El voynich gadfly short. Gadfly

Who wrote "The Gadfly"?

Who was the author famous novel, which has been read for the second century? It was written by a thirty-year-old Englishwoman of Irish descent. The path to her first major work was long and difficult. An eighteen-year-old girl, Ethel Lilian Buhl, read a book by the Russian revolutionary populist S.M. Stepnyak-Kravchinsky “Underground Russia”, and later – “Russia under the rule of the tsars”. She passionately wanted to visit this mysterious country and, perhaps, find there those who fearlessly fight against the autocracy.

In 1884, she tracked down Kravchinsky in London. This is exactly how the girl imagined the Russian revolutionary - “with the heart of a lion and the good nature of a child.” She loved this one extraordinary person, but he was married. Sergei Mikhailovich and his wife Fanny warmly welcomed a young Englishwoman who was interested in Russia and began to teach her Russian.

In Russia

In the spring of 1887, Lilian went to Russia. Fanny gave her a letter to her sister, Praskovya Karaulova, and her husband gave her many instructions to people whose addresses could not be written down, only learned by heart, because they were all political. On the way, the girl stopped in Warsaw, where the first thing she decided to do was look at the Alexander Citadel - a fortress that had long ago become a prison. The damp, gloomy walls made a depressing impression on her.

In St. Petersburg, Lilian settled with Karaulova (her relatives called her Pashetta). Praskovya's husband, Vasily, a politician, was in prison at that time. To earn a living, Lilian began giving English and piano lessons. Pashetta and Lilian spent the summer of 1888 in the Pskov province, on the estate of Karaulov’s parents. The plow took sick peasants all day long, and the guest helped her.

Upon returning to St. Petersburg, Pashetta fell ill due to extreme fatigue. Lilian had to carry Karaulov's packages to the prison on Shpalernaya herself and stand in long lines. WITH Russian life she managed to get to know each other thoroughly.

In the summer of 1889, Karaulov was exiled to Siberia, Pashetta went with him, and Lilian returned to England.

The birth of a novel

Lilian decided to write a novel - a work where the main character would be a revolutionary. Once in the Louvre in Paris she saw a portrait young man, written in the 16th century: an Italian youth with a proud posture, sad eyes, dressed all in black. This image sank into her soul. This is how its main character will be. She will call him Arthur. He will be a member of the underground organization “Young Italy”, and will sign his articles with the pseudonym “Gadfly”.

Kravchinsky began publishing on English language magazine " Free Russia" Lillian edited the texts. When meeting wealthy people, she spoke convincingly about the need to help those who were fighting tsarism in Russia, and the conversation, as a rule, ended with her being handed a substantial check.

Meeting

In the Kravchinskys' modest apartment, fugitives from Russia were constantly received. And then one day, in the fall of 1890, someone who called himself Mikhail Voynich came to their house. He had just fled Siberia. Pashetta gave him the Kravchinskys' address. The guest was changed, fed...

Two years later, Lillian married him. For some time she corresponded for her husband, since he did not have any right hand, once pierced with a gendarme bayonet. The young woman even managed, without a key, to read the encrypted letters that came to Voynich from Russia. However, he soon withdrew from revolutionary activities.

Meanwhile, Kravchinsky founded the Free Russian Press Foundation to print propaganda literature and smuggle it across the border. Voynich was his first assistant in this matter as well. The novel “The Gadfly” had to be written in fits and starts. So months and years passed.

Completion of the novel

Finally, she gives up everything, leaves for Italy, works in the archives and libraries of Florence and Bologna, studies the history of the struggle for the unification of the country. Then the woman retires to a room in a small hotel and, within four months, literally without leaving her desk, finishes the novel. She loves her hero, Arthur Burton, but how many blows fate has in store for him! And the ending of the book is tragic...

With the finished manuscript, Voynich returned to London. Kravchinsky, who once blessed her to create this work, wants to read “The Gadfly.” Lilian asks him to wait: he needs to save up some money and make a copy of the manuscript. Sergei Mikhailovich will never read the novel. On the night of December 11, 1895, he was hit by a train. He was not even forty-five years old...

Lilian was in despair, she did not want to live. But the deceased friend was so looking forward to the end of The Gadfly, he really wanted it to be published! She is obliged, for the sake of his memory, to publish the novel.

In 1897, The Gadfly was published in England and the USA. A play based on the novel was staged in New York. When Lilian watched the performance, it horrified her, although the audience received it well. The next day a letter from E.L. appeared in the New York Times. Voynich, which said: “I cannot allow my name to be associated with illiterate melodrama, and I refuse to receive a fee for it.”

She returned to the theme of “The Gadfly” twice more. In the first novel, the second part begins with the title "Thirteen Years Later." The second novel (Friendship Interrupted), published in 1910, told how Arthur Burton (Rivares) spent those 13 years in Latin America. The third novel (Take Off Your Shoes), published in New York in 1945, takes place in the second half of the 18th century. His heroes are the grandfathers and parents of Arthur Burton. Two latest novel Little is known among us, although they were published in Russian.

