Ostrovsky was born. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky - biography, information, personal life

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is a Russian playwright and writer, whose work played an important role in the development of Russian national theater. He is the author of several famous works, some of which are included in the literature for the school curriculum.

Writer's family

Ostrovsky's father, Nikolai Fedorovich, the son of a priest, served as a lawyer in the capital and lived in Zamoskvorechye. He graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary, as well as the seminary in Kostroma. His mother was pretty poor family and died when Ostrovsky was seven years old. In addition to Alexander, three more children were born in the family. When their mother died, a couple of years later their father remarried, and Baroness Emilia Andreevna von Tessin became his chosen one. She further took care of the children, taking upon herself the trouble of raising them and receiving a proper education.

In 1835, Alexander Ostrovsky entered the Moscow gymnasium, and 5 years later he entered the university of the capital to study law. It was during this period of time that he began to experience an increased interest in theatrical productions. Young Ostrovsky often visits the Petrovsky and Maly theaters. His studies are suddenly interrupted by failure to pass an exam and a quarrel with one of the teachers, and he leaves the university of his own free will, after which he gets a job as a scribe in a Moscow court. In 1845 he finds work in a commercial court, in the chancery department. All this time, Ostrovsky is accumulating information for his future literary work.

During his life, the writer was married twice. He lived with his first wife, Agafya, whose last name has not survived to this day, for about 20 years. His children from this marriage, unfortunately, died while still very young. His second wife was Maria Bakhmetyeva, from her he had six children - two daughters and four sons.

Creative activity

First literary publication- “Waiting for the Groom”, appears in 1847 in the “Moscow City List”, with a description of scenes from merchant life those times. Next year, Ostrovsky finishes writing the comedy “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!” She was placed on theater stage and received considerable success, which served as an incentive for Alexander to finally come to the decision - to devote all his energies to drama. Society reacted warmly and with interest to this work, but it also became the reason for persecution by the authorities, due to its too frank satire and oppositional nature. After the first showing, the play was banned from production in theaters, and the writer was under police surveillance for about five years. As a result, in 1859 the play was significantly altered and republished with a completely different ending.

In 1850, the playwright visited a circle of writers, where he received the unspoken title of singer of a civilization untouched by falsehood. Since 1856, he became the author of the Sovremennik magazine. At the same time, Ostrovsky and his colleagues went on an ethnographic expedition, the task of which was to describe the peoples living on the banks of the rivers of Russia, in its European part. Basically, the writer studied the life of the peoples living on the Volga, in connection with which he wrote a great work “Journey along the Volga from its origins to Nizhny Novgorod", reflecting in it the main ethnic features of the people from those places, their life and customs.

In 1860 the world saw the light famous play Ostrovsky - “The Thunderstorm”, the actions of which take place precisely on the banks of the Volga. In 1863 he received a prize and honorary membership in the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
Ostrovsky died in 1886 and was buried in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki.

Ostrovsky's conceptual view of theater is the construction of scenes based on convention, using the riches of Russian speech and its competent use in revealing characters;
The theater school, which Ostrovsky founded, was further developed under the leadership of Stanislavsky and Bulgakov;
Not all actors responded well to the playwright's innovations. For example, the founder of realism in Russian theater arts- actor M. S. Shchepkin, left the dress rehearsal of “The Thunderstorm”, held under the direction of Ostrovsky.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. Born March 31 (April 12), 1823 - died June 2 (14), 1886. Russian playwright, whose work became the most important stage in the development of the Russian national theater. Corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka.

His father, Nikolai Fedorovich, was the son of a priest, he himself graduated from the Kostroma Seminary, then the Moscow Theological Academy, but began to practice as a lawyer, dealing with property and commercial matters. He rose to the rank of collegiate assessor, and in 1839 received the nobility.

His mother, Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina, the daughter of a sexton and a breadmaker, died when Alexander was not yet nine years old. The family had four children (four more died in infancy).

Thanks to Nikolai Fedorovich’s position, the family lived in prosperity, was given great attention education of children who received home education. Five years after the death of his mother, his father married Baroness Emilia Andreevna von Tessin, the daughter of a Swedish nobleman. The children were lucky with their stepmother: she surrounded them with care and continued to educate them.

