Heroes of Russian literature. Literary character, hero

In literature, men rule the roost: writers, heroes, villains. But aren't women less interesting and talented? We have chosen several heroines who inspire with intelligence, ingenuity, strong character and kindness.

Women and goddesses from ancient literature

Scheherazade overcame toxic masculinity before the term even existed. The Persian king Shahryar was faced with the infidelity of his first wife and his brother's wife and decided that all women were vicious libertines. Since he still couldn’t do without women, he decided to marry innocent girls and after the first wedding night execute them. The smart and beautiful daughter of the vizier, Scheherazade, decided to rid the country of the tyranny of such misogyny. She came to the king as a new bride. And then you know: she started telling interesting story and cut her off at the most intriguing moment. Curiosity took possession of Shahryar, and he kept the girl alive until the next night. This went on for a thousand days (almost three years!), during which time Scheherazade gave birth to three children. When she finally fell at his feet and asked to save her life for the sake of their common sons, Shahriyar replied that he had pardoned her a long time ago. This is how the narrator’s courage, intelligence and skill saved many innocent lives.

Elizabeth. "Pride and Prejudice"

Witty and observant, Elizabeth captivated not only the unapproachable and proud Mr. Darcy, but also millions of readers around the world. She loves her family very much, especially her sisters, whom she tries to protect. She is even more offended to see the shortcomings of her parents, but she does not try to change the people close to her or rebel: she only wants to find an acceptable place for herself in her contemporary society.

Scarlett O'Hara. "Gone with the Wind"

Bright, capricious and eccentric, Scarlett evokes conflicting feelings among readers. Many believe that she herself was to blame for her misfortunes and was generally an obnoxious woman. The writer Margaret Mitchell herself had an ambivalent attitude towards her heroine. But beautiful and strong women who are not used to losing often infuriate others. Unlike men: they are praised for the same qualities. Still, it’s worth admiring the strength of spirit of the green-eyed Irish woman: she survived civil war, the death of parents and deprivation, coping with all the adversity herself.

Margarita. "The Master and Margarita"

A beautiful woman who chose love with a poor artist over a profitable marriage. For his sake, she was humiliated, made a deal with the devil and took revenge on the offenders of her betrothed. Some see sacrifice in Margarita, but we know that she understood well for whom she risked everything. She inspires admiration for the strength of her love and courage.

Pippi Longstocking. Cycle of stories

Astrid Lindgren was such a prankster and did not hesitate to break the far-fetched rules of decency. For example, she made a daring attempt to walk from her native Vimmerby to Lake Vättern (a distance of 300 kilometers) in the company of five women and completely without male help. Believe me, for Sweden at that time it was a challenge! It's no surprise that her heroines also make boring people itch. Pippi Longstocking easily violates social norms and infuriates adults: she goes to bed whenever she wants, keeps a horse on the balcony, beats thieves, and generally lives without parental supervision. Real moms and dads are also annoyed by her: there were even complaints that because of Pippi, children “have the opportunity to find a socially acceptable outlet for aggression against their parents.” But the children like her because she can do everything they would like, but will not do for fear of the “big ones.” The fact that Pippi has become so popular only speaks of the longing for spontaneous, bright heroines, headstrong and funny.

Hermione. Series of books about Harry Potter

How can you not love Hermione? We spend our entire (and her) childhood with her. We meet her as a little girl who is very smart and wants to be as good as everyone else in her class. After all, she immediately realized that it would be more difficult for her, because she did not know those things that children of wizards know from childhood. She makes friends, falls in love, becomes stronger before our eyes. Hermione learns from her mistakes: after the story with the windbag Lockhart, she does not trust everyone, but only those who deserve her respect. She is brave and knows how to sympathize with the weak, and now she has an emotional range that is clearly wider than that of a toothpick.

Men are attracted primarily to masculine characters, while women are attracted to both male and female characters.

In the Year of Literature, the Reading Section of the RBA held an Internet campaign “Monument to a Literary Hero,” inviting readers of different generations to talk about literary traditions and literary preferences.

From January 15 to March 30, 2015, a questionnaire was published on the RBA website with the possibility of reprinting it. Colleagues from many libraries, regional book and reading centers, educational institutions, The media supported the action by posting a questionnaire on their resources.

More than four and a half thousand people from 63 constituent entities of the Russian Federation aged from 5 to 81 took part in the event. In the overall sample, women made up 65%, men – 35%. Answering the question “Which literary hero would you like to see a monument to in the area where you live?”, respondents named 510 heroes from 368 works created by 226 authors. Adults over 18 years old named 395 heroes. Children and teenagers 17 years old and younger – 254 heroes. Adult women named 344 heroes. Men – 145 heroes.

The top ten heroes whose monuments participants would like to see are as follows:

1st place: Ostap Bender - named 135 times (including the joint monument with Kisa Vorobyaninov), 179 mentions;

2nd place: Sherlock Holmes – 96 times (including the joint monument with Dr. Watson), totaling 108 mentions;

3rd place: Tom Sawyer – 68 times (including the joint monument to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn), making 108 mentions;

4th place: Margarita – 63 (including the joint monument with the Master) is 104 mentions;

5th place: Evgeny Onegin – 58 (including the joint monument with Tatiana) is 95 mentions;

6th-7th place was shared by Vasily Terkin and Faust - 91 times each;

8th place: Romeo and Juliet – 86;

9th place: Anna Karenina – 77;

10th place: Stirlitz – 71.

