Afanasy fet education. Fet Afanasy Afanasyevich

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet - born in 1820, and died in 1892.

There lived a young poet in a small village. Later he studied abroad and then came to Moscow, skillfully maneuvering the acquired knowledge. Fet’s work is considered to be masterly and experimental. The author loved innovation and often used it in his works. His collections began to be published already in Shenshin’s twentieth year. (Russian surname Feta)

Afanasy Afanasyevich was recognized as one of the best landscape painters, because the descriptions of nature in his works are truly amazing in their beauty. It was typical for the poet to devote his poems to nature. Each landscape is symbolized: spring - youth, the time of unbridled love; autumn - old age, fading of life; night - trouble, the action of dark forces; morning is the dawn of everything new and good.

Another feature of Fet’s work is the use of various repetitions - anaphora, epiphora, refrain. This helped the poet to enhance the transfer of sensations. In terms of genre, Fet gravitates toward fragments, lyrical miniatures, and cyclization.

The poet “liberated” the word and increased the load on it - grammatical, emotional, semantic and phonetic load. This was Afanasy Afanasyevich’s innovation in relation to the artistic word.

More biography of Fet

Afanasy Fet - translator and lyric poet. His poems have been part of the school curriculum for several generations.

He was born in 1820 in the village of Novoselki, not far from Mtsensk, a county town in the Oryol province. In the village there was the estate of his father, retired military man Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin. He married abroad in 1820 to his future mother, Charlotte Feth, who bore her ex-husband's surname. It was this surname that went to her son: when the boy turned 14 years old, it turned out that the Orthodox wedding took place after Afanasy was born. The spiritual consistory deprived the boy of his father's surname, and after this - of noble privileges.

Fet received a good education at home. At the age of 14 he was sent to a German boarding school in the city of Verro, which is now in Estonia.

At the age of 18, he entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Law, but soon transferred to the Faculty of Literature. Studied for 6 years: from 1838 to 1844.

It was while studying at the university that Fet published his first poems. His debut took place in 1840: the collection of poems “Lyrical Pantheon” appeared in print. He begins to collaborate with Otechestvennye zapiski and Moskvityanin.

After graduating from university, the poet decided to try to regain his nobility by enlisting in the army as a cavalryman in 1845. A year later he was awarded the rank of officer. But, unfortunately, he never received a letter of nobility; it was given only from the rank of major.

This was a difficult period in the life of Afanasy Fet. He was very worried about the death of his beloved, Maria Lazic. She died in a fire. At this time, he dedicated many poems to her.

In 1853 he was transferred to the Guards regiment, which was located in St. Petersburg. There he became close to the circle of the Sovremennik magazine. It included: Turgenev, Druzhinin, Nekrasov. Friendship with Turgenev, who helped compile and publish a new edition of Fet’s poems in 1856, played a special role.

In 1857 Fet got married. His chosen one was Maria Botkina, the sister of the literary critic Vasily Botkin. Maria was not particularly beautiful, but she had a large dowry behind her. It was these funds that allowed the poet to buy the Stepanovka estate. He decided to retire and start developing the estate, which was quite large: 200 acres of land. His friends regarded this act as a betrayal of literature. Indeed, only notes on agriculture and small literary essays began to appear from his pen. Fet explained this by saying that no one was interested in his work.

The writer returned to creativity only 17 years later, when he sold his improved estate and bought a house in Moscow. Now he was not a poor man, but a famous Oryol landowner. The writer again joins his friends. He is intensely involved in translating classical German literature.

By 1892, the poet’s condition began to deteriorate sharply: he began to choke, experiencing terrible pain, and his vision almost disappeared. In the last months of his life, he often thought about suicide. Died November 21, 1892.

Option 3

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet was born in 1820 and left this world almost a century later, having lived an incredibly eventful life until 1892. For the most part, Fet's lyrics related to the theme of nature or love. These themes are quite common, but the poet was not banal and was able to create a number of truly outstanding works.

Fet was often called a poet-musician, because he created poems that became the basis for romances. By the way, romances based on Fet’s poems are still popular and are performed on stage.

First, Fet studied at a boarding school in Estonia, and after that he entered the Faculty of Literature at Moscow University. In the city, the poet begins to communicate with various representatives of the creative elite and gains some popularity; Fet’s works were praised by Gogol and many other figures of that time.

Fet's works are for the most part filled with a certain lightness and, as it were, detachment from this world, but the fate of the poet himself can hardly be called cloudless. He was left without a title and in order to regain his status, he entered the army in 1844, where he served until 1858. It was there that he wrote many magnificent works, including those dedicated to Maria Lazic, whom he loved completely and completely and rather tragically lost.

In fact, Fet’s work should in many ways be assessed precisely through his relationship with Lazic. The poet had mutual feelings with this girl, but the young and ambitious Fet then could not take a wife from a poor family, being himself not fully accomplished. The marriage did not take place, and Lazich tragically died from a fire, and as a result, Afanasy Afanasyevich constantly blamed himself for this situation and remained faithful to Maria throughout his life, although he later started a family.

Retired Fet works as a justice of the peace and is engaged in creative work, writing not only poetry, but also translations, he is also creating a book of memoirs. The poet spends most of these days on the estate he acquired for himself, which was of great importance in his fate. Fet died of a heart attack in Moscow.

Creation

Special and complicated in many ways, fate with its dramatic events is characteristic of Fet’s work.

Afanasy Afanasyevich had a long and hectic life. He appeared and grew up in the family of landowner Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin and his wife Charlotte Becker. At the age of 14, the boy learned that he was born out of wedlock. When he was studying at a German boarding school located in one of the Baltic cities, Afanasy received a letter saying that the young man would now live under the name Feta. And then the poet felt all the difficult consequences that were associated with his new surname. It was here that Fet felt the first impulses towards poetic creativity.

Afanasy Afanasyevich continued to compose his creations with special zeal in the boarding house of Professor Pogodin, where he was preparing for exams at Moscow University. Gogol was the first to give his blessing to his creative pursuits. Joyful Fet decides to publish his poems as a separate collection, borrowing some money from the servants. The book “The Lyrical Pantheon” was nevertheless published in 1840 and received an approving review from Belinsky. The approval of this literary critic helped Fet realize his potential in the literary field and beyond. The poet began intensively publishing his works in Moskvityanin and Otechestvennye zapiski.

In 1845, Fet dramatically changed his fate, leaving Moscow and entering service in one of the regiments in the Kherson province. Now he could rise to the rank of hereditary nobility and thereby regain at least a little of what he had lost. However, his creative activity weakened. He never managed to rise to the nobility, and in 1853 he was transferred to a regiment located not far from St. Petersburg. In 1856, a revised collection of poems was published, which received high praise from Nekrasov. And Fet begins to develop very active literary activity. He tries himself in fiction. Translates the works of Heine and Goethe. In 1857, he was legally married to the daughter of the richest Moscow tea merchant, Maria Botkina, and retired. Subsequently, having bought a small estate, he becomes a Mtsensk landowner and continues to write. In 1863, he published a new collection of his works in two parts, which remained completely unsold. Then he buys another estate, Vorobyovka, and is elected magistrate in the district. But Fet did not leave literature. In 1883 he published the book “Evening Lights”. Further collections were published under the same name in 1885, 1888 and 1891.

Friends organized a solemn anniversary dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Afanasy Afanasyevich’s poetic activity. However, the limited readership caused him bitterness and sadness. For some time now, Fet began to be tormented by old ailments. And on November 21, 1892, the poet committed suicide. And in our time it has become likely that Fet’s lyrics provide readers with enormous aesthetic significance.

3, 4, 6 grade

Biography by dates and interesting facts. The most important.

Other biographies:

• Bianchi Vitaly

  Vitaly Bianchi is a famous Russian writer. He loved his native nature very much and talked about it in the books he wrote for children. Vitaly was born in the capital of Tsarist Russia - St. Petersburg.

• Sigmund Freud

  Sigmund Freud was a famous psychiatrist, the founder of the theory of psychoanalysis, which still causes controversial discussions.

• Yuri Gagarin

  Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was born in the Smolensk region, the village of Klushino on 03/09/1934.

• Brief biography of Nikolay 2 the most important thing for children (4th grade, The world around us)

  Nicholas II was the last Russian Emperor. He was born on May 18, 1868 in Tsarskoe Selo. Nikolai began training at the age of 8. In addition to standard school subjects, he also studied drawing, music and fencing.

• Lermontov Mikhail Yurievich

  Mikhail was born on October 3 (October 15, old style) 1814. The future writer spent most of his childhood in Tarkhany

Square

Many schoolchildren have difficulty distinguishing Fet’s poetry from Tyutchev’s creations - this is undoubtedly the fault of the teacher, who failed to correctly present the masterpieces of two meters of Russian literature. I assure you, after this article about interesting facts from the life of Fet, you will immediately learn to distinguish the poetics of Afanasy Afanasyevich from the work of Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, I will try to be very brief!

In Tyutchev’s poetry, the world is presented as cosmic, even the forces of nature come to life and become natural spirits surrounding man. The motifs in Fet's work are closer to reality (down to earth). Before us is a description of real landscapes, images of real people, Fet’s love - the same complex feeling, but earthly and accessible.

The secret of the poet's surname

As a child, A. Fet experienced a shock - he was deprived of his noble title and his father's surname. The writer's real name is Shenshin, his father is a retired Russian captain, and his mother is the German beauty Charlotte Feth. The parents met in Germany, where they immediately began a whirlwind romance. Charlotte was married, but completely unhappy in her marriage; her husband loved to drink and often raised his hand to her. Having met a noble Russian military man, she fell desperately in love with him, and even maternal feelings did not prevent the reunification of two hearts - Charlotte had a daughter. Already in the seventh month of pregnancy, Charlotte escapes to Russia to Afanasy Shenshin. Later, Shenshin will write a letter to Charlotte’s husband, but in response he will receive an obscene telegram. After all, the lovers committed an unchristian act.

The future poet was born in the Oryol province, and was recorded in the registry register by Afanasy Shenshin. Charlotte and Shenshin got married only two years after the birth of their son. At the age of 14, Afanasy was declared illegitimate, his surname Fet was returned to him and he was called a “foreigner.” As a result, the boy loses his noble origin and the inheritance of the landowner's father. Later he will regain his rights, but after many, many years.

