At what time was the inspector's story written? The history of the creation of the auditor Gogol essay

Work on “The Inspector General” was connected with Gogol’s plan to create a truly modern comedy, about the possibility of the existence of which on Russian soil all sorts of doubts were expressed (although comedy as a genre, naturally, existed). Thus, in “Moskovsky Vestnik” for 1827, an article by S. Shevyrev was published about V. Golovin’s comedy “Writers among themselves,” which proved that modern life does not contain comic elements (and therefore the critic advised to shift the center of gravity to history) . Also, P. Vyazemsky, in his article “On Our Old Comedy” (1833), explained why Russian life is not conducive to comedy: “I’ll start with the fact that it seems that there is no dramatic quality in the Russian mind. It must be assumed that our morals are not dramatic. We have almost no social life: we are either homebodies or work in the field of service. On both stages we are not very accessible to the persecution of comedians...” Like Shevyrev, Vyazemsky also saw a way out in historical comedy. In this context, the background to Gogol’s dispute with S. T. Aksakov in July 1832 in Moscow becomes clearer. In response to Aksakov’s remark that “we have nothing to write about, that everything in the world is so monotonous, decent and empty,” Gogol looked at his interlocutor “somehow significantly and said” that “this is not true, that the comedy lies in everywhere,” but “living in the midst of it, we do not see it.” Pushkin responded to Gogol’s request and shared with him a plot that worried him too. Pushkin told him the story of Pavel Petrovich Svinin, who, during a trip to Bessarabia, began to pretend to be very important and significant person, for a St. Petersburg official, and was stopped only when he began to accept petitions. Later, already in 1913, literary historian N.O. Lerner in his work “Pushkin’s plan for the “Inspector General” // Speech. 1913." , having analyzed both Pushkin’s letters and the text of “The Inspector General” itself, he came to the conclusion that some features of Svinin and Khlestakov coincide. The prototype of Khlestakov turned out to be a painter, historian, and creator of “Notes of the Fatherland”, quite well known to his contemporaries. Lerner identified Khlestakov’s lies with Svinin’s lies, and believed that their adventures were extremely similar.

After the plot was transferred by Pushkin to Gogol in 1835, Nikolai Vasilyevich began work on “The Inspector General”. The first version of the comedy was written quite quickly, as evidenced by Gogol’s letter to Pogodin, dated December 6, 1835, in which the writer talks about the completion of the first two draft editions of The Inspector General.

Researcher A. S. Dolinin in “Scientific Notes of the Leningrad State. ped. in-ta” still expresses doubt that Gogol could have done such a huge and painstaking work in a month and a half, because, according to him, the writer “honed” his works for quite a long time. Dolinin believes that Pushkin conveyed the plot to Gogol much earlier, perhaps in the first years of acquaintance. The story about Svinin simply remained in the writer’s memory, and he decided to implement the plot when the idea of writing the latest comedy came.

And yet, most researchers of the history of literature believe that Gogol always wrote rough drafts quite quickly, but it took much more time to “perfect” them.

Voitolovskaya believes that a connection has been established between Pushkin’s idea of the plot and Gogol’s “The Inspector General,” although it is not clear exact date started working on a comedy.

The first version of “The Inspector General” was significantly reworked, as a result of which the comedy acquired a more holistic structure. But even after the second edition, the writer again made a number of changes, after which the play was finally sent to print and sent to the theater censor. But even after receiving permission for the theatrical production, which was given on March 2, Gogol did not stop improving his “The Inspector General”. The latest corrections were accepted by theater censors just a few days before the comedy hit the stage.

During the creation of The Inspector General, Gogol did not feel the difficulties that could accompany the writer’s work on a large work. The images that run through the entire play were formed immediately; already in the first edition we observe all the key events, all the main characters with their distinctive features. Therefore, the complexity of the creative process was not at all in the search for storylines, but in a more vivid and accurate disclosure of the characters’ characters.

Nikolai Vasilyevich attached great importance to this work, because this is precisely what can explain the fact that he continued to work on the text even after the first edition of the play. When Pogodin asked Gogol about publishing the second edition of The Inspector General, the writer replied that he needed to wait a little, since he began to redo some scenes, which, in his opinion, were executed carelessly. First of all, the scenes of the meeting of officials with Khlestakov at the beginning of the fourth act were corrected; they became more natural and energetic. After these changes, the second edition of the comedy was published in 1841, but Gogol understands that his work on The Inspector General is not yet finished. And in the fall of 1842, the writer again polished the entire play. All this is the process of artistic processing by the author of his work, as a result of which the expressiveness of every detail is noticeable. There were very few scenes in the comedy that Gogol did not redo, trying to achieve depth of images and speech. Only the sixth edition of The Inspector General became final.

2. The comedy “The Inspector General” and the social reality of Russia in the 1830s. Features of the “prefabricated city” image.

The city in which the comedy takes place is fictional, but it looks incredibly typical. Dozens of such cities were scattered throughout Russia. “Yes, even if you jump from here for three years, you won’t reach any state” - this is how the author characterizes this city through the lips of his character. The comedy scene looks like this: small state. It seems to have everything necessary for a decent life for its citizens: a court, educational institutions, post office, police, health care and social security institutions. But what a deplorable state they are in! Bribes are taken in court. The sick are treated haphazardly, and instead of maintaining order, the police are rampant. And the most amazing thing is that the entire administrative and financial mechanism, budgetary institutions and so on works quite well. This city is far from the worst in Russia. Gogol, as you know, had to repeatedly justify himself about his great comedy. The author argued that the scene of the comedy is “the combined city of the whole dark side ", that is, a gathering of all-Russian abomination, shown only to eradicate the vices of society. But every ordinary viewer and every person in power understood perfectly well that the city, depicted with such force and vividness in The Government Inspector, is nothing more than an image of Nicholas Russia In this sense, Gogol’s comedy became not only a satirical, but a cultural phenomenon that has retained its significance to this day. The appearance of the comedy “The Inspector General” in 1836 acquired social significance not only because the author criticized and ridiculed the vices and shortcomings of Tsarist Russia, but. and because with his comedy the writer urged viewers and readers to look into their souls, to think about universal human values. In the comedy “The Inspector General,” the author chooses a small provincial town as the setting, from which “even if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state.” N.V. Gogol makes city officials and “a phantasmagoric face” the heroes of the play. The author’s genius allowed him, using the example of a small island of life, to reveal those features and conflicts that characterized the social development of the whole. historical era . He managed to create artistic images enormous social and moral range. The small town in the play captures everything social relations of that time. The main conflict on which the comedy is based is the deep contradiction between what city officials do and ideas about the public good and the interests of city residents. Lawlessness, embezzlement, bribery - all this is depicted in “The Inspector General” not as individual vices of individual officials, but as generally accepted “standards of life”, outside of which those in power cannot imagine their existence. Readers and viewers never doubt for a minute that somewhere life takes place according to different laws. All the norms of relations between people in the city of “The Inspector General” look in the play as ubiquitous. Gogol is interested not only in the social vices of society, but also in its moral and spiritual state. In “The Inspector General,” the author painted a terrible picture of the internal disunity of people who are able to unite only temporarily under the influence of a common feeling of fear. In life, people are driven by arrogance, swagger, servility, the desire to take a more advantageous place, to get a better job. People have lost sight of in the truest sense life. It should be noted that Gogol’s work has not lost its significance. Today we see the same evils in our society.