Looking at male and female preferences, it can be said that men are attracted predominantly to masculine characters, while women are interested in both male and female characters. The top ten male preferences are as follows (we consider by analogy with the data for the entire array, taking into account joint monuments): 1) Ostap Bender; 2) Stirlitz; 3) Musketeers; 4-5) Sherlock Holmes and Don Quixote; 6) Margarita; 7) Fedor Eichmanis; 8) Sharikov; 9) Artyom Goryainov; 10-11) shepherd Santiago; Robinson Crusoe. So, in the top ten there is only one female image - Margarita. It should be added that very rarely Galina is present with Artyom Goryainov. Women's preferences look different: 1) Ostap Bender; 2) Tatyana Larina; 3) Anna Karenina; 4-5) Romeo and Juliet; Arseny-Lavr; 6) Sherlock Holmes; 7-8) Cat Hippo; Margarita; 9-10) Strange children; Angie Malone; 11) Mary Poppins.

Survey data provides compelling evidence of intergenerational reading preferences. The top ten preferences of girls 17 years old and younger include (in descending order): Assol, Romeo and Juliet, The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, Snow Maiden, Little Red Riding Hood, Gerda, Mary Poppins, Harry Porter, Alice.

Thus, the majority are female images. At the same time, girls’ orientation toward female images is not as pronounced as their preference male images in boys.

The top ten preferences of boys 17 years old and younger: Tom Sawyer, Vasily Terkin, Robinson Crusoe, D'Artagnan and the Musketeers, Dunno, Sherlock Holmes, Andrei Sokolov, Mowgli, Faust, Hottabych.

Boys, like men, clearly demonstrate a preference for and need for male heroes. Boys in the top twenty have no heroes at all female images. The first of them appear only in the third ten of the ratings, and even then in company with male heroes: The Master and Margarita; Harry, Hermione, Ron; Romeo and Juliet.

According to the survey, the absolute leader in the number of preferred monuments is Ostap Bender.

A comparison of lists of preferences for different parameters shows that the image of Ostap Bender is the undisputed leader, but he is still closer to men.

Why is this image of a hero-adventurer so attractive to our contemporaries? Analyzing the most numerous and famous monuments to beloved literary heroes that arose in post-Soviet times (Ostap Bender, Munchausen, Vasily Terkin, Koroviev and Behemoth), M. Lipovetsky notes the common thing that unites them: “Apparently, the fact that they are all in to one degree or another, but always quite clearly represent the cultural archetype of the trickster.

Looking back at Soviet culture in its various manifestations, it is not difficult to see that most of the characters who gained mass popularity in Soviet culture represent various versions of this ancient archetype.

Moreover, the author proves that the significance of such images remains in post-Soviet culture. Both men and women are also interested in the image of Sherlock Holmes, who, according to M. Lipovetsky, also belongs to the trickster archetype.

Traditionally, the structure of women's preferences has a higher share of domestic and foreign classics, as well as melodrama. Men, especially young men, have a clear interest in the heroes of adventure literature.

The survey clearly showed other preferences related to the age and gender of readers. Each new generation wants to see its heroes, corresponding to their time, acting in books created at the present time. Thus, “The Home for Peculiar Children” by R. Riggs is of interest mainly to 20-year-olds and mostly girls. Also, mostly 20-year-olds are interested in “A Street Cat Named Bob” by J. Bowen.

According to online stores, both books are in great reader demand. Their high rating among young people is also noted by various online reading communities. And the image of Katerina from the story by V. Chernykh for the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” gathers a female audience aged 40-50 years and is not found among those under 30 and over 60 years old.

The undisputed hero of the older generation is Stirlitz. Among 20-year-olds it is not mentioned once, among 30-year-olds - once, 40-year-olds - 7 times, 50-year-olds - 26 times, among 60-year-olds it is the absolute leader among men, it is also found among women and is the leader overall. V senior group by age. The Yulian Semyonov Cultural Foundation has already held an Internet voting “Monument to Stirlitz. What should he be like?

However, a monument to one of the most iconic heroes of Soviet literature and cinema never appeared.

The results of a study by the FOM “Idols of Youth”, conducted in 2008, noted: “It is significant that the relative majority of people who had idols in their youth remain faithful to them throughout adult life: two-thirds (68%) of such people (that’s 36% of all respondents) admitted that they can still call their idol the one who was them in their youth.” Probably, this can partly explain the attitude of older people towards Stirlitz.

According to the survey, readers would like to erect monuments to heroes of completely different books: including the heroes of Homer and Sophocles, Aristophanes, G. Boccaccio, as well as L.N. Tolstoy, A.S. Pushkina, I.S. Turgeneva, N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky, I.A. Goncharova, M.Yu. Lermontov, A.P. Chekhov. Among foreign literature The heroes of the books of G. Hesse, G. García Márquez, R. Bach were named in the 20th century; among domestic ones are the heroes of books by K. Paustovsky, V. Astafiev, B. Mozhaev, V. Zakrutkin, V. Konetsky, V. Shukshin and many others.

