright was the daughter of junior church employees, she died when Alexander was not even eight years old.
The family was wealthy and enlightened. A lot of time and money was spent on educating children. Since childhood, Alexander knew several languages and read a lot. From an early age, he felt the desire to write, but his father saw him in the future only as a lawyer.
In 1835, Ostrovsky entered the 1st Moscow Gymnasium. After 5 years - becomes a student of the Faculty of Law at Moscow University. The future profession does not attract him, and perhaps that is why the conflict with one of the teachers becomes the reason for leaving the educational institution in 1843.
At his father's insistence, Ostrovsky first served as a clerk in the Moscow Constituent Court, then in the Commercial Court (until 1851).
Observation of his father's clients, then of the stories that were dealt with in court, gave Ostrovsky the richest material for future creativity.
In 1846, Ostrovsky first thought about writing a comedy.
His literary views were formed back in his student years under the influence of Belinsky and Gogol - Ostrovsky immediately and irrevocably decides that he will write only in a realistic manner.
In 1847, in collaboration with actor Dmitry Gorev, Ostrovsky wrote the first play, Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident. The following year, his relatives move to live in the Shchelykovo family estate in the Kostroma province. Alexander Nikolayevich also visits these places and remains under an indelible impression of nature and the Volga expanses for life.
In 1850, Ostrovsky published his first big comedy "Our people - let's settle!" in the magazine "Moskvityanin". The play is a great success and rave reviews from writers, but it is forbidden for re-publishing and staging on the complaint of merchants sent directly to the emperor. The author was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision, which was removed only after the accession to the throne of Alexander II. The very first play by Ostrovsky revealed the main features of his dramatic works, which were characteristic of all his work in the future: the ability to show the most complex all-Russian problems through personal and family conflict, create memorable characters for all characters and “voice” them with lively colloquial speech.
The position of the "unreliable" worsened the already difficult affairs of Ostrovsky. Since 1849, without the blessing of his father and without getting married in a church, he began to live with a simple bourgeois Agafya Ivanovna. The father completely deprived his son of material support, and the financial situation of the young family was difficult.
Ostrovsky begins a permanent collaboration with the Moskvityanin magazine. In 1851 he publishes The Poor Bride.
Under the influence of the main ideologist of the journal A. Grigoriev, Ostrovsky’s plays of this period began to sound not so much as motives for exposing class tyranny, as for idealizing old customs and Russian patriarchy (“Don’t get into your sleigh”, “Poverty is not a vice” and others). Such sentiments reduce the criticality of Ostrovsky's works.
Nevertheless, Ostrovsky's dramaturgy becomes the beginning of a "new world" in all theatrical art. A simple everyday life with "live" characters and spoken language enters the scene. Most of the actors accept Ostrovsky's new plays with enthusiasm, they feel their novelty and vitality. Since 1853, almost every season at the Maly Theater in Moscow and the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg for 30 years, new plays by Ostrovsky appear.
In 1855-1860, the playwright draws closer to the revolutionary democrats. He goes to the Sovremennik magazine. The main "event" of Ostrovsky's plays of this period is the drama of a simple man opposing "the powers that be". At this time, he writes: “In a strange feast, a hangover”, “Profitable place”, “Thunderstorm” (1860).
In 1856, at the direction of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, the best Russian writers were sent on a business trip around the country with the task of describing industrial production and life in various regions of Russia. Ostrovsky travels by steamboat from the upper reaches of the Volga to Nizhny Novgorod and makes many notes. They become real encyclopedic notes on the culture and economy of the region. At the same time, Ostrovsky remains an artist of the word - he transfers many descriptions of nature and life into his works.
In 1859 the first collected works of Ostrovsky were published in 2 volumes.
 House-Museum: A.N. Ostrovsky. |
In the 60s, Alexander Nikolaevich turned his special interest towards history and made acquaintance with the famous historian Kostomarov. At this time, he wrote the psychological drama Vasilisa Melentyeva, the historical chronicles Tushino, Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky, and others.
He does not stop creating everyday comedies and dramas (“Hard Days” -1863, “Abysses” -1865, etc.), as well as satirical plays about the life of the nobility (“Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man” -1868, “Mad Money” -1869 , Wolves and Sheep, etc.).
In 1863, Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize for historical writings and was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
The following year pleases him with the birth of his first son, Alexander. In total, Ostrovsky will become the father of six children.