Ostrovsky spent his childhood and part of his youth in the center of Zamoskvorechye. Thanks to big library With his father, he became acquainted with Russian literature early and felt an inclination towards writing, but his father wanted to make him a lawyer.

In 1835, Ostrovsky entered the third grade of the 1st Moscow Provincial Gymnasium, after which in 1840 he became a student at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. He failed to complete the university course: without passing the exam in Roman law, Ostrovsky wrote a letter of resignation (he studied until 1843). At the request of his father, Ostrovsky entered the service as a clerk in the Conscientious Court and served in the Moscow courts until 1850; his first salary was 4 rubles a month, after some time it increased to 16 rubles (transferred to the Commercial Court in 1845).

By 1846, Ostrovsky had already written many scenes from the life of a merchant and conceived the comedy “The Insolvent Debtor” (later - “Our People - We Will Be Numbered!”). The first publication was a small play “Painting family life"and the essay "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident" - they were published in one of the issues of "Moscow City List" in 1847. Professor of Moscow University S.P. Shevyrev, after Ostrovsky read the play at his home on February 14, 1847, solemnly congratulated those gathered on the “appearance of a new dramatic luminary in Russian literature.”

The comedy brought Ostrovsky literary fame “Our people - we will be numbered!”(original title - “The Insolvent Debtor”), published in 1850 in the journal of university professor M.P. Pogodin “Moskvityanin”. Under the text it read: “A. ABOUT." and "D. G.”, that is, Dmitry Gorev-Tarasenkov, a provincial actor who offered Ostrovsky cooperation. This collaboration did not go beyond one scene, and subsequently served as a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky, since it gave his ill-wishers a reason to accuse him of plagiarism (1856). However, the play evoked approving responses from N. V. Gogol and I. A. Goncharov.

The influential Moscow merchants, offended for their class, complained to the “boss”; as a result, the comedy was banned from production, and the author was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision by personal order of Nicholas I. Supervision was lifted after the accession of Alexander II, and the play was allowed to be staged only in 1861.

The first play by Ostrovsky that was able to get on theatrical stage, was “Don’t get in your own sleigh”(written in 1852 and staged for the first time in Moscow on stage Bolshoi Theater January 14, 1853).

Since 1853, for more than 30 years, new plays by Ostrovsky appeared almost every season at the Moscow Maly and St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky theaters. Since 1856, Ostrovsky has become a permanent contributor to the Sovremennik magazine. In the same year, in accordance with the wishes of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, a business trip of outstanding writers took place to study and describe various areas of Russia in the industrial and everyday relations. Ostrovsky took upon himself the study of the Volga from the upper reaches to Nizhny Novgorod.

In 1859, with the assistance of Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, the first collected works of Ostrovsky were published in two volumes. Thanks to this publication, Ostrovsky received a brilliant assessment from N. A. Dobrolyubov, which secured his fame as an artist “ dark kingdom" In 1860, “The Thunderstorm” appeared in print, to which he dedicated the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom.”

From the second half of the 1860s, Ostrovsky took up the history of the Time of Troubles and entered into correspondence with Kostomarov. The fruit of the work was five “historical chronicles in verse”: “Kuzma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”, “Vasilisa Melentyeva”, “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky”, etc.

In 1863, Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize (for the play “The Thunderstorm”) and was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1866 (according to other sources - in 1865) Ostrovsky founded the Artistic Circle, which later gave many people to the Moscow stage talented people.

I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, I. S. Turgenev, A. F. Pisemsky, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. E. Turchaninov, P. M. Sadovsky, L. P. visited Ostrovsky’s house. Kositskaya-Nikulina, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. N. Ermolova, G. N. Fedotova.

In 1874, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers was formed and opera composers, whose permanent chairman Ostrovsky remained until his death. Working on the commission “to revise regulations on all parts of theater management,” established in 1881 under the directorate Imperial theaters, he achieved many changes that significantly improved the situation of artists.

In 1885, Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertoire department of Moscow theaters and head theater school.

Despite the fact that his plays did well at the box office and that in 1883 Emperor Alexander III granted him an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, financial problems did not leave Ostrovsky until last days his life. His health did not meet the plans he had set for himself. Hard work exhausted the body.

