Maxim Gorky
[1] Maxim Gorky, a famous writer, poet, critic, political commentator, and scholar, was an apprentice at the age of 11. He is a native of Nizhny Novgorod in the former Soviet Union and is of Russian ethnicity. Born on March 16, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod into a carpenter's family. He is the founder of socialist realist literature, the greatest representative of proletarian art, a mentor of proletarian revolutionary literature, and one of the founders of Soviet literature. In his political life, he published his debut short story "Maxim Gorky" in 1892 under the pen name "Maxim Gorky". Makar Chudra", and since then he has devoted himself to writing. Died in Moscow on June 18, 1936. The world is sorry and sad.
Character story: Once, when Gorky was boiling water, he was so absorbed in reading that he did not realize that the water had already boiled, and the teapot burned out. This was a time of trouble. The ferocious hostess picked up a pine stick and hit Gorky without any explanation. She beat him back and cursed him. Gorky was so bruised that he had to call a doctor. Gorky's body was bruised and purple, blood oozed from some places, and wooden thorns were stuck into his flesh. The doctor pulled out twelve wooden thorns from his back and indignantly encouraged Gorky to report it.
The hostess was scared at this time. She was afraid that Gorky would sue her for abuse. He immediately put on a pitiful face and said: "My child! As long as you don't report me, I will agree to any conditions you propose."
"Do you mean what you say?"
" Yes." The hostess said helplessly.
"As long as you allow me to study after finishing my work, I will not report you."
The hostess reluctantly agreed. In this way, Gorky was a blessing in disguise, and at the price of physical suffering, he gained the right to have extra time to study.
Ernest Miller Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 - July 1961) 2), American writer and journalist, considered one of the most famous novelists of the 20th century. Born in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, USA, he committed suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho in his later years. Hemingway had complicated emotions in his life and was married four times. [1] Hemingway is a representative figure among the writers of the "Lost Generation" in the United States. His works show confusion and hesitation about life, the world, and society. [2]
Hemingway won many awards during his lifetime. He was awarded the Silver Medal of Valor during World War I;[3] In 1953, he won the Pulitzer Prize[4] for his book "The Old Man and the Sea"; in 1954, "The Old Man and the Sea" was Hemingway's Won the Nobel Prize for Literature. [5] In 2001, Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" and "A Farewell to Arms" were included in the "100 Best English Novels of the 20th Century" by the Modern Library of America. . [6]
Hemingway has always been known as a tough guy in the literary world. He is a spiritual monument to the American nation. Hemingway's works mark the formation of his unique creative style and occupy an important position in the history of American literature and even the history of world literature. [4]
Character story:
In 1918, after the outbreak of World War I, Hemingway resigned as a reporter despite his father's opposition and tried to join the U.S. military to observe the fighting conditions of World War I. Hemingway failed the physical examination due to his visual impairment and was transferred to the Red Cross ambulance team as an ambulance driver. On his way to the Italian front, he stopped in Paris, which was under German bombardment. Instead of stopping at the safety of a hotel, he tried to get as close to the battlefield as possible. Hemingway witnessed the cruelty of the war on the Italian front: an ammunition depot exploded near Milan, and there were more female corpses than male corpses in a makeshift morgue, which shocked Hemingway. On July 8, 1918, Hemingway was injured while delivering supplies and dragged Italian wounded soldiers to safety. He was awarded the Silver Medal of Valor by the Italian government. Later, Hemingway worked at an American Red Cross hospital in Milan. This was the inspiration for his early novel A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway regarded himself as the protagonist in the novel and created his true colors. [8]
In 1920, Hemingway moved to Toronto, Ontario, and lived in an apartment. During his stay, Hemingway found a job at the Toronto Star. He became a freelance writer, reporter and overseas correspondent, and met and established a friendship with Star reporter Morley Callaghan. [9]
Between 1920 and 1921, Hemingway lived in the North Chicago neighborhood and worked for a small newspaper. In 1921, Hemingway married his first wife, Hadley Richardson, and moved to a three-story apartment in North Chicago in September. By December, the Hemingway family moved abroad and never returned to live there. Settled in Paris, Hemingway conducted an interview for the Star newspaper about the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). After returning to Paris, Anderson introduced Hemingway to the "Paris Modernist Movement."
