Mashenka Nabokov summary analysis. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” - a call for the unity of the Russian land

“Mashenka” is Nabokov’s first novel, created during the Berlin period. This is one of the works created by the writer in Russian. This article outlines summary“Mashenka” by Vladimir Nabokov.

about the author

Vladimir Nabokov was born in 1899 into a wealthy noble family. WITH early years spoke French and English. After October revolution the family moved to Crimea, where the aspiring writer achieved his first literary success.

In 1922, Nabokov's father was killed. In the same year, the writer left for Berlin. For some time he made a living by teaching in English. In the capital of Germany, he published several of his works. And in 1926, the novel “Mashenka” by Nabokov was published. A summary of the chapters is presented below. In addition, the writer is the author of such works as “The Defense of Luzhin”, “Feat”, “The Gift”, “Despair” and, of course, the famous “Lolita”. So, what is Nabokov’s novel “Mashenka” about?

The work consists of seventeen chapters. If we present a summary of Nabokov’s “Mashenka” chapter by chapter, we will have to follow this plan:

Meeting between Ganin and Alferov.
Residents of the boarding house.
Mashenka.
Breakup with Lyudmila.
Kunitsyn.
July evening in Voskresensk.
Podtyagin's troubles.
First meeting with Mashenka.
Gornotsvetov and Colin.
Letter from Lyudmila.
Preparing for the celebration.
Passport.
Ganin's fees.
Farewell evening.
Memories of Sevastopol.
Farewell to the boarding house.
At the station.

If you present a summary of Nabokov's Mashenka according to this plan, the presentation will turn out to be very lengthy. We need condensed retelling with a description of the main events. Below is a summary of Nabokov's "Mashenka" in the most abbreviated version.

Lev Ganin

This is the main character of the novel. Lev Ganin is an emigrant from Russia. Lives in Berlin. The work reflects the events of the twenties. There are such characters as Alexey Alferov, Anton Podtyagin, Clara, whom the author describes as “a cozy young lady in black silk.” The boarding house also houses dancers Colin and Gornotsvetov. Where to start with a summary of Nabokov's Mashenka? From a story about the main character. This is the story of a Russian emigrant - one of many representatives of the nobility forced to leave native home after the revolutionary events.

Ganin arrived in Berlin not so long ago, but he has already worked as both an extra and a waiter. He saved a small amount, and this allowed him to leave the German capital. What kept him in this city was his disgusted relationship with a woman who was quite boring to him. Ganin is languishing, he suffers from boredom and loneliness. His relationship with Lyudmila makes him sad. However, for some reason he cannot admit to a woman that he no longer loves her.

When presenting a brief summary of Nabokov's Mashenka, it is worth paying special attention to the image of the main character. He is unsociable, withdrawn, even somewhat gloomy, yearning for a foreign land and dreams of leaving Berlin. The windows of his room overlook railway, which every day awakens the desire to escape, to leave this cold and alien city.

Alferov

Ganin’s neighbor, Alferov, is extremely verbose. One day he shows him a photograph of his wife Maria. And from this moment the main events of Nabokov’s novel “Mashenka” begin. It’s not easy to convey the main character’s experiences in a summary. The writer colorfully describes Ganin’s feelings that gripped him after he saw the girl’s photograph. This is Mashenka, whom he loved once upon a time, in Russia. Most of the work is devoted to the memories of a Russian emigrant.

Breakup with Lyudmila

After Ganin found out who Alferov’s wife was, his life completely changed. Mashenka was supposed to arrive soon. Awareness of this gave the hero a feeling of happiness (albeit illusory), a sense of freedom. The very next day he went to Lyudmila and confessed to her that he loved another woman.

Like any person who feels boundless happiness, Nabokov’s hero became cruel in some way. “Mashenka,” a brief summary of which is presented in this article, is a story about a man who delved into memories, protecting himself from those around him. When parting with Lyudmila, Ganin did not feel guilt or compassion for his former lover.

Nine years ago

The hero of the novel is waiting for Mashenka's arrival. These days it seems to him that the last nine years never happened, there was no separation from his homeland. He met Masha in the summer, during the holidays. Her father rented a dacha near the family estate of Ganin’s parents, in Voskresensk.

