“Smoke” - a summary of the novel by I.S. Turgenev

About the product

Turgenev's novel "Smoke" was written in 1867. The book describes a difficult life situation when the hero was faced with a choice between passion and a calm, serene life. In addition, the novel contains a lot of speculation and debate about Russia and the West, about the fate of the people and the country.

We recommend reading the summary of “Smoke” on our website. Retelling the book will be useful when preparing for a literature lesson, and will also be useful when working with a reader’s diary.

The material was prepared jointly with the highest category teacher Lyubov Alexandrovna Koroshchup.

Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 30 years.

Main characters of the novel

Main characters:

• Grigory Mikhailovich Litvinov, a landowner, the son of a retired official from a merchant family and a noblewoman, spent four years abroad studying agronomy.
• Irina Pavlovna Ratmirova (nee Osinina) - a representative of an ancient but impoverished princely family, Litvinov’s youthful love; under the patronage of Count Reisenbach, she enters St. Petersburg society and becomes a society lady.
• Tatyana Petrovna Shestova is Litvinov’s second cousin and fiancee.

Other characters:

• Valerian Vladimirovich Ratmirov is Irina Pavlovna’s husband, a young general.
• Kapitolina Markovna Shestova is Tatyana’s aunt, who raised her, an old maid.
• Sozont Ivanovich Potugin - retired court councilor, served in the Ministry of Finance in St. Petersburg, a convinced Westerner; unrequitedly in love with Irina Pavlovna, at her request he is raising her friend’s illegitimate daughter.
• Stepan Nikolaevich Gubarev is the head of the Heidelberg circle of Russian intelligentsia.
• Rostislav Bambaev is a Moscow acquaintance of Litvinov, “always penniless and always delighted with something.”
• Semyon Yakovlevich Voroshilov is a young, eloquent officer, a friend of Bambaev.
• Matryona Semyonovna Sukhanchikova is a quarrelsome, childless widow.
• Pishchalkin is an “ideal world mediator.”
• Tit Bindasov is “a noisy bursh in appearance, but in essence a fist and a scorcher, a terrorist by speech, a quarterly by vocation.”

Summary

In August 1862, life in Baden-Baden was in full swing. The weather was beautiful, smart holidaymakers were chatting animatedly with each other, the orchestra in the pavilion was playing waltzes and medleys, and the casino tables were crowded with gamblers.

Among the vacationers, “a handsome man of about thirty, of average height, lean and dark, with a courageous and pleasant face” stood out. This is Grigory Mikhailovich Litvinov, who was awaiting the arrival of his fiancee Tatyana Shestova. He knew her well almost from childhood and, having decided to open a new page in his life, “invited her, as a beloved woman, as a comrade and friend, to connect her life with his life - for joy and sorrow, for work and for rest.” "

One day Litvinov discovered a large bouquet of heliotropes in his room. He immediately realized that it was her - his old love, the beautiful Princess Irina Osinina, who also vacationed at this resort. From an early age she was not only very beautiful, but also arrogant, “with a fickle, power-hungry character and a bad head.” Litvinov fell in love with her at first sight. Irina’s family, despite their noble origins, lived in poverty, and the girl passionately dreamed of getting out of it. When the opportunity presented itself, she left for St. Petersburg forever to live with a rich relative. It was difficult for Litvinov to survive the bitterness of separation, but “little by little his wound healed.”

Litvinov met with his old lover. Irina was married to the brilliant young general Ratmirov, which did not stop her from giving Litvinov timid hope of happiness with her. An inner voice whispered to the hero “run, run immediately,” but he found himself in a cleverly placed love net. Litvinov abandoned Tatyana, breaking her heart, he “broke everything to dust, without regret and without return.” However, Irina only laughed at his love - she refused to leave her husband, as she had previously promised.

Litvinov, “completely destroyed and hopelessly unhappy,” returned to his homeland. He began to take care of the estate, in which things were going very badly. Two years later, “the spirit in him grew stronger: he again began to resemble the old Litvinov.” He could not stand it and went to Tatyana, on his knees begging her for forgiveness. The lovers were reconciled and found family happiness.

Read online “Smoke”

– And so, Mr. Bluesky, the last question of our interview. It is not on the list, but I, like, I think, many readers, will be very interested to hear your answer.

- Yes, sure. You know, you intrigued me.

- Thank you. Mr. Bluesky, today is your last day as Chief Firefighter. You have devoted almost thirty years of your life to this profession and have seen everything. Over all these years, have you encountered events or phenomena that cannot be explained from the standpoint of logic and common sense?

– Do you mean mysticism?

“Yes, that’s right,” the young journalist fidgeted in his chair with impatience.

“Hmm, you know, firefighters are pretty superstitious people,” Ray Bluesky rubbed his clean-shaven cheek. – For example, a fireman will never go on a call in a new uniform - this is considered a bad omen. He would rather jump on it, then ask his colleagues to stomp on it and then, just to be sure, drive on it a couple of times in a company car, but he would never go to a call in a clean, even shiny uniform.

- Very interesting. Can you remember any incident that was strange and inexplicable?

