Lidia Alekseyevna Charskaya (Russian: Ð›Ð¸Ì Ð´Ð¸Ñ
Ð Ð»ÐµÐºÑ ÐµÌ ÐµÐ²Ð½Ð° Ð§Ð°Ñ€Ì Ñ ÐºÐ°Ñ ), January 31, 1875 â€" March
18, 1938, was a Russian writer and actress. Charskaya was her
pseudonym; her real last name was Churilova.Charskaya worked as an
actress at the Alexandrinsky Theatre from 1898 to 1924. From 1901 to
1916 she published about eighty books, several of which became
bestsellers. Her most popular work was the novel Princess Dzhavakha
(1903). In the 1940s, when Boris Pasternak was writing his novel
Doctor Zhivago, he said that he was "writing almost like Charskaya",
because he wanted to be accessible and dreamed that his prose would be
gulped down "even by a seamstress, even by a dishwasher."Her novels
fall into four general categories: stories that take place in boarding
schools for elite girls; historical novels about women;
autobiographical novels that follow the heroine from boarding school
to a career; and detective and adventure stories. The main theme of
most of her works is friendship among girls. The protagonists are
usually independent girls and women who look for adventure or some
kind of diversion from the everyday routine. Critics have commented
that these characteristics account in large part for the wide
popularity of Charskaya's works among young girls in early 20th
century Russia.Charskaya's reputation began to fade in 1912 after the
critic Korney Chukovsky published an article in which he wrote that
her books were formulaic, repetitious, and excessive with respect to
female emotions. She stopped publishing in 1916, and in 1920 her works
were banned. From 1924 until her death in 1938 she lived in poverty,
supported mostly by friends. Throughout the Soviet period her work was
lowly regarded, although there is plenty of evidence that young girls
continued secretly to read her works, at least through the 1930s. In
the late 1980s and 1990s Charskaya's works were revived in Russia, as
several of her works appeared in new editions.
Ð Ð»ÐµÐºÑ ÐµÌ ÐµÐ²Ð½Ð° Ð§Ð°Ñ€Ì Ñ ÐºÐ°Ñ ), January 31, 1875 â€" March
18, 1938, was a Russian writer and actress. Charskaya was her
pseudonym; her real last name was Churilova.Charskaya worked as an
actress at the Alexandrinsky Theatre from 1898 to 1924. From 1901 to
1916 she published about eighty books, several of which became
bestsellers. Her most popular work was the novel Princess Dzhavakha
(1903). In the 1940s, when Boris Pasternak was writing his novel
Doctor Zhivago, he said that he was "writing almost like Charskaya",
because he wanted to be accessible and dreamed that his prose would be
gulped down "even by a seamstress, even by a dishwasher."Her novels
fall into four general categories: stories that take place in boarding
schools for elite girls; historical novels about women;
autobiographical novels that follow the heroine from boarding school
to a career; and detective and adventure stories. The main theme of
most of her works is friendship among girls. The protagonists are
usually independent girls and women who look for adventure or some
kind of diversion from the everyday routine. Critics have commented
that these characteristics account in large part for the wide
popularity of Charskaya's works among young girls in early 20th
century Russia.Charskaya's reputation began to fade in 1912 after the
critic Korney Chukovsky published an article in which he wrote that
her books were formulaic, repetitious, and excessive with respect to
female emotions. She stopped publishing in 1916, and in 1920 her works
were banned. From 1924 until her death in 1938 she lived in poverty,
supported mostly by friends. Throughout the Soviet period her work was
lowly regarded, although there is plenty of evidence that young girls
continued secretly to read her works, at least through the 1930s. In
the late 1980s and 1990s Charskaya's works were revived in Russia, as
several of her works appeared in new editions.
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