Fet and Tolstoy

In Lotman's works there is a mention of one unusual incident from the lives of two great writers. In those days, everyone played card games, especially loved to gamble (but not about that now). So, the process of the games was quite emotional; in a rush, the players tore and threw the cards on the floor, and the money fell with them. But picking up this money was considered indecent; it remained on the floor until the end of the game, and then the lackeys took it away in the form of tips.

One day, socialites (including Fet and Tolstoy) were playing a card game, and Fet bent down to pick up a fallen banknote. Everyone felt a little strange, but not Tolstoy; the writer bent over to his friend to illuminate it with a candle. There is nothing shameful in this act, because Fet played with his last money, unlike his rivals.

Fet also wrote prose

In the 60s of the 19th century, Fet began working on prose; as a result, two prose collections were published, consisting of essays and short stories-sketches.

“We must not be separated” - a story of unhappy love

The poet met Maria Lazich at a ball in the house of the famous officer Petkovich (this happened in 1848, when the sun was mercilessly scorching on the border of the Kyiv and Kherson provinces). Maria Lazic was charming - tall, slender, dark, with a mop of dark thick hair. Fet immediately realized that Maria was like Beatrice for Dante. Then Fet was 28 years old, and Maria was 24 years old, she had full responsibility for the house and younger sisters, because she was the daughter of a poor Serbian general. Since then, all the writer’s love lyrics have been dedicated to this beautiful young lady.

According to contemporaries, Mary was not distinguished by incomparable beauty, but she was pleasant and seductive. So Afanasy and Maria began to communicate, write letters to each other, and spend joint evenings discussing art. But one day, while leafing through her diary (at that time all the girls had diaries in which they copied their favorite poems, quotes, and attached photographs), Fet noticed the musical notes under which there was a signature - Franz Liszt. Ferenc, a famous composer of that time, who toured Russia in the 40s, met Maria and even dedicated a piece of music to her. At first Fet was upset and jealousy washed over him, but then when he heard how great the melody sounded for Maria, he asked to play it constantly.

But a marriage between Athanasius and Maria was impossible, he has no means of subsistence and no title, and Maria, although from a poor family, is from a noble family. Lazic’s relatives did not know about this and did not understand at all why Fet had been communicating with their daughter for two years, but did not propose. Naturally, rumors and speculation spread throughout the city about Fet himself and Maria’s immorality. Then Afanasy told his beloved that their marriage was impossible, and the relationship needed to be ended urgently. Maria asked Afanasy to just be there without marriage or money.

But in the spring of 1850 something terrible happened. In despair, Maria sat in her room, trying to gather her thoughts on how to live further, how to achieve an eternal and indestructible union with her beloved. Suddenly she stood up sharply, causing the lamp to fall onto her long muslin dress; in a matter of seconds, flames engulfed the girl’s hair, she only managed to shout “Save the letters!” Relatives put out the fire of madness, but the number of burns on her body was incompatible with life, and after four painful days Maria died. Her last words were “It’s not his fault, but I...”. There is speculation that it was suicide and not just an accidental death.

Marriage of convenience

Years later, Fet marries Maria Botkina, but not out of strong love, but out of convenience. The image of tall and black-haired Maria Lazic will forever remain in his heart and poetry.

How Fet returned the title

It took the poet several years of service in the infantry to achieve officer rank and receive the nobility. He did not like the army way of life at all; Fet wanted to study literature, not war. But in order to regain his rightful status, he was ready to endure any difficulties. After his service, Fet had to work as a judge for 11 years, and only then did the writer become worthy of receiving a noble title!

Suicide attempt

After receiving a noble title and a family estate, Fet, who had achieved the main goal in his life, under some pretext asked his wife to go visit someone. On November 21, 1892, he locked himself in his office, drank a glass of champagne, called the secretary, dictating the last lines.

“I don’t understand the deliberate increase in inevitable suffering. I voluntarily go towards the inevitable. November 21, Fet (Shenshin)"

He took out a stiletto for cutting paper and raised his hand above his temple; the secretary managed to snatch the stiletto from the writer’s hands. At that moment, Fet jumped out of the office into the dining room, tried to grab the knife, but immediately fell. The secretary ran up to the dying writer, who said only one word “voluntarily” and died. The poet left no heirs behind him.

Fet Afanasy Afanasyevich (November 23, 1820 – November 21, 1892), great Russian lyric poet, memoirist, translator.

Biography

Video about Fet

Childhood

Afanasy Fet was born in Novoselki, a small estate located in the Mtsensk district of the Oryol province. His father is Johann Peter Wilhelm Feth, assessor of the city court in Darmstadt, and his mother is Charlotte Elisabeth Becker. Being seven months pregnant, she left her husband and secretly left for Russia with 45-year-old Afanasy Shenshin. When the boy was born, he was baptized according to the Orthodox rite and named Athanasius. He was recorded as the son of Shenshin. In 1822, Charlotte Elizabeth Fet converted to Orthodoxy and married Afanasy Shenshin.

Education

Afanasy received an excellent education. The talented boy found it easy to study. In 1837, he graduated from a private German boarding school in the city of Verro, in Estonia. Even then, Fet began to write poetry and showed interest in literature and classical philology. After school, in order to prepare for entering the university, he studied at the boarding house of Professor Pogodin, a writer, historian and journalist. In 1838, Afanasy Fet entered the law department, and then the philosophy department of Moscow University, where he studied in the historical and philological (verbal) department.