From 1865-1866 (the exact date has not been determined), Alexander Nikolaevich created an Artistic Circle in Moscow, from which many talented theater workers would subsequently emerge. In 1870 (according to other sources - in 1874), the Society of Russian Drama Writers and Opera Composers was organized in Russia, the head of which the playwright would remain until the end of his life. During this period, the whole color of the Russian cultural society stays in Ostrovsky's house. I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, P. M. Sadovsky, M. N. Ermolova, L. N. Tolstoy and many other outstanding personalities of our time will become his sincere friends and buddies.
In 1873, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky and the young composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in a few months, would write the opera The Snow Maiden, amazing in its beauty of style and sound, created on the basis of folk tales and customs. Both the playwright and the composer will be proud of their creation all their lives.
In the last years of his life, Ostrovsky often refers to women's destinies in his works. He writes comedies, but more - deep socio-psychological dramas about the fate of spiritually gifted women in the world of practicality and self-interest. “The Dowry”, “The Last Victim”, “Talents and Admirers” and other plays are published.
In 1881, under the directorate of the imperial theaters, a special commission was organized to create new legislative acts on the work of theaters throughout the country. Ostrovsky takes an active part in the work of the commission: he writes many "notes", "considerations" and "projects" on the topic of organizing work in theaters. Thanks to him, many changes are adopted that significantly improve the pay of acting.
Since 1883, Ostrovsky received from Emperor Alexander III the right to an annual pension in the amount of three thousand rubles. In the same year, the last literary masterpiece of Alexander Nikolayevich, the play Guilty Without Guilt, is released - a classic melodrama that amazes with the strength of the characters of its heroes and impresses with its plot. It was a new surge of great dramatic talent under the influence of a memorable trip to the Caucasus.
After 2 years, Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertoire of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school. The playwright is trying to form a new school of realistic acting in the country, highlighting the most talented actors.
Ostrovsky works with theatrical figures, he has a lot of ideas and plans in his head, he is busy translating foreign (including antique) dramatic literature. But his health fails more often. The body is depleted.
On June 2 (14), 1886, in the Shchelykovo estate, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky died of angina pectoris.
He was buried at the church cemetery near the Church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province.
The funeral was carried out with funds provided by Alexander III. A widow with children was granted a pension.
Interesting facts about Ostrovsky:
From childhood, the playwright knew Greek, French and German. Later he learned English, Italian and Spanish.
The play "Thunderstorm" was not immediately censored. But the empress liked her, and the censor made concessions to the author.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. Born March 31 (April 12), 1823 - died June 2 (14), 1886. Russian playwright, whose work became the most important stage in the development of the Russian national theater. Corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka.
His father, Nikolai Fedorovich, was the son of a priest, he himself graduated from the Kostroma Seminary, then the Moscow Theological Academy, but began to practice as a court lawyer, dealing with property and commercial matters. He rose to the rank of collegiate assessor, and in 1839 received the nobility.
Mother, Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina, the daughter of a sexton and a prosvir, died when Alexander was not yet nine years old. There were four children in the family (four more died in infancy).
Thanks to the position of Nikolai Fedorovich, the family lived in abundance, great attention was paid to the study of children who received home education. Five years after the death of his mother, his father married Baroness Emilia Andreevna von Tessin, the daughter of a Swedish nobleman. The children were lucky with their stepmother: she surrounded them with care and continued to teach them.
Ostrovsky's childhood and part of his youth were spent in the center of Zamoskvorechye. Thanks to his father's large library, he became acquainted early with Russian literature and felt an inclination towards writing, but his father wanted to make him a lawyer.
In 1835, Ostrovsky entered the third grade of the 1st Moscow Provincial Gymnasium, after which in 1840 he became a student at the law faculty of Moscow University. He failed to complete the university course: without passing the exam in Roman law, Ostrovsky wrote a letter of resignation (he studied until 1843). At the request of his father, Ostrovsky entered the service of a clerk in the Constituent Court and served in the Moscow courts until 1850; his first salary was 4 rubles a month, after a while it increased to 16 rubles (transferred to the Commercial Court in 1845).
By 1846, Ostrovsky had already written many scenes from merchant life and conceived the comedy "Insolvent Debtor" (later - "Own people - let's settle!"). The very first publication was a short play “A Picture of Family Life” and an essay “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident” - they were published in one of the issues of the “Moscow City List” in 1847. Professor of Moscow University S.P. Shevyrev, after Ostrovsky read the play at his home on February 14, 1847, solemnly congratulated the audience on "the appearance of a new dramatic luminary in Russian literature."
