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Birth history. Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet was born in November or December 1820 in the village. Novoselki Oryol province. The story of his birth is not quite usual. His father, Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin, a retired captain, belonged to an old noble family and was a wealthy landowner. While being treated in Germany, he married Charlotte Feth, whom he took to Russia from her living husband and daughter. Two months later, Charlotte gave birth to a boy named Athanasius and given the surname Shenshin.

Fourteen years later, the spiritual authorities of the Eagle discovered that the child was born before the wedding of the parents and Athanasius was deprived of the right to bear his father's surname and title of nobility and became a German subject. This event is a highly impressionable soul of a child, and Fet experienced the ambiguity of his position almost all his life. The special position in the family influenced the further fate of Afanasy Fet - he had to earn for himself the rights of the nobility, which the church deprived him of. Between the university and the army. Although the Shenshin family did not differ in a special culture, Fet received a good education.

From 1835 to 1837 he studied at a German Protestant boarding school in Verro (now Võru, Estonia). Here he enthusiastically studies classical philology and secretly begins to write poetry. Fet mastered the Latin language here, which helped him later translate ancient Roman poets. After Verro, Fet continued his education at the boarding school of Professor Pogodin to prepare for Moscow University, where he was enrolled in 1838 in the department of literature of the Faculty of Philosophy. During his university years, Fet became especially friends with the future famous critic and poet Apollon Grigoriev.

Together they discussed the poetic tests of the pen, which were included in the first poetic collection - "Lyric Pantheon" (1840): humble creatures, Will share Secret sufferings With my agitated soul "These were imitative poems, and the poetry of Pushkin and Venediktov, to whom, as Fet recalled, he enthusiastically "howled" became the role models.

Within two or three years after the publication of The Lyric Pantheon, Fet publishes collections of poems on the pages of magazines, in particular Moskvitianin and Otechestvennye Zapiski, but they do not bring the expected wealth. With the hope of regaining his nobility, the young poet leaves Moscow and entered military service in a cuirassier regiment, stationed in the Kherson province. Subsequently, in his memoirs, Fet writes: “This imprisonment will continue for a long time - I don’t know, and in a moment various Gogol Wii climb into the eyes, and you still need to smile ... I can compare my life with a dirty puddle.” But in 1858 A. Fet was forced to retire.

He never received noble rights - at that time the nobility gave only the rank of colonel, and he was the headquarters - captain. This made his further military career useless. Of course, military service was not in vain for Fet: these were the dawn years of his poetic activity. In 1850, "Poems" by A. Fet were published in Moscow, greeted by readers with delight. In St. Petersburg, he met Nekrasov, Panaev, Druzhinin, Goncharov, Yazykov. He later became friends with Leo Tolstoy. This friendship was long and necessary for both.

During the years of military service, Afanasy Fet experienced a tragic love that influenced all his work. It was love for the daughter of a poor landowner Maria Lazich, a fan of his poetry, a very talented and educated girl. She also fell in love with him, but they were both poor, and for this reason A. Fet did not dare to join his fate with his beloved girl. Soon Maria Lazich died under mysterious circumstances.

Until his death, the poet remembered his unhappy love; in many of his poems, her unfading breath is heard.
In 1856 a new book of the poet was published. Fulfillment of desires. After retiring, Fet married the sister of the critic Botkin, M. Botkin, who belonged to a wealthy Moscow merchant family. It was a marriage of convenience, and the poet sincerely confessed to the bride the secrets of his birth. With the money of his wife, Fet in 1860 buys the Stepanovka estate and becomes a landowner, where he lives for seventeen years, only occasionally visiting Moscow. Here he found his royal decree that the surname Shenshin, with all the rights associated with it, was finally approved for him. He became a nobleman.

