foreword

“Evenings...”, consisting of 8 stories, are divided into exactly 2 parts, and each is preceded by a preface by an imaginary publisher. In the first, describing his farm, he characterizes some of the especially colorful inhabitants of Dikanka, who come into the “pasichnik’s shack” in the evenings and tell those outlandish stories, of which Rudoy Panko is a diligent collector.

SOROCHI FAIR

This story begins with a description of the delightful luxuries of a summer day in Little Russia. Among the beauties of the August afternoon, carts filled with goods are moving, and pedestrians are moving to the fair in the town of Sorochinets. Behind one of the wagons, loaded not only with hemp and sacks of wheat (because on top of that, a black-browed maiden and her evil stepmother are sitting here), the owner, Solopy Cherevik, exhausted by the heat, wanders. As soon as he entered the bridge thrown over Psel, he attracted the attention of local lads, and one of them, "dressed more ostentatiously than the others", admiring the handsome Paraska, starts a squabble with an evil-speaking stepmother. However, having arrived at the godfather, the Cossack Tsybula, the travelers forget this adventure for a while, and Cherevik and his daughter soon set off for the fair. Here, pushing between the wagons, he learns that the fair has been assigned a "cursed place", they are afraid of the appearance of a red scroll, and there were sure signs of this. But no matter how concerned Cherevik is about the fate of his wheat, the sight of Paraska embracing the old lad returns him to "the former carelessness." However, the resourceful lad, calling himself Golopupenko's son and using his old friendship, leads Cherevik to the tent, and after several mugs the wedding is already agreed. However, when Cherevik returns home, his formidable wife does not approve of this turn of events, and Cherevik backs down. A certain gypsy, trading with the saddened Gritsko oxen, not quite disinterestedly undertakes to help him.

Soon "a strange incident happened at the fair": a red scroll appeared, and many saw it. That is why Cherevik with his godfather and daughter, who were going to spend the night under the wagons, hurriedly return home in the company of frightened guests, and Khavronya Nikiforovna, his formidable concubine, who hitherto delighted the hospitality of her priest Afanasy Ivanovich, is forced to hide him on boards under the very ceiling among all household utensils. and sit at the common table like on pins and needles. At the request of Cherevik, the godfather tells the story of the red scroll - how the devil was expelled from hell for some fault, how he drank from grief, nesting in a barn under the mountain, drank everything he had in a tavern, and pawned his red scroll, threatening to come for her in a year. The greedy shopkeeper forgot about the deadline and sold a prominent scroll to some passing pan, and when the devil appeared, he pretended that he had never seen him before. The devil was gone, but the evening prayer of the tavern keeper was interrupted by pig snouts suddenly appearing in all the windows. Terrible pigs, "on legs as long as stilts," treated him with whips until he confessed to deception. However, the scrolls could not be returned: the gypsies robbed the pan on the way, sold the scroll to a repurchase, and she again brought it to the Sorochinsky Fair, but the trade did not work for her. Realizing that the matter was in the scroll, she threw it into the fire, but the scroll did not burn, and the repurchase slipped the "damn gift" into someone else's cart. The new owner got rid of the scroll only when, having crossed himself, chopped it into pieces, scattered it around and left. But since then, every year during the fair, the devil "with a pig's face" is looking for pieces of his scroll, and now only the left sleeve is missing from him. At this point in the story, which was repeatedly interrupted by strange sounds, a window was broken, "and a terrible pig's mug was exposed."

Everything was mixed up in the hut: the priest "with thunder and crash" fell, the godfather crawled under the hem of his wife, and Cherevik, grabbing a pot instead of a hat, rushed out and soon fell exhausted in the middle of the road. In the morning, the fair, although it is full of terrible rumors about the red scroll, is still noisy, and Cherevik, who already in the morning came across the red cuff of the scroll, grumbling, leads the mare for sale. But, noticing that a piece of a red sleeve was tied to the bridle and rushing to run in horror, Cherevik, suddenly seized by the lads, is accused of stealing his own mare and, along with the godfather who turned up, who fled from the devilry he had imagined, was tied up and thrown on the straw into the barn. Here both godfathers, mourning their fate, are found by Golopupenkov's son. Having reprimanded Paraska to himself, he frees the slaves and sends Solopiy home, where not only the miraculously found mare, but also the buyers of her and wheat are waiting for him. And although the frantic stepmother tries to interfere with the merry wedding, soon everyone is dancing, and even the dilapidated old women, who, however, are not carried away by general joy, but only by hops.

The true story told by the deacon of the *** church.

Deacon Foma Grigoryevich had once told this story, and a certain "panich in a pea caftan" had already published it in a little book, but this retelling did not satisfy the author so much that he undertook to tell this story again, as he should, and a conscientious beekeeper - to accurately convey it words.

The story that the sexton heard from his own grandfather (famous for the fact that he never lied in his life) and many of the details of which belonged to his grandfather’s aunt, who ran a tavern at that time, took place a hundred years earlier, on the site of Dikanka, which was then “the most poor farm." All sorts of people were wandering around, many idle, and among them Basavryuk, “the devil in human form.” He didn’t go to church even on Easter Sunday, and gave red girls gifts that crushed them, bit them and brought all sorts of horrors at night. Meanwhile, in the village there lived a Cossack Korzh with a beautiful daughter, and he had a worker Petrus, nicknamed Bezrodny. Having once noticed that young people loved each other, old Korzh almost beat Petrus, and only the tears of Pidorkin’s six-year-old brother Ivas saved the poor boy: Petrus was expelled. And soon Korzh got into the habit of visiting a certain Pol, “covered in gold,” and now everything is heading towards the wedding. Pidorka sends Ivas to tell Peter that he would rather die than marry the Poles, and when the shocked Petrus pours out his grief in the tavern, Basavryuk approaches him and offers untold riches for a trifle, for a fern flower. They agree to meet in Bear Gully, because only this one night, on the eve of Ivan Kupala, does the fern bloom. At midnight they make their way through a marshy swamp, and Basavryuk shows Petrus three hillocks, where there will be many different flowers, and only the fern should be picked and held without looking back. Petro does everything as expected, although he is scared that hundreds of furry hands are reaching for the flower, and behind him something is constantly moving. But the flower is plucked, and Basavryuk appears on the stump, motionless and blue, like a dead man, coming to life only from a terrible whistle. He tells Petrus to obey in everything the one who stands in front of them. Suddenly a hut on chicken legs appears, and the dog that jumps out of it turns into a cat, and then into an ugly witch. She whispers something over the flower and tells Peter to throw it - the flower floats like a ball of fire in the darkness and falls to the ground in the distance. Here, at the request of the old woman, Petrus begins to dig and finds a chest, but laughter is heard behind her, and the chest goes into the ground, deeper and deeper. Having said that it is necessary to get human blood, the witch brings a child of about six years old under a white sheet and demands that his head be cut off. Petrus rips the sheet off the child and, seeing little Ivas, rushes at the old woman and raises his hand. But Basavryuk remembered Pidorka, and the witch stamped her foot, and everything that was in the ground under the place where they stood became visible. And Petrus’s mind became clouded, “and innocent blood splashed into his eyes.” Then a real Sabbath began, Petrus runs, everything around him seems to be in a red light, he collapses in his house and sleeps for two days and two nights without waking up. Having awakened, Petrus does not remember anything, even finding two bags of gold at his feet. He carries the bags to Korzh, and he throws such a wedding that even the old people will not remember anything like it. Only Ivasya is not at that wedding; he was stolen by gypsies passing by. It’s strange to Pidorka that he doesn’t remember Petrus and. her little brother's face. But Petrus cannot remember something important, and day after day he sits, remembering.

And the summer has passed, and autumn, and winter, - Petrus is terrible, and wild, and angry, and everything is tormented by his vain recollection. And the unfortunate Pidorka decides on the last resort - to bring a sorceress from the Bear's ravine, who knows how to cure all diseases - and brings her in the evening on the eve of Kupala. And looking closely, Petrus remembered everything, laughed and threw an ax at the old woman. And instead of the old woman, a child appeared, covered with a sheet. Pidorka recognizes Ivas, but, covered with blood, he lights up the hut, and Pidorka runs away in fear. When the people who came running down the door, there was no one in the hut, only a handful of ashes instead of Petrus, and broken shards in the bags. Pidorka goes on a pilgrimage to Kyiv, to the Lavra. Basavriuk soon appeared, but everyone shunned him (because they understood that he took on a human form in order to tear off treasures, and lured good fellows, since treasures are not given to unclean hands), and the deacon’s grandfather’s aunt, so on, leaves her former tavern on the Oposhnyanskaya road to get over to the village. That is why Basavryuk took out his anger on her and other good people for many years, so that even the deacons' father remembered his tricks.

MAY NIGHT, OR DROWNED

On a quiet and clear evening, when girls and lads gather in a circle and sing songs, the young Cossack Levko, the son of a village head, going up to one of the huts, calls the clear-eyed Hanna with a song. But the timid Hanna does not immediately come out, she is afraid of the envy of girls, and the audacity of lads, and maternal severity, and something else unclear. There was nothing for Levka to console the beauty: his father again pretended to be deaf when he talked about marriage. Sitting on the threshold of the hut, he asks Gunn about the house with the shuttered shutters, which is reflected in the dark water of the pond. Levko tells how the centurion who lived there with his daughter, "a clear lady", got married, but the stepmother did not like the lady, harassed her, tormented her and forced the centurion to drive her daughter out of the house. The lady rushed from the high bank into the water, became the head of the drowned women, and once dragged her stepmother-witch into the water, but she herself turned into a drowned woman and thus escaped punishment. And on the site of that house they are going to build Vinnitsa, for which the distiller has come today. Here Levko said goodbye to Ganna, hearing the returning lads.