At the university, Afanasy became close to one of the students, Apollon Grigoriev, who was also interested in poetry. Together they began to attend a circle of students who were intensively studying philosophy and literature. With the participation of Grigoriev, Fet released his first collection of poems, “Lyrical Pantheon.” The young student’s creativity earned Belinsky’s approval. And Gogol spoke of him as “an undoubted talent.” This became a kind of “blessing” and inspired Afanasy Fet to further work. In 1842, his poems were published in many publications, including the popular magazines Otechestvennye zapiski and Moskvityanin. In 1844, Fet graduated from the university.

Military service

In 1845, Fet left Moscow and joined a provincial cuirassier regiment in southern Russia. Afanasy believed that military service would help him regain his lost noble title. A year after the start of his service, Fet received the rank of officer. In 1853 he was transferred to a guards regiment, which was stationed near St. Petersburg. He often visited the capital, met with Turgenev, Goncharov, Nekrasov, and became close to the editors of the popular magazine Sovremennik. In general, the poet’s military career was not very successful. In 1858, Fet retired, having risen to the rank of headquarters captain.

Love

During his years of service, the poet experienced a tragic love, which influenced all of his further work. The poet's beloved, Maria Lazic, was from a good but poor family, which served as an obstacle to their marriage. They broke up, and after some time the girl tragically died in a fire. The poet kept the memory of his unhappy love until his death.

Family life

At the age of 37, Afanasy Fet married Maria Botkina, the daughter of a wealthy tea merchant. His wife was not particularly young or beautiful. It was a marriage of convenience. Before the wedding, the poet revealed to the bride the truth about his origins, as well as about a certain “family curse” that could become a serious obstacle to their marriage. But Maria Botkina was not afraid of these confessions, and in 1857 they got married. A year later, Fet retired. He settled in Moscow and devoted himself to literary work. His family life was quite prosperous. Fet increased the fortune that Maria Botkina brought him. True, they did not have children. In 1867, Afanasy Fet was elected justice of the peace. He lived on his estate and led the lifestyle of a real landowner. Only after the return of his stepfather's surname and all the privileges that a hereditary nobleman could enjoy did the poet begin to work with renewed vigor.

Creation

Afanasy Fet left a significant mark on Russian literature. He published his first collection of poems, “Lyrical Pantheon,” while he was studying at the university. Fet's first poems were an attempt to escape reality. He sang the beauty of nature and wrote a lot about love. Even then, a characteristic feature appeared in his work - he spoke about important and eternal concepts with hints, was able to convey the subtlest shades of moods, awakening pure and bright emotions in readers.

After the tragic death of Maria Lazic, Fet's work took on a new direction. He dedicated the poem “Talisman” to his beloved. It is assumed that all subsequent poems by Fet about love are dedicated to it. In 1850, a second collection of his poems was published. It aroused the interest of critics, who did not skimp on positive reviews. At the same time, Fet was recognized as one of the best modern poets.

Afanasy Fet was a representative of “pure art”; he did not touch upon pressing social issues in his works and remained a convinced conservative and monarchist until the end of his life. In 1856, Fet published his third collection of poems. He praised beauty, considering this the only goal of his creativity.

The heavy blows of fate did not pass without a trace for the poet. He became bitter, broke off relations with friends, and almost stopped writing. In 1863, the poet published a two-volume collection of his poems, and then there was a twenty-year break in his work.

Only after the poet’s stepfather’s surname and the privileges of a hereditary nobleman were returned to him, he took up creativity with renewed vigor. Towards the end of his life, Afanasy Fet's poems became more and more philosophical, they contained metaphysical idealism. The poet wrote about the unity of man and the Universe, about the highest reality, about eternity. Between 1883 and 1891, Fet wrote more than three hundred poems, which were included in the collection “Evening Lights.” The poet published four editions of the collection, and the fifth was published after his death.

Death

Afanasy Fet died of a heart attack. Researchers of the poet's life and work are convinced that before his death he tried to commit suicide.

Main achievements

• Afanasy Fet left behind a great creative legacy. Fet was recognized by his contemporaries, his poems were admired by Gogol, Belinsky, Turgenev, Nekrasov. In the fifties of his century, he was the most significant representative of poets who promoted “pure art” and sang “eternal values” and “absolute beauty.” The work of Afanasy Fet marked the completion of the poetry of new classicism. Fet is still considered one of the most brilliant poets of his time.
• The translations of Afanasy Fet are also of great importance for Russian literature. He translated Goethe's entire Faust, as well as the works of a number of Latin poets: Horace, Juvenal, Catullus, Ovid, Virgil, Persius and others.