In 1877, Afanasy Afanasyevich bought the village of Vorobyovka in the Kursk province, where he spent the rest of his life, only leaving for Moscow for the winter. These years, in contrast to the years spent in Stepanovka, are characterized by his return to literature. Beginning in 1883, he published a number of collections of lyrical poems, united by a common title - "Evening Lights" (first issue - 1883; second issue - 1885; third issue - 1888; fourth issue - 1891). In his poems, the poet refuses any abstraction, since mental states are difficult to analyze, and even more difficult to convey in words the subtle movements of the soul.

Creativity A. A. Fet. A. Fet's poems are pure poetry, in the context that there is not a drop of prose. Fet limited his poetry to three themes: love, nature, art. Usually he did not sing of hot feelings, despair, delight, lofty thoughts. No, he wrote about the simplest things - about pictures of nature, about rain, about snow, about the sea, about mountains, about forests, about stars, about the simplest movements of the soul, even about minute impressions. His poetry is joyful and bright, it has a sense of light and peace. Even about his ruined love, he writes lightly and calmly, although his feeling is deep and fresh, as in the first minutes. Until the end of his life, Fetu did not change the joy that pervaded almost all of his poems.

The beauty, naturalness, sincerity of his poetry reach complete perfection, his verse is amazingly expressive, figurative, musical. “This is not just a poet, but rather a poet-musician…” Tchaikovsky said about him. Many romances were written to Fet's poems, which quickly gained wide popularity.

Fet is a singer of Russian nature. Fet can be called a singer of Russian nature. The approach of spring and autumn withering, a fragrant summer night and a frosty day, a rye field stretching endlessly and without edge and a dense shady forest - he writes about all this in his poems. Fet's nature is always calm, hushed, as if frozen. And at the same time, it is surprisingly rich in sounds and colors, lives its own life, hidden from the inattentive eye:

"I came to you with greetings,
Say that the sun has risen
What is hot light
The sheets fluttered;
Tell that the forest woke up
All woke up, each branch,
Startled by every bird
And full of spring thirst ... "

Fet perfectly conveys the "fragrant freshness of feelings" inspired by nature, its beauty, charm. His poems are imbued with a bright, joyful mood, the happiness of love. The poet unusually subtly reveals the various shades of human experiences. He knows how to catch and clothe in bright, vivid images even fleeting spiritual movements that are difficult to identify and convey in words:

"Whisper, timid breath,
trill nightingale,
Silver and flutter
sleeping stream,
Night light, night shadows,
Shadows without end
A series of magical changes
sweet face,
In smoky clouds purple roses,
reflections of amber,
And kisses, and tears,
And dawn, dawn! .. »

Usually A. Fet in his poems dwells on one figure, on one turn of feelings, and at the same time, his poetry cannot be called monotonous, on the contrary, it strikes with diversity and a multitude of topics. The special charm of his poems, in addition to the content, is precisely in the nature of the moods of poetry. Muse Fet is light, airy, as if there is nothing earthly in her, although she tells us exactly about the earth. There is almost no action in his poetry, each of his verses is a whole kind of impressions, thoughts, joys and sorrows.

Take at least such of them as “Your Ray, flying far ...”, “Still eyes, Crazy eyes ...”, “The sun is a ray between lindens ...”, “I extend my hand to you in silence ...”, etc..
The poet sang beauty where he saw it, and he found it everywhere. He was an artist with an exceptionally developed sense of beauty. Perhaps that is why in his poems there are such wonderful pictures of nature that he accepted it as it is, not allowing any decorations of reality.

Love lyrics of the poet. Just as wonderful for Fet was the feeling of love, to which many of the poet's works are devoted. Love for him is protection, a safe haven "from the eternal splash and noise of life." Fet's love lyrics are rich in shades, tenderness, warmth coming from within the soul. “Fragrant honey of love joy and magical dreams” Fet depicted in his works in words of extreme freshness and transparency. Permeated now with light sadness, now with light joy, his love lyrics still warm the hearts of readers, “burning with eternal gold in singing.”

In all the works of A. Fet, he is impeccably faithful in descriptions or feelings, then the nature of their small risks, shades, moods. It is thanks to this that the poet created amazing works that have been striking us for so many years with filigree psychological accuracy. Among them are such poetic masterpieces as "Whisper, timid breath...", "I came to you with greetings...", "At dawn you don't wake her...", "The dawn says goodbye to the earth... ".