[10]
In 1923, Hemingway's debut novel "Three Stories and Ten Poems" was published in Paris. After the birth of his first son, Hemingway resigned from his job at the Toronto Star to support the entire family. In 1925, the short story series "In Our Time" was published, showing a concise writing style. In 1926, Hemingway's novel "The Sun Also Rises" was published. In 1927, Hemingway divorced Hadley Richardson and married his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer. and published "Men Without Women". [11]
In 1928, Hemingway left Paris and lived in Florida and Cuba in the United States, living a quiet pastoral life. He often went hunting, fishing, and watching bullfights. In successive years, Hemingway's second and third sons were born. [12]
Hemingway (Spain) (5 photos)
In 1931, Hemingway moved to Key West (the house where he lived is now a museum) and wrote " Death in the Afternoon" and "The Winner Gets Nothing" accumulated material. In 1932, "Death in the Afternoon" was published. Respecting the famous saying of American architect Rodwig "less, more" makes the work more refined, shortens the distance between the work and the readers, and puts forward the "iceberg principle", which only expresses one-eighth of things. Make the work substantial, subtle and thought-provoking. [13]
In the autumn of 1933, Hemingway went to Africa with a hunting expedition. [13] Based on his experiences and impressions in Africa, he published "The Green Mountains of Africa" ??and "The Beggar" in 1935. "The Snows of Mount Manjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber". [14]
From 1937 to 1938, he traveled to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War as a war correspondent. During World War II, he served as a journalist and participated in the liberation of Paris. [15] During this period, Hemingway's essay "The Report" was published in 1969 with "Four Stories of the Fifth Column and the Spanish Civil War". [16] In 1940, Hemingway and Feifu's marriage ended. During this period, health problems ensued, which caused great trouble to Hemingway. [17] In the same year, Hemingway published the anti-fascist novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls", which was set in the Spanish Civil War. [18] In 1950, "Across the River and Into the Woods", which was set in Venice after World War II, was published. Marquez once said: "Without "Across the River and Into the Woods", there would be no "The Old Man and the Sea." [19]
After the outbreak of the Pacific War at the end of 1941, Hemingway immediately converted his yacht into Patrol boats were used to detect the movements of German submarines and provide intelligence for the destruction of the enemy. [20] In the mid-1990s, former KGB officer Alexander Vasilyev was granted access to the archives of the Soviet intelligence agency. As a result, he was surprised to find that Hemingway had been recruited as a KGB spy in 1941, codenamed: Argo. It's a pity that I don't have any talent and I didn't get any valuable information. [21] In 1944, Hemingway accompanied the US military to Europe for an interview. He was seriously injured in a plane crash, but after recovering, he still went behind enemy lines to conduct interviews. After World War II, he received a bronze medal. In 1948, Hemingway divorced Martha and married wartime correspondent Mary Welsh Hemingway, and soon returned to Cuba. [22] On July 2, 1961, Hemingway ended his life with a shotgun at the age of 62. [23]
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo, French writer, representative writer of the positive romantic literary movement in the early 19th century, humanitarian A representative figure of Marxism and an outstanding bourgeois democratic writer in the history of French literature, he is known as the "Shakespeare of France". He wrote many poems, novels, scripts, various essays, literary reviews and political articles throughout his life, and has a wide influence in France and the world.
Hugo's creative process spanned more than 60 years, and his works include 26 volumes of poetry, 20 volumes of novels, 12 volumes of plays, and 21 volumes of philosophical works, totaling 79 volumes. His representative works include "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Les Misérables."
Character story: Hugo was born in 1802 in Champson, southern France. His grandfather was a carpenter, and his father was an officer in the French Army. He was awarded the rank of general by Napoleon's brother, King Joseph Bonaparte of Spain, and was a close confidant of the king.