The guy with glasses adjusted the recorder on the table and took an expectant pose.

- Yes, I heard about such a thing. It was, it seems, in the twenties of the last century in Chicago. A young fireman was cleaning glass at his station. He was cheerful, joked and talked with his colleagues, but suddenly turned pale and haggard. To avoid falling, he leaned on the glass he had just cleaned. Colleagues thought he had a stroke and rushed to help. Imagine their surprise when Francis, that was his name, began to talk absolute nonsense, claiming that he would die today. Nobody paid any attention to this. You never know, the man has worked too hard, and his nerves are getting to him,” Ray took a long sip of coffee and looked at his watch. “That night there was a terrible fire. A warehouse and adjacent buildings were on fire. The fire spread abnormally quickly, it was said that it almost jumped from cornice to cornice, as if alive. All the efforts of several teams did not produce tangible success. Then there were no breathing masks with oxygen cylinders, and people began to suffocate from the acrid smoke. The whole block was already on fire. The roof of one of the buildings sank, and a wall behind it fell, crushing a dozen firefighters. It was one of the most terrible fires in the history of the city. During the trial, it turned out that the reason for everything was banal human greed.

. The owner of one of the shops himself provoked the tragedy in order to receive money from the insurance company. The floors of the building were literally saturated with wood alcohol, hence the inexplicable speed at which the fire spread. And as you might guess, Francis was among the dead.

- So he predicted his own death?

– You can think so. Of course, it could all be due to mere coincidence, but the glass that the young man was wiping that day retained a black handprint, exactly in the place where the unfortunate man touched it. The print resembled a trace of burning or soot. Many tried, but no one managed to wipe it off. Even cleaning companies using special chemicals have not been successful. This window kept the imprint of the deceased fireman until one newspaper boy accidentally broke it.

Silence hung over the table for a few seconds. The young journalist looked at the table in front of him, and the senior fireman leisurely sipped his coffee.

“Yeah, that’s the story,” the boy said, adjusting his glasses. - It happens.

“I didn’t believe it at first either, but after rummaging on the Internet, I found an old photograph of that same window with a black handprint on it.

- Wow! I’ll definitely look for it! I’ll add it to the article materials. Tell me, Mr. Bluesky, have you personally encountered anything like this...?

– I... prefer not to talk about it...

- But why?

– You see, now you can easily get fired from work for such stories and, in addition, receive a course of treatment from a local psychiatrist. Besides, I don’t want to remember those events.

- But, Mr. Bluesky, today is your last day of work, tomorrow you will retire to an honorable pension, and not a single person will dare to accuse you of anything!

The senior fireman thought stubbornly for several seconds. His face alternated with expressions of anxiety, uncertainty and hidden fear, but not before the possible consequences of the interview, but before certain events that left a black imprint of horror on Ray’s soul, like the charcoal imprint of the dead guy’s palm on the station window.

“Okay...” he finally decided. His voice became deep and strong, plunging the listener into the abyss of the past. – It was in ninety-nine, then I had already worked as a firefighter in New York for several years...

* * *

The call siren sounded unexpectedly as always. No matter how long you sit, tensely waiting and constantly peering at the dial of the large wall clock in the rest room, the sonorous roar will still make you flinch.

Racing with death.

Every second of delay can cost a human life. A minute to put on their uniform, pick up oxygen cylinders, tools and everything that might be needed in the fiery hell where they were heading. In a few moments, open the gate and take the multi-ton fire truck out into the wild, jumping into the cabin with his comrades as it goes. Concentrated and silent people, accustomed to the fact that every day could be their last, that every fire could become their cremation, and the black rubble of buildings - a ritual columbarium for ashes.

End of introductory fragment.

N.P. Generalova

St. Petersburg

THE FRENCH FATE OF THE NOVEL “SMOKE”

(Turgenev and Prosper Merimee) // Turgenev Yearbook 2011-2012 / Comp. And ed. – L.V. Dmitryukhina, L.A. Balykova.- Orel: Publishing House "Orlik", 2013

The history of the French translation of “Smoke,” published in the newspaper “Le Correspondant” some time after the publication of the novel in the March issue of “Russian Messenger” for 1867, is no less exciting than the creative history of the work itself, which has been quite thoroughly studied1. Conceived back in 1862, following Fathers and Sons, the novel took a long time and was difficult to write. Turgenev carefully developed the images and the overall storyline, no less carefully he worked out every scene, every turn of the plot, as usual, paying special attention to the smallest details. To many readers and critics, the novel seemed to be a new stage in the writer’s work. And the first thing that caught my eye was the sharp increase in the satirical principle, which was previously present in Turgenev, but “Smoke” in this regard could even be mistaken for a pamphlet. Significant sections of Russian society - from high society to young fighters for the liberation of mankind - became the subject of cruel satire, in places almost bordering on caricature. At the same time, the novel also contained deeply personal, even intimate experiences of the writer, who had entered a difficult period of parting with hopes for personal happiness and philosophical comprehension of the path traveled. However, the deep meanings of the novel were not understood by contemporaries, being overshadowed by more relevant polemical attacks. Later, “Smoke” was also perceived primarily as a pamphlet novel.

