Bernatovich, Felix

Felix Bernatovich was born in the Armenian family of an official, spent his childhood in the Opushaty of the Suvalka province . Representative of the famous Armenian clan Bernatovich.

He was educated in Kremenets and Vilna.

After the death of his father, he worked for some time with his uncle, in 1805 he became secretary of Prince Adam Czartoryski , and after 1823 he moved from Senyava to Pulawy , where until 1830 he took the place of the librarian of the princes Czartoryski.

He visited the Lithuanian provinces several times, where he was engaged in the collection of ethnographic material. In 1832 he published in Warsaw, where he moved a year earlier, the Dziennik Powszechny magazine, in 1833-1834 he visited Dresden, Paris and Poznan, but in 1835 political disappointments and unhappy love led him to insanity, which led to a quick death .

Bernatovich began his literary work with translations, then tried his hand at dramatic literature: for example, he wrote several comedies, one of which, “Bezżeniec w Kłopotach”, has - or at least had some significance in its time. Having become acquainted with the then fashionable novels - “New Eloise”, “Werther”, the compositions of Florian, Janlis, Kollen and Pichler, Bernatovich decided to write an original Polish novel, and in 1820 he published the book “Nierozsądne śluby. Listy dwojga kochankòw, na brżegach Wisły mieszkających ”(2 volumes, Warsaw, 1820, the letters FB are signed instead of the last name).

The novel and its sentimental mood, and the general system does not differ from Western European models, even the form is borrowed from the "Nouvelle Heloïse"; Nevertheless, this novel is of great importance in the history of Polish literature, on the one hand, because it is in chronological order the second novel written in Polish (the first was “Malwina, czyli domyślnośc serca” (Princess Maria Württemberg ), and secondly, because, despite the borrowings, the general background on which the action develops, and the characters of the people are completely Polish; that is why the novel nevertheless represented a picture of Polish life.

Soon Bernatovich, having met Walter Scott , decided to write an original historical novel; for this, he chose a plot similar to that of Scottish “Ivanhoe”, borrowing content from the traditions of the Lithuanian people. The result was a narrative from the era of Lithuania’s union with Poland “Pojata, còrka Lezdejki czyli Litwini w XIV wieku”. Nierozsądne śluby was already a great success, but the success of Pojaty was greater: there were five Polish publications (Warsaw, 1826, 4 volumes; Pulawy, 1829; Vilno, 1839; Lvov, 1860 and 1877); in addition, Pavel Gayevsky translated it into Russian (1832), Schnaase into German (1834), Leturnier into French (1832), and in 1854 E. Dering remade the novel into a drama (published in Vilna). Flattered by the success, Bernatovich soon published a new historical novel, “Nałęcz, romans z dziejów Polski” (Warsaw, 1828, Lviv, 1848 and 1877, German translation by Schnaase, Leipzig, 1834). It describes the struggle between two powerful Polish clans, the Nalenchiv and Lelivites, during the time of Casimir the Great, that is, in the XIV century. This novel was at first among Polish society as successful as Pojata, nevertheless, in the artistic sense, it is much lower.

After this, Bernatovich returned to his contemporary subjects and in 1834 published two poetic Powieści z podań ludu i obyczajòw Krajowych (published in Warsaw, 1834, and Poznan, 1878). In addition, Bernatovich wrote a biography of Prince. Czartoryski and began to write the novel "Madonna", but the disease prevented him from finishing it. Some critics of the 19th century, most of all between Bernatovich’s works, distinguished Nierozsądne śluby; this was not according to the majority of the reading Polish public, who preferred the “Sing” to everything; on the tombstone of Bernatovich in Lomza the inscription is made: "Tu leży Feliks Bernatowicz, autor Pojaty".

• Bernatovich, Felix // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.