After the well-known description of the Ukrainian night, Kalenik, who has been pretty sloppy, bursts into the narrative and, cutting on what the light is worth a village head, with "indirect steps", not without the help of crafty maidens, is looking for his hut. Levko, having said goodbye to his comrades, returns and sees Hanna, talking about him, Levka, with someone indistinguishable in the darkness. The stranger scolds Levko, offering Hanna his more serious love. The unexpected appearance of mischievous lads and a clear moon reveals to the angry Levka that this stranger is his father. Frightening his head, he persuades the lads to teach him a lesson. The head himself (about whom it is known that he once accompanied Queen Catherine to the Crimea, which he likes to mention on occasion, is now crooked, stern, important and widowed, lives somewhat under the heel of his sister-in-law) is already talking in the hut with the distiller, when Kalenik stumbled , constantly scolding his head, falls asleep on the bench. Feeding the ever-increasing anger of the owner, a stone flies into the hut, breaking the glass, and the distiller, with an appropriate story about his mother-in-law, stops the curses boiling on the lips of the head. But the insulting words of the song outside the window force the head into action.

The instigator in a black turned-out sheepskin coat is caught and thrown into a dark room, and the head with the distiller and the tenant are sent to the clerk, so that, having caught the brawlers, this very hour "make a resolution to them all." However, the clerk himself had already caught the same tomboy and put him in a barn. Disputing with each other the honor of this capture, the clerk and the head, first in the closet, and then in the barn, find a sister-in-law, whom they already want to burn, considering it a devil. When the new prisoner in the turned-out sheepskin coat turns out to be Kalenik, the head falls into a rage, equips the timid tenths without fail to catch the instigator, promising merciless reprisals for negligence.

About this time Levko, in his black sheepskin coat and with his face smeared with soot, went up to the old house by the pond, struggling with the drowsiness that was taking over him. Looking at the reflection of the master's house, he notices that the window has opened in it, and there are no gloomy shutters at all. He sang a song, and the window that had been closed was opened again, and a clear lady appeared in it. Crying, she complains about her stepmother who has taken refuge and promises Levko a reward if he finds a witch among the drowned women. Levko looks at the girls leading round dances, they are all pale and transparent, but they start a game of crow, and the one who volunteered to be a crow seems to him not as bright as the others. And when she grabs the victim and anger flashes in her eyes, "Witch!" - says Levko, and the lady, laughing, gives him a note for his head. Here Levka, who has woken up, who still holds a piece of paper in his hand and curses his illiteracy, is grabbed by tenths with his head. Levko submits a note that turns out to be written by "commissar, retired lieutenant Kozma Dergach-Drishpanovsky" and contains, among the rebuke to the head, an order to marry Levko Makogonenok to Ganna Petrychenkova, "as well as to repair bridges along the high road" and other important assignments. To the questions of the stupefied head, Levko comes up with a story of a meeting with the commissar, who allegedly promised to come to the head for lunch. Encouraged by such an honor, the head promises Levka, in addition to the whip, a wedding tomorrow, starts his eternal stories about Tsarina Catherine, and Levko runs away to the famous hut and, having crossed the sleeping Hanna in the window, returns home, unlike the drunken Kalenik, who is still looking and cannot find your home.

The true story told by the deacon of the *** church

This story begins with Foma Grigorievich's complaints about those listeners who extort from him "something like a fearful little cossack", and then shiver under the covers all night. Then, however, he proceeds to the story of what happened to his grandfather, whom the noble hetman sent with some letter to the queen. Grandfather, having said goodbye to his wife and small children, was in Konotop the next morning, where a fair had taken place at that time. Grandfather, with a letter sewn into his hat, went to look for flint and tobacco, and got acquainted with a reveler-Cossack, and such a "booze started up" between them that grandfather soon forgot about his business. Having soon become bored with the fair, they set off further along with another reveler who had joined them.

The Zaporozhian, regaling his friends with outlandish stories all evening, calmed down by night, became timid, and finally revealed that he had sold his soul to the unclean and that night was the time for reckoning. Grandfather promised not to sleep at night in order to help the Cossack. Everything was shrouded in darkness, and the travelers were forced to stop in the nearest tavern, where everything was already asleep. Both grandfather's fellow travelers soon fell asleep, so he had to carry the guard alone. Grandfather struggled with sleep as best he could: he looked at all the carts, and checked on the horses, and lit a cradle - but nothing, and even the horns that seemed to him under a neighboring cart, could not cheer him up. He woke up late in the morning and did not find the Cossack, the horses were gone, but, worst of all, his grandfather's hat with the letter and money was gone, which yesterday the grandfather exchanged with the Cossack for a while. And the grandfather scolded the devil, and asked for advice from the Chumaks who were in the tavern - all to no avail. Thanks to the tavern maker, for five zlotys he showed my grandfather where to find the devil in order to get the letter back from him.

In the dead of night, grandfather stepped into the forest and walked along a barely noticeable path indicated by the tavern. As he had warned, everything in the forest was rattling, for the gypsies, coming out of their holes, were forging iron. Having passed all the indicated signs, the grandfather went out to the fire, around which terrible faces were sitting. Sat and grandfather. They were silent for a long time, until the grandfather began to randomly tell his story. "Mugs and ears instructed, and stretched out their paws." Grandfather threw all his money, the earth shook, and he found himself almost in the middle of hell. Witches, weirdo, devils - everything around was dancing "some kind of damn trepak." Suddenly he found himself at a table bursting with food, but all the pieces that he took fell into other people's mouths. Annoyed grandfather, forgetting fear, began to scold. Everyone laughed, and one of the witches suggested that he play the fool three times: win - his hat, lose - and he will not see the light of God. Both times the grandfather remained a fool, although in the second he dealt the cards himself and at first they were not bad at all. He guessed for the third time to slowly cross the cards under the table - and won. Having received a hat, the grandfather took courage and demanded his horse, threatening to cross the entire demonic assembly with a holy cross. Only horse bones thundered before him. The grandfather began to cry, but the devils gave him another horse that carried him through the dips and swamps, over the abysses and the terrible steepness. The grandfather could not resist and broke loose, but woke up on the roof of his own hut, covered in blood, but whole. In the house, frightened children rushed to him, pointing to their mother, who was sleeping, jumping up and down, sitting on a bench. The grandfather woke up his wife, who dreamed of sheer devilry, and, deciding to soon consecrate the hut, he immediately went to the queen. There, having seen wonders, he forgot for a while about the devils. Yes, apparently, in retaliation that he prevented the hut from being consecrated, long after, "exactly every year, and precisely at that very time," his wife began to dance against her will.

foreword

In the preface, anticipating further stories, the beekeeper tells about a quarrel with a "pea panich" from Poltava, who was mentioned before. The guests who had come to the beekeeper began to discuss the rules for pickling apples, but the presumptuous panich declared that first of all it was necessary to sprinkle the apples with canuper, and with this obscene remark caused everyone's bewilderment, so that the beekeeper was forced to take him quietly aside and explain the absurdity of such a judgment. But the panich was offended and left. Since then, he has not come, which, however, did not harm the book published by the beekeeper Rudy Pank.

CHRISTMAS EVE

The last day before Christmas is replaced by a clear, frosty night. The girls and boys had not yet come out to carol, and no one saw how smoke came out of the chimney of one hut and a witch rose on a broom. She flashes like a black speck in the sky, gathering stars into her sleeve, and the devil flies towards her, who has “the last night left to wander around the white world.” Having stolen the month, the devil hides it in his pocket, assuming that the coming darkness will keep the rich Cossack Chub, invited to the clerk for a feast, at home, and the blacksmith Vakula, hated by the devil (who painted a picture of the Last Judgment and the shamed devil on the church wall) will not dare to come to Chubova’s daughter Oksana . While the devil is building chickens for the witch, Chub and his godfather, who came out of the hut, do not decide whether to go to the sexton, where a pleasant company will gather over the varenukha, or, in view of such darkness, to return home - and they leave, leaving the beautiful Oksana in the house, who was dressing up in front of the mirror, for which and Vakula finds her. The stern beauty mocks him, not at all moved by his gentle speeches. The disgruntled blacksmith goes to unlock the door, on which Chub, who has lost his way and lost his godfather, knocks, having decided to return home on the occasion of the blizzard raised by the devil. However, the blacksmith’s voice makes him think that he was not in his own hut (but in a similar one, the lame Levchenko, to whose young wife the blacksmith probably came). Chub changes his voice, and the angry Vakula, jabbing him, kicks him out. The beaten Chub, having realized that the blacksmith has therefore left his own home, goes to his mother, Solokha. Solokha, who was a witch, returned from her journey, and the devil flew with her, dropping a month in the chimney.

It became light, the blizzard subsided, and crowds of carolers poured into the streets. The girls run to Oksana, and, noticing on one of them new laces embroidered with gold, Oksana declares that she will marry Vakula if he brings her the laces "which the queen wears." In the meantime, the devil, who has become mellow at Solokha's, is frightened away by the head, who has not gone to the clerk at the kutya. The devil quickly climbs into one of the bags left in the middle of the hut by the blacksmith, but soon the head has to climb into the other, as the clerk knocks on Solokha. Praising the virtues of the incomparable Solokha, the clerk is forced to climb into the third bag, since Chub appears. However, Chub also climbs there, avoiding a meeting with the returned Vakula. While Solokha is explaining herself in the garden with the Cossack Sverbyguz, who has come after her, Vakula carries away the sacks thrown in the middle of the hut, and, saddened by the quarrel with Oksana, does not notice their weight. On the street he is surrounded by a crowd of carolers, and here Oksana repeats her mocking condition. Leaving all but the smallest bags in the middle of the road, Vakula runs, and rumors are already crawling behind him that he either lost his mind or hanged himself.

Vakula comes to the Cossack Pot-bellied Patsyuk, who, as they say, is "a little like the devil." Having caught the owner eating dumplings, and then dumplings, which themselves climbed into Patsyuk's mouth, Vakula timidly asks for directions to hell, relying on his help in his misfortune. Having received a vague answer that the devil is behind him, Vakula runs away from the quick dumpling that climbs into his mouth. Anticipating easy prey, the devil jumps out of the bag and, sitting on the blacksmith's neck, promises him Oksana that very night. The cunning blacksmith, grabbing the devil by the tail and crossing him, becomes the master of the situation and orders the devil to take himself "to Petemburg, straight to the queen."

Having found Kuznetsov's bags about that time, the girls want to take them to Oksana to see what Vakula caroled. They go after the sled, and Chubov's godfather, having called for help from the weaver, drags one of the sacks into his hut. There, for the obscure, but seductive contents of the bag, there is a fight with the godfather's wife. Chub and the clerk are in the bag. When Chub, returning home, finds a head in the second bag, his disposition towards Solokha is greatly reduced.

