Hunter's notes summary
Bezhin meadow
On a beautiful July day, one of those days when the weather settled for a long time, the narrator was hunting black grouse in the Chernsky district of the Tula province. He shot quite a lot of game, and when it began to get dark, he decided to return home, but got lost. The hunter strayed long enough, meanwhile the night was approaching. He even tried to ask his hunting dog Dianka where he had wandered and where he was. "The smartest of the four-legged creatures" was silent and only wagged her tail. Continuing to stray, the hunter found himself over a terrible abyss. The hill on which he was standing descended in a sheer cliff. On the plain near the river, two lights were burning and glowing, people were scurrying around them.
The narrator knew where he had gone. This. the place was known as Bezhina Meadows. The hunter went downstairs and was going to ask people about lodging for the night near the fire. The dogs greeted him with vicious barking. Children's voices were heard near the fires, and a hunter from afar answered the children. They drove away the dogs, who were especially struck by the appearance of Dianka, and the man went up to the fire.
These were the children who guarded the herd in the night pasture. In the hot summer season, horses are driven out to pasture at night: during the day, flies and gadflies simply will not give them rest.
The hunter told the boys that he was lost and sat down by the fire. There were five boys sitting by the fire: Fedya, Pavlu-sha, Ilyusha, Kostya and Vanya.
Fedya was the oldest. He was fourteen years old. He was a slender boy with bright eyes and a constant cheerful half-smile. He belonged, by all indications, to a rich family, and went into the field for fun. Pavlusha was unsightly in appearance. But he spoke intelligently and directly, and there was power in his voice. Ilyusha's face expressed dull, sickly solicitude. He seemed to be squinting at the fire. He and Pavlusha were twelve years old. The fourth, Kostya, a boy of about ten, aroused curiosity with his thoughtful and sad look. Vanya was only seven years old, he was dozing on a mat.
The children were talking about this and that, but suddenly Fedya turned to Ilyusha and asked him, as if continuing an interrupted story, had Ilyusha seen the brownie. Ilyusha replied that he had not seen him, since he could not be seen, but had heard him in an old roller blind at the factory. Under the brownie, boards cracked at night, a wheel could suddenly rattle, boilers and devices were moving, on which paper was made. Then the brownie seemed to go to the door and suddenly coughed and choked. The children, who were then spending the night at the factory, fell down from fear and crawled under each other.
And Kostya told another story - about the suburban carpenter Gavril, who is always sad, because he saw a mermaid in the forest. The mermaid laughed all the time and called the guy to her. But the Lord advised him, and Gavrila signed himself with the cross. The mermaid burst into tears and disappeared, lamenting that the person did not need to be baptized. Now she will cry all the time, they say, she will, but she also wished him to be killed until the end of his days. After these words, the evil spirit disappeared, it became clear to Gavrila how to get out of the forest. But since then, he has been unhappy.
The next story was Ilyushin. It was a story about how the kennel Yermil picked up a drowned white lamb on the grave, who bared his teeth at night and spoke to Yermil in a human voice.
Fedya continued the conversation with a story about the late master Ivan Ivanych, who still walks the earth in a caftan with a long crowbar and is looking for something. Grandfather Trofimych, who asked the deceased what he was looking for, Ivan Ivanovich replied that he was looking for a gap - grass. His grave crushes, and I want to get out.
Ilyusha picked up the conversation and told that the deceased can be seen on parental Saturday, if you sit in the church on the porch. But you can also see a living one, who is the turn to die this year. Grandmother Ulyana saw Ivashka Fedoseev, a boy who died in the spring, and then herself. And from that day on, her soul barely holds on, although she is still alive. Ilyusha also spoke about Trishka, an extraordinary person, the legends about whom were already very similar to the legends about the Antichrist. The conversation turned to the merman, and from him to Akulina the fool, who had gone mad since she tried to drown herself in the river.
The boy Vasya also drowned in the same river. His mother raked hay while his son played on the bank. The boy suddenly disappeared, only the cap floated on the water. His mother has been out of her mind ever since.
Pavel came with a full cauldron of water in his hands and said that things were not right, the brownie called him. Fedya, at this news, added that Pavel was called by the drowned Vasyatka.
The hunter gradually fell asleep in his eyes, and he woke up only at dawn. All the boys slept near the fire. Only Pavel woke up and looked intently at the night guest, who nodded his head at him and went along the river.
Unfortunately, Pavel passed away in the same year: he fell off his horse and killed himself.
Khor and Kalinich
The narrator meets the landowner Polutykin, a passionate hunter, who invites him to his estate. For the night they go to the peasant Khory. Khor had a strong household and had a practical mindset. He was Polutykin's serf, although he had the opportunity to pay off his master. But Horyu was unprofitable, so he abandoned such thoughts.
Khor's manners are unhurried, he does not get down to business without thinking and calculating everything in advance, he does not think abstractly, he is not visited by dreams.
His friend Kalinich is the exact opposite. He once had a wife whom he was very afraid of, but that was a long time ago. Now he lives alone and often accompanies Polutykin on hunting trips. This occupation has become the meaning of his life, as it gives him the opportunity to communicate with nature.
Khor and Kalinich are friends, despite the fact that they look at life differently. Kalinich, as an enthusiastic, dreamy person, not quite versed in people, was in awe of the master. Khor saw Polutykin through and through, and therefore treated him somewhat ironically.
Khor loved Kalinich and patronized him, because he felt that he was wiser. And Kalinich, in turn, loved and respected Khor.
Khor knew how to hide his thoughts, to be cunning, he spoke little. Kalinych explained himself enthusiastically and enthusiastically. Kalinich was familiar with the secrets of nature, he could stop the blood, speak fear. The practical Khor, who “stood closer to society, to people,” did not possess all these skills, while Kalinich, to nature.
Yermolai and the miller's wife
The narrator tells how once he and the hunter Yermolai went on a "draught" - an evening hunt for woodcocks.
Then he introduces readers to Yermolai. “Yermolai was a man of a strange kind: carefree, like a bird, rather talkative, absent-minded and awkward in appearance.” At the same time, “no one could compare with him in the art of catching fish in the spring, in hollow water, getting crayfish with his hands, looking for game by instinct, luring quails, hatching hawks, getting nightingales ...”
After standing on the traction for about an hour, having killed two pairs of woodcocks, the narrator and Yermolai decided to spend the night at the nearest mill, but they were not allowed in, but were allowed to spend the night under an open shed. The miller's wife Arina brought them food for supper. It turned out that the narrator knew her former master, Mr. Zverkov, whose wife Arina served as a maid. One day she asked the master for permission to marry the footman Petrushka. Zverkov and his wife considered themselves offended by this request: the girl was exiled to the village, and the footman was sent to the soldiers. Later, Arina married a miller who ransomed her.
raspberry water
The action takes place in the very heat of early August, when the narrator went hunting and went in the direction of a spring known as Crimson Water.
By the river, he meets two old men fishing - Shumikhinsky Stepushka and Mikhailo Savelyev, nicknamed Fog. What follows is a story about their life stories.
County doctor
One autumn, returning from a field he was leaving, the narrator caught a cold and fell ill. It happened in a county town, in a hotel. They called the doctor. The county doctor, Trifon Ivanovich, prescribed a medicine and began to talk about how one day, during a game of preference with a local judge, he was called to the house of an impoverished widow. She was a landowner who lived twenty miles from the city. The note from her said that her daughter was dying, and she asked the doctor to come as soon as possible.
