Biography

She did not actually know her father, as he died shortly after her birth. Her mother, Mary Everest Mary Everest), was the daughter of a professor of Greek. Their last name is quite famous in the world, because it is the name of the highest mountain peak in the Himalayas, named after Mary Everest's uncle - George Everest (Eng. Sir George Everest).

The mother raised her five daughters in need, so when the youngest, Ethel, reached the age of eight, she took her to her husband's brother, who worked as a quartermaster at the mine. He was a very religious and stern person. In 1882, Ethel received a small inheritance and began to study music at the Berlin Conservatory as a pianist. In Berlin, she also attended Slavic lectures at the university.

Arriving in London, she attended meetings of political immigrants, among whom was the Russian writer Sergei Kravchinsky (pseudonym - Stepnyak). He told her a lot about his homeland - Russia. Ethel had a desire to visit this mysterious country, which she realized in 1887.

She worked in Russia for two years as a governess and teacher of music and English for the Venevitinov family.

Mikhail Voynich

Ethel Voynich was a member of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom and the Free Russian Press Foundation, which criticized the tsarist regime in Russia.

Influenced by conversations with the Russian writer Kravchinsky, as well as read biographies of the great Italian patriots Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini, Voynich created the image and character of the hero of her book - Arthur Burton, who is also called The Gadfly in the book. The famous ancient Greek philosopher Socrates had the same pseudonym.

Writer Robin Bruce Lockhart (whose father Bruce Lockhart was a spy) claimed in his adventurous book The King of Spies that Voynich's lover was allegedly Sidney Reilly (a native of Russia, Sigmund Rosenblum), who was later called the "ace of spies", and that they traveled together in Italy, where Reilly allegedly told Voynich his story and became one of the prototypes of the book's hero, Arthur Burton. However, Reilly's most famous biographer and intelligence historian, Andrew Cook, disputed this romantic but unsubstantiated legend of " love relationships with Reilly. According to him, it is much more likely that the spy Reilly traveled on the heels of a free-thinking Englishwoman with a very prosaic purpose - to write denunciations to the British police about her.

In 1897, The Gadfly was published in the USA and England. The following year, its Russian translation appeared in Russia, where it was a huge success. Later, the book was repeatedly reprinted in many languages.

Three times, in 1928, the films "The Gadfly" based on the novel by Ethel Voynich were released. Several playwrights and directors presented plays and operas in theaters.

In 1895 she wrote The Humor of Russia.

At the same time, she translated many books by famous Russian writers and poets: Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Gleb Uspensky, Vsevolod Garshin into English.

In 1901, the writer finished her new novel Jack Raymond. In the heroine of her other novel (1904) "Olivia Lethem" (Olive Latham), the character traits of Ethel Voynich herself are noticeable.

In 1910, her book An Interrupted Friendship appeared. Her translation into Russian was entitled "The Gadfly in Exile".

Six lyric poems great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko (Six Lyrics from Ruthenian of Taras Shevchenko) she also successfully translated into English in 1911.

Later, for a long time she did not compose or translate anything, preferring to play music. She created several musical works, of which she considered the best oratorio "Babylon".

In 1931, in America, where she settled, her translation of a collection of letters from the great Polish composer Frederic Chopin from Polish and French into English was published.

In the spring of 1945 (she was then 81 years old) she finished writing her last work"Take off your shoes" (Put off Thy Shoes). Voynich, who was forgotten in the USA, learned about her incredible popularity in the USSR, huge circulations and film adaptations of The Gadfly only at this age: she was tracked down in the USA by a literary critic (See “Our friend Ethel Lilian Voynich» Library Ogonyok, number 42, 1957). She began to receive letters from Soviet readers, she was visited in New York by delegations of pioneers, artists Bolshoi Theater, sailors and various other Soviet citizens who found themselves working in the United States.

Voynich Ethel Lilian (May 11, 1864, Cork, Ireland - July 28, 1960, New York), English writer, composer, daughter of a prominent English scientist and mathematics professor George Boole, wife of Mikhail-Wilfred Voynich.

She was friends with S. M. Stepnyak-Kravchinsky. In 1887-89 she lived in Russia. She was acquainted with F. Engels, G. V. Plekhanov. From 1920 she lived in New York. Acted as a translator of Russian literature and several poems by T. G. Shevchenko into English. The best work of Voynich is the revolutionary novel The Gadfly (1897, Russian translation, 1898), dedicated to the liberation struggle of the Italian people in the 30s and 40s. 19th century The novel became one of the favorite books of the youth in Russia; has been repeatedly used as a literary basis for performances, films, and operas.

I did my share of the work, and the death sentence is only evidence that it was done in good faith. (Gadfly)

Voynich Ethel Lilian

The revolutionary pathos that permeates the novel The Gadfly, Voynich's best book, is felt in some of her other works; the courage of the author in choosing "unpleasant" and sensitive topics was the reason for the conspiracy of silence of European literary critics around the name of the writer.

Ethel Lilian Voynich was born on May 11, 1864 in Ireland, the city of Cork, County Cork, in the family of the famous English mathematician George Boole (Boole). Ethel Lilian did not know her father. He died when she was only six months old. His name, as a very prominent scientist, is included in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Her mother is Mary Everest, the daughter of a professor of Greek, who helped Boole a lot in her work and left interesting memories of her husband after his death. By the way, the name Everest is also quite famous. The highest peak of our planet, located in the Himalayas, between Nepal and Tibet - Everest or Mount Everest, is named after Ethel Lilian's uncle, George Everest, who in the middle of the 19th century headed the English topographical department, and never visited Nepal, nor in Tibet, and never saw his famous "namesake".

Ethel's orphan childhood was not easy, five little girls spent all the meager funds left to her mother after George's death. Mary Bull gave them math lessons and wrote articles for newspapers and magazines to feed them. When Ethel was eight years old, she became seriously ill, but her mother could not provide the girl with good care and preferred to send her to her father's brother, who worked as a mine manager. This gloomy, fanatically religious man sacredly observed the puritanical British traditions in raising children.

I believed in you as in a god. But God is a clay idol that can be smashed with a hammer, and you have been lying to me all your life. (Gadfly)

Voynich Ethel Lilian

In 1882, having received a small inheritance, Ethel graduated from the conservatory in Berlin, but a hand illness prevented her from becoming a musician. Simultaneously with her music studies, she listened to lectures on Slavic studies at the University of Berlin.

