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Lermontov, Mikhail Yurievich (1814-1841) «Vesna»
(Spring) (When the ice broken by spring...).
Athenaeum, part IV, September 1830. Censor L. Tsvetayev. Moscow,
Reshetnikov’s Printing House, 1830. On page 113. «Vesna» (Spring)
(When the ice broken by spring...). The first publication of the great
Russian poet! Signed: capital Latin letter «L». Contemporary slightly
worn full leather binding , with the gold lettering on the spine of
the book. Top and foot of spine and hinges carefully repaired. Inside
a very clean and fresh copy without a printed cover. 21x13,5 cm.
Extremely rare! The Lermontov ’s first publication! It’s a great
culture and historic object.
At that time, yet a very young Michel (he would be 16
in October) was very into Mlle. Katya Sushkova. Lermontov’s attitude
to her was not without sarcasm, as witnessed by Ekaterina Alexeyevna
herself [«Notes», p. 92]. Once, he sent her in the morning a small
poem. On a folded grey piece of paper the words were written: «Ey
Pravda» (To her the truth). Having unfolded it, she read: |
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 That
the poet liked the black-eyed Mlle Sushkova, cannot be denied, of
course. But, how long this fancy - or was it love? - last, or was it
just a passing interest, that’s the question. It seemed that Mrs.
Khvostova-Sushkova tended in her notes somewhat to exaggerate the
poet’s passion. A number of small poems, even the whole
sketch-notebook with drawings given by the young poet to the young
lady, does not prove anything yet. At that time, Lermontov dedicated
or wrote his poems to many of his friends or cousin sisters, etc.
Khvostova-Sushkova wrote: «Lermontov’s head was full of romantic
ideas, and the desire to ruin hearts developed very early in him. He
dumped university after two years and went to the army. We laughed a
lot at him, because he was very ignorant about food, he never knew
whether he was eating veal or pork, game or lamb. We were saying that
probably, with time, he, like Saturn, would be swallowing stones. He
would lose patience at our mockery: he argued with us, almost crying,
trying to convince us in the fineness of his gastronomical taste; we
could bet that we would catch him in the contrary. And on the same
day, after a long ride, hungry, we were drinking tea, and our
gastronome, without a blink, ate one roll, than another, and was
already taking the third one…» We’ll forgive to Mrs.
Khovstova-Sushkova her experiments in summer 1830, she missed the
point: only people like this become Great Poets! Neither did N.
Martynov understand this on the evening of July 15, 1841, at the foot
of the mountain Mashuk, under the pouring rain, when he was looking at
the breathless body of the poet covered with Glebov’s overcoat:…
sarcasm can be forgiven to such persons.
Smirnov-Sokolsky, N. «My library», Vol. 1, page 339. |