Arriving, the doctor began to provide medical care her daughter, Alexandra Andreevna, was ill with a fever. Trifon Ivanovich stayed with them for several days to look after the patient, feeling "a strong disposition towards her." Despite all his efforts, the girl did not get better. One night, feeling that she would soon die, she confessed her love to the doctor. Three days later Alexandra Andreevna died.
And the doctor after - entered into a legal marriage, taking as his wife the merchant's daughter Akulina, evil, but with seven thousand dowry.
Ovsyanikov Odnodvorets
Here the narrator introduces readers to Ovsyanikov's single palace. He was a stout, tall man, about seventy years old, with a face somewhat reminiscent of Krylov's face, with a clear and intelligent look, with an important posture, measured speech and a slow gait. All his neighbors respected him greatly and considered it an honor to know him. Ovsyanikov lived alone with his wife in a cozy, tidy house. He kept a small servant, dressed his people in Russian and called them workers. “He considered it a sin to sell bread - God's gift, and in the 40th year, during a general famine and terrible high cost, he distributed all his stock to the surrounding landowners and peasants; they gratefully offered their debt in kind to him the next year. Of the books, Ovsyanikov read only spiritual ones. Neighbors often came to him for advice and help, with a request to judge, to reconcile them.
One of Ovsyanikov's neighbors was Franz Ivanovich Lezhen. In 1812 he went to Russia with the Napoleonic army as a drummer. During the retreat, Lezhen fell into the hands of the Smolensk peasants, who wanted to drown him. A landowner passing by took pity on the Frenchman. He asked if he played the piano and brought him home as a teacher for His daughters. Two weeks later, Lezhen moved from this landowner to another, a rich and educated man, who fell in love with a Frenchman for his kind and cheerful disposition and married his pupil. Lezhen entered the service, became a nobleman, and in the end - a Russian landowner. He moved to live in Orel and made friends with Ovsyanikov.
Lgov
The narrator goes with Yermolai to shoot ducks in Lgov, a large steppe village. Once at the bank of the river, they find the boat of the fisherman Kuzma, nicknamed Bitch. Whoever he was in his life: a Cossack, a coachman, a cook, a coffee maker, an actor, a postilion, a gardener, a traveler, and now he is a master's fisherman, who for seven years has been assigned to fish in a pond where there is no fish. He had several names and nicknames during his life.
Kasian with Beautiful Swords
The narrator returns from hunting on a sweltering summer day. At the wheel of their cart, the axle breaks, and the coachman Yerofey blames the funeral procession he met on the road for this. It is believed that to meet the dead - Bad sign. The narrator learns that Martin the carpenter, who died of a fever, is being buried. Meanwhile, the coachman offers to go to Yudin's settlements in order to get a new axle for the wheel there. On the settlements, the narrator meets Kasyan, a dwarf of about fifty with a small, swarthy and wrinkled face, a sharp nose, brown, barely noticeable eyes, and curly, thick black hair. His whole body was extremely frail and thin, and his eyes were strange and unusual.
Kasyan says that a new axle can be obtained from merchant clerks in an oak grove that is cut down for sale, and agrees to accompany the hunter there. He decides to hunt in the grove. Kasyan asks to take him with him. After long wanderings, the narrator manages to shoot only a corncrake.
“- Barin, and master! Kasyan suddenly uttered in his sonorous voice.
I got up in surprise; Until now he had scarcely answered my questions, but then suddenly he spoke himself.
What do you want? I asked.
Well, why did you kill the bird? he began, looking me straight in the face.
How for what? Corncrake is game: you can eat it.
That's not why you killed him, master: you will eat him! You killed him for your amusement."
Kasyan argues that it is a sin to kill any forest creature, but another food is laid for a person - bread and "a hand-made creature from the ancient fathers." He says that “neither man nor creature can be cunning against death. Death does not run, and you cannot run away from it either; She shouldn't help...
The narrator learns that Kasyan knows medicinal herbs well, at one time he went “to Simbirsk - a glorious city, and to Moscow itself - golden domes; I went to the Oka-nurse, and to the Volga-mother. “And I’m not alone, a sinner… many other peasants walk around in bast shoes, roam the world, looking for the truth… yes!.. What about at home, huh? There is no justice in a person - that's it ... "
The coachman Erofey considers Kasyan a foolish and foolish person, but admits that Kasyan cured him of scrofula. “God knows him: either he is silent like a stump, then he suddenly speaks, and what he speaks, God knows him. Is it manners? It's not manners. An incongruous person, as he is.
Burmister
Fifteen verts from the narrator's estate lives a young landowner, a retired Guards officer Arkady Pavlovich Penochkin. His house was built according to the plan of a French architect, people are dressed in English, he is engaged in housekeeping with great success. Penochkin subscribes to French books, but practically does not read them. He is considered one of the most educated nobles and enviable suitors of the province. In winter he travels to St. Petersburg. The narrator reluctantly visits him, but one day he has to spend the night at the Penochkin estate. In the morning there was an English-style breakfast. Then they travel together to the village of Shipilovka, where they stay in the hut of the local Bur-Mister Sofron Yakovlevich. To all Penochkin's questions about the affairs of the household, he answered that everything was going very well thanks to the orders of the master. The next day, Penochkin, together with the narrator and steward Sofron, went to inspect the estate, where extraordinary order reigned. Then we went to hunt in the forest, and when we returned, we went to look at a winnowing machine, which had recently been ordered from Moscow.
Coming out of the barn, they saw two peasants, an old one and a young one, kneeling. They complained that they were completely tortured by the steward, who had taken the old man's two sons as recruits, and now he was taking away the third. He took the last cow out of the yard and beat his wife. It was asserted that the steward was not ruining them alone. But Penochkin did not listen to them.
Two hours later, the narrator was already in the village of Ryabovo, where he talked with an acquaintance of the peasant Anpadist about the Shipilovsky peasants. He explained that Shipilovka was only listed as a master, and Sofron owns it as his own property: the peasants around him owe him, work for him like laborers, and the steward earns a living with land, horses, cattle, tar, oil, hemp, therefore he is very rich , but beats the peasants. The peasants do not complain to the master, because Penochkin does not care: the main thing is that there are no arrears. And Sofron got angry at Antipas because he quarreled with him at a meeting, so now he is taking revenge on him.
Office
The action takes place in autumn. The hunter wandered through the fields with a gun and suddenly saw a low hut in which an old watchman was sitting, showing him the way. So the narrator ended up in the estate of Losnyakova Elena Nikolaevna, in the main master's office, where the clerk Nikolai Eremeev manages. The narrator, being in the next room and pretending to be asleep, learns a lot about him and about life on the estate.
Biryuk
The hunter returned home alone, on a cross-country droshky. A thunderstorm was approaching, and suddenly it began to rain in streams. Suddenly, in the darkness, with a flash of lightning, a tall figure appeared near the droshky. The man in a stern voice demanded to identify himself and, having heard the answer, calmed down. He himself turned out to be a local forester and offered the hunter to wait out the rain in his hut. The forester took the horse by the bridle, and soon a small hut in a wide courtyard appeared before the eyes of the hunter. On the threshold they were met by a girl of about twelve years old, in a shirt, belted with a hem, and with a lantern in her hand. The forester went to put the droshky under the shed, and the master entered the hut. Terrible poverty lay before him. In the cradle lay a child who was breathing heavily and often. The girl rocked him, straightening the torch with her left hand. The forester entered. The master thanked the forester and asked his name. He replied that his name was Foma, nicknamed Biryuk.