A talented philologist of the 1920s–1930s, Lev Vasilyevich Pumpyansky, even discovered in “Smoke” the beginning of the “fall of Turgenev’s novelistic creativity,” which, in his opinion, was expressed in the collapse of “the very genre of Turgenev’s novel.” From Pumpyansky’s point of view, this primarily related to the “fall of the centralizing role of the hero”2. The researcher’s mistake was that he mistook Litvinov for the main character of the novel, although he could not help but notice that the “central statements” in the novel belonged not to Litvinov, but to Potugin. It is curious that Pumpyansky did not take into account the opinion of Dostoevsky, for whom “Smoke” was “first of all, and only, the speech of Potugin”3. Moreover, Pumpyansky “did not believe” Turgenev himself, who directly named Potugin, and not Litvinov, as the main character of the novel in his famous letter to D.I. Pisarev, mistaking the critic’s reproaches against Litvinov for a slip of the tongue. Explaining the main task of the novel, Turgenev wrote on May 23 (June 4), 1867: “From the heights of European civilization one can still survey all of Russia. You find that Potugin (you probably wanted to name him, not Litvinova) is the same Arkady (the hero of “Fathers and Sons” - N.G.); but here I cannot help but say that your critical feeling has betrayed you: there is nothing in common between these two types - Arkady has no convictions - and Potugin will die an inveterate and sworn Westerner - and my labors have been in vain if one does not feel in him this dull and unquenchable fire."4 However, the mistake of Pisarev and, of course, Pumpyansky was no exception. As Yu.G. Oksman correctly noted, “the view of Litvinov as the “hero” of the story is characteristic of almost all responses to “Smoke” by the radical press”5. Let us add: and not only radical. Only relatively recently the question of the main character of the novel was finally clarified. In the preparatory materials for the novel “Smoke,” first published and commented on by the English researcher Patrick Waddington, it is clearly written: “This is the main character of the whole story. In it I would like to express a Russian philosopher in the true sense of the word, a person who, as deeply as I can, understood Russia and the Russians. “His every word must be typical - or there is no need for it at all.”6 It seems that it was F.M. Dostoevsky who understood Turgenev’s plan best of all, who, as is known, “sentenced” the novel to “burning at the hands of the executioner”7.

The novel was perceived quite differently by European readers. As if challenging the opinions of famous European writers, who, of course, were well known to Turgenev scholars of the 30s, Pumpyansky wrote about “Smoke”: “Instead of the old classic novel, we have before us Turgenev’s first example of fiction, i.e. that lightweight type of novel, which is characterized by a loose genre and a more or less arbitrary outlook of the image, is a typical Western bourgeois art form. Hence the extreme ease of assimilation of “Smoke” by Western writers. For Galsworthy, for example, “Smoke” was the novel that determined his entire work. By reducing his old art, Turgenev showed Western literature an easier path to belletristicism. Having not taken root among us, “Smoke” was easily and fruitfully accepted by the environment from which, in fact, it arose: Western liberal, “fictional” culture of the era of bourgeois decline.”8

Discarding the vulgar sociological overtones of the above statement as a sign of the times, let’s try to figure out whether Turgenev’s novel was really received so apologetically abroad.

By the time the novel “Smoke” was published, Turgenev’s fame had gained a solid foundation not only in his homeland, but also abroad. Finding himself in Europe in the second half of the 1850s, Turgenev discovered that his name had become popular. The strengthening of this popularity was facilitated by his rapprochement with a number of outstanding writers, among whom, first of all, the names of Gustave Flaubert and Prosper Mérimée should be mentioned. The fact that the latter’s name turned out to be closely connected with the history of the French translation of the novel was not an accident. Even before their personal acquaintance, which took place in February 1857 in Paris, Merimee in 1854 responded with an article to the publication of the French translation of “Notes of a Hunter,” highly appreciating the skill of the Russian writer and especially noting the desire for a truthful depiction of reality. However, some of Merimee's observations were not without sarcasm. “Mr. Turgenev’s style of writing is reminiscent of Gogol’s,” wrote the author of “Clara Gazul’s Theatre.” — Like the author of “Dead Souls,” he is unsurpassed in detail, loves to dwell on the smallest details. If we are talking about a hut, he counts all the benches and does not forget any of the dishes. When describing the character’s clothes, he will not miss a single button.”9 Merimee prefers the bold and simple style of Pushkin, in which every word of description “creates a certain image and leaves an indelible impression”10. But he prefers Turgenev’s syllable to Gogol’s. Turgenev, from Mérimée’s point of view, “avoids the ugliness, which the author of Dead Souls seeks out with such curiosity. <…> Mr. Turgenev also makes fun, but softer. Next to the bad, he sees the good, and even in funny and absurd figures he notices noble and touching features.”11 There is no doubt that Merimee's review, despite the generally flattering tone for the author, was unpleasant to Turgenev. In particular, he should have been offended by the high assessment of the work of the first translator of “Notes of a Hunter,” Ernest Charrière, who, as is known, made many distortions and caused a sharply negative reaction from Turgenev.

