''Neglected People'' (russian: Обойдённые, translit=Oboydyonnye) is an

1865 Events January–March * January 4 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at Broad Street (Manhattan), 10-12 Broad near Wall Street, in New York City. * January 13 – American Civil War : Sec ...

novel by Nikolai Leskov.

History

The novel, initially supposed to be published in

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

's '' Epokh'' magazine, eventually came out in '' Otechestvennye Zapiski'' (1865, Nos. 18-24). In 1866 it was released as a separate book by

Andrey Krayevsky Andrey Alexandrovich Krayevsky (russian: Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Крае́вский; February 17 .S. 5 1810 – August 20 .S. 8 1889) was a Russian publisher and journalist, best known for his work as an editor-in-chief of ...

's publishing agency in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Background

According to the author''Peterburgskaya Gazeta'', 1894, November 27 the novel was written in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

where Leskov was sent as a ''

Severnaya Ptchela ''Northern Bee'' (russian: Северная пчела) was a semi-official Russian political and literary newspaper published in St. Petersburg from 1825 to 1864. It was an unofficial organ of Section Three (the Third Section of His Imperial Maje ...

'' correspondent in 1862. Later it was suggested that parts 2 and 3 of it might have been finished in Petersburg in the early 1865, judging by the references to the local literary journals' repertoire of the time. Originally the novel had a different title. On March 6, 1865, Leskov informed

Nikolai Strakhov Nikolay Nikolayevich Strakhov, also transliterated as ''Nikolai Strahov'' (; October 16, 1828 – January 24, 1896), was a Russian philosopher, publicist, journalist and literary critic. He shared the ideals of Pochvennichestvo and was a longtime ...

in a letter: "I've got a large story, a novel almost - nothing tendentious, very distinct, - and it is called ''Vsyak svoyemy nravu rabotayet'' (Everybody Acts According to their Taste)". The novel is partly autobiographical. Details of Leskov's life in Paris are there, as well as his memories of childhood in

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

and an unhappy marriage, his ex-wife Olga Smirnova obviously serving as a prototype for Dolinsky's wife. Despite Leskov's assurances to the contrary, the novel continued his anti-

nihilistic Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning of life, meaning. The term was pop ...

crusade, featuring 'nihilists' Vyrvich and Shpandorchuk. Anna Mikhaylovna's workshop resembles Chernyshevsky's Vera Pavlovna's enterprise in ''

What Is to Be Done? ''What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement'' is a political pamphlet written by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin (credited as N. Lenin) in 1901 and published in 1902. Lenin said that the article represented "a skeleton plan t ...

''. ''Neglected People'' opened the series of Leskov's novels and shorts stories concerning the arts and artists ('' The Islanders'', "The Toupee Artist", ''The Devil's Dolls''). The author's favorite artists Murillo and Girodet de Roussy-Trioson's art serves here as a background for the characters' emotional condition. One of the latter, artist Zhuravka, described as "a little man with big heart," formulates his views on the mission of arts in his disputes with nihilists Vyrvich and Shpandortchuk. It's through Zhuravka's eye that the reader sees the love triangle of Dolinsky, Anna Mikhaylovna and Dora.

References

Novels by Nikolai Leskov 1866 Russian novels {{1860s-novel-stub