"Teenager" (Dostoevsky): the history of creation and a detailed analysis of the novel. Teenager. Dostoevsky F M - “F.M. Dostoevsky's teenager is a book about the eternal problem of fathers and children, written at the change of eras. The tragedy of the Russian nobility. Throwing a lonely soul. Novel

The works of such a famous classic as Fyodor Dostoevsky, the thinker of modern Russian classics, have not lost their relevance to this day. On the contrary, they are gaining more and more interest not only in the circles of researchers of Fyodor Mikhailovich's work, but also among young people and people of the older generation. Dostoyevsky's novel The Teenager was written in 1875 and was published in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski of the same year. The nature of this work is such that, willy-nilly, you will think not only about the abstract meaning of life, but about your own situation, your state of mind today. The novel, indeed, makes you think deeply about your life, and besides, it also helps to feel like a person who is searching and thinking. This is the impact the novel has on the millions of minds that read it.

The very first idea that catches the eye of the reader analyzing the work is, perhaps, the author's desire to reflect the relationship between fathers and children, their problems and ways out of problematic situations. And not only in private, but also on a larger scale - for example, the relationship between generations of fathers and children. The theme of religion and the relationship of a person to spiritual values ​​is also competently and successfully woven into the novel.

So, the development of relations, for the most part, takes place between two heroes - this is a teenager Arkady Makarovich Dolgoruky (Arkady's surname was his formal father) and his father Andrei Petrovich Versilov. The main character, a teenager Arkady, is nineteen years old. By modern standards, at this age, people are already considered to be in their youthful years, and not adolescence. But F.M. Dostoevsky sees him as a teenager quite reasonably, because everyone around him considered Arkady as such. He was very indignant about this, saying: “What a teenager I am! Do they grow up at nineteen?”

By his age, Arkady had already graduated from the Moscow gymnasium, but he did not want to go further to study. Instead, he decided to realize his cherished dream - to become the richest person, such as, for example, Rothschild. Why did he want wealth? - you ask. And the answer will be this - he really wanted to be powerful and live a solitary life. “Why such a seemingly insane desire,” the reader involuntarily thinks. And the thing was that Arkady had problems in communicating with people. It always seemed to him that they were laughing at him, and he looked stupid. His character was, as is typical of all teenagers, prone to pride, pride and expansive radicalism.

So, after graduating from the gymnasium, Arkady moved to St. Petersburg, where he was invited by his own father Versilov to find a job, or as it used to be called "to enter the service." His mother, Sofya Andreevna, and his sister, Elizaveta Andreevna, also live in St. Petersburg. Father Versilov very actively preached Russian culture, all kinds of ideas of the spirituality of the Russian nobility, "world citizenship" and "reconciliation of ideas." Of course, such a person will serve as a significant authority for Arkady and occupy the main place in his life. After all, Versilov in the eyes of a teenager was not just a father, but also an ideological inspirer.

However, despite this attitude towards Versilov, Arkady still fell under the influence of gossip about his father. Therefore, he goes to St. Petersburg with some kind of internal tension and the task of finding out whether Versilov actually committed all those vile deeds that people's rumors ascribed to him. And so, having arrived, Arkady enters the service of a secretary to Nikolai Ivanovich Sokolsky, who used to be a friend of Versilov. After serving for a short time, Arkady leaves Sokolsky in his next outburst of pride and wounded pride, because Sokolsky's daughter accused him of espionage.

And then two letters fall into Arkady's hands. One of which is a notification that the inheritance lawsuit with the Sokolskys, which Versilov won, can be reviewed and the decision will clearly not be in favor of Arkady's father. And the second letter was from Sokolsky's daughter, Katerina Nikolaevna, and spoke of her father's dementia and that he needed custody. Such content of the letter could have made Sokolsky very angry and set him against his daughter. Arkady, however, did not lose his head and hid the second letter.

Helpful for young people

A story about a teenager who wanted to develop his relationship with his own father. After stormy scandals and experienced moral upheavals, the main character settles down his proud character and acquires life wisdom. Very philosophical and realistic story.

Further events and the scandal around Versilov and Lydia Akhmakova, who bore him an illegitimate child, finally stun Arkady. Moreover, he himself was an eyewitness to the scandal over Versilov. Arkady is devastated. He understands that his father, whom he almost idolized, is a dishonest man, a secret corrupter and a scoundrel. Therefore, Arkady decided to tell everything to his father and move away from him. But after some time he becomes convinced of the opposite, that Versilov is not guilty of anything, and Arkady calms down. Between father and son now, at last, a close relationship has been established.

After some time, Arkady became addicted to gambling and plays roulette. And, of course, he loses a lot. But one day he found out that his half-sister Anna Andreevna was going to marry Sokolsky and that she was very interested in his inheritance. And in order to decide everything in her favor, she is looking for any compromising evidence on Sokolsky's daughter. But he did not immediately tell her anything about the letter, which is still in his possession. After many events in a drunken delirium, he tells about this letter to an old friend Lambert, who also decided to weave his nets around the opportunity to warm his hands on Sokolsky's money.

Makar Ivanovich Dolgoruky, the formal father of Arkady, is woven into all these intricacies around profit and meanness. He was a very well-behaved and wise elder who collected alms for the construction of the temple. In moments of wise and instructive conversations for Arkady with Makar Ivanovich, life-giving light poured into the young soul of the young man. A little later, Makar Ivanovich dies. Versilov's father leaves his family and runs to his old passion Akhmakova, Sokolsky's daughter, who rejects him. And Akrkadiya finally decides to take revenge on Akhmakova for her heartfelt mockery of Versilov. He goes to Lambert to discuss a plan for revenge with the help of a preserved letter.

Lambert, having drunk the poor teenager, steals a letter from him and, together with Versilov, lures Akhmakova to Tatyana Pavlovna, Arkady's aunt. The remorseful teenager finds out about this and rushes headlong to her to stop Lambert's plan. Arriving at the place, he finds such a picture: Lambert, threatening with a revolver and with a letter, demanded money from Akhmakova. The outcome of such a tense situation is decided with the help of one strange act of Versilov, who suddenly turns out to be lurking outside the door. He snatched the revolver from Lambert. I decided first to shoot myself at Akhmakov, but then he nevertheless chose himself, intending to shoot at his own heart. Arkady rushed to save his father, Trishatov helped him. Versilov still shoots in the struggle, but hits himself in the shoulder.