On June 2 (14), 1886, on Spiritual Day, Ostrovsky died in his Kostroma estate Shchelykovo. His last work was the translation of “Antony and Cleopatra” by W. Shakespeare, Alexander Nikolaevich’s favorite playwright. The writer was buried next to his father in the church cemetery near the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province. Alexander III donated 3,000 rubles from the cabinet funds for the funeral; the widow, inseparably with 2 children, was given a pension of 3,000 rubles, and for raising three sons and daughters - 2400 rubles per year. Subsequently, the widow of the writer M. V. Ostrovskaya, actress of the Maly Theater, and the daughter of M. A. Chatelain were in the family necropolis.

After the death of the playwright, the Moscow Duma established a reading room named after A. N. Ostrovsky in Moscow.

Family and personal life Alexander Ostrovsky:

Younger brother - statesman M. N. Ostrovsky.

Alexander Nikolaevich had a deep passion for actress L. Kositskaya, but both of them had a family.

However, even after becoming a widow in 1862, Kositskaya continued to reject Ostrovsky’s feelings, and soon she began a close relationship with the son of a wealthy merchant, who eventually squandered her entire fortune. She wrote to Ostrovsky: “I don’t want to take your love away from anyone.”

The playwright lived in cohabitation with the commoner Agafya Ivanovna, but all their children died at an early age. She had no education, but was an intelligent woman with a subtle, easily vulnerable soul, she understood the playwright and was the very first reader and critic of his works. Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for about twenty years, and two years after her death, in 1869, he married actress Maria Vasilievna Bakhmetyeva, who bore him four sons and two daughters.

Plays by Alexander Ostrovsky:

"Family Picture" (1847)
“Our people - we will be numbered” (1849)
"An Unexpected Case" (1850)
"Morning young man"(1850)
"Poor Bride" (1851)
“Don’t get into your own sleigh” (1852)
"Poverty is no vice" (1853)
“Don’t live as you want” (1854)
“In someone else’s feast there is a hangover” (1856)
"Profitable Place" (1856)
"A Festive Sleep Before Dinner" (1857)
“They didn’t get along” (1858)
"Nurse" (1859)
"Thunderstorm" (1859)
"An old friend is better than two new ones" (1860)
“Your own dogs squabble, don’t bother someone else’s” (1861)
"The Marriage of Balzaminov" (1861)
“Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk” (1861, 2nd edition 1866)
"Hard Days" (1863)
“Sin and misfortune do not live on anyone” (1863)
"Voevoda" (1864; 2nd edition 1885)
"The Joker" (1864)
"On a Lively Place" (1865)
"The Deep" (1866)
"Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" (1866)
"Tushino" (1866)
“Vasilisa Melentyeva” (co-authored with S. A. Gedeonov) (1867)
“Simplicity is enough for every wise man” (1868)
"Warm Heart" (1869)
"Mad Money" (1870)
"Forest" (1870)
“It’s not all Maslenitsa for the cat” (1871)
“There wasn’t a penny, but suddenly it was Altyn” (1872)
"Comedian XVII century"(1873)
"The Snow Maiden" (1873)
"Late Love" (1874)
"Labor Bread" (1874)
"Wolves and Sheep" (1875)
"Rich Brides" (1876)
“Truth is good, but happiness is better” (1877)
"The Marriage of Belugin" (1877)
« The last victim"(1878)
"Dowry" (1878)
"Good Master" (1879)
“Savage” (1879), together with Nikolai Solovyov
"The Heart Is Not a Stone" (1880)
"Slave Girls" (1881)
“It shines, but does not warm” (1881), together with Nikolai Solovyov
“Guilty Without Guilt” (1881-1883)
"Talents and Admirers" (1882)
"Handsome Man" (1883)
"Not of this world" (1885)

The greatest Russian playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka.

The beginning of the journey

Alexander Nikolaevich’s father graduated first from the Kostroma Theological Seminary, then from the Moscow Theological Academy, but in the end he began to work, saying modern language, lawyer. In 1839 he received the rank of nobility.

The mother of the future playwright was the daughter of junior church workers; she died when Alexander was not even eight years old.

The family was wealthy and enlightened. A lot of time and money was spent on educating children. Since childhood, Alexander knew several languages and read a lot. WITH early age he felt a desire to write, but his father saw him in the future only as a lawyer.

In 1835, Ostrovsky entered the 1st Moscow Gymnasium. After 5 years, he becomes a law student at Moscow University. Future profession he is not attracted and maybe that is why a conflict with one of the teachers becomes a reason for leaving educational institution in 1843.