In her youth, she became close to political exiles who took refuge in London. Among them were Russian and Polish revolutionaries. The romance of the revolutionary struggle in those days was the most fashionable hobby of the intelligentsia. As a sign of mourning for the unfortunately unjust world order, Ethel Lilian dresses only in black. At the end of 1886, she met with an emigrant living in London - writer and revolutionary S.M. Stepnyak-Kravchinsky, author of the book Underground Russia. Acquaintance with the book prompted her to travel to this mysterious country in order to see with her own eyes the struggle of the Narodnaya Volya against the autocracy.

In the spring of 1887, the young Englishwoman went to Russia. In St. Petersburg, she immediately found herself surrounded by revolutionary-minded youth. The future writer witnessed the terrorist actions of the "Narodnaya Volya" and its defeat. Wanting to get to know Russian reality better, she agreed to take the place of a governess in the family of E.I. Venevitinova in the Novozhivotinny estate. Where, from May to August 1887, she taught music and English lessons to the children of the owner of the estate. In her own words, Ethel Lilian and her pupils could not stand each other.

In our actions, we should not be guided by whether we are loved or hated. (Gadfly)

Voynich Ethel Lilian

In the summer of 1889, Ethel Lilian returned to her homeland, where she took part in the "Society of Friends of Russian Freedom" created by S.M. Kravchinsky, worked in the editorial office of the emigrant magazine "Free Russia" and in the free Russian press fund.

After a trip to Russia, E.L. Voynich began work on the novel The Gadfly. It was published in England in 1897, and at the beginning of the next year it was already translated into Russian. It was in Russia that the novel gained the greatest popularity.

In 1890, Ethel Lilian married Wilfred Voynich (Wilfred Michail Voynich), a Polish revolutionary who escaped from Siberian penal servitude. This marriage lasted only a few years, but she kept her husband's surname forever.

We have no right to die, just because it seems to us the best way out. (Gadfly)

Voynich Ethel Lilian

The reason for this is a mysterious manuscript, the so-called Voynich Manuscript, which Ethel Lilian became the owner of after her husband's death in 1931.

Wilfred Voynich acquired this manuscript in 1912 in Italy from an old second-hand book dealer. Voynich was especially interested in the fact that an old 17th-century letter accompanying the manuscript claimed that its author was the famous Roger Bacon, an English scientist, inventor, philosopher and alchemist. What is the mystery of the manuscript? The fact is that it is written in a language unknown to anyone on Earth, and many of its wonderful illustrations depict unknown plants. All attempts by the most experienced decoders to decipher the text came to nothing. Someone believes that this manuscript is a hoax, while others expect its decoding to reveal the most incredible mysteries and secrets of the Earth. Or maybe this manuscript is the creation of an alien who, by the will of fate, was forced to stay on Earth? True, Yale professor Robert Brambo, with the help of notes on the margins of a wonderful book, managed to get a little closer to unraveling the mysterious manuscript and even decipher some of the captions for the illustrations, but the main text remains a mystery behind seven seals.

According to circumstantial information that I was able to find, Wilfred Voynich did everything he could to decipher the manuscript. Ethel Lillian was the only witness who could confirm the authenticity of this find.

Voynich Ethel Lilian

Apparently, she, and her secretary and close friend Anne Neill, took the most energetic part in attempts to decipher the text and publish materials. They did a lot of work in libraries, correspondence with collectors.

Ann Neill, in turn, inherited the Manuscript after the death of E. L. Voynich. She finally found a serious buyer willing to purchase this document. But, Ann Neill outlived Ethel Lillian by only a year. Now the Voynich Manuscript is kept at Yale University.

Somewhere in the late 90s of the 19th century, Ethel Lilian met a charming adventurer, the future secret agent of British intelligence, the "king of spies" Sydney Reilly - one of the most mysterious personalities of the 20th century, an ardent opponent of communist ideas. There is an assumption that it was his fate (flight from home due to a conflict with relatives, misadventures in South America) that served as a plot outline for creating the image and character of Arthur Burton.

By accustoming ignorant people to the sight of blood, you diminish the value of human life in their eyes. (Gadfly)

Voynich Ethel Lilian

The novel Jack Raymond was written in 1901. The restless, mischievous boy Jack, influenced by the upbringing of his uncle, the vicar, who wants to beat out of him "bad heredity" (Jack is the son of an actress, according to the vicar, a dissolute woman), becomes secretive, withdrawn, vengeful. The only person who for the first time took pity on the "inveterate" boy, believed in his sincerity and saw in him a kind and beautiful nature sympathetic to everything, was Elena, the widow of a political exile, a Pole whom the tsarist government rotted in Siberia. Only this woman, who had a chance to see with her own eyes in Siberian exile "the naked wounds of mankind", managed to understand the boy, to replace his mother.

The heroic image of a woman occupies a central place in the novel "Olivia Letham" (Olive Latham, 1904), which has, to some extent, an autobiographical character.

E.L. Voinich was also engaged in translation activities. She translated the works of N.V. Gogol, M.Yu. Lermontov, F.M. Dostoevsky, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, G.I. Uspensky, V.M. Garshina and others.

An ounce of lead is an excellent remedy for insomnia. (Gadfly)

Voynich Ethel Lilian

In 1910, "An Interrupted Friendship" appears - a completely spontaneous thing, to some extent written under the influence of the inexplicable power of literary images over the author. This book was first translated into Russian in 1926 under the title "The Gadfly in Exile" (translation edited by S.Ya. Arefin, Puchina Publishing House, Moscow)

After "Interrupted Friendship" Voynich again turns to translations and continues to acquaint the English reader with the literature of the Slavic peoples. In addition to the above-mentioned collections of translations from Russian, she also owns a translation of the song about Stepan Razin, included in the novel Olivia Letham. In 1911, she published the collection Six Lyrics from Ruthenian of Taras Shevchenko, to which she prefaces a detailed sketch of the life and work of the great Ukrainian poet. Shevchenko was almost unknown in England at the time; Voynich, who sought, in her words, to make "his immortal lyrics" accessible to Western European readers, was one of the first propagandists of his work in England. After the publication of Shevchenko's translations, Voynich moved away from literary activity and devotes himself to music.

In 1931, in the United States, where Voynich moved, a collection of Chopin's letters was published in her translations from Polish and French. Only in the mid-1940s did Voynich again appear as a novelist.

