1880s - the heyday of creativity N. S. Leskov. He spent all his life and all his strength to create a "positive" type of Russian person. He defended the interests of the peasants, defended the interests of the workers, denounced careerism and bribery. In search of a positive hero, NS Leskov often turns to people from the people. "Lefty" is one of the heights of the writer's artistic creativity. NS Leskov does not give a name to his hero, thereby emphasizing the collective meaning and significance of his character. “Where there is“ Lefty ”, one should read“ Russian people ”,” said the writer. He loves his hero, but does not idealize him, showing that with diligence and skill he did not study the sciences and instead of the four rules of addition from arithmetic, he takes everything according to the Psalter to the Half Dream.
The narration is led by the narrator, his speech is full of neologisms. "N. S. Leskov ... is a magician of the word, but he did not write plastically, but told, and in this art he has no equal, ”noted M. Gorky. And it's hard to disagree with this. That is why NS Leskov was constantly looking for "living faces" with a rich spiritual content, capable of interest in others. For this NS Leskov uses the memoir form of a fictional work of art. "Memoir" is only an artistic means, since most of Leskov's heroes did not have prototypes.
The language of the story is “real, kondovy Russian,” it required a lot of painstaking work from the author. However, in the story, he is perceived simply and clearly. It contains outdated words ("English flea", "yascheysky", "vereta"), vernaculars ("rumor", "trifle", "sour", "poke with hammers"), borrowed words, often distorted ("melancholy", "Small scope", "nymphosoria", "dance").
At the end of the story there is a Pushkin saying - "the deeds of bygone days" and "traditions of antiquity."
The story has a "fabulous warehouse of legend" and "the epic character of the protagonist." The real (proper) name of the left-hander is not called, it, like the names of many geniuses, is forever lost for posterity. NS Leskov created a myth personified by fantasy.
In the last chapter, the writer regrets that with the development of technology, machines have replaced manual labor. Machines, according to the author, "do not favor the aristocratic prowess, which sometimes exceeded the measure, inspired the popular fantasy to compose such fabulous legends of today." NS Leskov shows that the workers appreciate the benefits that mechanics give them, but they remember the old, bygone days with pride and love.
NS Leskov himself, evaluating the artistic originality of "Lefty", complains that the creation of a language is a very laborious business. In his opinion, only one love for his work can induce a person to undertake such mosaic work. NS Leskov writes: “It was this very 'peculiar' language that they blamed me and made it a little bit to spoil and discolor”.
"Lefty" is a work in which the writer has achieved great power and depth of artistic generalization. In it, the speech coloring of the depicted environment is so accurately recreated that when reading the story, the illusion of the reliability of events and the reality of the narrator's image arises.
The work of the writer is distinguished by a peculiar manner of presentation using his own style of narration, which makes it possible to convey folk speech motives with the greatest accuracy.
The artistic feature of the writer's works is the presentation of literary stories in the form of legends, in which the narrator represents a participant in the described event, while the speech style of the work reproduces the live intonations of oral stories. It should be noted that the Leskovsky tale does not have the traditions of Russian folk tales, since it is presented in the form of stories based on popular rumor, allowing to understand the authenticity of the author's narration.
In the images of storytellers in his tales, the author uses various representatives of society who lead the story in accordance with their upbringing, education, age, profession. The use of this manner of presentation allows you to give the work brightness, vitality, demonstrating the richness and diversity of the Russian language, which complements the individual characteristics of the characters in Leskov's stories.
To create satirical works, the writer uses verbal play when writing them using witticisms, jokes, linguistic curiosities, combined with incomprehensible sounding foreign phrases, and sometimes deliberately distorted, outdated and misused words. The linguistic manner of Leskov's works is accurate, colorful, saturated with variegation, making it possible to convey numerous simple dialects of Russian speech, thereby differing from the classical forms of the refined, strict literary style of that period.
