Today I will tell you 20 facts about writers and poets that you did not know. Or maybe they knew, of course. I can’t guarantee you that all this is true, and no one can. It’s your choice to believe it or not.
20 facts about writers and poets that you didn't know
Fact No. 1.Alexander Pushkin was blond!
True, only up to 19 years old. In the memoirs, little Pushkin is called a “frisky blond boy”; in childhood he was blond. Pushkin lost his blond locks due to illness. At the age of 19, he was struck down by fever, and the poet was shaved bald. For a long time, Alexander Sergeevich wore a red skull cap, and then the cap was replaced by dark brown hair. And he began to look the way we are used to.
Fact No. 2. Alexandre Dumas is Pushkin
There is a version according to which our beloved Pushkin did not die at all, but faked his death and left for France, since he spoke French perfectly. There is a whole lot of evidence. One of them is that until Pushkin died, Dumas could not write anything, but after 1837 he began to write brilliant novels one after another. “The Count of Monte Cristo”, “The Three Musketeers”, “Twenty Years Later”, “Queen Margot”...
Fact No. 3. Conan Doyle believed in winged fairies
Yes, yes, the man who invented Sherlock Holmes believed in the existence of fairies. He wrote the book “The Coming of Fairies”, in which he published photographs of winged fairies and examinations proving the authenticity of the photographs. The writer, who believed in the existence of the little people, spent more than a million dollars on this research.
Fact No. 4. Chekhov's pet was a mongoose
The writer brought this strange animal from a trip to the island of Ceylon. Chekhov himself called the mongoose “a cute and independent little animal,” and his family nicknamed him “Bastard.” By the way, Chekhov later exchanged Bastard for a free ticket to the Moscow Zoo.
Fact No. 5.Nikolai Gogol invented the first attraction
The writer remade windmill into a Ferris wheel and took peasant children for rides on it. But the problem is that Gogol didn’t think about reliable insurance. Then everything is like in the book: “The auditor is coming to us!” In general, the amusement park closed it down.
Fact No. 6. A St. Petersburg journalist received royalties for The Master and Margarita
Dying, Bulgakov bequeathed to give part of the royalties for the book to the one who, after the publication of “The Master and Margarita,” would bring flowers to the writer’s grave, and not just some day, but on the day when he burned the first version of the novel’s manuscript. This person was Vladimir Nevelsky, a journalist from Leningrad. It was to him that Bulgakov’s wife gave a check for a decent amount of royalties.
Fact No. 7.Lewis Carroll invented the tricycle
The author of "Alice in Wonderland" was a mathematician, poet and great inventor. He invented a tricycle, a mnemonic system for remembering names and dates, an electric pen (by the way, what is that?!), a dust jacket, a prototype of everyone’s favorite game Scrabble, which in its Russian counterpart is called “Erudite”.
Fact No. 8.Edgar Poe studied in a cemetery
And, by the way, he was terribly afraid of the dark. The school where little Edgar studied was very poor, and the children did not have textbooks. And a resourceful mathematics teacher took schoolchildren to the cemetery, where they counted the graves and calculated the years of life of the dead.
Fact No. 9. Hans Andersen had Pushkin’s autograph
The Danish storyteller received it from the wife of the owner of the “Kapnist Notebook”, into which Pushkin rewrote the poems he had selected in his own hand. The wife tore out one sheet from the notebook and sent it to Andersen, who was immensely happy. By the way, this leaflet is now kept in the Copenhagen Royal Library.
Fact No. 10. Nikolai Gogol was an excellent knitter.
Gogol had a passion for cooking and handicrafts. He treated his friends to personally prepared dumplings and dumplings, knitted and sewed scarves for himself. But he flatly refused to be photographed - he either covered his face with a top hat, or made faces in every possible way. Therefore, he was rarely invited to social events.
Fact No. 11. The army of Chekhov fans was nicknamed “Antonovkas”
When Anton Chekhov moved to Yalta, his enthusiastic fans also moved to Crimea. They ran after him all over the city, studied his gait and costume, and tried to attract attention. In January 1902, the newspaper “News of the Day” wrote: “In Yalta a a whole army stupid and unbearably ardent fans of his artistic talent, called here “Antonovkas”.
