What husbands and fathers were Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Bulgakov and other classics

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

They won't talk about this at school, but talent and genius often go hand in hand with sin, immorality and oddities, with which the relatives and friends of genius creators had to put up with. It was especially hard for the second halves and children, who day after day watched the "creative torment" and growing vices, which, as a rule, were only seasoned with the disgusting nature of the genius creator.

Leo Tolstoy and his image of a kind grandfather

His portraits adorn almost all classrooms of literature, and a luxurious beard and the image of a kind landowner who loved to go out barefoot in the dew and mow the grass in the morning are still generously distributed, starting from the school desk. However, his genius, bordering on strangeness, could not but reflect on the lives of his loved ones.

He was a very peculiar person and his views on family life were also specific, if it were not for the readiness of his completely young wife for self-sacrifice and patience, then the tragedy could not have been avoided. However, it is Sophie Bers we owe the legacy of the writer, it was she who carefully and painstakingly preserved it, but about everything in order.

The writer met his future wife when she was still a child, waiting for her to come of age, made a marriage proposal and took the young and, by the way, not poor 18-year-old Sophia to Yasnaya Polyana. Far from social life, girlfriends, communication and parents. Upon arrival, he fired the estate manager and shouldered all his responsibilities on his wife. Who, for a minute, had an excellent education and was brought up as a true lady. Moreover, it was necessary to conduct business not only of the estate, but also of the villages in which the peasants of the writer lived.

According to all traditions, the groom and the bride did not enter into contact before the wedding, therefore, when everything finally happened, young Sophia accidentally came across in her husband's diaries (which he did not hide from her) on a short and terrible for her inscription "Not that", dated their wedding night. And so it happened. Lev Nikolaevich, who had not previously limited himself in connections and did not infringe on himself in the novels, in addition, kept a strict account of his mistresses, writing about them in his diaries, which Sophia could easily read.

At the same time, the genius writer himself understood that his lust borders on abnormality and in every possible way tried to get rid of his oppressive habit of debauchery. Often, he simply walked through the garden with the intention of meeting someone suitable for satisfying his obsessive desire.

Meanwhile, the young wife did the bookkeeping, supervised the kitchen, daily expenses and receipts, and rewrote in a more legible handwriting what the brilliant husband had written in a day. This was not an easy matter, because the writer often made edits to the previous chapters, and he did it below, so he had to rewrite it several times. Just imagine that she rewrote "War and Peace" with her own hand day after day! At the same time, the girl was pregnant non-stop. In total, she gave birth to 13 children (8 survived), since childbirth followed one after the other, Sophia's health deteriorated, the doctors demanded to stop giving birth so often. To which the loving husband threw, they say, why would she want me then?

It was Lev Nikolaevich who did not recognize the labor of nurses, so Sophia fed all her children on her own, and this despite chronic inflammation of the mammary glands.

Towards old age, Tolstoy began to behave even more strangely, it was during that period that he began to work as a peasant, distributed food and things from home to his people, and gave up copyright. The writer's large family, accustomed to a certain standard of living, did not at all approve of his antics; claims began to be made against his father and husband. Sophia, whose mental health was on the verge due to the death of a child and constant betrayal of her husband, was in a bad state altogether. She constantly looked for (and found) signs of his betrayal, read his diaries, searched things, followed him. During one of the scandals, Tolstoy gathered his things and announced that he was going to Optina Pustyn to live out his life among ascetics. However, this was not destined to happen, on the way he fell ill with pneumonia and died, not even allowing his wife and children to his deathbed, who immediately arrived after learning that the head of the family was sick.

Despite the fact that the writer's wife was much younger than him, she survived him by only 9 years and she devoted these years to systematizing his legacy, much that has been preserved for posterity is precisely the handiwork of this woman, who modestly lived her life in the shadow of her brilliant husband.

Mikhail Bulgakov and his first wife "from God"

“Wives need to be changed, my friend. To be a writer, you have to marry three times”, - this was the order given by Alexey Tolstoy, who by that time was already a recognized writer to the beginning Bulgakov and was right, Bulgakov was married three times, however, it is doubtful that this was the reason for his successful writing.

With his first wife Tatiana NikolaevnaBulgakov met when he was still very young, just graduated from educational institutions, they fell in love and started a family, having nothing behind their backs. The wife was from a good family, my father was a state councilor, and the parents on both sides were against such an early barque, moreover, they needed to get a higher education. But, despite the skeptical attitude of the elders, the wedding still took place. Parents gave them wedding rings and a gold bracelet for their wedding. The latter became happy for them, because they often pawned it in a pawnshop, and then bought it back. Even after the divorce, Bulgakov asked his wife for this lucky bracelet when he went to take the novel "Fatal Eggs" and receive a fee for it. The bracelet did not disappoint this time either.

Tatiana loved Mikhail sincerely and unrestrainedly, when he went to war, she dropped out and went to the front to follow him as a nurse. This was only the beginning of their long wanderings, for her husband, who worked as a zemstvo doctor, she traveled from city to city, being nearby not only in family life, but also during surgical operations. Once he contracted diphtheria himself and was forced to make himself a vaccine, to alleviate the condition, he began to take morphine, and since he was an addictive and impulsive nature, he quickly became addicted to the substance. There are cases when he demanded from his wife the next dose, while threatening her with a revolver. It was Tatiana who helped him get rid of this addiction, risking herself, she went to deception and diluted a new dose with water.

She was always there, periodically pawning her jewelry in order to buy food. Over time, fame came to the writer, and with it the attention of fans. He quickly forgot about his wife, who was by his side when he himself was nothing. However, their close connection is confirmed by the fact that before his death, Bulgakov called his first wife Tatyana, if she knew about this, she would certainly visit him, despite the fact that she never forgave his betrayal.