The protagonist of the work, Arkady Dolgoruky, who also calls himself a Teenager, sets out in his notes what happened in his life over a certain period of time. The young man is only twenty years old, he successfully graduated from the gymnasium, but decides not to continue his education at a higher educational institution, wanting to first fulfill his old dream.

Arkady strives to become a truly rich man, in his opinion, money can provide him with solitude and freedom from other people with whom it is quite difficult for a young man to communicate. It always seems to Dolgoruky that they look at him with mockery and contempt, the young man gets lost and begins to behave too actively, which only further hinders him in any conversations. Arkady's self-doubt and fears are explained by his origin, he is the illegitimate son of the noble nobleman Andrei Versilov and his serf, and this realization is very painful for a proud and ambitious young man. He was given the surname of his official father Dolgoruky, also a serf Versilov, but because of this surname, Arkady is even more often faced with humiliation and sarcastic remarks.

When the Teenager finally becomes an adult, his father invites him to Petersburg, wanting the young man to enter the service. Father means a lot to Arkady, although in childhood and adolescence he actually did not meet him. The young man tries to learn as much as possible about Versilov, carefully asking different people, his father seems to him a real ideal, although sometimes Arkady doubts his nobility and decency.

Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, young Dolgoruky firmly intends to find out the whole truth about Versilov, although his name is shrouded in many secrets, and the Teenager knows almost nothing about him. Arkady is arranged to serve as a secretary to Prince Sokolsky, who in the past was a close friend of Versilov. But the proud young man soon decides to give up this place, he is deeply offended by the accusation of espionage coming from the daughter of Prince Ekaterina Nikolaevna.

By coincidence, Dolgoruky finds himself in the hands of two extremely important letters. One of them says that the lawsuit that Versilov won against the Sokolsky family could be reviewed again, and not in his favor. The second was written by Sokolsky's daughter Ekaterina, the young woman claims that her father's mind has already lost its clarity and it is required to establish guardianship over him. Arkady understands that old Sokolsky will become furious and deprive his daughter of his inheritance when he sees this letter. The young man assures everyone that this incriminating document was burned, but in fact decides to keep it, realizing that it may be useful to him in the future.

At the first meeting with Versilov, Arkady gives him a letter of inheritance, after which the elderly nobleman concludes a truce with his illegitimate son, but the Teenager cannot fully trust him. He becomes aware that his father has a small child from a certain Lydia Akhmakova. Looking into his mother's apartment, Arkady accidentally meets there with a young woman named Olga, who, in rage and despair, accuses his father of betrayal and meanness. Soon Olga takes her own life, and Dolgoruky does not know what to think about Versilov now, remembering his own origin and comparing this fact with new information.

Arkady sharply expresses to his father everything that has accumulated in his soul over the long years of suffering and the neglect of others, but then it turns out that Versilov nevertheless renounced the inheritance for the sake of the Sokolsky princes. At the same time, it becomes clear that it was not his fault in the suicide of young Olga, Versilov offered money to the girl disinterestedly, wanting to help, but she, who had already repeatedly encountered unceremonious harassment, misinterpreted his behavior.

Dolgoruky quickly settles in the capital, he soon becomes a real secular young man who regularly plays roulette. Arkady is often completely lost, but this does not stop him at all. He also develops an excellent relationship with his father and with Katerina Nikolaevna Akhmakova, the daughter of the old prince Sokolsky, and the young man feels quite happy.

At the same time, Anna Andreevna, the legitimate daughter of Versilov and the elder sister of Arkady, intends to marry the elderly Sokolsky, the issue of inheritance is of great importance to her. She seeks at any cost to obtain a document that defames Ekaterina Nikolaevna, the daughter of the prince, and is ready to use the Teenager for these purposes.

Having once met in an informal setting with Ekaterina Akhmakova, Arkady feels that he has passionately fallen in love with her, although he had previously suspected this woman of cunning and deceit. Akhmakova responds to his sincere confessions with restraint, although she is not at all going to repel Dolgoruky.

Versilov, having learned about his son's meeting with Ekaterina Nikolaevna, sends her a letter filled with anger and insults. Arkady tries to explain himself to the woman, but she avoids communicating with him in every possible way. On the same days, he manages to get a big win at roulette, but the young man is unfairly accused of stealing other people's money and put out of the hall.

The young man falls seriously ill, and it was during this period that he met Makar Ivanovich Dolgoruky, who is listed as his father according to the documents. This deeply religious man wandered for a long time, collecting money for the construction of the temple, and now poor health forced him to temporarily stay with the mother of Arkady. The kind and wise Makar brings light into the soul of the Teenager, forcing him to look at many life issues differently.

After the death of Makar Ivanovich, Versilov gets the opportunity to become the legal husband of the mother of the young Dolgoruky. But the old passion for Ekaterina Akhmakova flares up again in the man, although the woman has already decided to marry a certain Baron Bjoring, with whom, according to her, she will be calm and comfortable.

Arkady cannot explain even to himself what he feels. He feels sorry for his father, he hates Katerina and at the same time feels jealous because of her, and the young man makes a big mistake, he turns to his old school friend Lambert, a dishonest and cunning person, for help. Lambert makes Dolgoruky drunk with wine and steals Akhmakova's letter from him at night, replacing it with clean paper.

Upon the arrival of old Sokolsky, Arkady flatly refuses to act against Ekaterina Nikolaevna, despite all the requests of his half-sister Anna Andreevna. The young man learns that Versilov and Lambert tricked Akhmakova into visiting his aunt Tatiana Pavlovna. The teenager hurries there and sees with horror how Lambert, threatening the woman with a letter, and then with a gun, demands money from her. Versilov unexpectedly stuns Lambert with the weapon taken from him, then tries to commit suicide, but due to a desperate struggle with Arkady, he only hits the shoulder, and not the heart.

