Nikolai Ostrovsky was born on September 29, 1904 in a peasant family in Ukraine. He ranks fifth and is the youngest in his family.
The Ostrovsky family is burdened by their livelihood, and all the children have shouldered the burden of supporting the family since childhood. But what is very rare is that despite being impoverished, all the children learned to read and write and completed primary school.
The future writer showed a strong thirst for knowledge and a high talent in his childhood. He was very obsessed with literature.
During World War I and the Civil War, Ostrovsky actively participated in the underground revolution.
In 1920, Ostrovsky was seriously injured in the Battle of Lviv. After recovering from his injury, he worked on the Kiev railway construction site. During this period, he contracted typhoid fever. In addition, he contracted bone tuberculosis, and his condition deteriorated rapidly.
In early 1927, the 22-year-old Ostrovsky was completely paralyzed and bedridden. He began to go blind. It was at this difficult moment in his life that he decided to use literary works to show the face of the times he lived in and his personal life experience. He originally wrote the first few chapters of the novel, but the manuscript was accidentally lost in the mail. Since then, the writer has started writing the novel "How Steel Was Tempered".
Nikolai Ostrovsky’s life was a miracle: despite suffering from illness, he never bowed to death for 10 years. In the case of severe physical exhaustion, he insisted on passing down this novel describing the fate of his generation to future generations.
The book "How Steel Was Tempered" is an autobiographical novel, in which you can read a large number of real fragments about the author's life. Ostrovsky's friends gave great support to his literary creation and helped him transcribe pages of manuscripts. In October 1931, the first part of the novel was completed and published in 1932. The second part was completed in May 1933 and published in 1934.
When Ostrovsky first started writing the novel, he did not have an assistant. His wife Raisa Porfilievna Ostrovskaya left early and came home late, busy with work. Although the pain was unbearable and his body could barely move, Ostrovsky completed the beginning of the novel independently with the help of a cutting board. In early 1931, his mother and sister went to Moscow to reunite with him, and he changed to dictating books. Every day, he needs to overcome difficulties that are unimaginable to ordinary people. He not only needs to remember the overall context of the work and visualize and detail the ideas, but he also must not forget the sentences he wrote and the words he used. His literary thoughts usually surge late at night, with successful characters and beautiful words gushing out. In order to capture the fleeting inspiration, he can only stay up all night and repeatedly chant the precious fragments in his mind. Every sentence in the novel has been carefully tempered by him.
The book "How Steel Was Tempered" was an unprecedented success, exceeding everyone's expectations. As early as 1934, the book was translated into Ukrainian, Polish, Moldovan and Chuvash. Letters from readers poured in like flakes.
Some literary critics, especially today's critics, have always questioned the artistic value of Ostrovsky's novels. Controversy is of course allowed. But there is no doubt that this work has helped many readers in many countries around the world overcome seemingly insurmountable difficulties at first glance, and it has given many people on the verge of despair a new lease of life. There are countless such examples. This is the real value of the novel. Ostrovsky's courageous spirit in fighting the disease has become a treasured example of tenacious struggle for all mankind.
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Russian playwright. In his lifetime, he provided nearly 50 plays for the Russian stage, created hundreds of characters, and made great contributions to the development of Russian drama.
Biography: Born on April 12, 1823 in Little Oltonka Street (now renamed Ostrovsky Street) in Moscow. My father was a judge. After retirement, he engaged in business activities. Most of the people in the family were businessmen. In 1840, Ostrovsky entered Moscow University to study law. He dropped out of school in 1843. From 1843 to 1851, he served as clerk in the "Court of Conscience" and the Court of Commerce. While working at the courthouse
he began writing. In 1847, he published a fragment of the play "The Bankrupt", which attracted the attention of the literary world. After the whole play was written, it was officially published in the magazine "Muscovite" in 1850 under the title "It's easy to settle accounts with my family". It was praised by the progressive literary circles, but the police department banned its performance, and it was not performed until 1861. Since then, Ostrovsky has published one or more works almost every year.
In addition to writing, Ostrovsky has also translated many foreign plays, including Shakespeare, W., Gozzi, C., Goldoni, C., and Sevan. Works by Tis Saavedra, M.de et al. He is also an active social activist. In 1865, he initiated the establishment of the Moscow Actors' Union. In 1870, he initiated the organization of the Russian Dramatists' Association. Through the efforts of him and Rubinstein, an actor training class was founded in the same year, which trained a group of outstanding performing artists such as Sadovsky, Sadovskaya, and Markcheyev. On his initiative, the Model People's Theater was also founded.
In January 1886, Ostrovsky was appointed artistic general manager of the Royal Theaters in Moscow. However, he was not able to fully carry out his reform of the theater system and improvement of dramatic art, so he died on June 14 in Serekovo (now Ostrowski District, Kostrom Region).