Fet's poetry is the poetry of allusions, conjectures, omissions, his poems for the most part have no plot, they are lyrical miniatures, the purpose of which is not so much to convey thoughts and feelings to the reader, but rather the "flying" mood of the poet. He was far from spiritual storms and anxieties. The poet wrote:

"The language of mental storm
Was incomprehensible to me."

Fet was deeply convinced that beauty is a real important element in building the world, which provides it with harmonious balance and integrity. Therefore, he sought and found beauty in everything: in fallen leaves, in a rose that surprisingly smiled “on the day of fleeting September”, in the colors of “native sky”. The poet distinguished between the "mind of the mind" and the "mind of the heart." He believed that only the “mind of the heart” could penetrate the outer shell of the beautiful essence of being. Fet's heartfelt lyrics have no access to anything terrible, ugly, disharmonious.

In 1892, the poet died of an asthma attack, two days before the age of 72. Before that, he tried to commit suicide. He was buried in the village of Kleymenovo, the Shenshin family estate, 25 versts from Orel.

Fet's work had a significant influence on the Symbolist poets of the early twentieth century - V. Bryusov, A. Blok, A. Bely, and then - S. Yesenin, B. Pasternak and others.
Conclusion. Analyzing the works of the poet, one can say with full confidence that the Russian school of pure art not only was not inferior to the French, but perhaps even surpassed it in some way. Unlike the representatives of the French school of "pure art", who in their poems paid attention primarily to the rhythm of the verse, repetition, the alternation of letters in words, the creation of verses - symbols, Russian poets were masters of "musical verses" that were easy to read. The images created in the poems were light, permeated with light, appealed to the best feelings of a person, taught beauty, taught to find and love beauty in every manifestation of nature, or a feeling of love.

The poems of the representatives of the Russian school of "pure art" are more understandable to the reader, since their poems are not burdened with a large number of symbolic images. An interesting feature of Russian poets is that they not only sang of nature, but also treated it as something outstanding, amazing, which could become the meaning of life. It is in nature, love for a woman or a man that a person should find inspiration for life, work, creativity, love for the motherland. In my opinion, the Russian poets of the “pure art” school sang of nature in their poems through their special attitude towards it, while the French poets simply believed that it was worthy to preserve for centuries only poems about the eternal, something sublime, not ordinary. That is why nature reigned in the verses of the French.

Therefore, I am more impressed by the lyrics of the poets Fet and F. Tyutchev, which, through all its dissimilarity, fascinates with its beauty, subtle sense of the “soul of nature” and the desire to reflect it in all its manifestations.

3.2 / 5. 10

Russian poet (real name Shenshin), corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1886). Lyrics of nature saturated with specific signs, fleeting moods of the human soul, musicality: "Evening Lights" (collections 1 4, 1883 91). Many of the poems have been set to music.

Biography

Born in October or November in the village of Novoselki, Oryol province. His father was a wealthy landowner A. Shenshin, his mother was Caroline Charlotte Föth, who came from Germany. The parents were not married. The boy was recorded as the son of Shenshin, but when he was 14 years old, the legal illegality of this record was discovered, which deprived him of the privileges given to hereditary nobles. From now on, he had to bear the surname Fet, a rich heir suddenly turned into a "man without a name", the son of an unknown foreigner of dubious origin. Fet took it as a disgrace. To return the lost position became an obsession that determined his entire life path.

He studied at a German boarding school in the city of Verro (now Võru, Estonia), then at the boarding school of Professor Pogodin, historian, writer, journalist, where he entered Moscow University for training. In 1844 he graduated from the verbal department of the philosophical faculty of the university, where he became friends with Grigoriev, his peer, a friend in the passion for poetry. "Blessing" for a serious literary work Fet was given by Gogol, who said: "This is an undoubted talent." Fet's first collection of poems, The Lyrical Pantheon, was published in 1840 and was approved by Belinsky, which inspired him to continue his work. His poems have appeared in many publications.

