Contemporaries knew Grigory Danilevsky not only as a talented writer who created many magnificent books, but also as a successful official. Danilevsky devoted almost all his life to the public service, however, while leaving himself time for studying literature. And it should be noted that he succeeded in everything at once.
He came from a noble noble family. And in his youth, as it was then instituted, he received high-quality home education. One of Grigory Danilevsky’s close friends was Fedor Dostoevsky, a famous classic. When the latter died, Danilevsky, along with his other friends, carried his coffin in a funeral procession. Rod Danilevsky did not stop, but, let’s say, moved. He had only one daughter, and she moved to Spain, where she got married. Grigory Danilevsky had high hopes for his large-scale historical novel “Burned Moscow”, which describes the events of the 1812 war. However, critics defeated the work, saying that Danilevsky did not succeed in the second “War and Peace”. The cousin of the writer was the grandmother of the subsequently famous poet V. Mayakovsky. Fedor Dostoevsky praised the work of his friend Danilevsky, and several times published laudatory reviews of his books.
The writer surprisingly accurately predicted some of the events of the future. So, in his book “Life in a Hundred Years”, which is a fantastic novel, he wrote about the lighting of city streets with electric lights and the construction of a tunnel under the English Channel. His predictions came true. Contemporaries often called Grigory Danilevsky “Russian Alexander Dumas”. The comparison, it should be noted, is very flattering. Grigory Danilevsky was also involved in translating English literature into Russian, since he was fluent in English. It is to him that we owe the opportunity to get acquainted with some works, for example, Gordon Byron.
The aforementioned novel “Life in a Hundred Years” is an imitation of the adventure works of Jules Verne. Which, however, does not make it less interesting. In the first half of his career, Grigory Danilevsky wrote mainly fiction and social works. Later, he became interested in the genre of historical novel. He graduated from the university with a silver medal, showing remarkable talent and learning abilities. Popularity for Danilevsky did not come immediately. He was not very popular among his contemporaries, and he became widely famous only after death. Danilevsky devoted many years of his life to work in the journal “Government Gazette”, where he held the post of chief editor. And in public service, he rose to the rank of Privy Councilor. Once Danilevsky was arrested, confused with some of his namesake. While they figured out everything, he spent about a month in prison.