If we talk about works latest literature, then the survey participants showed significant interest in the heroes of D. Rubina’s trilogy “Russian Canary” and the heroes of the novel “The Abode” by Z. Prilepin.

It should be noted one more work of modern fiction, which has earned a fairly high reader rating is E. Vodolazkin’s novel “Laurel,” which received the “Big Book” award in 2013. There is one main character here - Arseny-Lavr, to whom they would like to erect a monument.

Among the works whose heroes would like to have a monument erected, thus, the obvious leaders are noted:

The diversity of the presented literature is noteworthy. The top ten books include Russian and foreign classical literature, classics of world adventure literature, the best Russian literature created during the Soviet period, modern bestsellers.

To the question about which existing monuments to literary heroes do they like and where they are located, 690 people answered, which is 16.2% of the number of participants. In total, 355 monuments were named, dedicated to 194 heroes. These heroes act in 136 works created by 82 authors.

The rating of heroes whose monuments are well known and liked is headed by: The Little Mermaid; Ostap Bender; Pinocchio; White Bim Black Ear; Chizhik-Pyzhik; Baron Munchausen; Mumu; Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson; Bremen Town Musicians...

The overall ranking of monuments is headed by: The Little Mermaid from Copenhagen; White Bim Black Ear from Voronezh; Samara Pinocchio; St. Petersburg Chizhik-Pyzhik, Ostap Bender, Mumu; Baron Munchausen from Kaliningrad; Moscow Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson; The Bremen Musicians from Bremen; monument to the Cat Behemoth and Koroviev from Moscow.

The named monuments are located in 155 cities, including 86 domestic cities (55.5%) and 69 foreign ones (44.5%). Among foreign cities the leaders are: Copenhagen, Odessa, London, Kyiv, Bremen, Kharkov, New York, Osh, Nikolaev. Among domestic ones: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Samara, Kaliningrad, Ramenskoye, Tobolsk, Tomsk. It should be said that in fact two cities in the country top the list in terms of the number of mentions of monuments: monuments in Moscow were named 174 times, and monuments in St. Petersburg - 170 times. In third place is Copenhagen with a single monument to the Little Mermaid - 138 times, in fourth place is Voronezh - 80 times.

During the survey, the participants of the action also named their region of residence. A comparison of the region of residence of the survey participant with the hero to whom they would like to erect a monument (and we were talking specifically about a monument for their place of residence), as well as with those existing monuments that they like, showed that respondents from less than half of the regions named real or desired monuments , where the hero, the author of the work or the location of the action were associated with the place of residence of the participant.

In modern Russia, a tradition has formed of erecting street sculptures of literary heroes, and architecture of small forms is developing. Literary heroes can and do become local cultural symbols.

The social demand for this kind of symbols is quite large. Literary monuments create comfortable conditions for citizens to spend their time, are aimed at an emotional response, and form the unity of local identity.

A series of events develops around them, that is, they are included in traditional commemorative or everyday practices, they become accustomed to the urban environment.

The appearance of objects of decorative urban sculpture, monuments to literary heroes, monuments dedicated to books and reading can contribute not only to the aesthetic education of the population, but also to the formation of a personal perception of their small homeland and new traditions.

Sculptures, especially street sculptures that are close to people, play and entertain townspeople, form unofficial practices for handling such an object and a personal attitude towards it.

Filling public spaces with such symbols undoubtedly carries a positive emotional load and contributes to the humanization of the public environment.

I continue the series “Literary Heroes” that I once started...

Heroes of Russian literature

Almost every literary character has its own prototype - a real person. Sometimes it is the author himself (Ostrovsky and Pavka Korchagin, Bulgakov and the Master), sometimes it is a historical figure, sometimes it is an acquaintance or relative of the author.
This story is about the prototypes of Chatsky and Taras Bulba, Ostap Bender, Timur and other heroes of the books...

1.Chatsky "Woe from Wit"

The main character of Griboyedov's comedy - Chatsky- most often associated with a name Chaadaeva(in the first version of the comedy, Griboyedov wrote “Chadsky”), although the image of Chatsky is in many ways a social type of the era, a “hero of the time.”
Petr Yakovlevich Chaadaev(1796-1856) - participant Patriotic War 1812, was on a trip abroad. In 1814 he joined Masonic lodge, and in 1821 he agreed to join a secret society.

From 1823 to 1826, Chaadaev traveled around Europe, comprehending the latest philosophical teachings. After returning to Russia in 1828-1830, he wrote and published a historical and philosophical treatise: “Philosophical Letters.” The views, ideas, and judgments of the thirty-six-year-old philosopher turned out to be so unacceptable for Nicholas Russia that the author of “Philosophical Letters” suffered an unprecedented punishment: by the highest decree he was declared crazy. It so happened that the literary character did not repeat the fate of his prototype, but predicted it...

2.Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba is written so organically and vividly that the reader cannot leave the feeling of his reality.
But there was a man whose fate was similar to the fate of Gogol’s hero. And this man also had the surname Gogol!
Ostap Gogol born at the beginning of the 17th century. On the eve of 1648, he was the captain of the “panzer” Cossacks in the Polish army stationed in Uman under the command of S. Kalinovsky. With the outbreak of the uprising, Gogol, along with his heavy cavalry, went over to the side of the Cossacks.

