Retelling plan
1. The Irtenyevs are traveling from the village to Moscow.
2. New sensations enter the hero’s life.
3. Teacher Karl Ivanovich tells the young man his story.
4. Lyubochka's birthday.
5. Nikolai breaks the small key to his father’s hiding place.
6. The boy’s prank towards Saint-Jerome. The boy is punished.
7. Brother Volodya goes to university. His friend Nekhlyudov becomes a friend of Nikolai.
8. Nikolai notes how his sisters have matured. He begins to critically evaluate his father's behavior.
9. Grandmother dies, leaving her entire fortune to Lyubochka.
10. Nikolai is preparing to enter the university.
Retelling
The Irtenyev family's journey from the village to Moscow lasted four days. These days Nikolenka felt surprisingly calm. He looked around, talked with his family and servants, and counted mileposts. In a conversation with him, Katenka for the first time spoke about the inequality of their position (the Irtenievs are rich, and they and their mother are poor), which the boy had never thought about before. His attitude towards the world around him changed: he realized that there were many people around who had nothing to do with him and his family and who lived their own lives.
After the death of my mother, everything became different. When meeting his grandmother, Nikolenka was amazed at how old she had become. The father moved away from the family, lived in an outbuilding and only came out for dinner. Karl Ivanovich, who for some reason in Moscow started wearing a red wig with a thread parting, seemed funny to the boy. The girls somehow matured suddenly. The relationship with Volodya became more complicated. Nikolenka felt that his brother was superior to him in everything: in games, in learning, in the ability to behave. This alienated the brothers from each other.
At this time, the fourteen-year-old boy began to worry about women. He really liked the maid Masha, white, with luxurious forms and a magnificent braid, to whom Volodya was also partial, who did not miss the moment to kiss the maid. Nikolenka was shy by nature and so convinced of his ugliness that he did not even think of approaching her.
Grandmother really didn’t like Karl Ivanovich. She believed that children needed a real, educated tutor, and not a man who taught them only Tyrolean songs. At her insistence, the German gave up his place to the dandy French Monsieur Saint-Jerome. Before leaving, Karl Ivanovich told the boy the story of his life. From childhood he was unhappy, because he was considered the illegitimate son of Count von Sommerblatt, and his mother’s husband did not love him for this. He went to serve in the army instead of his younger brother, fought with Napoleon, was captured by the French, escaped, then worked at a rope factory, from where he was forced to leave because the owner’s wife fell in love with him. Karl returned to his family, but three months later they came for him to arrest him allegedly for desertion. He fled to Ems. There he met General Sazin, who took him to Russia. When the general died, Nikolenka’s mother took Karl Ivanovich to her place, entrusting him with raising the boys, whom he loved as if they were his own.
On Lyubochka’s birthday, everything was not going well for Nikolenka from the very morning. First there was a history lesson, which the boy did not like. The history teacher gave Volodya an A, but Nikolenka, who was talking all sorts of nonsense about the crusade, received a one. Volodya did not say anything to the tutor about his brother’s bad grade, so that he would not be punished, and they were allowed to go down to the guests who had already gathered below. The father gave his daughter a silver service, and at dinner, remembering that he had forgotten sweets in his office, he asked his youngest son to bring them and cigars, telling her where the keys were and forbidding her to touch anything. The boy became interested in the small key, and he tried to open his father’s briefcase with it. Having opened the briefcase, he felt embarrassed by what he had done, wanted to close it as quickly as possible, in his haste he turned the key in the wrong direction and broke it, but did not say anything to his father.
After lunch, during the game, Sonechka did not pay attention to him and kept whispering with Seryozha Ivin, which amazed Nikolenka and aroused in him contempt for the entire female sex. Meanwhile, the tutor discovered the unit and ordered him to go upstairs. In response, Nikolenka stuck out his tongue and refused, and then, when the Frenchman promised to flog him with rods, he hit Saint-Jerome. The boy was locked in a closet until the next morning. After dinner, the tutor took him to his grandmother, who, reproaching him, drove herself into hysterics. When Nikolenka, crying, left his grandmother’s house, he was stopped by his father, who discovered the broken key, and also began to scold him. The boy burst into tears and tried to tell what happened, but he began to have convulsions and lost consciousness. His family forgave him, but from then on Nikolenka hated the Frenchman, realizing that the educational method of the cruel Saint-Jerome was that he humiliated children.
At this time, the boy continues to sympathetically watch Masha, whom her uncle does not allow to marry Vasily, who works as a tailor for them. Subsequently, Nikolai will convince his father to give Masha a dowry and marry the lovers. Volodya entered the university, passing the exams with all A's. He made new friends, with one of whom, student Prince Nekhlyudov, Nikolai also became friends, discovering much in common in their views on life.
Lyubochka and Katenka have changed a lot. Katenka became prettier, began to look like an adult young lady and emphasized this in every possible way. She behaves differently around strangers and family members and eats very little. Lyubochka is not beautiful, she loves to eat, she has a bad figure, but she has beautiful black eyes and a complete lack of coquetry.
The father now loves his daughter more than any other child, who has become remarkably similar to her mother - not in appearance, but in her movements, voice, some expressions and manner of playing the piano. Nikolai still sincerely loves and respects his father, but already allows himself to criticize him for some words and actions.