In order to achieve his goal to return the title of nobility in 1845 he left Moscow and entered the military service in one of the provincial regiments in the south. He continued to write poetry.

Only eight years later, while serving in the Guards Life Lancers Regiment, he got the opportunity to live near St. Petersburg.

In 1850, in the journal Sovremennik, owned by Nekrasov, Fet's poems are published, which are admired by critics of all directions. He was received among the most famous writers (Nekrasov and Turgenev, Botkin and Druzhinin, etc.), thanks to literary earnings, he improved his financial situation, which gave him the opportunity to travel around Europe. In 1857 in Paris he married the daughter of the richest tea merchant and the sister of his admirer V. Botkin M. Botkina.

In 1858, Fet retired, settled in Moscow and vigorously engaged in literary work, demanding from publishers an "unheard of price" for their works.

A difficult life path developed in him a gloomy outlook on life and society. His heart was hardened by the blows of fate, and his desire to compensate for his social attacks made him a difficult person to communicate with. Fet almost stopped writing, became a real landowner, working on his estate; he is elected justice of the peace in Vorobyovka. This went on for almost 20 years.

In the late 1870s, Fet began to write poetry with renewed vigor. The sixty-three-year-old poet gave the name "Evening Lights" to the collection of poems. (More than three hundred poems are included in five editions, four of which were published in 1883, 1885, 1888, 1891. The poet prepared the fifth edition, but did not manage to publish it.)

In 1888, in connection with the "fiftieth anniversary of his muse", Fet managed to achieve the court rank of chamberlain; he considered the day on which this happened to be the day when the surname "Shenshin" was returned to him, "one of the happiest days of his life."

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet is a gifted poet and highly educated person, translator, publicist, and memoirist.

Birth story

A talented lyricist was born in 1820. His father is a wealthy landowner, a nobleman Shenshin, his mother is a divorced German Charlotte Fet. The origin of the child is shrouded in mystery. He was brought up as an heir, but at the age of 14, young Athanasius was declared illegitimate by the church and deprived of his title and fortune. Since that time, the collapse of hopes and the dual situation significantly influenced the actions and character of the young man. All his aspirations were in one thing - to achieve the rank of nobility. For the sake of this, Afanasy Afanasyevich became a military man, knowing that a title is awarded for a certain rank of an officer. But his hopes were repeatedly dashed. Already in 1873, he, already a rich and influential man, was entrusted with a letter and his father's surname was returned.

Personal life

Difficult and thorny was the path of the poet's love. During the years of military service, he tragically lost his beloved, who sincerely loved his girlfriend. He dedicated many of his poems to her, both in his youth and in his more mature years: “Whisper, timid breathing”, “You suffered”, “Old letters”, etc.
In 1857, Fet married a wealthy, middle-aged Botkina, for whom he received a substantial dowry, which allowed him to buy an excellent estate and become a wealthy landowner.

The beginning of creativity

In 1840, Fet published his first collection of lyrical poems, which loudly declared himself to the entire literary world of Russia. Since that time, the poet's works began to appear in well-known magazines of that time.

The first attempts to write are filled with sensuality and romanticism. For the poet, fiery beauty and wild passion become the ideal.
Later, the author stops describing feelings and emotions, and turns to invisible sensations, shades, impressions.

The maturity of poetry

Instead of a storm of burning feelings - despair, aggression, the sweetness of love and being, Fet begins to sing about the simple - raindrops, snow flakes, splashing waves, momentary impressions. The poetry of Afanasy Afanasyevich becomes not burning and hot, but light, calm, bright. He turns to stylistic laconism and symbolism. For example, he compares the sliding of a steamboat on the waves with the bathing of an “evil dolphin”, and the movement of a railway train with a “fiery snake” (poems “Steamboat” and “On the Railroad”).
unique, they are colorful, radiant and at the same time simple and calm. He sings of the approach of spring, and summer nights, and autumn withering, and frosty days. The images of nature are organically intertwined with the image of the lyrical hero, his mood, his actions: “In the smoky clouds, the purple of a rose, A reflection of amber, And kisses, and tears, And the dawn, the dawn! ..” Nature, rich in sounds and colors, lives its own life, and at the same time it influences human emotions, feelings and experiences.