The blacksmith, having galloped to St. Petersburg, comes to the Cossacks, who are passing through Dikanka in the autumn, and, pressing the devil in his pocket, seeks to be taken to the tsarina's reception. Marveling at the luxury of the palace and the wonderful paintings on the walls, the blacksmith finds himself in front of the queen, and when she asks the Cossacks who came to ask for their Sich, “what do you want?”, the blacksmith asks her for her royal shoes. Touched by such innocence, Catherine draws attention to this passage of Fonvizin standing at a distance, and Vakula gives shoes, having received which he considers it good to go home.

In the village at this time, the Dikan women in the middle of the street are arguing about exactly how Vakula laid hands on himself, and the rumors that have come about embarrass Oksana, she does not sleep well at night, and not having found a devout blacksmith in the church in the morning, she is ready to cry. The blacksmith, on the other hand, simply overslept Matins and Mass, and waking up, takes out a new hat and belt from the chest and goes to Chub to woo. Chub, wounded by Solokha's treachery, but seduced by gifts, agrees. He is echoed by Oksana, who has entered, ready to marry the blacksmith "and without the slippers." Having started a family, Vakula painted his hut with paints, and in the church he painted a devil, but "so nasty that everyone spat when they passed by."

Dreadful place

Yesaul Gorobets once celebrated the wedding of his son in Kyiv, which was attended by many people, and among others, the named brother of the Yesaul Danilo Burulbash with his young wife, the beautiful Katerina, and a one-year-old son. Only old Katherine's father, who had recently returned after a twenty-year absence, did not come with them. everything was dancing when the captain brought out two wonderful icons to bless the young. Then a sorcerer opened up in the crowd and disappeared, frightened by the images.

Danilo returns at night along the Dnieper with his family to the farm. Katerina is frightened, but her husband is not afraid of the sorcerer, but the Poles, who are going to cut off the path to the Cossacks, he thinks about this, sailing past the old sorcerer's castle and the cemetery with the bones of his grandfathers. However, crosses stagger in the cemetery and, one more terrible than the other, the dead appear, pulling their bones to the very month. Consoling his awakened son, Pan Danilo gets to the hut. His hut is small, not roomy for his family and for ten selected fellows. The next morning a quarrel broke out between Danilo and his gloomy, absurd father-in-law. It came to sabers, and then to muskets. Danilo was wounded, but if not for the pleas and reproaches of Katerina, who by the way remembered her little son, he would have fought further. The Cossacks reconciled. Katerina soon tells her husband her vague dream, as if her father is a terrible sorcerer, and Danilo scolds the Busurman habits of his father-in-law, suspecting a non-Christ in him, but he is more worried about the Poles, about which Gorobets again warned him.

After dinner, during which the father-in-law disdains dumplings, and pork, and a burner, in the evening Danilo leaves to scout around the old sorcerer's castle. Climbing up an oak tree to look out the window, he sees a witch's room, lit by God knows what, with wonderful weapons on the walls and flickering bats. The father-in-law who enters begins to tell fortunes, and his whole appearance changes: he is already a sorcerer in filthy Turkish attire. He summons Katerina's soul, threatens her and demands that Katerina love him. The soul does not yield, and, shocked by what has opened up, Danilo returns home, wakes up Katerina and tells her everything. Katerina renounces her apostate father. In Danila's basement, a sorcerer sits in iron chains, his demonic castle is on fire; not for witchcraft, but for collusion with the Poles, his execution awaits the next day. But, promising to start a righteous life, to retire to the caves, to propitiate God with fasting and prayer, the sorcerer Katerina asks to let him go and thereby save his soul. Fearing her act, Katerina releases it, but hides the truth from her husband. Feeling his death, the saddened Danilo asks his wife to take care of her son.

As expected, Poles run in innumerable clouds, set fire to huts and steal cattle. Pan Danilo fights bravely, but the bullet of the sorcerer who appears on the mountain overtakes him. And although Gorobets jumps to the rescue, Katerina is inconsolable. The Poles are defeated, the wonderful Dnieper is raging, and, fearlessly ruling the canoe, the sorcerer sails to his ruins. In the dugout, he casts spells, but not Katerina's soul appears to him, but someone uninvited; although he is not terrible, but terrifying. Katerina, living with Gorobets, sees her former dreams and trembles for her son. Waking up in a hut surrounded by vigilant guards, she finds him dead and goes crazy. Meanwhile, from the West, a gigantic rider with a baby, on a black horse, is galloping. His eyes are closed. He entered the Carpathians and stopped here.

Mad Katerina is looking everywhere for her father in order to kill him. A certain guest arrives, asking Danila, mourns him, wants to see Katerina, talks to her for a long time about her husband and, it seems, introduces her to her mind. But when he talks about the fact that Danilo, in case of death, asked him to take Katerina for himself, she recognizes her father and rushes to him with a knife. The sorcerer himself kills his daughter.

Beyond Kiev, “an unheard-of miracle appeared”: “suddenly it became visible far to all ends of the world” - the Crimea, and the marshy Sivash, and the land of Galich, and the Carpathian Mountains with a gigantic horseman on the peaks. The sorcerer, who was among the people, runs away in fear, for he recognized in the horseman an uninvited person who had appeared to him during a spell. Night terrors haunt the sorcerer, and he turns to Kyiv, to the holy places. There he kills the holy schema-monk, who did not undertake to pray for such an unheard-of sinner. Now, wherever he steers his horse, he moves towards the Carpathian Mountains. Then the motionless horseman opened his eyes and laughed. And the sorcerer died, and, dead, he saw the dead rising from Kyiv, from the Carpathians, from the land of Galich, and was thrown by a horseman into the abyss, and the dead sank their teeth into him. Another one, taller and scarier than all of them, wanted to rise from the ground and shook it mercilessly, but could not get up. This story ends with the ancient and wonderful song of the old bandura player in the city of Glukhov. It sings about the war between King Stepan and Turchin and the brothers, the Cossacks Ivan and Peter. Ivan caught the Turkish Pasha and shared the royal reward with his brother. But the envious Peter pushed Ivan and his baby son into the abyss and took all the goods for himself. After Peter's death, God allowed Ivan to choose his brother's execution himself. And he cursed all his descendants and predicted that the last of his kind would be an unprecedented villain, and when his end came, Ivan would appear from the hole on horseback and throw him into the abyss, and all his grandfathers would come from different ends of the earth to gnaw at him, and Petro will not be able to rise and will gnaw at himself, wanting revenge and not knowing how to take revenge. God marveled at the cruelty of the execution, but decided that it would be according to this.

IVAN FEDOROVICH SHPONKA AND HIS AUNT

“There was a story with this story”: told by Stepan Ivanovich Kurochka from Gadyach, it was copied into a notebook, the notebook was placed on a small table and from there it was partly dragged by the beekeeper’s zhinka into pies. So the end is missing. If you wish, however, you can always ask Stepan Ivanovich himself, and for convenience a detailed description of him is attached.

Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka, who now lives on his farmstead Vytrebenki, was distinguished by diligence at school and did not bully his comrades. By his virtue, he attracted the attention of even a terrible teacher of the Latin language and was promoted by him to auditors, which, however, did not avoid an unpleasant incident, as a result of which he was beaten on the hands by the same teacher and retained timidity in his soul so much that he never had the desire to go to the civil service. Therefore, two years after the news of the death of the father, he joined the P *** infantry regiment, which, although stationed in the villages, was not inferior to other cavalry ones; for example, several people in it danced a mazurka, and two of the officers played bank. Ivan Fyodorovich, however, kept to himself, preferring to clean buttons, read a fortune-telling book and put mousetraps in the corners. For serviceability, eleven years after receiving the ensign, he was promoted to second lieutenant. His mother died, his aunt took over the estate, and Ivan Fedorovich continued to serve. Finally, he received a letter from his aunt, in which, lamenting her old age and weakness, she asked him to take over the household. Ivan Fedorovich received his resignation with the rank of lieutenant and hired a wagon from Mogilev to Gadyach,

On the journey, which took a little over two weeks, “nothing too remarkable happened,” and only in a tavern near Gadyach did Grigory Grigorievich Storchenko make his acquaintance, who said he was a neighbor from the village of Khortyshe and was certainly inviting him to visit. Soon after this incident, Ivan Fedorovich was already at home, in the arms of Aunt Vasilisa Kashporovna, whose corpulence and gigantic height do not really correspond to her complaints in the letter. The aunt regularly runs the household, and the nephew is constantly in the field with the reapers and mowers and sometimes becomes captivated by the beauty of nature that he forgets to taste his favorite dumplings. In between, the aunt notices that all the land behind their farm, and the village of Khortyshe itself, was registered by the former owner Stepan Kuzmich in the name of Ivan Fedorovich (for the reason that he visited Ivan Fedorovich’s mother long before his birth), there is also a deed of gift somewhere - So Ivan Fedorovich goes to Khortysh for her and meets his acquaintance Storchenko there,

The hospitable owner locks the gate, unharnesses Ivan Fedorovich’s horses, but at the words about the deed of gift he suddenly becomes deaf and remembers the cockroach that once sat in his ear. He assures that there is no deed of gift and there never was, and, introducing him to his mother and her, he drags Ivan Fedorovich to the table, where he meets Ivan Ivanovich, whose head sits in a high collar, “as if in a chaise.” During dinner, the guest is treated to turkey with such zeal that the waiter is forced to kneel, begging him to “take the quilt.” After dinner, the formidable owner goes to bed, and a lively conversation about making marshmallows, drying pears, cucumbers and sowing potatoes occupies the whole society, and even two young ladies, Storchenka’s sisters, take part in it. Having returned, Ivan Fedorovich retells his adventure to his aunt, and, extremely annoyed by the neighbor’s evasiveness, at the mention of the young ladies (especially the blond one), she is animated by a new plan. Thinking about her nephew, “she’s still young,” she’s already mentally nursing her grandchildren and falls into complete absent-minded daydreaming. Finally they go to a neighbor's house together. Having started a conversation about buckwheat and taken the old lady away, she leaves Ivan Fedorovich alone with the young lady. Having exchanged, after a long silence, ideas about the number of flies in the summer, both fall hopelessly silent, and the conversation started by the aunt on the way back about the need for marriage unusually confuses Ivan Fedorovich. He dreams of wonderful dreams: a wife with a goose face, and not one, but several, a wife in a hat, a wife in his pocket, a wife in his ear, a wife lifting him to the bell tower, because he is a bell, a wife who is not a person at all, but fashionable matter (“Take a wife <...> everyone now sews frock coats from her”). The fortune-telling book can do nothing to help the timid Ivan Fedorovich, and the aunt has already “ripened a completely new plan,” which we are not destined to know, since the manuscript ends here.