Important dates in life

• 1820, November 23 - born in the Novoselki estate, Oryol province
• 1834 - was deprived of all privileges of a hereditary nobleman, the Shenshin surname and Russian citizenship
• 1835-1837 – studied at a private German boarding school in the city of Verro
• 1838-1844 – studied at the university
• 1840 – the first collection of poems “Lyrical Pantheon” was published
• 1845 - entered the provincial cuirassier regiment in southern Russia
• 1846 - received the rank of officer
• 1850 - the second collection of poems “Poems” was published
• 1853 - joined the guards regiment
• 1856 - the third collection of poems was published
• 1857 - married Maria Botkina
• 1858 - retired
• 1863 - a two-volume collection of poems was published
• 1867 - elected justice of the peace
• 1873 - returned noble privileges and the surname Shenshin
• 1883 – 1891 – worked on the five-volume “Evening Lights”
• 1892, November 21 - died in Moscow from a heart attack

• In 1834, when the boy was 14 years old, it turned out that legally he was not the son of the Russian landowner Shenshin, and the recording was made illegally. The reason for the proceedings was an anonymous denunciation, the author of which remained unknown. The decision of the spiritual consistory sounded like a sentence: from now on Afanasy had to bear his mother’s surname and was deprived of all the privileges of a hereditary nobleman and Russian citizenship. From a wealthy heir, he suddenly became a “man with no name,” an illegitimate child of dubious origin. Fet perceived this event as a shame, and the return of his lost position became a goal for him, an obsession that largely determined the poet’s future life path. Only in 1873, when Afanasy Fet was 53 years old, his lifelong dream came true. By decree of the tsar, the noble privileges and the surname Shenshin were returned to the poet. Nevertheless, he continued to sign his literary works with the surname Fet.
• In 1847, during his military service, on the small estate of Fedorovka, the poet met Maria Lazic. This relationship began with light, non-binding flirting, which gradually grew into a deep feeling. But Maria, a beautiful, well-educated girl from a good family, still could not become a good match for a man who hoped to regain his noble title. Realizing that he truly loved this girl, Fet, however, decided that he would never marry her. Maria took this calmly, but after some time she decided to break off relations with Afanasy. And after some time, Fet was informed about the tragedy that occurred in Fedorovka. A fire broke out in Maria's room and her clothes caught fire. Trying to escape, the girl ran out onto the balcony, then into the garden. But the wind only fanned the flames. Maria Lazic was dying for several days. Her last words were about Athanasius. The poet suffered this loss hard. Until the end of his life, he regretted that he did not marry the girl, because there was no more true love in his life. His soul was empty.
• The poet carried a heavy burden. The fact is that there were crazy people in his family. His two brothers, already adults, lost their minds. At the end of her life, Afanasy Fet’s mother also suffered from madness and begged to take her life. Shortly before Fet's marriage to Maria Botkina, his sister Nadya also ended up in a psychiatric clinic. Her brother visited her there, but she did not recognize him. The poet often noticed attacks of severe melancholy. Fet was always afraid that in the end he would suffer the same fate.

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet (correctly Fet) for the first 14 and last 19 years of his life officially bore the surname Shenshin. Born on November 23 (December 5), 1820 in the Novoselki estate of the Mtsensk district of the Oryol province - died on November 21 (December 3), 1892 in Moscow. Russian lyricist of German origin, translator, memoirist, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1886).

Father - Johann-Peter-Karl-Wilhelm Feth (Föth) (1789-1825), assessor of the Darmstadt city court.

Mother - Charlotte Elizabeth Becker (1798-1844). Sister - Caroline-Charlotte-Georgina-Ernestina Föt (1819-1868).

Stepfather - Shenshin Afanasy Neofitovich (1775-1855).

Maternal grandfather - Karl-Wilhelm Becker (1766-1826), privy councilor, military commissar.

Paternal grandfather - Johann Föt.

Paternal grandmother - Miles Sibylla.

Maternal grandmother - Gagern Henrietta.

On May 18, 1818, the marriage of 20-year-old Charlotte Elisabeth Becker and Johann Peter Karl Wilhelm Vöth took place in Darmstadt. In 1820, a 45-year-old Russian landowner, hereditary nobleman Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin, came to Darmstadt for the waters and stayed in the Fetov house. A romance broke out between him and Charlotte-Elizabeth, despite the fact that the young woman was expecting her second child. On September 18, 1820, Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin and Charlotte-Elizabeth Becker secretly left for Russia.

On November 23 (December 5), 1820, in the village of Novoselki, Mtsensk district, Oryol province, Charlotte Elizabeth Becker had a son, who was baptized in the Orthodox rite on November 30 and named Athanasius. In the registry book he was recorded as the son of Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin. However, the couple got married only in 1822, after Charlotte-Elizabeth converted to Orthodoxy and began to be called Elizaveta Petrovna Fet. In 1821-1823, Charlotte-Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter, Anna, and a son, Vasily, from Afanasy Shenshin, who died in infancy, and in May 1824, a daughter, Lyuba.

Johann Feth married his daughter Caroline's teacher in 1824. On November 7, 1823, Charlotte Elisabeth wrote a letter to her brother Ernst Becker in Darmstadt, in which she complained about her ex-husband Johann Peter Karl Wilhelm Feth, who frightened her and offered to adopt her son Athanasius if his debts were paid. On August 25, 1825, Charlotte-Elizabeth Becker wrote a letter to her brother Ernst about how well Shenshin takes care of her son Afanasy: “no one will notice that this is not his natural child.”

In March 1826, she again wrote to her brother that her first husband, who had died a month earlier, had not left her and the child any money: “to take revenge on me and Shenshin, he forgot his own child, disinherited him and put a stain on him... Try, if possible, to ask our dear father to help restore this child to his rights and honor; he should get a surname..." Then, in the next letter: "... It is very surprising to me that Fet forgot and did not recognize his son in his will. A person can make mistakes, but denying the laws of nature is a very big mistake. Apparently, before his death he was quite ill...”