First meeting

One day they agreed to meet. Mashenka was supposed to come to this meeting with her friends. However, she came alone. From that day on, the touching relationship between the young people began. When the summer came to an end, they returned to St. Petersburg. Lev and Masha met occasionally in the Northern capital, but walking in the cold was painful. When the girl told him that she and her parents were leaving for Moscow, he, oddly enough, took this news with some relief.

They also met the following summer. Mashenka’s father did not want to rent a dacha in Voskresensk, and Ganin had to ride a bicycle several kilometers away. Their relationship remained platonic.

The last time they met was on a country train. Then he was already in Yalta, and this was several years before leaving for Berlin. And then they lost each other. Has Ganin been thinking about the girl from Voskresensk all these years? Not at all. After meeting on the train, he probably never thought about Mashenka.

Last evening at the boarding house

Gornotsvetov and Colin organize a small celebration in honor of the engagement, as well as the departure of Podtyagin and Ganin. That evening the main character adds wine to the already drunk Alferov with the hope that he will sleep through the train on which Mashenka will arrive. Ganin will meet her and take her with him.

The next day he goes to the station. He languishes for several hours waiting for the train. But suddenly she realizes with merciless clarity that that Mashenka from Voskresensk is no longer there. Their romance ended forever. Memories of him are also exhausted. Ganin goes to another station and boards a train heading to the southwest of the country. On the way, he already dreams of how he will get across the border - to France, Provence. To sea…

Analysis of the work

Not love, but longing for one's homeland is the main motive of Nabokov's novel. Abroad, Ganin lost himself. He is a useless emigrant. Ganin finds the existence of the other inhabitants of the Russian boarding house pitiful, but he understands that he is not much different from them.

The hero of Vladimir Nabokov's work is a man whose life was calm and measured. Until the revolution broke out. In a sense, Mashenka is an autobiographical novel. The fate of an emigrant is always bleak, even if he does not experience financial difficulties in a foreign country. Ganin is forced to work as a waiter, as an extra - to be “a shadow sold for ten marks.” In Germany he is lonely, despite the fact that his neighbors in the boarding house are people with similar fate, the same unfortunate emigrants from Russia.

The image of Podtyagin in the novel is symbolic. Ganin leaves for the station when he is dying. He cannot know the thoughts of his former neighbor, but he feels his melancholy. In the last hours of his life, Podtyagin realizes its absurdity, the futility of the years he has lived. Shortly before this, he loses his documents. Last words addressed to Ganin, he says with a bitter smile, “Without a passport...”. In exile, without a past, without a future and without a present...

It is unlikely that Ganin really loved Mashenka. Rather, she was just an image from a bygone youth. The hero of the novel missed her for several days. But these were feelings similar to the usual nostalgic experiences of an emigrant.

Mashenka

"Mashenka"- the first novel by V.V. Nabokov; written during the Berlin period in 1926 in Russian.

The book exhibits themes in to a greater extent developed in “The Gift”: Russian emigrant environment in Berlin.

Plot

The main character Ganin lives in a Russian boarding house in Berlin. One of the neighbors, Alferov, always talks about the arrival of his wife Mashenka from Soviet Russia At the end of the week. From the photograph, Ganin recognizes his former love and decides to sneak her away from the station. All week Ganin lives with memories. On the eve of Mashenka’s arrival in Berlin, Ganin gets Alferov drunk and sets his alarm clock incorrectly. IN last moment However, Ganin decides that the past image cannot be returned and goes to another station, leaving Berlin forever. Mashenka herself appears in the book only in Ganin’s memoirs.

Mashenka and her husband appear later in Nabokov's novel The Defense of Luzhin (Chapter 13).

In 1991, a film of the same name was made based on the book.

The image of Russia in the novel

V. Nabokov describes the life of emigrants in a German boarding school.

These people are poor, both materially and spiritually. They live in thoughts about their past, pre-emigrant life in Russia, and cannot build the present and future.