In October 1657, Hetman Vygovsky with the general foreman, of which Ostap Gogol was a member, concluded the Korsun Treaty of Ukraine with Sweden.

In the summer of 1660, Ostap's regiment took part in the Chudnivsky campaign, after which the Slobodishchensky Treaty was signed. Gogol took the side of autonomy within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he was made a gentry.
In 1664, an uprising broke out against the Poles and the hetman in Right Bank Ukraine Teteri. Gogol initially supported the rebels. However, he again went over to the enemy's side. The reason for this was his sons, whom Hetman Potocki held hostage in Lvov. When Doroshenko became hetman, Gogol came under his mace and helped him a lot. When he fought with the Turks near Ochakov, Doroshenko at the Rada proposed recognizing the supremacy of the Turkish Sultan, and it was accepted.
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At the end of 1671, Crown Hetman Sobieski took Mogilev, Gogol's residence. One of Ostap’s sons died during the defense of the fortress. The colonel himself fled to Moldova and from there sent Sobieski a letter of his desire to submit.
As a reward for this, Ostap received the village of Vilkhovets. The certificate of the estate's salary served the grandfather of the writer Nikolai Gogol as evidence of his nobility.
Colonel Gogol became Hetman of Right Bank Ukraine on behalf of King John III Sobieski. He died in 1679 at his residence in Dymer and was buried in the Kiev-Mezhigorsky Monastery near Kyiv.
Analogy with the story is obvious: both heroes are Zaporozhye colonels, both had sons, one of whom died at the hands of the Poles, the other went over to the side of the enemy. Thus, a distant ancestor of the writer and was the prototype of Taras Bulba.

3.Plyushkin
Oryol landowner Spiridon Matsnev he was extremely stingy, walked around in a greasy robe and dirty clothes, so that few could recognize him as a rich gentleman.
The landowner had 8,000 peasant souls, but he starved not only them, but also himself.

N.V. Gogol brought this stingy landowner to “ Dead souls"in the image of Plyushkin. “If Chichikov had met him, so dressed up, somewhere at the church door, he would probably have given him a copper penny”...
“This landowner had more than a thousand souls, and anyone else would try to find so much bread in grain, flour and simply in storage, whose storerooms, barns and drying rooms were cluttered with so many linens, cloth, dressed and rawhide sheepskins...” .
The image of Plyushkin became a household name.

4. Silvio
“Shot” A.S. Pushkin

Silvio's prototype is Ivan Petrovich Liprandi.
Pushkin's friend, the prototype of Silvio in "The Shot".
Author of the best memoirs about Pushkin's southern exile.
The son of a Russified Spanish grandee. Participant in the Napoleonic wars since 1807 (from the age of 17). Colleague and friend of the Decembrist Raevsky, member of the Union of Welfare. Arrested in the Decembrist case in January 1826, he was in a cell with Griboyedov.

“...His personality was of undoubted interest due to his talents, fate and original way of life. He was gloomy and gloomy, but he loved to gather officers at his place and entertain them widely. The sources of his income were shrouded in mystery to everyone. A book reader and book lover, he was famous for his brawling, and a rare duel took place without his participation."
Pushkin "Shot"

At the same time, Liprandi turned out to be an employee of military intelligence and the secret police.
Since 1813, the head of the secret political police under Vorontsov’s army in France. He communicated closely with the famous Vidocq. Together with the French gendarmerie, he participated in the disclosure of the anti-government “Pin Society”. Since 1820, the chief military intelligence officer at the headquarters of Russian troops in Bessarabia. At the same time, he became the main theorist and practitioner of military and political espionage.
Since 1828 - head of the Higher Secret Foreign Police. Since 1820 - directly subordinate to Benckendorf. Organizer of provocation in the Butashevich-Petrashevsky circle. Organizer of Ogarev's arrest in 1850. Author of a project to establish a spy school at universities...

5.Andrey Bolkonsky

Prototypes Andrey Bolkonsky there were several. His tragic death was “copied” by Leo Tolstoy from the biography of a real prince Dmitry Golitsyn.
Prince Dmitry Golitsyn was registered for service in the Moscow archive of the Ministry of Justice. Soon Emperor Alexander I granted him the rank of chamberlain cadet, and then actual chamberlain, which was equivalent to the rank of general.

In 1805, Prince Golitsyn entered military service and, together with the army, fought the campaigns of 1805-1807.
In 1812, he submitted a report with a request to enlist in the army, became an Akhtyrsky hussar; Denis Davydov also served in the same regiment. Golitsin took part in border battles as part of the 2nd Russian army of General Bagration, fought at the Shevardinsky redoubt, and then found himself on the left flank of the Russian formations on the Borodino field.
In one of the skirmishes, Major Golitsyn was seriously wounded by a grenade fragment., he was carried from the battlefield. After the operation in the field hospital, it was decided to take the wounded man further east.
"Bolkonsky House" in Vladimir.