Decades have passed

Ethel Lilian Voynich met with Friedrich Engels, Georgiy Plekhanov, other revolutionary and politicians end of the 19th century, witnessed several historical eras. In 1955, it was found by our writer Evgenia Taratuta, the author of biographical books about Stepnyak-Kravchinsky and Voynich herself. It turned out that she lives in New York, on the seventeenth floor of one of the skyscrapers.

Lilian herself was very surprised by the visit of a guest from Russia. She had no idea that somewhere else they would remember her novel, written in the 19th century, that in the Soviet Union it was being published in millions of copies and had long since become a revolutionary classic. Letters from Russia began to arrive to her in a huge number, and even received royalties from publishing houses. Voynich gladly received Soviet guests and apologized for her “not quite correct” Russian language. Showed her and Feature Film"The Gadfly", filmed in 1955. Lilian watched the film, thanked her, but remarked: “No, not at all.”

On March 12, 1957, the New York World Telegram published a headline on the front page: “Sixty-Year-Old Novel Pierces the Iron Curtain.”

Ethel Lilian Voynich died in July 1960, several years short of her centenary. This woman of amazing destiny lived through several historical eras. And her Gadfly was always with her. She invented him, made him alive and left us, a hero from the distant forties of the century before last.

The novel tells the story of a young, naive, in love, full of ideas and romantic illusions, Arthur Burton. He was deceived, slandered and rejected by everyone. He disappears, imitating suicide, and subsequently returns to his homeland 13 years later under a different name, a man with a disfigured appearance, a distorted fate and a hardened heart. He appeared before the people whom he once dearly loved and knew as a mocking cynic with a sonorous and biting journalistic pseudonym Gadfly.

Popularity in Russia

The novel was popular in England (until 1920 - 18 editions), pre-revolutionary Russia and the USA, subsequently in the USSR and others socialist countries. The year the novel was published in Russia - 1898 - was the year of the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. The translation of the novel “Gadfly” first appeared as an appendix to the magazine “World of God” for 1898. In 1898, The Gadfly was published separate publication. It was distributed by G.M. Krzhizhanovsky, E.D. Stasova, Petrovsky Grigory, Babushkin I.V. , Sverdlov Ya.M. , M. Gorky. P.A. loved this book. Zalomov, who served Gorky as the prototype for the hero of the novel “Mother”. We were fond of “Gadfly” by G.I. Kotovsky, N.A. Ostrovsky, A.P. Gaidar, M.I. Kalinin, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The 1988 edition (published by Pravda) indicates that “The Gadfly” was Yu.A.’s favorite book. Gagarin. People in other countries were also keen on the Gadfly, including where it was clearly not encouraged. The writer and actress Lyudmila Andreevna Yamshchikova, the daughter of the famous Soviet writer Alexander Altaev, took the literary pseudonym Art Felice in honor of the Voynich hero. It is read by the heroes of the novel “The Rooftops of Tehran” by the modern Iranian writer Mahbod Seraji.

Prototype

Polish literary scholars have categorically argued that real prototypes Gadfly were leaders of the Polish social revolutionary party “Proletariat”, but Russian readers immediately after the publication of “Gadfly” in Russia recognized in him the familiar features of Russian revolutionaries. Some researchers believe that in the image of the Gadfly it is easy to detect features of Mazzini and Garibaldi.

In 1955, Soviet writers managed to find E.L. Voynich, who lived in New York, and began to maintain close contact with her. She dotted all the i’s regarding the prototypes of the heroes of her novel and put an end to the controversy. So, in a letter to B.N. She wrote to Polevoy (New York, January 11, 14, 1957) regarding the prototypes of Arthur (Gadfly) and other heroes:

You are asking me if there existed in life real prototype Arthur. For people deprived creative imagination, questions of this kind often arise. But I don’t understand how a novelist can ask me this. Of course, the images in the novel are not always based on real people; Are they not some kind of result of a complex process occurring in the author’s imagination under the influence of such factors as:

The only image in The Gadfly that I can partly consider a portrait - and even then a very fragmentary portrait - is Gemma, whose image was to some extent copied - especially her personal appearance - from mine dear friend Charlotte Wilson, who helped Kropotkin so much in his work. She edited the newspaper Svoboda in London, and it was she who introduced me to Stepnyak.
From early youth big influence I was influenced by the biography and works of Mazzini, and subsequently (1885-1886) by the life and works of Abbot Lamennais, whose “Words of a Believer” I know almost by heart. The Bible and the works of Shakespeare, Milton, Shelley and Blake (his poems “Like a happy fly I fly, whether I live or die,” which I knew since childhood) most of all, it seems to me, influenced my youthful consciousness. Lamennais's personality, it seems to me, partly influenced known influence to create the image of Montanelli.
The origin of the image of Arthur is connected with my long-standing interest in Mazzini and with the portrait of an unknown young man in black, located in the Louvre, which I first saw in 1885. The fact that the novel is seen to reflect Russian or Polish influence, as Mrs. Taratuta points out in her preface to the new Russian edition of The Gadfly, is natural and understandable. Where other than of Eastern Europe and among Russian and Polish emigrants in London and Western Europe, I could become directly acquainted with the conditions that existed to varying degrees in Italy during the youthful period of Mazzini’s life? On the other hand, Anna Neill, who had just re-read the biographical notes that preceded Mazzini's The Duties of Man and Other Essays, pointed out to me numerous details that, in her opinion, could have influenced the creation of the image of Arthur.
As for your novel “Gold,” it is now clear to me why it ended this way, and I understand now that you and I have completely opposite ideas about the process of creating a novel. Of course, if your heroes are based on real people, you cannot take liberties with them!

Characters

• The Gadfly (Arthur Burton, Felice Rivares)- revolutionary, main character of the novel
• Lorenzo Montanelli- Cardinal, Arthur's real father
• Gemma Warren (Jennifer, Jim, after Signor Ball's marriage)- beloved of Arthur (Gadfly)
• James Burton- Arthur's older half-brother
• Julie Burton- James Burton's wife
• Giovanni Bolla- love rival, companion of Arthur, deceased husband of Gemma
• Cesare Martini- love rival, comrade Gadfly
• Riccardo- professor, doctor
• Grassini- Comrade Gadfly
• Gally- Comrade Gadfly
• Zita Reni- gypsy dancer, lover of Gadfly
• Colonel Ferrari- commander of the garrison in Brisighella
• Other heroes

Film adaptations

Three films based on the novel were made in the USSR.

• Gadfly (film, 1928), USSR, in leading role Iliko Merabishvili.
• The Gadfly (film, 1955), USSR, starring Oleg Strizhenov.
• The Gadfly (film, 1980), USSR, starring Andrei Kharitonov.

In the year it was reported about the filming of the film “Gadfly” by Chinese director Wu Tian Ming together with the film studio named after. A. Dovzhenko in Ukraine. As in the case of the Chinese-Ukrainian 20-episode series “How the Steel Was Tempered”, filmed in 1999, the original soundtrack of the film “Gadfly” does not exist in Russian or Ukrainian - only dubbing in Chinese. The reasons for this strange situation were not commented on by the Ukrainian side.

see also

• en:Social gadfly - the image of a gadfly in ancient literature

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An excerpt characterizing the Gadfly (novel)

Very briefly Italy, 19th century. The young man, having lost his beloved, comrades and learned about the deception of the person closest to him, disappears. After 13 years he returns to realize revolutionary ideas and return the love of loved ones.

Part one

Nineteen-year-old Arthur Burton spends a lot of time with his confessor Lorenzo Montanelli, rector of the seminary. Arthur idolizes the padre (as he calls the Catholic priest). A year ago, the young man's mother, Gladys, died. Arthur now lives in Pisa with his half-brothers.

The young man is very handsome: “Everything about him was too elegant, as if chiseled: long eyebrows, thin lips, small arms, legs. When he sat quietly, he could be mistaken for a pretty girl dressed in a man's dress; but with his flexible movements he resembled a tamed panther - albeit without claws.”

Arthur trusts his mentor with his secret: he has become part of Young Italy and will fight for the freedom of this country with his comrades. Montanelli feels trouble, but cannot dissuade the young man from this idea.

Arthur's childhood friend, Gemma Warren, Jim, as Burton calls her, is also a member of the organization.

Montanelli is offered the bishopric, and he leaves for Rome for several months. In his absence, the young man, in confession with the new rector, talks about his love for the girl and jealousy for his fellow party member Bolle.

Soon Arthur is arrested. He whiles away the time in the cell with fervent prayers. During interrogations, he does not betray his comrades. Arthur is released, but from Jim he learns that the organization considers him guilty of Bolla’s arrest. Realizing that the priest violated the secret of confession, Arthur unconsciously confirms the betrayal. Jim rewards him with a slap in the face, and the young man does not have time to explain himself to her.

At home, his brother’s wife starts a scandal and tells Arthur that his own father is Montanelli. The young man breaks the crucifix and writes a suicide note. He throws his hat into the river and swims illegally to Buenos Aires.

Part two. Thirteen years later

1846 In Florence, members of Mazzini's party discuss ways to fight the authorities. Dr. Riccardo suggests asking for help from the Gadfly - Felice Rivares, a political satirist. Rivares's sharp words in the pamphlets are what is needed.