Fet's poetry is not boring and monotonous, it is lively, many-sided. He describes both the phenomena of nature, and the plant world, and his suffering for the deceased beloved, and his search for love. But he does it quietly and calmly, peacefully, with a hint of hidden joy and happiness.

Variety of creativity.

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet did not limit his work to poetry alone. In 1862-1871 he published his various short stories, short stories and essays. From 1881 he began work on translations of Goethe, Horace, Ovid, Schiller and Heine. In 1890 he wrote his memoirs "My Memoirs", published in three editions.

The poet dies in 1892 from a heart attack, most likely after an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet was born in 1820. The mysterious circumstances of his birth were the most dramatic experiences of the poet himself and the subject of special study of many researchers of his work. According to the research of biographers, A.A. Fet was the son of an amt-assessor Johann Peter Karl Wilhelm Feth, who lived in Darmstadt, and his wife Charlotte. But the future poet was born in Russia, on the estate of Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin, a Russian officer who took A. Fet's mother away from her hometown and, having achieved her divorce from her first husband, married her. Until the age of 14, Fet was considered the son of A.N. Shenshin and bore his last name. The revealed truth deprived the boy of the right to be called the Russian nobleman Shenshin, and Russian citizenship, and hopes for the future.

All his life, Afanasy Fet subordinated to the “idea-passion” - to return the name Shenshin and be called a Russian nobleman. In the struggle with life circumstances, the young man showed extraordinary courage, patience, perseverance. True, Fet himself was not inclined to recognize only the role of personal will in human destiny. In his memoirs, he stated:<...>Whatever the personal will of a person, it is powerless to go beyond the circle indicated by Providence. And further he even more emphasized this dependence of human aspirations on the higher will: “The thought of the subordination of our will to another higher one is so dear to me that I do not know spiritual pleasure above contemplating it on the life stream.” But be that as it may, A.A. Fet really showed extraordinary will and patience, achieving his goal.

Serving in the army and obtaining an officer rank was the only way to return the lost noble rank and citizenship, and Fet, having graduated from Moscow University and refusing to live in Moscow, which was closer to him in spiritual inclinations, began serving in the provinces. An undoubted victim on the altar of the goal was Fet's refusal to marry Maria Lazich, the daughter of a poor Kherson landowner. “She has nothing, and I have nothing,” he wrote to Y. Polonsky, explaining his decision. Soon, in 1851, Maria Lazich died tragically.

But the officer ranks that Fet receives for conscientious service bring not only satisfaction, but also bitter disappointment. By the highest decree of the emperor, since 1849, the rank of cornet just received by Fet did not give the noble rank, and from 1852 - the rank of major assigned to him. Fet retires in 1853, without having achieved the title of nobility.

And yet, on the slope of life, Fet returns the name Shenshin, becomes a chamberlain. This goal was achieved not thanks to military service, but to the fame that his poetry acquires, however, in rather narrow, albeit influential circles (for example, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov, who entered Russian poetry under the pseudonym K.R. .). Already after the death of Fet, the well-known critic N. Strakhov, who knew him well, wrote to S.A. Tolstoy: “He was a strong man, fought all his life and achieved everything he wanted: he won a name, wealth, literary celebrity and a place in high society, even at court. He appreciated all this and enjoyed it all, but I am sure that his poems were dearest to him in the world and that he knew: their charm is undoubted, the very heights of poetry.