The true story told by the deacon of the *** church

This true story dates back to the time when the narrator was still a child. The father and one of his sons went to the Crimea to sell tobacco, leaving his wife at home, three more sons and his grandfather to guard the tower - a profitable business, there were a lot of travelers, and best of all - Chumaks who told outlandish stories. One evening, several carts of Chumaks arrive, all old acquaintances of their grandfather. We kissed, lit a cigarette, started talking, and then there was a treat. The grandfather demanded that the grandchildren dance and amuse the guests, but he did not endure it for long and went himself. The grandfather danced gloriously, making such pretzels that it was a wonder, until he reached one place near a bed with cucumbers. This is where his legs became. I tried again - the same thing. He scolded and started again - to no avail. Someone laughed from behind. The grandfather looked around, but did not recognize the place: both the bashtan and the Chumaks - everything was gone, there was only one smooth field around. Still, I understood where he was, behind the priest’s garden, behind the volost clerk’s threshing floor. “This is where the evil spirits dragged me!” I started to get out, it was not a month, I found a path in the darkness. A light flashed on a grave nearby, and another a little further away. "Treasure!" - the grandfather decided and piled up a large branch for a sign, since he did not have a spade with him. He returned late to the bashtan, there were no Chumaks, the children were sleeping. The next evening, grabbing a spade and shovel, he headed to the priest’s garden. So, according to all the signs, he went out into the field to his former place: the dovecote sticks out, but the threshing floor is not visible. I went closer to the threshing floor - the dovecote disappeared. And then it started to rain, and the grandfather, unable to find a place, ran back cursing. The next evening he went with a spade to dig a new bed, and, passing the damned place where he could not dance, he hit the spade in his heart, and ended up in that very field. He recognized everything: the threshing floor, the dovecote, and the grave with a piled up branch. There was a stone on the grave. Having dug around, the grandfather rolled him away and was about to sniff the tobacco, when someone sneezed over his head. I looked around - there was no one. The grandfather began to dig and found a boiler. "Ah, my dear, that's where you are!" - exclaimed the grandfather. The bird's nose said the same thing, and the ram's head from the top of the tree, and the bear. “It’s scary to say a word here,” muttered the grandfather, and after him the bird’s nose, and the ram’s head, and the bear. Grandfather wants to run - there is a bottomless steep slope under his feet, a mountain looms over his head. Grandfather threw the boiler, and everything became the same. Deciding that evil spirits were only frightening, he grabbed the cauldron and began to run.

About this time on the chestnut tree, both the children and the mother who came were perplexed where the grandfather had gone. After supper, the mother went to pour out the hot slop, and a barrel crawled towards her: it was clear that one of the children, shawty, was pushing her from behind. Mother splashed slop at her. It turned out that it was my grandfather. They opened grandfather's cauldron, and in it was rubbish, squabbles and "I'm ashamed to say what it is." From that time on, my grandfather swore to believe the devil, he blocked the accursed place with a wattle fence, and when the neighboring Cossacks hired a field for a tower, something “the devil knows what it is” always rose in the enchanted place.

Author of the retelling: E. V. Kharitonova

Diary of a Madman. Tale (1833)

Titular adviser Aksenty Ivanovich Poprishin, forty-two years old, has been keeping his diary entries for more than four months.

On a rainy day, Tuesday, October 1933, XNUMX, Poprishin, in his old-fashioned overcoat, sets off late for his unloved service in one of the branches of the St. Petersburg department, hoping only to get some money from his salary in advance from the treasurer. On the way, he notices a carriage approaching the store, from which the lovely daughter of the director of the department where he works flutters out. The hero accidentally overhears a conversation between his daughter’s dog Medzhi and the dog Fidelka, which belongs to two ladies passing by. Surprised by this fact, Poprishchin, instead of going to work, goes to pick up the ladies and finds out that they live on the fifth floor of Zverkov’s house, near the Kokushkin Bridge.

The next day, while sharpening feathers in the director's office, Poprishchin accidentally meets his daughter, whom he becomes more and more fascinated with. He even gives her a handkerchief that has fallen on the floor. Within a month, his indiscreet behavior and dreams about this young lady become noticeable to others. The head of the department even reprimands him. Nevertheless, Poprishchin secretly enters his Excellency's house and, wanting to find out something about the young lady, enters into a conversation with the little dog Medzhi. The latter avoids the conversation. Then Poprishchin goes to Zverkov's house, goes up to the sixth floor (Gogol's mistake!), where the dog Fidelka lives with his mistresses, and steals a pile of small pieces of paper from her corner. This turns out, as Poprishchin had supposed, to be a correspondence between two dog girlfriends, from which he learns a lot of important things for himself: about awarding the director of the department with another order, about courting his daughter, who, it turns out, is called Sophie, a certain chamber junker Teplov, and even about herself, the perfect turtle-in-a-bag freak that Sophie can't help but laugh at. These notes of little dogs, like all of Gogol's prose, are full of references to many random characters, such as a certain Bobov, who looks like a stork in his frill, or Lidina, who is sure that she has blue eyes, while she has green ones, or Trezor's dog from a neighboring yard, Madji, who is kind to the heart of writing these letters. Finally, Poprishchin learns from them that Sophie's affair with the chamber junker Teplov is clearly heading towards the wedding.

Unhappy love, coupled with alarming newspaper reports, completely damages Poprishchin's sanity. He is concerned about the attempt to abolish the Spanish throne due to the death of the king. How is he?

Poprishchin, is there a secret heir, that is, a noble person, one of those who is loved and revered by those around him? Chukhonka Mavra, who serves Poprishchin, will be the first to learn this amazing news. After more than three weeks of absenteeism, the “Spanish king” Poprishchin comes to his office, does not stand in front of the director, signs “Ferdinand VIII” on the paper, after which he makes his way into the director’s apartment, tries to explain to Sophie, making the discovery that women fall in love with the same devil. The tense wait for the Spanish deputies is finally resolved by their arrival. But “Spain”, to which he is taken, is a very strange land. There are a lot of grandees with shaved heads, they are beaten with sticks, cold water is dripped onto the top of their heads. It is obvious that the Great Inquisition rules here, which prevents Poprishchin from making great discoveries worthy of his post. He writes a tearful letter to his mother with a plea for help, but a bump under the very nose of the Algerian Bey again distracts his poor attention.

Author of the retelling: I. L. Shevelev

Nevsky Avenue. Tale (1834)

Two young men - lieutenant Pirogov and artist Piskarev - are chasing lonely ladies walking along Nevsky Prospekt in the evening. The artist follows the brunette, cherishing the most romantic love at her expense. They reach Foundry and, going up to the top floor of a brightly lit four-story building, find themselves in a room where there are three more women, by the sight of which Piskarev realizes with horror that he has ended up in a brothel. The heavenly appearance of his chosen one does not correspond in any way in his mind either with this place or with her stupid and vulgar conversation. Piskarev runs out into the street in despair. Arriving home, he could not calm down for a long time, but only dozed off, as a footman in a rich livery knocks on the door and says that the lady with whom he had just been sent a carriage for him and asks to be at her house immediately.

The amazed Piskarev is brought to the ball, where among the dancing ladies his chosen one is the most beautiful. They start talking, but she is carried away somewhere, Piskarev searches in vain for her in the rooms and... wakes up at home. It was a dream! From now on, he loses peace, wanting to see her at least in a dream. Opium allows him to find his beloved in his dreams. One day he imagines his workshop, he with a palette in his hands and she, his wife, next to him. Why not? - he thinks, waking up. He will find her and marry her! Piskarev has difficulty finding the right house, and - lo and behold! - It is she who opens the door for him and sweetly informs him that, despite two o’clock in the afternoon, she just woke up, since she was brought here completely drunk only at seven in the morning. Piskarev tells the seventeen-year-old beauty about the abyss of debauchery in which she is immersed, paints pictures of a happy working family life with him, but she refuses with contempt, she laughs at him! Piskarev rushes out, wanders somewhere, and upon returning home, locks himself in his room. A week later, after breaking down the door, they find him with his throat cut with a razor. The poor man is buried at the Okhtinsky cemetery, and even his friend Pirogov is not at the funeral, since the lieutenant himself, in turn, ended up in history. The guy is not a miss, he, pursuing his blonde, ends up in the apartment of a certain tinsmith Schiller, who at that moment, being very drunk, asks the drunken shoemaker Hoffmann to cut off his nose with a shoe knife. Lieutenant Pirogov, who prevented them from doing this, stumbled upon rudeness and retreated. But only to return the next morning to continue his love adventure with the blonde, who turned out to be Schiller’s wife. He orders the tinsmith to make spurs for himself and, taking this opportunity, continues the siege, however, arousing jealousy in his husband. On Sunday, when Schiller is not at home, Pirogov comes to his wife, dances with her, kisses her, and just at that moment Schiller appears with his friend Hoffmann and the carpenter Kunz, also, by the way, a German. Drunken angry artisans grab Lieutenant Pirogov by the arms and legs and do something so rude and impolite to him that the author cannot find words to describe this action. Only Gogol's draft manuscript, not passed by the censor at this point, allows us to interrupt our guesses and find out that Pirogov was flogged! In a rage, the lieutenant flies out of the house, promising the tinsmith whips and Siberia, at least. However, on the way, going to a pastry shop, eating a couple of pies and reading a newspaper, Pirogov cooled down, and having distinguished himself in the mazurka with his friends in the evening, he completely calmed down. This is such a strange, incomprehensible incident. However, on Nevsky Prospekt, under the deceptive, false light of the streetlights, the author assures us, everything is exactly like this...

