Khodasevich V. Happy house. The second book of poems. Second edition.

Khodasevich V. Happy house. The second book of poems. Second edition.

Petersburg-Berlin. Publishing House Of Z. I. Grzhebin. 1922, p. 72 Very good condition, owner's inscription.

Vladislav Khodasevich ( 1886-1939 ) - the great Russian poet, a brilliant memoirist, literary historian, translator. During his lifetime, only five collections of poetry were published: "Youth" (1908), "Happy house" (1914, 1922 - two ed.), "By way of grain" (1920, 1921), "Heavy lyre" (1922, 1923), "Collection of poems" (1927). There are 191 poems in total. It would seem quite a bit. But what! Khodasevich's work is admired by N. Gumilev and V. Bryusov, A. Blok and A. Bely, Z. Gippius and A. Akhmatova... And Maxim Gorky calls Khodasevich " the Best poet of the Silver age. The greatest poet ."

His second book - " Happy house ", which nominated the author among the most significant poets of his time, he dedicates to his wife, Anna Ivanovna Chulkova-Grenzion-Bryusova-Khodasevich.

 What preceded the creation of this famous collection, and how much did this woman, with such an absurdly long surname, mean in the fate of the Russian lyricist?

Very interesting notes of the Leningrad literary critic Yu on the life and work of Vladislav Khodasevich Felitsianovich " Ydessa coolness ". Refer to them:

"...On April 24, 1905, a minor poet, after going through many necessary formalities, is married to Marina Ryndina " 18 years old, Orthodox ." Contemporaries mention Ryndina's fantastic beauty and equally fantastic eccentricity. They say that one day she rides into the living room of her father's estate, and when she is married, she keeps toads and snakes as Pets. Her need for outrage extends to the scandalous: once, at one of the Moscow costume balls, she is naked, with a vase in the shape of a Swan in her hands: the costume symbolizes Leda and the Swan. Her antics can be told endlessly. It all ends with the fact that she gets a lover-the editor of the magazine "Apollo" S. Makovsky-and soon leaves her young husband. Khodasevich acutely painful going through a breakup with a beloved. He dedicates his first book of poems, "Youth", imbued with romantic longing and sadness, to his fervent and fickle whimsicality.

The picture of the years associated with Marina and preceding the release of the first book will be incomplete, if we do not note the birth of another deep and lifelong passion for cards in Khodasevich. These were the years from 1906 to 1910. Cards and drunkenness are key words in autobiographical notes of the time. Khodasevich plays not only bridge, but also poker , and "loses more than he earns" (Z. Shakhovskaya).

Here, of course, should be mentioned and Yevgenia Vladimirovna Paganuzzi ( wife of the famous art critic P. p. Muratov), with whom the poet falls in love in 1908 and follows her to Venice and Genoa. He takes her to museums, galleries, and churches; calls her a Princess; dedicates poems to her. Yevgenia leaves her husband and goes to Khodasevich. But this novel is ephemeral and short-lived. The poet is left alone again.

Khodasevich himself calls this time a bad period of life. In fact, we should be talking about a tragic streak. During the second half of 1911, in a few months, he loses his mother, and then his father. To understand how much his parents meant in his life, it is enough to read the poem " Dactyls ", or "Mother". Moreover, if Felician I. dies at a very old age and dying a natural death ( from angina pectoris, 75 years ), Sofia Y., 65 years old, dies from a freak accident in the heart of Moscow, on Tverskaya broken axle carrying her stroller, she falls to the pavement and fatally hits his head on a cast iron lamppost.

The loss of the dearest and closest people, disbelief in worldly values, emptiness, constant ill health, lack of public career and solid earnings ( or rather complete lack of money ) - all this makes his future more than unattractive.

It is known that Khodasevich was close to suicide - and only the loyalty and amazing intuition of his closest friend S. V. Kisin save him from this terrible judgment.

It is during this difficult time that happiness finally smiles on the poet.

Anna Grecian, nee Chulkova was the second marriage for gymnasium buddy Khodasevich, A. Ya. Brusov. The same age as Khodasevich, A. Grenzion looks younger than her years and is very pretty; somewhat careless, kind and windy, in life she is guided by the Polynesian formula with a sweet directness: "I live and I have fun". All this was a set of qualities that made a woman attractive to Khodasevich. It is more difficult to understand how the response attraction occurs. Leaving Bryusov for Khodasevich, Anna Ivanovna changes the secure, carefree life that so well meets her simple and very feminine needs, to a life poor, sometimes half-starved, without clear prospects. Khodasevich is neither beautiful, nor famous, nor even healthy and cheerful. He cannot marry her immediately: his marriage to Ryndina is not dissolved until the end of 1910, and the law requires the expiration of a full three years to enter into a new one. Nevertheless, with the graceful carelessness that so acutely characterizes the epoch, she collects only the most necessary things and, having sent her son to the parents of her first husband, E. Grenzion, moves in with the poet.

For Khodasevich, in his terrible loneliness, the new marriage is perhaps a saving one. "Happy house" is published in 1914 with a dedication: "To my wife Anna "; this dedication is both a gesture of gratitude and an act of securing a relationship not sanctified by the Church.

One of the best books of the poet, it is completely filled with a sense of ease and serene existence.

The author opens the world of "small" and "cute" values, " the joy of simple love ", home balance and harmony of "slow" life - that will allow him to "live quietly and die wisely".

In 1917, in a small Arbat Church, Vladislav Khodasevich and Anna Chulkova are married ."