At the insistence of his father, Ostrovsky first served as a scribe in the Moscow Conscientious Court, then in the Commercial Court (until 1851).

Observing his father's clients, then watching the stories dealt with in court, gave Ostrovsky a wealth of material for future creativity.

In 1846, Ostrovsky first thought about writing a comedy.

Creative success

His literary views take shape back in student years under the influence of Belinsky and Gogol, Ostrovsky immediately and irrevocably decides that he will write only in a realistic manner.

In 1847, in collaboration with actor Dmitry Gorev, Ostrovsky wrote his first play, “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident.” Next year, his relatives move to live on the family estate Shchelykovo in the Kostroma province. Alexander Nikolaevich also visits these places and remains under an indelible impression of nature and the Volga expanses for the rest of his life.

In 1850, Ostrovsky published his first big comedy, “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!” in the magazine "Moskvityanin". The play has great success and rave reviews from writers, but it is prohibited from re-publication and production due to a complaint from merchants sent directly to the emperor. The author was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision, which was lifted only after the accession to the throne of Alexander II. In Ostrovsky's first play the main features of his dramatic works, which were characteristic of all creativity in the future: the ability to show the most complex all-Russian problems through personal and family conflicts, to create memorable characters of all characters and to “voice” them with lively colloquial speech.

The position of the “unreliable” worsened Ostrovsky’s already difficult affairs. Since 1849, without his father’s blessing and without getting married in a church, he began to live with a simple bourgeois Agafya Ivanovna. The father completely deprived his son of financial support, and financial situation It was hard for a young family.

Ostrovsky begins permanent collaboration with the Moskvityanin magazine. In 1851 he published The Poor Bride.

Under the influence of the main ideologist of the magazine, A. Grigoriev, Ostrovsky’s plays of this period begin to sound not so much the motives of exposing class tyranny as idealization ancient customs and Russian patriarchy (“Don’t sit in your own sleigh”, “Poverty is not a vice” and others). Such sentiments reduce the criticality of Ostrovsky's works.

Nevertheless, Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy becomes the beginning of a “new world” in all theatrical art. Simple everyday life with “living” characters and spoken language. Most actors accept Ostrovsky's new plays with delight; they feel their novelty and vitality. Since 1853, almost every season, new plays by Ostrovsky have appeared at the Moscow Maly Theater and the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg for 30 years.

In 1855-1860, the playwright became close to the revolutionary democrats. He moves to the Sovremennik magazine. The main “event” of Ostrovsky’s plays of this period is drama common man, opposing " strong of the world this." At this time he writes: “There is a hangover at someone else’s feast”, “Profitable place”, “Thunderstorm” (1860).

In 1856, at the direction of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, the best Russian writers sent on a business trip around the country with the task of describing industrial production and life in various regions of Russia. Ostrovsky travels by steamship from the upper reaches of the Volga to Nizhny Novgorod and makes a lot of notes. They become real encyclopedic notes on the culture and economy of the region. At the same time, Ostrovsky remains an artist of words - he transfers many descriptions of nature and everyday life into his works.

In 1859, the first collected works of Ostrovsky were published in 2 volumes.

Appeal to history

House-museum: A.N. Ostrovsky.

In the 60s, Alexander Nikolaevich drew special interest towards history and strikes up an acquaintance with the famous historian Kostomarov. At this time he wrote the psychological drama “Vasilisa Melentyeva”, historical chronicles“Tushino”, “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky” and others.

Doesn't stop creating domestic comedies and dramas (“Hard Days” - 1863, “The Deep” - 1865, etc.), as well as satirical plays about the life of the nobility (“Simplicity is enough for every wise man” - 1868, “Mad Money” - 1869, “Wolves and Sheep ", etc.).

In 1863, Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize, awarded for historical works, and was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

The next year pleases him with the birth of his first son, Alexander. In total, Ostrovsky will become the father of six children.

From 1865-1866 ( exact date not determined) Alexander Nikolaevich created an Artistic Circle in Moscow, from which many talented theater workers would subsequently emerge. In 1870 (according to other sources - in 1874) the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was organized in Russia, the leader of which the playwright would remain until the end of his life. During this period, the whole flower of Russian lives in Ostrovsky’s house. cultural society. I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, P.M. Sadovsky, M.N. Ermolova, L.N. Tolstoy and many other outstanding personalities of our time will become his sincere friends and acquaintances.