The “prefabricated city” is torn by contradictions: it has its own oppressors and the oppressed, its offenders and the offended, people with varying degrees of official misconduct and sins. Gogol does not hide or smooth over anything. But along with this, as if on top of all individual concerns, a single “citywide” concern invades the city, a single experience, brought to life and heated to the limit by emergency circumstances - the “auditor’s situation.”

But even against the background of works that depicted the life of the entire city, “The Inspector General” reveals important differences. Gogol's city is consistently hierarchical. Its structure is strictly pyramidal: “citizenship”, “merchants”, above - officials, city landowners and, finally, military. the head of everything is the mayor. The female half has not been forgotten, also divided by rank: the mayor’s family is highest, then the wives and daughters of officials, like the daughters of Lyapkin-Tyapkin, from whom the mayor’s daughter should not take an example; finally, below: the non-commissioned officer, locksmith Poshlepkina, carved by mistake... Only two people stand outside the city: Khlestakov and his servant Osip.

Features of dramatic conflict. True and imaginary conflict. Yu.V. Mann about the “mirage” intrigue.

The beginning of work on “The Inspector General” dates back to 1835. On October 7 of this year, Gogol wrote to Pushkin: “Do me a favor, give me the plot; there will be a comedy of five acts, and I swear it’s much funnier than the devil.” Pushkin really gave Gogol a story about an imaginary inspector. Gogol used this plot as the basis for the comedy.

Pushkin told Gogol about how the writer Svinin, who arrived in Bessarabia, was mistaken for a St. Petersburg official. A similar incident happened with Pushkin himself. When he went to collect material about Pugachev and stopped in Nizhny Novgorod, the local governor Buturlin mistook him for a secret auditor and, having learned that Pushkin was traveling further to Orenburg, notified the local governor Perovsky about this with a letter with the following content: “Pushkin recently came to us. Knowing who he was, I treated him kindly, but, I must admit, I don’t believe that he went around to get documents about the Pugachev rebellion; he must have been given a secret order to collect information about malfunctions... I considered it my duty to advise you that you should be more careful" (1 P. G. Vorobyov, N. V. Gogol’s Comedy “The Inspector General” in the practice of studying it in high school. In the book “Studying the creativity of N. V. Gogol at school,” 1954, p. 62).

In 1836, the first edition of the comedy “The Inspector General” was completed. In the same year, the comedy was first staged on the capital's stages. “During rehearsals, Gogol had to make a lot of effort in order to overcome the actors’ adherence to the established, inert theatrical traditions. The actors could not decide to throw off the powdered wigs from their heads, the French caftans from their shoulders and put on Russian dress, the real Siberian jacket of the merchant Abdulin, or Osip’s worn and greasy frock coat.

Gogol was forced to give orders. He ordered the luxurious furniture to be taken out of the mayor’s room and replaced with simple ones, and cages with canaries and a bottle to be added to the window. Osip, who was dressed in a livery with galloons, himself put on an oily caftan, which he took from the lamp maker who was working on the stage" (2. A. G. Gukasova, Comedy "The Inspector General." In the book "Gogol at School" Collection of articles, APN, 1954, p. 283).

Gogol later continued his work on the comedy “The Inspector General,” until 1842, when he created the final, sixth edition.

This persistent and painstaking work Gogol's work on comedy testifies to the exceptional importance that he attached to it.

He was especially concerned about the extent to which the public correctly understood his comedy, and in order to clarify and deepen its meaning, Gogol wrote in 1842 “ Theater crossing after the presentation of a new comedy" (where the ignorant talk of a motley audience is presented), in 1846 - "The Inspector's Denouement", in 1847 - "Addition to the "Inspector's Denouement".

http://litena.ru/books/item/f00/s00/z0000023/st007.shtml

Answer the questions (write your answers in your notebook):
1 . In what year did N.V. Gogol begin work on the comedy "The Inspector General"?
2 .What served as the plot for creating the comedy?

The history of the creation of Gogol's work "The Inspector General"

In 1835, Gogol began work on his main work - “ Dead souls" However, the work was interrupted. Gogol wrote to Pushkin: “Do me a favor, give me some kind of story, at least some kind, funny or unfunny, but a purely Russian joke. My hand is trembling to write a comedy in the meantime. Do me a favor, give me a plot, the spirit will be a comedy of five acts, and I swear it will be funnier than hell. For God's sake. My mind and stomach are both starving.” In response to Gogol's request, Pushkin told him a story about an imaginary auditor, about a funny mistake that entailed the most unexpected consequences. The story was typical for its time. It is known that in Bessarabia, the publisher of the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, Svinin, was mistaken for an auditor. In the provinces, too, a certain gentleman, posing as an auditor, robbed the entire city. There were other similar stories told by Gogol's contemporaries. The fact that Pushkin's anecdote turned out to be so characteristic of Russian life made it especially attractive to Gogol. Later he wrote: “For God’s sake, give us Russian characters, give us ourselves, our rogues, our eccentrics on their stage, for everyone’s laughter!”
So, based on the story told by Pushkin, Gogol created his comedy “The Inspector General”. Wrote it in just two months. This is confirmed by the memoirs of the writer V.A. Solloguba: “Pushkin met Gogol and told him about an incident that happened in the city of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod province - about some passing gentleman who posed as a ministry official and robbed all the city residents.” It is also known that while working on the play, Gogol repeatedly informed A.S. Pushkin about the progress of its writing, sometimes wanting to abandon it, but Pushkin persistently asked him not to stop working on “The Inspector General”.
In January 1836, Gogol read a comedy at an evening with V.A. Zhukovsky in the presence of A.S. Pushkina, P.A. Vyazemsky and others. On April 19, 1836, the comedy was staged at the Alexandria Theater in St. Petersburg. The next morning Gogol woke up famous playwright. However, not many viewers were delighted. The majority did not understand the comedy and reacted to it with hostility.
“Everyone is against me...” Gogol complained in a letter to famous actor Shchepkin. “The police are against me, the merchants are against me, the writers are against me.” And a few days later, in a letter to the historian M.P. After a while, he bitterly notes: “And what would be accepted by enlightened people with loud laughter and sympathy, is what the bile of ignorance outrages; and this is general ignorance..."
After the production of The Inspector General on stage, Gogol is full of gloomy thoughts. Bad game actors and general misunderstanding push the writer to the idea of going abroad, to Italy. Reporting this to Pogodin, he writes with pain: “A modern writer, a comic writer, a writer of morals should be far away from his homeland. The prophet has no glory in his homeland.”