Fact No. 12.Mark Twain invented suspenders
He was no worse an inventor than Carroll. He holds patents for self-adjusting suspenders and a scrapbook with adhesive pages. Mark Twain also invented a notepad with tear-off leaves, a closet with sliding shelves, but his most brilliant invention- machine for tying ties. Apparently it didn't get widespread...
Fact No. 13.Lewis Carroll - Jack the Ripper
Journalist Richard Wallis, author of Jack the Ripper, the Fickle Friend, claims that Jack the Ripper, who brutally murdered London prostitutes, is Lewis Carroll. And Carroll himself constantly repented of some sin in his diaries. But no one knew which one, because Carroll’s relatives destroyed all his diaries. Out of harm's way.
Fact No. 14. Boxing gloves helped Vladimir Nabokov emigrate
Nabokov became interested in boxing while in the army. When he emigrated to America in 1940, three customs officers at the border began to meticulously examine his luggage. But when they saw boxing gloves in the suitcase, they immediately put them on and began jokingly boxing with each other. IN overall America and Nabokov liked each other.
Fact No. 15. Jack London is a millionaire
Jack London became the first American writer to earn a million dollars from his work. London only lived for 41 years, but he started working at the age of 9, selling newspapers. After becoming a writer, London worked 15-17 hours a day and wrote about 40 books in his short life.
Fact No. 16. John Tolkien snored terribly
His snoring was so loud that he slept in the bathroom so as not to disturb his wife's sleep. And the author of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy bequeathed never, never to make films based on his books. But, apparently, the thirst for money prevailed over the wills of the brilliant father, and Tolkien’s children agreed to the film adaptation. Well, we all know what came of it.
Fact No. 17. Vladimir Mayakovsky - Puppy
Mayakovsky was terribly fond of various “cats and dogs,” as he called them. One day, while walking with Lilya Brik, they picked up a stray red puppy. They took him home and named him Puppy. Later, Lilya began to call Mayakovsky Puppy. And from then on he signed his letters and telegrams “Puppy” and always drew a puppy at the bottom.
Fact No. 18. Balzac drank 50 cups of coffee a day
And he wrote exclusively at night. He sat down to work at midnight, dressed in a white robe, he wrote for 15 hours straight, drinking up to 20 cups of strong Turkish coffee only at night or simply chewing coffee beans. So at night he wrote his 100 novels of the literary epic “The Human Comedy”.
Fact No. 19. The first kebab shop in France was opened by Alexandre Dumas
Yes, it was he who introduced kebab to France. Dumas first tried shish kebab while traveling through the Caucasus. He liked the dish so much that he included it in his “Big cookbook" Yes, Dumas had one like that. There are rumors that the writer even cooked crow kebab for the French. They praised.
Well, if you believe fact No. 2, then it was Alexander Pushkin who was such an ardent lover of fried meat on skewers...
Fact No. 20. Dickens slept with only his head to the north
And he sat down to write only when his face was turned to the north. And he couldn’t work at all if the chair and table in the office weren’t the way he wanted. Therefore, before starting to write, he always rearranged the furniture.
Illustrations by Katerina Karpenko
(except for the illustration to the fact about Vladimir Mayakovsky)
Russian writers and poets, whose works are considered classics, are today world famous. The works of these authors are read not only in their homeland - Russia, but throughout the world.
Great Russian writers and poets
A well-known fact that has been proven by historians and literary scholars: best works Russian classics were written during the Golden and Silver Ages.
The names of Russian writers and poets who are among the world classics are known to everyone. Their work will forever remain in world history as an important element.
The work of Russian poets and writers of the “Golden Age” is the dawn in Russian literature. Many poets and prose writers developed new directions, which subsequently began to be increasingly used in the future. Russian writers and poets, the list of which can be called endless, wrote about nature and love, about the bright and unshakable, about freedom and choice. In Zolotoy's literature, as later Silver Age, reflects the relationship not only of writers to historical events, but also of the entire people as a whole.
And today, looking through the thickness of centuries at the portraits of Russian writers and poets, every progressive reader understands how bright and prophetic their works, written more than a dozen years ago, were.
Literature is divided into many topics that formed the basis of the works. Russian writers and poets spoke about war, about love, about peace, opening up completely to each reader.