In 1873, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky and the young composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in a few months wrote the opera “The Snow Maiden”, amazing in its beauty of style and sound, based on folk tales and customs. Both the playwright and the composer will be proud of their creation all their lives.

With the theater - until the end

IN recent years life Ostrovsky often turns to women's destinies in his works. He writes comedies, but more - deep socio-psychological dramas about the fate of spiritually gifted women in the world of practicality and self-interest. “Dowryless”, “The Last Victim”, “Talents and Admirers” and other plays are published.

In 1881, a special commission was organized under the directorate of imperial theaters to create new legislative acts for the operation of theaters throughout the country. Ostrovsky takes an active part in the work of the commission: he writes many “notes”, “considerations” and “projects” on the topic of organizing work in theaters. Thanks to him, many changes are being adopted that significantly improve the pay of actors.

Since 1883, Ostrovsky received from Emperor Alexander III the right to an annual pension in size three thousand rubles. In the same year, Alexander Nikolaevich’s last literary masterpiece was published - the play “Guilty Without Guilt” - a classic melodrama that amazes with the strength of the characters of its characters and an impressive plot. This was a new surge of great dramatic talent under the influence of a memorable trip to the Caucasus.

After 2 years, Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertory department of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school. The playwright is trying to form a new school realistic acting, highlighting the most talented actors.

Ostrovsky works with theatrical figures, he has a lot of ideas and plans in his head, he is busy with translations of foreign (including antique) dramatic literature. But his health is failing him more and more often. The body is exhausted.

On June 2 (14), 1886, in the Shchelykovo estate, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky dies of angina pectoris.

He was buried in the church cemetery near the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province.

The funeral was carried out with funds provided by Alexander III. The widow and children were given a pension.

Interesting facts about Ostrovsky:

Since childhood, the playwright knew Greek, French and German languages. Later he learned English, Italian and Spanish.

The play “The Thunderstorm” was not immediately cleared by the censors. But the empress liked it, and the censor made concessions to the author.

A. N. Ostrovsky

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is one of the most outstanding Russian playwrights, whose work has become important stage in development Russian literature and the national theatre. We can safely say that it was Ostrovsky’s works that laid the foundation for the Russian repertoire in the theater.

Ostrovsky's plays are known and loved by many generations of Russian viewers and readers. Filmed based on them feature films, the questions that Ostrovsky raises in his works are still relevant today.

Childhood and youth

The Russian playwright was born on March 13, 1823 in Moscow, in the family of a court official. The future playwright's mother died early; the family had six children. Ostrovsky's father really wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. After graduating from the Moscow Gymnasium, Alexander entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. Ostrovsky never finished it.

In 1843, Ostrovsky was hired as a court scribe and worked in various Moscow courts until 1851. This period of his life greatly helped Ostrovsky in his future work. While working in the courts, he perfectly studied the world of the Russian merchants and the philistine class, which he later brilliantly described in his works. Many characters and personalities were taken by the playwright from his real life.

First plays

In 1847, Ostrovsky’s essays entitled “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident” were published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Gorodnogo Leaflet”. However, the playwright gained wide popularity after the publication of the play “Our People - We Will Be Numbered.” This work, written in the comedy genre, was enthusiastically received by the public and received excellent reviews from critics. Gogol and Goncharov spoke approvingly of this play.

However, representatives of the merchant class did not like the work very much and after their complaint to the authorities, the play was banned from being staged, and its author was fired from his job. “We Will Be Numbered Our Own People” was allowed to be staged only after the death of Emperor Nicholas, in 1861. With the second play, Alexander Nikolaevich was much more fortunate. “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh” was written by him in 1852 and already in 1853 appeared on the stage of theaters. Since 1856, Ostrovsky has been constantly working for the Sovremennik magazine.

Since 1853, every year Moscow and St. Petersburg theaters staged new plays by the playwright, and all of them were favorably received by both the public and domestic critics.

At the peak of popularity

In 1856, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky went to the Volga region to study the way of life of the inhabitants of the region. It was after this trip that Ostrovsky wrote one of his most striking plays, “The Thunderstorm.” In 1859, the first collected works of Ostrovsky were published, which were enthusiastically received by critics. In the 1860s, Ostrovsky began to study Russian history, he was especially interested in the period of the Time of Troubles.

