Secluded house on Vasilievsky

In St. Petersburg , on Vasilievsky Island, the poor widow of an official lives with her twenty-year-old daughter Vera. In their house there is a young official Pavel who loves Vera as a sister. Pavel is friends with the mysterious rich Bartholomew, who "has never been seen in the Orthodox Church." Bartholomew, with the help of Paul, also gets acquainted with Vera and her mother and tries to gain confidence in them.

Bartholomew, saying that Paul lacks the “skill to live in the light”, introduces Countess I. Pavel, a friend disappointed, wants to marry Vera, but finds out that now she loves Bartholomew. After this news and a quarrel with Bartholomew, Paul goes on a date to the countess, and, chasing an unexpected rival on the cab, he sees that the number 666 is shown on the cab’s plate. The cabman pronounces the same phrase that Bartholomew said during a quarrel with Paul: “Be quiet, young man; you didn’t contact your brother. ” A few days, Paul is sick.

At this time the widow dies, and Bartholomew demands faith from Love, but does not want to get married in the church. Faith refuses him, and a fire begins in the house. After that, Bartholomew disappears somewhere, and Vera dies, having managed to reconcile with Paul. Paul lives in the village, showing “signs of insanity,” and dies young. The author finishes the story with the question: “where the devils have this desire to interfere in human affairs when no one asks them?”

In 1828, Pushkin told a mystical story in the Karamzins' salon. Titov, who was present at the evening, subsequently wrote it down and, with the permission of Pushkin, published the Northern Flowers in the almanac in 1829. Titov spoke about Pushkin’s authorship in a letter dated August 29, 1879 ^[1] :

In a strict historical sense, this is not Kosmokratov’s product at all, but Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, who masterfully told the whole damn thing of a secluded house on Vasilyevsky Island, late at night, at the Karamzins, to the secret trepidation of all the ladies ... Apocalyptic number 666, damn players throwing hundreds on a card soul, with horns combed under high wigs, the honor of all these inventions and the main thread of the story belongs to Pushkin. Sitting in the same room, Kosmokratov eavesdropped, returning home, could not fall asleep all night and a few time later he laid down from memory on paper. Not wanting, however, to be a disobedient to the Old Testament commandment “Do not steal,” I went to Pushkin’s hotel with a notebook to the Demut Hotel, persuaded him to listen from beginning to end, took advantage of many of his still very memorable amendments, and then, at the urgent request of Delvig, gave to Northern flowers. "

The plot of the “Secluded House” resembles the plans of Pushkin’s unfulfilled novel “The Devil in Love”, which date from 1821 - 1823 ^[2] :

Moscow in 1811 -

The old woman, two daughters, one innocent, the other romance - two friends go to them. One lecherous; another V. <lover> B. <es>. B. <lover> B. <es> loves less and wants to destroy a young man - He gets him the money, takes him everywhere - [brothel]. Present <asya> is the widow of h. <ertovka> <?> Night. Cab. Young. <y> human <ek>. He quarrels with him - the eldest daughter goes crazy with love for V. <lover> B. <esu>.

For the first time under the name of Pushkin, the story was published in 1912 . Later it was published under the name of Pushkin (for example, in the Complete Works of 1977-1979), and under the name of Titov. She has been published many times in the anthologies of the mystical and fantastic prose of Russian writers, for example: Russian and Soviet Science Fiction (M .: Pravda, 1989), Russian Romantic Short Story (M: Fiction, 1989), Russian Fantastic Prose of the Romanticism Era "(Leningrad University Press, 1990)," White Ghost. Russian Gothic ”(St. Petersburg: ABC Classic, 2007).

“A secluded house on Vasilievsky” is a typical example of fantastic Russian prose of the 1820s-1830s, which “immersed fiction in the psychology, morals and life of modern mankind” ^[3] . The mysterious power of Bartholomew over a friend and a number of other motives testify to the “undoubted acquaintance” of the author with Hoffmann ’s short story “The Magnetizer, ” translated in 1827 by Venevitinov ^[4] .

In the context of Pushkin’s work, the story can be put on a par with St. Petersburg novels and poems “A House in Kolomna ”, “ The Queen of Spades ”, and “The Bronze Horseman ” ^[1] . Perhaps “Solitary House” influenced the plot of Nikolai Gogol 's unfinished novel “The Terrible Hand”, which was later reworked into the novel “ Nevsky Prospekt ” ^[5] .

• " Secluded House on Vasilyevsky " in the Fundamental Electronic Library "Russian Literature and Folklore"

• Afterword by P. E. Shchegolev in the book: A Secluded House on Vasilyevsky, a story by A. S. Pushkin, recorded by V. P. Titov / Afterword. P.E. Shchegolev and Fedor Sologub. SPb., 1913
• Lerner N.O. The Forgotten Tale of Pushkin // Northern Notes. 1913. No. 1.
• Pisnaya V.N. Fabula “Secluded House on Vasilyevsky” // Pushkin and his contemporaries. L., 1927. Issue. 31/32
• Tsyavlovskaya T. G. "Demon in Love": (Unfulfilled Pushkin's plan) // Pushkin: Research and Materials. M .; L., 1960.V. 3.
• Smirnov I.P. “A Secluded House on Vasilyevsky” and “The Tale of Savva Grudtsyn” // Pushkin: Research and Materials / USSR Academy of Sciences. Inst. Rus. lit. (Pushkin. House). - L .: Science. Leningra. Department, 1979.- T. 9.
• Vinogradov V.V. The plot of the demon in love in the work of Pushkin and in the story of Tit Kosmokratov (V.P. Titov) "Secluded House on Vasilyevsky" // Pushkin: Research and Materials / USSR Academy of Sciences. Inst. Rus. lit. (Pushkin. House). - L .: Science. Leningra. Otdel, 1982.- T. 10.
• Lotman Yu. M. “Pensive Vampire” and “Devil in Love” // Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin: Biography of the writer; Articles and notes, 1960-1990; Eugene Onegin: Commentary. - SPb .: Art-SPB, 1995.