When Afanasy Shenshin was 14 years old, the diocesan authorities found out that he was born before marriage, and he was deprived of his surname, Russian citizenship and nobility and became “Hessendarmstadt subject Afanasy Fet.” This event radically changed the young man’s whole life. Along with his surname, he lost his position in society and the right to inheritance. The goal of his life was to obtain a noble title, so he went to serve in a cuirassier regiment, despite the fact that he graduated from the verbal department of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow University. According to the laws of that time, along with the officer rank, the rank of nobility was also given, and a junior officer rank could be obtained after six months of service. However, it was at this time that Nicholas I issued a decree according to which only senior officers were entitled to nobility, and this meant that Athanasius would have to serve for 15-20 years.

Only in 1873 Afanasy Fet officially regained his surname Shenshin, but he continued to sign his literary works and translations with the surname Fet.

In 1835-1837, Afanasy studied at the German private boarding school of Krümmer in Verro (now Võru, Estonia). At this time he began to write poetry and show interest in classical philology. In 1838 he entered Moscow University, first at the Faculty of Law, then at the historical and philological (verbal) department of the Faculty of Philosophy. Studied for 6 years: 1838-1844.

In 1840, a collection of Fet’s poems, “Lyrical Pantheon,” was published with the participation of Apollo Grigoriev, Fet’s friend from the university. In 1842 - publications in the magazines “Moskvityanin” and “Domestic Notes”. In 1845 he entered military service in the cuirassier regiment of the Military Order and became a cavalryman. In 1846 he was awarded the first officer rank.

In 1850, Fet's second collection was published, which received positive reviews from critics in the magazines Sovremennik, Moskvityanin and Otechestvennye zapiski. At this time, Maria Kozminichna Lazich, the poet’s beloved, died, to whose memories the poem “Talisman”, the poems “Old Letters”, “You suffered, I still suffer...”, “No, I have not changed. Until deep old age..." and many of his other poems.

In 1853, Fet was transferred to a guards regiment stationed near St. Petersburg. The poet often visited St. Petersburg, then the capital of Russia. There Fet met with, and others, as well as his rapprochement with the editors of the Sovremennik magazine.

In 1854 he served in the Baltic Port, which he described in his memoirs “My Memoirs”.

In 1856, Fet's third collection was published, edited by I. S. Turgenev.

In 1857, Fet married Maria Petrovna Botkina, sister of the critic V.P. Botkin.

In 1858 he retired with the rank of guards captain and settled in Moscow.

In 1859, the poet broke up with the journalist Dolgoruky A.V. from Sovremennik.

In 1863, a two-volume collection of Fet's poems was published.

In 1867, Afanasy Fet was elected justice of the peace for 11 years.

In 1873, Afanasy Fet was returned to the nobility and the surname Shenshin. The poet continued to sign his literary works and translations with the surname Fet.

In 1883-1891 - publication of four issues of the collection “Evening Lights”.

Died on November 21, 1892 in Moscow. According to some reports, his death from a heart attack was preceded by a suicide attempt. He was buried in the village of Kleymenovo, the family estate of the Shenshins.

Family of Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet:

Wife - Botkina Maria Petrovna (1828-1894), from the Botkin family. Her brothers: V. P. Botkin, a famous literary and art critic, author of one of the most significant articles about the work of A. A. Fet, S. P. Botkin - a doctor, after whom a hospital in Moscow is named, D. P. Botkin - collector of paintings. There were no children in the marriage.
Nephew - E. S. Botkin, shot in 1918 in Yekaterinburg along with the family of Nicholas II.

Being one of the most sophisticated lyricists, Fet amazed his contemporaries by the fact that this did not prevent him from being at the same time an extremely businesslike, enterprising and successful landowner. in many works, especially in the novel “The Diary of a Provincial in St. Petersburg,” he was repeatedly and completely unfairly accused of adherence to the serfdom.

The famous palindrome phrase written by Fet and included in “The Adventures of Buratino” by A. N. Tolstoy - "And the rose fell on Azor's paw".

Philologist O. Sharovskaya writes about him: “In Fet’s lyrics there are no completed psychological portraits, characters, the images of the addressees are not outlined, even the image of the beloved is abstract. There is also no lyrical hero in the narrow sense: nothing is known about his social status, life experience, habits. The main place of “action” is generally a garden, a house in general, etc. Time is presented as “cosmic” (the existence of life on earth - its disappearance), natural (time of year, time of day) and only in the most general form as biological (life -death, youth or, more precisely, years of full strength - old age, and there are no milestones or boundaries here), but in no case is historical time. Thoughts, feelings, sensations are expressed that are intended to have a universal significance, albeit small, private, but understandable to any thinking and feeling person.”

Fet is a late romantic with a clear inclination towards psychological realism and accuracy of subject descriptions, but is thematically narrow. Its three main themes are nature, love, art (usually poetry and most often “song”), united by the theme of beauty.

The work of Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet

The work of Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet (1820 - 1892) is one of the pinnacles of Russian poetry. Fet is a great poet, a genius poet. Now there is not a person in Russia who does not know Fet’s poems. Well, at least “I came to you with greetings” or “Don’t wake her up at dawn...” At the same time, many people have no real idea of ​​the scale of this poet. The idea of ​​Fet is distorted, even starting with his appearance. Someone maliciously constantly replicates those portraits of Fet that were made during his dying illness, where his face is terribly distorted, his eyes are swollen - an old man in a state of agony. Meanwhile, Fet, as can be seen from the portraits made during his heyday, both human and poetic, was the most beautiful of the Russian poets.