The distinctive artistic style of the writer is also distinguished by the characteristic logical structure of his works, in which various literary techniques are used in the form of unusual rhymes, self-repetitions, vernaculars, puns, tautologies, diminutive-affectionate suffixes that form the author's colloquial manner of word formations.
In the plot lines of Leskov's legends, a combination of everyday, everyday stories about ordinary people and fabulous motives of legends, epics, fantasies is traced, which allows readers to present the work in the form of an amazing, unique, charismatic phenomenon.
The originality of the narrative manner
Leskov began his own literary activity at a fairly mature age, but it was this maturity that allowed the author to form his own style, his own narrative manner. A distinctive feature of Leskov is the ability to fairly accurately convey the folk style of speech. He really knew what the people say, and he knew incredibly precisely.
Here it should be noted a very significant fact that readers can observe in the tale of Lefty. There are many so-called folk words that stylize the narrative like a story that one man could tell another. At the same time, all these words were invented by Leskov himself, he did not take and did not retell the folk speech, but he was so competently oriented in this aspect of the language that he himself could actually invent some innovations for such a speech, moreover, innovations that looked quite harmonious and, possibly , after the publication of the works, they really began to be used by ordinary people in their communication.
Also, the genre invented by Leskov for Russian literature deserves special attention, and this genre is the tale. Etymologically, the term goes back to the word fairy tale and the verb to tell, that is, to tell a story.
The tale, however, is not a fairy tale and stands out as a very special genre, which is distinguished by its versatility and originality. It is most similar to a story that one person could tell another somewhere in a pub, or during a break at work. In general, it is something like such popular rumor.
Also, the tale, a typical example of which is the work (best known by Leskov) "The Tale of the Tula oblique left-hander who shod a flea," is to some extent an epic work. As you know, the epic is distinguished by the presence of some kind of grandiose hero who has special qualities and charisma. The tale, in turn, is based, as it were, on a true story, but from this story it makes something incredible, epic and fabulous.
The manner of presentation leads the reader to the idea of \u200b\u200bsome kind of storyteller and of the friendly communication that occurs between the reader and this storyteller. So the Tale of the Lefty, for example, comes from the person of some gunsmith from near Sestroretsk, that is, Leskov says: they say, these stories come from the people, they are real.
By the way, such a narrative manner, which is additionally supported by the characteristic structure of the work (where there are amazing rhythms and rhymes, self-repetitions, which again lead to the idea of \u200b\u200bcolloquial speech, puns, vernacular, colloquial manner of word formation) often leads the reader to the idea of \u200b\u200bthe authenticity of the story. For some critics, the tale of the left-handed person created the impression of a simple retelling of the stories of Tula artisans; ordinary people sometimes generally wanted to find this left-handed person and find out more about him. In this case, the left-hander was completely invented by Leskov.
This is the peculiarity of his prose, which combines, as it were, two realities. On the one hand, we see stories about everyday life and ordinary people, on the other hand, a fairy tale and an epic are woven here. In fact, in this way Lescom conveys an amazing phenomenon.
Thanks to the tale and his style, Leskov managed to understand how to convey the experience of the consciousness of an entire people. After all, what does it consist of? From legends, legends, legends, fantasies, fictions, conversations, conjectures that are superimposed on everyday reality.
This is what the common people exist and this "breathes", this is their originality and beauty. Leskov, in turn, was able to capture this beauty.
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The peculiarity of language in the story 8220 Lefty 8221
The story of N.S. Leskov's "Lefty" is a special work. His idea arose from the author on the basis of a folk joke about how "the British made a flea from steel, and our Tula shod it and sent it back." Thus, the story initially assumed a closeness to folklore, not only in content, but also in the manner of narration. Lefty's style is very peculiar. Leskov managed to bring the genre of the story as close as possible to oral folk art, namely to the tale, while at the same time preserving certain features of the literary author's story.
