Considered by many to have been his country's greatest dramatist and the founder of its national theater, Aleksandr Ostrovsky belongs to the nineteenth-century Russian Realist tradition along with nov...
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In the following excerpt from an analysis of Ostrovsky's plays first published in 1859, Dobrolyubov reviews contemporary critical responses and praises the playwright's psychological ins...
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In the following essay, Patrick analyzes the long-standing debate over whether Ostrovsky's writings reveal him to be a "Slavophile," rejecting Western values in favor of tradition...
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In this essay, Kaspin argues that Ostrovsky's plays typically involve characters whose complex natures are the source of the dramatic conflict.
A little over seventy-five years ago, in 1886,...
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In the excerpt that follows, Lavrin presents an overview of Ostrovsky's plays, focusing on the playwright's depiction of the Russian merchant class and his interest in moral and social v...
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In this essay, Peace closely examines the language of The Thunderstorm and concludes that the ambivalence of certain words mirrors the ambiguities of the society depicted in the play.
Aleksandr Ost...
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Alexander Ostrovsky
Critical Essay by N. A. Dobrolyubov