After everything he has experienced, Versilov decides to stay with Sofya Andreevna, the mother of the Teenager. Ekaterina Nikolaevna breaks off her engagement with the baron, and Arkady himself still intends to enter the university after much persuasion from others. Nevertheless, the young man does not at all abandon his plans to get rich, although now he is going to use completely different methods for this purpose. As Dolgoruky himself admits, the memoirs he wrote became for him a real work on himself and an important stage in his growing up.

It can be said about Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky that he is the "mind, honor and advice" of his era, the great thinker of Russian classics. The problems of the society he shows are very relevant for us today. Of course, he is the same person with vices and passions and as dual as his heroes, whom he always describes with great love and understanding, but constantly waging a struggle, and, above all, with himself.

Isn't that what The Teenager is about? The summary of this work will not give a complete picture, but it will shed light on many aspects of the life of people who, like many, many years ago, are ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of money: honor, name and position.

Pure psychology and realism

The novel “The Teenager” is not simple in the plot, the summary of which indicates that, without having dealt with his internal problems, a person often either commits suicide. From nobility to meanness, he always has one step left. In an instant, he can execute or pardon, denigrate or justify, and sometimes not immediately understand where the truth is and where the lie is.

Critics very often accused Dostoevsky of describing his characters and the difficult moments in which his characters found themselves too realistically. From ill-wishers, the writer openly received hints that he himself could be an accomplice in some not very personal situations, and perhaps even criminal events.

F.M. was a very difficult person. Dostoevsky. "Teenager" (a brief summary of the work will be discussed a little later) fully demonstrates this statement of fact.

Arkady

In the work, which will be discussed further, the main character is a slightly naive, conceited, vulnerable, intelligent and impulsive teenager. It is not in vain that Dostoevsky saturates the chapters of the novel with some deep philosophy of fascinating ideas from a variety of people. Each person lives by his own ideal - political, religious, love, economic, etc. Everything depends on its culture, moral and spiritual development. The main character also adheres to the same idea - to get rich at all costs. But more on that later.

Dostoevsky, "Teenager": a summary

The very first thing that catches your eye when analyzing the work is the eternal problem of “fathers and children”, because two heroes are put in the foreground - a twenty-year-old young man Arkady Makarovich Dolgoruky, who bore the name of his formal father Makar Ivanov Dolgoruky, a courtyard of the Versilov family , and the father of Arkady is the nobleman Andrei Petrovich Versilov. The young man's mother, Sofya Andreevna, was also a courtyard, later bought from Dolgoruky by Versilov, who lived with him and bore him two more children - Liza and another boy who died early in illness. From these events, she aged very early, grief was always visible on her face.

Arkady Makarovich was a "bastard" - a very sweet teenager with a clear outlook on life. A brief summary about him tells that, having graduated from the Moscow gymnasium, he did not want to continue to study. Before the gymnasium, he studied at the French boarding house Touchara and there he suffered a lot of humiliation and bullying from his peers precisely because of his illegitimacy, and then because of the name Dolgoruky. In society, when he introduced himself, he was always asked again: “Prince?”. It just pissed him off. Because of this, the guy grew up very impressionable. Now his dream has become the desire to get rich, like Rothschild. This would give him power over other people and a free, solitary life. As is already clear, this is precisely what Dostoevsky focuses on. "Teenager", a summary and analysis of which will be considered as events unfold, as a work is quite difficult to understand. Nonetheless…

Character

Once Arkady appeared on the threshold of the house of the legitimate son of Versilov, but only in order to receive money sent from his father. His brother did not accept him, but only gave him the money through a servant. Arkady was indignant. His pride in such cases was very easily wounded, however, kind and enthusiastic by nature, he quickly calmed down and immediately turned to love and adoration when he was treated politely and in a good way.

With his brother, he will then establish a relationship. He always had some problems in communicating with people, it often seemed to him that they were laughing at him and playing tricks. And he, like any young man, was proud and proud and demanded a proper attitude towards himself.

Petersburg

And finally, he came home to his parents in St. Petersburg. His father invited him because he found a job for him. Versilov Sr. preached all sorts of ideas of "world citizenship", Russian culture and "the reconciliation of ideas." For Arkady Makarovich, he was the only authority and the main ideological inspirer, for whom he was ready to fight in a duel.

However, despite all this, he goes to St. Petersburg with some caution, as there are bad rumors about his father, and he wants to find out if everything is really so.

fatal letter

However, only a little later Dostoevsky will reveal to us all the secrets of the novel "The Teenager". The summary notes that Arkady immediately gets a job as a secretary to his father's friend, Prince Sokolsky Nikolai Ivanovich. After serving a little with him, he leaves, since his daughter Katerina Nikolaevna Akhmakova accused him of espionage - he simply could not stand such an insult.

A little earlier, two documents fell into his hands, one of them is a document stating that the elder Versilov won the lawsuit with Sokolsky, but it can be revised at any moment, and the decision can become directly opposite.

The second document was given to him by Kraf, who soon shot himself. The paper was a letter in which it was said that the daughter of Prince Sokolsky considers her father to be weak-minded, who, due to his advanced age, is not able to make independent decisions, and therefore he needs guardianship. Such a letter, if it fell into the hands of the old prince, would cause a huge scandal and could set the father against his daughter.

"Teenager": a summary in parts

At the same time, the younger Versilov constantly collects all sorts of information about his father and eventually realizes that his benevolent parent is not really who he claims to be. Gossip around a crazy woman who committed suicide added fuel to the fire. Then there was a child whom another person allegedly gave birth to from him. Then some kind of secret relationship arose with Katerina Ivanovna Akhmakova. With the thought that his father was a lustful man, a scoundrel and a scoundrel, Arkady Makarovich wanted to leave him. But then some false moments came to light, and then the father and son showed condescension to each other. Moreover, they even became close to each other.

Once Katerina Nikolaevna invited Arkady to meet her aunt Tatyana Pavlovna Prutkova. He meets her all alone and is immediately inspired by this meeting. It seems to him that he was appointed a love date. He assumed that this lady was treacherous because of the compromising letter, but she disarmed him with her innocence and cordiality. Dolgoruky was completely fascinated by her, but she pushed him away, although she did not try to extinguish the passion that had flared up in him.

carelessness

Meanwhile, the summary of Dostoevsky's novel "The Teenager" increasingly confuses the plot with its riddles and secrets.