Author of the retelling: I. L. Shevelev

Nose. Tale (1835)

The incident described, according to the narrator, happened in St. Petersburg on March 25th. The barber Ivan Yakovlevich, eating fresh bread baked by his wife Praskovya Osipovna in the morning, finds his nose in it. Puzzled by this unrealistic incident, having recognized the nose of collegiate assessor Kovalev, he is looking in vain for a way to get rid of his find. Finally, he throws him off the Isakievsky Bridge and, against all expectations, is detained by a district warden with large sideburns. The collegiate assessor Kovalev (who was more fond of being called a major), waking up that very morning with the intention of examining a pimple that had just jumped up on his nose, did not even find the nose itself. Major Kovalev, who needs a decent appearance, because the purpose of his arrival in the capital is to find a place in some prominent department and, possibly, to marry (on the occasion of which he is familiar with ladies in many houses: Chekhtyreva, state councilor, Pelageya Grigorievna Podtochina, headquarters officer), - goes to the chief police chief, but on the way he meets his own nose (dressed, however, in a uniform embroidered with gold and a hat with a plume, denouncing him as a state adviser). Nose gets into the carriage and goes to the Kazan Cathedral, where he prays with an air of the greatest piety.

Major Kovalev, at first timid, and then directly calling his nose by its proper name, does not succeed in his intentions and, distracted by a lady in a hat as light as a cake, loses his unyielding interlocutor. Not finding the Chief of Police at home, Kovalev goes on a newspaper expedition, wanting to advertise the loss, but the gray-haired official refuses him (“The newspaper may lose its reputation”) and, full of compassion, offers to sniff tobacco, which completely upsets Major Kovalev. He goes to a private bailiff, but finds him in the mood to sleep after lunch and listens to irritated remarks about “all sorts of majors” who hang around God knows where, and about the fact that a decent person’s nose won’t be torn off. He came home, the saddened Kovalev ponders the reasons for the strange disappearance and decides that the culprit is the staff officer Podtochina, whose daughter he was in no hurry to marry, and she, probably out of revenge, hired some old women. The sudden appearance of a police official, who brought his nose wrapped in paper and announced that he had been intercepted on the way to Riga with a false passport, plunges Kovalev into joyful unconsciousness.

However, his joy is premature: the nose does not stick to its former place. The called doctor does not undertake to put his nose on, assuring that it will be even worse, and encourages Kovalev to put his nose in a jar of alcohol and sell it for decent money. The unfortunate Kovalev writes to the staff officer Podtochina, reproaching, threatening and demanding to immediately return the nose to its place. The response of the staff officer reveals her complete innocence, for it shows such a degree of misunderstanding that cannot be imagined on purpose.

Meanwhile, rumors are spreading around the capital and acquiring many details: they say that exactly at three o'clock collegiate assessor Kovalev is walking along Nevsky, then - that he is in the Juncker's store, then - in the Tauride Garden; to all these places many people flock, and enterprising speculators build benches for the convenience of observation. One way or another, but on April 7, the nose was again in its place. To the happy Kovalev, the barber Ivan Yakovlevich appears and shaves him with the greatest care and embarrassment. One day, Major Kovalev manages to go everywhere: to the confectionery, and to the department where he was looking for a place, and to his friend, also a collegiate assessor or major, he meets on the way the staff officer Podtochina with her daughter, in a conversation with whom he thoroughly sniffs tobacco.

The description of his happy mood is interrupted by the writer's sudden admission that there are many implausible things in this story and that it is especially surprising that there are authors who take such plots. After some reflection, the writer nevertheless declares that such incidents are rare, but they do happen.

Author of the retelling: E. V. Kharitonova

Old world landowners. Tale (1835)

The old men Afanasy Ivanovich Tovstogub and his wife Pulcheria Ivanovna live in seclusion in one of the remote villages, called old-world villages in Little Russia. Their life is so quiet that to a guest who accidentally drove into a low manor house, surrounded by the greenery of a garden, the passions and disturbing unrest of the outside world seem to not exist at all. The small rooms of the house are crammed with all sorts of gizmos, the doors sing in different ways, the pantries are filled with supplies, the preparation of which is constantly busy with the courtyards under the direction of Pulcheria Ivanovna. Despite the fact that the economy is robbed by the clerk and lackeys, the blessed land produces everything in such quantity that Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna do not notice the theft at all.

The old people never had children, and all their affection was concentrated on themselves. It is impossible to look without participation at their mutual love, when with extraordinary concern in their voices they turn to each other on "you", warning every desire and even an affectionate word that has not yet been said. They love to treat - and if it were not for the special properties of the Little Russian air that helps digestion, then the guest, no doubt, after dinner would have been lying on the table instead of a bed. The old people also love to eat themselves - and from the very early morning until late in the evening you can hear Pulcheria Ivanovna guessing the desires of her husband, offering one or the other food in an affectionate voice. Sometimes Afanasy Ivanovich likes to play a joke on Pulcheria Ivanovna and will suddenly start talking about a fire or a war, forcing his wife to be frightened in earnest and to be baptized so that her husband's speech could never come true. But after a minute, unpleasant thoughts are forgotten, the old people decide that it is time to have a bite, and suddenly a tablecloth and those dishes that Afanasy Ivanovich chooses at the prompt of his wife appear on the table. And quietly, calmly, in the extraordinary harmony of two loving hearts, days go by.

A sad event changes the life of this peaceful corner forever. Pulcheria Ivanovna's favorite cat, usually lying at her feet, disappears in a large forest behind the garden, where wild cats lure her. Three days later, having knocked down in search of a cat, Pulcheria Ivanovna meets her pet in the garden, who came out with a miserable meow from the weeds Pulcheria Ivanovna feeds a runaway and thin fugitive, wants to stroke her, but the ungrateful creature rushes out the window and disappears forever. From that day on, the old woman becomes thoughtful, bored, and suddenly announces to Afanasy Ivanovich that it was death that came for her and that they were soon destined to meet in the next world. The only thing the old woman regrets is that there will be no one to look after her husband. She asks the housekeeper Yavdokha to take care of Afanasy Ivanovich, threatening her entire family with God's punishment if she does not fulfill the order of the mistress.

Pulcheria Ivanovna dies. At the funeral, Afanasy Ivanovich looks strange, as if he does not understand all the savagery of what happened. When he returns to his house and sees how empty his room has become, he sobs loudly and inconsolably, and tears, like a river, flow from his dull eyes.

Five years have passed since then. The house is deteriorating without its mistress, Afanasy Ivanovich is weakening and doubled against the former. But his longing does not weaken with time. In all the objects surrounding him, he sees the dead woman, tries to pronounce her name, but in the middle of the word, convulsions distort his face, and the cry of a child breaks out of an already cooling heart.

It’s strange, but the circumstances of Afanasy Ivanovich’s death are similar to the death of his beloved wife. As he slowly walks along the garden path, he suddenly hears someone behind him saying in a clear voice: “Afanasy Ivanovich!” For a minute his face perks up, and he says: “It’s Pulcheria Ivanovna calling me!” He submits to this conviction with the will of an obedient child. “Place me near Pulcheria Ivanovna” - that’s all he says before his death. His wish was fulfilled. The manor's house was empty, the goods were taken away by the peasants and finally thrown to the wind by the visiting distant relative-heir.

Author of the retelling: V. M. Sotnikov

Taras Bulba. Tale (1835 - revised 1842)

After graduating from the Kyiv Academy, two of his sons, Ostap and Andriy, come to the old Cossack colonel Taras Bulba. Two burly fellows, whose healthy and strong faces have not yet been touched by a razor, are embarrassed by the meeting with their father, who makes fun of their clothes of recent seminarians. The eldest, Ostap, cannot stand the ridicule of his father: "Even though you are my father, but if you laugh, then, by God, I will beat you!" And father and son, instead of greeting after a long absence, quite seriously hit each other with cuffs. A pale, thin and kind mother tries to reason with her violent husband, who is already stopping himself, pleased that he has tested his son. Bulba wants to "greet" the younger one in the same way, but he is already hugging him, protecting his mother from his father.

On the occasion of the arrival of his sons, Taras Bulba convenes all the centurions and the entire regimental rank and announces his decision to send Ostap and Andriy to the Sich, because there is no better science for a young Cossack than the Zaporozhian Sich. At the sight of the young strength of his sons, the military spirit of Taras himself flares up, and he decides to go with them to introduce them to all his old comrades. The poor mother sits all night over the sleeping children, not closing her eyes, wishing that the night would last as long as possible. Her dear sons are taken from her; they take it so that she will never see them! In the morning, after the blessing, the mother, despairing of grief, is barely torn off from the children and taken to the hut.

The three riders ride in silence. Old Taras recalls his wild life, a tear freezes in his eyes, his graying head droops. Ostap, who has a stern and firm character, although hardened during the years of training in the bursa, retained his natural kindness and was touched by the tears of his poor mother. This alone confuses him and makes him lower his head thoughtfully. Andriy is also having a hard time saying goodbye to his mother and home, but his thoughts are occupied with memories of a beautiful Polish girl whom he met just before leaving Kiev. Then Andriy managed to get into the beauty's bedroom through the fireplace chimney, a knock on the door forced the Polish woman to hide the young Cossack under the bed. As soon as the worry had passed, the Tatar woman, the lady's maid, took Andrii out into the garden, where he barely escaped from the woke servants. He once again saw the beautiful Polish woman in the church, soon she left - and now, lowering his eyes into the mane of his horse, Andriy thinks about her.

After a long journey, the Sich meets Taras with his sons with his wild life - a sign of the Zaporizhian will. Cossacks do not like to waste time on military exercises, collecting abusive experience only in the heat of battle. Ostap and Andriy rush with all the ardor of youths into this rampant sea. But old Taras does not like an idle life - he does not want to prepare his sons for such an activity. Having met with all his companions, he thinks out how to raise the Cossacks on a campaign, so as not to waste the Cossack prowess on an uninterrupted feast and drunken fun. He persuades the Kozakovs to re-elect the koschevoi, who keeps peace with the enemies of the Cossacks. The new koschevoi, under pressure from the most militant Cossacks, and above all Taras, decides to go to Poland in order to mark all the evil and shame of faith and Cossack glory.

