Undergrowth. Fonvizin D.

Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin was a talented prose writer, a bold publicist, a hardworking translator, a noticeable statesman, but he entered the history of Russian literature primarily as a playwright, and primarily as the author of the unfading “undergrowth”, almost the only comedy of the XVIII centuries, which is still put in theaters and causes a live reaction of the public.

“The success of the comedy“ Undergrowth ”was decisive. Its moral action is undoubted. Some of the names of the characters became household and are used to this day, ”wrote P. A. Vyazemsky in 1830. - If the truth is that Prince Potemkin, after the first performance of the “undergrowth”, said to the author: “Direct, Denis, or write nothing else!” “It is a pity that these words turned out to be prophetic and that Fonvizin did not write more for the theater.” (The comedies that Fonvizin worked on after Undergrass were not over?)

The publication combines the dramatic works of D. I. Fonvizin, as well as the materials prepared by him for the journal Friend of Honest People, or Starodum ", Prohibited by censorship.