Introduction

Ethel Lilian Voynich is one of the undeservedly forgotten figures in English literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The vast majority of fundamental works and reference books on the history of English literature do not even contain a mention of the writer.
The revolutionary pathos that permeates the novel "The Gadfly", the best book
Voynich, is also felt in some of her other works; the courage of the author in choosing "unpleasant" and acute topics was the reason for a conspiracy of silence, for some time, literary critics in Europe around the name of the writer.
Meanwhile, the works of Voynich, primarily "The Gadfly", gained fame far beyond the borders of her homeland. In our country, almost all of her novels were published more than once. Gained exceptional popularity
"The Gadfly", published in our country both in the original language and in translation into eighteen languages ​​of the peoples of the former Soviet Union. The fact that The Gadfly continues to excite readers to this day proves that the novel, written more than a hundred years ago, has stood the test of time.
I got acquainted with the work of Voynich this year at home reading classes, I heard a lot of impartial responses to the writer's works, but I realized their failure and that is why I decided to write an essay about her work.

Brief biographical information

Ethel Lilian Voynich was born on May 11, 1864 in the family of the famous English mathematician George Boole. She graduated
Berlin Conservatory and at the same time listened to lectures on Slavic studies at
Berlin University. In her youth, she became close to political exiles who took refuge in London. Among them were Russian and Polish revolutionaries; it is possible that she was well acquainted with the revolutionaries who emigrated from Italy.

In the late 80s, the future writer lived in Russia, in St. Petersburg. According to the testimony of her Russian contemporaries, she already at that time knew the Russian language well, and was keenly interested in political issues. Her husband was a member of the Polish national liberation movement Wilfried Michael
Voynich, who fled in 1890 from the royal exile to London. Through Voynich, who was one of the organizers of the emigrant "Free Russian Press Foundation" in London and an employee of the Free Russia magazine, E.L.
Voynich became close friends with the Russian Narodnaya Volya, and especially S. M.
Stepnyak-Kravchinsky. As the writer herself told a group of Soviet journalists who visited her in New York at the end of 1955, Stepnyak-
She called Kravchinsky her guardian; it was he who prompted Voynich to engage in literary activity. She translated some of the works of Stepnyak-Kravchinsky into English; he, in turn, wrote prefaces to her translations of the stories of N. M. Garshin (1893) and to the collection “Humor of Russia” (The
Humor of Russia, 1895), compiled from translated works by Voynich
Gogol, Shchedrin, Ostrovsky and other Russian writers.
Cooperation with Stepnyak-Kravchinsky not only helped Voynich to get to know the life and culture of Russia well, but also increased her interest in the revolutionary movement in other countries. There is no doubt that Stepnyak-
Kravchinsky - a participant in one of the armed uprisings in Italy, who wrote some of his works in Italian and dedicated to Italian political life a number of articles (including an article on Garibaldi) contributed greatly to the expansion of the literary and political horizons of the future creator of the novels The Gadfly, Jack Raymond, Olivia Letham, Friendship Broken. After "Interrupted Friendship" Voynich again turns to translations and continues to acquaint the English reader with the literature of the Slavic peoples.
In addition to the collections of translations from Russian mentioned above, she also owns a translation of the song about Stepan Razin, included in the novel Olivia Letham,
In 1911 she published the collection "Six Poems of Taras Shevchenko"
(Six Lyrics from Ruthenian of Taras Shevchenko), which is preceded by a detailed sketch of the life and work of the great Ukrainian poet.
Shevchenko was almost unknown in England at the time; Voynich, who sought, in her words, to make "his immortal lyrics" available to Western European readers, was one of the first propagandists of his work in England.
After the publication of Shevchenko's translations, Voynich retired from literary activity for a long time and devoted himself to music. In 1931 in the USA, where she moved
Voynich, a collection of Chopin's letters is published in her translations from Polish and French.
Only in the mid-1940s did Voynich again appear as a novelist.

The novel “Take off your shoes” (Put off Thy Shoes, 1945) is a link in that cycle of novels, which, in the words of the writer herself, was a companion of her whole life.

She died on July 28, 1960 at the age of 96. And according to the will, she was cremated, and the ashes were scattered over the central park of New York.

The proximity of Voynich to the circles of revolutionary emigration in London, her close relationship with the revolutionaries of different countries affected all her novels of the late XIX
- the beginning of the 20th century, and especially on her first and most significant work - The Gadfly (The Gadfly, 1897), where she acts as an already established artist who has found her circle of ideas and images.

She chooses the events of the revolutionary past as the subject of her novel.
Italy in the 30s and 40s of the 19th century. and portrays them captivatingly, truthfully, with warm sympathy. The revolution of 1848 in Italy attracted the attention of other English writers of the second half of XIX V. But neither Elizabeth Barrett-
Browning (the poem The Windows of Guido's House, 1851), nor Meredith (the novel Vittoria,
1867) failed to so expressively convey the atmosphere of widespread popular discontent, to create such vivid image revolutionary fighter, as Voynich did.

In the novel "The Gadfly", imbued with a passionate defense of the freedom-loving Italian people, the connection between Voynich's work and the revolutionary romantic tradition in English literature; it manifested an organic combination of the traditions of critical realism with a heroic beginning, with a revolutionary-romantic affirmation of the ideals of the liberation struggle against national, religious and social despotism. Not without reason in The Gadfly are the words of Shelley, the favorite poet of the heroine of the novel Gemma Warren: "The past belongs to death, and the future is in your own hands." Shelley (as will become clear from the later Voynich novel Friendship Broken) is a favorite poet and the Gadfly himself. It is possible that Byron, the great English poet who fought for the liberation of Italy, could to some extent serve as the prototype of the hero of the novel. The courage with which the writer speaks in defense of the national liberation movement of enslaved peoples, in which significant role the British also play (Arthur and Gemma), all the more remarkable because the novel was written on the eve of the Anglo-Boer War, during the rampant imperialist chauvinist ideas.
The novel "The Gadfly" is permeated with the spirit of revolutionary-democratic protest, the romance of selfless deed.
Carried away by the heroic spirit of the national liberation struggle of the Italian people, Voynich studied with great attention the materials of the revolutionary movement in Italy in the 1930s and 1950s. “I consider it my duty to express deep heartfelt gratitude to many people who helped me collect materials for this story in Italy,” Voynich wrote in the preface to The Gadfly, expressing special gratitude to the stewards
florence library, State Archive and the Civic Museum in
Bologna.
However, the writer did not consider her main artistic task to be an accurate and scrupulous depiction of the life of Italy in the 30s and 40s of the 19th century, a detailed reproduction of the vicissitudes of the struggle for national independence. In the image of the Gadfly, in the history of his exceptional fate, she sought, first of all, to convey the general atmosphere of the revolutionary era that gave birth to such people as Giuseppe Mazzini, the creator of the patriotic organization "Young
Italy", and his associate Giuseppe Garibaldi. Romantic coverage of events determined the emotional intensity of the Gadfly style.