At an evening with party member Grassini, Gemma Bolla, the widow of Giovanni Bolla, sees the Gadfly for the first time. “He was dark as a mulatto, and, despite his limp, as agile as a cat. His entire appearance resembled a black jaguar. His forehead and left cheek were disfigured by a long crooked scar - apparently from a blow with a saber... when he began to stutter, a nervous spasm twitched on the left side of his face.” The gadfly is impudent and does not take into account decency: he appeared at Grassini’s with his mistress, the dancer Zita Reni.

Cardinal Montanelli arrives in Florence. Gemma saw him last time immediately after Arthur's death. Then, as if petrified, the dignitary said to the girl: “Calm down, my child, it was not you who killed Arthur, but me. I deceived him and he found out about it." That day the padre fell in the street in a fit. Signora Bolla again wants to see Montanelli and goes with Martini to the bridge where the cardinal will ride.

On this walk they meet Gadfly. Gemma recoils from Rivarez in horror: she saw Arthur in him.

Rivarez becomes very ill. He is tormented by severe pain, party members take turns keeping watch at his bedside. During his illness, he does not allow Zita to come near him. Leaving him after duty, Martini runs into a dancer. Suddenly she bursts out with reproaches: “I hate you all!.. He allows you to sit next to him all night and give him medicine, but I don’t even dare look at him through the crack of the door!” Martini is stunned: “This woman really loves him!”

The gadfly is on the mend. While Gemma is on duty, he tells her how he was beaten with a poker by a drunken sailor in South America, about working as a freak in the circus, and how he ran away from home in his youth. Senora Bolla reveals her grief to him: through her fault, the man “whom she loved more than anyone in the world” died.

Gemma is tormented by doubts: what if the Gadfly is Arthur? So many coincidences... “And these blue eyes and those nervous fingers? She tries to find out the truth by showing a portrait of ten-year-old Arthur Gadfly, but he does not reveal himself in any way.

Rivares asks Signora Bolla to use her connections to transport weapons to the Papal States. She agrees.

Zita showers Rivarez with reproaches: he never loved her. The person Felice loves more than anything in the world is Cardinal Montanelli: “Do you think I didn’t notice the way you looked at his stroller?” And Gadfly confirms this.

In Brisighella, disguised as a beggar, he receives the necessary note from his accomplices. There Rivares manages to talk with Montanelli. Seeing that the padre's wound has not healed, he is ready to open up to him, but, remembering his pain, he stops. “Oh, if only he could forgive! If only he could erase the past from his memory - the drunken sailor, the sugar plantation, the traveling circus! What suffering can compare with this?

Returning, Gadfly finds out that Zita has left with the camp and is going to marry a gypsy.

Part three

The person involved in the transportation of weapons was arrested. The Gadfly decides to go to correct the situation. Before he leaves, Gemma tries to Once again get a confession from him, but at that moment Martini enters.

In Brisighella, Rivares is arrested: in a shootout, Gadfly lost his composure when he saw Montanelli. The colonel asks the cardinal for consent to a military trial, but he wants to see the prisoner. When they meet, Gadfly insults the cardinal in every possible way.

Friends organize an escape for Gadfly. But he suffers a new attack of illness, and once in the courtyard of the fortress, he loses consciousness. He is shackled and strapped down. Despite the doctor's persuasion, the colonel denies Rivares opium.

The Gadfly asks to meet with Montanelli. He visits the prison. Knowing about serious illness prisoner, the cardinal is horrified by his cruel treatment. The gadfly cannot stand it and the padre opens. The dignitary realizes that his carino did not drown. Arthur confronts Montanelli with a choice: either he or God. The Cardinal leaves the cell. The Gadfly shouts after him: “I can’t stand this! Radre, come back! Come back!

The cardinal agrees to a military trial. The soldiers, who have fallen in love with Gadfly, shoot past. Finally Rivares goes down. At this moment Montanelli appears in the courtyard. Arthur's last words are addressed to the cardinal: “Adre... is your god... satisfied?”

Gadfly's friends learn about his execution.

During the festive service, Montanelli sees blood in everything: the rays of the sun, roses, red carpets. In his speech, he accuses the parishioners of the death of his son, sacrificed by the cardinal for their sake, as the Lord sacrificed Christ.

Gemma receives a letter from Gadfly, written before the execution. It confirms that Felice Rivares is Arthur. “She lost it. Lost it again!” Martini brings the news of Montanelli's death from a heart attack.

On the 17th floor of a large, gloomy building on 24th Street in New York, the old English writer Ethel Lilian Voynich recently lived. She lived with her friend Anna Neill. Anna worked in the library, and Voynich was alone almost all days. The windows of her room face east. For hours she sat in a chair by the window and remembered...

A long, complex, difficult life is behind us. Many countries, cities, people and constant work.

And the book created by her has its own destiny.

Met with indignation in America and indifference in England, her novel The Gadfly was enthusiastically received in Russia.

She wrote her novel only for adults, believing that it was in no way suitable for young people, but it was the young reader who passionately fell in love with her hero.