Grandmother became very weak and stopped leaving her room. The doctor often visited her, and one morning, when the children were away, she died, leaving her entire fortune to Lyubochka and appointing Prince Ivan Ivanovich, not her father, as her guardian. No one regretted her death except her maid Katya, who, although she fought with her grandmother, loved her very much.
Nikolai has a few months left before entering university. He chose the mathematics department. He now studies well, no longer quarrels with his tutor, they began to respect each other. Nikolai is still tormented by his ugly, as he believes, appearance, but finds consolation in the fact that he is smart, and those around him see this.
Chapter I
Long trip
The children (the author, Nikolenka, his brother Volodya, sister Lyubochka and the daughter of their companion Katenka) leave the country estate for Moscow after the death of their mother. Nikolenka is not at all sad: his mental gaze is turned not to the past, but to the future. He tries not to remember either the mourning that the whole family wears for his mother, or the sad events of recent times, or the general grief.
The chaise rushes merrily along a country road. There are praying mantises on the walking path. “Their heads are wrapped in dirty scarves, birch bark knapsacks are on their backs, their legs are wrapped in dirty, torn footwear and are shod in heavy bast shoes. Evenly waving their sticks and barely looking back at us, they move forward with a slow, heavy step.”
Another chaise gallops nearby. The young coachman “knocking his red hat over one ear, begins to sing some kind of drawn-out song.” His face and posture express a lazy, carefree contentment with life, and it seems to Nikolenka that the height of bliss is “to be a coachman, drive back and sing sad songs.”
An hour and a half later, tired from the journey, the boy begins to pay attention to the numbers posted at the miles. He does various mathematical calculations in his head to determine the time they will arrive at the station.
The boy asks Uncle Vasily, who is accompanying the children, to let him go to hell. Vasily agrees. The child takes advantage of such a happy moment and persuades the coachman Philip to let him correct the horses. Philip gives him first one rein, then another; finally all six reins and the whip pass into the hands of the author. The boy is completely happy. He tries in every possible way to imitate Philip and asks him for advice. But, as a rule, Philip remains dissatisfied. He has his own ideas about crew management.
Soon the village in which it was planned to have lunch and rest appears ahead.
Chapter II
Storm
“The clouds, previously scattered across the sky, which, having taken on ominous, black shadows, were now gathering into one large, gloomy cloud. Occasionally distant thunder rumbled.
The thunderstorm brought an inexpressibly heavy feeling of melancholy and fear. There were still nine miles left to the nearest village, and a large dark purple cloud, which came from God knows where, without the slightest wind, but was moving quickly... The sun, not yet hidden by the clouds, brightly illuminates its gloomy figure and the gray stripes that come from it to the very horizon...
I feel terrified and I feel the blood circulating faster in my veins. But the advanced clouds are already beginning to cover the sun; Here it looked out for the last time, illuminated the terribly gloomy side of the horizon and disappeared. The whole neighborhood suddenly changes and takes on a gloomy character. Now the aspen grove began to tremble; the leaves become some kind of cloudy white color, standing out brightly against the purple background of the clouds, they make noise and spin; the tops of large birch trees begin to sway, and tufts of dry grass fly across the road... Lightning flashes as if in the chaise itself, blinding the vision... At the same second, a majestic roar is heard above your head, which, as if rising higher and higher, wider and wider, along a huge spiral line, gradually intensifies and turns into a deafening crash, involuntarily making you tremble and hold your breath. God's wrath! How much poetry there is in this common thought!..
When the majestic moment of silence came, which usually precedes the outbreak of a thunderstorm, feelings reached such a degree that, had this state continued for another quarter of an hour, I am sure that I would have died of excitement.” At this time, a beggar in rags suddenly appears from under the bridge “and with some kind of red, glossy stump instead of a hand, which he thrusts straight into the chaise.” The children are filled with a feeling of cold horror.
Vasily unties his wallet; The beggar, continuing to cross himself and bow, runs right next to the wheels, so that he won’t be crushed for long. Finally, the copper penny flies through the window, and the beggar lags behind.
“But the rain is getting shallower; the cloud begins to divide into wavy clouds, brighten in the place where the sun should be, and through the grayish-white edges of the cloud a piece of clear azure is barely visible. A minute later, a timid ray of sun is already shining in the puddles of the road, on the stripes of fine direct rain falling, as if through a sieve, and on the washed, shiny green path of grass. I experience an inexpressibly gratifying feeling of hope in life, which is quickly replacing the heavy feeling of fear in me. My soul smiles just like refreshed, cheerful nature.”
The boy jumps out of the chaise, picks off several damp, fragrant bird cherry branches, runs to the carriage and thrusts flowers at Lyubochka and Katenka.
Chapter III
A New Look
The children go to live with their grandmother on the side of their late mother. Katya is very worried about this. When Nikolenka asks her what is the reason for her concern, the girl tries to avoid the conversation. She either expresses doubts out loud about her grandmother’s kindness, or argues at length that she “needs to change someday.” Finally, the girl admits that she is afraid of the upcoming separation - after all, her mother, Mimi, was the companion of Nikolenka’s late mother. Now it is unknown whether Mimi will get along with the old countess. In addition, for the first time Katenka points out to the boy the property inequality between people - “you have Petrovskoye, and we are poor - mummy has nothing.”