In 1863 he was awarded the Uvarov Prize and became a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In the 60s, the playwright founded the Artistic Circle, which gave a start in life to many future stars Russian stage. In 1874, on the initiative of Ostrovsky, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was founded. In 1885, Alexander Nikolaevich became the head of the repertoire of all Moscow theaters.

All his life Ostrovsky worked extremely hard, this seriously undermined his health. In June 1886, he died on his estate in the Kostroma province. Emperor Alexander III granted a large sum for the funeral of the playwright, and also awarded a pension to his widow and allocated funds for the education of his children.

Ostrovsky's significance for Russian literature and his role in the development of Russian theater are undeniable and enormous. For Russian theater he was a figure of the same magnitude as Moliere for the French theater, and Shakespeare for the English. He has 47 plays written by him personally, and several more were written in collaboration.

Ostrovsky's plays show life and everyday life ordinary people, his works are very realistic, but at the same time pose deep and eternal problems to the viewer.

Ostrovsky can be called the founder of the Russian theater; he created a new drama school and a new concept of acting.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky; Russian Empire, Moscow; 03/31/1823 – 06/02/1886

One of greatest playwrights Russian Empire is rightfully considered A.N. Ostrovsky. He left behind a significant contribution not only to Russian, but also world literature. A. N. Ostrovsky's plays are still a huge success today. This allowed the playwright to take a high place in our rating, and his works to be presented in other ratings on our site.

A N Ostrovsky biography

Ostrovsky was born in Moscow. His father was a priest, and his mother was the daughter of a sexton. But, unfortunately, Alexander’s mother passed away when he was only 8 years old. The father remarried the daughter of a Swedish nobleman. The stepmother turned out to be a good woman and devoted a lot of time to her stepchildren.

Thanks to his father's large library, Alexander became addicted to literature early on. The father wanted his son to be a lawyer. That is why, immediately after graduating from high school, Ostrovsky went to study at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. But he did not finish university because of a quarrel with a teacher, but went to court as a clerk. It was here that Ostrovsky saw many episodes from his first comedy, “The Insolvent Debtor.” Subsequently, this comedy was renamed “Our People – We Will Be Numbered.”

This debut work by Ostrovsky was scandalous, as it represented the merchant class rather poorly. Because of this, the life of A. N. Ostrovsky became significantly more complicated, although writers such as, appreciated this work very highly. Since 1853, reading Ostrovsky has become increasingly popular; his new works are staged at the Maly and Alexandrinsky theaters. Since 1856, Ostrovsky can be read in the Sovremennik magazine, where almost all of his works are published.

In 1960, Ostrovsky’s “The Thunderstorm” appeared, which you can read on our website. This work deserves the most rave reviews from critics. Subsequently, the author receives increasing respect and recognition. In 1863 he was awarded the Uvarov Prize and elected a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The year 1866 in the life of A. N. Ostrovsky also becomes special. This year he founded the Artistic Circle, whose members are many other famous writers. But, despite this, Alexander Nikolaevich does not stop there, and works on new works until his death.

Plays by A. N. Ostrovsky on the Top books website

Ostrovsky entered our rating with the work “The Thunderstorm”. This play is considered one of best works author, so it is not surprising that people love to read Ostrovsky’s “The Thunderstorm”, despite the age of the work. At the same time, interest in the play is quite stable, which can only be achieved by truly significant work. You can find out more about Ostrovsky’s works below.

All works by A. N. Ostrovsky

Family picture
Unexpected case
Morning of a young man
Poor bride
Don't get in your own sleigh
Don't live the way you want
There's a hangover at someone else's feast
Plum
Holiday nap before lunch
Didn't get along
Kindergarten
An old friend is better than two new ones
Your own dogs are fighting, don’t bother someone else’s
Balzaminov's marriage
Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk
Hard days
Sin and misfortune do not live on anyone
Voivode
Jokers
In a busy place
Abyss
Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky
Tushino
Vasilisa Melentyeva
Simplicity is enough for every wise man
Warm heart
Mad money
Not everything is Maslenitsa for the cat
There wasn’t a penny, but suddenly it was Altyn
17th century comedian