The drama is connected with the mystery of Fet's birth. In the fall of 1820, his father Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin took the wife of the official Karl Feth from Germany to his family estate. A month later the child was born and was registered as the son of A.N. Shenshina. The illegality of this recording was discovered when the boy was 14 years old. He received the surname Fet and in documents began to be called the son of a foreign subject. A. A. Fet spent a lot of effort trying to return the name of Shenshin and the rights of a hereditary nobleman. The mystery of his birth has not yet been fully solved. If he is the son of Fet, then his father I. Fet was the great-uncle of the last Russian empress.

Fet's life is also mysterious. They say about him that in life he was much more prosaic than in poetry. But this is due to the fact that he was a wonderful owner. Wrote a small volume of articles on economics. From a ruined estate he managed to create a model farm with a magnificent stud farm. And even in Moscow on Plyushchikha, his house had a vegetable garden and a greenhouse; in January, vegetables and fruits ripened, which the poet loved to treat his guests to.

In this regard, they like to talk about Fet as a prosaic person. But in fact, his origin is mysterious and romantic, and his death is mysterious: this death was and was not suicide. Fet, tormented by illness, finally decided to commit suicide. He sent his wife away, left a suicide note, and grabbed a knife. The secretary prevented him from using it. And the poet died—died from shock.

The biography of a poet is, first of all, his poems. Fet's poetry is multifaceted, its main genre is lyric poem. Classical genres include elegies, thoughts, ballads, and epistles. “Melodies” - poems that represent a response to musical impressions - can be considered as the “original Fetov genre”.

One of Fet’s early and most popular poems is “I came to you with greetings”:

I came to you with greetings,

Tell me that the sun has risen, that it is a hot light

The sheets began to flutter;

Tell me that the forest has woken up,

All woke up, every branch,

Every bird was startled

And full of thirst in spring...

The poem is written on the theme of love. The theme is old, eternal, and Fet’s poems emanate freshness and novelty. It doesn't look like anything we know. This is generally characteristic of Fet and corresponds to his conscious poetic attitudes. Fet wrote: “Poetry certainly requires novelty, and for it there is nothing more deadly than repetition, and especially oneself... By novelty I do not mean new objects, but their new illumination by the magic lantern of art.”

The very beginning of the poem is unusual - unusual in comparison with the then accepted norm in poetry. In particular, the Pushkin norm, which required extreme precision in words and in combinations of words. Meanwhile, the initial phrase of Fetov’s poem is not at all accurate and not even entirely “correct”: “I came to you with greetings, to tell you...”. Would Pushkin or any of the poets of Pushkin’s time allow himself to say so? At that time, these lines were seen as poetic audacity. Fet was aware of the inaccuracy of his poetic word, its closeness to living, sometimes seeming not entirely correct, but that made it especially bright and expressive speech. He called his poems jokingly (but not without pride) poems “of a disheveled kind.” But what is the artistic meaning in poetry of the “disheveled kind”?

Inaccurate words and seemingly sloppy, “disheveled” expressions in Fet’s poems create not only unexpected, but also bright, exciting images. One gets the impression that the poet doesn’t seem to deliberately think about the words; they came to him on their own. He speaks with the very first, unintentional words. The poem is distinguished by its amazing integrity. This is an important virtue in poetry. Fet wrote: “The task of a lyricist is not in the harmony of the reproduction of objects, but in the harmony of tone.” In this poem there is both harmony of objects and harmony of tone. Everything in the poem is internally connected to each other, everything is unidirectional, it is said in a single impulse of feeling, as if in one breath.

Another early poem is the lyrical play “Whisper, Timid Breath...”:

Whisper, timid breathing,

The trill of a nightingale,

Silver and sway

Sleepy stream,

Night light, night shadows,

Endless shadows

A series of magical changes

Sweet face...

The poem was written in the late 40s. It is built on nominative sentences alone. Not a single verb. Only objects and phenomena that are named one after another: whispers - timid breathing - trills of a nightingale, etc.

But despite all this, the poem cannot be called objective and material. This is the most amazing and unexpected thing. Fet's objects are non-objective. They do not exist on their own, but as signs of feelings and states. They glow a little, flicker. By naming this or that thing, the poet evokes in the reader not a direct idea of ​​the thing itself, but those associations that can usually be associated with it. The main semantic field of a poem is between the words, behind the words.

“Behind the words” the main theme of the poem develops: feelings of love. The most subtle feeling, inexpressible in words, inexpressibly strong, No one had ever written about love like this before Fet.

Fet liked the reality of life, and this was reflected in his poems. Nevertheless, it is difficult to call Fet simply a realist, noting how in poetry he gravitates toward dreams, dreams, and intuitive movements of the soul. Fet wrote about the beauty diffused in all the diversity of reality. Aesthetic realism in Fet's poems in the 40s and 50s was really aimed at the everyday and the most ordinary.

The character and tension of Fet's lyrical experience depend on the state of nature. The change of seasons occurs in a circle - from spring to spring. Fet’s feelings move in the same kind of circle: not from the past to the future, but from spring to spring, with its necessary, inevitable return. In the collection (1850), the “Snow” cycle is given first place. Fet’s winter cycle is multi-motive: he sings about a sad birch tree in winter clothing, about how “the night is bright, the frost shines,” and “the frost has drawn patterns on the double glass.” Snowy plains attract the poet:

Wonderful picture

How dear you are to me:

White plain,

Full moon,

The light of the high heavens,

And shining snow

And distant sleighs

Lonely running.

Fet confesses his love for the winter landscape. In Fet's poems, shining winter prevails, in the brilliance of the prickly sun, in the diamonds of snowflakes and snow sparks, in the crystal of icicles, in the silvery fluff of frosty eyelashes. The associative series in this lyric does not go beyond the boundaries of nature itself; here is its own beauty, which does not need human spirituality. Rather, it itself spiritualizes and enlightens the personality. It was Fet, following Pushkin, who sang the Russian winter, only he managed to reveal its aesthetic meaning in such a multifaceted way. Fet introduced rural landscapes and scenes of folk life into his poems; he appeared in his poems as “a bearded grandfather,” he “groans and crosses himself,” or a daring coachman in a troika.

Fet was always attracted to the poetic theme of evening and night. The poet early developed a special aesthetic attitude towards the night and the onset of darkness. At the new stage of his creativity, he already began to call entire collections “Evening Lights”, in them, as it were, a special, Fetov philosophy of the night.

In Fet’s “night poetry” a complex of associations is revealed: night - abyss - shadows - sleep - visions - secret, intimate - love - the unity of the “night soul” of a person with the night element. This image receives philosophical deepening and a new second meaning in his poems; in the content of the poem a symbolic second plane appears. His association “night-abyss” takes on a philosophical and poetic perspective. She begins to get closer to human life. The abyss is an airy road - the path of human life.

MAY NIGHT

Lagging clouds fly over us

The last crowd.

Their transparent segment softly melts

At the crescent moon

A mysterious power reigns in spring

With stars on the forehead. -

You, tender! You promised me happiness

On a vain land.

Where is the happiness? Not here, in a wretched environment,

And there it is - like smoke

Follow him! follow him! by air -

And we'll fly away into eternity.

The May night promises happiness, a person flies through life in pursuit of happiness, the night is an abyss, a person flies into the abyss, into eternity.

Further development of this association: night - human existence - the essence of being.

Fet imagines the night hours as revealing the secrets of the universe. The poet's nocturnal insight allows him to look “from time to eternity,” he sees “the living altar of the universe.”

Tolstoy wrote to Fet: “The poem is one of those rare ones in which not a word can be added, subtracted or changed; it is alive and lovely. It is so good that it seems to me that this is not a random poem, but that this is the first stream of a long-delayed stream.”

The association night - abyss - human existence, developing in Fet's poetry, absorbs the ideas of Schopenhauer. However, the closeness of the poet Fet to the philosopher is very conditional and relative. The ideas of the world as a representation, man as a contemplator of existence, thoughts about intuitive insights, apparently, were close to Fet.

The idea of ​​death is woven into the figurative association of Fet’s poems about the night and human existence (the poem “Sleep and Death,” written in 1858). Sleep is full of the bustle of the day, death is full of majestic peace. Fet gives preference to death, draws its image as the embodiment of a peculiar beauty.

In general, Fet’s “night poetry” is deeply unique. His night is as beautiful as the day, maybe even more beautiful. Fetov’s night is full of life, the poet feels “the breath of the immaculate night.” Fetov's night gives a person happiness:

What a night! The transparent air is constrained;

The aroma swirls above the ground.

Oh now I'm happy, I'm excited

Oh, now I'm glad to speak! ...

Man merges with night life, he is by no means alienated from it. He hopes and expects something from him. The association repeated in Fet’s poems is night and expectation and trembling, trembling:

The birches are waiting. Their leaves are translucent

Shyly beckons and pleases the eye.

They are shaking. So to the newlywed virgin

And her attire is joyful and alien...

Fet's nocturnal nature and man are full of expectation of the innermost, which turns out to be accessible to all living things only at night. Night, love, communication with the elemental life of the universe, knowledge of happiness and higher truths in his poems, as a rule, are combined.

Fet's work represents the apotheosis of the night. For Feta the philosopher, night represents the basis of world existence, it is the source of life and the keeper of the secret of “double existence”, the kinship of man with the universe, for him it is the knot of all living and spiritual connections.

Now Fet can no longer be called just a poet of sensations. His contemplation of nature is full of philosophical profundity, his poetic insights are aimed at discovering the secrets of existence.

Poetry was the main work of Fet’s life, a calling to which he gave everything: soul, vigilance, sophistication of hearing, wealth of imagination, depth of mind, skill of hard work and inspiration.

In 1889, Strakhov wrote in the article “Anniversary of Fet’s Poetry”: “He is the only poet of his kind, incomparable, giving us the purest and truest poetic delight, true diamonds of poetry... Fet is a true touchstone for the ability to understand poetry...”

Bibliography

Maimin E. A. “A. A. Fet”, Moscow, 1989

Fet A. A. “Favorites”, Moscow, 1985.

Magazine “Russian Literature”, No. 4, 1996.