As a boy of seventeen Ostróvsky had already developed a passion for the
theatre. His literary career began in the year 1847, when he read to
a group of Moscow men of letters his first experiments in dramatic
composition. In this same year he printed one scene of "A Family Affair,"
which appeared in complete form three years later, in 1850, and established
its author's reputation as a dramatist of undoubted talent. Unfortunately,
by its mordant but true picture of commercial morals, it aroused against
him the most bitter feelings among the Moscow merchants. Discussion of the
play in the press was prohibited, and representation of it on the stage
was out of the question. It was reprinted only in 1859, and then, at the
instance of the censorship, in an altered form, in which a police
officer appears at the end of the play as a _deus ex machina_, arrests
Podkhalyúzin, and announces that he will be sent to Siberia. In this
mangled version the play was acted in 1861; in its original text it did not
appear on the stage until 1881. Besides all this, the drama was the cause
of the dismissal of Ostróvsky from the civil service, in 1851. The whole
episode illustrates the difficulties under which the great writers of
Russia have constantly labored under a despotic government.

Beginning with 1852 Ostróvsky gave his whole strength to literary work. He
is exceptional among Russian authors in devoting himself almost exclusively
to the theatre. The latest edition of his works contains forty-eight pieces
written entirely by him, and six produced in collaboration with other
authors. It omits his translations from foreign dramatists, which were of
considerable importance, including, for example, a version of Shakespeare's
"Taming of the Shrew."

The plays of Ostróvsky are of varied character, including dramatic
chronicles based on early Russian history, and a fairy drama, "Little