Genre, genre, creative method

Comedy is one of the most basic dramatic genres. The genre of “The Inspector General” was conceived by Gogol as a genre “ social comedy", touching on the most fundamental issues of people's and social life. From this point of view, Pushkin's anecdote was very suitable for Gogol. After all, the characters in the story about the imaginary auditor are not private people, but officials, representatives of government. Events associated with them inevitably involve many people: both those in power and those under power. The anecdote told by Pushkin easily lent itself to this artistic development, in which he became the basis of a truly social comedy. The Inspector General contains humor and satire, which makes it a satirical comedy.
“The Inspector” N.V. Gogol is considered an exemplary comedy. It is remarkable for the unusually consistent development of the comic position of the main character - the mayor, and the comic position grows more and more with each picture. At the moment of the mayor’s triumph, when he sees his daughter’s upcoming wedding, and himself in St. Petersburg, Khlestakov’s letter is a moment of the strongest comedy in the situation. The laughter that Gogol laughs in his comedy reaches extraordinary power and acquires important meaning.
IN early XIX century in Russian literature, along with romanticism, realism began to develop - a direction in literature and art that strives to depict reality. Penetration critical realism in literature is primarily associated with the name of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, in theater arts- with the production of “The Inspector General”. One of the newspapers of that time wrote about the dramaturgy of N.V. Gogol: “His original view of things, his ability to capture character traits, to put the stamp of typism on them, his inexhaustible humor, all this gives us the right to hope that our theater will soon be resurrected, that we will have our own national theater, who will treat us not with forced antics in someone else’s manner, not with borrowed wit, not with ugly alterations, but with artistic representations of “our social” life... that we will not clap wax figures with painted faces, but living creatures, which, once seen, can never be forgotten.”
Thus, Gogol’s comedy, with its extraordinary fidelity to the truth of life, angry condemnation of the vices of society, and the naturalness in the unfolding of events, had a decisive influence on the establishment of the traditions of critical realism in Russian theatrical art.

Subject of the work

An analysis of the work shows that the comedy “The Inspector General” raises both social and moral themes. TO social topics refers to the life of the county town and its inhabitants. Gogol collected all the social shortcomings in a provincial town and showed the social structure from a minor official to a mayor. City 14, from which “even if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state,” “there’s a tavern on the streets, uncleanliness,” near the old fence, “that near the shoemaker... all sorts of rubbish is piled on forty carts,” makes a depressing impression . The theme of the city includes the theme of everyday life and the life of the people. Gogol was able to fully and, most importantly, truthfully portray not only officials and landowners, but also ordinary people... Disorder, drunkenness, and injustice reign in the city. Geese in the court waiting room, unfortunate patients without clean clothes once again prove that officials are inactive and are busy with other things. And all officials are satisfied with this state of affairs. The image of the district town in The Inspector General is a kind of encyclopedia provincial life Russia.
The social theme is continued by the image of St. Petersburg. Although the events take place in a provincial town, St. Petersburg is invisibly present in the action, symbolizing respect for rank and the desire for material well-being. It is to St. Petersburg that the mayor strives. Khlestakov arrived from St. Petersburg, his stories are full of vainglorious boasting about the delights of metropolitan life.
Moral themes are closely related to social ones. Many actions characters comedies are immoral because their environment is immoral. Gogol wrote in “The Author's Confession”: “In “The Inspector General” I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required from a person, and laugh at everything at once.” This comedy is aimed at “correcting vices”, at awakening conscience in a person. It is no coincidence that Nicholas I, after the premiere of The Inspector General, exclaimed: “Well, a play! Everyone got it, and I got it the most!”

The idea of the comedy "The Inspector General"

The epigraph preceding the comedy: “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked” contains the main idea of the play. The environment, order, foundations are ridiculed. This is not “a mockery of Russia,” but “a picture and a mirror of social... life.” In the article “The St. Petersburg Scene in 1835-36,” Gogol wrote: “In The Inspector General, I decided to collect in one pile all the bad things in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices... and laugh at everything at once. But this, as we know, had a stunning effect.”
Gogol’s idea is not only to laugh at what is happening, but to point out future retribution. Silent scene that ends the action bright that certificate. Retribution awaits officials of the county town.
The exposure of negative heroes is given in comedy not through a positive hero (there is none in the play), but through action, deeds, and dialogues. Negative heroes Gogol themselves expose themselves in the eyes of the viewer. They are exposed not through morality and teachings, but through ridicule. “Vice is struck here only by laughter,” wrote N.V. Gogol.

Nature of the conflict

Usually a conflict dramatic work interpreted as a collision of positive and negative principles. The innovation of Gogol's dramaturgy lies in the fact that in his play there is no goodies. The main action of the play revolves around one event - in county town N an auditor is traveling from St. Petersburg, and he is traveling incognito. This news excites officials: “How is the auditor? There was no concern, so give it up!”, and they begin to fuss, hiding their “sins” for the arrival of the inspector. The mayor is especially trying - he is in a hurry to cover up especially large “holes and gaps” in his activities. A petty official from St. Petersburg, Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, is mistaken for an auditor. Khlestakov is flighty, frivolous, “somewhat stupid and, as they say, without a king in his head,” and the very possibility of taking him for an auditor is absurd. This is precisely where the originality of the intrigue of the comedy “The Inspector General” lies.
Belinsky identified two conflicts in the comedy: external - between the bureaucrats and the imaginary auditor, and internal - between the autocratic bureaucratic apparatus and the general population. The resolution of situations in the play is related to the nature of these conflicts. External conflict is overgrown with many of the most absurd, and therefore funny, collisions. Gogol does not spare his heroes, exposing their vices. The more merciless the author is towards comic characters, the more dramatic the subtext sounds. internal conflict. This is soul stirring Gogol's laughter through tears.