They made a stop in Vladimir, Major Golitsyn was placed in one of the merchant houses on a steep hill on Klyazma. But, almost a month after the Battle of Borodino, Dmitry Golitsyn died in Vladimir...
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Soviet literature

6. Assol
The gentle dreamer Assol had more than one prototype.
First prototype - Maria Sergeevna Alonkina, secretary of the House of Arts, almost everyone living and visiting this House was in love with her.
One day, while climbing the stairs to his office, Green saw a short, dark-skinned girl talking with Korney Chukovsky.
There was something unearthly in her appearance: flying gait, radiant look, ringing happy laugh. It seemed to him that she looked like Assol from the story “Scarlet Sails,” which he was working on at that time.
The image of 17-year-old Masha Alonkina occupied Green's imagination and was reflected in the extravaganza story.


“I don’t know how many years will pass, but in Kaperna one fairy tale will bloom, memorable for a long time. You will be big, Assol. One morning, in the sea distance, a scarlet sail will sparkle under the sun. The shining bulk of the scarlet sails of the white ship will move, cutting through the waves, straight towards you..."

And in 1921 Green met with Nina Nikolaevna Mironova, who worked for the Petrograd Echo newspaper. He, gloomy and lonely, was at ease with her, he was amused by her coquetry, he admired her love of life. Soon they got married.

The door is closed, the lamp is lit.
She will come to me in the evening
There are no more aimless, dull days -
I sit and think about her...

On this day she will give me her hand,
I trust quietly and completely.
A terrible world is raging around,
Come, beautiful, dear friend.

Come, I've been waiting for you for a long time.
It was so sad and dark
But the winter spring has come,
Light knock...My wife came.

Green dedicated the extravaganza “Scarlet Sails” and the novel “The Shining World” to her, his “winter spring.”
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7. Ostap Bender and the Children of Lieutenant Schmidt

The person who became the prototype of Ostap Bender is known.
This - Osip (Ostap) Veniaminovich Shor(1899 -1979). Shor was born in Odessa, was an employee of the UGRO, a football player, a traveler…. Was a friend E. Bagritsky, Y. Olesha, Ilf and Petrov. His brother was the futurist poet Nathan Fioletov.

The appearance, character and speech of Ostap Bender are taken from Osip Shor.
Almost all the famous “Bendery” phrases - “The ice has broken, gentlemen of the jury!”, “I will command the parade!”, “My dad was a Turkish subject...” and many others - were gleaned by the authors from Shor’s vocabulary.
In 1917, Shor entered the first year of the Petrograd Technological Institute, and in 1919 he left for his homeland. He got home almost two years, with many adventures, which I talked about the authors of "The Twelve Chairs".
The stories they told about how he, unable to draw, got a job as an artist on a propaganda ship, or about how he gave a simultaneous game in some remote town, introducing himself as an international grandmaster, were reflected in “12 Chairs” practically unchanged.
By the way, the famous leader of the Odessa bandits, Teddy Bear, which UGRO employee Shor fought, became the prototype Benny Krika, from " Odessa stories" by I. Babel.

And here is the episode that gave rise to the creation of the image "children of Lieutenant Schmidt."
In August 1925, a man with an oriental appearance, decently dressed, wearing American glasses, appeared at the Gomel Provincial Executive Committee and introduced himself Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Uzbek SSR Fayzula Khojaev. He told the chairman of the provincial executive committee, Egorov, that he was traveling from Crimea to Moscow, but his money and documents were stolen on the train. Instead of a passport, he presented a certificate that he was really Khodzhaev, signed by the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Crimean Republic, Ibragimov.
He was received warmly, given money, and began to be taken to theaters and banquets. But one of the police chiefs decided to compare the Uzbek’s personality with the portraits of the chairmen of the Central Election Commission, which he found in an old magazine. Thus, the false Khojaev was exposed, who turned out to be a native of Kokand, traveling from Tbilisi, where he was serving his sentence...
In the same way, posing as a high-ranking official, the former prisoner had fun in Yalta, Simferopol, Novorossiysk, Kharkov, Poltava, Minsk...
It was a fun time - the time of the NEP and such desperate people, adventurers as Shor and the false Khojaev.
Later I will write separately about Bender...
………

8.Timur
TIMUR is the hero of the film script and A. Gaidar’s story “Timur and His Team.” One of the most famous and popular heroes of Soviet children's literature of the 30s and 40s.
Under the influence of the story by A.P. Gaidar “Timur and his team” in the USSR arose among pioneers and schoolchildren in the early years. 1940s "Timurov movement". Timurovites provided assistance to military families, the elderly...
It is believed that the “prototype” of Timurov’s team for A. Gaidar was a group of scouts that operated back in the 10s in a dacha suburb of St. Petersburg.“Timurovites” and “scouts” really have a lot in common (especially in the ideology and practice of children’s “knightly” care for the people around them, the idea of ​​doing good deeds “in secret”).
The story Gaidar told turned out to be surprisingly consonant with the mood of a whole generation of guys: the fight for justice, an underground headquarters, a specific alarm system, the ability to quickly gather “in a chain,” etc.

It is interesting that in the early edition the story was called "Duncan and his team" or “Duncan to the rescue” - the hero of the story was - Vovka Duncan. The influence of the work is obvious Jules Verne: yacht "Duncan""At the first alarm signal I went to the aid of Captain Grant.