Literary fame Ostrovsky brought comedy "Own people - let's count!"(original name - "Insolvent debtor"), published in 1850 in the journal of the university professor M.P. Pogodin "Moskvityanin". Under the text was: "A. O." and "D. G.", that is, Dmitry Gorev-Tarasenkov, a provincial actor who offered Ostrovsky cooperation. This cooperation did not go beyond one scene, and subsequently served as a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky, since it gave his detractors a reason to accuse him of plagiarism (1856). However, the play evoked favorable responses from H. V. Gogol and I. A. Goncharov.
The influential Moscow merchants, offended by their estate, complained to the "bosses"; as a result, the comedy was banned from staging, and the author was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision on the personal order of Nicholas I. Supervision was removed after the accession of Alexander II, and the play was allowed to be staged only in 1861.
Ostrovsky's first play, which was able to get on the stage, was "Do not get into your sleigh"(written in 1852 and staged for the first time in Moscow on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater on January 14, 1853).
Since 1853, for more than 30 years, new plays by Ostrovsky appeared almost every season in the Moscow Maly and St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky theaters. Since 1856, Ostrovsky became a permanent contributor to the Sovremennik magazine. In the same year, in accordance with the wishes of the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, a business trip of outstanding writers took place to study and describe various areas of Russia in industrial and domestic terms. Ostrovsky took over the study of the Volga from the upper reaches to Nizhny Novgorod.
In 1859, with the assistance of Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, the first collected works of Ostrovsky were published in two volumes. Thanks to this edition, Ostrovsky received a brilliant assessment from N. A. Dobrolyubov, which secured him the fame of a depicter of the “dark kingdom”. In 1860, the Thunderstorm appeared in print, to which he dedicated the article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom”.
From the second half of the 1860s, Ostrovsky took up the history of the Time of Troubles and entered into correspondence with Kostomarov. Five “historical chronicles in verse” became the fruit of the work: “Kuzma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”, “Vasilisa Melentyeva”, “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky”, etc.
In 1863, Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize (for the play "Thunderstorm") and was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1866 (according to other sources - in 1865), Ostrovsky founded the Artistic Circle, which later gave the Moscow stage many talented figures.
Ostrovsky's house was visited by I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, I. S. Turgenev, A. F. Pisemsky, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. E. Turchaninov, P. M. Sadovsky, L. P. Kositskaya-Nikulina, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. N. Ermolova, G. N. Fedotova.
In 1874, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was formed, of which Ostrovsky remained the permanent chairman until his death. Working in the commission "for the revision of legal provisions in all parts of the theater management", established in 1881 under the directorate of the Imperial Theaters, he achieved many changes that significantly improved the position of artists.
In 1885, Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertoire of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school.
Despite the fact that his plays made good collections and that in 1883 Emperor Alexander III granted him an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, money problems did not leave Ostrovsky until the last days of his life. Health did not meet the plans that he set for himself. Hard work exhausted the body.
On June 2 (14), 1886, on Spirits Day, Ostrovsky died in his Kostroma estate Shchelykovo. His last work was the translation of "Antony and Cleopatra" by W. Shakespeare - Alexander Nikolayevich's favorite playwright. The writer was buried next to his father at the church cemetery near the Temple in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province. For the burial, Alexander III granted 3,000 rubles from the sums of the cabinet; the widow, inseparably with 2 children, was assigned a pension of 3,000 rubles, and for the upbringing of three sons and a daughter - 2,400 rubles a year. Subsequently, the widow of the writer M.V. Ostrovskaya, an actress of the Maly Theater, and the daughter of M.A. Shatelen were in the family necropolis.
After the death of the playwright, the Moscow Duma set up a reading room named after A. N. Ostrovsky in Moscow.
Family and personal life of Alexander Ostrovsky:
The younger brother is the statesman M. N. Ostrovsky.
Alexander Nikolaevich had a deep passion for the actress L. Kositskaya, but both of them had a family.
However, even after becoming a widow in 1862, Kositskaya continued to reject Ostrovsky's feelings, and soon she began a close relationship with the son of a wealthy merchant, who eventually squandered her entire fortune. She wrote to Ostrovsky: "I do not want to take away your love from anyone."