Hugo was talented and started writing poetry at the age of 9. When he was 15 years old, he wrote "The Joy of Reading" and was awarded by the French Academy; when he was 20 years old, he published the collection of poems "Odes and Miscellaneous Poems", and King Louis XVIII gave him an annuity.
In 1827, Hugo published the script "Cromwell" and its preface. Although the script was not performed, the preface was considered a declaration of French Romanticism and became an epoch-making document in the history of literature. It played a great role in promoting the development of French romantic literature.
In 1830, Victor Hugo's play "Onani" was performed at the Grand Theater of the French Academy, which had a huge impact and established the dominant position of Romanticism in the French literary world.
"Onani" tells the story of Onani, a robber from a noble family in Spain who rebelled against the king in the 16th century. Hugo praised the robber's chivalry and nobility and showed a strong anti-feudal tendency.
In July 1830, the "July Revolution" occurred in France, and the feudal restoration dynasty was overthrown. Hugo enthusiastically praised the revolution, praised those revolutionaries, and wrote poems to mourn those heroes who died in street fighting.
"The Hunchback of Notre Dame" published in 1831 is Hugo's most romantic novel. The plot of the novel is twists and turns,
tense, vivid, unpredictable, dramatic and legendary.
The story takes place in the Middle Ages. On April Fool's Day, wandering Gypsy entertainers performed songs and dances in the square. A Gypsy girl named Esmeralda attracted passers-by. She was beautiful and danced very gracefully.
At this time, Claude Frollo, the deputy bishop of Notre Dame de Paris, was suddenly fascinated by the beautiful Meralda. The fire of lust burned in his heart and he fell madly in love with her. So he ordered the church bell ringer, the extremely ugly Quasimodo, to snatch Esmeralda away. As a result, Fabi, the French king's archer captain, rescued Esmeralda and captured Quasimodo. He took the bell ringer to the square to be whipped. The kind-hearted Gypsy girl did not care about her past grudges, but instead gave Quasimodo more water to drink.
Although the bell ringer looks ugly, he is pure and noble in his heart. He is very grateful to Esmeralda and falls in love with her. The innocent Esmeralda fell in love with Fabi at first sight. When they were dating, Frollo followed quietly. Out of jealousy, he stabbed Fabi with a knife and ran away. Emeslada was sentenced to death for murder. Quasimodo snatched Esmeralda from the gallows and hid it in Notre Dame de Paris. Frollo took the opportunity to threaten the gypsy girl and asked her to satisfy his lust. After being refused, he handed her over to the king. The army, the innocent girl was hanged. Quasimodo angrily pushed Frollo off the church and fell to death. He hugged Esmeralda's body and died.
The novel shows Hugo's strong hatred for the feudal government and the church, and also reflects his deep sympathy for the lower class people.
After the "July Revolution", France established the "July Dynasty
ruled by the big bourgeoisie headed by the financier Louis Philippe." The July Dynasty continued to challenge the Hugo tried to win over him, and in 1841 Hugo was elected to the French Academy. In 1845, Louis Philippe made him the Minister of the French Nobility, and he also became a member of the House of Nobles. Hugo's passion for struggle in his creation weakened. In 1843, he wrote a mystical play "The Garrison", which was booed by the audience during the performance and failed. Hugo remained silent for nearly 10 years without writing.
In June 1848, the people of Paris held a revolution, overthrew the July Dynasty and established the French Republic. At first Hugo did not understand revolution, but when the big bourgeoisie conspired to destroy the Republic of China, Hugo became a staunch pacifist. In December 1851, Louis Bonaparte launched a coup, and Hugo participated in the anti-coup uprising organized by the Communist Party. After Louis Bonaparte came to power, he established the Second French Empire. He implemented a policy of terror and ruthlessly suppressed those who resisted. Hugo was also persecuted and had to go into exile.
Exile period?