The hunter looked at the forester with redoubled curiosity.
There were legends about Biryuk's honesty, incorruptibility and strength.
The master asked where the hostess was. The forester first answered that she had died, and then recovered, saying that she had run away with a tradesman passing by, leaving her barely born child.
Biryuk offered the master bread, but he said that he was not hungry. The forester went out into the yard and returned with the news that the storm was passing, and invited the guest to accompany him out of the forest. He himself took a gun, explaining this by the fact that they were cutting down a tree at Kobyly Verkh, they were naughty - he heard from the yard.
The gentleman and the forester did not have time to the place of felling. The hunter rushed to the place where the noise of the struggle came from, and saw the forester, twisting the hands of the thief with a sash behind his back. The thief turned out to be a peasant in rags, with a long beard. The master mentally gave his word: by all means free the poor fellow. The peasant was seated on a bench, and dead silence settled in the house.
Suddenly the prisoner spoke and asked Foma Kuzmich, i.e. Biryuk, to release him. Foma was adamant, and after long bickering, threats against the forester escaped from the peasant. Biryuk got up and, in a fit of anger, went up to the peasant. He was afraid that they would beat him, and the master stood up for the captive. Biryuk ordered the gentleman to leave behind, pulled off the sash from the peasant's elbows, pulled his cap over his eyes, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pushed him out of the hut.
The master praised Biryuk, saying that he is like a fellow. The forester waved him off and asked only not to tell anyone.
Then he saw off the master and said goodbye to him at the edge of the forest.
Lebedyan
The narrator tells how five years ago he ended up in Lebedyan at the very collapse of the fair. After dinner, he goes to the coffee shop, where they played billiards.
The next day he went to choose a horse for himself, looked for a long time, finally bought it. But she turned out to be hot and lame, and the seller refused to take her back.
singers
The action takes place in the small village of Kolotovka. Here it is told about the competition of two singers from the people - Yakov the Turk and a hawker from Zhizdra. The contractor sang in "the highest falsetto", his voice was "rather pleasant and sweet, although somewhat hoarse; he played and wagged this voice like a top,<…>he fell silent and then suddenly picked up the old tune with some kind of dashing, arrogant prowess. His transitions were sometimes quite bold, sometimes quite amusing: they would give a lot of pleasure to a connoisseur.
Yakov “sang, completely forgetting both his rival and all of us, but, apparently, being lifted, like a cheerful swimmer by the waves, by our silent, passionate participation. He sang, and from every sound of his voice there was something native and immensely wide, as if the familiar steppe was opening up.<…>, going into the infinite distance.
“There was more than one path in the field,” Yakov sang, and everyone present became terrified. There was genuine deep passion in his voice, and youth, and strength, and sweetness, and some kind of fascinatingly careless, sad sorrow. “The Russian, truthful, ardent soul sounded and breathed in him and grabbed your heart, grabbed you right by his Russian strings.” material from the site
After resting in the hayloft and leaving the village, the hunter decided to look into the window of the Pritynny tavern, where a few hours ago he had witnessed marvelous singing. A “gloomy” and “motley” picture presented itself to his eyes: “Everything was drunk - everyone, starting with Yakov. Bare-chested, he sat on a bench and, singing in a hoarse voice some kind of dance, street song, lazily plucked the strings of the guitar ... "
Moving away from the window, from which came the discordant sounds of the tavern "fun", the hunter quickly walked away from Kolotovka.
Petr Petrovich Karataev
The action took place in the autumn, on the road from Moskra to Tula, when the narrator spent almost the whole day, due to the lack of horses, in the post house, where he met the small-scale nobleman Pyotr Petrovich Karataev. Karataev tells his story to the narrator. He is almost ruined - due to crop failures and his own inability to manage the economy, and now he is going to Moscow to serve. Then he remembers how he once fell in love with the beautiful serf girl Matryona, decided to buy her from her mistress. He was received by a relative of the lady and ordered him to call in two days later. Arriving at the indicated time, Pyotr Petrovich found out that Matryona was being sent to a steppe village, since the lady did not want to sell the girl. Then Karataev went to the village where Mat-rena was exiled, and took her away secretly, at night. So they lived for five months in joy and harmony.
But one day, riding a sleigh, they went to the village of Matryona's mistress, where they were seen and recognized. The lady filed a complaint against Kara-taev that her runaway girl was living with him. The police officer arrived, but this time Pyotr Petrovich managed to pay off. However, they didn't leave him alone. He got into debt, hid Matryona, but she, taking pity on Karataev, went and betrayed herself.
A year after this meeting, the narrator arrived in Moscow, went into a coffee shop there, where he saw
Peter Petrovich. He said that he does not serve anywhere, his village was sold at auction, and he intends to remain in Moscow until the end of his life.
Date
Tenderly loving Akulina comes to the grove on a date with the spoiled lord's valet and learns that he is leaving with his master for Petersburg, possibly leaving her forever. Victor leaves without a hint of frustration or remorse, and the poor deceived girl indulges in inconsolable sobs.
Nature here is a subtle lyrical commentary on the painful, hopeless state of the girl: “... through the gloomy, although fresh smile of fading nature, the dull fear of the near winter seemed to creep in. High above me, heavily and sharply cutting the air with its wings, a cautious raven flew by, turned its head, looked at me from the side, soared and, abruptly croaking, disappeared behind the forest ... "
living relics
The narrator, together with Yermolai, goes for black grouse to Belevsky district. The rain hasn't stopped since morning. Then Yermo-lai offered to go and spend the night in Alekseevka, a small farm that belonged to the narrator's mother, the existence of which he had never suspected before.
The next day he went for a walk in the wild garden. When he reached the apiary, he saw a wicker shed where a small figure resembling a mummy lay. She turned out to be Lukerya, a beauty in the past. She told her story of how she fell off the porch seven years ago and began to get sick. Her body withered and she lost the ability to move. The gentlemen first tried to treat her, and then they sent her to the village to her relatives. Here, Luque-ryu was nicknamed "Living Relics". About her current life, she says that she is satisfied with everything: God sent the cross, which means that he loves her. Tells that he sees dreams: Christ; parents who bow to her and say that she atones for their sins through her sufferings; death, which Lukerya begs to take her with him. On the narrator's proposal to take her to the hospital, she refuses - medical procedures do not help her, causing only unnecessary suffering. She asks the master to tell her mother to reduce the quitrent to the local peasants - their lands are poor, the harvests are bad.
A few weeks after their meeting, Lukerya died.
Didn't find what you were looking for? Use the search
On this page, material on the topics:
- Turgenev summary of the hunter's note
- Sofron Yakovlevich description of the hunter's notes
- summary of the hunter's note
- summary of turgenev raspberry water
- turgenev summary swan
"Notes of a hunter" - a collection of stories by I. S. Turgenev. It was first published as a separate edition in 1852.
They make up his small works, which can be called essays.
The history of creation and the name of the collection are connected with the fact that in 1846 the writer spent a lot of time in his estate Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, where he hunted a lot.