For some time, while living in St. Petersburg, Arkady became addicted to playing roulette and began to lose a lot, while he borrowed money from the son of the old man Sokolsky Sergey, who got confused in life. Even in the service, he was engaged in scams, for which his colleague was unfairly slandered. Then he met with Liza, the sister of Arkady, but at the same time he secretly and passionately loved Akhmakova, whom he wanted to marry.

Arkady found out about everything and immediately decided to put an end to all debts, giving him everything he occupied. Poor Liza, however, soon became pregnant. The nervous system of the prince could not stand it, the disease overcame him, he was put in prison for old deeds, and there he died. Lisa had a miscarriage at four months, she lay ill for half a year, but then went on the mend.

And then Arkady finds out that his Anna Andreevna was going to marry the old prince Sokolsky (in this case she is looking for profit, and therefore she really wants to receive a letter compromising the prince's daughter). After all, then she will be able to “warm her hands” well on the inheritance, leaving the daughter of her chosen one without an inheritance.

Makar Ivanov Dolgoruky

Dostoevsky's "Teenager" (a summary of the chapters) literally saturates with new and new people - swindlers and blackmailers. Almost everyone joins in the search for Ekaterina Akhmakova's letter, except for one - Makar Ivanov Dolgoruky, the courtyard who is recorded as Arkady's father. He once appears in Versilov's house. He was a very pleasant person, and he was valued as a wise and interesting narrator of edifying conversations and a God-fearing person who collected alms for the construction of the temple. He came to them quite sick and exhausted, and soon died. In the short time that he was in their house, Arkady became very attached to him. He considered him better and cleaner than everyone around him. It was this simple man who shed the life-giving light of spirituality and love into his soul.

Mysterious Escape

At the same time, Versilov's father realizes that the formal husband of his humble wife Sophia, with whom he lived for many years, has died, and now she is free. However, he runs away to his longtime beloved widow Katerina Akhmakova and asks for her hand in marriage. He literally goes crazy with love for her, but gets rejected.

Arkady, having heard unpleasant things from his fellow swindler Lambert about Katerina Akhmakova, wants to avenge his father and, finally, give her a letter, but on the condition that she becomes his wife (as Lambert advised him). In addition, he certainly wants his father to secretly observe this picture, so that his vision of the ideal image of a woman in her collapses in an instant, because a lot of money from her inheritance is at stake.

Dostoevsky built the whole main intrigue on this. "Teenager", the summary of which will be continued, is a novel with an unpredictable denouement. However, let's get ready for the most important thing.

Theft

Once Arkady came once again to Lambert to discuss his plan, but the latter, after getting him drunk, steals from him a letter sewn into the floor of his coat, and runs to the elder Versilov.

At the same time, the younger one, having sobered up from champagne, goes to Tatyana Pavlovna and says that he wants to give the letter into the hands of Katerina Ivanovna herself and put an end to this matter. However, everything collapsed when he found out that he no longer had the letter. The fact that Akhmakova has already left to meet them, Lambert and Versilov find out and immediately enter the game. While Arkady and Tatyana Pavlovna have left the house, Lambert is trying to blackmail Katerina Ivanovna, but she categorically refuses to fulfill his conditions. Meanwhile, in another room, Versilov is watching this whole picture. He does not need money, he just wants to see how a woman will behave in this very delicate and dangerous situation and to what a critical point of meanness Katerina can reach for the sake of money. However, the lady literally spits in Lambert's face, who abruptly grabs a revolver and tries to shoot her. At this point Andrey Petrovich's heart failed, and he rushed at Lambert. A shot rang out... Lambert lay on the floor like he was dead.

denouement

How famously F. M. Dostoevsky twisted the plot! "Teenager", the brief content of which comes to the very denouement, is coming to an end.

Then Arkady runs in and sees that his father is twirling a revolver and wants to shoot Akhmakova, who has fainted from horror, and then himself. But Arkady was able to prevent all this by appearing on the threshold with Tatyana Pavlovna in time, but his father manages to shoot himself in the shoulder. Lambert is alive, he gets up and runs away.

As a magnificent detective, F. M. Dostoevsky ends his novel. The Teenager, whose summary keeps the reader in suspense until the very end, tells that after all these terrible scenes the letter was returned to Akhmakova, her wedding with Byoring was upset because he found out about some of her secret meetings with Arkady. The elder Versilov returned to his family, and this story with a shot in the shoulder turned into ridiculous rumors that practically disappeared. The whole family lived peacefully and happily. Akhmakova began to live in Paris and sometimes corresponded with Arkasha.

In the novel "Teenager", a summary of the chapters well tracks the character and behavior of the protagonist, who during this time managed to grow up and go to university. He considered all the events that had taken place to be a very good experience and an effective lesson in the re-education of his personality.

"Teenager" - a novel by F.M. Dostoevsky. The emergence of the idea can be dated to January 1871, when, according to M.N. Katkov, Dostoevsky told him the plot of the new novel. Direct work on the work began only in February 1874 and continued throughout 1875 in parallel with the publication of individual parts of the "Teenager" (the first publication - "Domestic Notes" No. 1, 2, 5, 9, 11, 12 for 1875 city; separate edition - St. Petersburg, 1876).

The fully preserved draft materials for The Teenager make it possible to reconstruct the creative method and the main stages of Dostoevsky's work on the plot: from pronouncing "for oneself alone" the idea that will become the basis of the future novel, the search for the main "type" - to determining the form and "tone" of the narrative ( first stage); from concisely outlined main storylines and images to a detailed description of key scenes and characters, the selection of “words” and “facts” for them (second stage); finally, after the complete clarification of the plan of each part, work on the individual chapters.

