The ideological and linguistic richness of the letters of Russian classics of the XIX century is generally recognized. They honed the idea and manner of writing, language techniques, the way of individual reflection of reality; set out linguistic and literary wishes.

Pushkin's letters are of great interest for the history of the Russian literary language. Pushkin's epistolary vocabulary and phraseology, grammar and spelling are examples of lively colloquial speech.

The expressiveness and brevity of the style of Pushkin's letters were achieved by his careful work on them. Comparing drafts and drafts of letters, you can trace the poet's editorial work. First, a sketch of the future letter is drawn. It is fragmentary, and its individual parts may not be combined thematically. A draft occurs as a spontaneous written speech. Text writing contains more precise words and expressions, new variants of sentences appear, individual words and text fragments are omitted, and sharp characteristics are often added.

"Drafts are evidence of Pushkin's great work on the letter. Letters are also carefully finished, as are poems (composition, style, vocabulary, etc.). Often the same passage is corrected many times (for example, in a draft letter to V. F. Vyazemskaya dated late October 1824, there are 10 variants of one phrase; a brief review of Baratynsky's elegy in a letter to Bestuzhev dated January 12 1824: "Recognition-perfection" is remade five times "(Levkovich Ya. L. Autobiographical prose and letters of Pushkin. l., 1988. p. 265).

Observing the live Russian speech, Pushkin comes to the conclusion that there are a lot of "exceptions" and peculiarities in the grammatical structure of the Russian language: "Grammar does not prescribe laws to the language, but explains and approves its customs."

In a letter to N. N. Raevsky in 1827, he sets out his ideas about the style of a writer: "A writer must master the subject, despite the difficulties of the rules, as he must master the language, despite grammatical fetters." According to Pushkin, a journalist should: "1) know Russian grammar 2) write with meaning: that is, coordinate the noun with the adjective and connect them with the verb."

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The syntax of Pushkin's letters is concise and simple. The poet does not like complex sentences; a simple sentence is constructed grammatically strictly, as a rule, it contains a subject and a predicate. For example, in a letter to A. A. Delvig: "I did not sleep all night; there was no moon, the stars shone; the mountains of midday stretched out before me in the mist." Each part of a non-consonantal sentence is characterized by two accents, the parts are concise, their rhythm is the rhythm of free verse.

In the peculiarities of the spelling of Pushkin's letters, a modern researcher finds examples of the reflection of vernacular pronunciation, which indicate Pushkin's desire to write as commoners say: "The debt to Pleshcheyev is paid"; "I will come personally for her."

The language of a "good society", according to Pushkin, should consist of a national Russian basis, Church Slavonic elements and European borrowings. The poet defends the principle of "multilingualism" when communicating with different addressees, which in the XIX century received its further development and deepening.

Chekhov's correspondence also occupies an exceptional place in Russian epistolary literature - in terms of the breadth and importance of the problems raised, in terms of its artistic merits. Yu.Aikhenwald wrote: "Our interest in his letters is even more explained by the fact that they are also creativity, that they also represent a valuable literary monument, artistic beauty. They will occupy one of the first places in our epistolary literature. Literary without literature, easy without swagger, rich in pearls of wit and humor, and remarkable thoughts, full of original critical judgments, sounding almost imperceptible subtle melody of the only Chekhov mood, Chekhov's letters are like his stories: it is difficult to tear yourself away from them. To open a letter from Chekhov, to run through its beaded lines-it was probably an amazing pleasure, as if he put precious grains of his talent in his envelopes " (Eichenwald Yu. Letters of Chekhov, Moscow, 1915).

In a letter to A. S. Suvorin dated October 27, 1888, Chekhov explains his method of work as follows: "The artist observes, chooses, guesses, composes - these actions alone presuppose a question at the beginning; if from the very beginning he did not ask himself a question, then there is nothing to guess and nothing to choose. To be brief, I will end with psychiatry; if we deny the question and intention in creativity, then we must admit that the artist creates unintentionally, without intent, under the influence of affect; therefore, if an author boasted to me that he wrote a story without premeditated intention, but only by inspiration, then I would call his madman" (here and further cit. By: Chekhov A. P. Poln. sobr. soch. i pis'mov: v 30 t. Letters in 12 volumes, Moscow, 1983).

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Chekhov reveals the specifics of his style in a letter to his brother Alexander dated May 10, 1886: "1) the absence of long-term political, socio-economic expressions; 2) complete objectivity; 3) truthfulness in the description of characters and objects; 4) extreme brevity; 5) boldness and originality; run from the template; 6) cordiality.

In my opinion, descriptions of nature should be very brief and have the character of a propos. Common passages like: "The setting sun, bathed in the waves of the dark sea, flooded with crimson gold" and so on. "Swallows, flying over the surface of the water, cheerfully chirped" - such commonplaces should be abandoned. In descriptions of nature, you need to grasp small particulars, grouping them in such a way that after reading, when you close your eyes, a picture is given. For example, you will get a moonlit night if you write that the glass from a broken bottle flashed like a bright star on the mill dam and the black shadow of a dog or wolf rolled like a ball, etc. Nature is animate if you do not disdain to use comparisons of its phenomena with human actions, etc."

These principles of operation require precise and vivid images."

In a letter to A. S. Lazarev-Gruzinsky dated October 20, 1888, Chekhov writes: "Your flaw: in your stories you are afraid to give free rein to your temperament, you are afraid of impulses and mistakes, that is, the very thing by which talent is recognized. You are unnecessarily licking and polishing, yet that seems bold and edgy to you. You are in a hurry to put it in parentheses and quotation marks (for example, "In the manor"). For the creator's sake, drop both parentheses and quotation marks! For introductory sentences, there is a great sign, this is a double dash (- namename -). Quotation marks are used by two types of writers:

timid and untalented. The former are afraid of their boldness and originality, while the latter (the Nefedovs, partly the Boborykins), enclosing a word in quotation marks, want to say: look, reader, what an original, bold and new word I have come up with! (...) Women should be described in such a way that the reader feels that you are in an unbuttoned vest and without a tie, nature - the same. Give yourself some freedom."

Comparing the features of the language of A. S. Pushkin and A. P. Chekhov, A. P. Chudakov writes: "Their similarity lies in the fact that both loved laconism and the impressionist touch" (Chudakov A. P. Pushkin and Chekhov: completing the circle // Chekhov: Chekhov and Pushkin, Moscow, 1998, pp. 36-37).

The collection of Letters is a fascinating book, "one of the most brilliant, rich in ideas and thoughts books in Russian literature" (Lerner N. O. Pushkin's Prose // Istoriya russkoi literatury XIX veka [History of Russian literature of the XIX century]. Moscow, 1908, vol. I. p. 427).

Astrakhan

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