Turgenev's first impression from his personal acquaintance with Merimee was not too enthusiastic, although the French writer's genuine interest in Russian literature and his love for Pushkin should have placed Turgenev in his favor. “Resembling his works:,” he wrote to M.N. Longinov, “cold, subtle, elegant, with a highly developed sense of beauty and proportion and with a complete absence of not only any faith, but even enthusiasm”12. And yet a rapprochement occurred. Moreover: for a whole decade, Merimee became not only Turgenev’s interlocutor, he became his translator, editor of French translations of his works, author of prefaces and, finally, the author of a significant article about Turgenev, which was first published in the newspaper “Le Moniteur” (May 25, 1868 g.), and then as a preface to a separate edition of the novel “Smoke”. Here it would not be out of place to say that in the newest edition of Merimee’s articles on Russian literature, prepared by academician Andrei Dmitrievich Mikhailov, a significant mistake was made in the comments. It says here that during Merimee’s lifetime (and he died in 1870), his article as a preface to “Smoke” was not published13, meanwhile, it was included by Etzel already in the second edition of “Smoke”, published the following year, 1868 (the first separate the publication was published at the end of 1867), of course, with the consent of Turgenev and Merimee himself. Informing Turgenev of his intention to write an article about him in connection with the release of “Smoke,” Merimee not without reason wrote: “If you would like me to say something to the people who want to eat you in St. Petersburg, I am at your service.”14 . The above shows the French writer’s good knowledge of the heated debates that arose in Russian society in connection with the appearance of “Smoke”.

Perhaps Prosper Merimee was the only one who considered “Smoke” one of Turgenev’s best works. He wrote about this repeatedly to his correspondents, and above all to Turgenev himself, after reading “Smoke” in Russian: “Smoke” will undoubtedly be among your most original works. All the characters are portrayed wonderfully. It seems to me that they were copied from life, and this explains the rage of your compatriots.”15 From what has been said, it clearly follows that Turgenev, sending Merimee a reprint from the Russian Messenger, reported the first responses to the novel in the Russian press. Moreover, from what follows it becomes clear that Turgenev asked Merimee to respond to the publication of his new novel and, to some extent, to “stand up” for him again. Unfortunately, neither this nor Turgenev’s other letters to Merime were preserved, having perished along with the writer’s archive in a fire in 1871.

In the above letter, Merimee, speaking about the psychological authenticity of the images created by Turgenev, emphasizes that he “met” the heroes of “Smoke” in French life. Thus, he answers his own question asked to the author of the novel in a previous letter, when he had read only the first pages of the work. Here is what Merimee wrote: “I got the impression that you are describing both a completely new society and a state of mind. I ask myself: will the French understand this?”16. It is characteristic that after reading the novel this question disappeared by itself.

Recognizing, however, the “universal” value of the images created by the Russian writer, Merimee criticized the architectonics of the novel and proposed a number of significant changes for the French version. Thus, it seemed to him that Turgenev introduced too many characters at once, that the novel lacked an introduction. He, for example, believed that the evening at Gubarev’s should be moved deeper into the narrative. Litvinov, from Merimee’s point of view, could have found a bouquet of heliotropes before going to Gubarev, and not afterwards. Thus, as the writer put it, “interest” will already be “awakened”, and the reader will follow “the paved path”, “sympathizing with the hero”17. Along the way, Merimee advised first to tell the story of Litvinov and Irina in Moscow, and then to give them a meeting in Baden. “The story of a girl left in the care of Potugin” seemed too short to the French writer. By suggesting that Turgenev rewrite the novel (although calling it a simple renumbering of pages), Merimee, it seems, without noticing it himself, unceremoniously interfered in the creative process, which could not but meet Turgenev’s resistance. Let us repeat, we do not know what Turgenev answered, but the very fact that the changes proposed by Merimee were not made to the French translation indicates a rejection of such friendly advice. It can be assumed that Merimee’s refusal to translate the novel was connected precisely with Turgenev’s reluctance to change anything in the text of an already published work18.

In addition, Merimee understood better than anyone else the difficulties that Turgenev's translator would have to face. This is what he wrote in a letter to Charpentier's publisher about the novel Fathers and Sons. Note that this letter was published as a preface to the French edition of the novel. It was first translated into Russian and published by the remarkable scientist of the Pushkin House, Mikhail Karlovich Klement, in a brilliant and still significant article “I.S. Turgenev and Prosper Merimee,” published back in 1937. “The translation that you showed me,” wrote Merimee, “seems to me to be very accurate; I cannot, of course, say that it fully conveys the lively and colorful style of Mr. Turgenev. Translating from Russian to French is not so easy. The Russian language was created for poetry; it is extraordinarily rich and, in particular, remarkable for the subtlety of the shades it expresses. You can imagine what a skilled writer who devotes himself to observation and analysis can extract from such language, and what insurmountable difficulties he prepares for the translator. In the end, if the portraits of Mr. Turgenev lose for us something in their brilliant coloring, their truthfulness and immediate charm, which characterize all works painted conscientiously from life, will always remain.”19. It is characteristic that the letter to Charpentier about “Fathers and Sons,” originally intended for publication, begins with Mérimée’s intercession before the Russian public for Turgenev’s novel: “The novel that you want to publish has caused a storm in Russia. Success was assured. There was no shortage of biased criticism, slander, or abuse of the press; perhaps only ecclesiastical excommunication was missing. In Russia, as elsewhere, one cannot speak the truth with impunity to those who do not ask about it. In this short work, Mr. Turgenev showed himself, as usual, to be an insightful and subtle observer; however, having chosen two generations of his compatriots as the subject of study, he made the mistake of not flattering any of them.”20