At all stages of the rough work and in the final version of Dostoevsky's "Adolescent" traces of the plan that owned the writer in the last decade of his life are noticeable: to write a novel "of the volume of" War and Peace "... of five long stories", "completely separate from one another under the general title "The Life of a Great Sinner". The action of the first stories takes place in the 1840s, covering the childhood and youth of the "sinner". The central hero of the epic, “in the course of his life, now an atheist, now a believer, now a fanatic and a sectarian, then again an atheist,” is a collective image that has undoubted autobiographical features. The teenager Arkady Dolgoruky and his father Versilov ascend to the image of the Great Sinner in one way or another. The similarity with Nekrasov's Vlas and the indications in the first part of the novel make it possible to interpret the image of Makar Dolgoruky as a repentant sinner in the same vein.

Initially, the author saw Versilov as the main character of the new novel. The impetus for understanding this image as a “real man of the Russian majority”, “underground”, “predatory type” was the article by V.G. Avseenko "Historical novel" ("Russian Messenger", 1874, No. 4). Disagreeing with Avseenko's conclusions about the hero of the novel E.A. Salias "Pugachevtsy", Prince Danila, understood as a "predatory type", Dostoevsky outlines the features of the "real" "predatory type", the main of which are "tremendous breadth", the combination of the beauty of the ideal with the ugliness and disorder of life ("... and remorse and yet the continuation of all sins and passions. In the outline of the preface to The Teenager, the cause of "broadness" and "underground" is noted - pride, leading to the "destruction of faith in general rules" and internal "disorder". “Along with the highest and diabolical pride (“I have no judge”), there are also extremely severe demands on myself, with the only reason being that “I don’t give an account to anyone.” The predominance of “predatory types” leads, in turn, to social “disorder”: “The whole idea of ​​the novel is to pretend that now there is a general disorder<...>moral ideas<...>all of a sudden I'm left with none."

In accordance with this plan, the original version of the title of the novel is "Disorder", the corresponding form of narration is similar to the form of narration of "Crime and Punishment" (omniscient impersonal author, exposer of the hero's slightest mental movements). However, in July-August 1874 there was a “change” in the choice of the protagonist (named He in the drafts), which led to a change in the name (“The Teenager”) and the form of narration on behalf of the narrator - the protagonist): “HERO is not HE, but BOY. The story of the boy, how he arrived, whom he stumbled upon. Where was he assigned?<...>He's just an accessory, but what an accessory! TEENAGER"; “Write for yourself. Begin with a word: I. "Confession of a great sinner, for myself." I am 19 years old and already a great sinner.” Of paramount importance in the further development of the plot will be the intended "genre" of Arkady's notes - confession - and his age, 19 years old, on the border of adulthood, defined in the Bible at the age of twenty, the time of distinguishing between "good and evil", responsibility for one's actions.

In accordance with the problematics of the novel outlined by the author - "disorder" in society and the soul; “chronicle of a random family”, replacing the “traditions of the Russian family”, preserved by A.S. Pushkin ("The Captain's Daughter") and L.N. Tolstam ("War and Peace", "Anna Karenina"), the story of "entry into the field" and transformation through the confession of a young "sinner" - there is a selection of the facts of current reality. The draft materials constantly come across references to the criminal chronicle, articles in newspapers and magazines, letters from numerous correspondents of Dostoevsky. Conventionally, these records can be divided into the following groups: facts illustrating the “disorder” (reports of suicides, fraud, unmotivated murders and murders “out of an idea”, hooliganism); controversy about the estate, which could become the bearer of the "fastening idea" in post-reform Russia; children and adolescents, their relationship with society and family. Interest in the facts of Russian reality Dostoevsky conveys to his hero.

In Dostoevsky's "Adolescent", a novel "about the future of Russia - children", the variety of "facts" selected by the author is comprehended precisely from the point of view of "where all this is heading and what is happening to us<...>will be”, but not statistically, when individual cases serve as proof of the “general rule” derived from their sum, but in their singularity and uniqueness. In the final version of the novel, some of these materials - mostly the most memorable events for the reader - are left unchanged and are mentioned by the characters to characterize persons or phenomena by similarity (“a story in the genus von Zon”, “a face in the size of mother abbess Mitrofania” - are available in mind high-profile criminal cases about the murder in the brothel of a court adviser and forgery). The other part is easily recognizable, mainly regarding character prototypes and background events. Thus, reports on the investigation into the case of A.V. Dolgushin formed the basis for the image of Dergachev's circle; the details of the process of counterfeiting the shares of the Tambov-Kozlovskaya railway, the relationship between the accused Nikitin and Kolosov were reflected in the description of the fraud by Stebelkov and the young Sokolsky; the character of the declassed nobleman Arthur Schuttenbach, who was involved in the case of the sale of invalid coupons for the Rybinsk-Bologovo railway and was recognized as possessed by a mental disorder, is recognizable in Sergei Sokolsky and Andreev; the features of the “maiden Elizaveta Heidenreich”, who shot herself at the ball after being insulted by her fiancé, the “millionaire” merchant, were used to create the images of Olga and, possibly, Arkady’s sister Liza; the plot of the novel almost unchanged included the case of an underground roulette kept by a retired military man (Zershchikov's roulette), and a newspaper report about a drunken student who molested women with public abuse (the “heavily drinking young man” from the first “joke” of the Teenager). It is more difficult to determine the prototypes of the main characters. When creating these images, there is no doubt an orientation not so much to real faces (Chadaev's features in the characterization of Versilov, details of the appearance of the young Nekrasov, as he developed in Dostoevsky's image, in the image of Arkady), but to literary heroes. Transparent "borrowing" from his predecessors of ready-made types, plot constructions, plot moves is one of Dostoevsky's artistic devices. The author, like his characters-ideologists, sets up an experiment, carries out a “test”: what will change if you recreate a familiar situation with other participants in different conditions or test your characters with a situation that has already arisen in literature.