The main characters of the work

The main characters of the comedy are city officials. The author's attitude towards them is implied in the description appearance, behavior, actions, in everything, even in “ speaking surnames" Surnames express the essence of the characters. It will help to make sure of this " Dictionary alive Great Russian language" IN AND. Dalia.
Khlestakov - central character comedies. He is typical character, embodies a whole phenomenon that later became known as “Khlestakovism.”
Khlestakov is a “metropolitan thing”, a representative of those noble youth who flooded the St. Petersburg offices and departments, completely neglecting their duties, seeing in the service only an opportunity for a quick career. Even the hero’s father realized that his son would not be able to achieve anything, so he summons him to his place. But Khlestakov, accustomed to idleness and unwilling to work, declares: “...I cannot live without St. Petersburg. Why, really, should I ruin my life with men? Now the needs are not the same, my soul thirsts for enlightenment.”
The main reason for Khlestakov’s lies is the desire to present himself on the other side, to become different, because the hero is deeply convinced of his own uninterestingness and insignificance. This gives Khlestakov’s boasting a painful character of self-affirmation. He extols himself because he is secretly full of contempt for himself. Semantically, the surname is multi-layered; it combines at least four meanings. The word “whip” has a lot of meanings and shades. But the following are directly related to Khlestakov: lying, idle talk; scolding - a rake, a shuffler and a red tape, insolent, impudent; khlestun (whip) - Nizhny Novgorod - idle connecting rod, parasite. The surname contains all of Khlestakov as a character: an idle rake, an impudent red tape, who is only capable of strong, smart lies and idle talk, but not working at all. This is truly an “empty” person for whom lies are “almost a kind of inspiration,” as Gogol wrote in “Excerpt from a Letter...”.
The head of the city is the mayor Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. In “Notes for Gentlemen Actors,” Gogol wrote: “Although he is a bribe-taker, he behaves respectably... somewhat reasoned; speaks neither loudly nor quietly, neither more nor less. Every word is significant." He began his career young, from the very bottom, and in his old age he rose to the rank of chief of the district town. From a letter from a friend of the mayor, we learn that Anton Antonovich does not consider bribery a crime, but thinks that everyone takes bribes, only “the higher the rank, the greater the bribe.” The audit is not scary for him. In his lifetime he has seen a lot of them. The mayor proudly announces: “I have been living in the service for thirty years! He deceived three governors!” But he is alarmed that the auditor is traveling “incognito.” When the mayor finds out that the “auditor” has already been living in the city for the second week, he clutches his head, since during these two weeks the non-commissioned officer’s wife was flogged, there is dirt on the streets, the church for the construction of which money was allocated did not begin to be built.
“Skvoznik” (from “through”) is a cunning, keen-minded, insightful person, a passer-by, a rascal, an experienced rogue and climber. “Dmukhanovsky” (from “dmit” - Little Russian, i.e. Ukrainian) - to dmukhat, dmitsya - to puff up, to pomp, to become arrogant. It turns out: Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is a swaggering, pompous, cunning scoundrel, an experienced rogue. The comedy arises when the “cunning, keen-minded” rogue made such a mistake in Khlestakov.
Luka Lukich Khlopov is a superintendent of schools. He is very cowardly by nature. He says to himself: “If someone of a higher rank speaks to me, I simply don’t have a soul, and my tongue has withered like dirt.” One of the school teachers accompanied his teaching with constant grimaces. And the history teacher broke chairs from excess feelings.
Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin - judge. Considers himself very smart person, since I’ve read five or six books in my entire life. He is an avid hunter. In his office, above the filing cabinet, hangs a hunting rifle. “I tell you frankly that I take bribes, but what are bribes for? Greyhound puppies. This is a completely different matter,” the judge said. The criminal cases that he considered were in such a state that he himself could not figure out where the truth was and where the lies were.
Artemy Filippovich Zemlyanika is a trustee of charitable institutions. Hospitals are dirty and messy. The cooks have dirty caps, and the sick are dressed as if they worked in a forge. In addition, patients smoke constantly. Artemy Filippovich does not bother himself with determining the diagnosis of the patient’s disease and his treatment. He says about this: “A simple man: if he dies, he will die anyway; If he recovers, then he will recover.”
Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin is a postmaster, “a simple-minded person to the point of naivety.” He has one weakness: he likes to read other people's letters. He does this not so much out of precaution, but more out of curiosity (“I love to know what’s new in the world”). He collects the ones he especially liked. The surname Shpekin may have come from the southern Russian word - “shpen” - an obstinate person, cross to everyone, a hindrance, an evil mocker. So, with all his “simplicity to the point of naivety,” he brings people a lot of evil.
Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are paired characters, big gossips. According to Gogol, they suffer from “extraordinary itching of the tongue.” The surname Bobchinsky may have come from the Pskov “bobych” - stupid stupid man. The surname Dobchinsky does not have such an independent semantic root; it was formed by analogy (sameness) with the surname Bobchinsky.

The plot and composition of "The Inspector General"

A young rake, Khlestakov, arrives in town N and realizes that city officials accidentally mistake him for a high-ranking auditor. Against the backdrop of a myriad of violations and crimes, the perpetrators of which are those same city officials led by the mayor, Khlestakov manages to play a successful game. Officials happily continue to break the law and give the false auditor large amounts money as bribes. At the same time, both Khlestakov and other characters understand perfectly well that they are breaking the law. At the end of the play, Khlestakov manages to escape by “borrowing” money and promising to marry the mayor’s daughter. The latter’s rejoicing is hampered by Khlestakov’s letter, read by the postmaster (illegally). The letter reveals the whole truth. The news of the arrival of a real auditor makes all the characters in the play freeze in amazement. The finale of the play is a silent scene. So, “The Inspector General” comically presents a picture of criminal reality and depraved morals. Story line leads the heroes to pay for all their sins. The silent scene is an expectation of inevitable punishment.
The comedy “The Inspector General” compositionally consists of five acts, each of which can be titled with quotes from the text: Act I - “Unpleasant news: an auditor is coming to see us”; Act II - “Oh, subtle thing!.. What a fog you let in!”; Act III - “After all, that’s what you live for, to pick flowers of pleasure”; Act IV - “I have never had such a good reception anywhere”; Act V - “Some pig snouts instead of faces.” The comedy is preceded by “Notes for Gentlemen Actors,” written by the author.
“The Inspector General” is distinguished by its original composition. For example, contrary to all regulations and norms, the action in a comedy begins with distracting events, with a plot. Gogol, without wasting time, without being distracted by particulars, introduces to the essence of things, to the essence of the dramatic conflict. In the famous first phrase of the comedy, the plot is given and its impulse is fear. "I invited you, gentlemen, in order to inform you very unpleasant news“The auditor is coming to see us,” the mayor informs the officials gathered at his place. The intrigue starts with your first phrase. From this second, fear becomes a full-fledged participant in the play, which, growing from action to action, will find its maximum expression in the silent scene. In the apt expression of Yu. Mann, “The Inspector General” is a whole sea of fear.” The plot-forming role of fear in comedy is obvious: it was he who allowed the deception to take place, it was he who “blinded” everyone’s eyes and confused everyone, it was he who endowed Khlestakov with qualities that he did not possess, and made him the center of the situation.