The image of Russia is contrasted with the image of France. The heroes associate Russia with a squiggle, and France with a zigzag. In France “everything is very correct”, in Russia it’s a mess. Alferov believes that everything is over with Russia, “they washed it away, as you know, if wet sponge smear it on a black board, on a painted face...” Life in Russia is perceived as painful; Alferov calls it “metempsychosis.” Russia is called damned. Alferov declares that Russia is kaput, “that the “God-bearer” turned out, as one might have expected, to be a gray bastard, that our homeland, therefore, perished forever.”

Ganin lives with memories of Russia. When he sees fast clouds, her image immediately appears in his head. Ganin remembers his Motherland most of the time. When the end of July comes, Ganin indulges in memories of Russia (“The end of July in the north of Russia already smells slightly of autumn…”). In the hero’s memory, the nature of Russia mainly emerges, its detailed description: smells, colors... For him, separation from Mashenka is also separation from Russia. The image of Mashenka is closely intertwined with the image of Russia.

Clara loves Russia and feels lonely in Berlin.

Podtyagin dreams of apocalyptic Petersburg, and Ganin dreams of “only beauty.”

The heroes of the novel remember their youth, studying at the gymnasium, college, how they played Cossacks - robbers, lapta; remember magazines, poems, birch groves, forest edges...

Thus, the heroes have an ambivalent attitude towards Russia, each of them has their own ideas about the Motherland, their own memories.

Memory in a novel (using the example of Ganin)

Ganin is the hero of the novel “Mashenka” by V. Nabokov. This character is not inclined to action, apathetic. Critics of literature of the 20s consider Ganin a failed attempt to present strong personality. But there is also dynamics in the image of this character. We need to remember the hero’s past and his reaction in a stopped elevator (trying to find a way out). Ganin’s memories are also dynamics. The difference between him and other heroes is that he is the only one leaving the boarding house.

Memory in V. Nabokov's novel is presented as an all-encompassing force, as an animated being. Ganin, seeing Mashenka’s photograph, radically changes his worldview. Also, the memory accompanies the hero everywhere, it’s like Living being. In the novel, the memory is called a gentle companion who lay down and spoke.

In his memoirs, the hero plunges into his youth, where he met his first love. Mashenka’s letter to Ganin awakens in him memories of a bright feeling.

Sleep in the novel is equal to falling. Nabokov's hero passes this test. The means to awakening is memory.

The fullness of life returns to Ganin through memory. This happens with the help of Mashenka’s photograph. It is from contact with her that Ganin’s resurrection begins. As a result of the healing, Ganin remembers the feelings he experienced during his recovery from typhus.

The memory of Mashenka, the hero’s appeal to her image, can be compared to an appeal to the Virgin Mary for help.

N. Poznansky notes that Nabokov’s recollection in its essence resembles “prayer-like conspiracies.”

So, memory plays a central role in the novel. With its help, the plot is built; their fate depends on the memories of the heroes.

That. memory is a kind of mechanism through which the dynamics in the novel are realized.

[When writing this section, the article by Dmitrienko O.A. was used. Folklore - mythological motives in Nabokov's novel >// Russian literature, No.4, 2007]

Vladimir Nabokov, an outstanding Russian writer, gained recognition in emigration in the 1920s and only in the second half of the 80s did he return with his works to his homeland, Russia. His creative activity started at the end Silver Age Russian poetry and continued until the 70s. It so happened that Nabokov’s work is inscribed in the history of two national literatures- Russian and American, and all his novels, written in Russian and English, are genuine literary masterpieces. Nabokov did a lot to introduce Western readership with the peaks of Russian literary classics, translated Pushkin and Russian works writers of the 19th century century. The homeland and great love for it always remained in the writer’s heart.

The writer's first novel, Mashenka, was written in the autumn of 1925 and published in 1926. The novel was assessed positively among Russian emigrants, but was not a resounding success, since its content was about them. own life, dull and dreary. In the novel, the action lasts one week in April 1924. At that time most of Russian emigration moved from Berlin to Paris.

The events of the novel take place in an inexpensive Berlin boarding house, which is located next to the railway. Alarm beeps and the sound of wheels constantly remind Russian emigrants of their lost homeland.