The playwright lived in cohabitation with the commoner Agafya Ivanovna, but all their children died at an early age. Uneducated, but a smart woman, with a subtle, easily vulnerable soul, she understood the playwright and was the very first reader and critic of his works. Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for about twenty years, and two years after her death, in 1869, he married actress Maria Vasilyevna Bakhmetyeva, who bore him four sons and two daughters.
Plays by Alexander Ostrovsky:
"Family Picture" (1847)
"Own people - let's count" (1849)
"An Unexpected Case" (1850)
"Young Man's Morning" (1850)
"Poor Bride" (1851)
"Do not get into your sleigh" (1852)
"Poverty is no vice" (1853)
"Do not live as you like" (1854)
Hangover in someone else's feast (1856)
"Profitable Place" (1856)
"Festive Sleep Before Dinner" (1857)
"They didn't get along" (1858)
"Pupil" (1859)
"Thunderstorm" (1859)
"An old friend is better than two new ones" (1860)
“Your own dogs squabble, don’t pester someone else’s” (1861)
"The Marriage of Balzaminov" (1861)
"Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk" (1861, 2nd edition 1866)
"Hard Days" (1863)
"Sin and trouble does not live on anyone" (1863)
Voevoda (1864; 2nd edition 1885)
"Joker" (1864)
"In a Busy Place" (1865)
"Abyss" (1866)
"Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" (1866)
"Tushino" (1866)
"Vasilisa Melentyeva" (co-authored with S. A. Gedeonov) (1867)
"Sufficient Simplicity for Every Wise Man" (1868)
"Hot Heart" (1869)
"Mad Money" (1870)
"Forest" (1870)
"Not everything is Shrovetide for the cat" (1871)
"There was not a penny, but suddenly Altyn" (1872)
"Comedian of the 17th century" (1873)
"Snow Maiden" (1873)
"Late Love" (1874)
"Labor Bread" (1874)
"Wolves and Sheep" (1875)
"Rich Brides" (1876)
"Truth is good, but happiness is better" (1877)
"The Marriage of Belugin" (1877)
"Last Victim" (1878)
"Dowry" (1878)
"Good gentleman" (1879)
"Wild Woman" (1879), together with Nikolai Solovyov
"Heart is not a stone" (1880)
"Slaves" (1881)
"Shines, but does not warm" (1881), together with Nikolai Solovyov
"Guilty Without Guilt" (1881-1883)
"Talents and Admirers" (1882)
"Handsome Man" (1883)
"Not of this world" (1885)
Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky is a great Russian playwright, author of 47 original plays. In addition, he translated more than 20 literary works: from Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, English.
Alexander Nikolayevich was born in Moscow in the family of a raznochinets official who lived in Zamoskvorechye, on Malaya Ordynka. It was an area where the merchants settled for a long time. Merchant mansions with their blind fences, pictures of everyday life and peculiar customs of the merchant world from early childhood sunk into the soul of the future playwright.
After graduating from the gymnasium, Ostrovsky, on the advice of his father, entered the law faculty of Moscow University in 1840. But legal sciences were not his vocation. In 1843, he left the university without completing his course of study, and decided to devote himself entirely to literary activity.
Not a single playwright showed pre-revolutionary life with such completeness as A. N. Ostrovsky. Representatives of the most diverse classes, people of different professions, origins, upbringing pass before us in the artistically truthful images of his comedies, dramas, scenes from life, historical chronicles. Life, customs, characters of the philistines, nobles, officials and mainly merchants - from "very important gentlemen", rich bar and businessmen to the most insignificant and poor - are reflected by A. N. Ostrovsky with amazing breadth.
The plays were written not by an indifferent writer of everyday life, but by an angry accuser of the world of the “dark kingdom”, where for the sake of profit a person is capable of anything, where the elders rule over the younger, the rich over the poor, where the state power, the church and society in every possible way support the cruel morals that have developed over the centuries.