It seems to Nikolenka that the most reasonable thing in this situation is to “divide equally what we have.” But for Katenka this is unacceptable. She says that it is best for her to go to a monastery, live there and “walk around in a black dress and a velvet cap.” Katya is crying.
Nikolenka’s view of things completely changed; at that moment a moral change occurred in him, which he later considered the beginning of his adolescence.
“For the first time, a clear thought occurred to me that we are not the only ones, that is, our family, who live in the world, that not all interests revolve around us, but that there is another life of people who have nothing in common with us, not caring about us and even having no idea about our existence. Without a doubt, I knew all this before; but I didn’t know it the way I knew it now, I didn’t realize it, I didn’t feel it.”
Chapter IV
In Moscow
On his first meeting with his grandmother, Nikolenka’s feeling of obsequious respect and fear of her is replaced by compassion, and when she, pressing her face to Lyubochka’s head, began to sob as if her beloved daughter was before her eyes, love for the unfortunate old woman awakens in the boy. It is awkward for him to see his grandmother’s sadness when visiting her grandchildren. He understands that they “in themselves are nothing in her eyes, that they are dear only as a memory.”
The father in Moscow hardly takes care of the children at all and loses a lot in the eyes of his son. Between the girls! and Nikolenka and Volodya also had some kind of invisible barrier. Both of them have their own secrets. On the first Sunday, Mimi comes out to dinner in such a fluffy dress and with such ribbons on her head that it becomes completely clear to Hekolenka: now everything will go differently.
Chapter V
Older brother
Nikolenka is only a little over a year younger than Volodya. The brothers grew up, studied and played always together. Previously, no distinction had been made between them between older and younger, but it was from the moment of moving to Moscow that Nikolenka began to understand that Volodya was no longer his comrade in age, inclinations and abilities.
“Who has not noticed those mysterious wordless relationships manifested in an imperceptible smile, movement or glance between people who constantly live together: brothers, friends, husband and wife, master and servant, especially when these people are not frank with each other in everything. How many unspoken desires, thoughts and fears of being understood are expressed in one casual glance, when your eyes timidly and hesitantly meet! But perhaps I was deceived in this regard by my excessive sensitivity and penchant for analysis; Perhaps Volodya did not feel at all the same as I did. He was ardent, frank and fickle in his hobbies. Fascinated by the most varied subjects, he devoted himself to them with all his soul.”
Then Volodya had a passion for drawing, and he bought paints with all his money; then a passion for things with which he decorated his table, collecting them throughout the house; then a passion for novels, which he got out on the sly and read all day and night. The younger brother was involuntarily carried away by his passions, but was too proud to exactly repeat everything after Volodya, and too young and dependent to choose a new path. But Nikolenka did not envy anything as much as “Volodya’s happy, noble and frank character, which was especially sharply expressed in quarrels.” The younger brother always felt that Volodya was doing well, but could not imitate him. For example, one day Nikolenka broke some souvenir on his brother’s table and out of anger, instead of apologizing, he threw everything else onto the floor. All day Nikolenka could not find a place for himself, realizing that he had done something nasty and racking his brains on how to get out of the stupid situation. However, Volodya saved him from suffering. Calmly and with dignity, he himself asked for forgiveness for the fact that he may have offended his brother in some way, and gave him his hand.
Chapter VI
Masha
There comes a moment when Nikolenka stopped seeing the maid Masha as a female servant, but began to see a woman on whom his peace and happiness could depend, to some extent. Masha was twenty-five years old, Nikolenka was fourteen. She was unusually white and luxuriously developed.
However, Nikolenka notices that his older brother
and then he got ahead of him. Repeatedly he sees Volodya holding Masha in his arms. Nikolenka “wasn’t surprised by his act itself, but by how he realized that it was nice to do this. And I involuntarily wanted to imitate him.”
The boy sometimes spends hours under the stairs. He is ready to give everything in the world to be in the place of the naughty Volodya.
Nikolenka is shy by nature, and his shyness increases even more from the conviction of his own ugliness. He tries to “despise all the pleasures brought by a pleasant appearance, which Volodya enjoyed.” Nikolenka “strained all the strength of his mind and imagination to find pleasure in splendid isolation.”
Chapter VII
Fraction
Mimi catches the boys playing with shotgun pellets. They receive a severe scolding from their grandmother. It also hits my father. When the grandmother finds out that it was the teacher Karl Ivanovich who gave the children gunpowder, she orders the hiring of a French tutor, “and not a guy, a German man.” Dad offers to take St. Jerome into the house, who has been giving private lessons to the boys.
Two days after this conversation, Karl Ivanovich, who lived in Nikolenka’s parents’ house for many years and raised both brothers, gives up his place to a young dandy Frenchman.
Chapter VIII
The story of Karl Ivanovich
Late in the evening on the eve of departure, Karl Ivanovich tells Nikolenka the story of his difficult life. According to him, his “fate is to be unhappy from childhood until the grave.” Karl Ivanovich was always paid with evil for the good that he did to people.
The noble blood of Counts von Somerblat flows in his veins. Carl was born just six weeks after the wedding. His mother's husband did not love little Karl. The family also had a little brother Johann and two sisters, and Karl was always considered a stranger in his own family. Only the mother caressed the child, despite her husband’s obvious antipathy towards him. When Karl grew up, his mother apprenticed him to the shoemaker Schulz. Mr. Schultz considers Karl a very good worker and is preparing to make the boy his apprentice.