His observations formed the basis of the stories that he wrote for several years. The collection consists of the following works:
- "Khor and Kalinich";
- "Yermolai and the Miller's Woman";
- “County doctor;
- "My neighbor Radilov";
- Odnodvorets Ovsyanikov;
- "Bezhin Meadow";
- "Pyotr Petrovich Karataev";
- and a few other short stories.
“Khor and Kalinich” is the story that opens the collection. It tells about the meeting of two men who are so different from each other and at the same time are friends. Khor lost his house during a fire, so he settled with his whole family in the forest; he was engaged in trade, paid the dues to the master regularly, was distinguished by rational thinking and was an economic man. Kalinich, on the contrary, was a meek fellow, afraid not only of the master, but also of his own wife, but at the same time he knew how to speak blood, relieve fears, understood the language of bees and knew many more unusual things.
"Yermolai and the Miller's Woman" is a story about an unlucky hunter, who was allowed by the master to live anywhere in exchange for a small payment in prey. The author and the hunter stayed overnight with a miller whose wife looked very much like a town woman. It turned out that she really for a long time lived in St. Petersburg and served as a maid in a rich house, but the mistress drove her to the village when she found out that she wanted to marry a lackey. There she was found by a miller who married her.
"County doctor" tells the story of a doctor who was summoned to the house of a poor landowner. There he saw a girl lying in a fever and tried to save her. He did everything possible, but could not prevent death. And since then he remembers this girl for a long time.
Radilov (“My neighbor Radilov”) is a landowner who lost his beloved wife, who died during childbirth. Since then, he has been sad, lives with his wife's mother and sister. And recently it became known that he left with his wife's sister in an unknown direction. It turns out that all this time he had feelings for her.
"Odnodvorets Ovsyanikov" - a story about a "Russian Frenchman" by the name of Lezhen. He was a soldier in the Napoleonic army that entered Russia. However, he was detained by the Smolensk peasants, who decided to drown him in the hole. However, he was rescued by a passing landowner, who took him in as a music teacher and French for his daughter. Then he moved to another landowner, for whom he also served as a teacher. There he fell in love with a young pupil, married her, entered the service and received a noble rank.
"Bezhin meadow" - a story about peasant children who spent the night by the fire in the forest and told horror stories. Some thought they heard strange voices in the forest; one of these cases, perhaps, became fatal, since the boy who heard the voice soon died.
"Pyotr Petrovich Karataev" - tells about a poor landowner who fell in love with a serf girl who belonged to rich lady. The lady did not like this, and she sent the girl to a distant village. The landowner found her, helped her escape and began to live with her in love. This went on for several months, until the mistress found out where her serf was hiding. She began to complain to the police, and the girl had no choice but to come to her mistress "with confession."
New era in Russian literature
The Hunter's Notes was highly acclaimed by critics, although they noted that there were both stronger and weaker stories among the stories. But the main thing is that they realized that Turgenev's collection opens new period in the development of Russian literature: this is one of the first works dedicated to ordinary people - serfs, small-scale nobles, single-palaces, burghers.
The author sees real people in them, each of them is a deep personality, and their biographies are no less interesting than the biography of some outstanding nobleman. What critics most of all did not accept was the abundance of dialectisms in Turgenev's stories. It is clear that the author needed them in order to more realistically convey the characters of his heroes; however, Belinsky, Aksakov and other publicists noted that the author was too carried away by the local Oryol dialect, so the dialect words in the text look ridiculous.
For the author, however, it is important not only speech features Oryol men, but also folklore: legends, stories about brownies, witches and other "evil spirits", etc. The story "Bezhin Meadow" mentions many such stories that boys tell at night for entertainment; however, in the end it turns out that behind this innocent entertainment lies something more, downright mystical. The guys heard these stories from adults, and they didn’t even think to “dabble” with such topics that are forbidden for the common people’s consciousness. There is also a “folk geography” in the stories: ravines, springs, villages and other objects with “social and household” names are mentioned.
The narrator
The unifying element of all stories is the image of the narrator. This is not just a character on whose behalf the narration is being conducted: in some stories he plays a passive role, listening to the conversations of the heroes and watching them, in others he himself talks with them and takes part in the events described. The image of the narrator is necessary for Turgenev in order to give the reader the impression of maximum credibility.
Landscape
The landscape in the "Notes of a Hunter" plays no less important role than the narrator. It is the environment in which the characters of his works live. The author (or rather, the narrator) notices even the smallest details in the environment, up to the accumulation of mushrooms under old stumps or chips near fallen trees. The landscape is consonant with the theme of the story and is designed to create the necessary mood.
// "Notes of a hunter"
Date of creation: 1847-1851.
Genre: series of essays
Topic: A picture of the landlord and peasant life of provincial Russia.
Idea: The spiritual height of the simple Russian people (serfs) and the impoverishment of the moral state of the local nobility.
Issues: Irregularity of serfdom.
"Khor and Kalinich"
Main heroes: Khor, a serf peasant; Kalinich is his friend, also a serf.
Plot. Turgenev describes two completely different people, between whom, in a strange way, a great friendship has been established. The ferret is distinguished by practicality and hoarding, while Kalinich is a rural romantic unadapted to life, who does not even have his own home. The author describes the advantages of both.
Yermolai and the Miller's Woman
Main heroes: Yermolai, a vagabond hunter; Arina, the miller's wife.
Plot. The author introduces readers to the hunter Yermolai, who often accompanied him on the hunt. Once they spent the night at the mill, Arina, who was married to a miller, came up to their fire, who was familiar with Yermolai. The writer entered into a conversation with her and soon realized that she was the maid of the wife of Count Zverkov, from whom he knew the story of Arina. Countess Zverkova made it a rule to keep only unmarried girls in her service, so that caring for children would not distract from caring for the mistress. Arina, on the other hand, dared to fall in love with the footman Peter and ask permission to marry. It was denied. As a result, she became pregnant, was expelled in disgrace to the village, separated from Peter, who, out of grief, went into the soldiers. Her child soon died. A wealthy miller ransomed Arina from the fortress and married her. However, her health was undermined by the experience.
"Raspberry Water"
Main heroes: Mikhailo Savelyev, former butler; Vlas, an old man.
Plot. Raspberry water is a spring near which Turgenev settled down to rest. At a halt, he met Mikhailo Savelyev, who was once the butler of His Excellency Pyotr Ilyich, famous throughout the district for his festivities. The old man recalls the count's former pastimes. In the middle of the story, an elderly peasant Vlas approached the spring. It follows on foot from Moscow itself. He went to Moscow with a request to the master to reduce the dues from him, since he had lost his breadwinner son. The master, the son of Count Peter Ilyich, refused Vlas and drove him out.
"County doctor
Main heroes: Tryphon, doctor; Alexandra, his patient.
Plot. Turgenev met a district doctor in a hotel, who told him strange story that happened to him. Being summoned to see a patient rushing about in a death fever, he became infatuated with her, as she was young, beautiful and educated. Alexandra, realizing that she was dying, turned all her unspent passion on the outwardly unsightly doctor, since there were no other men nearby. Trifon spent three nights with the dying beauty, she handed him a ring as a sign of engagement, which she informed her mother about. He kept the ring, but married a wealthy merchant, wicked and ugly.
"My neighbor Radilov
Main heroes: Radilov, landowner; Olga, his sister-in-law.