In the spring of 1940, while working on a film based on an unfinished story, the name "Duncan" was rejected. The Cinematography Committee expressed bewilderment: “A good Soviet boy. A pioneer. He came up with such a useful game and suddenly - “Duncan”. We consulted with our comrades here - you need to change your name.”
And then Gaidar gave the hero the name of his own son, whom he called “little commander” in life. According to another version - Timur- the name of the neighbor boy. Here's a girl Zhenya received the name from Gaidar’s adopted daughter from his second marriage.
The image of Timur embodies the ideal type of a teenage leader with his desire for noble deeds, secrets, and pure ideals.
Concept "Timurovets" firmly entered into everyday life. Until the end of the 80s, Timurites were children who provided selfless help to those in need.
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9. Captain Vrungel
From the story Andrey Nekrasov "The Adventures of Captain Vrungel"".
A book about the incredible sea adventures of the resourceful and resilient captain Vrungel, his senior mate Lom and sailor Fuchs.

Christopher Bonifatievich Vrungel- the main character and narrator on whose behalf the story is told. An experienced old sailor, with a solid and prudent character, not lacking in ingenuity.
The first part of the surname uses the word "liar". Vrungel, whose name has become a household name, is the naval equivalent of Baron Munchausen, telling tall tales about his sailing adventures.
According to Nekrasov himself, the prototype of Vrungel was his acquaintance with the surname Vronsky, lover of telling maritime fables with his own participation. His last name was so suitable for the main character that the book was originally supposed to be called " The Adventures of Captain Vronsky", however, for fear of offending a friend, the author chose a different surname for the main character.
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1. What and how did the heroes of Russian classics read? Review of works and their heroes

A book is a source of knowledge - this widespread belief is familiar to, perhaps, everyone. Since ancient times, educated people who understood books have been respected and revered. In the information that has survived and reached the present times about Metropolitan Hilarion, who made a huge contribution to the development of Russian spiritual and political thought with his treatise “The Word on Law and Grace,” it is noted: “Larion is a good man, a faster and a scribe.” It is “bookish” - the most apt and most capacious word, which, probably, in the best possible way characterizes all the advantages and advantages of an educated person over others. It is the book that opens the difficult and thorny path from the Cave of Ignorance, symbolically depicted by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his work “The Republic,” to Wisdom. All the great Heroes and Villains of mankind drew the thick and fragrant jelly of knowledge from books. The book helps answer any question, if, of course, there is an answer to it at all. The book allows you to do the impossible, if only it is possible.

Of course, many writers and poets of the “golden age,” when characterizing their heroes, mentioned certain literary works, the names and surnames of great authors whom they either raved about, admired, or lazily read from time to time. artistic characters. Depending on certain characteristics and qualities of the hero, his book preferences and attitude towards the process of reading and education in general were also covered. Going a little beyond the time frame of the given topic, the author considers it appropriate to make a short excursion into history in order to use some examples of earlier literature to understand what and how the heroes of Russian classics read.

For example, take the comedy by D.I. Fonvizin's "Minor", in which the author ridiculed the narrow-mindedness of the landowner class, the simplicity of its life attitudes and ideals. Central theme The work was formulated by its main character, the ignorant Mitrofan Prostakov: “I don’t want to study, I want to get married!” And while Mitrofan painfully and unsuccessfully tries, at the insistence of teacher Tsyfirkin, to divide 300 rubles between three, his chosen one Sophia is engaged in self-education through reading:

Sophia: I was waiting for you, uncle. I was reading a book now.

Starodum: Which one?

Sophia: French, Fenelon, about raising girls.

Starodum: Fenelon? The author of “Telemacus”? Okay. I don’t know your book, but read it, read it. Whoever wrote “Telemacus” will not corrupt morals with his pen. I fear for you the sages of today. I happened to read everything from them that was translated into Russian. They, however, strongly eradicate prejudices and uproot virtue.

The attitude towards reading and books can be traced throughout the comedy “Woe from Wit” by A.S. Griboedova. “The most famous Muscovite of all Russian literature,” Pavel Afanasyevich Famusov, is quite critical in his assessments. Having learned that his daughter Sophia “reads everything in French, aloud, locked up,” he says:

Tell me that it’s not good to spoil her eyes,

And reading is of little use:

She can't sleep from French books,

And the Russians make it hard for me to sleep.

And he considers the reason for Chatsky’s madness solely to be teaching and books:

Once evil is stopped:

Take all the books and burn them!

Alexander Andreevich Chatsky himself reads only progressive Western literature and categorically denies authors respected in Moscow society:

I don't read nonsense

And even more exemplary.

Let's move on to more recent works of literature. In the "encyclopedia of Russian life" - the novel "Eugene Onegin" - A.S. Pushkin, characterizing his heroes as they get to know the reader, pays special attention to their literary preferences. Main character was “cut in the latest fashion, dressed like a London dandy,” “could speak and write in French perfectly,” that is, he received a brilliant education by European standards:

He knew quite a bit of Latin,

To parse epigrams,

Talk about Juvenal,

At the end of the letter put vale,

Yes, I remembered, although not without sin,

Two verses from the Aeneid.

Scolded Homer, Theocritus;

But I read Adam Smith

And he was a deep economist.

Onegin’s village neighbor, the young landowner Vladimir Lensky, “with a soul straight from Göttingen,” brought “the fruits of learning” from Germany, where he was brought up on the works of German philosophers. The young man’s mind was especially excited by thoughts about Duty and Justice, as well as Immanuel Kant’s theory of the Categorical Imperative.