The critically realistic depiction of public and private mores recedes into the background in the novel. The life of the respectable and sanctimonious Burton family of shipowners, in which the Gadfly grew up, is shown only as a background, shading in contrast the disinterested enthusiasm of the revolutionaries. The basis of the work is the romantically interpreted heroism of the revolutionary underground "Young Italy". The action, as a rule, develops rapidly; the plot is built on an acute dramatic clash of hostile forces. This dynamism of the eventful plot, in which the heroically effective beginning of the romance of The Gadfly found its expression, opposed the sluggish, unhurried everyday writing of English naturalists of the late 19th century. With its sharp plot, the swiftness of the development of the action, Voynich is more reminiscent of "neo-romantic" writers. However, unlike Stevenson, Conrad, she does not try to escape from everyday reality into history or into the exotic, but is looking for an answer to the pressing questions of the present in the revolutionary past.
The romantic pathos in The Gadfly is organically linked to the realistic theme of the novel. The conflict between the Gadfly and Cardinal Montanelli - ideological opponents, people standing on opposite sides of the barricade - acquires special drama due to the fact that the Gadfly turns out to be not only a pupil, but also the son of Montanelli. This extraordinary set of circumstances is important for
Voynich is not just a spectacular melodramatic coincidence. Extremely complicating the conflict, the writer achieves an extremely expressive disclosure of the inner essence of both sides in conflict: faith and atheism, abstract Christian philanthropy and genuine revolutionary humanism. The sincere, but painfully suppressed love of the Gadfly for his father and mentor even more expressively emphasizes the author's idea that it is impossible for a revolutionary to compromise with his conscience.
The boldly written scene of the execution is also imbued with romantic pathos.
Gadfly. There are many works in literature that depict a fearless revolutionary proudly facing death. But Voynich will create an extremely tense, aggravated and dramatic situation here, forcing the Gadfly himself, already wounded, to utter the words of the last command to the soldiers, shy and shocked by his courage. A romantically unusual situation allows Voynich to more fully and deeply reveal the nature of the Gadfly. The scene of the death of the hero becomes his apotheosis.

Emotional elation characterizes many images of the novel.
"Young Italy" in the image of Voynich is not only a secret political organization that rallies all the patriots in the country, but also a symbol of the fighting spirit of youth, selfless devotion to a common cause.
Voynich depicts the Italian revolutionaries at two stages of their struggle: in the early 1930s and on the eve of the events of 1848.
Initially, the leaders of "Young Italy" appear before us as ardent, but inexperienced fighters for the liberation of their homeland. They still have a lot of naive innocence, they are capable of reckless impulses (like the young Arthur Burton, the future Gadfly, who is ready to entrust a secret secret to a crafty Catholic priest).
In the second and third parts of The Gadfly, the action takes place 13 years later.
The experience of the struggle affected the revolutionaries - the heroes of the novel. They become more restrained, more circumspect. Having lost many of their comrades, having experienced many defeats, they retain firm confidence in victory, are still full of courage and selflessness.
The Patriot Conspirators - Arthur the Gadfly, Bolla, Gemma, Martini are not alone in their struggle, Voynich creates heroic image of the Italian people, which does not stop during for long years resistance to invaders. Peasants, highlanders-smugglers at the risk of their lives help the Gadfly. Caught and imprisoned in a fortress, the Gadfly remains still dangerous for the authorities: they have every reason to fear that the people will stop at nothing to free their hero.

In the image of the Gadfly, Voynich managed to capture the typical features of advanced people,
"people 48 years old." A man of exceptional talent, great willpower, great ideological determination, he abhors liberal rhetoric, cheap sentimentality, hates compromise and despises the opinion of secular "society". Always ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of a common cause, a man of great humanity, he deeply hides his sensitivity from prying eyes behind poisonous, witty jokes. With his ruthless ridicule, he earned the nickname "Gadfly", which became his journalistic pseudonym. Gadfly's political agenda is somewhat vague; the Gadfly himself is not without some individualistic features, but these features of the hero are historically determined, reliable and correspond to the general immaturity of the Italian revolutionary movement of that time. The image of the Gadfly reminds many of Mazzini and Garibaldi, honest patriots, often, however, mistaken in search of ways to liberate their homeland. If we compare the Gadfly with Garibaldi, whose image is expressively outlined in biographical sketch Stepnyak-Kravchinsky, then, you can find many similarities. Garibaldi also fled to South America and fought there, like the Gadfly, against the dictatorship of Rozas in Argentina. He was also distinguished by selflessness and great endurance, which torture could not break; was a favorite of the people, and about him, as well as about the hero Voynich, legends were made up among the people. It is curious to note that Voynich gives Gadfly another characteristic feature that brings him closer to Garibaldi: Gadfly, like Garibaldi, is an artistic person, he loves nature, writes poetry.

The gadfly is torn apart by painful contradictions, sometimes leading him to a split, to a tragic perception of life's conflicts. The personal drama of his ambivalence towards Gemma and Montanelli, painfully experienced by him, runs through the whole novel. Unjustly insulted and rejected
Gemma (who considered him a traitor), deceived by his spiritual mentor Montanelli (who hid from him that he was his father), the Gadfly secretly still loves both, but with a painful and bitter love. He himself is looking for meetings with Montanelli, again and again irritating old spiritual wounds; behind omissions and irony, he tries to hide his feelings from Gemma. However, the main thing in the character of the Gadfly is still the spirit of revolutionary intransigence.

Pavel Korchagin, the hero of N. Ostrovsky's novel "How the Steel Was Tempered," expressively speaks of how dear "The Gadfly" is to the proletarian revolutionaries, for whom Voynich's novel was one of their favorite books. “Only the unnecessary tragedy of a painful operation with a test of one’s will has been discarded. But I am for the main thing in "The Gadfly" - for his courage, for boundless endurance, for this type of person who knows how to endure suffering without showing them to everyone and everyone. I am for this image of a revolutionary, for whom the personal is nothing in comparison with the general.

In the same camp with the Gadfly, only true patriots find themselves, those to whom the fate of Italy is more precious than personal comforts and careers. Such is the Englishwoman Gemma, a strong, strong-willed woman, outwardly restrained, but essentially a deep and passionate nature. Her image, as it were, complements the image of the Gadfly: just as selflessly devoted to the cause of the revolution, she, unlike him, does not place her hopes on conspiratorial secret organizations and does not rely only on the murder of individuals. She looks at things more broadly and does not consider terrorism the right way. Supporting the Gadfly, she at the same time openly expresses her disagreement with his methods of struggle.

TO true patriots belongs to Martini. He loves Gemma and dislikes the Gadfly, but he never puts his personal likes and dislikes above public duty. Heroism for these people is a common, natural thing.
The revolutionary intransigence of the Gadfly and his comrades, their courage and unswerving consistency in the implementation of their plans are perfectly set off by the images of Italian public figures of a liberal persuasion, who only play in the opposition. By depicting the scene in the Grassini Salon where the dispute between the liberals and the Mazzinist democrats takes place, Voynich shows that the majority of the arguing attaches decisive importance to the word, not to the action.
The writer ridicules the owner of the salon, Signora Grassini, who flirts with “patriotic” phrases and strives to get another fashionable “celebrity” into her salon at all costs.
The novel "The Gadfly" is one of the strongest anti-church atheistic works in world literature. Tracing the path of becoming a revolutionary, the transformation of Arthur Burton into the Gadfly, Voynich shows with great artistic persuasiveness the destructive role of religion.
Initially, devotion to the national liberation struggle is combined in
Arthur with religious exaltation (it seems to him that the Lord himself spoke with him in order to strengthen him in the thought that the liberation of Italy is his life's mission). He cherishes the naive belief that religion and the cause to which he henceforth devoted his life are quite compatible. Under the influence of his mentor Montanelli, he argues that Italy does not need hate, but love. “He passionately listened to the sermons of the padre,” the author writes, “trying to catch in them traces of an inner affinity with the republican ideal; intensively studied the gospel and enjoyed the democratic spirit of Christianity, which it was imbued with in the early days.
Voynich argues that the paths of revolution and religion are incompatible and that the Church's dogma - whether it be Protestantism (which Arthur's relatives profess) or Catholicism (which Cardinal
Montanelli and the priest Cardi) - cripples the spiritual image of a person.
It is characteristic that the “respectable” bourgeois Burtons, who are proud of their religious tolerance, slowly squeeze the meek, God-fearing mother from the world.
Arthur with their constant reminders of her "sinful" past and bring
Arthur to despair with his selfishness and callousness. But the Catholics are no better. In the person of the priest Cardi, who plays the role of an enlightened liberal who sympathizes with the freedom-loving aspirations of young people, in order to then transfer to the police the information he received in confession from Arthur, who trusted him, about the leaders of Young Italy, Voynich exposes the provocative activities of the church - the servant of the most reactionary political forces.
With the whole logic of the development of images - first of all, Cardinal Montanelli, as well as through the history of his relationship with Arthur (Gadfly) Voynich proves that religion is harmful and inhuman not only in those cases when dishonest egoists consciously use it for their own purposes, but also when, when it is preached by beautiful-hearted altruists, convinced that they are doing good.
Moreover, religion often becomes an even more dangerous weapon in the hands of good people for their personal authority outwardly ennobles an unjust cause. “If Monsignor Montanelli himself is not a scoundrel, then he is a tool in the hands of scoundrels,” the Gadfly says bitterly about his father, whom he has learned to despise, although he secretly continues to love.
Arthur turned into an atheist, convinced of the deceitfulness of the churchmen. His trust in the church has been undermined not so much by Cardi's perfidy, but by years of deceit by Montanelli, who did not have the courage to admit that he was Arthur's father.
The writer very subtly shows how a kind and noble by nature cardinal not only becomes a victim of false religious ideas, but also subordinates them to the power of others.
During one of the most dangerous operations related to the delivery of weapons for the rebels, Gadfly falls into a trap set by the police. He can escape, but he is destroyed by the most humane Montanelli, who rushes between the fighters and urging everyone to drop their weapons, stands right at the barrel of the Gadfly's pistol. Thinking to do a good deed, Montanelli actually helps the enemies of the Gadfly: they grab him, taking advantage of the fact that he did not shoot at the unarmed.

Commitment to the church turns the best human impulses into their opposite. The intervention of Montanelli, who seeks to alleviate the fate of the prisoner, puts an end to the physical torment of the Gadfly; but this interference for him becomes a source of even more cruel spiritual torture. The cardinal invites him to decide for himself the question of his fate: should Montanelli agree to a military trial of the Gadfly or, without giving consent, take moral responsibility for the possibility of unrest and bloodshed in the event of an attempt by Gadfly supporters to free him from the fortress.

Hidden bitterness is heard in the sarcastic answer of the Gadfly. Only churchmen, he says, are capable of such sophisticated cruelty. "Would you be kind enough to sign your own death warrant - baring
Gadfly thought Montanelli. - I have a too tender heart to do this.

Gadfly deeply loves Montanelli as a person and tries in vain to wrest him from the deadly shackles of religious dogma. But he is aware that there is an impassable abyss between them, and resolutely rejects the compromise offered to him.

The novel - although it ends with the death of the Gadfly - is optimistic in nature. The scene of the execution of the Gadfly, who found himself in the face of death stronger than his executioners, acquires a symbolic meaning. And the letter to Gemma, written on the night before the execution, he ends with the words of the romantic poet
William Blake:

Do I live, do I die

I'm still a midge

Happy.

Appeared in Russian translation three months after publication in
London, the novel "The Gadfly" firmly won the heart of the progressive Russian reader.
Inspired in no small measure by the Russian revolutionary experience, this novel, in turn, became a favorite book of the Russian progressive public.
The Russian press spoke with admiration of the life-affirming tone of The Gadfly.

The Gadfly gained particular popularity in Russia during the revolutionary upsurge of 1905. “In young circles, a lot was said about him and about him, they were read to them with enthusiasm,” wrote a reviewer for the Marxist journal Pravda in 1905.

"Jack Raymond"

The subsequent works of Voynich are inferior in their artistic power to
"Gadfly", but even in them she remains true to her direction.

In Jack Raymond (1901), Voynich continues his denunciation of religion. Restless, mischievous boy Jack is influenced by the upbringing of his vicar uncle, who wants to beat him out of
“bad heredity” (Jack is the son of an actress, according to the vicar, a dissolute woman), becomes secretive, withdrawn, vengeful.

The sadistic vicar who almost beat Jack to death is a slave to the tenets of the church.
This callous, pedantic person always does what the consciousness of religious duty prompts him to do. He cripples physically and spiritually
Jack, he kicks out Jack's sister, Molly, who "stained her name", from the house.

The only person who for the first time took pity on the “inveterate” boy, believed in his sincerity and saw in him a kind and beautiful nature sympathetic to everything, was Elena, the widow of a political exile, a Pole whom the tsarist government rotted in Siberia.

Only this woman, who happened to see with her own eyes in Siberian exile
"bare wounds of mankind", managed to understand the boy, to replace his mother.

Voynich asserts the right of a woman to an independent path in life, drawing images of Molly, who refuses to submit to the tyranny of the vicar who persecutes her for a "sinful" connection, and especially Elena, who has joined her life with a man who was constantly in danger of exile and execution.

"Olivia Letham"

The heroic image of a woman occupies a central place in the novel "Olivia
Letham ”(Olive Latham, 1904), which, to some extent, is autobiographical.

In the center of the novel is a smart strong-willed girl, embarrassing her relatives and friends with the independence of her judgments and actions. She, the daughter of a bank director, has been working as a simple nurse in a London hospital for a long time, resolutely rejecting her mother's attempts to persuade her to abandon her chosen path.

Having learned that the life of the person she loves - Vladimir Damarov, a Narodnaya Volya member, is in danger, Olivia decides to go to Russia, to St. Petersburg.

Voynich's book highlights the images of two revolutionaries - Russian
Damarov and his friend, Pole Karol Slavyansky. Slavinsky is distinguished by special courage, endurance, purposefulness. He was not broken by the years of hard labor in Siberia; despite the fact that police supervision has been established for him, he continues his activities to rally the fighters against the autocracy. Although from childhood he was brought up in the spirit of hatred for Russians, he comes to the conclusion that both Russians and Poles have one enemy - tsarism, and advocates the brotherhood and unity of the Slavs.

Vladimir Damarov came to revolutionary activity in other ways.
A nobleman by birth, a sculptor by vocation, Vladimir, as it were, personifies the “sick conscience” of the Russian intelligentsia, which suffers when they see the torment and lawlessness of their native people.

The hatred of the courageous freedom fighters for the autocracy, as the author shows, is deeply justified. Voynich paints a true picture of the egregious poverty and desolation of the Russian countryside.

The writer reveals a good knowledge of the life and life of Russia, the Russian language. Landowners, peasants, satirically depicted images of gendarmes and government officials pass before the reader. In detail, sometimes with naturalistic details, she depicts the darkness and ignorance of the peasants, the degeneration of the landowners.

In the speeches and actions of Vladimir, Karol and their comrades, moods of asceticism, sacrifice, a sense of their isolation in the struggle are manifested. They have no doubt that they will die. “We were not strong enough, and the country was prepared for a revolutionary upheaval,” says
Vladimir. Karol says the same, recognizing that in the face of a great cause, their little lives have no value.

With a great effort of will, Karol Slavinsky suppresses the feeling that has arisen in him for Olivia, because he does not want her to connect her life with a seriously ill person, doomed to become a cripple. According to Karol, a revolutionary must give up personal happiness.

These sentiments are realistically substantiated by the writer. The Narodnaya Volya are very far from the people, they are alone. Voynich puts a mocking assessment of the activities of such people as Vladimir into the mouths of the peasants: "Lord's undertakings!". This definition equally applies to Vladimir's studies in sculpture, and to his revolutionary activities. There can hardly be any doubt that the influence of the ideas of Stepnyak-Kravchinsky in the 1990s, i.e., at the time when he revised certain provisions of the Narodnik program, affected the writer's realistic understanding of the weaknesses of the Narodnik position.

Nevertheless, the Voynich novel is imbued with the certainty that the dark forces of reaction will be broken sooner or later. Vladimir, who admitted to Olivia that he and his comrades failed and were doomed to death (later he really dies in the royal dungeons), is convinced that "those people who come after us will win."

"Interrupted Friendship"
In the novel "Interrupted Friendship" (An Interrupted Friendship, 1910), Voynich again returns to the image of the Gadfly, which is displayed here under the name
Rivares. He becomes an interpreter for Dupre's South American geographical expedition. The reader, only by some hints and references (in this novel and in The Gadfly), can restore in general terms the history of the hero's life after he left his homeland. The gadfly went through inhuman suffering, hunger, brutal beatings and bullying. But he endured everything, and hatred of violence and injustice strengthened in him the desire for active protest. As it turns out, he took part in the battles for
The Argentine Republic against the dictatorship of Rosas. After the defeat of the uprising, he escaped from captivity and was forced to hide, enduring great hardships.
After the successful completion of the expedition, the Gadfly, having settled in Paris, has the opportunity to make a brilliant career as a journalist. But he again responds to the call for a liberation struggle and takes part in the upcoming uprising in Bologna. Rivares, risking his life, goes where duty tells him to go.
Although the novel "Interrupted Friendship" is significantly inferior to "The Gadfly", it is of interest, as it sheds light on the formation of the personality of the Gadfly-fighter and, as it were, fills the gap between the first and second parts of the novel.
"Gadfly".

Conclusion

The work of E. L. Voynich is part of the democratic heritage of English culture. Not only "The Gadfly" - a reference book of progressive people of many nationalities, but also its other works embody the spirit of protest against social injustice, faith in the triumph of truth and freedom, which make it the successor to the best traditions of the great English humanist writers.

Even a very peculiar feature of Voynich's work - her exceptional interest in the life of other peoples (the action of many of her works takes place in Italy, Russia, France, people of other nations participate in all her books, along with the British) - was a special form of manifestation of her patriotism. Depicting people of other nations, a different mindset and traditions, she, like the great English revolutionary romantics Byron and Shelley, never forgot her homeland. Love to ordinary people England, deep sympathy for their sorrows and hardships runs through all of Voynich's work.

Bibliography:

1. Katarsky I., "Ethel Lilian Voynich", M., 1957

2. Taratuta E., "Ethel Lilian Voynich", second edition, M., 1964

3. Shumakova T., "Ethel Lilian Voynich", M., 1985

4. Ethel Lilian Voynich, collected works, Pravda Publishing House, M.,

5. Ethel Lilian Voynich, "The Gadfly", M., 1954

6. N. Ostrovsky "Novels, speeches, articles, letters", M., 1949

7. Large Soviet Encyclopedia, M. , 1971

English writer. In 1887-1889 she lived in Russia, was associated with the Russian and Polish revolutionary movement. Since 1920 she lived in the USA. Most famous novel"The Gadfly" (1897). Translated by M.Yu. Lermontova, N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky.

Once Leo Tolstoy said that every person can write at least one book - a book about his life. Ethel Lilian Voynich wrote such a book, only it contains not the facts of her own biography - there was nothing outstanding in her fate - but the ardent dreams of her youth, the life of her soul.

Ethel was barely seventeen when she first arrived in Paris. Wandering through the cool halls of the Louvre and thinking about her future, she stumbled upon a portrait of an Italian youth, which was attributed to the brush of a Milanese, nicknamed Franciabidgio. The girl immediately realized that in front of her was the image that she nurtured in her childhood fantasies, that romantic hero who relentlessly pursued her in her dreams, haunted her in a rebellious search for the meaning of life. This is her prince - a young man in a black beret with a manly look and pursed lips.

Fate released Ethel for a long stay on earth, and never since that memorable visit to the Louvre Gallery, Voynich has never parted with this image. A reproduction of the portrait of an Italian youth invariably hung in any room where our heroine lived at least for a short time. The most distant English childhood was forgotten, and its material symbol continued to live next to her, still igniting the fire in her soul and supporting her in difficult times.

Surprisingly intertwined in the inner spiritual world human times, countries and nationalities. For the ideal there are no distances, no past, no future. The Englishwoman Ethel always mentally rushed to where the struggle was going on, where wonderful courageous people defended holy ideals. That is why she was attracted to Russia.

Ethel Lilian did not know her father. He died when she was only six months old. But he was a wonderful person. His name, as a very prominent scientist, is included in the Encyclopædia Britannica - "George Bull, the famous mathematician." Ethel's orphan childhood was not easy. Five little girls used all the meager funds left to the mother after the death of George. Mary Bull moved with her children to London and began to give mathematics lessons herself, wrote articles for newspapers and magazines. When Ethel was eight years old, she became seriously ill, but her mother could not provide the girl with good care and preferred to send her to her father's brother, who worked as a mine manager. This gloomy, fanatically religious man sacredly observed the puritanical British traditions in raising children. No indulgence and harsh methods in the fight against human vices - that was his motto.

Once he accused Ethel of stealing a lump of sugar and demanded that she confess to the crime, but the girl denied her guilt, she had nothing to confess. Then uncle locked Ethel in a dark closet, and after a while threatened that he would put her in her mouth Chemical substance, which will reliably establish that she ate sugar. Looking intently at the tormentor, Ethel slowly, minting words, said: "I will drown myself in the pond." And there was so much power in this phrase of the little girl that the uncle understood that she was telling the truth. He had to back off. Ethel had a nervous fit that night. By nature, she was not endowed with great internal energy, but she could not allow anyone to climb into her stable personal world, even at an early age.

The happiest and most memorable moments of childhood were the mother's stories about two Italian revolutionaries whom Mary sheltered in her youth in her house. The girl's fantasy painted stormy romantic scenes in which she was the most active participant - she saved the young heroes at the cost of her own life, or she and her lover died, having managed to confess their unearthly feelings to each other at parting. However, you never know who of the girls does not dream. It goes away with age. However, Ethel was never able to get rid of the sweet image of childhood.

In 1882, the girl received a small inheritance and went to Berlin to seriously study music. After graduating from the conservatory, Ethel realized that the usual career of a pianist did not attract her, the girl wanted at least one iota to get closer to those heroic people who should exist in this world. And then her eyes turn more and more insistently to Russia. From there come incomprehensible messages about terrorists, young boys and girls, for the sake of the idea of ​​sacrificing their lives. In England, with anything like her, of course, you will not have to meet. A steady bourgeois life could put an end to Ethel's romantic dreams.

With the help of a familiar journalist, the girl decided to meet one of the Russian emigrants. In December 1886, Ethel met with former terrorist Sergei Stepnyak-Kravchinsky. Of course, Ethel immediately liked him, he was the hero of her novel - cheerful, strong, sociable, and most importantly, a martyr for the sake of an idea - a mysterious alien from her childhood. The biography of Kravchinsky shocked the girl - he participated in the Italian uprising of 1877, was sentenced to death, but miraculously escaped death, having arrived in Russia, he lived illegally, preparing an attempt on the chief of gendarmes Mezentsov. In broad daylight, this hero stabbed Mezentsov to death in a crowded square with a dagger and disappeared.

According to the law of the genre, Ethel would have to fall in love with Kravchinsky, but he was married, and Ethel could not cross her moral principles, and because of her independent nature, she herself still wanted to inhale real romance, so the Russian terrorist became her close friend. He also advised the girl to go to Russia, providing her with illegal letters and recommendations to friends.

Ethel spent more than two years in Russia, earning a living with music lessons. She lived in the family of the sister of Kravchinsky's wife and, of course, constantly encountered members of a terrorist organization, which by that time had already been practically defeated. Perhaps if our heroine had appeared in St. Petersburg a few years earlier, she would have become close to Sofya Perovskaya or Vera Zasulich, but in the late 1880s, a romantic lady had nothing to do in Russia, except to lament over the exiled and pity their relatives. The most memorable event in Russian life was the funeral of Saltykov-Shchedrin, at which a real demonstration of a democratically inclined public was arranged.

Never having experienced the desired thrills, Ethel returned home and again fell into the close circle of Kravchinsky's friends. The latter considered himself a writer and even tried to create on English language. Here the help of the educated and in love Ethel came in handy. The girl is happy to join the work of the "Society of Friends of Russian Freedom" - this is how Kravchinsky called his organization in London. Basically, Ethel translates the opuses of Sergei himself, but sometimes she switches to other Russian writers and poets - Garshin, Gogol, Lermontov. Since Stepnyak was born in Ukraine, the girl is also interested in the work of Taras Shevchenko, she is happy to learn Ukrainian folk songs and language.

Ethel sees Kravchinsky every day and one day, in a fit of frankness, she tells him about her childhood dreams, so vividly, so directly that Sergei, her beloved friend, advises the girl to write, write ... This thought did not leave her for a long time. Ethel slowly begins to think about the plan of her novel, but new events have distracted her from creativity.

