Stanislav Lem and his novel "Solaris"
The 1961st was marked not only by the first flightman into space, but also because this year was the first published novel "Solaris". The author of this fantastic work was the Polish writer of Jewish origin Stanislaw Lem. "Solaris" was destined to become not only the most famous of the writer's works, but also leave an indelible mark on the fantastic literature of the whole world.
Stanislav Lem - author of the novel "Solaris"
Stanislav Lem, or as they call him in the homeland Stanisław Lem, was born in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, which at that time belonged to Poland.
The writer and his parents were Jews. However, they were able to avoid deportation, as well as imprisonment in concentration camps due to forged documents.
After the war Lviv became part of the USSR, and Lem, being a Pole, was forced to leave his native city and move to Krakow. Here he continued his studies at the Jagiellonian University.
During the difficult post-war period,Stanislaus Lem was small. To earn extra money, in his spare time from official work, he began to write small fantastic stories. Soon, Lema's talent was appreciated, additional part-time work became his main work.
In 1951 the writer publishes his first major work - a fantastic novel "Astronauts". This work makes Lem known not only in Poland, but throughout the world. "Astronauts" are translated into other languages and are often reprinted.
In subsequent years, many works are publishedwriter. Novels "Magellanic Cloud", "Investigation", "Eden", "Return from the Stars", "Manuscript Found in the Bath", "Invincible", "Voice of the Lord", "Qatar" and others. A series of humorous stories about the astronaut's adventures "Iyon Tikho's Star Diaries", an essay collection "Dialogues", a comic story "Invasion from Aldebaran". A series of stories "Tales of robots", "Cyberiad", "Stories about the pilot Pirks", "Absolute emptiness" and much more. Among the author's works there is also an autobiographical novel about childhood in Lviv "High Castle" and the most famous worldwide philosophical fiction novel "Solaris".
The writer died in March 2006 from heart problems and was buried in Krakow.
Summary of the novel "Solaris"
In the not too distant future, mankind is actively exploring space.
To the research station on Solarisarrives a new employee - psychologist Chris Kelvin. The behavior of other workers of the station - Snout and Sartorius - seems to him very strange. Moreover, a third officer named Gibaryan committed suicide shortly before Chris's arrival.
Before Calvin could digest all the news, howno one knows where his ex-girlfriend Hari comes from. However, it could not be she, since the girl once committed suicide. All attempts by Chris to get rid of Hari are unsuccessful - the girl returns again and again. Soon the psychologist learns that every member of the crew has a similar uninvited "guest" from the past. It turns out that at the time when people are studying Solaris, the planet also began to conduct "experiments" over its researchers. For this, she materializes objects from the woeful or shameful memories of people who are on the planet.
Kelvin and his companions in misery are actively looking forway to get rid of their "guests", called phantoms. However, they do not succeed. Meanwhile, Chris begins to get attached to Hari, which is becoming more humane and soon guesses about its origins. Realizing that she is, the girl tries to kill herself, but she does not get out.
Soon, Kelvin stops looking for a way to get rid of it.from Hari. But his companions, together with the girl, secretly continue their research. They manage to achieve success and destroy all the phantoms at the station, including Hari.
Chris is very worried about this loss. His colleagues are afraid that he will do something rash - blow up the planet or commit suicide. But after seriously reconsidering what had happened, Kelvin decides to stay on Solaris and continue the research.
The history of writing the novel
The novel "Solaris" was by no means the first large fantastic work by Lem. However, in it the writer began to move away from the utopian image of the future, characteristic of his earlier robot.
The main part of Solaris was written in the summer1959, when Stanislaw Lem rested in the south of Poland. But, after returning home, the writer abandoned the unfinished manuscript for almost a year. In 1960, Lem decides to finish the novel "Solaris". To do this, he adds the last chapter, as well as editing the previously written text. In 1961, the novel is published in Poland, and in subsequent years it is actively translated into other languages.
As later wrote in his autobiographical bookshimself Lem, many things in his novel "Solaris" were inexplicable for him. During the work on the novel writer sometimes it seemed that someone else tells him how and what to write.
The screen version
In 1963 the Solaris was translated into Russian. Roman liked Soviet readers so much that only five years after the publication, based on his motives, a television performance with Vasily Lanov in the title role was shot.
In 1972 Andrei Tarkovsky produced a full-length film based on Lem's novel with Donatas Banionis in the role of Kelvin.
At the beginning of the two thousandth Stanislav, Lem was invited to film his novel in Hollywood.
In 2016 It is 55 years since the publication of the book "Solaris" by Stanislav Lem. Roman for all these years has not lost its relevance and continues to worry the minds of more and more generations of readers.