Recruitment is announced. Karl should not become a soldier, because the lot falls to his brother. The father is in despair. In order not to cause grief to the family, Karl goes to the army instead of his brother - since no one needs him anyway.
Chapter IX
Continuation of the previous one
During the war with Napoleon, Karl is captured. He still has three ducats sewn into the lining by his mother. Karl decides to flee and offers a ransom for himself. But the French officer does not take money from the poor man. He convinces Karl to buy a bucket of vodka for the soldiers and run away when they fall asleep.
On the road, Karl meets a cart. A kind man asks Karl about his fate and agrees to help. Karl starts working at his rope factory and settles in his house. For a year and a half, Karl works at a rope factory, but the owner’s wife, a young, pretty lady, falls in love with Karl and confesses it to him. Karl voluntarily leaves his owner so as not to cause complications in his relationship with his wife.
Karl Ivanovich emphasizes that he “experienced a lot of both good and bad in his life; but no one can say that Karl Ivanovich is a dishonest person.”
Chapter X
Continuation
For nine years, Karl did not see his mother and did not even know if she was alive. Karl returns to his parents' house. Both his mother and the rest of the family are very happy to see him. It turns out they had been waiting for him at home for all nine years.
Karl meets General Sazin. He takes Karl with him to Russia to teach children. When General Sazin dies, Nikolenka’s mother calls Karl Ivanovich to her. “Now she is gone, and everything is forgotten. After his twenty years of service, he must now, in his old age, go out into the street to look for his stale piece of bread.”
Chapter XI
Unit
At the end of the year-long mourning, the grandmother begins to occasionally receive guests, especially children. On Lyubochka’s birthday, guests also come, including Sonechka Valakhina, who Nikolenka really likes. But before the start of the holiday, the boys still have to answer the teacher’s history lesson. Volodya copes with the task perfectly, but Nikolenka cannot tell anything about the crusade of Saint Louis. Then he begins out loud to “lie everything that came to mind.” The teacher gives Volodya a five, and Nikolenka two beautifully drawn ones (for the lesson and for behavior). Volodya does not betray his brother to the tutor - “he understood that he needed to be saved today. Let them punish you, just not today, when there are guests.”
Chapter XII
Key
Dad loves Lyubochka very much. In addition to the silver service, he bought her a bonbonniere (sweets) for her name day, which remained in the wing where dad lives. He asks Nikolenka to bring a gift and says that the keys are on the large table in the sink.
In his father's office, the boy comes across an embroidered briefcase with a padlock. He wants to try to see if a small key will fit into the lock. The test was a complete success, the briefcase opened, and Nikolenka found a whole bunch of papers in it.
Because he committed this act (entered someone else’s briefcase without permission, Nikolenka is ashamed and embarrassed. Under the influence of this feeling, he tries to close the briefcase as quickly as possible. However, “on this memorable day he was destined to experience all sorts of misfortunes: putting the key in the lock well, he turned it the wrong way, imagining that the lock was locked, took out the key, and - oh horror! - only the head of the key was in his hands.”
Chapter XIII
Traitor
In despair that he will have to bear punishment for so many offenses at once, Nikolenka returns to the hall with sweets and, accidentally stepping on the dress of the Kornakovs’ governess, tears it, Sonechka really likes it. Nikolenka catches her skirt with his heel for the second time, this time on purpose. Sonechka can barely restrain herself from laughing, which flatters the boy’s vanity.
St.-Jerome reprimands his pupil and threatens him with reprisals for his disgusting pranks. But Nikolenka “was in the irritated state of a man who has lost more than he has in his pocket, who is afraid to count his record and continues to play desperate cards without any hope of winning back, but only in order not to give himself time to come to his senses.” The boy smiles cheekily and leaves the tutor.
The children begin the game, the essence of which boils down to the fact that everyone chooses a mate. To the extreme insult to Nikolenka’s pride, he remains the odd man out every time; Sonechka always chooses Seryozha Ivin. After some time, Nikolenka sees Sonechka and Seryozha kissing, and Katenka is holding a scarf near their heads so that no one can see what is happening there.
Chapter XIV
Eclipse
Nikolenka feels contempt for the entire female sex in general and for Sonechka in particular. He suddenly “extremely wanted to make a fuss and do some clever thing that would surprise everyone. There are moments when the future appears to a person in such a gloomy light that he is afraid to fix his mental gaze on it, completely stops the activity of his mind and tries to convince himself that the future will not exist and the past did not exist. At such moments, when thought does not discuss in advance every determination of the will, and the only springs of life remain carnal instincts, I understand that a child, due to inexperience, is especially prone to such a state, without the slightest hesitation or fear, with a smile of curiosity, lays out and fans the fire under his own house, in which his brothers, father, mother, whom he loves dearly, sleep.” Under the influence of such thoughts, Nikolenka decides to take out her internal dissatisfaction on St. Jerome and, in response to the tutor’s remark, sticks her tongue out at him and declares that she will not listen. St. Jerome promises to give the boy a rod. With all her might, Nikolenka hits the tutor and shouts that he is terribly unhappy, and those around him are disgusting and disgusting. St. Jerome takes him out of the hall, locks him in a closet and orders him to bring the rod.