Two women of the Block: Love and everyone else

Yes, yes, the poet, not at all embarrassed, this is how he designated his personal life, which, it is worth noting, was in no way inferior in saturation and ardor to Tolstoy's ties with peasant women. Alexander Blok and his future wife Lyubov Mendeleeva they met while still teenagers. Yes, Love was the daughter of a famous chemist, and life next to a genius was common for her. But Blok is still not Mendeleev, and his constant search for the muse exhausted innocent Lyuba.

Blok's work clearly shows that he dreamed of unattainable ideals and the image of a beautiful lady, which he elevated to a cult, by no means allowed him to enter into earthly carnal relations with his lawful wife. But with girls of easy virtue for some reason he allowed. He himself explained this by the fact that he had high and bright feelings for his wife in general, and not sinful thoughts.

Blok could not have children because of previously suffered syphilis, Lyuba, who was in good health, was a hostage of the situation, but she still preferred in this case to feel sorry not for herself, but for her husband, because it was he who was sterile.

Over time, the woman got tired of looking for new loves of her husband, and she began to answer him in the same coin. Such an open relationship, in which the spouses lived for many years, embarrassed everyone, but not themselves. Frequent quarrels became part of their family relations, when the First World War began, Lyuba went to the front, and the poet began to kiss the bottle, because the adventures of girls without participating in this performance were not so interesting for the spouses. Even after the poet's death, she no longer married.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery and his mommy wife

Antoine and Consuelo met already as adults, the girl had already been a widow twice. In addition, the new relationship was economically disadvantageous for her, since her ex-husband was a diplomat, and she had some benefits and payments as his widow. Despite the fact that the writer made an offer to the girl he liked a week after meeting, he was in no hurry with the wedding, there were a lot of excuses, but in the end, the young got married.

Legalized relations did not prevent the writer from having numerous mistresses, besides their presence and the constant presence of third parties, Antoine did not even try to hide, deliberately moving away from his wife, which infuriated her. The woman was impulsive, jealous, her husband's adventures brought her several times to breakdowns and treatment in a psychiatric clinic. On another occasion, she was there when she learned that her husband nearly crashed on the plane.

To top it all, human rumor brought to her that her husband has not just a constant mistress, about whom the whole of Paris is already aware, but he also calls her his muse. Antoine, in the end, admitted that they have different views on marriage and called his wife his dear and only one, the one he sincerely values. But she also had to accept him as a mother accepts her son, and that was exactly the kind of love he expected from her.

Correspondence marriage to Franz Kafka

Felicia Bauer - that was the name of the woman whom Kafka promised to marry, but never married. Moreover, this whole story lasted not much, not a little - five years. He wrote to her that even if all the directors were now looking over his shoulder, he would still write to her, and not his works, because this is the most important thing for him.

He twice made her a marriage proposal, and she twice agreed, but never became the writer's wife.

This is now the epistolary genre of the writer has become part of his legacy, and the girl, in fact, spent her best years on it. While Felicia was in agonizing anticipation, the writer was suddenly carried away by her friend, and then invited her to live in three. True, knowing the character of the writer, it would probably be a kind of triple correspondence, chat on minimal salaries.

Over time, both girls got tired of this, and they broke off communication with them. Felicia married successfully and left the country without leaving a return address.

Fyodor Dostoevsky and his passions

If colleagues in the shop traditionally had a weakness for women, then Dostoevsky had another weakness - the roulette wheel. Every now and then he let go of all the money in the games, and then he repented, fell at the feet of his wife and again asked for money. This went on many times, Anna same - the wife of the writer, treated his dependence philosophically, believing that his genius, which cannot be judged by the general norms of morality.

The dependence of the spouse could not help but reflect on Anna herself, because he kept pawning things, taking them out of the house, and endlessly losing. Once, while in Germany, he asked his wife to send him money, since he did not have the means to purchase a ticket. However, he immediately lost the amount sent to him. This was repeated many times, and he spent more than a month in a foreign country extorting money from his wife.

Anna steadfastly endured his weaknesses, in every possible way distracting him from the game, acting as a psychologist, gently insisted that he stop playing altogether. In the end, she succeeded, the writer, in whose genius she believed most of all, completely stopped acting. In fact, their marriage can be called happy, they were always there, supporting each other and helping to endure hardships.

Sophisticated nobleman and goldfinch Bunin

Vera Muromtseva was his second wife and it was to her that almost immediately upon meeting she said that the poet should be unhappy, only in this case he can be good. And he asked her to behave as badly as possible so that he would suffer as much as possible. She laughed, but promised that she would provide him with suffering with the utmost diligence. Needless to say, everything turned out with severity and vice versa. Apparently Vera could not provide the level of suffering he needed for the fuse, so Bunin constantly started novels on the side and did not even try to hide them from his legal wife. She knew, she was tormented, but she tried her best not to be jealous, showing unnecessary wisdom to anyone. Judging by the diaries that she left, this behavior of her husband simply drove her crazy.

The situation became extremely tense when, during emigration to France, he met Galina Kuznetsova, fell in love and brought her to a house for permanent, so to speak, residence. Vera, by the way, gave a cry and resigned herself, even making friends with Galina. However, Galina left him, and he himself died in his Vera's arms. How did genius serve as a gift or as a punishment? Becoming a heavy burden for loved ones, at times she drove the genius himself crazy. And yet there were 11 outstanding personalities who did not find their other half and went into another world as virgins.