I am a literary giant in Russia

Chapter 4 Naturalism

Although it was a great feeling to be surrounded by people shouting "A new Gogol is born!", in order to avoid being kicked out by the landlord, Mikhail was stunned for a moment and then hurriedly said:

"Hey! Hey! Quiet down Demi! Do you know what time it is? Why did you choose to come here at this time?"

"It's all because Nikolay insisted on dragging me here." Dmitriy was about to laugh when he heard this, but after thinking about Mikhail's instructions, he finally stopped the car in time:

"I went looking for him right after I left in the morning, but he wasn't home, so I asked the maid to leave him a letter and the novel. Oh! Only God knows how worried I was! He didn't come home until very late, and after reading it, he came straight to me. After we discussed it, I couldn't help but come straight to you.

It turns out that the place you live in, Misha, is really remote, and it took us a while to finally find you!"

"I see." After roughly understanding what had happened, Mikhail turned his gaze to the thin but energetic young man in front of him and said, "Who is this?"

"Nikolai Alexeevich Nekrasov." After giving his name in full, the young man solemnly extended his hand: "Nice to meet you!"

Nekrasov?
Mikhail felt a headache after hearing the long string of names in the previous sentence, but the last surname directly triggered the key words in Mikhail's memory.

To put it simply, the young man in front of us is the "midwife of Russian realistic literature."

Although the signs of realism had already appeared in Russian literature as early as Pushkin and Gogol, it was not until Belinsky that they were systematically summarized and elaborated, and this man made a lot of efforts in this process.

Like many Russian nobles, this man also used traditional skills. He came from an aristocratic family. His father was a retired officer. Originally in 1838, his father wanted to send him to St. Petersburg to attend the Military Academy, almost paving the way for his son.

But Nekrasov went against his father's wishes and chose to apply for university. After failing, he insisted on attending classes at St. Petersburg University.

In a rage, his father stopped supporting him, and the seventeen-year-old Nekrasov lived a long life of poverty and hunger.

But this guy is indeed talented. In the same year, he published poems in Russia's top literary magazine "Fatherland Chronicle", and gradually published them in other magazines. He relied on this to make a living.

But his literary journey was not smooth sailing. His first collection of poems, "Fantasy and Voice", published in 1840, was severely criticized by Belinsky, who was already a leader in the literary world at the time, because most of his works were imitations.

In pain, he stopped writing poetry for a while.

However, no matter how painful the mental pain is, life must go on, otherwise it will probably become even more painful.

So this old man began to write letters and petitions for farmers, write advertisements for businessmen... and at the same time insisted on literary creation.

And the turning point of fate soon came.

After years of trial and error, Nekrasov discovered some of the ways to navigate the cultural market. He discovered that the "urban physiology" and "naturalistic" sketches appearing in Paris, France, were very popular with readers. In short, this series of publications depicted the lower classes of Paris.

This coincided with the new trend in Russian literature reflected in novels such as Pushkin's The Stationmaster and Gogol's The Nose and The Overcoat. Nekrasov instinctively sensed the huge potential of this new trend and began to work tirelessly for it.

Starting in 1845, he edited a series of publications depicting the living conditions of the lower classes in Russia.

This naturally aroused strong dissatisfaction from some conservatives, who believed that such works specialized in "filthy" themes and were "naturalistic" and lacked artistic beauty.

Conservatives opposed it, but the literary leader at that time, Belinsky, completely stood on Nekrasov's side, took over the term "naturalism", and highly praised the "naturalism" for its courage to tell the truth and its humanitarian spirit of daring to expose the dark side of Russian society.

In other words, this was the turning point in Russia's transition from romanticism to realism.

As for the significance of this work, it can be said that after this trend, familiar names such as Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy began to appear in people's vision, leading Russian literature to rise and become a peak in world literature that cannot be ignored.

This period is also known as the Golden Age of Russian literature.

At this point in time, although Nekrasov is young, he has already made friends with many celebrities in St. Petersburg and can be said to have opened up a situation in the cultural circle.

He has probably already officially devoted himself to the publishing industry and is busy preparing for the establishment of "Petersburg Physiology".

As for Mikhail, he is a nobody among nobodys.

But Nekrasov was obviously much more serious than Mikhail.

At this moment, looking at the young man in front of him, Mikhail also stretched out his hand and shook hands with him, then gave his name:
"Mikhail Romanovich Raskolnikov. Are you the poet Nikolai Alexeevich Nekrasov, who published 'Fantasies and Voices'?"

"It's me. You've heard of me?" Nekrasov was stunned for a moment, surprised and delighted. But thinking of his very immature poetry collection, he felt a little embarrassed and said, "I didn't expect you to know this, but compared to your novels, my poems are nothing."

Oh yes, this guy has not yet entered the mature stage of his creation, and he is even a little depressed by Belinsky's criticism.

"You will," Mikhail said with a smile. "There is something precious in your poetry. At the right time and with the right subject matter, it will surely be stimulated. It's only a matter of time before you become a great poet."

"That's really..."

Normally, this would have been a historic meeting, but unfortunately, before the two parties could continue their conversation, the landlady, with her broad shoulders and waist, whose arms seemed capable of running a horse, had already rushed over. Before she even arrived, her strong voice came over first:
"Is there a funeral in your family?! Otherwise, why are you praying for them at this hour?! Go to hell!"

"Go to sleep!" Mikhail hurriedly closed the door and said to the two of them, "Demi, Nikolay, we can talk about the rest in the morning. We must be quiet for a while now."

(End of this chapter)