Plot. Once, on a hunt, Turgenev accidentally ended up in the garden of the landowner Radilov. An acquaintance took place, Turgenev was invited to the house, Radilov introduces him to his household: his old mother, drunken Fyodor Mikheich, who lives with Radilov out of mercy, and his wife's sister Olga, a young attractive girl. Radilov is a hospitable host, diligently entertains the guest, but it is noticeable that he is essentially indifferent to everything and is oppressed by something. It soon becomes clear that he is smitten recent death beloved wife. Turgenev tries to encourage him with the hope of a happy change. Radilov, in response, animatedly says that you just need to decide on them ... Two weeks later, it becomes known that Radilov, leaving his mother and the estate to the mercy of fate, went somewhere with Olga.
Odnodvorets Ovsyannikov
Main heroes: Ovsyannikov, a small landowner.
Plot. Turgenev sets out his conversations with the Ovsyannikov family, who leads a semi-peasant lifestyle. Ovsyannikov is smart and reasonable. He compares modernity with the Catherine's era and finds that, despite greater arbitrariness, life in the old days was calmer. Ovsyannikov criticizes modern nobles for fruitless ranting, for the inability to apply ideas in reality. Liberal-minded nobles utter fine-hearted speeches, but when an insignificant piece of land is required of them for the common good, they will never give it up.
Review of the product. The "Notes of a Hunter" beautifully describes nature, the images are interesting and expressive. Although this is sketchy prose, life stories are chosen in such a way that they are not inferior to fiction.
The cycle of stories "Notes of a Hunter" by Turgenev was published in 1847-1851 in the journal Sovremennik. The book was published as a separate edition in 1852. The protagonist of the collection, on whose behalf the narration is being conducted, is a young master, hunter Pyotr Petrovich, he travels to the nearest villages and retells his impressions about the life of Russian landowners, peasants, describes the picturesque nature.
main characters
Peter Petrovich (narrator)- young master, hunter, main character collection, from his face the narration is conducted. He travels to the nearest villages and retells his impressions about the life of Russian landowners, peasants, describes the picturesque nature.
Yermolai- a hunter, a "carefree and good-natured" man of 45 years old, who belonged to Pyotr Petrovich's neighbor - "a landowner of an old cut". He delivered black grouse and partridges to the master's kitchen, hunted with the narrator; He was married, but treated his wife rudely.
Khor and Kalinich
The narrator meets a hunter - a small Kaluga landowner Polutykin. On the way to Polutykin, they stop by the peasant of the landowner - Khory, who has been living with children for 25 years in a lonely estate in the forest. The next day, during the hunt, the narrator meets another peasant Polutykin and Khory's friend Kalinich. The narrator spends three days with the rationalist Khory, comparing him with the dreamy Kalinich. Kalinych kept an apiary, got along with animals, "stood closer to nature", while Khor - "to people, to society."
Yermolai and the miller's wife
The narrator went with the hunter Yermolai on a night hunt. Yermolai was a 45-year-old man who belonged to the narrator's neighbor - "a landowner of the old cut." A peasant delivered black grouse and partridges to the master's kitchen. Yermolai was married, but treated his wife rudely. The hunters decided to spend the night in the mill. When the men were sitting around the fire, the miller's wife Arina came to them. Yermolai called her to visit him, promising to expel his wife. The narrator in the miller's house recognized the girl whom the master had once taken away from the family and taken to St. Petersburg to serve him. Arina said that the miller bought her back.
raspberry water
On a hot day, while hunting, the narrator went down to the crimson water spring. Not far away, by the river, he saw two old men - Shumikhinsky Stepushka - a poor, rootless man, and Mikhail Savelyev, nicknamed Fog. The narrator met Stepushka at the gardener Mitrofan's. The narrator joined the men. The fog remembered his late count, who liked to organize holidays. The peasant Vlas, who approached them, said that he had gone to Moscow to the master to reduce the quitrent, but the master refused. You have to pay dues, but Vlas has nothing, but at home his hungry wife is waiting for him.
County doctor
One autumn, the narrator fell ill - a fever found him in a hotel in a county town. The doctor prescribed him medication. The men started talking. The doctor told how he treated deadly disease a girl of about twenty - Alexandra Andreevna. The girl did not recover for a long time and during this time mutual sympathy arose between them. Before Alexandra died, she told her mother that they were engaged. After some time, the doctor married a merchant's daughter.
My neighbor Radilov
Somehow hunting with Yermolai for partridges, the narrator discovered an abandoned garden. Its owner turned out to be the landowner Radilov, a neighbor of the narrator. He invited the hunters to dine. The host introduced the guests to his mother, the former landowner Fyodor Mikheich, the sister of his late wife Olya. At dinner, the narrator could not in any way “discover passions” for something in a neighbor. Over tea, the host reminisced about his wife's funeral; how he lay in a Turkish hospital with a rotten fever. The narrator noted that any misfortune can be endured. A week later, the narrator learned that Radilov had gone somewhere with his sister-in-law, leaving his mother behind.
Ovsyannikov Odnodvorets
Luka Petrovich Ovsyannikov - full tall man 70 years old. He reminded the narrator of "Russian boyars of pre-Petrine times". He lived with his wife, did not pretend to be a nobleman or landowner. The narrator met him at Radilov's. During the conversation, Ovsyannikov recalled the past, the narrator's grandfather - how he took away a wedge of land from them; as he was in Moscow and saw the nobles there. Odnodvorets noted that now the nobles, although they have “learned all the sciences”, but “do not understand the affairs of the present”.
Lgov
Once Yermolai suggested that the narrator go to Lgov, a large steppe village on a swampy river. To help them joined the local hunter Vladimir, a freed yard man. He was literate, studied music, and expressed himself gracefully. After the boat, Vladimir went to Bitch, the master's fisherman. Suchok said that he managed to visit various gentlemen as a coachman, a cook, a coffee man, an actor, a Cossack, a gardener. The men went out to hunt ducks. The boat began to leak a little and at some point capsized. Yermolai found a ford and soon they were warming themselves in the hay shed.
Bezhin meadow
The narrator was returning from hunting in the evening and got lost in the twilight. Unexpectedly, he came to a "huge plain" called "Bezhin Meadow". Peasant children were sitting near two fires, guarding a herd of horses. The narrator joined them. The boys told stories about the brownie, the mermaid, the goblin, the late master, beliefs about parent Saturday, other folk tales about "evil". Pavlusha went to fetch water, and returning said that it seemed to him that the drowned man was calling him from under the water. In the same year, the boy was killed by falling from a horse.
Kasian with Beautiful Swords
The narrator and the coachman were driving from the hunt, they met a funeral train - they were burying Martin the carpenter. The narrator's cart broke down, they somehow got to the nearest settlements. Here the narrator met the holy fool Kasyan, "a dwarf of about fifty" nicknamed Bloch. Kasyan gave his cart, and then went hunting with the narrator.
Seeing that the narrator was shooting birds for fun, Bloch said that "it is a great sin to show blood to the light." Kasyan himself was engaged in catching nightingales, treated with herbs. The coachman said that Bloch had taken in the orphan Annushka.