All her peers died, she was almost alone. She knew nothing about how her novel was now viewed in Russia, in the USSR. She carefully kept a small book in a yellow cover - a cheap edition of “The Gadfly” in Russian, published in 1913. She believed that this was the last edition of her novel in Russia.

But then one day, at the end of the summer of 1955, they brought her the April issue of the Soviet magazine Ogonyok. It contained an article - “The novel “Gadfly” and its author.” Excited to the depths of her soul, the old writer saw in a magazine a photograph of herself fifty years ago, a portrait of her father and husband.

This means that she has not been forgotten, she is loved in that huge, beautiful country - in the country where she herself visited in her youth, for whose freedom she once fought!

It turns out that by 1955, her novel “The Gadfly” was translated into twenty languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR. The circulation of his publications has exceeded two million! Films based on its plot have been staged twice; thousands of spectators in many cities watch the play “The Gadfly.”

Shocked, she could not sleep for a long time that night.

“I told you about Russia,” she shares with Anna. “They couldn’t stop reading my book.”

Since then, the Ogonyok magazine has always been on her desk.

After some time, she learned that a delegation of Soviet journalists was coming to America. They wanted to see the author of The Gadfly, and E.L. Voynich invited them to visit her.

And so they found themselves in front of her - living people of the country of socialism. She, a contemporary of Marx and Engels, saw with her own eyes the people of the future. And this future came first in Russia.

Soviet journalists brought her flowers. She stroked the delicate pink petals of chrysanthemums with thin, dried fingers. She loved flowers very much...

Soviet journalists told her again about the people’s love for her novel... Yes, they probably read it, but they should love it so much! In twenty languages, over two million! – it seemed incredible to her, and she shook her head in disbelief.

Guests asked her hundreds of questions. She spoke to them in Russian. She hasn't spoken Russian for so long. Sometimes she forgot a word, but after being silent for a minute, she remembered it. She loved the Russian language and the wonderful literature created in this language.

E.L. Voynich talked about her Russian friends and, above all, about the famous revolutionary and writer - Sergei Mikhailovich Stepnyak-Kravchinsky, the author of wonderful books: “Underground Russia”, “Andrei Kozhukhov”, “House on the Volga” and others.

“We, the young ones, called him guardian,” said E.L. Voynich “It was he who helped me become a writer.”

The guests were ready to listen to her stories all day, but she soon got tired, because she is already 91 years old...

A special correspondent for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper asked her to write a few words of greetings to Soviet youth.

E.L. Voynich thought: a few words, but the most important thing must be said! Oh, she knew well what was most important for the country of socialism, and with a confident hand she wrote the words:

"To all children Soviet Union: happy future in a world of peace” and signed “E.L. Voynich NY. November 17, 1955."

From that day on, E.L.’s life changed. Voynich She began to receive hundreds of letters from the USSR. Many visitors came to her: Soviet writers, artists, performers, diplomats. They showed her the houses Soviet film"Gadfly", they sent her editions of her books, theater posters performances “The Gadfly”...

The lot of a writer is high and enviable; during his lifetime he has earned the love of millions of readers around the world. Millions is not an exaggeration: after all, the novel “The Gadfly” has been translated into almost all European languages. The novel "The Gadfly" is known and loved in people's democracies: it is published and republished in China, Romania, the GDR, Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. But this novel truly gained national fame in the USSR: during the years of Soviet power, the novel “Gadfly” was published in our country 140 times in 24 languages ​​with a total circulation of about six million copies!

The novel “The Gadfly” was translated into Russian in 1898, immediately after its appearance in America and England, and immediately became the favorite book of progressive Russian youth.

This book captivated young people, in the words of V.G. Belinsky, “an example of high actions” of the young hero of the book.

They read and re-read it, they cried over it at night, clenching their fists, and in the morning they went out into life with dry eyes and burning hearts, ready for battle and death for happiness and freedom native people. She gave courage to prisoners, she made the weak strong, she turned the strong into heroes.

“The Gadfly” entered the consciousness of the Russian reader in the era of preparation for the first Russian revolution. This book helped implement one of the most important tasks proletarian movement proclaimed by V.I. Lenin in 1900 in the first issue of Iskra: “We must prepare people who will devote not just their free evenings, but their entire lives, to the revolution.”

The image of Gadfly was an example of a revolutionary hero who gave his whole life to the revolution, and the book about him became one of the favorites in underground circles, among progressive young men and women throughout Russia.

The novel “The Gadfly” was loved, appreciated and disseminated by prominent figures of our party during the struggle against autocracy: G.M. Krzhizhanovsky, E.D. Stasova, Ya.M. Sverdlov, M.I. Kalinin, I.V. Babushkin and others. Later, “The Gadfly” became the heroes’ favorite book civil war– G.I. Kotovsky and N.A. Ostrovsky; Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was engrossed in The Gadfly, and Alexey Maresyev highly appreciates The Gadfly.

This book was loved by M. Gorky, A. Fadeev, V. Mayakovsky.

