Theatre
Woe from Wit
Горе от ума
Alexander Griboyedov · 1824
Synopsis
Alexander Chatsky returns to Moscow after three years away and hurries to Famusov, a senior official in whose house he grew up, to marry his daughter Sofia. She receives him coldly, and he does not guess whom she prefers to him. In turn appear the secretary Molchalin, attentive to everyone, Colonel Skalozub, a possible suitor, then the guests at an evening party. Chatsky says aloud what he thinks of this world that reveres rank and fears education.
Context
The first two acts were written by the beginning of 1822, and a first version of the play was completed in Moscow in 1823; its model was Molière's Le Misanthrope. The censors allowed only fragments of the first act and the third act, heavily cut, to appear in an almanac for the year 1825; the text circulated in countless manuscript copies. The play was first performed in 1827 by the officers of the Erivan garrison, and the first Russian edition, abridged, appeared only in 1833, after the author's death.
Who it is for
Four acts in rhymed verse of varying line length, lively and conversational; a recent bilingual edition makes it possible to follow the play of the rhymes.
Prizes and reception
One of the most quoted plays in the Russian language: Pushkin had predicted that half of its lines would become proverbs, and the title itself has become an expression.