Education
He studied at Moscow State University from 1799 to 1801, afterwards serving in the civil service in the Caucasus and in Saint St. Petersburg.
He studied at Moscow State University from 1799 to 1801, afterwards serving in the civil service in the Caucasus and in Saint St. Petersburg.
Narezhny came from a poor Ukrainian gentry family. During his time at Moscow State University he wrote several tragedies in the Sturm und Drang style. His work Dmitry the Pretender was published in 1804.
His collection of stories Slavonic Nights (1809), set in Kievan Rus, was well received.
Perhaps his most famous novel is A Russian Gil Blas (Russian: Российский Жильблаз) (1814), an avowed imitation of Lesage"s work. The earthy, humorous realism of this novel established him as the chief predecessor of Gogol in Russian literature.
Narezhny"s rough, vernacular Russian contrasted sharply with the sensitivity and musicality of the Karamzin school"s Gallicized language. His last work, The Divinity Student (Russian: Бурсак) (1824), is a romance about the adventures of a hetman"s son.
George Grabowicz considered it "probably his best work."
Doctorate. South. Mirsky wrote:
Foreign imaginative sweep, wit, satirical acuity, and consummate gifts in the art of story-telling one could, during that period, do worse than turn to Narezhnyi.