Background
Pyotr Dmitryevich Boborykin was born on August 27, 1836, in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russian Federation. He was born into the family of a landowner. His father was a local landlord, and his grandfather was a major general.
The Nizhniy Novgorod Gymnasuim
The Kazan State University
The Dorpat University
Pyotr Dmitryevich Boborykin was born on August 27, 1836, in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russian Federation. He was born into the family of a landowner. His father was a local landlord, and his grandfather was a major general.
Pyotr Dmitryevich attended the Nizhniy Novgorod Gymnasium in 1846-1853 and entered the Faculty of Law of the Kazan State University. By 1855 he switched to the Faculty of Chemistry of Dorpat University. In 1857 Pyotr Dmitryevich partially passed his candidate exam but decided to continue his studies at the Faculty of Medicine.
Pyotr Dmitryevich left for Saint Petersburg in 1860 without completing his education. He later passed a candidate exam at the Saint Petersburg State University's Faculty of Law.
Pyotr Dmitryevich made his literary debut in 1860 when he published the play Odnodvorets on pages of the editorial Biblioteka dlya chteniya. His collaboration with that editorial continued as in the next few years they published his three other works: drama plays The child, Ancient evil, and the autobiographical novel about his personal formation Bon voyage. Boborykin's sociability helped him to make friends with most of local intellectuals. He kept in touch with many Russian writers, composers, and theatre actors. His plays were adapted and produced on stages of the Maly Theatre and The Alexandrinsky Theatre.
In 1863 Pyotr Dmitryevich acquired the right to publish the editorial Biblioteka dlya chteniya, but his apolitical stance and professional inexperience led him to financial struggles. He suspended the editorial's work by 1865 and had to sell his house to pay debts, yet it was not enough. He only managed to cover all debts by 1885. After such an unpleasant experience, he decided to move to Europe with his wife.
His first impressions of Paris were reflected in the novel In a foreign field of 1866. It did not take him long to enter the European political and artistic world. Pyotr Dmitryevich attended lectures at numerous French universities and dug into positivist theory, publishing his own study The analysis and the systematization of H. Taine. His next works were a comic play about rural life and a drama play about his grandfather's fate, but they were never published.
Boborykin's next career step was to study the theory of performing arts. Pyotr Dmitryevich published many articles on that topic and created the monograph The art of the theatre. It was one of the first attempts at applying physiological and psychological data to teach professional actors. Since the late 1860's he created prosaic works mostly. His novel Evening sacrifice touched upon "the woman question" and was attacked by critics for being too immoral, though the 20th century's readers reconsidered the plot and liked its tragedy. His next work The trial was an attempt at a psychological family novel.
In 1868-1870 Pyotr Dmitryevich had involved in the proof-reading of the newspaper Moskva and the editorial Russkyi invalid. His social and political outlook was broadened significantly due to all his activities in Europe. In 1870 N.A. Nekrasov encouraged Boborykin to work for the editorial Otechestvennye zapisky, and a year later he became the head of its international department.
During the next few years, Pyotr Dmitryevich published numerous essays on pages of that editorial, but by 1873 it was clear that his approach did not coincide with its editors. His new platform was the editorial Vestnik Evropy as their first collaboration made the publication of his novel Half of life possible. In 1882 he created Kitay-Gorod about the way Moscow's life changed at the beginning of the 1880s. In 1891 he headed the artistic department of the E. Gorevaya theatre in Moscow.
His 1900's works reflected his reaction to numerous political and cultural changes of the era, such as The Revolution of 1905-1907. Pyotr Dmitryevich was also interested in the exploration of the evolution of the novel as a genre and wrote several monographs on that topic. When the war hit, Pyotr Dmitryevich moved to Lugano and stayed there, publishing essays and memoirs. His eyesight was worsening day by day, so his wife helped him to systematize his archives and continued that work after his death in 1921.
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2003Pyotr Dmitryevich claimed to be apolitical, but he sometimes expressed liberal democratic views in his literary works. At one point in his life he got interested in Marxism theory.
Pyotr Dmitryevich studied natural sciences and was interested in positivism and naturalism.
Pyotr Dmitryevich was married to Sophia Aleksandrovna Zborzhevskaya (Boborykina) from 1872 till his death in 1821.