The originality of the language in the story "Lefty" is manifested primarily in the very manner of narration. The reader immediately gets the feeling that the narrator was directly involved in the events described. This is important for understanding the main ideas of the work, because the emotionality of the protagonist makes you worry with him, the reader perceives a somewhat subjective view of the actions of the other heroes of the story, but it is this subjectivity that makes them as real as possible, the reader himself is, as it were, transferred to those distant times.
In addition, the fabulous manner of narration serves as a clear sign that the narrator is a simple person, a hero from the people.He expresses not only his thoughts, feelings and experiences, behind this generalized image stands the entire working Russian people, who live from hand to mouth, but cares about the prestige of their native country. With the help of descriptions of views on the life of gunsmiths and craftsmen through the eyes of not an outside observer, but a sympathetic fellow, Leskov raises an eternal problem: why the fate of the common people, who feeds and dresses the entire upper class, is indifferent to those in power, why craftsmen are remembered only when it is necessary to support "Prestige of the nation"? Bitterness and anger can be heard in the description of Lefty's death, and the author especially clearly shows the contrast between the fate of the Russian master and the English half-skipper who found themselves in a similar situation.
However, in addition to the fabulous manner of narration, one can note the rather widespread use of vernacular in the story. For example, in the descriptions of the actions of the Emperor Alexander I and the Cossack Platov, such common verbs as “ride” and “mess around” appear. This not only testifies once again to the narrator's closeness to the people, but also expresses his attitude to the authorities. People are well aware that their pressing problems do not bother the emperor at all, but they do not get angry, but come up with naive excuses: Tsar Alexander, in their understanding, is just as simple a person, he, perhaps, wants to change the life of the province for the better, but he is forced to do more important things. An absurd order to conduct "internecine negotiations" is put into the mouth of Emperor Nicholas by the narrator with secret pride, but the reader guesses Leskov's irony: the naive artisan is trying his best to show the significance and importance of the imperial personality and does not suspect how much he is mistaken. Thus, the comic effect arises from the incongruity of overly pompous words.
The stylization under foreign words also evokes a smile, the narrator with the same proud expression speaks of Platov's “agitation”, about how the flea “dances”, but he does not even know how stupid it sounds. Here Leskov again demonstrates the naivety of ordinary people, but besides this, this episode conveys the spirit of the time, when, under the sincere patriotism, there was still a secret desire to be like the enlightened Europeans. A particular manifestation of this is the alteration of the names of works of art, which are too inconvenient for a Russian person, into their native language, for example, the reader learns about the existence of Abolon Polvedersky and is again surprised equally at the resourcefulness and, again, at the naivety of the Russian peasant.
Even Russian words to his fellow Lefty must be used in a special way, he again, with an important and sedate air, informs that Platov "could not quite" speak French, and authoritatively notes that "he does not need it: he is a married man." This is an obvious speech illogism, behind which lies the irony of the author, caused by the author's pity for the peasant, and the irony is sad.
Special attention from the point of view of the originality of the language is attracted by neologisms caused by ignorance of the thing about which the man is talking. These are words such as “busters” (chandelier plus bust) and “small scope” (named so, apparently, according to the function performed). The author notes that in the minds of the people the objects of lordly luxury have merged into an incomprehensible ball, people do not distinguish busts from chandeliers, they are thrilled by their senseless pomp of palaces. And the word “melkoscope” became an illustration of another idea of \u200b\u200bLeskov: Russian masters are wary of the achievements of foreign science, their talent is so great that no technical inventions can defeat the genius of the master. However, at the same time, in the finale, the narrator sadly notes that machines have supplanted human talent and skill.
The peculiarity of the language of the story "Lefty" lies in the manner of narration, in the use of vernacular and neologisms. With the help of these literary techniques, the author managed to reveal the character of Russian craftsmen, the reader is shown bright, distinctive images of the Lefty and the narrator.