Chapter XV
Dreams
Nikolenka “vaguely had a presentiment that he was lost forever.” He begins to mentally imagine dramatic and sentimental pictures of his relationship with his family. Then he tells his father that he has learned the secret of his birth and can no longer stay in his house. Then he imagines himself already free, in the hussars. Then he imagines a war: enemies are rushing from all sides, Nikolenka swings a saber and kills one, another, a third. The general drives up and asks where the savior of the Fatherland is. Then Nikolenka imagines that he himself is already a general. Then he sees the sovereign thanking him for his service and promising to fulfill his every desire. And then Nikolenka will certainly ask permission to destroy his sworn enemy, the foreigner St. Jerome.
The thought of God comes to Nikolenka, and the boy boldly asks him why God is punishing him - after all, Nikolenka did not forget to pray morning and evening, so why is he suffering? “I can positively say that the first step towards the religious doubts that troubled me during my adolescence was taken by me now, not because misfortune prompted me to grumble and unbelief, but because the thought of the injustice of Providence, which came into my head at that time, a time of complete mental disorder and daily solitude, like a bad grain that fell on loose soil after rain, quickly began to grow and take root.”
Nikolenka imagines that she will die of grief, and then dad will throw St. Jerome out of the house with the words: “You were the cause of his death, you intimidated him, he could not bear the humiliation that you were preparing for him... Get out of here, the villain!" After forty days, the boy’s soul flies to heaven, where he sees “something amazingly beautiful, white, transparent, long...” So Nikolenka is reunited with her mother.
Chapter XVI
Grind - there will be flour
Nikolenka spends the night in the closet. His punishment is limited to imprisonment, Uncle Nikolai brings him lunch, and when the boy complains that a terrible punishment and humiliation awaits him, Nikolai calmly replies: “If he grinds, there will be flour.”
St.-Jerome takes Nikolenka to her grandmother. She announces to her grandson that the tutor refuses to work in her house because of his bad behavior, and forces Nikolenka to ask St. Jerome for forgiveness. She remembers her deceased daughter, who would have been disgraced by her son’s behavior, begins to cry, and becomes hysterical. The boy rushes out of the room and runs into his father. He gently scolds Nikolenka for touching his briefcase in the office without asking. Choking with sobs, Nikolenka begs his father to listen to him and protect him. He complains that the tutor constantly humiliates him. Nikolenka begins to have convulsions. Dad picks him up and carries him to the bedroom. The boy falls asleep.
Chapter XVII
Hatred
Nikolenka feels a real feeling of hatred for St. Jerome’s. “He was not stupid, quite well educated and conscientiously fulfilled his duties, but he had the distinctive features of frivolous egoism, vanity, insolence and ignorant self-confidence, common to all his fellow countrymen and so contrary to the Russian character. I really didn't like all this.
I was not at all afraid of the pain of punishment, I had never experienced it, but the mere thought that St. Jerome might hit me brought me into a severe state of suppressed despair and anger.
I loved Karl Ivanovich, remembered him from then on as myself, and got used to considering him a member of my family; but St. Jerome was a proud, self-satisfied man, for whom I felt nothing except that involuntary respect that all the big ones inspired in me. Karl Ivanovich was a funny old man whom I loved from the bottom of my heart, but who I still considered inferior to myself in my childhood understanding of social status.
St.-Jerome, on the contrary, was an educated, handsome young dandy, trying to become on an equal footing with everyone else. Karl Ivanovich always scolded and punished us in cold blood; it was clear that he considered this, although a necessary, but unpleasant duty. St.-Jerome, on the contrary, loved to assume the role of mentor; it was clear when he punished us that he did it more for his own pleasure than for our benefit. He was carried away by his greatness.”
Chapter XVIII
Maiden
Nikolenka's romance with the maid Masha ends in nothing. She is in love with Vasily's servant. Nikolai (Masha’s uncle) opposed his niece’s marriage to Vasily, whom he called an incongruous and unbridled man.
Despite the fact that Vasily’s manifestations of love were very strange and incongruous (for example, when meeting Masha, he always tried to hurt her, or pinched her, or hit her with his palm, or squeezed her with such force that she could hardly catch her breath), but his very love was sincere.
Nikolenka begins to dream about how, when she grows up and takes over the estate, she will call Masha and Vasily to her, give them a thousand rubles and allow them to get married, and he himself will “go to the sofa.” The thought of sacrificing one’s feelings in favor of Masha’s happiness warms Nikolenka’s pride.
Chapter XIX
Boyhood
“It seems to me that the human mind in each individual person develops along the same path along which it develops in entire generations, that the thoughts that served as the basis for various philosophical theories ... each person was more or less clearly aware even before than I knew about the existence of philosophical theories...
These thoughts presented themselves to my mind with such clarity and amazingness that I even tried to apply them to life, imagining that I was the first to discover such great and useful truths.
Once the thought came to me that happiness does not depend on external causes, but on our attitude towards them... and for three days, under the influence of this thought, I gave up my lessons and did nothing but lie on my bed and enjoy reading some novel and eating gingerbread with Kronovsky honey...
But of all the philosophical trends I was not so carried away as by skepticism. I imagined that besides me, no one and nothing existed in the whole world, that objects were not objects, but images that appeared only when I paid attention to them...
