Video: The mysterious poetess Cherubina de Gabriac is the loudest hoax of the Silver Age
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
"A lady with bronze curls and a slightly limping gait" - this is how the mysterious Spanish woman described herself Cherubina de Gabriac, a poetess who submitted her poems for publication in Apollo magazine, but never appeared in the editorial office. They talked about her incessantly, her languid voice drove the editor Makovsky crazy, and the manuscripts, arranged in a herbarium, gave rise to a romantic and languid image. In fact, behind an exotic mask was hiding an ordinary Russian girl - Elizaveta Dmitrieva, whose appearance on the literary arena became one of the loudest hoaxes of the Silver Age.
The fate of Elizabeth was not easy: from childhood, the girl was very weak, she had been ill with pulmonary tuberculosis, and therefore had to constantly wear a corset, for several months due to illness she lost her sight; in addition, she was slightly overweight and limped on one leg, which also did not make her more attractive. Despite her constant weakness, Elizabeth had an irrepressible thirst for knowledge: she graduated from high school with honors, attended university courses in St. Petersburg, and even went to study at the Sorbonne. True, her education abroad disappointed her, but it was abroad that a significant event happened for her life - her acquaintance with the poet Nikolai Gumilyov.
The relationship between Gumilyov and Dmitrieva was not easy: being creative personalities, they went headlong into feelings, sometimes offending each other, and sometimes - sincerely wishing for love. However, another amazing event happened in the life of Elizabeth - her acquaintance with Maximilian Voloshin. The Cimmerian poet was interested in Elizabeth's poems, which the aspiring poetess read at Ivanov's evening. However, for Voloshin it was obvious: the image of a good-natured donkey was too inconsistent with the passions that raged in Dmitrieva's literary works. It was then that Maximilian had the idea to come up with a spectacular pseudonym for the poetess and create an appropriate image.
Cherubina de Gabriac - that's what Voloshin called her. The poems were sent to the editorial office tied with a ribbon, the pages kept the scent of the best French perfume. Cherubina did not come to the editorial office, she only spoke on the phone with the editor from time to time. All high society was read by her poetry, so good were the poems she created.
However, the secret could not always remain a secret. Voloshin and Gumilyov came to Elizabeth's life almost simultaneously, and, as often happens, they could not resist competing for her favor. There was even a duel between the two poets, which, fortunately, did not end with anything. However, soon after the duel, Dmitrieva herself revealed the hoax, she was too afraid that her name would be revealed, and decided to be the first to tell everyone about herself. Makovsky was terribly disappointed, because the image of a real woman could not be compared with fantasy. The disclosure acquired an unprecedented resonance, immediately after the readers' interest in Cherubina's creations faded away, as if the poems had instantly lost all their charm for the readers.
At the end of her life, Elizabeth tried to create another hoax - to publish a collection under the name of Li Xiang Tzu. However, this joke was soon revealed.
The story with Cherubina de Gabriac is far from the only literary experiment for which he became famous Maximilian Voloshin … He also went down in history as the creator of the first wreath of sonnets in Russian literature.
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