Alexander Sumarokov - "Northern Racine", a pioneer, creator of new genres

MOSCOW. OIG Publishing House has published selected works in verses by Alexander Sumarokov.

"Northern Racine", an antagonist of Lomonosov, author of ballet and opera libretto, patriot of the Russian language, son of the king’s godson. All these epithets relate to one person - Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov. A gift for the 300th anniversary of the first professional Russian writer was a collection of his "Selected Works in Poems" published by the OGI publishing house.

A wonderful chance for readers of this day to get acquainted with the work of a brilliant playwright, poet, journalist. His plays, parables, poems and fairy tales, written in a lively, colloquial language, have not lost their relevance now. Contrary to Belinsky’s opinion, who considered the poetry of the 18th century archaic, and Sumarokov’s work was interesting only from the point of view of its historical and literary significance.

Pushkin predicted his poetry to be completely oblivious. Radishchev saw in him a worthy successor to Lomonosov. Belinsky called him one of the most educated people of his time. The word “first” sounds constantly in Sumarokov’s biography. Thanks to him, Shakespeare was recognized in Russia. The free translation of Hamlet, published in 1748, was reprinted six times. Thanks to Alexander Petrovich in 1759 the first private journal “Hardworking Bee” was published, on the pages of which one could read the works of Voltaire, Ovid, Erasmus of Rotterdam.

With the light hand of Sumarokov, the premiere of such a genre as tragedy, which became unusually popular, took place in Russia. “Dmitry the Impostor” is the first tyrannical tragedy of a despot incapable of repentance, of the right of the people to overthrow it. Sumarokov was the author of the first domestic play "Horev", about lovers, forced to make a choice between feelings and duty. The repertoire of domestic theater troupes was based on his plays. For several years, Sumarokov led the first permanent Russian theater, was a theorist of classicism. He created the so-called fable verse, well familiar to readers from the works of Krylov, which allows him to be considered the creator of the national fable. He himself wrote almost 400 works in this genre.

The collection presents the writer’s work in all its genre diversity. A pleasant bonus for the reader will be “Love Fortune Teller Book”.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru