Memorial Day Ethel Lilian Voynich
Today, the name Ethel Lilian Voynich is not known to everyone. Although at one time the hero of her novel, Arthur Byrne, inspired more than one generation of people for revolutionary transformations, films and theatrical performances based on the novel "The Gadfly" enjoyed great success with viewers over the years …
DAY OF MEMORY ETHEL LILIAN VOYNICH (11.5.1864 - 27.7.1960)
On July 27, we celebrate the Day of Remembrance of Ethel Lillian Voynich - an Irish writer, translator, composer, author of the world famous novel "The Gadfly".
Today the name Ethel Lilian Voynich is not known to everyone. Although at one time the hero of her novel, Arthur Byrne, inspired more than one generation of people for revolutionary transformations, films and theatrical performances based on the novel "The Gadfly" enjoyed great success with viewers over the years.
Voynich lived most of her life in America, in complete obscurity. However, her novel "The Gadfly", first published in 1898 and forgotten in the rest of the world, became a cult book in the USSR. It is read in Russia today.
Once Boris Polevoy asked the writer if the protagonist Arthur Byrne had a prototype? Ethel Lillian glanced at the portrait hanging on the wall and quietly replied: "It all started with him …".
It all started when six-year-old Lily, the youngest of the 5 daughters of the famous mathematician George Boole, heard from her mother a story about two Italians. Young Italian revolutionaries, D. Garibaldi and D. Mazzini, were sentenced to life in exile for active work in the then sensational Young Italy organization. On a ship sailing to America, the prisoners rioted and landed on the deserted Irish coast. Exhausted from hunger and cold, the unfortunate people got to the Bully. The family took pity on them and sheltered the exiles in the attic of their house.
The little girl was shocked by this story so deeply that she endlessly told her older sisters how she herself cared for the noble Count Castelamaro. How passionately he fell in love with her, offered his hand and heart and begged to leave with him. But Lily refused, because she did not want to part with loved ones.
The fact that this story happened long before her birth did not bother the future writer at all. This is understandable, because visual people are able to believe in any fantasy dear to their hearts and live it in their thoughts for real. It is visual people from an early age who dream of beautiful love, full of passion, romance, compassion and self-sacrifice.
At the insistence of her mother, young Ethel Lillian graduated from the conservatory. The girl very soon showed real talent. The teachers predicted a great future for her, but, alas, she had to give up her career as a professional pianist. Suddenly, Ethel developed a strange disease: for some reason, her fingers were pinching, as soon as she touched the keys. From the point of view of system-vector psychology, such a manifestation was most likely of a psychosomatic nature, the causes of which lie in some kind of psychological trauma. But today I want to reveal other secrets of Lily, namely, her writing talent and the phenomenon of her novel "The Gadfly".
To recover from this shock, she left for Paris. There, Lily stood for hours in the Louvre with a portrait of a young man by Franciabigio, a famous Renaissance artist. Here he is, her hero! This is what her lover, Count Castelamaro might look like. The image of a young, dark-haired man, looking with passion from the portrait right into the very soul, was so mesmerizing that she even ordered a copy. Since then, they have not parted. And it was the appearance of the young man from the portrait that Arthur Burton, the main character of The Gadfly, inherited.
Lily's childhood passion for the rebellious count eventually grew into a serious interest in the Italian liberation movement. The girl even learned by heart the biography of her leader Giuseppe Mazzini and began to wear only black clothes, like her idol. It was a kind of challenge to society, her personal mourning for the imperfection of this world …
In her wildest dreams, Lily imagined how much she could do for Young Italy. But Italy has long been free, but in Russia the struggle for human freedom and a better life is in full swing. And the girl became interested in Russia.
The sound vector is what determined her passion for revolutionary ideas, and led her to meetings of migrant revolutionaries in London. It is the sound people who give birth to ideas that transform the world. It is the sound people who respond to such ideas more vividly than others, pour their energy into them, make them realizable.
The influence of the sound vector on Ethel's choice can be traced throughout her entire life path. Musical talent, passion for revolutionary ideas, and outstanding writing skills - all this is provided by the properties of the sound vector and the enormous temperament of Ethel herself. The sensual side of the sound vector determined her passion for music, and the conscious form - a constant internal sound search. This search, which accompanies the life of every sound engineer, led Ethel to comprehend life in words, in written words.
The stories of the Soviet writer Sergei Kravchinsky, who was popular in those years, made a deep impression on the future writer, arousing a passionate interest in Russian culture, and especially literature. She left for Russia and lived in our country for several years, working as a music and English teacher.
In addition, Lily began to translate the works of Russian classics. The sound vector allowed her not only to write books with talent, but also to successfully engage in translation activities. Thanks to the works of E. L. Voynich, America and Europe met such unsurpassed masters of words as N. Gogol, M. Lermontov, F. Dostoevsky, M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, G. Uspensky, V. Garshin, T. Shevchenko.
Then, in the life of the writer, literature and translation gave way to music. During this period, she wrote several pieces of music.
Literature, translation work, music, search for the meaning of life, ideas of social transformations - this was the whole life of Ethel Lilian Voynich.
The last years of E. L. Voinich spent in New York, living modestly and unknown, until one day she was found by the Russian journalist and literary critic Evgenia Taratuta, who wrote a lot about Voinich and was an expert on her work. Thus, already at an advanced age, the writer learned about the popularity of her hero in the Soviet Union. At the same time, bags of letters from Soviet fans appeared in her cramped New York apartment. The author of the novel "The Gadfly" was paid royalties for all books, films and performances. In her declining years, she finally shared the glory of her hero.
Ethel Lillian lived a long life of 96 years. One of the craters on Venus is named after this inspired and passionate woman.