Burmister
The narrator is staying with a young landowner, Arkady Pavlych Penochkin. Penochkin had a good education, was known as an enviable groom, with subjects he was "strict, but fair." However, the narrator visited him reluctantly. The men go to the village of Penochkin Shipilovka. Burmister Sofron Yakovlich was in charge of everything there. Things were going well in the village. However, the steward, without the knowledge of the landowner, traded in land, horses, mocked the peasants, and was the actual owner of the village.
Office
Fleeing from the rain, the narrator stopped in the nearest village, in the "main master's office". He was told that this is the estate of Mrs. Losnyakova Elena Nikolaevna, 7 people work in the office, and the lady herself manages everything. By chance, the narrator overheard the conversation - the merchants pay the chief clerk Nikolai Yeremeich before making a deal with the lady herself. Eremeich, in order to take revenge on the paramedic Pavsh for unsuccessful treatment, forbade Pavel's bride Tatyana to marry. After a while, the narrator learned that the lady had exiled Tatyana.
Biryuk
The narrator is caught in a strong thunderstorm in the forest. He decides to wait out the bad weather, but the local forester comes up and takes him to his house. The forester Foma, nicknamed Biryuk, lived with his twelve-year-old daughter in a small hut. The forester's wife ran away with the tradesman a long time ago, leaving him two children. When the rain stopped, Biryuk went to the sound of an ax and caught a thief cutting down the forest. The thief turned out to be poor. At first he asked to be released, and then he began to scold Biryuk, calling him a "beast". The narrator was going to protect the poor man, but Biryuk, although angry, let the thief go himself.
Two landowners
The narrator introduces readers to two landowners, whom he often hunted. "Retired Major General Vyacheslav Illarionovich Khvalynsky" - a man "in adulthood, at the very time ", kind, but cannot treat poor and unofficial nobles as an equal to himself and a bad owner, reputed to be a miser; loves women very much, but is not married.
Mardary Apollonych Stegunov is his complete opposite - "hospitable and joker", lives on old fret. The peasants, although the master punished them, believed that he was doing everything right and such a gentleman as theirs, "you will not find in the whole province."
Lebedyan
About five years ago, the narrator ended up in Lebedyan "at the very collapse of the fair." After dinner in a coffee house, I found the young prince N. with the retired lieutenant Khlopakov. Khlopakov knew how to live at the expense of rich friends.
The narrator went to watch the horses at the horse-dealer Sitnikov. He offered horses at too high a price, and when Prince N. arrived, he completely forgot about the narrator. The narrator went to the famous breeder Chernobay. The breeder praised his horses, but sold the narrator a "burnt and lame" horse, and then did not want to take it back.
Tatyana Borisovna and her nephew
Tatyana Borisovna is a woman of about 50, a free-thinking widow. She lives without a break in her small estate, she has little contact with other landowners. About 8 years ago, she sheltered the son of her late brother Andryusha, who loved to draw. The collegiate adviser Benevolensky, who was familiar to the woman and who “burned with a passion for art,” knowing nothing about it, took the talented boy to St. Petersburg. After the death of the patron, Andryusha returned to his aunt. He has completely changed, lives on his aunt's money, says that he is a talented artist, but is not going to St. Petersburg again.
Death
The narrator goes to the place of logging with his neighbor Ardalion Mikhailovich. One of the men was crushed to death by a tree. After what he saw, the narrator thought about the fact that the Russian peasant "dies, as if performing a rite: cold and simple." The narrator recalled how another of his neighbors "in the village burned a man in a barn." As in a village hospital, a peasant, having learned that he might die, went home to give the last orders about the housework. remembered last days his friend student Avenil Sorokoumov. He remembered how the landowner was dying and trying to pay the priest "for her waste."
singers
The narrator, fleeing the heat, enters the Prytynny tavern, which belonged to Nikolai Ivanovich. The narrator witnesses a competition in singing between "the best singer in the neighborhood" Yashka-Turk and a hawker. The hawker sang a dance song, those present sang along with him. Yashka performed a mournful, and "Russian, truthful, hot soul sounded and breathed in him." The narrator was in tears. Won the competition Yashka. The narrator, in order not to spoil the impression, left. Visitors to the tavern celebrated Yashka's victory until late at night.
Petr Petrovich Karataev
Five years ago, the narrator, staying at the post office, met the small-scale nobleman Pyotr Petrovich Karataev. He went to Moscow to serve and shared his story. The man fell in love with the serf Matryona and wanted to ransom her, but the lady refused. Karataev stole Matryona. But once, in order to "show off" Matryona went to the village of the lady and ran into the master's cart. They recognized the girl and wrote a complaint against Karataev. To pay off, he went into debt. Pitying Peter, Matryona herself returned to her master. A year later, the narrator met Karataev in Moscow in a billiard room. He sold the village and looked disappointed in life.
Date
The narrator fell asleep in a birch grove, hiding in the shade of the trees. When I woke up, I saw a young peasant girl Akulina sitting nearby. The "spoiled" valet of a wealthy gentleman, Viktor Alexandrych, came to her. The valet said he was leaving tomorrow, so they next year won't see you. The girl burst into tears, but Victor treated her indifferently. When the valet left, the narrator wanted to console the girl, but she ran away in fright.
Hamlet of Shchigrovsky district
During one of the trips, the narrator spent the night with the landowner and hunter Alexander Mikhailych G ***. The narrator could not sleep and the roommate told him his story. He was born in the Kursk province, then entered the university, joined the circle. At the age of 21, he left for Berlin, fell in love with the daughter of a professor he knew, but ran away. For two years he wandered around Europe, returned to his village. He married the daughter of a neighbor's widow. Having been widowed, he served in the provincial town. Now I realized that he was unoriginal and insignificant person. Instead of introducing himself, he told the narrator to call him "Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky district".
Chertophanov and Nedolyuskin
Returning from hunting, the narrator met two friends - Pantel Eremeich Chertopkhanov and Tikhon Ivanovich Nedolyuskin. Nedolyuskin lived with Chertop-hanov. Pantelei was known as a proud, bully, did not communicate with his fellow villagers.
Nedolyuskin's father, having served in the army, achieved the nobility and placed his son as an official in the office. After his death, the lazy and gentle Tikhon was both a majordomo, and a freeloader, and half a butler, half a jester.
The lady bequeathed the village to Nedolyuskin. The men became friends when Tchertop-hanov saved him from the bullying of the other heirs of the mistress.
End of Chertophanov
Chertopkhanov was abandoned by his beloved Masha two years ago. Only he survived this, as Nedolyuskin died. Tchertop-hanov sold the estate he inherited from a friend and ordered a beautiful statue for Nedolyuskin's grave. Once Tchertop-hanov saw how the peasants were beating a Jew. For saving the Jew gave him a horse, but Panteleimon promised to pay 250 rubles for it. Pateleimon got used to the horse, calling him Malek-Adel, but the animal was stolen. Tchertop-hanov spent a year wandering in search of a horse. He returned with a horse, but he was given arguments that it was not Malek-Adel. Panteleimon released the horse into the forest, but he returned. Then Chertop-hanov shot the animal, and then he drank for a whole week and died.
living relics
V rainy weather Yermolai and the narrator drove into the farmstead of the narrator's mother. In the morning, in the apiary, Lukerya, a woman of 28-29 years old, a former beauty who now looked like a mummy, called out to the narrator. About 6 - 7 years ago, she accidentally fell and after that she began to dry and wither away. The narrator offered to take her to the hospital, but the woman refused. Lukerya recounted her dreams to Pyotr Petrovich: in one she dreamed that "Christ himself" came out to meet her, calling her his bride; and in the other - own death who didn't want to take it.