The story of N.S. Leskov "Lefty" Is a special piece. His idea arose from the author on the basis of a popular joke about how "the English made a flea from steel, and our Tula shod it and sent it back." Thus, the story initially assumed a closeness to folklore, not only in content, but also in the manner of narration. Lefty's style is very peculiar. Leskov managed to bring the genre of the story as close as possible to oral folk art, namely to the tale, while at the same time preserving certain features of the literary author's story.
The originality of the language in the story "Lefty" is manifested primarily in the very manner of narration. The reader immediately gets the feeling that the narrator was directly involved in the events described. This is important for understanding the main ideas of the work, because the emotionality of the protagonist makes you worry with him, the reader perceives a somewhat subjective view of the actions of the other heroes of the story, but it is this subjectivity that makes them as real as possible, the reader himself is, as it were, transferred to those distant times.
In addition, the fabulous manner of narration is a clear sign that the narrator is a simple person, a hero from the people.He expresses not only his thoughts, feelings and experiences, behind this generalized image stands the entire working Russian people, who live from hand to mouth, but cares about the prestige of their native country. With the help of descriptions of views on the life of gunsmiths and craftsmen through the eyes of not an outside observer, but a sympathetic fellow, Leskov raises an eternal problem: why the fate of the common people, who feeds and dresses the entire upper class, is indifferent to those in power, why craftsmen are remembered only when it is necessary to support "prestige of the nation"? Bitterness and anger can be heard in the description of Lefty's death, and the author especially clearly shows the contrast between the fate of the Russian master and the English half-skipper who found themselves in a similar situation.
However, in addition to the fabulous manner of narration, one can note a fairly widespread use of vernacular in the story. For example, in the descriptions of the actions of Emperor Alexander I and Cossack Platov, such common verbs as "ride" and "mess around" appear. This not only testifies once again to the narrator's closeness to the people, but also expresses his attitude to the authorities. People understand perfectly well that their pressing problems do not bother the emperor at all, but they do not get angry, but come up with naive excuses: Tsar Alexander, in their understanding, is just as simple a person, he, perhaps, wants to change the life of the province for the better, but is forced to do more important things. An absurd order to conduct "internecine negotiations" is put into the mouth of Emperor Nicholas by the narrator with secret pride, but the reader guesses Leskov's irony: the naive artisan is trying his best to show the significance and importance of the imperial personality and does not suspect how much he is mistaken. Thus, the comic effect arises from the incongruity of overly pompous words.
The stylization under foreign words also evokes a smile, the narrator with the same proud expression speaks of Platov's "agitation", about how the flea "dances", but he does not even know how stupid it sounds. Here Leskov again demonstrates the naivety of ordinary people, but besides this, this episode conveys the spirit of the time, when, under the sincere patriotism, there was still a secret desire to be like the enlightened Europeans. A particular manifestation of this is the alteration of the names of works of art, which are too inconvenient for a Russian person, into their native language, for example, the reader learns about the existence of Abolon Polvedersky and is again surprised equally at the resourcefulness and, again, at the naivety of the Russian peasant.
Even Russian words to his fellow Lefty must be used in a special way, he again with an important and sedate air reports that Platov "could not quite" speak French, and authoritatively notes that "he does not need it: he is a married man." This is an obvious speech illogism, behind which lies the irony of the author, caused by the author's pity for the peasant, moreover, the irony is sad.
Special attention from the point of view of the originality of the language is attracted by neologisms caused by ignorance of the thing that the man is talking about. These are words such as "busters" (chandelier plus bust) and "small scope" (named so, apparently, according to the function performed). The author notes that in the minds of the people the objects of lordly luxury have merged into an incomprehensible ball, people do not distinguish busts from chandeliers, they are thrilled by their senseless pomp of palaces. And the word "melkoscope" became an illustration of Leskov's other idea: Russian masters are apprehensive about the achievements of foreign science, their talent is so great that no technical inventions can defeat the master's genius. However, at the same time, in the finale, the narrator sadly notes that the machines have supplanted human talent and skill.