And today, thousands of young men and women, reading the story of the struggle and death of the brave Gadfly, learn to remain faithful to their ideas, learn heroism and courage.

No wonder “The Gadfly” is one of the favorite books of the first cosmonauts: Yuri Gagarin, Andriyan Nikolaev and Valentina Tereshkova.

The novel “The Gadfly,” written by the English writer Ethel Lilian Voynich, was published in 1897. This novel depicts the activities of members of the Italian underground revolutionary organization "Young Italy" in the 30s and 40s of the 19th century.

At that time, after the defeat of Napoleonic army, all of Italy was divided into eight separate states and was actually captured by Austrian troops. The head of the Catholic Church, the Pope, supported the Austrian invaders. Under their double oppression, the Italian people were suffocating and in poverty. The Austrians benefited from the fragmentation of the country, and they in every possible way fanned the discord between the individual Italian states. The Sardinian kingdom with the main city of Turin, the Tuscan Duchy with the main city of Florence, the Papal States with the main city of Rome and other Italian states were separated from each other by borders, customs, each state had its own monetary system, its own measures. Wars often occurred between individual states.

Advanced people Italy understood the need to unite the country into a single state and fought for national independence against the domination of the Austrians.

In 1831, the famous Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872), expelled from his native country, founded the underground revolutionary organization “Young Italy”. It included the leading Italian intelligentsia - writers, lawyers, students. Constantly persecuted by the police, Young Italy played a major role in the struggle of the Italian people, who finally achieved the unification of the country only in 1870.

The action of the novel "The Gadfly" begins in 1833. At that time, armed uprisings took place in different regions of Italy. The Austrian police, acting in concert with the local authorities, suppressed these uprisings with unprecedented cruelty. The struggle especially intensified later, before 1848, when a revolutionary wave arose throughout Western Europe.

In 1846, frightened by the public upsurge, the Pope pretended to meet the popular demands: some political prisoners were released from prison, censorship did not so violently persecute every free word, but all this, of course, did not improve the situation of the country at all.

In the second and third parts of the novel, the action takes place precisely on these days.

E.L. Voynich shows the contradictions arising within Young Italy itself. The heroes of the novel - Gadfly, Gemma, Martini - are the most active members of the organization; perfectly understanding the hypocritical nature of the pope’s activities, they expose the oppressors and boldly fight them, while others - moderates - limit themselves to fruitless conversations and petitions.

However, we will not find images in the novel “Gadfly” popular performances, armed uprisings that were characteristic of this stage of the national liberation movement in Italy.

Obviously, the writer did not set herself the goal of creating historical paintings that time. None of the characters in The Gadfly are real historical figures. Names historical figures– Mazzini, Orsini, Renzi and others are only mentioned in the novel.

E.L. Voynich focused on the image heroic character revolutionary.

The Gadfly shows his greatest heroism in fights with gendarmes, in that most difficult part of the struggle where the fighter is deprived of the support of his comrades and where his only weapon is ideology.

In fact, in an active struggle, in an open performance with arms in hand, everyone feels the support of their comrades-in-arms, and at the same time, the accomplished feat finds an instant response and captivates followers; a falling fighter sees those coming to replace him, sees those who pick up the fallen banner and carry it further forward. In prison, the feat remains invisible, none of the friends will even know about it, but a true revolutionary, even in these conditions, without expecting any reward, remains true to himself!

Creating heroic image revolutionary, E.L. Voynich at the same time, with enormous force, tears away the halo of holiness from religion and its servants. She exposes all their lies, hypocrisy, hypocrisy, she claims that religion serves the enemies of the people.

Young and naive Arthur Burton, a philosophy student, decides to devote his life to the fight for the liberation of Italy from foreign invaders. The motto of the secret revolutionary party “Young Italy”, which he joined, was the words: “In the name of God and the people, now and forever!” Arthur follows this motto. Of course, he thinks, God will help the people. Christ gave his life for the salvation of the people. However, at the first encounter with reality, these illusions are destroyed. Arthur realized that religion is a lie, that it helps the oppressors. From now on, he, Arthur, is the enemy of the church, of any religion; the enemy of religious thinking, which requires blind admiration from a person. And in the name of the people he fights against God.

He fights religion with all means - pen and sword. He is no longer the timid Arthur, but the merciless, strong, courageous Felice Rivares, who has adopted the nickname Gadfly. He ridicules the church in destructive pamphlets, he takes part in popular uprisings. He refuses any deals with the church, even if it could save his life. In the face of the most difficult trials, he remains true to his convictions. The terrible fire of struggle hardened his will.

With great skill E.L. Voynich creates a majestic image of a revolutionary hero and contrasts it with the image of Christ, whom for almost two millennia churchmen proclaimed as the highest symbol of meekness and submission, the savior of mankind.