"Golden Age" in literature
The "Golden Age" in Russian literature begins in the nineteenth century. The main representative of this period in literature, and specifically in poetry, was Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, thanks to whom not only Russian literature, but also the entire Russian culture as a whole acquired its special charm. Pushkin's work contains not only poetic works, but prose stories.
Poetry of the “Golden Age”: Vasily Zhukovsky
This time was started by Vasily Zhukovsky, who became Pushkin’s teacher. Zhukovsky opened such a direction as romanticism for Russian literature. Developing this direction, Zhukovsky wrote odes that became widely known for their romantic images, metaphors and personifications, the ease of which was not found in the trends used in Russian literature of past years.
Mikhail Lermontov
Another great writer and poet for the “Golden Age” of Russian literature was Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. His prose work“A Hero of Our Time” gained enormous popularity in its time because it described Russian society the way it was in that period of time about which Mikhail Yuryevich writes. But all readers fell in love with Lermontov’s poems even more: sad and mournful lines, gloomy and sometimes creepy images - the poet managed to write all this so sensitively that every reader to this day is able to feel what worried Mikhail Yuryevich.
Prose of the "Golden Age"
Russian writers and poets have always been distinguished not only by their extraordinary poetry, but also by their prose.
Lev Tolstoy
One of the most significant writers of the Golden Age was Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. His great epic novel “War and Peace” became known throughout the world and is included not only in the lists of Russian classics, but also in the world. Describing the life of a Russian secular society during Patriotic War 1812, Tolstoy was able to show all the subtleties and features of the behavior of St. Petersburg society, which for a long time Since the beginning of the war, it seemed that it had not participated in the all-Russian tragedy and struggle.
Another novel by Tolstoy, which is still read both abroad and in the writer’s homeland, was the work “Anna Karenina”. The story of a woman who loved a man with all her heart and went through unprecedented difficulties for the sake of love, and soon suffered betrayal, was loved by the whole world. A touching story about love that can sometimes drive you crazy. It was a sad end for the novel unique feature- this was one of the first works in which the lyrical hero not only dies, but deliberately interrupts his life.
Fedor Dostoevsky
In addition to Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky also became a significant writer. His book “Crime and Punishment” became not just the “Bible” of a highly moral person with a conscience, but also a kind of “teacher” for those who have to do Difficult choice, having foreseen all the outcomes of events in advance. Lyrical hero works, he not only made the wrong decision that ruined him, he took upon himself a lot of torment that did not give him peace day or night.
Dostoevsky’s work also contains the work “Humiliated and Insulted,” which accurately reflects the whole essence of human nature. Despite the fact that a lot of time has passed since it was written, the problems of humanity that Fyodor Mikhailovich described are still relevant today. Main character, seeing all the insignificance of the human “little soul”, begins to feel disgust for people, for everything that people of rich strata who have great value for society.
Ivan Turgenev
Another great writer of Russian literature was Ivan Turgenev. He wrote not only about love, he touched upon the most important problems the surrounding world. His novel Fathers and Sons clearly describes the relationship between children and parents, which remains exactly the same today. Misunderstanding between the older and younger generations is an eternal problem in family relationships.
Russian writers and poets: The Silver Age of Literature
The beginning of the twentieth century is considered to be the Silver Age in Russian literature. It is the poets and writers of the Silver Age who gain special love from readers. Perhaps this phenomenon is caused by the fact that the writers’ lifetime is closer to our time, while Russian writers and poets of the “Golden Age” wrote their works, living according to completely different moral and spiritual principles.
Poetry of the Silver Age
The bright personalities who highlight this literary period are, undoubtedly, the poets. Many directions and movements of poetry have emerged, which were created as a result of the division of opinions regarding the actions of the Russian government.
Alexander Blok
The gloomy and sad work of Alexander Blok was the first to appear at this stage of literature. All of Blok’s poems are permeated with longing for something extraordinary, something bright and light. The most famous poem"Night. Street. Flashlight. Pharmacy” perfectly describes Blok’s worldview.
Sergey Yesenin
One of the most prominent figures of the Silver Age was Sergei Yesenin. Poems about nature, love, the transience of time, one’s “sins” - all this can be found in the poet’s work. Today there is not a single person who would not find Yesenin’s poem capable of liking and describing their state of mind.