Artistic originality

Before Gogol, in the tradition of Russian literature in those works that could be called the forerunner of Russian satire of the 19th century. (for example, “The Minor” by Fonvizin), it was typical to depict both negative and positive heroes. In the comedy “The Inspector General” there are actually no positive characters. They are not even outside the scene and outside the plot.
The relief depiction of the image of city officials and, above all, the mayor complements the satirical meaning of the comedy. The tradition of bribery and deception of an official is completely natural and inevitable. Both the lower classes and the top of the city’s bureaucratic class cannot imagine any other outcome than to bribe the auditor with a bribe. A nameless district town becomes a generalization of all of Russia, which, under the threat of revision, reveals the true side of the character of the main characters.
Critics also noted the peculiarities of Khlestakov’s image. An upstart and a dummy, the young man easily deceives the experienced mayor.
Gogol's skill was manifested not only in the fact that the writer was able to accurately convey the spirit of the times, the characters' personalities corresponding to this time. Gogol surprisingly subtly noticed and reproduced the linguistic culture of his heroes. Each character has his own way of speaking, his own intonation, and vocabulary. Khlestakov’s speech is incoherent, in conversation he jumps from one moment to another: “Yes, they already know me everywhere... I know pretty actresses. I’m also a variety of vaudeville performers... I often see writers.” The speech of the trustee of charitable institutions is very resourceful and flattering. Lyapkin-Tyapkin, the “philosopher” as Gogol calls him, speaks incomprehensibly and tries to use as many words as possible from the books he has read, often doing this inappropriately. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky always speak vying with each other. Their lexicon very limited, they use abundantly introductory words: “yes, sir,” “if you please see.”

Meaning of the work

Gogol was disappointed by public opinion and the unsuccessful St. Petersburg production of the comedy and refused to take part in the preparation of the Moscow premiere. At the Maly Theater, the leading actors of the troupe were invited to stage “The Inspector General”: Shchepkin (mayor), Lensky (Khlestakov), Orlov (Osip), Potanchikov (postmaster). The first performance of The Inspector General in Moscow took place on May 25, 1836 on the stage of the Maly Theater. Despite the absence of the author and the complete indifference of the theater management to the premiere production, the performance was a huge success.
The comedy “The Inspector General” did not leave the stages of Russian theaters both during the USSR and in modern history is one of the most popular productions and enjoys success with the audience.
Comedy had a significant influence on Russian literature in general and drama in particular. Gogol's contemporaries noted her innovative style, depth of generalization and prominence of images. Right after the first readings and publications, Gogol’s work was admired by Pushkin, Belinsky, Annenkov, Herzen, and Shchepkin.
The famous Russian critic Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov wrote: “Some of us then also saw The Inspector General on stage. Everyone was delighted, like all the young people of that time. We repeated by heart... entire scenes, long conversations from there. At home or at a party, we often had to enter into heated debates with various elderly (and sometimes, to shame, not even elderly) people who were indignant at the new idol of youth and assured that Gogol had no nature, that these were all his own inventions and caricatures that there are no such people in the world at all, and if there are, then there are much fewer of them in the whole city than here in one comedy. The fights were hot, long-lasting, to the point of sweat on the face and palms, to sparkling eyes and dull beginnings of hatred or contempt, but the old men could not change a single feature in us, and our fanatical adoration of Gogol only grew more and more.”
The first classical critical analysis of “The Inspector General” belongs to the pen of Belinsky and was published in 1840. The critic noted the continuity of Gogol’s satire, which takes its toll creativity in the works of Fonvizin and Moliere. Mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky and Khlestakov are not carriers of abstract vices, but a living embodiment moral decay Russian society generally.
Phrases from the comedy became catchphrases, and the names of the characters became common nouns in the Russian language.

Point of view

Comedy N.V. Gogol's "The Inspector General" was received ambiguously. The writer made some explanations in a short play “Theater Travel,” which was first published in the Collected Works of Gogol in 1842 at the end of the fourth volume. The first sketches were made in April-May 1836, inspired by the first performance of The Inspector General. When finalizing the play, Gogol especially tried to give it a fundamental, generalized meaning, so that it would not look like just a commentary on The Inspector General.
“I’m sorry that no one noticed the honest face that was in my play. Yes, there was one honest thing, noble face, acting in her throughout her entire continuation. This honest, noble face was laughter. He was noble because he decided to speak out, despite the low importance given to him in the world. He was noble because he decided to speak, despite the fact that he gave the comedian an offensive nickname - the nickname of a cold egoist, and even made him doubt the presence of the tender movements of his soul. No one stood up for this laughter. I am a comedian, I served him honestly, and therefore I must become his intercessor. No, laughter is more significant and deeper than people think. Not the kind of laughter that is generated by temporary irritability, a bilious, painful disposition of character; not the same light laughter that all flies out of bright nature man, flies out of it because at the bottom of it lies an eternally flowing spring, but which deepens the subject, makes to appear brightly what would have slipped through, without the penetrating power of which the triviality and emptiness of life would not have frightened a person so much. The despicable and insignificant thing that he indifferently passes by every day would not have grown before him in such a terrible, almost caricatured force, and he would not have cried out, shuddering: “Are there really such people?” whereas, according to his own consciousness, there are worse people. No, those who say that laughter is outrageous are unfair! The only thing that outrages you is that it is dark, but laughter is bright. Many things would outrage a person if they were presented in their nakedness; but, illuminated by the power of laughter, it already brings reconciliation to the soul. And the one who would take vengeance against an evil person almost makes peace with him, seeing the base movements of his soul ridiculed.”

