Николай Гоголь. Жизнь и творчество

Мольер, Moliere (Jean Baptiste Poquelin, 1622–1673), French playwright and actor, one of the founders of modern European comedy. Among his best-known works are L’Avare, Tartuffe, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and Le Malade Imaginaire.

Одоевский, Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoyevsky (1804–1869), Russian writer, critic and philosopher, author of many short and long stories, and plays. Among his best-known works are the philosophical cycle Russian Nights and the fairy-tale Little Town in a Snuffbox.

яко (Ukr.), as, in the capacity of.

великороссийский, the old form for россййский.

Анненков, Pave! Vasilyevich Annenkov (1813–1887), Russian literary critic, scholar and author of memoirs; he prepared the first academie edition of Pushkin’s works for the press.

однокорытники (Gogol’s neologism), schoolfellows.

Гюго, Victor-Marie Hugo (1802–1885), French writer. Author of many poems, the novels Notre Dame de Paris, Les Miserables, Les Travailleurs de la Mer, the dramas Marion de Lorme, Hernani, Ruy B las, Cromwell, etc.

Дюма, Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870), French writer, author of the popular novels Les Trois Mousquetaires, Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, etc.

Бальзак, Honore de Balzac (1799–1850), French writer, author of novels and stories which make up the monumental collection of the Comedie Humaine: Le Chef-d'Oeuvre Inconnu, La Peau de Chagrin, Eugenie Grandet, Le Pere Goriot, Les Illusions Perdues, and many others.

Ге, Sophie Gay (1776–1852), French writer.

Жанен, Jules Gabriel Janin (1804–1874), French writer and journalist.

стушеваться, to efface oneself; to be embarrassed.

петушком (coll.), in a swaggering way.

Chapter 3

Белоруссия, Byelorussia, lying in the western part of the USSR, is one of its Union republics.

с обеими столицами. When in 1712 St. Petersburg was made the capital of Russia, Moscow retained its importance as the country’s second capital. After the October

Socialist Revolution Moscow again became the capital city (in 1918).

Аксаков, (Constantin Sergeyevich Aksakov (1817–1860), Russian critic, publicist and poet, one of the foun-ders of the Slavophiie movement. Не was the son of S. Aksakov (see Notes to Ch. 1).

Погодин, Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin (1800–1875), Russian historian, writer and journalist, prof essor of Moscow University.

Загоскин, Mikhail Nikolayevich Zagoskin (1789–1852), Russian writer. Author of comedies, stories and novels, of which the most popular are Yuri Miloslavsky, or The Russians in 1612 and Roslavlev, or The Russians in 1812.

Дмитриев, Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriyev (1760–1837), Russian writer of the Sentimentalist school, author of numerous songs, elegies and fables.

Курск, town in European Russia.

станционный смотритель (hist.), postmaster.

навешать оплеухи (pop.), to beat, to give a thrashing.

городничий (hist.), governor of a town.

фельдъегерь (hist.; Ger. Feldjager), war Courier delivering important documents.

адъютант (hist.), aide-de-camp, a military or naval officer acting as assistant to a superior.

титулярный советник (hist.), official of the 9th rank (there were 14 altogether); corresponds to the military rank of captain.

a ты себе и в ус не дуешь (phras.), you are not concerned with anything.

Киреевский, Ivan Vasilyevich Kireyevsky (1806–1856), Russian philosopher, literary critic and publicist: one of the founders of the Slavophiie movement.

Киреевский, Pyotr Vasilyevich Kireyevsky (1808–1856), student of Russian folklore and literary monuments, publicist of the Slavophiie trend. Brother of I. Kireyevsky.

Бодянский, Osip Maximovich Bodyansky (1808–1877), Russian philologist and historian; one of the founders of Slavic studies in Russia.

Максимович, Mikhail Alexandrovich Maximovich (1804–1873), Ukrainian and Russian writer, literary critic, journalist and naturalist. He was a professor at Kiev University.

Баратынский, Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky (1800–1844), Russian poet, author of the long poems Eda, The Ball, The Gypsy Girl, and numerous lyrics.

Надеждин, Nikolai Ivanovich Nadezhdin (1804–1856), Russian critic, student of aesthetics and journalist; he was a professor at Moscow University and published the magazine Teleskop (The Telescope), supplemented by the newspaper Molva (Common Talk).

Станкевич, Nikolai Vladimirovich Stankevich (1813–1840), Russian philosopher and poet, head of an influential philosophical circle in Moscow.