One of such "probes" in the novel is the "Onegin" triangle. In Pushkin's Speech, Dostoevsky analyzes him in detail: "wanderer" (Onegin) - "humble" (Tatiana) - "honest old man", "old husband" (general). The resolution of the situation involves two options: the first (rejected by both Pushkin and Dostoevsky) - Tatyana goes after Onegin, the second - Tatyana cannot do this. In the novel we see both options embodied; it is, as it were, a mirror reflection, a symmetry whose axis is Versilov. Sofya Dolgorukaya (“humble”) follows the “wanderer” from her living husband; Akhmakova, the "simple-minded type" of a secular woman, having been widowed and being free, does not agree to this either under the threat of death, or "out of infinite love pity." At the same time, the "Onegin" situation of the novel turns out to be more difficult to reproduce in "Pushkin's speech" not so much because both versions of its resolution are given, but because both of them are left in question. The epilogue and the novel as a whole give the possibility of a double interpretation: is the transformation of the hero of the Onegin type possible, does the “wanderer” save the self-sacrifice of the “humble” or, on the contrary, her life is ruined by him (“I torture you and torture you”).

"The Onegin situation" not only helps to understand the image of the "wanderer" - Versilov, but also reveals the character of Arkady in a new way, proves the infallibility of his moral "instinct". Wise with experience, Versilov (his perspicacity in relation to people is often emphasized by the author) is unable to unravel Akhmakova, sees "all the vices" in her. As "an atheist not only by conviction, but entirely" and an idealist by reason, he "is most inclined to assume all sorts of filth." Arkady, on the contrary, finds “all perfection” in the princess, loses his sense of reverence only under the influence of resentment for Versilov, jealousy for him, but at the moment of the fall he is already aware of his feelings as sin (“the soul of the spider”) and again restores faith in “ queen of the earth."

Most often, the heroes themselves name their literary prototypes. So, Versilov repeatedly mentions the scenes of his favorite literary works that "pierced" him, which he would later unconsciously repeat in his life - "Othello's last monologue" and "Onegin at the feet of Tatyana." For the first time he appears in the novel disguised as Chatsky for an amateur performance, and from now on Chatsky's accusatory word becomes his attribute; it is precisely as a "prophet" and accuser that Versilov is perceived in the world. Arkady admits that the "Rothschild idea" was born in his heart when at the age of five he "read" the monologue of the Miserly Knight; he certainly intends to start implementing the “idea” in St. Petersburg, because St. Petersburg is associated with another Pushkin’s “colossal person” - Hermann from The Queen of Spades. Almost the only one in the novel who does not refer to literary sources is Makar Dolgoruky. Stories of Makar - lives (in the novel - Mary of Egypt, in draft editions - Alexy, a man of God). In search of the “necessary tone” of the speech of the “wanderer”, Dostoevsky turns to the legend of the wanderings of the monk Parthenius, the book of Job, and “Words of the Ascetic” by Isaac the Syrian.

The characters' awareness of their literary "original sources" closely correlates with the main idea of ​​Dostoevsky's novel "The Teenager": "purification" of the soul "sinless, but already polluted by the terrible possibility of debauchery", "admiring vice even in its bashful, but already bold and stormy dreams" - the central idea in Dostoevsky's aesthetics is "saving beauty".

“Impression”, “image”, “delight”, “tenderness”, “idea-feeling”, “ideal of beauty” are words that are frequent on the pages of the novel. In the aesthetic theory of Dostoevsky, which finally took shape by the mid-70s, they are the author's terms characterizing the relationship between the subject and object of an aesthetic act.

The contemplation of the "highest beauty", according to Dostoevsky, is capable of transforming a person. The mechanism of the transforming action of beauty has been repeatedly considered by the writer. The first necessary condition is the very existence of a “beautiful image”, the contemplation of which evokes an “unconscious”, “immediate”, “irresistible” impression; deepening and strengthening, even if this is not realized by a person, the impression is planted in the heart by a “new feeling” (delight, to which Dostoevsky has an ambiguous attitude, or tenderness); an “internal change” takes place in a person, one-time, “suddenly”, “at once”. In the event that a striking change that “makes the former no longer the former in an instant” does not occur (due to the insufficient strength of the image or the insufficient openness of the heart to the impression), the image is still present in the heart, is “imprinted” in it and, thereby, determines the future life of a person who may never realize his presence in himself. With the accumulation of such impressions of “higher beauty”, a person is transformed. Particularly important points in the considered scheme are the impact of a holistic, not analyzed and not decomposed image, “as a whole, and not by separate sides”; the strength of the impression, embracing “the whole being”, “not going into words”, sometimes not even registered by consciousness; the absence of a time gap between contemplation and the impact of the image (“suddenly”). These moments allow the “beautiful image” (“the ideal of beauty”) to become an idea that unites society, as opposed to dividing ideas - theories based on the arguments of reason and requiring logical proof (a figurative embodiment of the action of idea-theories is Raskolnikov’s dream in Crime and Punishment) .

A “beautiful image” can be encountered in life (the hero of Dostoevsky’s article “The Funeral of a Common Man”; Christ), in art (“The Sistine Madonna” by Raphael, “Asis and Galatea” by Lorrain). The creation of convincing, "live", "positively beautiful" images by the "literature of beauty" is the goal of a true artist.

A painful problem for Dostoevsky's late aesthetics - the duality of beauty - is posed with particular force in The Teenager and The Brothers Karamazov. In the draft editions of The Teenager, there are frequent remarks about the “clouding” of the heart, which perceives the beauty of the organ, about “impure”, “antichrist” beauty: “The future Antichrist will captivate with beauty. The sources of morality in the hearts of people will be clouded, the green grass will dry up. It is obvious that now the ability of the heart to unregistered by consciousness, the simultaneous acceptance of a “beautiful image” into itself seems dangerous, and beauty itself is a “terrible force”. The main issue becomes the distinction between the beauty of the “false”, Antichrist, and “genuine”, Christ's, the purification of the heart, capable of perceiving the “ideal of the Madonna” and the “ideal of Sodom” with equal sharpness, the ethical attitude to the aesthetically significant.

Dostoevsky's "Teenager" was conceived as a work of "literature of beauty", focused primarily on the reader - the same age as the protagonist. Hence its special form, the unity of two genre varieties: "a novel about a boy" and "a novel about an idea", educational and philosophical. The history of Arkady Dolgoruky's entry into the life field turns out to be the history of the "organic rebirth" of the idea, of which he is the bearer.