This is interesting

We are talking about the history of the creation of one play. Its plot is briefly as follows. The case takes place in Russia, in the twenties of the last century, in a small county town. The play begins with the mayor receiving a letter. He is warned that an inspector will soon arrive in the district under his jurisdiction, incognito, with a secret order. The mayor informs his officials about this. Everyone is terrified. Meanwhile, a young man from the capital arrives in this provincial town. A most empty little man, I must say! Of course, the officials, scared to death by the letter, take him for an auditor. He willingly plays the role imposed on him. WITH important look interviews officials, takes money from the mayor as if on loan...
Various researchers and memoirists in different time noted at least a dozen “life anecdotes” about the imaginary auditor, the characters of which were real faces: P.P. Svinin traveling through Bessarabia, Ustyug mayor I.A. Maksheev and St. Petersburg writer P.G. Volkov, Pushkin himself, who stayed in Nizhny Novgorod, and so on - Gogol may have known all these everyday jokes. In addition, Gogol could have known at least two literary adaptations of a similar plot: a comedy by G.F. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko “A Visitor from the Capital, or Turmoil in a District Town” (1827) and the story by A.F. Veltman "Provincial Actors" (1834). This “stray plot” did not represent any special news or sensation. And although Gogol himself assured that the comedy by G.F. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko had not read A Visitor from the Capital, or Turmoil in a District Town, but Kvitka had no doubt that Gogol was familiar with his comedy. He was mortally offended by Gogol. One of their contemporary spoke about it like this:
“Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, having learned through rumors about the contents of The Inspector General, became indignant and began to eagerly await its appearance in print, and when the first copy of Gogol’s comedy was received in Kharkov, he called his friends to his house, read his comedy first, and then “The Inspector General”. The guests gasped and said with one voice that Gogol’s comedy was entirely taken from his plot - both in plan, and in characters, and in private settings.”
Just shortly before Gogol began writing his “The Inspector General,” the magazine “Library for Reading” published a story by the then very famous writer Veltman entitled “Provincial Actors.” The following happened in this story. An actor goes to a small provincial town for a performance. He is wearing a theater uniform with orders and all sorts of ailets. Suddenly the horses bolted, the driver was killed, and the actor lost consciousness. At this time, the mayor had guests... Well, the mayor, therefore, was reported: so, they say, and so, the horses brought the governor-general, he was in a general’s uniform. The actor - broken, unconscious - is carried into the mayor's house. He is delirious and in his delirium he talks about government affairs. Repeats excerpts from his various roles. He's used to playing various important people. Well, now everyone is finally convinced that he is a general. For Veltman, it all starts with the fact that the city is waiting for the arrival of an auditor...
Who was the first writer to tell the story about the auditor? In this situation, it is impossible to determine the truth, since the plot underlying “The Inspector General” and other named works belongs to the category of so-called “vagrant plots.” Time has put everything in its place: Kvitka’s play and Veltman’s story are firmly forgotten. Only specialists in the history of literature remember them. And Gogol’s comedy is still alive today.
(Based on the book by Stanislav Rassadin, Benedikt Sarnov “In the Country literary heroes»)

Vishnevskaya IL. Gogol and his comedies. M.: Nauka, 1976.
Zolotussky I.P. Prose poetry: articles about Gogol / I.P. Zolotussky. - M.: Soviet writer, 1987.
Lotman Yu.M. About Russian literature: Articles and studies. St. Petersburg, 1997.
Mann. Yu.V. Poetics of Gogol / Yu.V. Mann. - M.: Fiction, 1988.
Yu.V. Mann. Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General". M.: Fiction, 1966.
Stanislav Rassadin, Benedikt Sarnov. In the land of literary heroes. - M.: Art, 1979.

It is traditionally believed that the plot was suggested to him by A.S. Pushkin. This is confirmed by the memoirs of the Russian writer V. A. Sollogub: “Pushkin met Gogol and told him about an incident that happened in the city of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod province - about some passing gentleman who pretended to be a ministry official and robbed all the city residents.”

There is also an assumption that it goes back to the stories about P. P. Svinin’s business trip to Bessarabia in.

It is known that while working on the play, Gogol repeatedly wrote to A.S. Pushkin about the progress of its writing, sometimes wanting to quit it, but Pushkin persistently asked him not to stop working on “The Inspector General.”

Characters

Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, mayor.
Anna Andreevna, his wife.
Marya Antonovna, his daughter.
Luka Lukich Khlopov, superintendent of schools.
Wife his.
Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin, judge.
Artemy Filippovich Strawberry, trustee of charitable institutions.
Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin, postmaster.
Pyotr Ivanovich Dobchinsky, Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky- city landowners.
Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, an official from St. Petersburg.
Osip, his servant.
Christian Ivanovich Gibner, district doctor.
Fedor Ivanovich Lyulyukov, Ivan Lazarevich Rastakovsky, Stepan Ivanovich Korobkin- retired officials, honorary persons in the city.
Stepan Ilyich Ukhovertov, private bailiff.
Svistunov, Pugovitsyn, Derzhimorda- police officers.
Abdulin, merchant.
Fevronya Petrovna Poshlepkina, locksmith.
Non-commissioned officer's wife.
bear, servant of the mayor.
Servant tavern
Guests, merchants, townspeople, petitioners

Plot

Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, a young man with no specific occupation, who has risen to the rank of collegiate registrar, follows from St. Petersburg to Saratov, with his servant Osip. He finds himself passing through a small county town. Khlestakov lost at cards and was left without money.

Just at this time, the entire city government, mired in bribes and embezzlement, starting with the mayor Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, is waiting in fear for the arrival of the auditor from St. Petersburg. City landowners Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, having accidentally learned about the appearance of the defaulter Khlestakov at the hotel, report to the mayor about his arrival incognito from St. Petersburg to the city.

A commotion begins. All officials and officials fussily rush to cover up their sins, but Anton Antonovich quickly comes to his senses and understands that he himself needs to bow to the auditor. Meanwhile, Khlestakov, hungry and unsettled, in the cheapest hotel room, ponders where to get food.

The appearance of the mayor in Khlestakov’s room is an unpleasant surprise for him. At first, he thinks that the hotel owner denounced him as an insolvent guest. The mayor himself is openly timid, believing that he is talking to an important metropolitan official who has arrived on a secret mission. The mayor, thinking that Khlestakov is an auditor, offers him bribe. Khlestakov, thinking that the mayor is a kind-hearted and decent citizen, accepts from him on loan. “I ended up giving him two hundred and four hundred instead,” the mayor rejoices. Nevertheless, he decides to pretend to be a fool in order to extract more information about Khlestakov. “He wants to be considered incognito,” the mayor thinks to himself. - “Okay, let’s let us Turuses in and pretend that we don’t know what kind of person he is.” But Khlestakov, with his inherent naivety, behaves so directly that the mayor is left with nothing, without losing the conviction, however, that Khlestakov is a “subtle little thing” and “you need to be careful with him.” Then the mayor comes up with a plan to get Khlestakov drunk, and he offers to inspect the charitable institutions of the city. Khlestakov agrees.

Then the action continues in the mayor's house. A fairly tipsy Khlestakov, seeing the ladies - Anna Andreevna and Marya Antonovna - decides to “show off.” Showing off in front of them, he tells tales about his important position in St. Petersburg, and, what is most interesting, he himself believes in them. He ascribes to himself literary and musical works, which, due to the “extraordinary ease of thought,” supposedly “wrote in one evening, it seems, amazed everyone.” And he’s not even embarrassed when Marya Antonovna practically catches him in a lie. But soon the tongue refuses to serve the rather tipsy capital guest, and Khlestakov, with the help of the mayor, goes to “rest.”