And soon the entire Polish south-west becomes the prey of fear, the rumor running ahead: "Cossacks! The Cossacks appeared!" In one month, young Cossacks matured in battles, and old Taras is pleased to see that both of his sons are among the first. The Cossack army is trying to take the city of Dubnr, where there is a lot of treasury and rich inhabitants, but they meet desperate resistance from the garrison and residents. The Cossacks besiege the city and wait for the famine to begin in it. Having nothing to do, the Cossacks devastate the surroundings, burn out defenseless villages and unharvested grain. The young, especially the sons of Taras, do not like this kind of life. Old Bulba reassures them, promising hot fights soon. On one of the dark nights, Andria is awakened from sleep by a strange creature that looks like a ghost. This is a Tatar, a servant of the very Polish woman with whom Andriy is in love. The Tatar woman tells in a whisper that the lady is in the city, she saw Andriy from the city rampart and asks him to come to her or at least give a piece of bread for her dying mother. Andriy loads sacks of bread as much as he can carry, and a Tatar woman leads him through an underground passage to the city. Having met his beloved, he renounces his father and brother, comrades and homeland: "The homeland is what our soul is looking for, which is sweeter for her than anything. My homeland is you." Andriy stays with the lady to protect her to the last breath from her former comrades.

Polish troops, sent to reinforce the besieged, pass into the city past the drunken Cossacks, killing many while sleeping, and capturing many. This event hardens the Kozaks, who decide to continue the siege to the end. Taras, looking for his missing son, receives a terrible confirmation of Andriy's betrayal.

The Poles arrange sorties, but the Cossacks are still successfully fighting them off. News comes from the Sich that, in the absence of the main force, the Tatars attacked the remaining Kozaks and captured them, seizing the treasury. The Cossack army near Dubna is divided in two - half goes to the rescue of the treasury and comrades, the other half remains to continue the siege. Taras, leading the siege army, delivers an impassioned speech to the glory of camaraderie.

The Poles learn about the weakening of the enemy and come out of the city for a decisive battle. Among them is Andriy. Taras Bulba orders the Cossacks to lure him to the forest and there, meeting with Andriy face to face, he kills his son, who even before his death utters one word - the name of the beautiful lady. Reinforcements arrive at the Poles, and they defeat the Cossacks. Ostap is captured, the wounded Taras, being saved from the chase, is brought to the Sich.

Having recovered from his wounds, Taras forces the Jew Yankel to secretly smuggle him to Warsaw with big money and threats to try to ransom Ostap there. Taras is present at the terrible execution of his son in the town square. Not a single groan escapes under torture from Ostap's chest, only before his death he cries out: "Father! where are you! Do you hear all this?" - "I hear!" - Taras answers over the crowd. They rush to catch him, but Taras is already gone.

One hundred and twenty thousand Cossacks, among whom is the regiment of Taras Bulba, go on a campaign against the Poles. Even the Cossacks themselves notice the excessive ferocity and cruelty of Taras towards the enemy. This is how he avenges the death of his son. The defeated Polish hetman Nikolai Pototsky swears an oath not to inflict any further offense on the Cossack army. Only Colonel Bulba does not agree to such a peace, assuring his comrades that the requested Poles will not keep their word. And he leads his regiment. His prediction comes true - having gathered their strength, the Poles treacherously attack the Kozaks and defeat them.

And Taras walks all over Poland with his regiment, continuing to avenge the death of Ostap and his comrades, ruthlessly destroying all life.

Five regiments under the leadership of the same Pototsky finally overtake the regiment of Taras, who has come to rest in an old ruined fortress on the banks of the Dniester. The battle lasts for four days. The surviving Cossacks make their way, but the old ataman stops to look for his cradle in the grass, and the haiduks overtake him. Taras is tied to an oak tree with iron chains, his hands are nailed, and a fire is laid out under him. Before his death, Taras manages to shout to his comrades to go down to the canoes, which he sees from above, and leave the chase along the river. And at the last terrible moment, the old chieftain thinks about his comrades, about their future victories, when old Taras will no longer be with them.

The Cossacks leave the chase, row together with oars and talk about their chieftain.

Author of the retelling: V. M. Sotnikov

Viy. Tale (1835, revised 1842)

The most long-awaited event for the seminary is vacancies, when the bursaks (state-run seminarians) go home. In groups they are sent from Kyiv along the high road, earning their livelihood with spiritual chants in wealthy farms.

Three bursaks: the theologian Khalyava, the philosopher Khoma Brut and the rhetorician Tiberius Gorobets, having lost their way in the night, go out to the farm. The old hostess lets the Bursaks spend the night on the condition that they put everyone in different places. Khoma Brutus is about to fall asleep like a dead man in an empty sheepshed, when suddenly an old woman enters. With sparkling eyes, she catches Homa and jumps onto his shoulders. “Hey, yes, this is a witch,” the student guesses, but he is already rushing above the ground, sweat is rolling off him in a hail. He begins to remember all the prayers and feels that the witch is weakening at the same time. With the speed of lightning, Khoma manages to jump out from under the old woman, jumps on her back, picks up the log and begins to walk around the witch. Wild cries are heard, the old woman falls to the ground in exhaustion - and now a young beauty lies with her last moans in front of Khoma. In fear, the student starts running at full speed and returns to Kyiv.

Khoma is summoned by the rector and ordered to go to a distant farm to the richest centurion - to read the prayers for his daughter, who returned from a beaten walk. Panna's dying wish: the seminarian Khoma Brut should read the last three nights on her. So that he would not run away along the road, a wagon and six healthy Kozaks were sent. When the bursak is brought in, the centurion asks him where he met his daughter. But Khoma himself does not know this. When they bring him to the coffin, he recognizes the same witch in the pannochka.

At dinner, the student listens to the stories of the Kozakovs about the tricks of the lady-witch. By nightfall, he is locked up in the church where the coffin stands. Khoma goes to the kliros and begins to read prayers. The witch gets up from the coffin, but stumbles upon the circle outlined by Homa around herself. She returns to the coffin, flies around the church in it, but loud prayers and a circle protect Khoma. The coffin falls, a green corpse rises from it, but a distant cock crow is heard. The witch falls into the coffin and the lid slams shut.

During the day, the bursak sleeps, drinks vodka, wanders around the village, and in the evening he becomes more and more thoughtful. They take him back to church. He draws a lifeline, reads aloud and raises his head. The corpse is already standing nearby, staring at him with dead, green eyes. The wind carries the terrible words of witch spells through the church, countless evil spirits are breaking in the doors. The crowing of a rooster again stops the demonic action. Homa, who has become gray-haired, is found barely alive in the morning. He asks the centurion to let him go, but he threatens with a terrible punishment for disobedience. Homa tries to run, but he is caught.

The silence of the third hellish night inside the church explodes with the crack of the iron lid of the coffin. The witch's teeth chatter, spells screech, doors are ripped off their hinges, and a myriad of monsters fill the room with the sound of wings and the scratching of claws. Khoma is already singing prayers with the last of his strength. "Bring Viy!" the witch screams. A squat clubfoot monster with an iron face, the leader of evil spirits, enters the church with heavy steps. He orders to raise his eyelids. "Don't look!" - hears Khoma's inner voice, but does not hold back and looks. "Here he is!" Viy points at him with an iron finger. The impure force rushes at the philosopher, and the spirit flies out of him. For the second time the rooster crows, the first one was listened to by the spirits. They run away, but they don't make it. And so the church remains forever standing with monsters stuck in the doors and windows, overgrown with weeds, and no one will find a way to it now.

Having learned about the fate of Khoma, Tiberius Gorobets and Freebie commemorate his soul in Kyiv, concluding after the third round: the philosopher disappeared because he was afraid.

Author of the retelling: V. M. Sotnikov

The story of how Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich quarreled. Tale (1835)

Wonderful man Ivan Ivanovich! What a glorious bekesha he has! When it gets hot, Ivan Ivanovich throws off his bekesha, rests in one shirt and looks at what is happening in the yard and on the street. Melons are his favorite food. Ivan Ivanovich eats a melon, and collects the seeds in a special piece of paper and writes on it: "This melon was eaten on such and such a date." And what a house Ivan Ivanovich has! With outbuildings and awnings, so that the roofs of the entire building look like sponges growing on a tree. And the garden! What is not there! There are all sorts of trees and every vegetable garden in this garden! More than ten years have passed since Ivan Ivanovich became a widower. He didn't have children. The girl Gapka has children, they run around the yard and often ask Ivan Ivanovich: "Tya, give me a gingerbread!" - and get either a bagel, or a piece of melon, or a pear. And what a pious man Ivan Ivanovich is! Every Sunday he goes to church and, after the service, goes around asking all the beggars, and when he asks the crippled woman if she wants meat or bread, the old woman reaches out her hand to him. "Well, go with God, - says Ivan Ivanovich, - why are you standing there? After all, I don't beat you!" He likes to go in for a glass of vodka to his neighbor Ivan Nikiforovich, or to the judge, or to the mayor, and he really likes it if someone gives him a present or a present.

Ivan Nikiforovich is also a very good person. His yard is near the yard of Ivan Ivanovich. And they are such pals as the world has never made. Ivan Nikiforovich never married and had no intention of getting married. He has a habit of lying all day on the porch, and if he passes through the yard to inspect the household, he will soon return to rest again. In the heat, Ivan Nikiforovich loves to swim, sits up to his neck in water, orders a table and a samovar to be put in the water, and drinks tea in such a coolness.

Despite their great friendship, Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are not entirely similar to each other. Ivan Ivanovich is thin and tall, Ivan Nikiforovich is shorter, but spreads out in width. Ivan Ivanovich has the gift of speaking extremely pleasantly, Ivan Nikiforovich, on the contrary, is more silent, but if he slaps a word, then just hold on. Ivan Ivanovich's head looks like a radish with its tail down, Ivan Nikiforovich's head looks like a radish with its tail up. Ivan Ivanovich likes to go somewhere, Ivan Nikiforovich doesn’t want to go anywhere. Ivan Ivanovich is extremely curious and, if he is dissatisfied with something, he immediately makes it noticeable. It is always difficult to tell by Ivan Nikiforovich’s appearance whether he is angry or happy about something. The friends equally do not like fleas and will never let a merchant pass by with goods without buying an elixir against these insects from him, scolding him well in advance for the fact that he professes the Jewish faith. However, despite some differences, both Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are wonderful people.