Pushkin’s favorite heroine, “dear Tatyana,” was brought up in the spirit characteristic of her time and in accordance with her own romantic nature:

She liked novels early on;

They replaced everything for her;

She fell in love with deceptions

Both Richardson and Russo.

Her father was a kind fellow,

Belated in the past century;

But I saw no harm in the books;

He never reads

I considered them an empty toy

And didn't care

What is my daughter's secret volume?

I dozed under my pillow until morning.

His wife was herself

Richardson is crazy.

N.V. Gogol in the poem " Dead souls", when introducing us to the main character, says nothing about his literary preferences. Apparently, the collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov did not have any of those at all, for he was "not handsome, but not bad-looking either, not too fat, not too thin ; one cannot say that he is old, but not that he is too young": a gentleman of average quality. However, about the first one to whom he went for dead souls Chichikov, the landowner Manilov, knows that “in his office there was always some kind of book, bookmarked on page fourteen, which he had been constantly reading for two years.”

The triumph and death of “Oblomovism” as the limited and cozy world of Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, against the backdrop of the metamorphoses of which the active life of Andrei Stolts surges with an irrepressible spring, was illuminated in his novel by I.A. Goncharov. Undoubtedly, the difference in the revaluation of the values ​​of the two heroes casts its shadow on their attitude towards reading and books. Stolz, with his characteristic German tenacity, showed a special desire to read and study even in his childhood: “From the age of eight, he sat with his father at geographical map, sorted through the warehouses of Herder, Wieland, biblical verses and summed up the illiterate accounts of the peasants, townspeople and factory workers, and with his mother he read the Sacred History, learned Krylov’s fables and sorted through the warehouses of Telemak.

Once Andrei disappeared for a week, then he was found sleeping peacefully in his bed. Under the bed is someone's gun and a pound of gunpowder and shot. When asked where he got it, he answered: “Yes!” The father asks his son if he has a translation ready from Cornelius Nepos into German. Finding out that he was not, his father dragged him by the collar into the yard, gave him a kick and said: “Go where you came from. And come again with a translation, instead of one, two chapters, and teach your mother the role from the French comedy that she asked: without this don't show yourself!" Andrey returned a week later with a translation and a learned role.

The process of reading Oblomov as the main character I.A. Goncharov pays a special place in the novel:

What was he doing at home? Read? Did you write? Did you study?

Yes: if he comes across a book or a newspaper, he will read it.

If he hears about some wonderful work, he will have an urge to get to know it; he searches, asks for books, and if they bring them soon, he will begin to work on them, an idea about the subject begins to form in him; one more step - and he would have mastered it, but look, he is already lying, looking apathetically at the ceiling, and the book lies next to him, unread, incomprehensible.

If he somehow managed to get through a book called statistics, history, political economy, he was completely satisfied. When Stolz brought him books that he still needed to read beyond what he had learned, Oblomov looked at him silently for a long time.

No matter how interesting the place where he stopped was, if the hour of lunch or sleep found him at this place, he put the book down with the binding up and went to dinner or put out the candle and went to bed.

If they gave him the first volume, after reading it he did not ask for the second, but when they brought it, he read it slowly.

Ilyusha, like others, studied at a boarding school until he was fifteen. “Of necessity, he sat upright in class, listened to what the teachers said, because there was nothing else he could do, and with difficulty, with sweat, with sighs, he learned the lessons assigned to him. Serious reading tired him.” Oblomov does not perceive thinkers; only poets managed to stir his soul. Stolz gives him books. “Both were worried, cried, made solemn promises to each other to follow a reasonable and bright path.” But nevertheless, while reading, “no matter how interesting the place where he (Oblomov) stopped was, if the hour of lunch or sleep found him at this place, he put the book down with the binding up and went to dinner or put out the candle and went to bed.” . As a result, “his head represented a complex archive of dead affairs, persons, eras, figures, religions, unrelated political-economic, mathematical or other truths, tasks, provisions, etc. It was as if a library consisting of only scattered volumes By different parts knowledge." "It also happens that he is filled with contempt for human vice, for lies, for slander, for the evil spilled in the world and is inflamed with the desire to point out to a person his ulcers, and suddenly thoughts light up in him, walk and walk in his head, like waves in the sea, then grow into intentions, ignite all the blood in him. But, you see, the morning flashes by, the day is already approaching evening, and with it Oblomov’s weary strength tends to rest.”

reading hero russian novel

The apogee of the erudition of the heroes of a literary work is, without a doubt, the novel by I.S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons". The pages are simply replete with names, surnames, titles. There are Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang Goethe, whom Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov respects. Instead of Pushkin, the “children” give Nikolai Petrovich “Stoff und Kraft” by Ludwig Buchner. Matvey Ilyich Kolyazin, “preparing to go to the evening with Mrs. Svechina, who then lived in St. Petersburg, read a page from Candillac in the morning.” And Evdoksiya Kukshina truly shines with her erudition and erudition in her conversation with Bazarov:

They say you started praising George Sand again. A retarded woman, and nothing more! How is it possible to compare her with Emerson? She has no ideas about education, physiology, or anything. She, I am sure, has never heard of embryology, but in our time - how do you want without it? Oh, what an amazing article Elisevich wrote on this subject.