The next day he doesn’t remember anything, and wakes up not as a “field marshal”, but collegiate registrar. Meanwhile, city officials “on a military footing” line up to give a bribe to Khlestakov, and he, thinking that he is borrowing, accepts money from everyone, including Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, who, it would seem, have no need to bribe the auditor. And he even begs for money, citing a “strange incident” that “I completely spent money on the road.” Having sent the last guest away, he manages to look after Anton Antonovich’s wife and daughter. And, although they have known each other for only one day, he asks for the hand of the mayor’s daughter and receives the consent of his parents. Next, petitioners break through to Khlestakov, who “attack the mayor” and want to pay him in kind (wine and sugar). Only then does Khlestakov realize that he was given bribes, and he flatly refuses, but if he had been offered a loan, he would have taken it. However, Khlestakov’s servant Osip, being much smarter than his master, understands that both kind and money are still bribes, and takes everything from the merchants, citing the fact that “even a rope will come in handy on the road.” Osip strongly recommends that Khlestakov quickly get out of the city before the deception is revealed. Khlestakov leaves, finally sending his friend a letter from the local post office.

The mayor and his entourage take a breath of relief. First of all, he decides to “give some pepper” to the merchants who went to complain about him to Khlestakov. He swaggers over them and calls them names, but as soon as the merchants promised a rich treat for the engagement (and later for the wedding) of Marya Antonovna and Khlestakov, the mayor forgave them all.

The mayor collects full house guests to publicly announce Khlestakov’s engagement to Marya Antonovna. Anna Andreevna, convinced that she has become related to the big capital authorities, is completely delighted. But then the unexpected happens. The postmaster of the local branch (at the request of the mayor) opened Khlestakov’s letter and it is clear from it that incognito he turned out to be a swindler and a thief. The deceived mayor has not yet had time to recover from such a blow when the next news arrives. An official from St. Petersburg staying at the hotel demands him to come to him. It all ends with a silent scene...

Productions

"The Inspector General" was first staged on the stage of the St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky Theater on April 19, 1836. The first performance of "The Inspector General" in Moscow took place on May 25, 1836 on the stage of the Maly Theater.

Nicholas I himself was present at the St. Petersburg premiere. The Emperor really liked the production; moreover, according to critics, the positive perception of the crowned special risky comedy subsequently had a beneficial effect on the censorship fate of Gogol’s work. Gogol's comedy was initially banned, but after an appeal it received the highest permission to be staged on the Russian stage.

The comedy “The Inspector General” did not leave the stages of Russian theaters both during the USSR and in modern history. It is one of the most popular productions and enjoys success with the audience.

Notable productions

Film adaptations

“The Inspector General” - director Vladimir Petrov
“Incognito from St. Petersburg” - director Leonid Gaidai
“The Inspector General (film-play)” - director Valentin Pluchek
“The Inspector General” - director Sergei Gazarov

Artistic Features

Before Gogol, in the tradition of Russian literature, in those works that could be called the forerunner of Russian satire of the 19th century (for example, Fonvizin’s “The Minor”), it was typical to depict both negative and positive heroes. In the comedy “The Inspector General” there are actually no positive characters. They are not even outside the scene and outside the plot.

The relief depiction of the image of city officials and, above all, the mayor, complements the satirical meaning of the comedy. The tradition of bribery and deception of an official is completely natural and inevitable. Both the lower classes and the top of the city's bureaucratic class cannot imagine any other outcome other than bribing the auditor with a bribe. A nameless district town becomes a generalization of all of Russia, which, under the threat of revision, reveals the true side of the character of the main characters.

Critics also noted the peculiarities of Khlestakov’s image. An upstart and a dummy, the young man easily deceives the experienced mayor. Famous writer Merezhkovsky traced the mystical origins in comedy. The auditor, like an otherworldly figure, comes for the mayor’s soul, repaying for sins. " Main strength the devil is the ability to appear to be something other than what he is,” this explains Khlestakov’s ability to mislead about his true origin.

Cultural influence

Comedy had a significant influence on Russian literature in general and drama in particular. Gogol's contemporaries noted her innovative style, depth of generalization and prominence of images. Gogol's work was immediately admired by Pushkin, Belinsky, Annenkov, Herzen, and Shchepkin after its first readings and publications.

Some of us also saw “The Inspector General” on stage then. Everyone was delighted, like all the young people of that time. We repeated by heart […] whole scenes, long conversations from there. At home or at a party, we often had to enter into heated debates with various elderly (and sometimes, to shame, not even elderly) people who were indignant at the new idol of youth and assured that Gogol had no nature, that these were all his own inventions and caricatures that there are no such people in the world at all, and if there are, then there are much fewer of them in the whole city than here in one comedy. The fights were hot, prolonged, to the point of sweat on the face and palms, to sparkling eyes and dull beginnings of hatred or contempt, but the old men could not change a single feature in us, and our fanatical adoration of Gogol only grew more and more.

The first classical critical analysis of The Inspector General was written by Vissarion Belinsky and was published in 1840. The critic noted the continuity of Gogol's satire, which originates in the works of Fonvizin and Moliere. The mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky and Khlestakov are not carriers of abstract vices, but the living embodiment of the moral decay of Russian society as a whole.

In The Inspector General there are no better scenes, because there are no worse ones, but all are excellent, as necessary parts, artistically forming a single whole, rounded out by internal content, and not by external form, and therefore representing a special and closed world in itself.

Gogol himself spoke about his work like this:

In “The Inspector General,” I decided to put together everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are being done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required from a person, and at one time laugh at everything.”

Phrases from the comedy became catchphrases, and the names of the characters became common nouns in the Russian language.

The comedy The Inspector General was part of the literary school curriculum even during the times of the USSR and to this day remains key work Russian classical literature XIX century, compulsory for study in school.

Notes

Works of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol
Poems	Hanz Kuchelgarten · Dead Souls
Stories and stories	« Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka » (Sorochinskaya fair · The evening before Ivan Kupala · May Night, or the Drowned Woman · Missing certificate · Christmas Eve · Terrible revenge · Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt · Enchanted place) · « Mirgorod "(Old world landowners · Taras Bulba · Viy · The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich) · « Petersburg stories " (Nevsky Avenue · Nose · Portrait · Overcoat · Diary of a Madman) · Stroller
Dramaturgy	Marriage · Auditor · Players · Morning of a business man · Litigation · Lakeyskaya · Excerpt · Theater tour after the presentation of a new comedy
Journalism	Woman · "Boris Godunov", poem by Pushkin · About Kozlov's poetry · Sculpture, painting and music · About the Middle Ages · About teaching general history · A look at the composition of Little Russia · A few words about Pushkin · About the architecture of the present time · Al-Mamun · Life · Schlozer, Miller and Herder · About Little Russian songs · Thoughts on Geography · The last day of Pompeii · On the movement of peoples at the end of the 5th century · On the movement of magazine literature in 1834 and 1835 · Petersburg Notes of 1836 · Reviews from Sovremennik · Reviews not included in the “contemporary” · Review for “Moskvityanin” (Morning Dawn) · About Sovremennik · Selected places from correspondence with friends · About estates in the state · Author's confession · Reflections on the Divine Liturgy
Unpreserved and excerpts	Vladimir third degree · Rome · Nights at the villa · Alfred · Getman · “The Scary Boar” (Little Russian story) · Excerpts from unknown plays · Outline of a drama from Ukrainian history ·

The idea of writing a comedy came to Gogol while working on another famous work"Dead Souls". In correspondence with Pushkin, he asked him to write the plot of a comedy in five acts.