Vladimir Mayakovsky
If we talk about Yesenin, then I would immediately like to mention Vladimir Mayakovsky. Harsh, loud, self-confident - that’s exactly what the poet was like. The words that came from Mayakovsky’s pen still amaze with their power - Vladimir Vladimirovich perceived everything so emotionally. In addition to rigidity, in the work of Mayakovsky, whose personal life didn’t go well, there are love lyrics. The story of the poet and Lily Brik is known throughout the world. It was Brik who discovered all that was most tender and sensual in him, and in return Mayakovsky seemed to idealize and deify her in his love lyrics.
Marina Tsvetaeva
The personality of Marina Tsvetaeva is also known throughout the world. The poetess herself had peculiar features character, which is immediately evident from her poems. Perceiving herself as a deity, even in her love lyrics she made it clear to everyone that she was not one of those women who were capable of being offended. However, in her poem “So many of them have fallen into this abyss,” she showed how unhappy she was for many, many years.
Prose of the Silver Age: Leonid Andreev
Great contribution to fiction made by Leonid Andreev, who became the author of the story “Judas Iscariot”. In his work, he presented the biblical story of the betrayal of Jesus a little differently, presenting Judas not just as a traitor, but as a man suffering from his envy of people who were loved by everyone. Lonely and strange Judas, who found delight in his tales and tales, always received only ridicule in the face. The story tells about how easy it is to break a person’s spirit and push him to any meanness if he has neither support nor loved ones.
Maksim Gorky
The contribution of Maxim Gorky is also important for the literary prose of the Silver Age. The writer in each of his works hid certain essence, having understood which, the reader realizes the depth of what worried the writer. One of these works was the short story “Old Woman Izergil”, which is divided into three small parts. Three components, three life problems, three types of loneliness - the writer carefully veiled all this. A proud eagle thrown into the abyss of loneliness; noble Danko, who gave his heart selfish people; an old woman who had been looking for happiness and love all her life, but never found it - all this can be found in a small, but extremely vital story.
Another important work in Gorky’s work was the play “At the Lower Depths”. The life of people who are below the poverty line is what became the basis of the play. The descriptions that Maxim Gorky gave in his work show how much even very poor people, who in principle no longer need anything, just want to be happy. But the happiness of each of the heroes turns out to be different things. Each of the characters in the play has their own values. In addition, Maxim Gorky wrote about the “three truths” of life that can be applied in modern life. White lies; no pity for the person; Truth, necessary for a person, - three views on life, three opinions. The conflict, which remains unresolved, leaves each character, as well as each reader, to make their own choice.
Passion for music often develops into creativity: we will never know how many amateur and failed composers there were (and are) in the world, but we can remember those who composed music but became famous thanks to literature and philosophy.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778)
Enlightenment philosopher and forerunner of the Great french revolution was no stranger to musical writing. He is the author of several musical works, among which the most famous is the opera “The Village Sorcerer”, which premiered in 1752. N.M. Karamzin visited the production while in Paris, and described his impressions in “Letters of a Russian Traveler”: “With the liveliest pleasure I listened to the music of this wonderful opera. The Parisian ladies were right when they said that its author had to be very sensitive!.. I imagined him, in a beard and an unkempt wig, sitting in a box at the Fontainebleau Theater during the first performance of his opera, hiding from the gaze of an admiring audience.”
Ernst Theodor Amadeus (Wilhelm) Hoffmann (1776—1822)
The fact that Hoffmann was passionate about music can be guessed just by his name. Out of love for the great Mozart, the writer changed the name “Wilhelm” to “Amadeus” in 1805.
Romantic culture liked to demonize music, but Hoffmann, perhaps more than anyone else, had a hand in creating this myth. It is worth remembering his short stories “Don Juan” or “Cavalier Gluck” (the writer’s very first short story, first published in the “General Musical Newspaper”).
As a composer, Hoffmann was very prolific: the catalog of his works includes 85 items: among them operas, ballets, and chamber music. The most popular work was the opera Ondine (1816), which was noted positive feedback composer Carl Weber.
Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky (1804-1869)
The outstanding Russian romantic writer was one of the founders of Russian musicology, a tireless promoter of Mozart and Beethoven, a researcher of folk and church music, as well as a literary follower of Hoffmann. Impressed by his “Cavalier Gluck,” Odoevsky wrote “The Works of the Cavalier Giambattista Piranesi” (1831). A year earlier, his short story “Beethoven’s Last Quartet” was published. dedicated to memory great composer.
Among other things, Odoevsky was interested in the structure of organs. At the end of the 1840s, the cabinet organ “Sebastianon” was made especially for the writer (guess who it was named after; the organ, alas, did not survive to this day). Odoevsky did not stop his experiments there. The prince composed music; several of his works have survived.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Nietzsche became involved in music earlier than in philosophy; he tried to compose as a child. The peak of his composing activity came in the mid-1860s, at which time the philosopher composed a number of piano pieces, vocal works based mainly on poetry German poets. Music was Nietzsche's passion. As you know, he was greatly influenced by Wagner; they met in 1868 and became close friends for several years, but their relationship soon broke down. Shortly after the breakup, Wagner criticized Nietzsche's musical work "Echoes" New Year's Eve"(1872), and Nietzsche settled his scores with ex-friend later - in the book “Casus Wagner” (1888).
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Classic of Indian literature and laureate Nobel Prize composed about 2230 songs. As a composer, Tagore was influenced by classical Indian music (Hindustani). He often used traditional type melodic composition - called raga. Most of Tagore's songs were based on fragments of his literary works.
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1866-1949)
Mystic, philosopher, writer, founder of " Fourth way" and "Institute harmonious man", Gurdjieff took music extremely seriously, although he did not know how to read music. He was helped by Thomas de Hartmann (aka Foma Aleksandrovich Hartmann), who was his student and colleague starting in 1916. They called their compositions music for “movements” and “sacred dances.” In 1929, the alliance between Gurdjieff and Hartmann fell apart.
For Gurdjieff, music was a sacred phenomenon that has a beneficial effect on a person and can put him in a trance-like state. British mathematician John Bennett in the book “Witness. History of Quest" recalled Gurdjieff's classes in the following way: "While the new students were practicing on stage, several Russians gathered around the piano, where Thomas de Hartmann was sitting, raising his proud head like a bird. Gurdjieff began to tap a rhythm on the top of the piano. When it became clear to everyone, Gurdjieff would hum the melody or play it on the piano with one hand and then leave. Hartmann developed the theme, and if Gurdjieff did not like it, he shouted loudly, and Hartmann shouted back furiously. Furious arguments began... Suddenly Gurdjieff would utter an imperious cry, after which there would be dead silence... and Hartmann would begin to play the same theme again...”
Theodor Adorno (1903—1969)
For many years Adorno was interested in the atonal experiments of Arnold Schoenberg. They met in 1924 in Frankfurt, where Adorno began taking piano lessons. In 1925, the philosopher, settling in Vienna, studied composition under the guidance of Alban Berg. The composer once remarked to his student that sooner or later he would have to make a choice between Kant and Beethoven. Adorno's main field of activity, of course, remained philosophy, but music was also very important to him: it is not for nothing that Adorno was called an atonal philosopher. He was concerned with how the social and historical manifested themselves in music. Adorno developed a model of Hegelian-Marxist criticism of music, based on the ability of art to pose questions and, at least indirectly, point to possible ways their decisions. He is considered to be one of the founders of the sociology of music.
Paul Bowles (1910-1999)
Most famous novel Bowles's The Sheltering Sky (1947) was filmed by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1990. The classic of American literature showed an interest in music from childhood: he listened to records of academic music that his father collected, although he himself liked jazz more. His parents bought him a piano, and young Bowles began studying music theory and singing. At the age of 15, he attended Stravinsky's Firebird ballet at Carnegie Hall, and it left an impression on his soul. deep trace, as he himself admitted in his autobiography. Bowles later studied composition, and at the age of 20 he wrote his first musical composition: sonata for oboe and clarinet. At the same time, Bowles studied literature. In 1931, he first went to Tangier, where he subsequently moved permanently in 1947. In 1959, Bowles, along with research group went on an expedition whose purpose was recording traditional music ethnic groups, living in Morocco. As a composer, Bowles left a vast and varied legacy.
