Famous literary prototypes - who were they?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Writers and poets are waiting for inspiration to create their works. Very often real-life people “live” in novels and poems, who pushed the author to creativity. So the images and characters that have become known to many generations of readers can have their own prototype in life. From whom were famous images in literature and poetry written?

Eugene Onegin and Tatiana Larina - who are they?

Many literary critics wondered who was the prototype of Eugene Onegin. From whom did the Russian poet “sketched” his hero, whose character and outlook on life he put into him. Pushkin left to descendants a funny drawing with a pen, where he and Onegin pose against the backdrop of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Opinions are very different, but researchers agree on one thing - this is a collective image. Most often, two names are called - Pavel Katenin and Peter Chaadaev.

So, a friend of Alexander Pushkin, playwright and poet, excellent translator and literary critic, guard colonel, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, Decembrist Pavel Alexandrovich Katenin. He was the leader of the Secret Military Society. He took part in the development of plans for the assassination of Alexander I, was a member of the Union of Salvation. He is considered the author of the freedom-loving anthem of the Decembrists called "Our Fatherland Suffers", for which he was fired in 1820.

However, during the uprising, Katenin was not on Senate Square, since a little earlier he had quarreled with the Decembrists. His character was complex. In 1822, Katenin was expelled from St. Petersburg, and he began to lead a lonely life on his estate, giving all his time to literary creativity.

The second prototype is Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev, a publicist and philosopher, a friend of Pushkin and Griboyedov. He studied at Moscow University, from where he joined the Guard in 1811. Member of the Patriotic War of 1812, member of the Masonic lodge. The acquaintance of Chaadaev and Pushkin happened in 1816, when Alexander Sergeevich was still a lyceum student. These people were united by a tender friendship that they carried through their whole lives.

And what about Tatyana Larina? Who inspired the great poet to create this image? There are several beautiful ladies who could become the prototype of Tatiana, pure and ardent, honest, dreamy and faithful.

Avdotya (Dunya) Norova, who was in love with Chaadaev. The name of Dunya Pushkin even mentioned in the second chapter, and in the last he expressed grief over her untimely death.

Another contender is Natalya Dmitrievna Fonvizina, the widow of a Decembrist general, who went into exile with her husband and lived there for many years. There are many coincidences: in her youth, Fonvizina had an affair with a young man who abandoned her, after which she became the wife of an elderly general in love with her. Already being a married lady, Natalya met her first love. The man offered her his heart, but was rejected.

Tatyana Pushkin could also write from Countess Elizaveta Vorontsova, a dazzling beauty with whom he was passionately in love and even received an expensive ring from her as a gift.

The world's most famous musketeer

The magnificent Gascon D'Artagnan, the idol of many boys and girls, really existed. Only his name was Charles de Baz Comte de Castelmore. Charles was born between 1611 and 1623 in Gascony, in the village of Artagnan. Just like the book hero, the count went to Paris to become a guardsman there. Then he began to be called d'Artagnan, judging that it was better to use the name on the maternal side, which was from a noble family.

In 1640, the earl took part in the siege of Arras, and a few years later was accepted into the royal musketeers. By the way, the king himself was the captain of the musketeer. By the end of the 1660s, D'Artagnan rose to the rank of lieutenant commander. In adulthood, the Gascon married a wealthy noblewoman, they had children.

In 1672, the count was awarded the honorary title of Field Marshal. He was a truly experienced military man and diplomat who enjoyed the confidence of the authorities. A year later, he died during the siege of Maastricht in Holland.

In 1701, the memoirs of a Gascon nobleman were published, which Alexandre Dumas used to write his famous novel.

Elementary Watson

The prototype for the charming Doctor John Watson is usually considered the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But if you study the writer's memoirs, you can find mention of Major Alfred Wood, who faithfully served Conan Doyle as secretary for almost forty years. There are several other possible prototypes: a Southsea physician named John Watson who served in Manchuria, an osteopath William Smith, a native of Scotland, Alexander Francis-Preston, a former military surgeon.

As for the greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, his writer copied from the brilliant surgeon Joseph Bell. Arthur met him when he was a medical student. The eccentric professor, who knew how to make the correct diagnosis in a second and taught students to use deduction, was his idol. Conan Doyle immortalized him by making him Sherlock Holmes.

Although Bell himself agreed that he was like Sherlock, in letters to Conan Doyle he said that the former student is the consummate detective. After all, the writer helped the police many times to cope with intricate cases that were considered insoluble.

The man who had his own island

Everyone knows Robinson Crusoe. This is the hero of the novel by Daniel Defoe "The Life and the Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe", which was published in 1719. Surprisingly, Robinson also had a prototype. It was the boatswain of the Senk Por galley, whose name was Alexander Selkirk.

How did he get into this situation? Foolishly. After a quarrel with the captain of the boatswain, they landed on an uninhabited island, and at his own request. Alexander believed that the captain's conscience would leap, and the galley would return for a crew member in a couple of days at the most. Alas, he was wrong.

The boatswain spent four years and four months all alone on the island, after which he was picked up by a passing ship. Of course, this is not twenty-eight years, like Defoe's, but this period was enough for Alexander to turn into an emaciated and practically numb person. When his story was published in the UK, Defoe became interested in it, as a result of which a wonderful novel appeared, which children and adults have been reading for three hundred years.

Continuing the topic, a fascinating story about how a friend of Sherlock Holmes ended up in the war and why in the USSR they "forgot" about it.