From the farm tenant, the narrator learned that Lukerya is called "Living relics". A few weeks later the woman died.
knocking
The narrator with the peasant Filofey went to Tula for shot. On the way, the cart fell into the river - the conductor dozed off. After they got out of the water, the narrator fell asleep and woke up from the sound of the cart, the clatter of hooves. Felofey with the words: “Knocks!” , said they were robbers. Soon they were overtaken by drunken men, one of them ran up to the narrator's cart, asked for money to get drunk, and the company left. The narrator saw a cart of men in Tula near a tavern. After Yermolai said that on the night of their trip on the same road, a merchant was robbed and killed.
Forest and steppe
The narrator reflects that "hunting with a gun and a dog is beautiful in itself." Describes the beauty of nature at dawn, the view that opens before the hunter, as "it is gratifying to wander through the bushes at dawn." How gradually it becomes hot. Having descended to the bottom of the ravine, the hunter quenches his thirst with water from the source, and then rests in the shade of the trees. Suddenly, a thunderstorm begins, after which "it smells of strawberries and mushrooms." Evening comes, the sun sets, the hunter returns home. Both the forest and the steppe are good at any time of the year. "But it's time to end<…>in the spring it is easy to part, in the spring the happy ones are drawn into the distance ... ".
Conclusion
In the collection of short stories "Notes of a Hunter" Turgenev depicts ordinary Russian serfs, showing their high moral and moral qualities. The author exposes the moral impoverishment of Russian landowners, leading to the idea of protest against serfdom. After the abolition of serfdom in Russia, Alexander II asked to be told to Turgenev that the essays played a big role in his decision to free the peasants.
We recommend that you read brief retelling"Notes of a hunter", and evaluate the cycle of stories by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev in full.
Story test
Test memorization summary test:
Retelling rating
average rating: 4.4. Total ratings received: 76.
Very briefly Wandering with a gun and a dog, the narrator writes down small stories about the manners and way of life of the surrounding peasants and their landowning neighbors.
The story is told from the perspective of a landowner and an avid hunter, a middle-aged man.
While visiting a Kaluga landowner, the narrator met two of his peasants, Horem and Kalinich. Khor was a rich man “on his own mind”, did not want to swim free, had seven giant sons and got along with the master, whom he saw through and through. Kalinich was a cheerful and meek man, he kept bees, was engaged in quackery and was in awe of the master.
It was interesting for the narrator to observe the touching friendship between the practical rationalist Khor and the romantic idealist Kalinich.
The narrator went hunting with Yermolai, the serf of his landowner neighbor. Yermolai was a carefree loafer, unfit for any kind of work. He always got into trouble, from which he always came out unscathed. With his wife, who lived in a dilapidated hut, Yermolai treated rudely and cruelly.
The hunters spent the night at the mill. Waking up at night, the narrator heard Yermolai calling the beautiful miller's wife Arina to live with him and promising to expel his wife. Once Arina was the maid of the count's wife. Upon learning that the girl was pregnant from a lackey, the countess did not allow her to marry and sent her to a distant village, and sent the lackey to the soldiers. Arina lost her child and married a miller.
Returning from a hunt, the narrator fell ill, stayed at a district hotel and sent for a doctor. He told him a story about Alexander, the daughter of a poor widow-landowner. The girl was terminally ill. The doctor lived in the house of the landowner for many days, trying to cure Alexandra, and became attached to her, and she fell in love with him.
Alexandra confessed her love to the doctor, and he could not resist. They spent three nights together, after which the girl died. Time passed, and the doctor married a lazy and evil merchant's daughter with a large dowry.
The narrator was hunting in the linden garden, which belonged to his neighbor Radilov. He invited him to dinner and introduced him to his old mother and a very beautiful girl Olya. The narrator noticed that Radilov - unsociable, but kind - is seized by one feeling, and in Olya, calm and happy, there is no mannerism of a district girl. She was the sister of Radilov's deceased wife, and when he remembered the deceased, Olya got up and went out into the garden.
A week later, the narrator learned that Radilov had abandoned his old mother and left with Olya. The narrator realized that she was jealous of Radilov for her sister. He never heard from his neighbor again.
The narrator and Yermolai hunted ducks near the large village of Lgov. Looking for a boat, they met the freedman Vladimir, educated person who served as a valet in his youth. He volunteered to help.
Yermolai took the boat from a man nicknamed Suchok, who served as a fisherman on a nearby lake. His mistress, an old maid, forbade him to marry. Since then, Suchok has changed many jobs and five owners.
During the hunt, Vladimir had to scoop water out of the old boat, but he got carried away and forgot about his duties. The boat capsized. Only in the evening Yermolai managed to lead the narrator out of the swampy pond.
While hunting, the narrator got lost and ended up in a meadow, which the locals called Bezhin. There the boys grazed their horses, and the narrator asked to spend the night by their fire. Pretending to be asleep, the narrator listened until dawn as the children told stories about brownies, goblin and other evil spirits.
On the way back from the hunt, the narrator broke the axle of the cart. To fix it, he got to Yudin's settlements, where he met the dwarf Kasyan, who had moved here from the Beautiful Sword.
Having repaired the axle, the narrator decided to hunt capercaillie. Kasyan, who followed him, believed that it was a sin to kill a forest creature and firmly believed that he could take the game away from the hunter. The dwarf hunted by catching nightingales, was literate and treated people with herbs. Under the guise of a holy fool, he went around all of Russia. The narrator learned from the coachman that the childless Kasyan was raising an orphan girl.
The narrator's neighbor, a young retired officer, was educated, prudent and punished his peasants for their own good, but the narrator did not like to visit him. Once he had to spend the night with a neighbor. In the morning, he undertook to accompany the narrator to his village, where a certain Sofron served as steward.
On that day, the narrator had to give up hunting. The neighbor completely trusted his steward, bought him land and refused to listen to the complaint of the peasant, whom Sofron took into bondage, exiling all his sons as soldiers. Later, the narrator learned that Sofron had taken possession of the entire village and was stealing from his neighbor.
While hunting, the narrator fell under cold rain and found shelter in the office of a large village owned by the landowner Losnyakova. Thinking that the hunter was sleeping, the clerk Eremeich freely decided his business. The narrator learned that all transactions of the landowner go through the office, and Eremeich takes bribes from merchants and peasants.
To take revenge on the paramedic for unsuccessful treatment, Yeremeich slandered his bride, and the landowner forbade her to marry. Later, the narrator learned that Losnyakova did not choose between the paramedic and Yeremeich, but simply exiled the girl.
The narrator fell under a thunderstorm and took refuge in the house of a forester, nicknamed Biryuk. He knew that the forester, strong, dexterous and incorruptible, would not allow even a bundle of brushwood to be taken out of the forest. Biryuk lived in poverty. His wife ran away with a passer-by tradesman, and he raised two children alone.
In the presence of the narrator, the forester caught a peasant in rags trying to cut down a tree in the manor's forest. The narrator wanted to pay for the tree, but Biryuk himself let the poor man go. The surprised narrator realized that in fact Biryuk is a nice fellow.