Realizing the place and significance of N.S. Leskov in the literary process, we always note that this is an amazingly original writer. The outward dissimilarity of his predecessors and contemporaries sometimes forced him to see in him a completely new phenomenon, unparalleled in Russian literature. Leskov is brightly original, and at the same time you can learn a lot from him.He is an amazing experimenter who gave birth to a whole wave of artistic searches in Russian literature; he is a cheerful, mischievous experimenter, and at the same time extremely serious and deep, setting himself great educational goals.
Leskov's creativity, one might say, knows no social boundaries... He displays in his works people of various classes and circles: and landowners - from the rich to the half-poor, and officials of all stripes - from the minister to the quarter, and the clergy - monastic and parish - from the metropolitan to the sexton, and military men of different ranks and types of weapons, and peasants, and people from the peasantry - soldiers, artisans and every working people. Leskov willingly shows different representatives of the nationalities of the then Russia: Ukrainians, Yakuts, Jews, Gypsies, Poles ... Leskov's versatility of knowledge of the life of each class, estate, nationality is surprising. Leskov's exceptional life experience, his vigilance, memory, his linguistic flair were needed to describe the life of the people so closely, with such knowledge of everyday life, economic structure, family relations, folk art, and the national language.
With all the breadth of coverage of Russian life, there is a sphere in Leskov's work, to which his most significant and famous works belong: this is the sphere of the life of the people.
Who are the heroes of Leskov's most beloved works by our readers?
Heroes " A sealed angel"- bricklayers, "Lefties"- blacksmith, Tula gunsmith," Stupid artist " - serf hairdresser and theatrical make-up artist
To place the hero of the people at the center of the narrative, you need first of all to master his language, to be able to reproduce the speech of different strata of the people, different professions, destinies, ages. The task of recreating the living language of the people in a literary work demanded special art when Leskov used the form of the tale.
The tale in Russian literature comes from Gogol, but especially skillfully developed by Leskov and glorified him as an artist. The essence of this manner consists in the fact that the narration is conducted as if not on behalf of a neutral, objective author; the narrator is the narrator, usually a participant in the events reported. The speech of a work of art mimics the living speech of an oral story... Moreover, in a tale, the narrator is usually a person of the wrong social circle and cultural stratum to which the writer and the intended reader of the work belong. Leskov's story is led by a merchant, a monk, a craftsman, a retired mayor, or a former soldier ... Each storyteller speaks in the way that is characteristic of his education and upbringing, his age and profession, his concept of himself, his desire and ability to impress the audience.
This manner gives Leskov's story a special liveliness. The language of his works, unusually rich and diverse, deepens the social and individual characteristics of his heroes, becomes for the writer a means of subtle assessment of people and events. Gorky wrote about Leskovsky tale: "... People of his stories often talk about themselves, but their speech is so amazingly alive, so truthful and convincing that they stand before you as mysteriously tangible, physically clear, like people from the books of L. Tolstoy and others, otherwise say Leskov achieves the same result, but with a different method of mastery. "
To illustrate Leskov's fairy tale manner, let's take some tirade from "Lefty". Here is how the narrator describes the living and working conditions of English workers on Lefty's impressions : "Every worker with them is constantly satiated, dressed not in scraps, but on each capable jacket, shod in thick tweezers with iron knobs, so that he does not run into anything anywhere; he does not work with boile, but with training and has In front of everyone, there is a multiplication groove in plain sight, and under his hand is a washable tablet: everything that the master does is looking at the groove and verifies it with the concept, and then he writes one thing on the board, erases the other and brings it exactly: what is written on the tsyfir , then it actually turns out. "
The narrator has never seen English workers... He dresses them according to his imagination, combining a jacket with a vest. He knows that they are working there "according to science", he himself only heard about the "multiplication trench" in this area, with it, therefore, the master who works not with "eyeballs", but with the help of "numbers" must check his products. Familiar words, of course, are not enough for the narrator; he distorts or misuses unfamiliar words.... "Boots" become "schiglets" - probably by association with panache. The multiplication table turns into "hammering" - obviously, because the students "hammer" it. Wanting to designate some kind of extension on the boots, the narrator calls it a knob, transferring the name of the extension on a stick to it.
