“I Embrace You Brotherly, Friendly…” (Alexander Pleshcheyev’s Letters to Vasily Zhukovsky, 1809–1814)

Abstract

The article is the first complete publication of the letters of Alexander Pleshcheyev (composer, poet, playwright, member of the Arzamas Society) to Vasily Zhukovsky for 1809–1814. During this period, Pleshcheyev was one of the closest poet’s friends, aware of all his personal and creative affairs. The lack of Zhukovsky’s letters to him, lost in the later fire of the estate house in Bolshaya Chern, makes Pleshcheyev’s letters the most valuable source of Zhukovsky’s scientific biography of the early period (before he departed from his native lands). In 1809–1814, Zhukovsky spent a lot of time on the road, leaving and returning to Muratovo, where his love for Maria Protasova attracted him. The article presents Pleshcheyev and his wife, Anna Ivanovna, as the most active participants in the unsuccessful attempts to arrange a desirable marriage for Zhukovsky and Maria. It is worth noting that Pleshcheyev’s letters help publishers of the poet’s epistolary to solve the most complicated issues related to these movements and his relationships with relatives and friends. Also, these Alexander Pleshcheyev’s letters contain pivotal dates for determining the time of the creation of Zhukovsky’s “home” humorous poems, which have conditional dating in some printed publications. The letters containing messages and postscripts by V.I. Gubarev, S. Moreau de la Meltier, O.P. Bouquillon, and others give a comprehensive idea of the life of the hospitable Pleshcheyev house.

Keywords

• vasily zhukovsky
• biography
• poems of 1809–1814
• alexander pleshcheyev
• musical compositions
• epistolary
• history of russian literature (the first third of the 19th century)