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy (1828～1910) Russian writer. Yasnaya Polyana was born on September 9, 1828 in Klapivun County, Tula Province (now Xiaojin District, Tula Province). The Tolstoy family is a well-known aristocrat whose genealogy can be traced back to the 16th century, and their distant ancestors received knighthoods from Peter I. His father, Count Nikolai Ilyich, participated in the Patriotic War of 1812 and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. His mother, Maria Nikolayevna, was the daughter of Prince Nikolai Volkonsky. Tolstoy lost his mother when he was one and a half years old, and his father when he was nine. After the death of his guardian aunt A. I. Osten-Saken in 1841, he was placed under the custody of his aunt P. Y. Yushkova who lived in Kazan. So his family moved to Kazan.
Tolstoy received a typical aristocratic family education since childhood. In 1844, he was admitted to the Oriental Department of Kazan University, where he studied Turkish and Arabic and prepared to become a diplomat. He failed the final exam and was transferred to the law department the following year. He did not concentrate on his studies and was obsessed with social life. At the same time, he became interested in philosophy, especially moral philosophy. He loved Rousseau's theory and his personality, and read extensively literary works. During his college years, he had noticed the superiority of his classmates from civilian backgrounds. Dropped out of school in April 1847 and returned to Yasnaya Polyana. This was his mother's dowry property, which belonged to him when his brothers separated, and he spent most of his long life here.
Character story:
After returning to the manor, he tried to improve the farmers' lives, but stopped because he could not gain the trust of the farmers. In April 1849, he went to Petersburg to take the Bachelor of Laws examination. He only took two courses and suddenly returned home. In the autumn of that year, a school was established for farmers' children. He nominally worked in the Tula Provincial Administration Bureau in November, and was promoted to a fourteenth-grade civil servant in December of the following year. In fact, he dealt with relatives, friends and Moscow's upper class society.
But he gradually became tired of this life and environment. At the end of April 1851, he went to the Caucasus with his eldest brother Nicholas, who was serving in the military, and participated in the campaign to attack the mountain people as a volunteer. Later, he served as a "fourth class artillery corporal" in the Caucasus troops. Served in the army for two and a half years. Although he performed well, he relied on the support of his relatives to be promoted to warrant officer. In March 1854, he joined the Danube Corps. After the Crimean War began, he voluntarily transferred to Sevastopol. He served as the artillery company commander in the most dangerous bastion No. 4 and participated in the city's final defense battle. In various battles, seeing the heroic spirit and excellent qualities of civilian officers and soldiers strengthened his sympathy for ordinary people and his critical attitude towards serfdom.
Tolstoy began writing while in the Caucasus, and published novels such as "Childhood", "Youth" and "Sevastopol Stories" in the magazine "Modern Man". In November 1855, he came to Petersburg from Sevastopol. As a well-known new writer, he was welcomed by Turgenev and Nekrasov, and gradually got acquainted with Goncharov, Feit, Oskar and others. Trovsky, Druzhnin, Annankov, Botkin and other writers and critics. Here he was regarded as an eccentric for his unsophistication and bohemianism, and his dislike of Homer and Shakespeare also surprised everyone. Soon, he met Chernyshevsky, but he did not agree with the latter's literary views. At that time, Druzhnin and others advocated the so-called "beautiful art" of art for art's sake, and opposed the so-called "educational art", which was actually the exposed literature advocated by the revolutionary democrats. Tolstoy was inclined to the views of Druzhnin and others, but he also believed that any art cannot be separated from social life. By 1859, he broke with "Modern Man" magazine.
Retired at the end of 1856 with the rank of lieutenant. At the beginning of the next year, he traveled to France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. France's "social freedom" won his admiration, but the spectacle of a guillotine execution in Paris disgusted him deeply. Seeing the selfishness and callousness of the British bourgeois gentlemen in Switzerland also aroused his great indignation. But this trip abroad expanded his literary and artistic horizons and enhanced his clear understanding of the backwardness of Russian society.