Narrators from the folk environment often change incomprehensibly sounding foreign words into Russianwhich, with such a modification, receive new or additional values; Leskov especially willingly imitates this so-called "folk etymology ". So, in" Levsha "the barometer turns into a" buremeter "," microscope "- into a" small scope ", " etc. Leskov, who was passionately fond of puns, play on words, witticisms, jokes, filled Lefty with linguistic curiosities... But their set does not evoke the impression of excess, because the immense brightness of the verbal patterns is in the spirit of folk buffoonery. And sometimes the word game is not only amusing, but there is a satirical denunciation behind it..
The narrator in a tale usually addresses some interlocutor or a group of interlocutors, the story begins and progresses in response to their questions and comments. At the heart of "Dumb artist"- the story of the old nanny to her pupil, a nine-year-old boy. This nanny is in the past an actress of the Oryol Serf Theater of Count Kamensky. This is the same theater that is described in Herzen's story" The Thief Forty "under the name of the theater of Prince Skalinsky. But the heroine of Herzen's story is not only a highly talented, but, due to the exceptional circumstances of life, an educated actress.Luba, on the other hand, is an uneducated serf girl, by her natural talent, capable of singing and dancing, and performing in plays the role of "visual" (that is, by hearsay, following other actresses She is not able to tell everything and reveal what the author wants to tell the reader, and not everything can know (for example, the conversations of the master with his brother). Therefore, not the whole story is told from the perspective of the nanny; part of the event is narrated by the author with the inclusion of excerpts and small quotes from nanny story.
In the most popular work of Leskov - "Lefty" we meet with a skaz of a different kind. There is no author, no audience, no storyteller here. More precisely, the author's voice is heard for the first time after the end of the tale: in the final chapter, the writer characterizes the narrated story as a "fabulous legend", "an epic" of masters, "a myth personified by folk fantasy."
(* 10) The narrator in Lefty exists only as a voice that does not belong to a specific, named person. It is like the voice of the people - the creator of the "gunsmith legend."
"Lefty" - not an everyday tale, where the narrator tells about the events he experienced or personally known to him; here he retells a legend created by the people, how folk storytellers perform epics or historical songs. As in the folk epic, in "Levsha" there are a number of historical figures: two tsars - Alexander I and Nicholas I, ministers Chernyshev, Nesselrode (Kiselvrode), Kleinmichel, ataman of the Don Cossack army Platov, commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress Skobelev and others.
Contemporaries did not appreciate either "Lefty" or Leskov's talent in general. They believed that Leskov was excessive in everything: he applied bright colors too thickly, put his heroes in too unusual positions, made them speak exaggeratedly in a characteristic language, strung too many episodes on one thread etc.
Most associated with the creativity of the people "Levsha"... The very basis of its plot is a comic saying in which the people expressed admiration for the art of Tula masters: "The Tula shod a flea". Used Leskov and walked among the people legends about the skill of Tula gunsmiths... At the beginning of the 19th century, an anecdote was published about how an important Russian gentleman showed an expensive English pistol to an artisan of the Tula Arms Factory, and he, taking the pistol, "unscrewed the trigger and showed his name under a screw." In "Levsha" Platov arranges the same demonstration to prove to Tsar Alexander that "we have our own at home just as well." In the English "armory of curiosities", (* 12) picking up a particularly vaunted "pistol", Platov unscrews the lock and shows the tsar the inscription: "Ivan Moskvin in the city of Tula".