Here are seven Russian emigrants, but only one of them likes Berlin life. This is Alexey Alferov, a minor employee who calls himself a mathematician. He recently arrived at the boarding house from Russia and intends to stay in Berlin. He is looking forward to the arrival of his wife Maria. Alferov attaches a broad, even mystical meaning to his expectation and, in general, to everything that happens to him. Even the fact that they, together with the main character of the novel, Ganin, are stuck in an elevator, Alferov proposes to interpret as a kind of “sign”, a symbol.

Nabokov reports information about Alferov’s wife, Masha, very sparingly. According to Alferov’s stories, his wife is the pure ideal of femininity and beauty. He speaks about her only in elevated tones. The hero excitedly talks about how his wife loves country walks, and her appearance can only be recreated talented poet. Alferov invites the poet Podtyagin, also living in a boarding house, to describe “such a thing as femininity, beautiful Russian femininity.”

The external simplicity of Nabokov's first novel is deceptive: a simple composition, all the characters in the foreground, the action unfolds as if in a play. It would seem that there is no “secondary plan” of the story. The reader perceives Alferov’s inappropriate cleverness, tactlessness, unpleasant obsession, and sloppiness as the banal vulgarity of this character. However, already in this first novel the features word game, Nabokov's complex style, which would emerge later.

Nabokov's novel Mashenka skillfully describes city landscapes. The reader is attracted by the accuracy of the portraits and psychological characteristics heroes, as well as the strength of feelings of the hero’s memories. The author brings Ganin’s views and judgments to the fore. In this image Nabokov put the sharpness and complexity of his perception of the world, as well as his own memories of Russia. The hero recreates four days in his memory detailed image homeland. The memories are so vivid and real that they completely displace impressions of Berlin in the hero’s mind. An avalanche of memories was caused by the fact that in the photograph Ganin recognized Alferov’s wife Mashenka as his first lover. A revolution takes place in Ganin’s soul, helping him to find reality. Alferov’s words also serve as an impetus for reflection, for “returning to ourselves”: “It’s time for us all to openly declare that Russia is kaput, that our homeland, therefore, has perished forever.” Material from the site

The author is convinced that only art can resist decay and oblivion, that life transformed into a novel is the only reliable reality. Therefore, at the end of the novel, Ganin suddenly abandons his intention to meet and take Mashenka with him: “Ganin looked at the light sky, at the through roof - and already felt with merciless clarity that his romance with Mashenka was over forever. It lasted only four days - and these four days were, perhaps, happiest times his life." During these four days, Ganin remembered the last three years of his life in Russia, from his first meeting with Mashenka to her last letter to him.

The hero’s memories of Mashenka embodied the emigrant’s dream and hope of returning to Russia. But returning to your homeland is possible only in memories. This is the meaning of the ending of the novel.

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In 1926 the first prose work Nabokov's novel "Mashenka". On this occasion, Niva magazine wrote: “Nabokov, having fun, tirelessly embroiders himself and his destiny in different variations along the canvas of his works. But not only his own, although hardly anyone interested Nabokov more than himself. This is also the fate of the whole human type- Russian intellectual emigrant." Indeed, for Nabokov, life in a foreign land was still quite difficult. The past, in which there were bright feelings, love, a completely different world, became a consolation. Therefore, the novel is based on memories. There is no plot as such, the content unfolds as a stream of consciousness: dialogues characters, internal monologues the main character, descriptions of the scene are interspersed.

The main character of the novel, Lev Glebovich Ganin, having found himself in exile, lost some the most important properties personality. He lives in a boarding house, which he does not need and is not interested in, its inhabitants seem pitiful to Ganin, and he himself, like other emigrants, is of no use to anyone. Ganin is sad, sometimes he cannot decide what to do: “should I change my body position, should I get up to go and wash my hands, should I open the window...”. “Twilight obsession” is the definition that the author gives to the state of his hero. Although the novel refers to early period Nabokov's creativity is, perhaps, the most “classical” of all the works he created, but the game with the reader characteristic of the writer is also present here. It is unclear what serves as the root cause: either emotional experiences deform external world, or, on the contrary, ugly reality deadens the soul. There is a feeling that the writer has placed two crooked mirrors in front of each other, the images in which are ugly refracted, doubling and tripling.