That is why, when Prince Augustin Petrovich Golitsyn, who collaborated in the Catholic journal Le Correspondant, turned to Turgenev for permission to translate the novel into French, Turgenev first of all referred to Merimee: “My friend Mr. Merimee had at one time the idea of ​​translating my novel, and he told me about it; I think he abandoned this plan; but still I would not like to give you consent until I know exactly about his intentions.”21 Merimee’s intention to abandon the translation of “Smoke” soon became clear, and the delighted Golitsyn hastened to begin work22.

We do not know exactly why Merimee’s desire to translate “Smoke” remained unrealized, but if he had been the translator, and not A.P. Golitsyn, the history of translation would have lost a very curious episode - the “collaboration” of Turgenev and Merimee, who agreed to review the proofs, with the notorious prince. Merimee's surviving letters to various correspondents are replete with witticisms about the actions of the translator. Turgenev, however, was not at all funny. After reading the first chapters of the translation in Le Correspondant, he almost stopped printing the novel.

Golitsyn followed Turgenev’s advice and turned to Merimee. Answering him, Merimee gallantly wrote: “I congratulate Turgenev on the fact that he acquired you as a translator, and I myself rejoice at the opportunity to enter into relations with you on this occasion. Until now, Turgenev's translators were people who had a very mediocre command of Russian and even worse French. But in the present case, my role will be reduced to that of the fifth wheel in the chariot.”23 After just a couple of months, Merimee was forced to admit the obvious: “Turgenev is in despair. He ordered a translation of his latest novel to Prince Golitsyn, who does not know Russian and no better French. In order to finally finish off Turgenev, the translation is published in Correspondant, a pious and virtuous newspaper, in which they want to cross out everything that might make it difficult for priests to read, in other words, three-quarters of the novel.”24

The controversy began already with the title of the novel. The name “Smoke” seemed unfortunate to the prince, and as a replacement he proposed another: “La société russe contemporaine,” that is, “Modern Russian Society.” It is known that Turgenev hesitated in choosing the title of the novel. There was one more thing in the draft: “Two Lives.” However, Golitsyn's proposal struck the writer. “...Modern Russian society” would be more suitable for a magazine article than a work of art,” he frankly wrote to Golitsyn on July 10, 186725. Turgenev tried to offer several titles to choose from: “L'Incertitude” (“Uncertainty”), “Entre le Passé et l'Avenir” (“Between the Past and the Future”), “Sans Rivage” (“On the High Seas”), “ Dans le brouillard" ("In the fog"). Merimee saved the situation by convincing the translator that the existing title was the most appropriate. “I tried to prove to him,” he wrote, not without humor, to Turgenev on July 20, 1867, “that there should be no labels attached and that it would be possible to give readers the pleasure of knowing for themselves that you are depicting modern mores”26. But if the title problem was resolved relatively quickly, the translator's other complaints turned out to be more difficult to overcome.

“What especially frightens me,” Merimee wrote in the same letter, “is that he seems too virtuous. His doubts are raised by some pages that give rise to bold conclusions about the relationship between Irina and Litvinov. Of course, I objected to such scrupulousness and I want, without wasting time, to warn you in confidence. Be careful, don’t let yourself be castrated too much.”27 On September 27, Merimee humorously recounted the details of the battles with Prince Golitsyn to his friend Zhenya Daken: “In the world there is a certain Prince Augustin Golitsyn, who converted to Catholicism. He translated Turgenev’s novel “Smoke,” which is published in Correspondent, the organ of the clerics; the prince is one of the shareholders of this publication. Turgenev instructed me to review the second proof. There are quite poignant passages in the novel that lead the prince to despair. For example, something unheard of: a Russian princess has an affair complicated by adultery. The prince skips scenes that hinder him, and I restore them.”28 Next, Merimee cites one of the episodes that caused the discontent of the highly moral Golitsyn: “... a lady from society allowed herself to come to her lover in a hotel in Baden. She enters his room, and the chapter ends there. The original continues: “Two hours later he was sitting on his sofa.” The Catholic convert translated: “An hour later, Litvinov was sitting in his room.” As we can see, it turned out much more moral: reducing the time by an hour means reducing the sin by half. Then replacing the sofa with a room is also more chaste - the sofa is convenient for reprehensible actions. I, true to my word, restored both the time and the sofa, but these chapters did not appear in the September issue of Correspondence. I believe that the magazine’s leaders, respectable people, crossed out everything entirely.”29 We can only guess how grateful Turgenev was to his French fellow writer, who “stood up” for his “immoral” heroes before the French “censors.”

