Saint or demon? Interesting facts about Lermontov

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

It is already interesting that the purely visual perception of the image of the great poet by fans of his work does not coincide with the description of his appearance in the memoirs of his contemporaries. From portraits and book pages looks the face of a handsome young man with huge eyes that contain all the world's sorrow, with a beautiful smooth face, black well-groomed hair. And contemporaries argue that Lermontov was extremely ugly, short, bow-legged and even lame, according to some reports - humpbacked, with sparse hair, with an oversized head. What they write about his venomous nature is another story. Read about these and other interesting facts about Lermontov in this article.

Childhood

The great Russian poet, according to biographers, was not entirely Russian, he has Scottish roots, and his ancestors bore the surname Lerma. His grandmother Elizaveta Arsenyeva,maid of honor of Her Majesty, did not approve of her daughter's marriage to Yuri Lermontov, considering him uneven. Mikhail was born on October 3 (15), 1814 and lived for less than 27 years. He grew sickly, and the grandmother literally nursed her grandson on her estate in Tarkhany, took her to the healing waters, where he got his first impressions of the Caucasus, which had a huge impact on his life and work. At the age of 12, as the facts of Lermontov's biography say, he was brought back to Moscow with the aim of entering a boarding school for noble noble children. He studied there for two years, where he showed his abilities in reading and poetry.

Birth Curse

Many biographers, describing the facts about Lermontov, certainly mention that the Lermontov family was pursued by evil fate. His grandfather, M. V. Arseniev, drank a deadly poison right at the family table. To which his wife reacted in a peculiar way: "To a dog - a dog's death." Could she have known that in due time the sovereign would repeat the same words, having learned about the death of her beloved grandson…

The family doctor recalled that at the time of Mikhail's birth, the midwife said for some reason: "This child will not die a natural death." And many more ominous signs and omens hovered over the family. Lermontov's mother died at 21, when he was still a three-year-old child, she simply went to the grave from an unhappy life and her husband's betrayals. And his father took to drink and died at the age of 41. These are tragic and interesting facts about Lermontov, which largely predetermined his fate and explain a lot in his image.

From allhis life, from every line breathed deadly longing and unwillingness to live. He foresaw a quick and tragic death and wrote about it more than once in verse: “I would like to forget and fall asleep …”, “I foresaw my fate, my end, and sadness is an early seal on me.” Of course, early orphanhood affected his character, and is that why he grew up as a bilious and uncomfortable person for everyone? There are interesting facts about Lermontov that remained in the letters and articles of friends. Even relatives mentioned his quarrelsome character, his temper and the fact that he himself was always looking for reasons for a duel, as if deliberately going towards his death.

Sad Demon, Spirit of Exile

The Caucasus, where Lermontov was exiled after the impudent poem "The Death of a Poet", became a source of his inspiration. He learned and fell in love with the morals of the highlanders, who still consider him their poet. No one sang this beautiful and harsh land like Lermontov. Impressed by Caucasian events and legends, his main work, “A Hero of Our Time,” was written. Pechorin, bored and looking for adventure, sparing no one in his cold passion, is himself, the poet Mikhail Lermontov. And even sincerely loving, he unwittingly brings trouble to everyone who loves him.

No matter how far these two works are, the “Demon” also echoes the “Hero of Our Time”. And again the reader sees the features of the most "sad demon" - the author. He is a fatalist, and this was recognized by his contemporaries and later biographers. At the same time, he did not wait for fate to overtake him, but walked towards him. By such predestinationspurred on by himself, was that fateful day of July 15, 1841. What was it? Lermontov tossed fifty kopecks for good luck: to return to the place of work or take a walk in Pyatigorsk? Walked. There he met an old friend Martynov, quarreled with him and provoked him to a duel. Years later, Martynov admits that Mikhail Yuryevich himself set himself up for bullets, such was fate, and fate chose him, Martynov, as an instrument of malicious intent.

The history of his duels is some interesting facts about Lermontov. Even in his last hour, as eyewitnesses recalled, he rode to the fateful meeting joyful and inspired. Like I finally found what I was looking for…