Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko was born in 1778 in the village of ,
Sloboda Ukraine Governorate (now
within the city of Kharkiv), to a family of Ukrainian
nobility. He adopted the pen name "Osnovianenko," a reference to the village of his birth, when he embarked on his literary career. A deeply religious person, at the age of 23 Kvitka entered a
monastery, but returned to civil life four years later. Starting from 1812, Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko began his social activities, being appointed the director of a new regular lay theatre which opened in Kharkiv. The love for theatre, which he preserved through all his life, led him to become an author of theatrical drama works. In 1841 he wrote his "Kharkiv Theatre History". Along with his theatrical activities, Kvitka-Osnovianenko also engaged in
philanthropy and became the founder of an
Institute for Noble Maidens. He also served as the local
Marshal of the Nobility and headed the chamber of Kharkiv's criminal court. However, with time Kvitka-Osnovianenko became one of the earliest proponents of Ukrainian as a literary language and began publishing in the first Ukrainian literary journals printed in Kharkiv. He corresponded respectfully with
Taras Shevchenko, keeping up constantly with literary life. He was a friend of
Nikolai Gogol, and it is possible that Gogol's play
The Government Inspector was inspired by Kvitka-Osnovianenko's satiric drama
The Visitor from the Capitol or Turmoil in a District Town, which has a very similar plot and cast of characters. In his works Kvitka-Osnovianenko initially followed
Ivan Kotliarevsky's
travesty tradition. He also tried his hand at the
gothic genre with his "Dead Man's Easter" (1834).
Historical Novels From the historical works of interest are the "Historical and Statistical Outline of
Slobozhanshchyna" (1838), "On the Sloboda Regiments", "Ukrainians" (1841) and “History of the Theater in Kharkiv” (1841). In the 1830s, Kvitka composed a fantastic lyrical story about the founding of the city of Kharkiv in the middle of the 17th century with his ancestor Andriy Kvitka. This story, published in his collected works, is not supported by any source and has never been seriously considered by any historian.
The most famous works • Малоросийские анекдоты (
Little Russian Anecdotes) - 1821-1822 (in Russian) • Шельменко-волосний писар (Shelmenko-volost clerk) -
comedy, 1831 • Конотопська відьма (
The Witch of Konotop) - 1833 • Салдатський патрет (A Soldier's Portrait) - novella, 1833 • Маруся (Marusia) - novella, 1834-1837 • Сердешна Оксана (Poor Oksana) - 1834-1837 • Сватання на Гончарівці (The Courtship at Honcharivka) - comedy, 1836 • Шельменко-денщик (Shelmenko the
Batman) - comedy, 1837 • Козир-дівка (The
Trump Girl) - 1838 • Пан Халявский (Mr. Khalyavsky) - 1839 (in Russian) • Ганнуся (Hannusya) - 1839 == Film adaptations ==