They won’t tell you at school!  Famous tyrant writers – from Tolstoy to Uspensky

They won’t tell you at school! Famous tyrant writers – from Tolstoy to Uspensky

We are talking about great writers accused of atrocities and cruelty.

Edouard Ouspensky

More than a generation has grown up in the children’s stories of writer Eduard Uspensky. “Crocodile Gena and his friends”, “Uncle Fyodor, a dog and a cat”, “Guaranteed little men” (the cartoon “Fixies” was shot based on this story) – all these works are loved by children and adults.

No one could dispute the greatness of Eduard Uspensky. The writer’s death was a tragedy for the country.

However, everything changed in an instant. A few weeks ago, the storyteller’s daughter, Tatyana Uspenskaya, sent an open letter to the newspaper Sobesednik, in which she accused her father of violence and cruelty. The reason for this recognition was the decision to name the children’s writers award after Uspensky, which Tatiana tried to prevent.

The girl’s confession caused a scandal and numerous comments from close friends and relatives of the writer. The ex-wife of the playwright, Eleonora Filina, confirmed Tatyana’s words. The woman said she and the children were attacked and beaten by Uspensky.

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There were those who justified the behavior of the writer. Boris Grachevsky and Grigory Oster considered Uspensky’s literary merits more important than his atrocities.

By the way, the award always bore the name of the writer.

Norman Mailer

The famous American writer Norman Mailer is best known for his World War II novel, The Naked and the Dead. In addition, the man was a talented journalist and director.

However, in the life of the writer there were monstrous moments. For example, once at a charity event, Norman Mailer was upset by the absence of some of the guests. The journalist went to drink alcohol and started a fight with the guests. The playwright’s wife tried to calm him down, but Mailer flew into a rage and stabbed her twice in the chest.

Doctors managed to save Norman’s wife. After the incident, the writer was sent to a mental hospital for some time.

Subsequently, Norman Mailer wrote the poem “On a Rainy Evening with my Wife”, which contained the following lines: “While you use the knife, love is alive.”

William Golding

Many people know William Golding as the author of Lord of the Flies. In the work, he denounces human cruelty, vices and weaknesses, raises the theme of morality and humanity.

Despite the fact that Golding understood human nature and condemned society’s actions in his novel, he himself was not the best example to follow.

In his memoirs, the American writer confessed to pedophilia. At the age of eighteen, a young man attempted to rape a 15-year-old girl, his first love. However, when she started beating and screaming, Golding woke up and released the victim.

It is also known that after graduating from college, the writer got a job as a teacher. The need for cruelty did not let go of the playwright. William more than once conducted experiments on his students and played them.

The terrible nature tormented the writer, but he could not resist it. Until the end of his days, William Golding considered himself a monster.

Ivan Bunin

The great Russian writer Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is a Nobel Prize winner, a talented poet and translator. However, there were dark sides to his life.

Bunin was married to Vera Muromtseva, who with him experienced many difficulties – migration, poverty. But the poet did not appreciate his wife’s sacrifice and started the novels side by side one after another. Vera suffered, but was afraid to oppose the genius. One of Bunin’s mistresses was Galina Kuznetsova, a girl 30 years younger than the writer.

Lovers suffered from parting, so Bunin made a monstrous decision – he moved his mistress to live in his house. Bunin explained to his wife that Galina was his student. The woman understood that it was a deception, but she had to accept the girl and hide her emotional experiences.

Bunin’s “happy life” was interrupted when Galina found herself a new hobby – she fell in love with opera singer Marga Stepun. The poet was very upset about the separation, but during the war years Galina returned, and with her chosen one. Vera and Ivan Bunin’s home has become a haven for two other women.

Michael Bulgakov

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov wrote the world famous novel The Master and Margarita and put a lot of instructive thoughts into it. “There are no bad people in the world, only unhappy people,” the author wrote.

However, despite a deep understanding of the world and human vices, Bulgakov himself may well stand before Woland.

The first wife of the writer Tatyana Lappa suffered enough during the years of marriage. During the war, Bulgakov worked as a doctor. During this period, he began using morphine to relieve an allergy to anti-diphtheria serum.

It quickly became a real addiction. Tatiana’s life turned into hell: the young girl suffered the aggression of her husband during the withdrawal episodes; found new doses to prevent him from being beaten. The writer even threatened to kill his wife.

Tatyana did not give up and eventually helped Bulgakov cope with addiction. But after some time the marriage broke up due to the writer’s new love.

Lev Tolstoy

Like the works of the previous two heroes, the novels of Leo Tolstoy penetrated our souls at school. From them we learned about true friendship, love and family. However, was the genius able to follow his ideals in life?

In truth, Tolstoy’s family had to come to terms with the difficult nature of the writer. Especially happened to his wife – Sophia Bers. The War and Peace author kept his wife completely isolated from the outside world. She alone looked after the house – kept the accounts, brought up the children, cleaned the house, rewrote the works of Tolstoy by hand.

At the end of his life, the writer decided to renounce the copyright to his works and sell everything – this was a blow to the family. By the way, the writer had 7 children (five more died), but he did not care about their fate.

Victor-Hugo

The French writer Victor Hugo, who gave us the novels Cathédrale Notre-Dame and Les Misérables, like other heroes of our article, was distinguished by cruelty.

Being a married man, the writer took a mistress – Juliette Drouet. It can be assumed that again all the suffering fell on the wife, but the mistress also got her.

The writer was terribly jealous of the girl and locked her in the house where she lived for 50 years as a recluse. “No one has the right to throw stones at you except me,” Hugo told his captive. The writer gave the girl small amounts of money, which was enough only for food.

Besides his wife and Juliette, the author had many other wives.

So who are all these writers, geniuses or executioners?

geniuses

tyrants

Text: Elizaveta Ovchinnikova

Photo: Vadim Tarakanov/TASS, Legion-Media

Source: The Voice Mag

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