This is not the first time that Turgenev has been accused of “immorality.” Let us remember how outraged his longtime friend and colleague Louis Viardot was with the story “First Love,” accusing the writer of promoting adultery. Unable to convince him, Turgenev took an unprecedented step, adding “An added tail for the French edition of First Love.” This is exactly what he called in his hearts the forced addition, which was published only in French editions and never in Russian30. Of these, the “tail” went into German publications, and subsequently Turgenev, contrary to the facts, even disowned authorship. Fet would call this “appendage” a “wet tail.” This is what he called a tendency that in one form or another penetrates a work of art.

In the case of Prince Golitsyn, Turgenev also had to make some concessions, but they were much less significant than what he was going to add to the French edition of the novel “Smoke”. These additions were notes made by him at the request of the editor of the Russian Messenger M.N. Katkov. However, these insertions least of all worried Prince Golitsyn, in whose person the writer found another censor. Fortunately, he was not alone in this struggle. Merimee was nearby and did not hesitate to stand up for the text of the novel, from which, in his own words, he did not want to throw out a single line.

The poor lorettes were especially unlucky with Golitsyn, whose immoral presence on the pages of the novel was unbearable for the prince’s piety. The lorettes were banished from the pages of the French translation of Smoke once and for all.

The main addition made by Turgenev and, what is especially important for us, translated by him himself, was the biography of General Ratmirov, shortened and smoothed out in the printed version of the Russian Messenger at the request of Katkov.

Thanks to the interesting publication of preparatory materials for “Smoke”, carried out by P. Waddington, we now know that the biography of this one of the most odious characters in the novel was fully consistent with the original plan. “...True,” writes P. Waddington, “with the change of the surname (Selunsky to Ratmirov. - N.G.) the Polish ancestors of the general were discarded. What is more interesting is that some details were subsequently removed, such as the indication of the character’s illegitimacy, his homosexual past in the Corps of Pages, and the practical usefulness of his fashionable “liberalism” after the death of Nikolai Pavlovich. On the other hand, in the preparatory materials he killed 5 peasants, and not 50, as in the final text, and married Irina not only for convenience, but also for love.”31

Refinement of the image of Ratmirov, as shown by all sources of the text, including the French translation of the general’s biography, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, not only did not soften this image, but, on the contrary, tightened its characterization. Only from a direct, even straightforward and rude statement (“some kind of almost pederastic tenderness in the voice,” etc.) does the author move to subtle, but no less evil irony. As was rightly noted by the publisher of “Smoke” E.I. Kiyko back in the first academic edition of Turgenev, the writer translated from a typewritten manuscript, also preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale.

In the “formular list” of General Selunsky in the preparatory materials for “Smoke” we read: “His father was the bastard son of a great nobleman of Alexander’s times and a [Polish gentry] Frenchwoman, who soon died”32. It is surprising that, having subsequently replaced Selunsky-Ratmirov’s mother, Turgenev returns to the previous version, and in the draft manuscript of the novel we again meet a Polish noblewoman, “[a] very beautiful and [very] crafty woman”33, who in the final text turned into a “pretty French actress"34. This was perhaps due to the fact that in 1863 the “Polish element”, in connection with the just suppressed Polish uprising, seemed inappropriate to the writer, while at the end of 1865, when the draft autograph of the novel was created, the same “element ” did not sound so relevant anymore. However, in the typewritten manuscript, Turgenev eventually replaces the polka with simply “a beautiful young widow” and in the rest of the biography removes the “Polish element” (“true Polish dexterity in dancing”, etc.).

Interesting results are obtained by comparing the translation of Ratmirov’s “biography”, made by Turgenev himself and preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, with the final text of the French translation. The illegitimacy of Ratmirov’s father is expressed in the typesetting manuscript (and in the final Russian text) in a very veiled way: “His father was natural... What do you think? You are not mistaken - but that is not what we wanted to say... the natural son of a noble nobleman...", etc. Note that “natural son” instead of “by-product” in the formal list of preparatory materials sounds like obvious Gallicism. It is no coincidence that in the translation Turgenev first writes a neutral phrase: “Son père avait été le fils d'un grand seigneur...”, and then, omitting the ornate construction of the Russian phrase (or rather, a small dialogue with the reader), designed to ironically depict the illegitimacy of the hero’s father, he replaces her laconic, but no less expressive French: “procédait indirectement,” that is, “did not occur in a straight line.” So it was published in a French translation.