As we can see, love for the people, the desire to discover and show the best sides of the Russian folk character did not make Leskov a panegyrist, did not prevent him from seeing the features of slavery and ignorance that his history imposed on the people. Leskov does not hide these traits in the hero of his myth about the ingenious craftsman. The legendary Lefty, with two of his comrades, managed to forge and fasten horseshoes with nails to the legs of a steel flea made in England. On each horseshoe "a master's name is displayed: what Russian master did that horseshoe." These inscriptions can only be seen through the "small scope, which increases by five million." But the artisans did not have any microscopes, but only "shooting eyes."
This, of course, is a fabulous exaggeration, but it has real reasons. Tula craftsmen have always been especially famous and are still famous for their miniature items, which can be seen only with the help of a strong magnifying glass.
Admiring the genius of Lefty, Leskov, however, is far from idealizing the people as they were, according to historical conditions, at that time. The left-hander is ignorant, and this cannot but affect his work. The art of the English masters was manifested not so much in the fact that they cast a flea from steel, but in the fact that the flea danced, being wound up with a special key. Savvy, she stopped dancing. And the English masters, hospitably receiving the Lefty, sent to England with a savvy flea indicate that he is hindered by a lack of knowledge: "... Then you could figure out that in every machine there is a calculation of force, but you are very skillful in your hands, but you didn’t realize that such a small machine, like in the nymphosoria, is designed for the most accurate accuracy and carries its horseshoes Now nymphozoria does not jump and does not dance through this. ”Leskov attached great importance to this moment. In an article devoted to the tale of Lefty, Leskov opposes Lefty's genius to his ignorance, and his (ardent patriotism to lack of concern for the people and homeland in the ruling clique. Leskov writes: "The reviewer of Novoye Vremya notes that in Lefty I had the idea to deduce one person, and that where "Lefty" stands, one should read "Russian people".
The left-handed person loves his Russia with a simple-hearted and ingenuous love. He cannot be seduced by an easy life in a foreign land. He is eager to go home, because he is faced with a task that Russia needs to fulfill; thus she became the goal of his life. In England, Lefty learned that the muzzles of guns should be lubricated, and not cleaned with crushed bricks, as was customary then in the Russian army, - why "the bullets dangle in them" and the guns, "God save the war, (...) shoot is not good ". With this, he hurries home. He arrives sick, the authorities did not bother to provide him with a document, the police completely robbed him, after which they began to take him to hospitals, but they did not accept him anywhere without a "tugament", they dumped the patient on the floor, and, finally, his "back of the head broke on the paratha." ... Dying, Lefty thought only about how to bring his discovery to the tsar, and still managed to inform the doctor about it. He reported to the Minister of War, but in response he received only a rude shout: "Know (...) your emetic and laxative, and don't get in the way of your own business: there are generals in Russia for this."
In the story " Stupid artist " the writer displays a rich count with an "insignificant face" exposing an insignificant soul. This is an evil tyrant and tormentor: people who disagree with him are torn to pieces by hunting dogs, the executioners torment them with incredible torture. This is how Leskov opposes "masters" to truly courageous people from the people, who are mad with immense power over people and who imagine themselves courageous, because they are always ready to torment and to destroy people at their own whim or whim - of course, by someone else's hands. There were enough such "alien hands" at the service of the masters: both serfs and civilians, servants and people appointed by the authorities to help the "powerful of this world" in every way. The image of one of the noblemen's servants is vividly outlined in The Dumb Artist. This is pop. Arkady, not intimidated by the torture threatening him, perhaps deadly, is trying to save his beloved girl from the abuse (* 19) of her depraved master. The priest promises to marry them and hide them for the night, after which both hope to get into the "Turkish Khrushchuk". But the priest, having previously robbed Arkady, betrays the fugitives to the count's people sent in search of the escaped, for which he receives a well-deserved slap in the face.