Having reviewed the works and their characters regarding the literary preferences of the latter, the author would like to dwell in more detail on the characters of Turgenev and Pushkin. They, as the most striking exponents of literary passions, will be discussed in the following parts of the work.

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Who is a literary character? We devote our article to this issue. In it we will tell you where this name came from, what literary characters and images are, and how to describe them in literature lessons according to your desire or the teacher’s request.

Also from our article you will learn what an “eternal” image is and what images are called eternal.

Literary hero or character. Who is this?

We often hear the concept of “literary character”. But few can explain what we are talking about. And even schoolchildren who have recently returned from a literature lesson often find it difficult to answer the question. What is this mysterious word “character”?

It came to us from ancient Latin (persona, personnage). The meaning is “personality”, “person”, “person”.

So, a literary character is a character. We are mainly talking about prose genres, since images in poetry are usually called “lyrical hero”.

It is impossible to write a story or poem, novel or story without characters. Otherwise, it will be a meaningless collection of, if not words, then perhaps events. The heroes are people and animals, mythological and fantastic creatures, inanimate objects, for example, Andersen’s steadfast tin soldier, historical figures and even entire nations.

Classification of literary heroes

They can confuse any literature connoisseur with their quantity. And it’s especially hard for secondary school students. And especially because they prefer to play their favorite game instead of doing homework. How to classify heroes if a teacher or, even worse, an examiner demands it?

The most win-win option: classify the characters according to their importance in the work. According to this criterion, literary heroes are divided into main and secondary. Without the main character, the work and its plot will be a collection of words. But in case of loss minor characters we will lose a certain branch storyline or expressiveness of events. But overall the work will not suffer.

The second classification option is more limited and is not suitable for all works, but for fairy tales and fantasy genres. This is the division of heroes into positive and negative. For example, in the fairy tale about Cinderella, poor Cinderella herself - goodie, she evokes pleasant emotions, you sympathize with her. But the sisters and the evil stepmother are clearly heroes of a completely different type.

Characteristics. How to write?

Heroes literary works sometimes (especially in a literature lesson at school) they need a detailed description. But how to write it? The option “once upon a time there was such a hero. He is from a fairy tale about this and that” is clearly not suitable if the assessment is important. We will share with you a win-win option for writing a characterization of a literary (and any other) hero. We offer you a plan with brief explanations what and how to write.

• Introduction. Name the work and the character you will talk about. Here you can add why exactly you want to describe it.
• The place of the hero in the story (novel, story, etc.). Here you can write whether he is major or minor, positive or negative, a person or a mythical or historical figure.
• Appearance. It would not be amiss to include quotes, which will show you as an attentive reader, and will also add volume to your description.
• Character. Everything is clear here.
• Actions and their characteristics in your opinion.
• Conclusions.

That's it. Keep this plan for yourself, and it will come in handy more than once.

Famous literary characters

Although the very concept of a literary hero may seem completely unfamiliar to you, if you tell you the name of the hero, you will most likely remember a lot. This is especially true famous characters literature, for example, such as Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote, Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood, Assol or Cinderella, Alice or Pippi Longstocking.

Such heroes are called famous literary characters. These names are familiar to children and adults from many countries and even continents. Not knowing them is a sign of narrow-mindedness and lack of education. Therefore, if you don’t have time to read the work itself, ask someone to tell you about these characters.

The concept of image in literature

Along with character, you can often hear the concept of “image”. What is this? Same as the hero or not? The answer will be both positive and negative, because a literary character may well be literary way, but the image itself does not have to be a character.

We often call this or that hero an image, but nature can appear in the same image in a work. And then the topic of the examination paper can be “the image of nature in the story...”. What to do in this case? The answer is in the question itself: if we are talking about nature, you need to characterize its place in the work. Start with a description, add character elements, for example, “the sky was gloomy,” “the sun was mercilessly hot,” “the night was frightening with its darkness,” and the characterization is ready. Well, if you need a description of the hero’s image, then how to write it, see the plan and tips above.

What are the images?

Our next question. Here we will highlight several classifications. Above we looked at one - images of heroes, that is, people/animals/mythical creatures and images of nature, images of peoples and states.

Also, images can be so-called “eternal”. What is an "eternal image"? This concept names a hero created once by an author or folklore. But he was so “characteristic” and special that after years and eras, other authors write their characters from him, perhaps giving them different names, but without changing the essence. Such heroes include the fighter Don Quixote, the hero-lover Don Juan and many others.

Unfortunately, modern fantasy characters do not become eternal, despite the love of fans. Why? What's better than this funny Don Quixote of Spider-Man, for example? It's difficult to explain this in a nutshell. Only reading the book will give you the answer.

The concept of "closeness" of the hero, or My favorite character

Sometimes the hero of a work or movie becomes so close and loved that we try to imitate him, to be like him. This happens for a reason, and it’s not for nothing that the choice falls on this character. Often a favorite hero becomes an image that somehow resembles ourselves. Perhaps the similarity is in character, or in the experiences of both the hero and you. Or this character is in a situation similar to yours, and you understand and sympathize with him. In any case, it's not bad. The main thing is that you imitate only worthy heroes. And there are plenty of them in the literature. We wish you to meet only with good heroes and only imitate positive traits their character.