One morning, lying under a canopy, Ivan Ivanovich takes a long look at his household and thinks: “My God, what a master I am! What else don’t I have?” Having asked himself such a thoughtful question, Ivan Ivanovich begins to look into Ivan Nikiforovich’s yard. There, a skinny woman takes out and hangs up stale things to air, among the endless number of which Ivan Ivanovich’s attention is attracted by an old gun. He examines the gun, gets dressed and goes to Ivan Nikiforovich to beg for something he likes or to exchange for something. Ivan Nikiforovich is resting on a carpet spread on the floor without any clothes. The friends treat themselves to vodka and pies with sour cream, Ivan Ivanovich praises the weather, Ivan Nikiforovich tells the heat to go to hell. Ivan Ivanovich is offended by the ungodly words, but still gets down to business and asks to give him the gun or exchange it for a brown pig with two bags of oats in addition. Ivan Nikiforovich does not agree, arguing about the need for a gun in the household only provoking his neighbor. Ivan Ivanovich says with annoyance: “You, Ivan Nikiforovich, ran away with your gun like a fool with a written bag.” To this, the neighbor, who knows how to shave better than any razor, replies: “And you, Ivan Ivanovich, are a real gander.” This word offends Ivan Ivanovich so much that he cannot control himself. Friends not only quarrel - Ivan Nikiforovich even calls the woman and the boy to take and throw his neighbor out the door. In addition, Ivan Nikiforovich promises to beat Ivan Ivanovich in the face, he responds by running away and showing the fig.

So, two respectable men, the honor and adornment of Mirgorod, quarreled among themselves! And for what? For nonsense, for the fact that one called the other a gander. At first, the former friends are still drawn to reconcile, but Agafia Fedoseevna comes to Ivan Nikiforovich, who was neither his sister-in-law nor godfather, but still often went to him - she whispers to Ivan Nikiforovich that he never put up and could not forgive your neighbour. To top it off, as if with a special intention to offend a recent friend, Ivan Nikiforovich builds a goose barn right on the spot where he climbed over the wattle fence.

At night, Ivan Ivanovich sneaks around with a saw in his hand and cuts down the pillars of the barn, and he falls with a terrible crash. All the next day, Ivan Ivanovich imagines that the hated neighbor will take revenge on him and, at least, set fire to his house. In order to get ahead of Ivan Nikiforovich, he hurries to the Mirgorod district court to file a complaint against his neighbor. After him, with the same purpose, Ivan Nikiforovich appears in court. The judge takes turns persuading the neighbors to reconcile, but they are adamant. The general confusion in the court ends with an emergency: Ivan Ivanovich's brown pig runs into the room, grabs Ivan Nikiforovich's petition and runs away with paper.

The mayor goes to Ivan Ivanovich, accusing the owner of the act of his pig and at the same time trying to persuade him to reconcile with his neighbor. The mayor's visit does not bring success.

Ivan Nikiforovich writes a new complaint, the paper is put in a closet, and it lies there for a year, two, three. Ivan Nikiforovich builds a new goose barn, the enmity of the neighbors grows stronger. The whole city lives with one desire - to reconcile the enemies, but this turns out to be impossible. Where Ivan Ivanovich appears, there cannot be Ivan Nikiforovich, and vice versa.

At the assembly, which is given by the mayor, decent society is deceived into bringing their warring neighbors nose to nose. Everyone persuades them to extend their hands to each other as a sign of reconciliation. Remembering the reason for the quarrel, Ivan Nikiforovich says: “Let me tell you in a friendly way, Ivan Ivanovich! You were offended for God knows what: for the fact that I called you a gander...” The offensive word was uttered again, Ivan Ivanovich is furious, reconciliation, already almost accomplished, flies into the dust!

Twelve years later, on a holiday, in the church among the people, at a distance from each other, two old men stand - Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich. How they have changed and aged! But all their thoughts are occupied with the legal battle, which is already underway in Poltava, and even in bad weather Ivan Nikiforovich goes there in the hope of resolving the case in his favor. Ivan Ivanovich is also waiting for favorable news...

In Mirgorod it is autumn with its melancholy weather: mud and fog, monotonous rain, tearful sky without a light.

Boring in this world, gentlemen!

Author of the retelling: V. M. Sotnikov

Inspector. Comedy (1836)

In a county town, from which "you ride for three years, you won't get to any state," the mayor, Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, gathers officials in order to report unpleasant news: he was notified by a letter from an acquaintance that "an auditor from St. Petersburg" is coming to their city , incognito. And with a secret prescription." The mayor - two rats of unnatural size dreamed all night - had a premonition of something bad. The reasons for the visit of the auditor are being sought, and the judge, Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin (who has read "five or six books, and therefore is somewhat free-thinking"), suggests a war being started by Russia. The mayor, meanwhile, advises Artemy Filippovich Strawberry, the trustee of charitable institutions, to put clean caps on the sick, to dispose of the strength of the tobacco they smoke, and in general, if possible, to reduce their number - and meets the full sympathy of Strawberry, who reveres that "a simple man: if he dies , then he will die; if he recovers, then he will recover.” To the judge, the mayor points out "domestic geese with small goslings" that snoop underfoot in the front for petitioners; to the assessor, from whom from childhood "he gives away a little vodka"; on a hunting rapnik that hangs over the very closet with papers. With a discussion about bribes (and in particular, greyhound puppies), the mayor turns to Luka Lukich Khlopov, the superintendent of schools, and laments the strange habits "inseparable from an academic title": one teacher constantly makes faces, another explains with such fervor that he does not remember himself ("Of course, it is Alexander the Macedonian hero, but why break the chairs? This is a loss to the treasury").

The postmaster Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin appears, "a simple-minded man to the point of naivety." The mayor, fearing a denunciation, asks him to look through the letters, but the postmaster, who has long been reading them out of pure curiosity ("you will read another letter with pleasure"), has not yet come across anything about the St. Petersburg official. Out of breath, the landowners Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky enter and, interrupting each other every minute, tell about a visit to a hotel tavern and a young man, observant (“and looked into our plates”), with such an expression on his face - in a word, precisely the auditor: "and he doesn’t pay money, and he doesn’t go, who would be if not him?

The officials disperse worriedly, the mayor decides to “parade to the hotel” and gives urgent instructions to the quarterly regarding the street leading to the tavern and the construction of a church at a charitable institution (don’t forget that it began “to be built, but burned down,” otherwise someone will blurt out what and was not built at all). The mayor leaves with Dobchinsky in great excitement, Bobchinsky runs after the droshky like a cockerel. Anna Andreevna, the mayor's wife, and Marya Antonovna, his daughter, appear. The first scolds her daughter for her slowness and asks her leaving husband through the window whether the newcomer has a mustache and what kind of mustache. Frustrated by the failure, she sends Avdotya for a droshky.

In a small hotel room, the servant Osip lies on a master's bed. He is hungry, complains about the owner who lost money, about his thoughtless extravagance and recalls the joys of life in St. Petersburg. Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov appears, a young stupid man. After a squabble, with increasing timidity, he sends Osip for dinner - if they don't give it, then for the owner. Explanations with the tavern servant are followed by a crappy dinner. Having emptied the plates, Khlestakov scolds, about this time the mayor inquires about him. In a dark room under the stairs, where Khlestakov lodges, they meet. Sincere words about the purpose of the trip, about the formidable father who called Ivan Alexandrovich from St. Petersburg, are mistaken for a skillful invention incognito, and the mayor understands his cries about his unwillingness to go to prison in the sense that the visitor will not cover up his misdeeds. The mayor, lost in fear, offers the visitor money and asks to move into his house, as well as to inspect - for the sake of curiosity - some institutions in the city, "somehow charitable and others." The visitor unexpectedly agrees, and, having written two notes on the tavern account, to Strawberry and his wife, the mayor sends Dobchinsky with them (Bobchinsky, who was diligently eavesdropping at the door, falls to the floor with her), and he goes with Khlestakov.

Anna Andreevna, waiting impatiently and anxiously for news, is still annoyed with her daughter. Dobchinsky comes running with a note and a story about the official, that “he is not a general, but will not yield to the general,” about his menacingness at first and his softening later. Anna Andreevna reads the note, where a list of pickles and caviar is interspersed with a request to prepare a room for the guest and take wine from the merchant Abdulin. Both ladies, quarreling, decide which dress to wear. The mayor and Khlestakov return, accompanied by Zemlyanika (who had just eaten labardan in the hospital), Khlopov and the inevitable Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky. The conversation concerns the successes of Artemy Filippovich: since he took office, all the patients “are getting better like flies.” The mayor gives a speech about his selfless zeal. The softened Khlestakov wonders if it is possible to play cards somewhere in the city, and the mayor, realizing there is a catch in the question, decisively speaks out against cards (not at all embarrassed by his recent winnings from Khlopov). Completely upset by the appearance of the ladies, Khlestakov tells how in St. Petersburg they took him for the commander-in-chief, that he was on friendly terms with Pushkin, how he once managed the department, which was preceded by persuasion and the sending of thirty-five thousand couriers to him alone; he depicts his unparalleled severity, predicts his imminent promotion to field marshal, which instills panic in the mayor and his entourage, in which fear everyone disperses when Khlestakov retires to sleep. Anna Andreevna and Marya Antonovna, having argued over who the visitor looked at more, together with the mayor, vying with each other, ask Osip about the owner. He answers so ambiguously and evasively that, assuming Khlestakov is an important person, they only confirm this. The mayor orders the police to stand on the porch so as not to let in merchants, petitioners and anyone who might complain.