The ostentatious “good morals,” already appearing in the preparatory materials35 and eventually replaced by “good morals,” which did not become any less ostentatious as a result of this replacement, is accompanied in the preparatory materials by an openly rude reference in parentheses to the hero’s homosexual relations in the Corps of Pages. In the typewritten manuscript and in the final version, this plot turns into a streamlined and not immediately recognizable allusion to the same circumstances: “Ratmirov <...> attracted the attention of his superiors - not so much with his success in the sciences <...> as with his smart bearing, good manners and good behavior (although he was subjected to everything that all former students of state-owned military institutions were inevitably subjected to)...". This plot, placed, as already said, in brackets, completely disappeared not only from the first publication of the novel in the Russian Messenger (which is quite understandable), but also from the French text. Since the excerpt from the translation of Ratmirov’s biography was written in Turgenev’s hand and contains corrections, it is difficult to assume that this note was made at the request of Golitsyn or someone else. Most likely, the writer himself, anticipating the reaction of the translator and editor of the newspaper, abandoned the idea of ​​​​transmitting this fragment in French.

Be that as it may, even the few examples given above indicate that the translation of a particular work, especially if carried out with the close participation of the author, is an integral part of the creative history of the work, and its study is our most important task.

In conclusion, I would like to quote words from Merimee’s article “Ivan Turgenev”, published as a preface to the French edition of “Smoke”. They contain one comparison that could not help but touch Turgenev. “He,” Merimee wrote, “does not feel that sly pleasure that many critics feel when noticing human weaknesses and vulgarity. The care with which these gentlemen emphasize the bad sides of the society in which we live is applied by Turgenev to the search for good phenomena wherever they may be hidden. He loves to find traits that elevate a person even in the basest natures. He often reminds me of Shakespeare. Just like the English poet, he has a love of truth, he can create strikingly real figures; but, despite all the skill with which the author hides behind his fictional characters, one can guess his own character, and this, perhaps, is not the last reason for my sympathy for him.”37

Notes.

1. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky V. Notes about Turgenev. III. To the creation of “Smoke” // Turgenev and his time. First collection / Edited by N.L. Brodsky. M.; Pg., 1923. P.293-295; Pumpyansky L.V. "Smoke". Historical and literary essay // Turgenev I.S. Works: In 12 vols. M.; L., 1930. T.9. C.V-XX; Oksman Yu.G. <Comments to the novel “Smoke”> //Ibid. pp.417-437; <Kiiko E.I.> Preamble and comments to the novel “Smoke” // Turgenev I.S. Complete collection Op. and letters: In 28 volumes. Works: In 15 volumes. M.; L., 1965. T.9. P.505-558 (Hereinafter: Turgenev. PSSiP (1)); Turgenev I.S. Complete collection Op. and letters: In 30 vols. Works: In 12 vols. M., 1981. T.7 (Hereinafter: Turgenev. PSSiP (2)); Kiiko E.I. Novel "Smoke". Variants of draft autographs of text fragments //I.S. Turgenev. Questions of biography and creativity. L., 1982. P.13-19; Vinnikova I.A. 1) Some problems of the post-reform development of Russia in I.S. Turgenev’s novel “Smoke” // Historiographic collection. Saratov, 1962. P.152-170; 2) The novel “Smoke” in the creative development of I.S. Turgenev in the sixties. Author's abstract. diss. for the job application uch. Ph.D. degrees philologist. Sci. Saratov, 1968; Batyuto A.I. 1) I.S. Turgenev in work on the novel “Smoke” (The Life Origins of Potugin’s Image) //Russian Literature. No. 3. pp. 156-160; 2) Turgenev the novelist. L., 1972. P. 18-23, 151-156, 350-366; 3) Herzen, Belinsky and the ideological concept of Turgenev’s novel “Smoke” // Russian literature. 1987. No. 3. P.82-104; Muratov A.B. I.S. Turgenev after “Fathers and Sons” (60s). L., 1972. P.37-144; Thiergen P. Turgenev's “Dym”: Titel und Thema //Studien zu Literatur und Kultur in Osteuropa. Bonner Beiträge zum 9. Internationalen Slawistienkongreß in Kiev. Cologne; Wien. 1983. S.277-310; Generalova N.P. I.S. Turgenev: Russia and Europe (From the history of Russian-European literary and social relations). St. Petersburg, 2003. P.238-350 (chapter: “The lonely feast of the “Russian philosopher””).
2. Pumpyansky L.V. "Smoke". Historical and literary essay. S.V.
3. Right there. C.VI.
4. Turgenev. PSSiP(2). Letters. T.7. P.209.
5. Oksman Yu.G. <Comments to the novel “Smoke”>. P.435.
6. Turgenev I.S. <Preparatory materials for the novel “Smoke”> /Publication and afterword by P. Waddington. Translation by A.A. Dolinin // Russian literature. 2000. No. 3. P.109. For the first time, these interesting materials, stored in a private archive, were published by Waddington in the form of two articles: 1) No smoke without fire: the genesis of Turgenev's “Dym” //From Pushkin to Palisandriia: essays on the Russian novel in honor of Richard Freeborn. London, 1990. P.112-127; 2) Turgenev’s notebooks for “Dym” //New Zealand Slavonic Journal. 1989-1990. P.41-66. In full: Waddington P. The Origins and Composition of Turgenev's Novel “Dym” (“Smoke”), as seen from his sketches. Pinehaven, New Zealand, 1998. 56p.
7. In these words, Turgenev conveyed Dostoevsky’s opinion about “Smoke” (expressed to him at a personal meeting in Baden-Baden in June 1867) in a letter to Ya.P. Polonsky dated April 24 n.st. 1871 (see: Turgenev. PSSiP (2). Letters. T.11. P.86). The plot with Dostoevsky, which had a significant continuation and was carefully researched, for some reason was not taken into account in the comments to the novel in both academic editions of Turgenev.
8. Pumpyansky L.V. "Smoke". Historical and literary essay. S.XX. True, the researcher made a footnote to the words “not being vaccinated with us”: “With some exceptions (Boborykin).”
9. Merimee P. Serfdom and Russian literature. “Notes of a Russian Hunter,” essay by Ivan Turgenev // Merimee P. Collection. cit.: In 6 vols. M., 1963. T.5. pp. 196-197. Translation by I. Lileeva.
10. Right there. P.197.
11. Right there. pp. 197-198.
12. Turgenev. PSSiP(2). Letters. T.3. P.200.
13. Merimee P. Articles about Russian literature / Edition prepared by A.D. Mikhailov. M., 2003. P.103. By the way, it would be appropriate to mention in the comments the name of M.K. Clément as the first publisher of Merimee’s obituary, written by Turgenev (P. 106).
14. Merimee P. Collection Op. T.6. P.206. Letter dated February 13, 1868. Translation by N. Rykova.
15. Right there. P.196. Letter dated May 25, 1867. Translation by V. Stanevich.
16. Right there. P.194. Letter dated May 18, 1867. Translation by V. Stanevich.
17. Right there. P.197. Letter dated May 25, 1867
18. In connection with Merimee’s letter dated May 25, 1867, it should be noted that the statement that “editing the French translation of “Smoke” gave Merimee the idea of ​​writing a special article about Turgenev” (Clément M.I.S. Turgenev and Prosper Merimee // Literary inheritance. M., 1937. T.31-32: Russian culture and France. II. P.733), needs adjustment. From this letter it clearly follows that, giving Turgenev advice on reworking the novel for the French reader, Mérimée intended to translate the novel himself, and having learned from Turgenev’s letters about the attacks on him, he was ready to support him in print: “If you are attacked on this occasion , I will be able to answer quite convincingly” (Merime P. Collected works. T.6. P.196).
19. Clément M. I. S. Turgenev and Prosper Merimee. P.722.
20. Right there. P.720-721.
21. Turgenev. PSSiP(2). Letters. T.8. P.215.
22. The work of Turgenev, the editor of the French translation of “Smoke,” is dedicated to the publication of R.M. Gorokhova: “Smoke.” Turgenev’s work on the French translation of the novel // Turgenev collection. Materials for the Complete Works and Letters of I.S. Turgenev. L., 1969. Issue. 5. P.250-261.
23. Quote by: Clément M. I. S. Turgenev and Prosper Merimee. P.729. Translation by M.C. Clément.
24. Quote from: Ibid. P.731. Letter to V. Delesser from August 1868. Translation by M. K. Clément.
25. Turgenev. PSSiP(2). Letters. T.8. P.216.
26. Quote by: Clément M. I. S. Turgenev and Prosper Merimee. P.730. Translation by M.C. Clément.
27. Right there.
28. Merimee P. Collection Op. T.6. P.200.
29. Right there. P.200-201.
30. This text, written by Turgenev’s hand, was preserved in Viardot’s archive and was published: The end of the story “First Love” / Publication by E.I. Kiyko // Literary Heritage. M., 1964. T.73: From the Paris archive of I.S. Turgenev. Book 1. pp. 59-68.
31. Turgenev I.S. <Preparatory materials for the novel “Smoke”> /Publication and afterword by P. Waddington. P.136-137.
32. Right there. P.110.
33. Turgenev. PSSiP(1). Op. T.9. P.441. The most significant discrepancies with the final text of the novel are published here.
34. Right there. P.220.
35. Turgenev I.S. <Preparatory materials for the novel “Smoke”> /Publication and afterword by P. Waddington. P.110.
36. This word in the publication of the “Russian Messenger” and subsequent editions turned out to be read as “front-line”, which was obviously an oversight of Turgenev himself.
37. Quote by: Clément M. I. S. Turgenev and Prosper Merimee. P.736. Translation by M. C. Clément.

Main characters

The main character of Turgenev’s work “Smoke” shows the reader that it is necessary to be sensible and try not to succumb to numerous temptations. This is a story about the impossibility of returning to the former feeling and serfdom. It also talks about a rotten society that only corrupts people.

In the novel “Smoke” by Turgenev there are the following main characters:

• Grigory Litvinov is a young guy, an intelligent and active landowner;
• Irina Ratmirova - a pretty princess, the first love of the main character;
• Sergei Ratmirov - husband of a socialite, a young officer;
• Tatyana Shestova is Grigory’s fiancée, a kind and beautiful girl.

The writer describes the history of the heroes quite critically. He claims that they are incapable of thinking soberly and discussing reforms and the situation within the state. However, Litvinov stands out sharply against their background, because the young guy does not share the heated debates of those around him .

The main character received an excellent education, wants to marry his bride and creates plans to transform the estate.