In the autumn of 1890, Sergei was expecting another fugitive from Russia, it turned out to be the dashing Polish revolutionary Mikhail Wilfried Voynich. With his stories, this young man won the heart of an Englishwoman, whom Kravchinsky jokingly called Bun. Voynich told her stories from his own life: how he escaped from prison on a rope ladder, how he saved his comrades at the risk of his life, how he got into the confidence of the prison guards, but the provocateur betrayed him, and what bullying followed. In a word, Ethel could finally fall in love recklessly. Intrusive, unbalanced, difficult to communicate, Mikhail did not get along well with people, but the young wife saw this much later, but for now, being in the euphoria of falling in love with her husband, she fulfills his task - she travels with illegal literature to Lviv. Returning from there, she finally sits down for a novel.

"The Gadfly" was written in one breath, it is an outburst of love and romantic childhood dreams. Ethel walked every path of her hero Arthur. She composed a poem of his life, traveling around Italy, stopping for a long time in those places where, according to the writer, the life of the Gadfly passed. The most difficult thing remained for her - to transfer what she had thought up to paper. She constantly corrected what she wrote.

It so happened that Stepnyak-Kravchinsky, her beloved friend Sergei, did not see the Gadfly. Just before the novel was published in December 1895, he died under the wheels of a train. Needless to say, what a terrible blow his death was for Ethel. After the departure of Kravchinsky, the life of Buns changed. Revolutionary romance is gradually leaving it. A strange mystical coincidence - as if the fateful destiny of Sergei has come true - the novel is written, you can die.

Now Ethel Lilian Voynich is exclusively engaged in the publication of The Gadfly.

The first book was published in New York in 1897 with some success. Written in the tradition of English melodramatic literature, the reader liked the novel for its sincerity and sincerity. For several months in London, he withstood three editions, was even transferred to the stage. Voynich rose to prominence.

Success, of course, inspires, and Ethel decides to engage in literature, but the sweet impulse that distinguished her work on The Gadfly no longer visits her soul. She can only coldly and mediocrely compose banal stories, and even then in line with the Odovo theme. Now whatever she writes becomes a continuation of Arthur's life, even if the hero is called by a different name. Deeply experiencing her failure, Ethel takes up the music left once. Voynich spent thirty years with dull persistence composing the oratorio "Babylon" and died with the certainty that this was her only creation in her life.

And what was left for her? Michael has long ceased to be romantic hero and was quite successful in the book business. Together they moved to America for reasons of profit and became completely strangers, there were no children, the writing career did not take place. About "The Gadfly" was soon forgotten, and other books - "Interrupted Friendship", "Take off your shoes" - completely went unnoticed.

And only in her declining years, in the mid-fifties, one of our journalists, Yevgenia Taratuta, found her. Suddenly, glory and worship fell upon the head of the poor old woman. Voynich had no idea that her "Gadfly" had gone through more than a hundred editions and had an incredible, according to America's standards, circulation - millions of copies. Once beloved and attractive, Russia responded with gratitude to Ethel Lilian Voynich, and even in the United States, sensational stories about the forgotten writer and her works appeared in the wake of this interest.

For my long life wrote several novels, but became famous only thanks to the first book, which turned out to be at the same time the most powerful. In it, the young writer, with the fuse and maximalism characteristic of youth, poured out her pain of loss, perpetuating her friend in the protagonist of the novel The Gadfly. This book has become a cult in many countries, and the words of its heroes have been translated into dozens of languages ​​around the world.

The history of the creation of the book

This about revolutionary Ethel Lilian Voynich is said to have been inspired by her lover, the "king of spies" Sidney Reilly . Allegedly, the couple traveled together in Italy, and there Lilan learned the story of her friend of the heart. Landscapes of the Italian hinterland inspired her to move the action here.

However, neither historians nor experts on the biography of the great writer confirm this beautiful legend. . Voynich was married to Mikhail Voynich, a Polish-Lithuanian revolutionary, and remained faithful to him.

Until now, disputes have not subsided whether the main characters had prototypes in real life and who they are. Literary critics and historians are inclined to see in Arthur the features of the great revolutionaries Mazzini and Garibaldi, although the very content of the book can be understood as the author’s negative attitude towards these people, especially towards Mazzini.

Gemma received the character traits of Lilian Voynich's best friend. Charlotte Wilson was a member of the ideological revolutionary circles, made friends with Kropotkin and introduced the aspiring writer to Stepnyak.

The novel "The Gadfly" was the literary debut of a young writer, it is important to remember this when reading. Of course, the mastery of Voynich is felt in every word, but nevertheless, maximalism makes itself felt. Romantic revolutionary the book is divided into three parts :

1. Young Arthur Burton is shown, the beginning of his fascination with the Italian Revolution , a difficult relationship with Montanelli's spiritual father and falling in love with Gemma, a comrade-in-arms.
2. The second part - the return of Arthur to Italy incognito . Everyone knows him by the name of Felice Rivares, and he is striking in contrast to that young man from the first part. He meets Gemma and immediately does everything to scare her away. The cause of Montanelli's revolution and revenge is more important for him.
3. The apogee of the novel and its tragic denouement . The gadfly was unable to shoot at Montanelia, for which he was captured and sentenced to death. He confesses to the cardinal that he is his son. However, the padre chooses a god, not a son. After his death, Gemma comes to his declaration of love.

The book begins with an introduction to the main characters. Young Arthur has just lost his mother, he communicates a lot with Montanelli, who is not only a mentor, but also a biological father. The family reveals this secret to him. And the beloved girl, Gemma, thinks that he denounced the revolutionary organization. In a fit of hysteria, Arthur fakes suicide and sails away on a ship to South America. .

There he suffers terrible torment, he is beaten and crippled, he is forced to be a slave on plantations and a jester in a traveling circus, until a European scientific expedition rescues him. P od the pseudo Gadfly, he starts the cause of the revolution anew and wants to take revenge on Montanelli .

Inevitably, he encounters Gemma, first pushing her away from him. Then he confesses how he lived all these years, and Gemma guesses that in front of her is Arthur . In a deadly mission, he is arrested and sentenced to death. Can't run. Before his death, he speaks frankly with his father and is refused by him to run away together. The next morning the Gadfly himself directs the execution. A few days later, blinded by grief, Gemma is brought his last letter, where he confesses his love.

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