From all this hard moral work I learned nothing except the resourcefulness of my mind, which weakened my willpower, and the habit of constant moral analysis, which destroyed the freshness of feeling and clarity of reason.”
Chapter XX
Volodya
“Rarely, rarely between memories during this time do I find moments of true warm feeling that so brightly and constantly illuminated the beginning of my life. I involuntarily want to quickly run through the desert of adolescence and reach that happy time when the shackles of a truly tender, noble feeling of friendship illuminated the end of this age with a bright light and marked the beginning of a new, full of charm and poetry, time of youth.”
Volodya enters the university, shows extraordinary knowledge, “appears at home in a student uniform with an embroidered blue collar, a triangular hat and a gilded sword at his side...
The grandmother drinks champagne for the first time after her daughter’s death and congratulates Volodya. Volodya leaves the yard in his own carriage, receives acquaintances, smokes tobacco, goes to balls...
Between Katenka and Volodya, in addition to the understandable friendship between childhood comrades, there is some kind of strange relationship that alienates them from us and mysteriously connects them with each other.”
Chapter XXI
Katenka and Lyubochka
“Katenka is sixteen years old. The angularity of forms, shyness and awkwardness of movements gave way to the harmonious freshness and grace of a newly blooming flower.
Lyubochka is short and, as a result of the English disease, she still has goose-like legs and a nasty waist. The only good thing about her whole figure is her eyes, and these eyes are truly beautiful. Lyubochka is simple and natural in everything; It’s as if Katenka wants to be like someone. Lyubochka is always terribly happy when she manages to talk with big man, and says that she will certainly marry the hussar. Katenka says that all men are disgusting to her, that she will never get married, and she acts completely different, as if she is afraid of something when a man speaks to her. Lyubochka is always indignant at Mimi for being so tied up in corsets that “you can’t breathe,” and she loves to eat; Katya, on the contrary, often puts her finger under the cape of her dress, showing us how wide it is for her, and eats extremely little.” But Katenka is more like a big girl and therefore Nikolenka likes her much more.
Chapter XXII
Dad
Dad has been especially cheerful since Volodya entered university, and comes to grandma for dinner more often than usual.
The father is gradually descending in the eyes of his son “from that unattainable height to which his childhood imagination placed him.” Nikolenka already allows herself to think about him, to judge his actions.
One evening, the father enters the living room to take Volodya to the ball. Lyubochka sits at the piano and teaches Field's second concerto, her late mother's favorite piece. Between Lyubochka and the deceased there is an amazing resemblance, something elusive in movements, facial expressions, and manner of speaking. The father silently takes his daughter by the head and kisses her with such tenderness that his son has never seen from him.
The maid Masha passes by, looking down and trying to get around the master. Father stops Masha, leans towards her and says in a low voice that the girl is getting better.
Chapter XXIII
Grandmother
Grandma is getting weaker day by day. But her character, proud and ceremonious manner towards all her household does not change at all. However, the doctor already visits her every day and arranges consultations.
One day the children are sent out for a walk after school hours. As they drive back to the house, they see a black coffin lid at the entrance. Grandmother died. Nikolenka does not regret her grandmother, “but hardly anyone sincerely regrets her.”
There is noticeable excitement between grandmothers' people, and rumors are often heard about what will go to whom. Nikolenka involuntarily and happily thinks about the fact that she will receive an inheritance.
After six weeks, Nikolai, “always the newspaper of news at home,” says that the grandmother left the entire estate to Lyubochka, entrusting guardianship not to her father, but to Prince Ivan Ivanovich until her marriage.
Chapter XXIV
I
Nikolenka has a few months left before she enters university. He studies well, expects teachers without fear, and even feels some pleasure from studying.
Nikolenka intends to enter the Faculty of Mathematics, and he made this choice “solely because he likes the words: sines, tangents, differentials, integrals, etc. extremely.” Nikolenka tries to “seem like an original.”
The young man feels that he is beginning to gradually heal from “adolescent shortcomings, excluding, however, the main one, which is destined to do a lot of harm in life - the tendency to speculate.”
Chapter XXV
Volodya's friends
Adjutant Dubkov and student Prince Nekhlyudov come to visit his elder brother more often than others. Nikolenka also shares their society. It’s a little unpleasant for him that Volodya seems to be ashamed of his brother’s most innocent actions, of his youth.
“Their directions were completely different: Volodya and Dubkov seemed to be afraid of everything that looked like serious reasoning and sensitivity; Nekhlyudov, on the contrary, was an enthusiast to the highest degree and often, despite ridicule, launched into discussions about philosophical issues and feelings. Volodya and Dubkov often allowed themselves, lovingly, to make fun of their relatives; Nekhlyudov, on the contrary, could be enraged by hinting at his aunt in an unfavorable way... Often during the conversation I had a terrible desire to contradict him; as a punishment for his pride, I wanted to argue with him, to prove to him that I was smart, despite the fact that he did not want to pay any attention to me. Shyness was holding me back."
Chapter XXVI
Reasoning
Nikolenka and Volodya together can spend whole hours in silence, but the presence of even a silent third person is enough for the most interesting and varied conversations to begin between the brothers.