The works of Ostrovsky contributed to the development of public consciousness. Their revolutionary influence was perfectly defined by Dobrolyubov; he wrote: "By drawing to us in a vivid picture false relations with all their consequences, he through the very same serves as an echo of aspirations that require a better device." No wonder the defenders of the existing system did everything in their power to prevent Ostrovsky's plays from being staged. His first one-act "Picture of Family Happiness" (1847) was immediately banned by theatrical censorship, and this play appeared only 8 years later. The first big four-act comedy “Our people - we will settle” (1850) was not allowed on the stage by Nicholas I himself, imposing a resolution: “It has been printed in vain, it is forbidden to play in any case.” And the play, heavily altered at the request of censorship, was staged only in 1861. The Tsar demanded information about the way of life and thoughts of Ostrovsky and, having received a report, ordered: "To have it under supervision." The secret office of the Moscow governor-general started the "Case of the writer Ostrovsky", behind him was established an unspoken gendarmerie supervision. The apparent "unreliability" of the playwright, who then served in the Moscow Commercial Court, so worried the authorities that Ostrovsky was forced to resign.
The comedy “Our people - let's settle” that was not allowed on the stage made the author widely known. It is not difficult to explain the reasons for such a major success of the play. As if alive, the faces of the tyrant-owner Bolshov, his unrequited, stupidly submissive wife, daughter Lipochka, distorted by an absurd education, and the rogue clerk Podkhalyuzin stand before us. "The Dark Kingdom" - this is how the great Russian critic N. A. Dobrolyubov described this musty, rough life based on despotism, ignorance, deceit and arbitrariness. Together with the actors of the Moscow Maly Theater Provo Sadovsky and the great Mikhail Shchepkin, Ostrovsky read comedy in various circles.
The huge success of the play, which, according to N. A. Dobrolyubov, “belonged to the most striking and seasoned works of Ostrovsky” and conquered “with the truth of the image and a true sense of reality,” made the guardians of the existing system alert. Almost every new play by Ostrovsky was banned by the censors or not approved for presentation by the theater authorities.
Even such a wonderful drama as The Thunderstorm (1859) was met with hostility by the reactionary nobility and the press. On the other hand, representatives of the democratic camp saw in Groz a sharp protest against the feudal-serf system and fully appreciated it. The artistic integrity of the images, the depth of the ideological content and the accusatory power of The Thunderstorm allow us to recognize it as one of the most perfect works of Russian drama.
The significance of Ostrovsky is great not only as a playwright, but also as the creator of the Russian theater. “You brought literature as a gift a whole library of works of art,” I. A. Goncharov wrote to Ostrovsky, “you created your own special world for the stage. You alone completed the building, at the base of which the cornerstones Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol were laid. But only after you, we, Russians, can proudly say: we have our own Russian national theater. Ostrovsky's work constituted a whole epoch in the history of our theater. The name of Ostrovsky is especially strongly connected with the history of the Moscow Maly Theatre. Almost all of Ostrovsky's plays were staged in this theater during his lifetime. They brought up several generations of artists who grew into wonderful masters of the Russian stage. Ostrovsky's plays have played such a role in the history of the Maly Theater that it proudly calls itself the Ostrovsky House.
To perform new roles, a whole galaxy of new actors had to appear and appeared, as well as Ostrovsky, who knew Russian life. Ostrovsky's plays established and developed the national Russian school of realistic acting. Starting with Prov Sadovsky in Moscow and Alexander Martynov in St. Petersburg, several generations of capital and provincial actors, up to the present day, have grown up playing roles in Ostrovsky's plays. “Fidelity to reality, to the truth of life,” Dobrolyubov spoke of Ostrovsky’s works in this way, has become one of the essential features of our national stage art.
Dobrolyubov pointed out another feature of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy - "accuracy and fidelity of the folk language." No wonder Gorky called Ostrovsky "the sorcerer of the language." Each character of Ostrovsky speaks a language typical of his class, profession, upbringing. And the actor, creating this or that image, had to be able to use the necessary intonation, pronunciation and other speech means. Ostrovsky taught the actor to listen and hear how people speak in life.
The works of the great Russian playwright recreate not only his contemporary life. They also depict the years of Polish intervention at the beginning of the 17th century. (“Kozma Minin”, “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky”), and the legendary times of ancient Rus' (the spring fairy tale “The Snow Maiden”).
In the pre-revolutionary years, bourgeois audiences gradually began to lose interest in Ostrovsky's theater, considering it obsolete. On the Soviet stage, Ostrovsky's dramaturgy revived with renewed vigor. His plays are also performed on foreign stages.
L. N. Tolstoy wrote to the playwright in 1886: “I know from experience how your things are read, listened to and remembered by the people, and therefore I would like to help you become now as soon as possible in reality what you are, undoubtedly – nationwide – in the broadest sense, a writer”.
After the Great October Socialist Revolution, the work of A. N. Ostrovsky became popular among the people.