Fet needed undoubted willpower not only at the crossroads of life, but also in his creative destiny. The literary fate of Fet was also not cloudless: there were few connoisseurs of Fet's poetry, although among them were such authoritative judges as V.G. Belinsky, I.S. Turgenev, L.N. Tolstoy, N.N. Strakhov, F.M. Dostoevsky, Vl. Solovyov. Fet did not receive wide recognition from democratic criticism or ordinary readers. The poet much more often had to hear the voices of critics, rather mocking and unfriendly than admiring.

The hostility of modern Fetu criticism was explained by various motives. One of the reasons was rooted in Fet's demonstrative rejection of civic themes as the subject of poetry, which, in the era of the dominance of Muse Nekrasov, the "sad companion of the sad poor," and the "sorrowful" poets who imitated Nekrasov, was perceived as a challenge to the moods of a radical society, eager to see poetry as a platform for discussion social and political problems.

In the preface to the third edition of Evening Lights, Fet explained the rejection of "mournful" poets and their poetry, which describes social ulcers:<...>No one will suggest that, unlike all people, we alone do not feel, on the one hand, the inevitable burden of everyday life, and on the other, those periodic trends of absurdities that are really capable of filling any practical worker with civic sorrow. But this grief could not inspire us in any way. On the contrary, it was these hardships of life that forced us for 50 years to turn away from them from time to time and break through everyday ice in order to at least for a moment breathe in the pure and free air of poetry. And then Fet gives his understanding of poetry as "the only refuge from all worldly sorrows, including civil ones." According to Fet, “poetry, or artistic creativity in general, is a pure perception not of an object, but only of its one-sided ideal.<...>The artist, - he believes in an article devoted to the poems of F. Tyutchev, - only one side of the objects is dear - their beauty.

Undoubtedly, it was a hard-won belief. Fet was very upset by "the disgrace of the whole course of our life," as N.N. Strakhov after meeting with the poet. But the thought of "the ugliness of the whole course of our life" did not find a consistent poetic embodiment. Defining life on earth as a “bazaar shouting God”, as a “prison” (“Windows in bars, and gloomy faces”, 1882), “blue prison” (“N.Ya. Danilevsky”), the poet does not see his task in to pass judgment on her or to describe in detail "worldly sorrows." Recognizing the imperfection of the social structure, Fet made the beauty of earthly existence the subject of his work: the beauty of nature and the poetry of human feelings.

1880s - one of the most intense, fruitful periods of A.A. Feta. In 1883, his poetry collection "Evening Lights" was published, which collected his best works, three more editions of the collection were published every two or three years. Fet is working on his memoirs, and in 1890 he publishes two thick volumes of My Memoirs. The third volume - "The Early Years of My Life" comes out after the death of the poet in 1893. Fet translates a lot. Among his most significant translations is the main work of the German philosopher A. Schopenhauer "The World as Will and Representation", a poetic translation of all the works of Horace (a work begun in his youth). Less highly researchers appreciate the translations of other Roman authors made by Fet, but one cannot but be amazed at the purposefulness and enthusiasm of the Russian poet. He translates the comedies of Plautus, the "Satires" of Juvenal, the lyrical works of Catullus, the "Sorrowful Elegies" and "Metamorphoses" of Ovid, the epigrams of Martial. Before his death, Fet is working on the fifth issue of "Evening Lights".

In 1892 the poet died.

Reading time: 12 min

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

The main differences between Fet's lyrics and Tyutchev's

In Tyutchev's poetry, the world is represented as cosmic, even the forces of nature come to life and become natural spirits that surround a person. The motives in Fet's work are closer to reality (mundane). Before us is a description of real landscapes, images of real people, Fet's love - the same complex feeling, but earthly and accessible.

The secret of the poet's surname and why Fet became a foreigner

As a child, A. Fet experienced a shock - he was deprived of his title of nobility and his paternal surname. The real name of the writer Shenshin, his father is a retired Russian captain, and his mother is the German beauty Charlotte Fet.

Parents met in Germany, where they immediately had a whirlwind romance. Charlotte was married, but completely unhappy in marriage, her husband liked to drink and often raised his hand to her. Having met a noble Russian military man, she fell desperately in love with him, and even maternal feelings did not interfere with the reunion of two hearts - Charlotte had a daughter.