It is not for nothing that the writer takes a phrase from the gospel as the epigraph to the novel - the words of a person addressed to Christ: “Leave; What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” It is obvious how this phrase reinforces the anti-religious tone of the book.

The writer claims that the revolutionary is higher, more powerful than Christ. Humanity will not gain freedom and happiness through humility and submission, but will win them through struggle.

E.L. Voynich challenges the teachings of the churchmen about the immortality of Christ and glorifies the immortality of the revolutionary, the freedom fighter who lives in the deeds of his successors, in his great feat.

The Gadfly continues to win even after death. His ideological opponent– Cardinal Montanelli renounces his faith. Friends receive a letter from Gadfly, written before the execution. It sounds like a battle hymn. It is permeated with militant optimism, confidence in victory, and a call to fight. And after death, the voice of the Gadfly, the image of the Gadfly, leads forward. He's alive!

And the novel ends with the announcement of Montanelli's death. This one will not rise again!

E.L. Voynich deeply, correctly grasped and managed to convey in the images of her novel the growing forces of the revolution, was able to show the doom and inevitability of the death of the forces of reaction.

Each character in the novel “The Gadfly” is unique and memorable for a long time.

The whole novel is permeated great love to people, respect for the human person.

The images of revolutionaries are especially vivid: Gadfly and his associates. E.L. Voynich shows the difference in their views and characters, contrasting genuine revolutionaries with eloquent talkers. The writer was able to convey the high spirit of camaraderie characteristic of freedom fighters, their personal modesty, gentle severity in their relationships with each other, their high ideology, determination, and integrity; their willingness to give their lives for the people.

The gadfly is a person of strong and integral feelings. It is precisely because he loves Montanelli, his father, so much that he cannot forgive his deception, cannot reconcile with him. It is precisely because he loves Gemma so much that he cannot forgive her slap. The point is not the insult itself, the point is that she doubted his honesty, his courage, his loyalty to his convictions, and he cannot forgive anyone for this.

E.L. Voynich deeply and comprehensively reveals the image of the Gadfly. He is witty, he has an evil, mocking tongue, and he is never without a joke. But how differently does he apply this in different conditions? formidable weapon! His ridicule amazes his enemies, irritates liberals, and gives strength and encouragement to his friends. His enemies hate him, liberals are angry with him, the common people adore him.

The writer especially emphasizes Gadfly’s love for life. He loves nature, animals, trees, flowers. He loves children dearly. Grief and difficult trials made him harsh, strengthened his will, but did not make him callous. If young Arthur played carefreely and affectionately with a little peasant girl, then the iron Rivares was touchingly tender with the hungry ragamuffin.

The Gadfly passionately loves life, values ​​it, appreciates it, but despite this, he goes to his death, because ideas for him more valuable than life, and confidence in the eventual triumph of his ideas gives him strength.

Complete deep meaning and Arthur’s very nickname, which became his name and is the title of the novel - “Gadfly”. The author is referring to the story of the famous Greek sage Socrates. The rulers of Athens sentenced him to death penalty because he exposed their vices. Defending himself at trial against an unjust verdict, Socrates compares himself to a gadfly who pesters a leisurely horse, urging him to act. Sentenced to death, Socrates could have been saved if he had made a deal with his conscience and renounced his beliefs, but he chose death. By giving her hero the nickname Gadfly, the writer reminds us of Socrates, thereby emphasizing his main quality - loyalty to his convictions.

The writer showed us Gadfly as a living person, with weaknesses and oddities, with a rich inner world, with many shortcomings, but managed to highlight the main thing in him - his integrity, courage, unbending will, unshakable loyalty to his convictions, his sharp mind, devotion to friends, passionate love to the people.

Gadfly's entire life and death were devoted to the struggle for the liberation of his homeland. This fight was his only and great passion. His entire personal life, all his aspirations were devoted to this great goal. Despite the exclusivity of his personal fate, this is a typical image of a revolutionary, a freedom fighter.

The image of the Gadfly is one of the most bright images revolutionary in all world literature.

The best way to describe him is in these inspired words:

“...Among the kneeling crowd, he alone holds high his proud head, ulcerated by so many lightning bolts, but never bowing to the enemy.

He is beautiful, menacing, irresistibly charming, since he combines in himself both of the highest types of human greatness; martyr and hero.

He is a martyr. From the day when in the depths of his soul he vowed to liberate his homeland, he knows that he doomed himself to death. He exchanges glances with her on his stormy path. He fearlessly goes to meet her when necessary, and knows how to die without flinching, but no longer like a Christian ancient world, but as a warrior accustomed to looking death straight in the face...

And it is this all-consuming struggle, this greatness of the task, this confidence in the final victory that gives him that cold, calculating enthusiasm, that almost inhuman energy that amazes the world. If he was born a daredevil, he will become a hero in this struggle; if he was not denied energy, here he will become a hero; if he was blessed with a strong character, here he will become iron..."

