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Vasily Narezhny


Vasily Trofimovich Narezhny (Russian: Василий Трофимович Нарежный) (1780—July 3 [O.S. June 21] 1825) was a Russian writer known for his satirical depiction of provincial mores in the vein of the 18th-century picaresque novel.

Narezhny came from a poor Szlachta family. He studied at Moscow State University from 1799 to 1801, afterwards serving in the civil service in the Caucasus and in Saint Petersburg. During his time at Moscow State University he wrote several tragedies in the Sturm und Drang style. His work Dmitry the Pretender was published in 1804. His collection of stories Slavonic Nights (1809), set in Kievan Rus, was well received.

Perhaps his most famous novel is A Russian Gil Blas (Russian: Российский Жильблаз) (1814), an avowed imitation of Lesage's work. The earthy, humorous realism of this novel established him as the chief predecessor of Gogol in Russian literature. Narezhny's rough, vernacular Russian contrasted sharply with the sensitivity and musicality of the Karamzin school's Gallicized language. His last work, The Divinity Student (Russian: Бурсак) (1824), is a romance about the adventures of a hetman's son; George Grabowicz considered it "probably his best work."

D. S. Mirsky wrote:

Narézhny had a grip on real life, which places him above all the "prehistorical" Russian novelists. But he was too little of an artist, and his books, owing to their heavy style and their diffuseness, are difficult reading. He was in fact little read, and his influence on the development of the Russian novel is almost negligible.


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