Anthony Burgess (1917–1993)
In England, Burgess is valued as a composer no less than a writer. He has about 40 musical compositions to his credit: among them the one-act opera Dr Faustus (1940), the opera Trotsky in New York (1980), the ballet suite for orchestra Mr W.S. (1979) and much more. Music plays important role and in some literary works Burgess. For example, in the famous dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange (1962), Beethoven inspires the protagonist to violence and gives him a feeling of uniqueness, superhumanity: “Listening to Beethoven, I felt on par with the Lord God himself, who has the right to punish and have mercy on these worthless people.” . Through music, Burgess answers the question of whether the sublime and violence can coexist, and if so, what will come of this union.
Boris Vian (1920—1959)
French writer Boris Vian was born into a musical family. His mother Yvonne Woldemar-Ravene played the piano and harp excellently, and she named one of her sons after Boris Godunov - it was her favorite opera. Passionate amateur classical music, she often organized home concerts for her children, but younger generation preferred jazz to everything in the world. Lelio, Boris, Ninon and Alen organized a home jazz orchestra. At the age of 17, Boris became a member of the Hot-Club de France music club, its honorary president was Louis Armstrong himself. Of the four children of this family, three became professional musicians. Boris connected his life with literature, but continued to study music all his life: he played in an orchestra, acted as a music journalist and composed songs.
Love makes the Earth rotate and geniuses create. Behind every great writer, like every great man, is loving woman. Today we will tell you about them, beloved and unfortunate, strong and inspiring - about the muses, thanks to whom you enjoy your favorite poems and novels.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Consuelo Sandoval
“Loving does not mean looking at each other. Loving means looking in the bottom direction.”
The author of the most fabulous boy had an immense number of mistresses, but only one became his muse. The acquaintance of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Consuelo Sandoval is shrouded in mystery. Some literary critics tell a romantic story about a girl who sat in the cockpit of a fast young pilot who demanded a kiss for lowering altitude. Other historians are confident that they met during a shootout in the center of Buenos Aires. Consuelo found herself in the very line of fire, and a strong young man in uniform covered her with his arms.
It doesn’t matter how, but two hearts met, and love flared up in them. Exupery fell madly in love with the brown-eyed, fiery Salvadoran beauty, who by that time had already become known as a “black widow”, having lost two husbands. But this did not bother the young pilot. He could not live without her and was ready to do anything if only Consuelo would illuminate him with her presence. She drank, walked, cheated on him left and right, and every time she reminded him that when he took her as his wife, he himself was for a marriage free from bodily ties.
He thought he could endure it, but he couldn't. He went to war and knew that he would not return. A " A little prince“became his farewell declaration of love, where the little prince’s beloved rose was the same burning brunette with thorns on which he pricked his heart. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry went missing along with his plane somewhere above south coast France. The newspapers will later write that he did not die, but only returned to his planet.
Consuelo Sandoval would live many more years, but would never marry again. She will write a book, “Rose's Memoirs,” about her beloved pilot, never forgiving herself. And only in 2003, fishermen near Marseille will pull out a bracelet with their nets, on which “Saint-Exupéry and Consuelo” will be embossed.
Tatyana Lappa and Mikhail Bulgakov
Few people know that the prototype of Bulgakov’s beloved Margarita was Mikhail Afanasyevich’s first wife, Tatyana Lappa. Bulgakov was married three times, but it was his first wife, Tatyana, who went through fire and copper pipes with the writer.
They met on vacation. She is 16, he is 15. Tanya is from a wealthy family of a state councilor, Misha is one of seven children religious family professor at the Theological Academy. My parents were against this relationship, but love overwhelmed me. Before the wedding, they were together for 5 happy years, during which there was everything: laughter, tears, duels, and even an abortion. And then they decided to get married. Simple, without celebrations and white dresses.
At first, the life of Tatyana and Mikhail was cheerful and carefree. But the war came, and in 1916 Bulgakov, as a student medical university, were sent to the Smolensk province, and soon to the front. Tatiana, how faithful wife, went with him. She held her legs while her husband amputated them and endured them. After the war, Bulgakov again became a doctor in a small village. Here Tatyana Bulgakova had to endure the most terrible test in her life - morphine. Strong woman, she endured this too. But when the husband began to become famous writer, the marriage has cracked. Moderate, she endured, but could not survive his mistresses in the house that she created for them.