Creation Ostrovsky's creation period coincided with the development period of Russian capitalism. His works reflect the social changes of this era. He himself once said that he followed the creative path of Gogol... He insisted on exposing the bad habits of society and used satirical brushstrokes to describe all living beings in society at that time. Therefore, the rudeness and naivety of the budding business class, the hypocrisy, treachery, cruelty and ruthlessness of the emerging bourgeoisie and the degenerating serf owners and landlords, the ignorance and depravity of the nobles and bureaucrats, etc., have all become the characteristics of the characters in his plays. Early works, such as "Everyone Keeps His Duty" (1852), "Poverty Is Not a Crime" (1853), "Don't Do What You Do" (1854), etc., tended to beautify the Russian patriarchal system ideologically. Chernyshevsky and Nekrasov criticized these works. With the development of the Russian revolutionary situation in the 1850s and 1860s, his creation entered a new stage. From 1856 onwards, almost all new works were published in the magazine "Modern Man" edited by Nekrasov and Shchedrin. The works of this period, including the famous "Thunderstorm", have obvious tendencies to expose society and imply revolution, and are therefore besieged by reactionary forces. Ostrovsky had to temporarily put aside pressing social themes and turn to writing historical dramas. From the late 1860s, he faced reality again and reached a climax of creation. From 1868 to the early 1980s, most of his works were published in the magazine "Chronicle of the Fatherland" edited by Nekrasov and Shchedrin. A series of plays, including the satirical comedy "A Wise Man Makes a Mistake", mocked the new industrialists and Europeanized businessmen who emerged from the remnants of serfdom. The later poetic drama "Snow Girl" (1873) expressed the author's ideals and exploration of the meaning of life. Several scripts such as "The Woman Without a Dowry" depict the tragic fate of outstanding Russian women who were devastated by the hypocritical and selfish society at that time.
All Ostrovsky's plays can be roughly divided into five categories according to the nature of their content and the class to which the characters belong.
Scripts describing the life of businessmen: "Family Portrait" (1847), "My family is easy to settle accounts" (1850), "Don't pretend to be an expert if it is not your own strength" (1853), "Poverty is not a crime" (1854), "Drunken by others' drinking" (1856), "Holiday dreams come true before meals" (1857), "Thunderstorm" (1860), "A bosom friend is better than two new friends" (1860), "Don't meddle in other people's business" "(1861), "Nothing is difficult except for those who are willing" (1861), "Who can avoid disaster" (1863), "Hard Days" (1863), "Joker" (1864), " "Fiery Heart" (1869), "No One Is Good in a Thousand Days" (1871), "Truth is Good, Happiness is Better" (1877), "The Last Sacrifice" (1878), "The Heart Is Not a Stone" (1880), etc. . The most important thing about these plays is that the author portrays the businessman in a negative light.
Scripts about people's lives: "Don't Do What You Want" (1834), "Downtown" (1865), etc. In these plays, the author describes some people who have transformed from farmers into small businessmen and small citizens. They maintain folk customs and lifestyles. The script is somewhat similar to a folk literature work, with the flavor of a folk song, and has been adapted into an opera.
Scripts describing the life of petty officials: "The Poor Bride" (1852), "The Fat Man" (1857), "The Abyss" (1866), "The Poor Man Gets Rich" (1872), "The Rich Bride" (1876) etc.
Scripts showing the so-called "prominent figures in society": "An Unexpected Event" (1851), "The Female Disciple" (1851), "Incompatible Characters" (1858), "A Wise Man Will Make a Mistake" ( 1868), "Easy Come, Easy Gone" (1870), "The Forest" (1871), "Blood Rice" (1874), "The Wolf and the Sheep" (1875), "The Woman Without a Dowry" (1879), "Famous Actresses" "The Handsome Man" (1882), "The Beautiful Man" (1883), "The Innocent Sinner" (1884), "Foreign Affairs" (1885), etc. These plays exposed the ugly souls of aristocratic landowners and celebrities.
Historical dramas: "Kozma Zakharovich Mininsuhoruk" (1862), "The Tyrant Dmitry and Vasily Suisky" (1866), "Tushin" "Promise" (1867) and so on. Ostrovsky wrote historical dramas to escape reality and resist persecution, but the themes were positive and patriotic.
In addition, there are "Berugen's Marriage" (1878), "Barbarian Woman" (1880), "Light without Heat" (1881), co-written with Solovyov, and Delusion (1881) co-written by Nie Weiren.
Drama viewpoints and writing methods Ostrovsky believes that "scripts should be written for all people." Drama is closer to the people than any other literary work.
