1. Fyodor Sologub was the first writer to introduce the morbid, pessimistic elements characteristic of European fin de siecle literature and philosophy into Russian prose.
16 Facts About Fyodor Sologub
1. 2.
The family took an interest in the education of young Fyodor, sending him to a pedagogical institution where Sologub was a model student.
3.
Fyodor Sologub continued writing as he relocated to new jobs in Velikiye Luki and Vytegra, but felt that he was completely isolated from the literary world and longed to be able to live in the capital again; nevertheless, his decade-long experience with the "frightful world" of backwoods provincial life served him well when he came to write The Petty Demon.
4.
Fyodor Sologub continued to publish books of poetry, and in 1902 he finished The Petty Demon, which was published partially in serial form in 1905.
5.
Fyodor Sologub's face was pale, long, without eyebrows; by his nose was a large wart; a thin reddish beard seemed to pull away from his thin cheeks; dull, half-closed eyes.
6.
Fyodor Sologub lived on Vasilievsky Island in the small official apartment of a municipal school where he was a teacher and inspector.
7.
Fyodor Sologub lived with his sister, a flat-chested, consumptive old maid.
8.
Fyodor Sologub was quiet and shy; she adored her brother and was a little afraid of him, and spoke of him only in a whisper.
9.
Fyodor Sologub's increasing literary success was tempered for him by his sister's tuberculosis; in 1906 he traveled with her to Ufa Guberniya for treatment, and in June 1907 he took her to Finland, where she died on 28 June.
10.
Fyodor Sologub shaved his mustache and beard, and everyone started to say that he resembled a Roman of the period of decline.
11.
Between 1909 and 1911 The Complete Works of Fyodor Sologub were published in 12 volumes, and in 1911 a collection of critical works appeared, containing over 30 critical essays, notes, and reviews by famous writers.
12.
Fyodor Sologub continued touring and giving lectures, and in 1917 he welcomed the February Revolution.
13.
Fyodor Sologub had literary gatherings in his apartment, attended by such writers as Anna Akhmatova and Korney Chukovsky.
14.
In May 1927 Fyodor Sologub became seriously ill, and by summer he could leave his bed only rarely; his last poem was dated 1 October.
15.
Innokenty Annensky, another poet and contemporary of Fyodor Sologub, wrote that the most original aspect of Fyodor Sologub's poetry was its author's unwillingness to separate himself from his literature.
16.
The omniscient third-person narrative allowed Fyodor Sologub to combine his Symbolist tendencies and the tradition of Russian Realism in which he engaged throughout his earlier novels, a style similar to Maupassant's fantastic realism.