After 11 years of marriage, Tatyana and Mikhail Bulgakov divorced, and then met only once. But it was her, the woman who was with him in the most difficult and terrible years life, called and wanted to see Bulgakov on his deathbed.
Victor Hugo and Juliette Drouet
Few people know that Victor Hugo, a true connoisseur of family values and the majesty of love, before meeting his muse Juliette Drouet, was going to write exclusively on historical and military topics. Hugo met the pretty actress Drouet when his first marriage fell apart after his wife betrayed him with a close friend. He was broken and his heart was closed to love. But sweet Juliet not only brought him back to life, but also awakened a great desire to write. She was a great lover best friend and the inspiration of the great master. He didn’t divorce his wife, and she didn’t demand it, she loved him and supported him just like that.
They were together for 50 years, before cancer interrupted this happiness and took the life of the one and only wife, as he called her, Victor Hugo. After the writer’s death, friends will tell you that a few days before the death of his beloved, the writer gave her a photograph with his image and wrote “50 years of love. This is the best of marriages."
Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn
“He himself loved to talk about how “first he fell in love with her slender legs, and only then with her.”
Hemingway met her in Florida. A pretty, slender blonde with a sharp tongue and hundreds of luggage popular articles, Martha Gellhorn, became his third wife. They married and moved to Spain, where Hemingway dedicated to his wife the novel that made him world famous, For Whom the Bell Tolls. They traveled together, wrote and seemed to be happy.
But the marriage did not last long. Hemingway, accustomed to women who created home comfort for him, could not withstand his wife’s constant travel and the primacy of career over marriage. “Either you are a correspondent in this war, or a woman in my bed,” he wrote to her when she again went to hot spots on the map of Europe. And she really became a famous journalist. Her war reporting brought her fame, but not love. Until the end of her life, Martha Gellchron remained third ex-wife the great Hemingway.
Sergei Yesenin and Isadora Duncan
Later, they will write in the newspapers: “They spoke in different languages" She's Native American, he's a golden-haired Russian guy. She is a world dancer, he is the favorite poet of all the women in the area. By the time he met Isadora Duncan, Yesenin had already been married once and had more than one high-profile romance behind him. But having met a dancer 18 years older, he fell in love, passionately and all-forgetfully. As friends and acquaintances will later remember, they behaved as if they had known each other for a long time. Six months later, the couple got married and left for Europe. But Yesenin, who madly loved his homeland, was overcome with melancholy. He began to drink alcohol, become jealous, and, over time, beat his wife. Yesenin packed his things and left, and returned after some time. But Isadora waited, forgave everything and called him “Golden Head.”
Don't look at her wrists
And silk flowing from her shoulders.
I was looking for happiness in this woman,
And I accidentally found death.
Their marriage did not last long. The passion that seethed in both made life unbearable. And despite strong feelings, upon returning to Russia, Yesenin and Duncan divorced. She will leave for Europe again, but alone, and after some time she will receive a telegram that will break her heart: “I love someone else. Married. Happy. Yesenin." And he really will get married and even become a father. And Isadora Duncan will remain alone for the rest of her life, calling him “my beloved Seryozha.”
John and Edith Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and his muse, wife and love of his life lived together for 55 happy years.
He fell in love with a sweet Protestant girl when he was only 16. He had to meet in secret so that his stepfather, a devout Catholic, would not know anything. But he guessed and made young Tolkien promise that he would go to college and would not see sweet Edith again until he came of age. John kept his word and did not write a word to his beloved until his 21st birthday. And in the evening of the same day he sent Edith a letter where he swore his love and asked the girl to become his wife. But it was already too late. The beloved gave consent to the other. Maybe life the greatest storyteller of all times would have turned out differently if that same evening he had not stood at Edith’s doorstep. John Tolkien did not like to give up and could not give up the girl he loved. An hour later, Edith broke off the engagement and told her family that she was becoming a Catholic and marrying someone else.
Their life was not easy: partings, public shame, war, but through it all they went hand in hand in wisdom, patience and love. She listened to his poems and printed stories. She was a mother of four children and the best support for her husband. It was thanks to this fragile woman that all of Tolkien’s works were filled with tenderness, hope and the meaning of life.