It is clear that parallel work on Dead Souls influenced the writing of the comedy. In his confession, he reported that he had collected in one work all the worst things in Russia and all the injustice that he had ever seen.

It took him about two months to complete his idea, but even after writing and editing the comedy, work on it continued long time. The author made major changes to the works after the production at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The premiere took place in 1836. Even Nicholas I himself, the Emperor of Russia, was there. The author was upset by the production, since the audience and actors did not understand the meaning of the author's idea. The actors noticed that some scenes were completely awkward, for example, when Khlestakov is the first to ask for a loan, the actor playing his role thought that it would be better if they were the first to offer him money, so the author changed the scene, and the first four scenes were also reworked.

The final version of the comedy was published in 1842. "The Inspector General", which was staged on stage and published in print publications quite a few times, aroused controversial and ambiguous opinions. Polevoy, in a newspaper called “Russian Herald,” wrote about the comedy that it was very ambiguous and criticized the plot for its lack of goals and “bad language.”

And Belinsky, unlike Polevoy, praised the comedy and said that there are no best moments in the work, since there are no worst ones.

But still, Gogol was constantly haunted by the feeling that his comedy was not always understood correctly, so he constantly wrote articles about how to play correctly and what the true meaning of comedy was.

The history of the comedy The Inspector General in detail

Russian literature is rich in names outstanding writers who worked at different times. Among them, N.V. Gogol (1809 – 1852) stands out, whose name is inscribed in golden letters in the history of world literature. Nature generously rewarded him creative abilities. He proved himself to be an outstanding prose writer, interesting artist, a talented publicist, a wonderful playwright.

N.V. Gogol's play “The Inspector General” was published and first staged on the stage of the Alexandria Theater in the spring of 1836. Writer long years I was thinking about creating a comedy on the theme of Russian life. In 1832, in a conversation with Sergei Aksakov, he spoke about the desire to “gather everything bad in Russia into one pile” and laugh at all the shortcomings of Russian life at once. To Aksakov’s doubt that there is material in life for writing such a book, N.V. Gogol objected that “the comic is hidden everywhere.” As soon as the Master describes him, “we will laugh at ourselves.”

A.S. Pushkin was a friendly and open person, so other authors often turned to him for advice and support. In October 1835 N.V. Gogol in a letter to him asked for advice interesting story from the life of Russian society. In response, A.S. Pushkin described an incident that happened with their mutual friend. N.V. Gogol really liked the presented plot. He quickly set to work creating the play, which was written in two months. Pushkin’s letter talked about the writer and publisher of the journal “Otechestvennye zapiski” Pavel Petrovich Svinin, whose figure is interesting because he was constantly mistaken for someone else. Being a gentle and accommodating person, he not only got used to confusion, but did not even resist it and skillfully used it for his own purposes. In St. Petersburg society, tales from his life were retold from mouth to mouth with laughter. Thus, A.S. Pushkin in his message told how P.P. Svinin in Bessarabia pretended to be some famous official, but was stopped when he went far and, apparently, already believed in his miraculous reincarnation. Feeling that the hour of reckoning was near, he retreated.

N.V. Gogol’s communication with him cannot be called pleasant. Having moved to St. Petersburg, the young writer began collaborating with a popular magazine published by P. P. Svinin. In 1829, he brought his story “Basavryuk, or the Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” to the magazine. The work was published a year later, but without mentioning the author's name. In 1830, the magazine published an article by N.V. Gogol “Poltava”, telling about his small homeland. The publisher not only distorted part of the author's text and inserted his own opinions there. The most offensive thing was that he put his name on someone else's work. Of course, any author would be outraged by such an attitude from the publisher. N.V. Gogol responded to the behavior of P.P. Svinin by publishing the book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” into her as separate chapter“The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” was included. The writer removed all of Svinin’s corrections and added an introduction about how sexton Foma Grigorievich listens to the reading of the publication of his story and scolds the publisher. But best of all, N.V. Gogol paid off his offender by creating a brilliant play about a man - the shape-shifter Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, whose prototype was P.P. Svinin.

Of course, the author of “The Inspector General” had his own reasons to ridicule the shameless deceiver, but he never hid that the idea of a comedy about an imaginary inspector belonged to A. S. Pushkin and was always grateful to him for it. This work became one of the best creations of N.V. Gogol. Written almost two hundred years ago, the play does not leave us indifferent today. “The Inspector” teaches us to perform all duties with dignity and responsibility, so that we are not ashamed of our work; be honest and sincere towards people, so that you don’t have to hide for fear of exposure; avoid fawning and kowtowing to anyone.

You can use this text for reader's diary

Gogol. All works

The evening before Ivan Kupala
The history of the comedy The Inspector General
Overcoat

The history of the comedy The Inspector General. Picture for the story

Currently reading

Summary There lives such a guy Shukshina
The action of the work takes place in the Altai region. The author first describes the beauty of this area, as well as the dangers that arise on the Chuysky tract.
Summary of Filippo Filumena Marturano
The events take place in the house where the wealthy businessman Don Domenico lives. When his wife died, he took into his house the girl Filumena from the brothel. The girl lives within the walls of his house for a very long time and dreams
Summary of Steinbeck's Winter of Our Trouble
The novel tells about the growing atmosphere of social and moral troubles in the United States in the early 60s. At the center of these events is a descendant of the once rich family, Ethan Allen Hawley. He is happily married and has two beautiful children
Summary Shmelev Fear
Ivan Shmelev's story "Fear" was written in 1937. The narration is told from the perspective of little boy, who lives with his mother, two older sisters and an older brother. His father died about a year ago.
Summary of Wolves Fire God of the Marrans
Oorfene Deuce returned to his house in the Blue Country. Carfax the eagle flew into Urfin's garden. The eagle cannot return home because he will be killed for his rebellion. Oorfene lied to Carfax that he had noble intentions, but no one understood him.