The protagonist of the novel is a member of a "random family", eager to find a way out of the "disorder" of reality, a "fastening idea" on which "everyone would make up". He understands that the “fastening idea” must be of a special nature, of special strength, in order to outweigh the arguments of all the “thousands” of “saviors of mankind”, to convince them “suddenly”, without evidence, otherwise it automatically becomes just another “trichina”, aggravating “ mess". It is precisely such an idea, of a special nature, that Arkady calls an “idea-feeling”. Synonymous with the concept of "idea-feeling" and in the draft, and in the final version of the novel is the "ideal of beauty".

Arkady wants to serve humanity by showing him this ideal live. Like the ancient ascetics, who achieved deification by their ascetic life (hence the hagiographic lexicon in the story about the idea: “desert”, “exploits”, “schema”), the teenager strives to fully embody his ideal - the image of Rothschild, which attracts him with the same features that “ smart spirit" tempted the Grand Inquisitor in the novel "The Brothers Karamazov": "miracle, mystery and authority." The criterion for achieving the ideal is the accumulation by perseverance and continuity of the “Rothschild sum”. “Ugly”, or occasional, ways of getting money, the whole range of which is present in the novel: fraud (Stebelkov), inheritance (Versilov), profitable marriage (Anna Andreevna), game (Sergei Sokolsky), blackmail (Lambert), usury - The teenager rejects ideas as not corresponding to greatness. But a million obtained in this way cannot be spent (then the “Rothschild figure” becomes no longer a criterion of holiness, but “vaterism” - a means to satisfy “vulgar” needs), and cannot be left without movement (then money turns into a goal, and Rothschild is equalized with "harpagons and Plyushkins"). It remains only to distribute to a million people; thus, the newly-minted Rothschild is destroyed, which is tantamount to suicide.

The “idea” of the Teenager is ranked by Dostoevsky as “underground”. Founded on boundless pride, it grows out of the humiliating experiences of a childhood of an illegitimate child, outside the family, in the boarding house of Touchara among "counts and senatorial children." Escape from people, “solitude”, “corner”, “hermitage” are necessary conditions for achieving the “Rothschild figure”. But "living life" shakes the idea. The writer outlines the reasons for its “tarnishing” in the plan-outline of draft editions and fully implements this plan in the final text. This reason is the awareness of the internal contradictions of an idea based on an aesthetic ideal and at the same time on a material interest; love for Akhmakova; interest in the fate of his father, the "wanderer" Versilov; observation of twin heroes, also obsessed with the passion of enrichment: meeting with the "wanderer" Makar Dolgoruky, the bearer of the idea of ​​restoring the image of God ("image") in himself.

The action of the novel covers several months, from September 19 to December 13, 1872 (in fact, only the most eventful days of this period). Arkady arrives in St. Petersburg not only with an "idea", but also with a mysterious "document" sewn into the floor of his coat, compromising Akhmakova, a woman from the highest St. Petersburg society. The plot lines of the "document" and "ideas" develop in parallel, now intertwining, now crowding out one another, which gave reason to reproach Dostoevsky's novel for being "amorphous". However, "document" is to some extent the figurative equivalent of "idea". The desire for unlimited power over a brilliant society woman stems from the same source as the intoxication with the Rothschild ideal. It is no coincidence that the first meeting with Akhmakova (“the victim”) becomes the beginning of Arkady’s notes and the impetus for the presentation of the “idea”, and the rescue of the princess from Versilov’s assassination marks the “tarnishing” of the image of Rothschild. In the first part, another "victim" appears - the suicide Olga, whom Arkady involuntarily pushed, denouncing Versilov, who was trying to help her.

The second part is the story of the Teenager’s “avoidances” from the “idea”, which are paradoxically connected with it: “that’s why “my idea” is bad<...>, which admits absolutely all deviations; If it were not so firm and radical, then I would, perhaps, be afraid to evade. "Evasions" - friendship with the younger Sokolsky, "thousands, trotters and Borels", Zershchikov's roulette game - attract with their "brilliance", the opportunity to "become higher than everyone" and end with a swoon in the "dead end" at the woodpile and the desire to "burn it!" , metaphorically echoing the images of the "corner" and the fire of the Tuileries. The impression, it would seem, long ago supplanted by the "underground" - the memory of the mother's visit to the guesthouse Tushara on Fomin's day and her "blue batiste handkerchief" - does not allow Arkady to die.

The third part is the most important in the history of the rebirth of an idea. The problem of choosing the “knowing good and evil” soul is posed in it with particular acuteness already at the level of a system of images: almost simultaneously Lambert, “meat, matter, horror”, Arkady’s childhood friend, inciting him to blackmail Akhmakova, and Makar Dolgoruky, appear in the novel almost simultaneously. professing the "image" of a person ("goodness"). The "idea" of Arkady is connected with both paths that open before him: the content (power, brilliance, sudden emergence from nothingness) - with the "path of Lambert", the method of achieving the goal - the "feat" of gradually assimilation of oneself to the ideal - with the "path of Makar". The third part also motivates Arcady's appeal to the notes, gradually developing into a confession: the motive of the repentance of the Great Sinner, consistently carried out in it, turns it into an analogue of Great Lent, although the time of the action refers to the beginning of December (the completion of Arcady's notes on Easter, as indicated by the epilogue, confirms ego). So, from the lives told by Makar, Arkady notes one that was most memorable and struck him - the life of the repentant harlot Mary of Egypt, to whom the fifth week of fasting is dedicated. Makar's first meeting with Arkady plotly recalls the beginning of the life of the martyr Evdokia, also a repentant sinner and also commemorated during Great Lent. Repentance and salvation of the soul is the theme of Trishatov's musical fantasy (Gretchen in the cathedral) and "Afimiev's were" - Dolgoruky's inserted short story about the merchant Skotoboinikov. The motives of the fall, memories of the lost paradise and the "good news" of redemption are introduced by Versilov's vision ("golden age") and his story about "Christ on the Baltic Sea" (the appearance of Christ to people living "without God").

