RUSSIAN AND WEST EUROPEAN NOVEL AT THE TURN OF THE 18TH–19TH CENTURIES

The paper deals with reflections ofrelations between Russian and West European novels in the second half of the 18th and the first third of the 19th centuries. The author of the article discusses a specific structure of the novel and its rising in creative works of Rousseau and Constant ("New Eloise", "Adolf") and later of Pushkin's and Stendhal's writtings ("Eugene Onegin", "Red and Black"). The paper says that condition for development and rise of the novel as a genre was the realization of the novel situation, in centre of which there are 2-3 leading characters, whose inner world is emotional, intellectual and ethical principles, and who are in different extent related with society or environment. The environment in the novels of Rousseau and Constant generally leave behind the boundaries of the plot of the novel, but in the novels of Pushkin and Stendhal it determinates in a great degree the behaviour of characters. Thus, the novel discribes not only characters destiny but broad pictures of reality too. Conclusion: the beginning of the 19th century was a fruitful period in development ofthe novel. Contacts between European and Russian literature was very intensive.