The plays performed on the stage must be written powerfully, with great drama and warm and sincere emotions, and with vivid and powerful characters. Among all Russian classical writers, his plays account for the vast majority of the performed repertoire. Ostrovsky believes that writing about people’s lives and writing for the people will not reduce the value of dramatic literature in any way. On the contrary, “it can increase its power and prevent it from being vulgar and degenerate; only those who are truly loved by the people can Only works that are popular can be immortal. Such works will sooner or later be understood and appreciated by other nations, and eventually by the whole world."
Every time Ostrovsky writes a script, he must make profound observations and careful thinking about the things he describes, and collect sufficient information. Before he wrote the script, he not only made a list of the characters in the play, but also made a list of who was suitable to play what role. There are living models for the characters, characters, and idiomatic language he writes about. During the writing process, actors are often changed to make them more suitable, so that specific actors can best utilize their artistic talents. Ostrovsky created a large number of women of various types, enabling actresses to develop their own characteristics and achieve success, so that they have their own plays, so many actresses particularly love this playwright.
Ostrovsky attaches great importance to the expressiveness of his lines. The dialogue in his script is clear and beautiful, and the language is beautiful. He can master the position and scheduling on the stage, and can arrange the actors to enter and exit the stage just right, which makes his script performances highly dramatic.
Ostrovsky often incorporated famous Western European dramatists into his plays to make them more acceptable to Russian actors and audiences. For example, he wrote the miser Abagon in Molière's "The Miser" (the first translation of "The Stingy Man") into his "Poor Man Gets Rich"; he wrote the seamstress's son in Xiao Dumas' "The Illegitimate Son" into "The Miser". "Innocent Sinner", all achieved very good results. During the rehearsal process, he often listened to the actors' opinions and revised his script. Katerina's monologue about her teenage life in "Thunderstorm" was based on the autobiography of Kositskaya, the first actress to play Katerina.
Comments Ostrovsky's creations have precious aesthetic value in Russian literature and drama. Important Russian critics and writers, such as Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky, Turgenev, Nekrasov, Goncharov, Plekhanov, Lunacharsky, etc., They all spoke highly of Ostrovsky from different perspectives. Dobrolyubov believed that Ostrovsky was a person familiar with Russian life, a genius depicter of human psychology and a master of character description. He said that Ostrovsky could grasp the essence of life and the pulse of the times. He called the Russian life described by Ostrovsky in many of his plays before "Thunderstorm" the various forms of the dark kingdom. The article discussing this issue is titled "The Kingdom of Darkness", which is an important document in the history of Russian society and literature. As soon as "Thunderstorm" appeared, Dobrolyubov immediately wrote a new documentary paper "A Ray of Light in the Kingdom of Darkness". He believed that the heroine Katerina in "Thunderstorm" bravely issued her own protest under layers of oppression such as religious superstition, feudal forces, and ignorant customs. Her suicide by drowning in the river marked that in the increasingly mature situation of the Russian revolution, a kind and beautiful woman finally couldn't bear it anymore and took a step forward. This was the harbinger of the coming revolutionary wave. Ostrovsky's plays have been widely performed on the Russian stage and created a number of outstanding Russian actors. The Bolshoi Theater was famous for its performances of Ostrovsky's plays. Stanislavsky, who directed his "Heart on Fire" in 1926, and Meyerhold, who directed his "The Forest" in 1924, both became major dramatic events. Until the 1980s, some of Ostrovsky's famous plays were still in the repertoire of Soviet theaters. The first Ostrovsky play introduced to China was "Thunderstorm". In 1921, "Thunderstorm" translated by Geng Jizhi was published. In 1937, it was renamed "Thunderstorm" and performed in Shanghai. By the mid-1980s, more than 20 theaters, troupes and drama schools in China had performed this play. In addition to "Thunderstorm", "Poverty is Not a Sin" translated by Zheng Zhenduo and "Crime and Sorrow" (i.e. "Who Can Have No Faults, Who Can Avoid Disasters") translated by Ke Yicen were published in 1922. "Crime and Sorrow" was adapted into "Love and Hate" by Qian Ying and Zhang Geng and performed in Shanghai in 1936. "A Woman Without a Dowry" (translated by Bingyi) and "A Wise Man Will Make a Mistake" (translated by Lin Ling) were published in Shanghai one after another after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. The latter was performed by the Beijing People's Art Theater in 1962, and there are also Ostrovsky's plays, or adapted into Chinese-style plays (such as Chen Baichen's "Love on the Cliff" based on "A Woman Without a Dowry", and "Oil Man"), or adapted on the screen (such as "The Innocent Sinner" was adapted into the movie "Mother and Son"), and is loved by the Chinese people.