One day Nekhlyudov gives Volodya his ticket to the theater (Volodya has no money, but he wants to go, so his friend gives him his). Nekhlyudov talks to Nikolenka about pride. Unexpectedly, the student discovers in his young interlocutor an ability for psychological analysis that is unusual for his age. Nikolenka shares her thoughts on self-love with Nekhlyudov: “If we found others better than ourselves, then we would love them more than ourselves, but this never happens.” Nekhlyudov sincerely praises Nikolenka’s judgment; he is extremely happy.
“Praise has such a powerful effect not only on feelings, but also on a person’s mind, that under its pleasant influence it seemed to me that I had become much smarter, and thoughts, one after another, entered my head with extraordinary speed. From pride we imperceptibly moved to love, and the conversation on this topic seemed inexhaustible; for us they were of high importance. Our souls were so well tuned in one way that the slightest touch on any string of one found an echo in the other.”
Chapter XXVII
Beginning of friendship
From that evening, a strange, but very pleasant relationship for both of them was established between Nikolenka and Dmitry Nekhlyudov. In front of strangers, the student pays almost no attention to the young man; but as soon as they are alone, they begin to reason, forgetting everything and not noticing how time flies.
They talk about the future life, about art, about service, about marriage, about raising children. It does not occur to either one or the other that everything they say is “the most terrible nonsense.”
Once, during Maslenitsa, Nekhlyudov was so busy with various pleasures that although he visited Volodya several times a day, he never found time to talk with Nikolenka. The young man was deeply offended by this. Again Nekhlyudov seemed to Nikolenka to be a proud and unpleasant person. But Nekhlyudov comes to him, and so simply and sincerely admits that he misses Nikolenka and communicating with him, that the annoyance instantly disappears, and Dmitry again becomes in the eyes of his friend “the same kind and sweet person.”
Nekhlyudov admits: “Why do I love you more than people with whom I am more familiar and with whom I have more in common? I have now decided this. You have an amazing, rare quality - frankness.” Nikolenka agrees with Nekhlyudov - after all, the most important, interesting thoughts are those that they would never say out loud. At Nekhlyudov’s suggestion, the friends swear to always confess everything to each other. “We will know each other, and we will not be ashamed; and in order not to be afraid of strangers, we will give ourselves the word never to say anything to anyone and not to say anything about each other... In every affection there are two sides: one loves, the other allows itself to be loved, one kisses, the other turns its cheek... We they loved each other equally, because they mutually knew and appreciated each other, but this did not prevent him from influencing me, and me from obeying him...
I involuntarily adopted his direction, the essence of which was an enthusiastic adoration of the ideal of virtue and a conviction in the destiny of man to constantly improve.
Then correcting all of humanity, destroying all human vices and misfortunes seemed like a feasible thing - it seemed very easy and simple to correct oneself, learn all the virtues and be happy...
However, God alone knows whether these noble dreams of youth were really funny, and who is to blame for the fact that they did not come true?..”
Boyhood
L. N. Tolstoy
Boyhood
Immediately after arriving in Moscow, Nikolenka feels the changes that have happened to him. In his soul there is a place not only for his own feelings and experiences, but also for compassion for the grief of others, and the ability to understand the actions of other people. He realizes the inconsolability of his grandmother’s grief after the death of his beloved daughter, and is happy to the point of tears that he finds the strength to forgive his older brother after a stupid quarrel. Another striking change for Nikolenka is that he shyly notices the excitement that the twenty-five-year-old maid Masha causes in him. Nikolenka is convinced of his ugliness, envies Volodya’s beauty and tries with all his might, although unsuccessfully, to convince himself that a pleasant appearance cannot account for all the happiness in life. And Nikolenka tries to find salvation in thoughts of splendid loneliness, to which, as it seems to him, he is doomed.
They report to the grandmother that the boys are playing with gunpowder, and although it is just harmless lead shot, the grandmother blames Karl Ivanovich for the lack of childcare and insists that he be replaced with a decent tutor. Nikolenka is having a hard time breaking up with Karl Ivanovich.
Nikolenka’s relationship with the new French tutor does not work out; he himself sometimes does not understand his insolence towards the teacher. It seems to him that the circumstances of life are directed against him. The incident with the key, which he inadvertently breaks while inexplicably trying to open his father’s briefcase, completely throws Nikolenka out of balance. Deciding that everyone has specifically taken up arms against him, Nikolenka behaves unpredictably - she hits the tutor, in response to her brother’s sympathetic question: “What’s happening to you?” - shouts how disgusting and disgusting everyone is to him. They lock him in a closet and threaten to punish him with rods. After a long imprisonment, during which Nikolenka is tormented by a desperate feeling of humiliation, he asks his father for forgiveness, and convulsions occur to him. Everyone is afraid for his health, but after twelve hours of sleep Nikolenka feels good and at ease and is even glad that his family is experiencing his incomprehensible illness.
After this incident, Nikolenka feels more and more lonely, and his main pleasure is solitary reflection and observation. He observes the strange relationship between the maid Masha and the tailor Vasily. Nikolenka does not understand how such a rough relationship can be called love. Nikolenka’s range of thoughts is wide, and he is often confused in his discoveries: “I think, what I think, what I think about, and so on. MIND went beyond reason..."
Nikolenka rejoices at Volodya’s admission to university and envies his maturity. He notices the changes that are happening to his brother and sisters, watches how his aging father develops special tenderness for his children, experiences the death of his grandmother - and he is offended by conversations about who will get her inheritance...