The narrator often hunted on the estates of the two landowners. One of them is Khvalynsky, a retired major general. He is a good person, but he cannot communicate with poor nobles as equals, and he even loses to his superiors at cards without complaints. Khvalynsky is greedy, but he manages the household poorly, lives as a bachelor, and his housekeeper wears smart dresses.
Stegunov, also a bachelor, is a hospitality and joker, willingly receives guests, and manages the household in the old fashioned way. While visiting him, the narrator discovered that the serfs love their master and believe that he is punishing them for their deed.
The narrator went to the fair in Lebedyan to buy three horses for his carriage. In a coffee hotel, he saw a young prince and a retired lieutenant Khlopakov, who knew how to please the Moscow rich and lived at their expense.
The next day, Khlopakov and the prince prevented the narrator from buying horses from a horse dealer. He found another seller, but the horse he bought turned out to be lame, and the seller was a scammer. Passing through Lebedyan a week later, the narrator again found the prince in the coffee shop, but with another companion, who replaced Khlopakov.
The fifty-year-old widow Tatyana Borisovna lived on a small estate, had no education, but she did not look like a small estate lady. She thought freely, communicated little with the landowners and received only young people.
Eight years ago, Tatyana Borisovna took up her twelve-year-old orphan nephew Andryusha - handsome boy with ingratiating manners. An acquaintance of the landowner, who loved art, but did not understand it at all, found the boy's talent for drawing and took him to study in St. Petersburg.
A few months later, Andryusha began to demand money, Tatyana Borisovna refused him, he returned and stayed with his aunt. During the year he grew fat, all the surrounding young ladies fell in love with him, and former acquaintances stopped visiting Tatyana Borisovna.
The narrator went hunting with his young neighbor, and he persuaded him to turn into an oak forest belonging to him, where the dead were cut down frosty winter trees. The narrator saw how the contractor was crushed to death by a fallen ash tree, and thought that the Russian peasant was dying, as if performing a ritual: cold and simple. He remembered several people at whose death he was present.
Tavern "Pritynny" was located in the small village of Kolotovka. Wine was sold there by a respected man who knew a lot about everything that was interesting to a Russian person.
The narrator ended up in a tavern when a singing competition was being held there. It was won by the famous singer Yashka Turk, in whose singing the Russian soul sounded. In the evening, when the narrator left the tavern, Yashka's victory was celebrated there to the fullest.
The narrator met the ruined landowner Karataev on the road from Moscow to Tula, when he was waiting for replacement horses at the post station. Karataev spoke about his love for the serf Matryona. He wanted to buy her from the mistress - a rich and scary old woman - and marry, but the lady flatly refused to sell the girl. Then Karataev stole Matryona and happily lived with her.
One winter, while riding in a sleigh, they met an old lady. She recognized Matryona and did everything to bring her back. It turned out that she wanted to marry Karataev to her companion.
In order not to destroy her beloved, Matryona voluntarily returned to the mistress, and Karataev went bankrupt. A year later, the narrator met him, shabby, drunk and disappointed in life, in a Moscow coffee shop.
One autumn the narrator fell asleep in a birch grove. Waking up, he witnessed a meeting between the beautiful peasant girl Akulina and the spoiled, satiated lordly valet Viktor Alexandrovich.
This was their last meeting - the valet, together with the master, was leaving for St. Petersburg. Akulina was afraid that she would be given away as unlovable, and wanted to hear a kind word from her beloved in parting, but Viktor Alexandrovich was rude and cold - he did not want to marry an uneducated woman.
The valet left. Akulina fell on the grass and wept. The narrator rushed to her, wanted to console her, but the girl got scared and ran away. The narrator spoke of her for a long time.
Visiting a wealthy landowner, the narrator shared a room with a man who told him his story. He was born in Shchigrovsky district. At the age of sixteen, his mother took him to Moscow, enrolled him in the university and died, leaving his son in the care of his uncle, a lawyer. At 21, he discovered that his uncle had robbed him.
Leaving the freedman to manage what was left, the man went to Berlin, where he fell in love with the professor's daughter, but was frightened of his love, fled and wandered around Europe for two years. Returning to Moscow, the man began to consider himself a great original, but soon fled from there because of gossip started by someone.
The man settled in his village and married the daughter of a widow-colonel, who died three years later from childbirth with her child. Having been widowed, he went to the service, but soon retired. Over time, it became an empty place for everyone. He introduced himself to the narrator as Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky district.
Returning from a hunt, the narrator wandered into the lands of the impoverished landowner Chertopkhanov and met him and his friend Nedopyuskin. Later, the narrator learned that Tchertop-hanov came from an old and rich family, but his father left him only a mortgaged village, because he left with army service"out of trouble." Poverty embittered Tchertop-hanov, he became a cocky bully and arrogant.
Nedopyuskin's father was a one-man palace, who had become a nobleman. He died in poverty, having managed to arrange his son as an official in the office. Nedopyuskin, a lazy sybarite and gourmet, retired, worked as a majordomo, was a freeloader for the rich. Tchertop-hanov met him when he received an inheritance from one of Nedopyuskin's patrons, and protected him from bullying. Since then, they have not parted.
The narrator visited Chertop-hanov and met his “almost wife”, the beautiful Masha.
Two years later, Masha left Chertopkhanov - the gypsy blood flowing in her woke up. Nedopyuskin was ill for a long time, but Masha's escape finally knocked him down, and he died. Tchertop-hanov sold the estate left by his friend, and his affairs went very badly.
Once Tchertop-hanov saved a Jew who was being beaten by peasants. For this, the Jew brought him a wonderful horse, but the proud man refused to accept the gift and promised to pay for the horse in six months. Two days before the deadline, Malek-Adel was stolen. Tchertop-hanov realized that his former owner had taken him away, so the horse did not resist.
Together with the Jew, he went in pursuit and returned a year later with a horse, but it soon became clear that this was not Malek-Adel at all. Tchertop-hanov shot him, took him to drink, and died six weeks later.
The narrator took shelter from the rain on an abandoned farm that belonged to his mother. In the morning, in a wicker shed in the apiary, the narrator discovered a strange, withered creature. It turned out to be Lukerya, the first beauty and singer, for whom the sixteen-year-old narrator sighed. She fell off the porch, injured her spine, and began to dry out.
Now she hardly eats, does not sleep from pain and tries not to remember - so time passes faster. In summer, she lies in a shed, and in winter she is transferred to heat. Once she dreamed of death and promised that she would come for her after petrovki.
The narrator marveled at her courage and patience, because Lukerya was not yet thirty. In the village she was called "Living Powers". Soon the narrator learned that Lukerya had died, and just in time for Petrovka.
The narrator ran out of shot, and the horse went lame. For a trip to Tula for shots, the peasant Filofey, who had horses, had to be hired.
On the way, the narrator fell asleep. Filofey woke him up with the words: “Knocking! .. Knocking!”. And indeed - the narrator heard the sound of wheels. Soon a cart with six drunk people overtook them and blocked the road. Philotheus believed that they were robbers.
The cart stopped at the bridge, the robbers demanded money from the narrator, received it and sped away. Two days later, the narrator learned that at the same time and on the same road, a merchant was robbed and killed.
The narrator is not only a hunter, but also a nature lover. He describes how wonderful it is to meet the dawn on the hunt, to wander through the forest on a hot summer day; how good are the frosty winter days, fabulous Golden autumn or the first breath of spring and the song of the lark.
Search
We may notify you of new articles,