The novel "Mashenka" is structured as the hero's memory of old life in Russia, torn apart by revolution and Civil War; The narration is told in third person. In Ganin’s life before emigration there was one thing: an important event- his love for Mashenka, who remained in her homeland and was lost with her. But quite unexpectedly, Ganin recognizes his Mashenka in the woman depicted in the photograph, the wife of his neighbor at the Berlin boarding house Alferov. She must come to Berlin, and this expected arrival revives the hero. Ganin’s heavy melancholy passes, his soul is filled with memories of the past: a room in a St. Petersburg house, country estate, three poplars, a barn with a painted window, even the flickering spokes of a bicycle wheel. Ganin again seems to be immersed in the world of Russia, preserving the poetry of “noble nests” and the warmth of family relationships. Many events took place, and the author selects the most significant of them. Ganin perceives the image of Mashenka as “a sign, a call, a question thrown into the sky,” and to this question he suddenly receives a “gemstone, delightful answer.” The meeting with Mashenka should be a miracle, a return to the world in which Ganin could only be happy. Having done everything to prevent his neighbor from meeting his wife, Ganin finds himself at the station. At the moment the train on which she arrived stops, he feels that this meeting is impossible. And he leaves for another station to leave the city.

It would seem that the novel assumes a love triangle situation, and the development of the plot pushes towards this. But Nabokov rejects the traditional ending. Ganin’s deep experiences are much more important to him than the nuances of the characters’ relationships. Ganin’s refusal to meet his beloved has not a psychological, but rather a philosophical motivation. He understands that the meeting is unnecessary, even impossible, not because it entails inevitable psychological problems, but because you can’t turn back time. This could lead to submission to the past and, therefore, renunciation of oneself, which is generally impossible for Nabokov’s heroes.

In the novel “Mashenka” Nabokov first addresses themes that will then appear repeatedly in his work. This is the theme of lost Russia, acting as an image paradise lost and the happiness of youth, the theme of memory, which simultaneously resists the all-destroying time and fails in this futile struggle.

The image of the main character, Ganin, is very typical of the work of V. Nabokov. Unsettled, “lost” emigrants constantly appear in his works. The dusty boarding house is unpleasant to Ganin, because it will never replace his homeland. Those living in the boarding house - Ganin, mathematics teacher Alferov, the old Russian poet Podtyagin, Klara, funny dancers - are united by uselessness, some kind of exclusion from life. The question arises: why do they live? Ganin acts in films, selling his shadow. Is it worth living in order to “get up and go to the printing house every morning,” as Clara does? Or “look for an engagement”, as dancers look for it? Humiliate yourself, beg for a visa, using bad language German How is Podtyagin forced to do this? None of them have a goal that would justify this miserable existence. All of them do not think about the future, do not strive to get settled, improve their lives, living in the daytime. Both the past and the expected future remained in Russia. But admitting this to yourself means telling yourself the truth about yourself. After this, you need to draw some conclusions, but then how to live, how to fill boring days? And life is filled with petty passions, romances, and vanity. “Podtyagin came into the room of the hostess of the boarding house, stroking the affectionate black dachshund, pinching her ears, a wart on her gray muzzle and talking about his old man’s painful illness and that he had been trying for a long time for a visa to Paris, where pins and red wine are very cheap "

Ganin’s connection with Lyudmila does not leave for a second the feeling that we are talking about love. But this is not love: “And yearning and ashamed, he felt how senseless tenderness - the sad warmth remaining where love had once slipped very fleetingly - makes him press without passion to the purple rubber of her yielding lips...” Did Ganin have real love? When he met Mashenka as a boy, he fell in love not with her, but with his dream, the ideal woman he had invented. Mashenka turned out to be unworthy of him. He loved silence, solitude, beauty, and sought harmony. She was frivolous and pulled him into the crowd. And “he felt that these meetings were making him smaller true love" In Nabokov's world happy love impossible. It is either connected with betrayal, or the heroes do not even know what love is. Individualistic pathos, fear of subordination to another person, fear of the possibility of his judgment make Nabokov’s heroes forget about her. Often at the heart of the plot of the writer’s works love triangle. But it is impossible to find the intensity of passions, the nobility of feelings in his works; the story looks vulgar and boring.