Nikolenka has a few months left before she enters university. He is preparing for the Faculty of Mathematics and is studying well. Trying to get rid of many shortcomings of adolescence, Nikolenka considers the main one to be a tendency to inactive reasoning and thinks that this tendency will bring him a lot of harm in life. Thus, attempts at self-education are manifested in him. Volodya's friends often come to him - adjutant Dubkov and student Prince Nekhlyudov. Nikolenka talks more and more often with Dmitry Nekhlyudov, they become friends. The mood of their souls seems the same to Nikolenka. Constantly improving himself and thus correcting all of humanity - Nikolenka comes to this idea under the influence of his friend, and he considers this important discovery the beginning of his youth.
Boyhood
Immediately after arriving in Moscow, Nikolenka feels the changes that have happened to him. In his soul there is a place not only for his own feelings and experiences, but also for compassion for the grief of others, and the ability to understand the actions of other people. He realizes the inconsolability of his grandmother’s grief after the death of his beloved daughter, and is happy to the point of tears that he finds the strength to forgive his older brother after a stupid quarrel. Another striking change for Nikolenka is that he shyly notices the excitement that the twenty-five-year-old maid Masha evokes in him. Nikolenka is convinced of his ugliness, envies Volodya’s beauty and tries with all his might, although unsuccessfully, to convince himself that a pleasant appearance cannot account for all the happiness in life. And Nikolenka tries to find salvation in thoughts of splendid loneliness, to which, as it seems to him, he is doomed.
They report to the grandmother that the boys are playing with gunpowder, and although it is just harmless lead shot, the grandmother blames Karl Ivanovich for the lack of childcare and insists that he be replaced with a decent tutor.
Nikolenka is having a hard time breaking up with Karl Ivanovich.
Nikolenka’s relationship with the new French tutor does not work out; he himself sometimes does not understand his insolence towards the teacher. It seems to him that the circumstances of life are directed against him. The incident with the key, which he inadvertently breaks while inexplicably trying to open his father’s briefcase, completely throws Nikolenka out of balance. Deciding that everyone has deliberately taken up arms against him, Nikolenka behaves unpredictable....
Immediately after arriving in Moscow, Nikolenka feels the changes that have happened to him. In his soul there is a place not only for his own feelings and experiences, but also for compassion for the grief of others, and the ability to understand the actions of other people. He realizes the inconsolability of his grandmother’s grief after the death of his beloved daughter, and is happy to the point of tears that he finds the strength to forgive his older brother after a stupid quarrel. Another striking change for Nikolenka is that he shyly notices the excitement that the twenty-five-year-old maid Masha causes in him. Nikolenka is convinced of his ugliness, envies Volodya’s beauty and tries with all his might, although unsuccessfully, to convince himself that a pleasant appearance cannot account for all the happiness in life. And Nikolenka tries to find salvation in thoughts of splendid loneliness, to which, as it seems to him, he is doomed.
They report to the grandmother that the boys are playing with gunpowder, and although it is just harmless lead shot, the grandmother blames Karl Ivanovich for the lack of childcare and insists that he be replaced with a decent tutor. Nikolenka is having a hard time breaking up with Karl Ivanovich.
Nikolenka’s relationship with the new French tutor does not work out; he himself sometimes does not understand his insolence towards the teacher. It seems to him that the circumstances of life are directed against him. The incident with the key, which he inadvertently breaks while inexplicably trying to open his father’s briefcase, completely throws Nikolenka out of balance. Deciding that everyone has specifically taken up arms against him, Nikolenka behaves unpredictably - she hits the tutor, in response to her brother’s sympathetic question: “What’s happening to you?” - shouts how disgusting and disgusting everyone is to him. They lock him in a closet and threaten to punish him with rods. After a long imprisonment, during which Nikolai
Nya is tormented by a desperate feeling of humiliation, he asks his father for forgiveness, and convulsions occur to him. Everyone is afraid for his health, but after twelve hours of sleep Nikolenka feels good and at ease and is even glad that his family is experiencing his incomprehensible illness.
After this incident, Nikolenka feels more and more lonely, and his main pleasure is solitary reflection and observation. He observes the strange relationship between the maid Masha and the tailor Vasily. Nikolenka does not understand how such a rough relationship can be called love. Nikolenka’s range of thoughts is wide, and he is often confused in his discoveries: “I think, what I think, what I think about, and so on. MIND went beyond reason..."
Nikolenka rejoices at Volodya’s admission to university and envies his maturity. He notices the changes that are happening to his brother and sisters, watches how his aging father develops special tenderness for his children, experiences the death of his grandmother - and he is offended by conversations about who will get her inheritance...
Nikolenka has a few months left before she enters university. He is preparing for the Faculty of Mathematics and is studying well. Trying to get rid of many shortcomings of adolescence, Nikolenka considers the main one to be a tendency to inactive reasoning and thinks that this tendency will bring him a lot of harm in life. Thus, attempts at self-education are manifested in him. Volodya's friends often come to him - adjutant Dubkov and student Prince Nekhlyudov. Nikolenka talks more and more often with Dmitry Nekhlyudov, they become friends. The mood of their souls seems the same to Nikolenka. Constantly improving himself and thus correcting all of humanity - Nikolenka comes to this idea under the influence of his friend, and he considers this important discovery the beginning of his youth.