These words belong to S.M. Stepnyak-Kravchinsky. This is how he characterized the Russian revolutionary. But they are entirely applicable to Gadfly! They fully express his essence and our attitude towards him. And this is no coincidence: the writer embodied in her hero the traits of many freedom fighters different countries and peoples. It is not without reason that Polish literary researchers categorically assert that the real prototypes of Gadfly were the leaders of the Polish social revolutionary party “Proletariat”; Russian readers immediately after the release of the Russian translation of “The Gadfly” recognized in it the familiar features of Russian revolutionaries. Other researchers believe that the basis of the image of the Gadfly is easy to detect features of Garibaldi and Mazzini. Obviously, they are all right: Gadfly is an international type of revolutionary. After all, the writer herself does not emphasize it national traits: Gadfly is half English, half Italian.

Neither contemporaries nor readers today do not perceive the novel "Gadfly" as historical work. It is not the history of the national liberation movement, but the image of a revolutionary calling for struggle that is the main content of the novel “The Gadfly.”

Evgenia Taratuta.

Gadfly

GADDY (eng. Gadfly) - the hero of the novel by E.L. Voynich "Gadfly" (1897). One of the most prominent revolutionary heroes in world literature, a man who is a creator own life. There is no place for tragic predestination, chance or fate. What happens to him, even the most terrible events, is his own choice, including the moment of death. Sensitive by nature, he managed to subordinate his emotions to his own unbending will. And the heavier the hero’s suffering, the more intense his inner life, where undying passions continue to exist. The hero's real name is Arthur Burton. It is under this name that he appears before the reader in the first part of the novel. He is nineteen years old. He is a student at the University of Pisa, where he studies philosophy. His life during this period was filled with faith in God, which was nurtured in him by his spiritual father, Canon Montanelli. He is in love with his childhood friend Gemma Warren, ready to “lie for hours and look at the sunlit world of sparkling mountain peaks and naked cliffs.” In addition, he is inspired by the idea of ​​fighting for the freedom of Italy, and Arthur is sure that this passion was given to him by God. To Montanelli’s remark that he is not even Italian, Arthur confidently replies that this means nothing: “This was the command from above, and I will fulfill it.” Montanelli is Arthur's father, and this news, conveyed to him by his half-brother, and not by the confessor himself, will turn out to be the most difficult link in the chain of events that will shatter the cloudless rainbow world of the fragile and beautiful young man. Arthur is released from prison, where he was sent for his association with the student organization Young Italy. There he learns that he unwittingly became the reason for his own arrest by sharing his secret with his new confessor in confession. (Montanelli left Pisa for a while.) The priest conveyed what was said in confession, and God did not strike him! Then relatives who hate Arthur show him a letter from his mother, in which she confesses to her husband that she is expecting a child from Montanelli. So, both his mother and his confessor also deceived him. There are lies, pretense, betrayal all around. A broken clay crucifix is ​​a symbol of ideals that collapsed in an instant. Arthur decides to stage suicide, paying the deceivers with the same coin, and secretly sail on a ship to South America. In the second part of the novel there is no longer a hero named Arthur Burton. A completely different person is acting there - Felice Rivares, or the Gadfly. So he is called for his sharp, merciless anti-clerical pamphlets. Thirteen years separate the first and second parts of the novel. The hero spent five of them in America. We learn about what happened to him over the years from his confession story. He had to go through the most difficult trials. Work on the sugar plantation and in the silver mines, yellow fever. And finally, a traveling circus. The biggest test, the most tangible blow to pride and self-esteem. The sick, crippled Rivares was cast in the role of a hunchbacked clown, who was supposed to make the audience laugh with his ugliness. The habit of playing to the public has become characteristic feature Rivares' behavior. He very skillfully portrays a cold, sleek dandy, he allows himself to be far from harmless jokes to the interlocutors. But the mountaineers, smugglers, and soldiers see him as reliable, good, kind person and are ready to do anything for him. Rivares bears little resemblance to the young man he was in the first part of the novel. He is more courageous, stronger and deeper, but Arthur continues to live in O., predetermining some of his actions. Rivares is arrested only because Arthur, who has awakened in him, did not allow him to shoot at Cardinal Montanelli, who unexpectedly blocked his way. After all, for Rivares, the life of some priest is hardly significant if it impedes progress towards a great goal. But in another scene with Montanelli - in the prison infirmary - Rivares defeats Arthur. Montanelli finally finds out that his son is alive and wants to save him from death by arranging an escape. But Arthur is ready to accept help only if Montanelli abandons the church and leaves with him. Arthur would undoubtedly have taken pity on his tormented father and would have reconciled with him. But the last word in their dialogue it was said by Rivares. Arthur cried all night long, lying alone in the dark. However, in farewell letter O. again took over for Gemma, signing his name with the lines nursery rhyme: Whether I live or die - I fly like a merry fly.

Lit.: Taratuta E. Ethel Lilian Voynich. M., 1960.

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