The novel “Mashenka” is characterized by features that appear in further creativity Nabokov. It's a game literary quotes and the construction of the text on elusive and reappearing leitmotifs and images. Here sounds become independent and significant (from nightingale singing, meaning the natural beginning and the past, to the noise of a train and tram, personifying the world of technology and the present), smells, repeating images - trains, trams, light, shadows, comparisons of heroes with birds. Nabokov, speaking about the meetings and partings of the characters, undoubtedly hinted to the reader about the plot of “Eugene Onegin.” Also, an attentive reader can find in the novel images characteristic of the lyrics of A.A. Feta (nightingale and rose), A.A. Blok (dates in a snowstorm, heroine in the snow). At the same time, the heroine, whose name is in the title of the novel, never appeared on its pages, and the reality of her existence sometimes seems doubtful. The game with illusions and reminiscences is ongoing.

Nabokov actively uses techniques traditional for Russian literature. The author turns to Chekhov's characteristic techniques of detailing, saturates the world with smells and colors, like Bunin. This is primarily due to the ghostly image main character. Contemporary critics of Nabokov called Mashenka a “narcissistic novel” and suggested that the author constantly “reflects himself” in his characters, placing at the center of the narrative a personality endowed with remarkable intelligence and capable of strong passion. There is no character development, the plot becomes a stream of consciousness. Many contemporaries did not accept the novel because it lacked dynamic developing plot and happy resolution of the conflict. Nabokov wrote about the “furnished” emigration space in which he and his heroes were henceforth to live. Russia remained in memories and dreams, and this reality had to be taken into account.

/ / / The image of Mashenka in Nabokov’s novel “Mashenka”

The work of Vladimir Nabokov evokes many controversial opinions among readers. At the same time, he does not cease to be one of the most interesting Russian writers of the twentieth century. “” is the writer’s first novel, which makes it incredibly exciting and interesting to study.

IN this work many impressions and experiences of Vladimir Nabokov himself were reflected. The main character is an emigrant. He was in love with a girl who remained far away in Russia. Later, main character finds out that the girl he loved with all his heart is now the wife of his neighbor and antagonist in the plot of the novel. Memories of Mashenka capture the protagonist’s soul entirely. Thoughts about his old love make him start living and dreaming.

The conflict in the novel is unique and interesting. The contradiction in the work is based on opposition. Dreams about Russia become more realistic for the main character than life itself in exile. IN this conflict special meaning has the image of Mashenka, the girl whom Lev Ganin loved with all his heart while in Russia. She becomes for him a symbol of his distant homeland.

The image of Mashenka runs through all of Ganin’s memories. He introduces her beautiful girl with sparkling eyes, dark skin and a “chestnut braid in black velvet.” He remembers her cheerful, remembers her laughter and joy. Memories of the image of his beloved help him experience that longing for home country, which he experiences in the boarding house.

The image of Mashenka in the novel is associated with the brightest memories that made the main character happier before emigrating. The girl merges with the image of her lost homeland, and with it happiness. Mashenka does not appear on the pages of the novel herself, only through the memories of the main character, which shows the unattainability of the lost paradise. The image of Mashenka is conveyed only through fragments of memories. Unfortunately, more is not available to emigrants. The meeting with his distant beloved was supposed to be a miracle for Ganin, an opportunity to return to old world where he was happy. Unfortunately, this did not happen.

The author paints a whole life story in his novel. On the eve of Mashenka's return to her husband, Ganin gives his neighbor Alferov a drink at a celebration. The main character makes plans to meet Mashenka at the station and wants to go far with her to be happy together. In the morning, the character says goodbye to the boarding house and goes to the station. Over time, Ganin begins to have thoughts that the affair with his beloved ended a long time ago, in distant Russia, which can no longer be returned. Vladimir Nabokov's novel ends with the fact that the main character of the work does not wait for the woman to arrive at the station. He decides to go off alone.

Thus, we can conclude that the image of Mashenka becomes something ephemeral, vague and unattainable. Mashenka, like Russia itself, becomes in the eyes of the protagonist a past that can no longer be returned. The fact that the heroine herself does not appear on the pages of the novel only confirms this theory.