If you build those holidays that are mentioned in the novel (“the dove in the village”, flying in a beam of light through the dome of the church during communion, and the “blue cambric handkerchief” - the childhood memories of the hero; the Resurrection of Christ - the end of the notes) according to the church calendar, fate Arcadia turns out to be included in the eternal mystery of the history of mankind according to Dostoevsky: the fall into sin - the Good News of the resurrection of Christ, redemption and eternal life - the tragedy of faith (Thomas) - a new life for "passed the crucible of doubt", a return to the state before the fall, heavenly-childish, on another level: a person who is given the freedom to choose between good and evil, who "got paradise for a reason." Thus, the “new idea”, “new life” of Arkady really corresponds to what Makar Dolgoruky bequeathed to him: “Jealous for the Church, if necessary, then die for it.” This correlation is stated not directly, but symbolically, through the consistently drawn connection of the turning points of the hero's fate with the most important holidays of the Christian calendar. The paradoxical words of the epilogue “this new life, this new path that has opened before me is my own idea, the same as before, but in a completely different form, so that it can no longer be recognized” can be understood in this light. as the preservation of the path to the ideal (likening oneself to a beautiful image) while changing the ideal itself, which becomes not the false messiah Rothschild, but Christ. The form of narration that makes it possible to combine the entertaining nature of an adventurous novel with moral issues, to arouse sympathy for the “cutest, most likeable” hero and motivate his transformation, is the “process of remembering and writing down” “impressions”, in which Arkady is involved.

The epilogue indirectly confirms the correctness of the hero. The hint that it is Arkady who becomes Akhmakova’s chosen one, which in the novel is called “living life” (“living life”, as opposed to “bookish, composed”, also calls Versilov and truth), in combination with Easter motifs, allows us to consider the epilogue as confirmation of the fact that transformation took place.

A kind of "review" of Arkady's notes as a literary work and a document of the era becomes the review of a minor character, Nikolai Semenovich, attached by the narrator, in which the thoughts of Dostoevsky himself are guessed.

The film adaptation of the novel was made by director E. Tashkov in 1983; stage performance — Taganka Theatre, staged by Yu.P. Lyubimova, 1996

Even before Dostoevsky began The Possessed, he dreamed of writing a long novel (or a cycle of novels) The Life of a Great Sinner (formerly called Atheism, 1868-1870), depicting the long life and ideological quest of modern Russian man, his throwing between religion and atheism against the background of several formations of the mental life of Russian society in the 19th century. This idea was further developed in the last two novels of the writer.

In the first of them, "Adolescent" (1875), Dostoevsky (as opposed to "Childhood" and "Boyhood" by Leo Tolstoy) made it his task to describe the process of mental and moral formation of a young man not from a noble, but from a heterogeneous environment, who early recognizes the underside of life and painfully feeling its social "ugliness".

As in Possessed, The Teenager features two generations - "fathers" and "children". But the image of the representative of young Russia is described in "The Teenager" much more sympathetically than in the first novel. This was evidence of the novelist's serious inner hesitation in assessing the Russian youth and its ideological quest.

It is no coincidence that, unlike The Possessed and the two preceding novels that were published in Katkov's magazine Russkiy Vestnik, The Teenager appeared in Otechestvennye Zapiski, published by the spiritual leaders of the revolutionaries of the 1970s. - a friend of Dostoevsky's youth N. A. Nekrasov and a former long-term opponent of the novelist in the magazine struggle M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

The Teenager is Dostoevsky's experience in the genre of the novel of education, marked, however, by the same stamp of deep originality as the rest of his novels. These are the notes of a young dreamer who has just entered into life and, during the first year of his spiritual independence, is going through a complex and stormy process of moral struggle and internal maturation. Dostoevsky himself defined the main theme of this work of his as "disorder".

"Disorder" marks both the life of Russian society in the early 1970s, which is widely depicted in the novel, and the mental wanderings of the hero himself - a kind of "ugly duckling", who achieves mental maturity and self-knowledge only after passing through the school of temptations and secret vice.

The illegitimate son of the landowner Versilov and his former serf (who at the same time bears the name of his "legitimate" father Makar Dolgoruky), the hero of the novel, in the author's understanding, is by its origin the personification of that "disorder" that marked the life of a simple Russian person.

From the first years of his conscious life, the Teenager reaches out to his real father, Versilov, passionately wants to unravel the mystery of this mysterious person for him and for those around him, but he constantly encounters alienation and rebuff from him.

At the same time, already a lonely childhood spent in Moscow, among “strangers”, introduced Arkady to a sense of social inequality and humiliation that falls in the society around him to the lot of the illegitimate. Summoned to St. Petersburg by his parents after graduating from high school, the proud and dreamy Arkady both loves and hates Versilov, wants to achieve his love and recognition.

In the fight against reality hostile to him, the hero plunges headlong into the proud “idea” created by him, carefully hidden from everyone - to become the new Rothschild and with the help of accumulated wealth (which he himself deeply despises) to win power and power over people. Having entered the struggle with society, the Teenager, as it seems to him, is ready to take advantage of even dark machinations, violence and blackmail.

But, like other central characters in Dostoevsky's novels, Arkady is not an ordinary "acquirer", but a thinking and feeling young man, striving to solve for himself the basic moral questions of life, going through a feverish process of internal searches and doubts. Under the influence of these doubts, the surrounding people often appear to him as deceivers and scoundrels, and the world as the arena of the strong. But each time after that, faith in life and in the bright moral principles that govern it flashes with renewed vigor.

This faith, which is supported in the hero by his mother and sister, and which flares up in him especially sharply after meeting the named father of Arkady, the wandering peasant Makar, helps the hero, after a long and painful struggle, overcome the poison of his destructive doubts and start a new life.

Versilov, embodying the best features of the Russian nobility of the passing era, and the Teenager, a representative of modern youth, Dostoevsky considers as types of two generations of Russian society, which, although they are separated by mutual distrust and enmity, are successively interconnected, ideologically and psychologically deeply related to each other. .

The idea of ​​psychological commonality, of the similarity of the search for "fathers" and "children" is revealed in the dialogues between Versilov and his son, which constitute the main nerve nodes of the novel. The psychological closeness of father and son leads them, after long misunderstandings, to mutual rapprochement.

Both of them - despite their frenzied rushing between good and evil - are ultimately obsessed, according to the writer, with the same "Russian" longing for "living life", for universal truth and justice, are called to a deep and sincere "worldwide pain". for everyone".

History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983