Erich Maria Remarque and Marlene Dietrich
One of the most famous German writers, the creator of the “lost generation” Erich Maria Remarque was known for his passion for beautiful women. He had many affairs, but the love and muse of his life was the beautiful actress Marlene Dietrich. Their relationship was complex and twisted. Remarque fell in love immediately. The femme fatale from the screen captured his entire soul. He wrote letters to her, asked her to marry her and even dedicated a novel to her. Precisely complex love affair with the actress became the basis for the writer’s brilliant work “ Triumphal Arch" But even after Remarque bared his soul on the pages of the book, Dietrich did not become favorable to him. She led a wild life, met with everyone, drank and resorted to Remarque when she felt bad.
That is why, to spite “his Puma,” as he called her from the first meeting, Remarque decided to marry Paulette Goddard, Charlie Chaplin’s ex-lover. He lived with Paulette until the end of his days, but was never able to completely break with the woman who broke his heart. Marlene Dietrich outlived Remarque by 20 years. She died alone, and his letters with traces of lipstick and bitter tears were found in her apartment.
Edgar Poe and Virginia Klemm
Some consider him a crazy psycho who married his young cousin, but most consider him a genius and the founder of the detective genre and forgive him all his oddities. Edgar Allan Poe recognized his first and only wife in infancy. They got married when he was 27 and she was 13. Despite the age difference, Poe loved his cousin with the purest and brightest love. She played the harp and sang songs to him, and he did not care about the gossip behind his back and considered her the greatest happiness in his life. “I would have long ago lost all hope if I had not thought about you, my dear wife. You now remain my main and the only incentive in the fight against this unbearable, futile and cruel life“- this is what Poe writes about his dark-haired muse.
And he lost. At the age of 25, Virginia Klemm died of consumption. Poe could no longer live without her for the remaining two years of his life. He just went crazy and sank more and more into his fictional world of paranoia and horror.
Lilya Brik and Vladimir Mayakovsky
"Love! Only in my fevered brain was you!”
This love story is not for textbooks and anthologies, but it is what made Mayakovsky the way we know him. When Vladimir Mayakovsky met Lilya, she was a member of happy marriage with literary critic Osip Brik. Their relationship did not work out for long. He courted her younger sister; she considered him a rude and uncouth futurist. Over time, feelings came flooding in, and Mayakovsky, who was also a friend of Brik’s husband, went crazy for the first time in his life from strong and all-consuming love. He honestly confessed everything to Osip Maksimovich and asked to live with them. The unfortunate husband had no choice but to come to terms with the position of the third and accept the poet into his home. Threesome love was a rare occurrence at that time, but Mayakovsky didn’t care. He trumpeted his love for Lilichka on every corner and wrote only about her.
If
I
what did he write,
If
what
said -
this is to blame
eyes-heaven,
beloved
my
eyes.
Despite the fact that both she and he often had affairs on the side, Mayakovsky always loved only his Lilichka. Mayakovsky even began his farewell note to this world with the words: “Lilya - love me.”
Francis Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
Their life was like jazz. Wherever they appeared, the champagne began to flow, and the feet of everyone present began to dance. Such was the life of the famous playmaker Francis Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. And when young Francis Scott met his muse, he had nothing in his soul. Francis fell in love at first sight with the most beautiful girl Alabama. Cheerful, cheerful, making eyes at everyone around her. Her parents were against such a union, but Fitzgerald got his way. And after the release of his first novel, he took his beloved Zelda as his wife.
More fun and serene than marriage White light haven't seen it yet. They walked, drank, danced and went crazy. They were condemned and admired, but they didn't care. Unfortunately, years of crazy living took their toll, and soon their madness began to consume them. Fitzgerald began to have a creative crisis, Zelda increasingly began to throw hysterics at her husband for all sorts of reasons. The tragedy grew when Zelda began to hear voices. Doctors made an inconsolable diagnosis: schizophrenia. Zelda was no longer his favorite muse; she was consumed by voices in her head and paranoia. The writer, who dearly loved his wife, could not see her like this. And at the age of 44 his heart could not stand it. Zelda lived for another 8 years, but until her death she did not believe and talked with her beloved Fitzgerald, as before. Every day.
The path of each of these women was difficult and thorny, but filled with love. Love that makes men conquer peaks. Love that pushes you to do crazy things. Love that makes you create.
