Izvestia published a fragment of a book by literary critic Basinsky about Leonid Andreev

Izvestia publishes a fragment of the book by literary critic Pavel Basinsky "Leonid Andreev: Duke Lorenzo". The work is devoted to the study of the life and work of the younger contemporary of the writer Leo Tolstoy, to whom the literary critic dedicated his previous work.

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However, if in the dilogy about "Anna Karenina" Basinsky focused on analyzing a specific work, now he talks not so much about literature as about the personal life and the formation of a very difficult person, as if he had absorbed the contradictions and dissonances of the era. Andreev's creative work has already been aimed at the 20th century.

So, the book tells about the writer's future wife, Alexandra Veligorskaya.

Famous photographs show us her appearance when she had already become Andreev's wife. But they are static and do not convey the changes in her face. Therefore, it is important to describe her appearance, which Andreev himself made two years before their wedding in a multi—page essay "Alexandra Mikhailovna Veliegorskaya (so. - P.B.). The experience of characterization."

"The complexion is unstable: anemic, sometimes pale yellowish, tired, but more often it has a light, transparent and delicate blush. The face is "not pretty," but one that appeals to youth, vitality, and the general character of something secretive, sharp, and attentive. One of those people who promises more than they give, and they don't give at all what is expected of them," Andreev writes about Alexander.

In 1902, when they got married, Andreev was 31 years old, his bride was 21.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article on Monday, March 24, at 10:00 a.m.:

Under Andreev's banner: Izvestia publishes a fragment of Pavel Basinsky's book