Already in the seventh month of pregnancy, Charlotte runs away to Russia to Afanasy Shenshin. Later, Shenshin will write a letter to Charlotte's husband, but in return he will receive an obscene telegram. After all, the lovers committed an un-Christian act.

The future poet was born in the Oryol province, was recorded in the register of births by Afanasy Shenshin. Charlotte and Shenshin got married only two years after the birth of their son.

At the age of 14, Athanasius was recognized as illegitimate, he was returned the surname Fet and is called "foreigner". As a result, the boy loses his noble origin and the inheritance of the father of the landowner. Later he will restore his rights, but after many, many years.

Fet and Tolstoy

In the works of Lotman there is a mention of one unusual case from the life of two great writers. Everyone played card games in those days, he especially liked to gamble (but now it’s not about him).

The process of the game was quite emotional, in a rush the players tore and threw the cards on the floor, money fell along with them. But it was considered indecent to raise this money, they remained lying on the floor until the end of the game, and then they were taken away by lackeys in the form of a tip.

Once, socialites (including Fet and Tolstoy) were playing a card game, and Fet bent down to pick up a fallen banknote. It was a little strange for everyone, but not for Tolstoy, the writer bent down to his friend to light a candle. There is nothing shameful in this act, because Fet played with his last money, unlike his rivals.

Fet also wrote prose

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

"We can not be separated" - the story of unhappy love

The poet met Maria Lazich at a ball in the house of the famous officer Petkovich (this happened in 1848, when the sun mercilessly burned down on the border of the Kyiv and Kherson provinces). Maria Lazich was charming - tall, slender, swarthy, with a mop of dark thick hair.

Fet immediately realized that Maria for him is like Beatrice for Dante.

Then Fet was 28 years old, and Maria was 24 years old, she had all the responsibility for the house and younger sisters, because she was the daughter of a poor Serbian general. Since then, all the writer's love lyrics have been dedicated to this beautiful young lady.

According to contemporaries, Mary was not distinguished by incomparable beauty, but she was pleasant and seductive. So Athanasius and Maria began to communicate, write letters to each other, spend joint evenings discussing art.

But one day, leafing through her diary (then all the girls had diaries in which they copied their favorite poems, quotes, attached photographs), Fet noticed musical signs, under which there was a signature - Franz Liszt.

Ferenc, a well-known composer of that time, who toured Russia in the 40s, met Maria and even dedicated a piece of music to her. At first, Fet was upset, jealousy surged over him, but then when he heard how great the melody sounds for Maria, he asked to play it constantly.

But the marriage between Athanasius and Mary was impossible, he has no means of subsistence and title, and Mary, even from a poor family, but from a noble family. Lazich's relatives did not know about this and did not understand at all why Fet had been communicating with their daughter for two years, but did not propose.

Naturally, rumors and speculation about Fet himself and Mary's immorality spread around the city. Then Athanasius told his beloved that their marriage was impossible, and the relationship must be urgently terminated. Maria asked Athanasius to just be there without marriage and money.

But in the spring of 1850 something terrible happened. In desperation, Maria sat in her room, trying to gather her thoughts on how to live on, how to achieve an eternal and indestructible union with her beloved.

Suddenly, she stood up sharply, which caused the lamp to fall on a long muslin dress, in a matter of seconds the flames engulfed the girl’s hair, she only had time to shout “Save the letters!”. Relatives put out the fire of madness, but the number of burns on the body was incompatible with life, after four painful days, Maria died.

Her last words were "He is not to blame, but I ..". There is speculation that it was suicide, not just an accidental death.

Marriage of convenience

Years later, Fet marries Maria Botkina, but not because of strong love, but by calculation. In his heart and poems, the image of the tall and black-haired Maria Lazich will forever be preserved.

How Fet returned the title

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

Suicide attempt

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

“I don’t understand the conscious increase of inevitable suffering. Volunteering towards the inevitable. November 21, Fet (Shenshin)"

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