Tolstoy’s thoughts were extremely contradictory regarding the serfdom reform and revolutionary situation at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. As early as 1856, he drafted a plan to liberate the peasants through methods such as rent-for-service and other methods, and tried it out in his own manor, but it was not implemented because the peasants did not accept it. He sympathized with the peasants and hated serfdom, but he believed that according to "historical justice", the land should belong to the landlords. At the same time, he was deeply worried because the landlords were faced with the problem of life or land. He disagreed with the views of liberals, Slavs and even die-hard serf owners, and saw the hypocritical nature of the top-down "reforms" implemented by the tsar. However, he opposed the elimination of serfdom through revolutionary methods and fantasized about finding his own path. .
Unable to resolve ideological conflicts, he tried to escape reality in philosophy and art, but was soon disappointed. The death of his eldest brother Nicholas in 1860 deepened his pessimism. From 1859 to 1862, he almost stopped creating. He successively ran more than 20 schools for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana and nearby rural areas. He also studied the education systems of Russia and Western Europe. From 1860 to 1861, he also went to Germany, France, Visited schools in Italy, Britain, Belgium and other countries. Later he founded the educational magazine "Yasnaya Polyana". These activities attracted the attention of the tsarist government. In addition, during the serfdom reform, he served as the county's peace mediator. When mediating disputes between landlords and peasants, he often sympathized with the peasants, but also incurred the hostility of the aristocratic serf owners. When he went out in July 1862, his home was searched by the military police for two consecutive days. Soon he closed the school. The shock he received in his mind during this period and the acceptance of some of their views on things due to frequent contact with farmers became the opportunity and beginning for his worldview to change.
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen, also known as Andersen, (1805-1875), a famous Danish fairy tale writer in the 19th century and a world literature One of the representative figures of fairy tales, known as "the sun of children's literature in the world". He was born in a poor shoemaker's family in Odense and lived in poverty during his childhood. In his early years, he studied at a charity school and worked as an apprentice. Influenced by his father and folk oral literature, he loved literature since childhood. When he was 11 years old, his father died of illness and his mother remarried. In order to pursue art, he came to Copenhagen alone at the age of 14. After eight years of hard work, he finally showed his talent in the poetic drama "Alfsol". Therefore, he was sent to Slagelsee Grammar School and Helsingo School for free by the Royal Theater of Arts. It lasted 5 years. In 1828, he entered the University of Copenhagen. After graduation, he has never had a job and mainly relies on royalties to make a living. In 1838, he received the Writer's Prize - a non-public service allowance of 200 yuan allocated to him by the state every year.
Andersen's literary career began in 1822 when he wrote plays. After entering university, his creations became increasingly mature. He has published travel notes and musical comedies, as well as poetry collections and poetry plays. In 1833, he published the novel "The Improvisational Poet", which won him international reputation and is his representative work of adult literature. His most famous fairy tales include "The Little Tin Soldier", "The Daughter of the Sea", "Thumbelina", "The Little Match Girl", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Emperor's New Clothes", etc. Andersen received royal tributes during his lifetime and was highly praised for bringing joy to a generation of children across Europe.
His work "Andersen's Fairy Tales" has been translated into more than 150 languages, and thousands of fairy tale books have been released and published around the world. [1]
Character story: In 1874, one year before Andersen died, he received a letter from a reader. The letter was written by an American schoolgirl. Enclosed was a one-dollar note. banknotes, and a newspaper clipping documenting Andersen's ill health and alleged poverty. Soon, other children began to send small sums of money to repay what a Philadelphia newspaper called the "child debt" owed to the Danish writer. Later, even the U.S. ambassador personally sent him 200 Danish silver dollars. Andersen, who was not too poor to uncover the pot, wanted to stop it. He wrote to Gibson Peacock, publisher of the Philadelphia Evening News, which launched the charity fund-raising campaign, saying that he would be happy to see "my stories in a small language find readers so far from my native country." , and was deeply touched that so many American children "broke their piggy banks to help him, an old writer," but he really did not need and could not accept these gifts. Now, he wrote, he felt humiliated rather than proud and grateful, and a certain satisfaction had outweighed Andersen's embarrassment.