Fencing teacher

The novel was first printed in 1840 simultaneously in France and Belgium . Then several times published in French. Dumas used the “Notes” by Grezier about his stay in Russia and wrote a novel on his behalf. He also used other historical essays: The Memoirs (1827) of Count Segier, The Essay on the Death of Paul I (1825) Shatogirin, The History of Alexander I (1826) S. Rabbe, and The Report of the Commission of Inquiry (1826).

A fencing teacher, Grezier, passes to Alexander Dumas ^[1] his notes made during a trip to Russia . They tell how he went to St. Petersburg and began to teach fencing lessons. All his students are future Decembrists . One of them is Count Annenkov , the groom of the old friend Grezier, Louise (the real prototype is Pauline Goble ). Soon a riot rises, but is immediately suppressed by Nicholas I. All Decembrists refer to Siberia , among them Count Annenkov. Desperate Louise decides to go after her betrothed and share the burdens of hard labor with him. Grezier agrees to help her.

In Russia, the publication of the novel was banned by Nicholas I in connection with the description of the Decembrist uprising in it. In the notes "Traveling impressions. In Russia" Dumas recalled that he was told by Princess Trubetskaya, a friend of the Empress: ^[2]

Nikolai entered the room when I read the book to the Empress. I quickly hid the book. The emperor approached and asked the Empress:

- Did you read?

- Yes, Sovereign.

“Would you like me to tell you what you read?”

The Empress was silent.

- You read Dumas novel “Fencing Teacher”.

“How do you know this, Sovereign?”

- Here you go! This is not hard to guess. This is the last novel that I have banned.

The French novelist described his meeting in Nizhny Novgorod with the prototypes of the novel - the Decembrist I. A. Annenkov and his wife Polina , which occurred in the house of the local governor A. N. Muravyov ^[3] . The meeting took place during the journey of Dumas in Russia in the summer of 1858.

Tsarist censorship especially closely followed Dumas' novels and forbade their publication in Russia, but despite this, the novel was distributed in Russia. The novel was first published in Russia in Russian in 1925, essentially speaking in retelling - with distortions and huge bills (again for ideological reasons, but diametrically opposite in nature), reduced by almost half. In 2004, the publishing house Art - Business - The center has released a full translation. ^[four]

In the satirical essay of Saltykov-Shchedrin, “Opinions of noble foreigners about pompadours” (1883), the character Frenchman le prince de la Klioukwa (“ Prince of Cranberry ”) ^{[5] [6]} . In the commentary of S. A. Makashin and N. S. Nikitin on this occasion they write ^[7] :

Saltykov scoffs at the fantastic Mnimorussian names and surnames that “noble foreigners” flaunted in their travel stories about Russia, for example, writer Alexander Dumas (father). In his novel from Russian life, namely, from the life of the Decembrist Ivan Annenkov, Mémoires d'un maître d'armes, ou dix huits mois à Saint-Pétersbourg (1840) and in his travel essays De Paris à Astrahan (t. 1-5. 1858), which, apparently, are also affected by Saltykov in commented satire, along with many other errors and inconsistencies, there are many absurdities that apply to Russian onomastics. So, for example, one of the Russian women Dumas calls “name” Teljatine (Teljatine), and the other Telegue (Telegue).

• Text in the Lib.ru library: “Classics”