Everything about Ivan Krylov totally explained
Ivan Andreyevich Krylov (
February 13,
1769 -
November 21,
1844) is Russia's best known
fabulist. While many of his earlier fables were loosely based on
Aesop and
Jean de La Fontaine, later fables were original work.
Ivan Krylov was born in
Moscow, but spent his early years in
Orenburg and
Tver. His father, a distinguished military officer, died in
1779, leaving the family destitute. A few years later Krylov and his mother moved to
St.Petersburg in the hope of securing a government
pension. There, Krylov obtained a position in the
civil service, but gave it up after his mother's death in
1788. His literary career began already in
1783, when he sold a
comedy he'd written to a publisher. He used the proceeds to obtain the works of
Molière,
Racine, and
Boileau. It was probably under the influence of these writers that he produced
Philomela, which gave him access to the dramatic circle of
Knyazhnin.
Krylov made several attempts to start a literary
magazine. All met with little success, but, together with his plays, these magazine upstarts helped Krylov make a name for himself and gain recognition in literary circles. For about four years (
1797-
1801) Krylov lived at the country estate of
Prince Sergey Galitzine, and when the prince was appointed
military governor of
Livonia, he accompanied him as a secretary. Little is known of the years immediately after Krylov resigned from this position, other than the commonly accepted myth that he wandered from town to town in pursuit of card games. His first collection of fables, 23 in number, appeared in
1809. From
1812 to
1841 he was employed by the
Imperial Public Library, first as an assistant, and then as head of the Russian Books Department.
Honors were showered on Krylov even during his lifetime: the
Russian Academy of Sciences admitted him as a member in
1811, and bestowed on him its gold medal; in
1838 a great festival was held under imperial sanction to celebrate the jubilee of his first publication, and the
Tzar granted him a generous pension. By the time he died in
1844, 77,000 copies of his fables had been sold in Russia, and his unique brand of wisdom and humor gained popularity. His fables were often rooted in historic events, and are easily recognizable by their style of language and engaging story. Though he began as a translator and imitator of existing fables, Krylov soon showed himself an imaginative, prolific writer, who found abundant original material in his native land. In Russia his language is considered of high quality: his words and phrases are direct, simple and idiomatic, with color and cadence varying with the theme. "Krylov spent almost thirty years adding to this collection. The last edition, which he compiled shortly before his death and which appeared in print in December 1843, contained 197 fables."
Krylov's
statue in the
Summer Garden (1854-55) is one of the most notable monuments in
St.Petersburg. It is also the first monument to a poet erected in
Eastern Europe. All four sides of the pedestal represent scenes from Krylov's archetypal fables.
Selected Dates and Fables:
1807
Fox and Crow;
A Little Box;
Frog and Bullock;
The Oracle;
Hermit and Bear;
The Peasant and Death.
1812
Crow and Fowl;
Sharing Up;
The wolf in the Kennels;
A Train of Carts.
1823 "Awarded gold medal by Russian Academy for Literary works."
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