"Lefty"
THE PERSONALITY OF NARRATION. LANGUAGE FEATURES... Speaking about the genre originality of the story, we did not say anything about such a definition of the genre as “skaz”. And this is no coincidence. Tale as a genre of oral prose implies an orientation towards oral speech, narration on behalf of a participant in the event... In this sense, "Levsha" is not a traditional tale. At the same time, such a way of narration can also be called a skaz, which involves the "separation" of the narrative from the participant in the events... In "Levsha" just such a process takes place, especially since the word "fable" is used in the story), which presupposes the narrative character of the story. The narrator, being neither a witness nor a participant in the events, actively expresses his attitude to what is happening in various forms. At the same time, in the tale itself, one can find the originality of the position of both the narrator and the author.
Throughout the story, the narrative changes... If at the beginning of the first chapter, the narrator outwardly simple-mindedly outlines the circumstances of the emperor's arrival in England, then he consistently talks about the events taking place, using vernacular, outdated and distorted forms of words, different types of neologisms etc., then already in the sixth chapter (in the story about the Tula masters) the narrative becomes different. It does not completely lose its conversational character, however becomes more neutral, distorted forms of words, neologisms are practically not used . By changing the narrative manner, the author wants to show the seriousness of the situation described.... It is no coincidence that even high vocabulary, when the narrator characterizes "the skillful people on whom the hope of the nation now rested." The same kind of narration can be found in the last, 20th chapter, which, obviously, summing up, contains the author's point of view, therefore its style differs from that of most of the chapters.
In the calm and outwardly dispassionate speech of the narrator, they often introduce expressively colored words(for example, Alexander Pavlovich decided to “travel around Europe”), which becomes one of the forms of expressing the author's position, deeply hidden in the text.
The narrative itself skillfully emphasizes intonational features of characters' speech (compare, for example, the statements of Alexander I and Platov).
According to I.V. Stolyarova, Leskov “Directs readers' interest to the events themselves”, Which is facilitated by a special logical structure of the text: most of the chapters have an ending, and some - and a kind of beginning, which allows you to clearly separate one event from another. This principle creates the effect of a fantastic manner. It can also be noted that in a number of chapters it is in the ending that the narrator expresses the author's position: “And the courtiers who stand on the steps, all turn away from him, think:“ Platov got caught and now they will drive him out of the palace - that's why they couldn't stand him for courage ”” (end of the 12th chapter).
It should be noted the use of various techniques that characterize the features of not only oral speech, but also folk poetry in general: tautologies(“Shod on horseshoes”, etc.), peculiar prefixed verb forms (“Admired”, “send”, “slap”, etc.), words with diminutive suffixes ("Palm", "belly", etc.). It is interesting to pay attention to the proverb text (“Morning is wiser than night”, “snow on the head”). Sometimes Leskov can modify them.
ABOUT mixing of different modes of narration is evidenced by the nature of neologisms... They can in more detail describe an item and its function (two-seated carriage), scene (busts - combining the words busts and chandeliers, the writer gives a more complete description of the room in one word), act (whistlers - whistles and messengers accompanying Platov), \u200b\u200bindicate foreign curiosities (. merblyusy mantons - camel coats, etc.), the state of the heroes (expectation - expectation and agitation, an annoying bite on which Platov lay for many years, characterizing not only the hero's inaction, but also his wounded pride). The appearance of neologisms in Leskov is in many cases due to literary play.
“Thus, Leskov's tale as a type of narration not only transformed, enriched, but also served to create a new genre variety: a fairy tale. The fairy tale is distinguished by a great depth of coverage of reality, approaching in this sense to the novel form. It was Leskov's fairy tale that contributed to the emergence of a new type of truth-seeker, which can be put on a par with the heroes of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky ”(Muschenko E.G., Skobelev V.P., Kroychik L.E. S. 115). The artistic originality of "Lefty" is due to the task of finding special forms of expression of the author's position in order to assert the strength of the national character.