The officials in the mayor's house are conferring on what to do, decide to give the visitor a bribe and persuade Lyapkin-Tyapkin, famous for his eloquence (“every word, Cicero rolled off his tongue”), to be the first. Khlestakov wakes up and scares them away. Lyapkin-Tyapkin, completely afraid, entered with the intention of giving money, cannot even answer coherently how long he has served and what he has served; he drops the money and considers himself almost under arrest. Khlestakov, who raised the money, asks to borrow it, because “he spent money on the road.” Talking with the postmaster about the pleasures of life in the county town, offering the superintendent of schools a cigar and the question of who, in his taste, is preferable - brunettes or blondes, confusing Strawberry with the remark that yesterday he was shorter, he takes from everyone in turn " loan" under the same pretext. Strawberry diversifies the situation by informing on everyone and offering to express their thoughts in writing. Khlestakov immediately asks Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky for a thousand rubles or at least a hundred (however, he is content with sixty-five). Dobchinsky is taking care of his first-born, born before marriage, wanting to make him a legitimate son, and he is hopeful. Bobchinsky asks, on occasion, to tell all the nobles in St. Petersburg: senators, admirals (“and if the sovereign has to do this, tell the sovereign too”) that “Peter Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives in such and such a city.”

Having sent the landowners away, Khlestakov sits down to write a letter to his friend Tryapichkin in St. Petersburg in order to outline an amusing incident of how he was mistaken for a “statesman.” While the owner is writing, Osip persuades him to leave quickly and succeeds in his arguments. Having sent Osip with a letter and for the horses, Khlestakov receives the merchants, who are loudly prevented by the quarterly Derzhimorda. They complain about the mayor’s “offenses” and give him the requested five hundred rubles on loan (Osip takes a loaf of sugar and much more: “and the rope will come in handy on the road”). The hopeful merchants are replaced by a mechanic and a non-commissioned officer's wife with complaints about the same mayor. Osip pushes out the rest of the petitioners. The meeting with Marya Antonovna, who, really, was not going anywhere, but was only wondering if mamma was here, ends with a declaration of love, a kiss from the lying Khlestakov and his repentance on his knees. Anna Andreevna, who suddenly appeared, angrily exposes her daughter, and Khlestakov, finding her still very “appetizing,” falls to his knees and asks for her hand in marriage. He is not embarrassed by Anna Andreevna’s confused admission that she is “in some way married,” he suggests “retiring under the shade of the streams,” because “for love there is no difference.” Marya Antonovna, who unexpectedly runs in, receives a beating from her mother and a marriage proposal from Khlestakov, who is still kneeling. The mayor enters, frightened by the complaints of the merchants who broke through to Khlestakov, and begs him not to believe the scammers. He does not understand his wife’s words about matchmaking until Khlestakov threatens to shoot himself. Not really understanding what is happening, the mayor blesses the young people. Osip reports that the horses are ready, and Khlestakov announces to the mayor’s completely lost family that he is going for just one day to visit his rich uncle, borrows money again, sits in a carriage, accompanied by the mayor and his household. Osip carefully accepts the Persian carpet onto the floor.

After seeing off Khlestakov, Anna Andreevna and the mayor indulge in dreams of Petersburg life. The called merchants appear, and the triumphant mayor, having overtaken them with great fear, joyfully releases everyone with God. One after another, "retired officials, honorable persons in the city" come, surrounded by their families, in order to congratulate the family of the mayor. In the midst of congratulations, when the mayor with Anna Andreevna, among the guests languishing with envy, consider themselves a general's couple, the postmaster runs in with the message that "the official whom we took for the auditor was not the auditor." Khlestakov's printed letter to Tryapichkin is read aloud and in turn, since every new reader, having reached the characteristics of his own person, goes blind, slips and moves away. The crushed mayor delivers a diatribe not so much to the heliporter Khlestakov, as to the "clicker, paper marak", which he will certainly insert into a comedy. General anger is directed at Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, who started a false rumor when the sudden appearance of a gendarme announcing that "an official who arrived by personal order from St. Petersburg requires you to come to him at once" plunges everyone into a kind of tetanus. The silent scene lasts more than a minute, during which time no one changes his position. "The curtain falls."

Author of the retelling: E. V. Kharitonova

Overcoat. Tale (1842)

The story that happened to Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin begins with a story about his birth and his bizarre name and proceeds to a story about his service as a titular adviser. Many young officials, chuckling, fix him dokuki, shower him with papers, push him under the arm - and only when he is completely unbearable, he says: "Leave me, why are you offending me?" - in a voice bowing to pity. Akaky Akakiyevich, whose job it is to copy papers, does it with love and, even coming out of his presence and having hastily sipped his own, takes out a jar of ink and copies the papers brought home, and if there are none, he purposely makes a copy for himself from some document with an intricate address. Entertainment, the pleasures of friendship do not exist for him, "having written to his heart's content, he went to bed," with a smile anticipating tomorrow's rewriting. However, this regularity of life is violated by an unforeseen incident. One morning, after repeated suggestions made by the Petersburg frost, Akaky Akakievich, having studied his greatcoat (so lost in appearance that the department had long called it a bonnet), notices that it is completely transparent on the shoulders and back. He decides to carry her to the tailor Petrovich, whose habits and biography are briefly, but not without detail, outlined. Petrovich examines the hood and declares that nothing can be fixed, but a new overcoat will have to be made. Shocked by the price Petrovich had named, Akaky Akakievich decides that he has chosen a bad time, and comes when, according to calculations, Petrovich is hungover, and therefore more accommodating. But Petrovich stands his ground. Seeing that one cannot do without a new overcoat, Akaky Akakievich is looking for how to get those eighty rubles, for which, in his opinion, Petrovich will get down to business. He decides to reduce the "ordinary costs": not to drink tea in the evenings, not to light candles, to walk on tiptoe so as not to wear out the soles prematurely, to give the laundress less often, and in order not to wear out, stay at home in one dressing gown.

His life changes completely: the dream of an overcoat accompanies him, like a pleasant friend of life. Every month he visits Petrovich to talk about the overcoat. The expected reward for the holiday, against expectations, turns out to be twenty rubles more, and one day Akaky Akakievich and Petrovich go to the shops. And the cloth, and the calico on the lining, and the cat on the collar, and the work of Petrovich - everything turns out to be beyond praise, and, in view of the onset of frost, Akaki Akakievich one day goes to the department in a new overcoat. This event does not go unnoticed, everyone praises the overcoat and demands that Akaky Akakievich set the evening on such an occasion, and only the intervention of a certain official (as if on purpose a birthday man), who called everyone for tea, saves the embarrassed Akaki Akakievich.

After a day that was like a great solemn holiday for him, Akaky Akakiyevich returns home, has a merry dinner and, after having a sybaritic idleness, goes to the official in a distant part of the city. Again everyone praises his overcoat, but soon they turn to whist, dinner, champagne. Forced to do the same, Akaky Akakievich feels unusual joy, but, mindful of the late hour, slowly goes home. Excited at first, he even rushes after some lady (“whose every part of her body was full of unusual movement”), but the deserted streets that soon stretch out inspire him with involuntary fear. In the middle of a huge deserted square, some people with mustaches stop him and take off his overcoat.

The misadventures of Akaky Akakievich begin. He does not find help from a private bailiff. In the presence, where he comes a day later in his old hood, they pity him and even think of making a clubbing, but, having collected a mere trifle, they give advice to go to a significant person, which can contribute to a more successful search for an overcoat. The following describes the methods and customs of a significant person who has become significant only recently, and therefore preoccupied with how to give himself greater significance: "Strictness, severity and - severity," he usually used to say. "Wishing to impress his friend, whom he had not seen for many years ", he cruelly scolds Akaky Akakievich, who, in his opinion, turned to him out of shape. Without feeling his legs, he gets home and falls down with a strong fever. A few days of unconsciousness and delirium - and Akaki Akakievich dies, about which only on the fourth after the funeral, the department recognizes him during the day. Soon it becomes known that at night, near the Kalinkin bridge, a dead man appears, stripping off everyone’s overcoats without understanding the rank and rank. Someone recognizes Akaky Akakievich in him. The efforts made by the police to catch the dead man are in vain.

At that time, one significant person, who is not alien to compassion, having learned that Bashmachkin died suddenly, remains terribly shocked by this and, in order to have some fun, goes to a friendly party, from where he goes not home, but to the familiar lady Karolina Ivanovna, and, in the midst of terrible weather, he suddenly feels that someone has grabbed him by the collar. In horror, he recognizes Akaky Akakievich, who triumphantly pulls off his overcoat. Pale and frightened, a significant person returns home and no longer scolds his subordinates with severity. The appearance of the dead official has since completely ceased, and the ghost that met a little later the Kolomna guard was already much taller and wore an enormous mustache.

Author of the retelling: E. V. Kharitonova

Marriage. An absolutely incredible event in two acts. Comedy (1842)

The court adviser Podkolesin, lying on the sofa with a pipe and thinking that it would not hurt to get married, calls on the servant Stepan, whom he asks both about whether the matchmaker has come in, and about his visit to the tailor, about the quality of the cloth put on the tailcoat and not did the tailor ask why the master's tailcoat was of such fine cloth and whether, they say, the master wanted to marry. Turning then to waxing and discussing it in the same detail, Podkolesin laments that marriage is such a troublesome thing. The matchmaker Fyokla Ivanovna appears and talks about the bride Agafya Tikhonovna, a merchant's daughter, her appearance (“like refined sugar!”), Her unwillingness to marry a merchant, but only a nobleman (“such a great man”). Satisfied Podkolesin tells the matchmaker to come the day after tomorrow (“I’ll lie down, and you will tell”), she reproaches him for laziness and says that he will soon be unfit for marriage. His friend Kochkarev runs in, scolds Thekla for marrying him, but, realizing that Podkolesin is thinking of marrying, he takes the most active part in this. Having asked the matchmaker where the bride lives, he sees Thekla off, intending to marry Podkolesin himself. He paints the charms of family life to an insecure friend and was already convincing him, but Podkolesin again thinks about the strangeness of the fact that "everyone was unmarried, and now suddenly married." Kochkarev explains that now Podkolesin is just a log and does not matter, otherwise there will be "such little canals" around him, and everyone looks like him. already quite ready to go, Podkolesin says that tomorrow is better. With abuse, Kochkarev takes him away.

Agafya Tikhonovna and her aunt, Arina Panteleimonovna, are telling fortunes on cards; she remembers Agafya’s late father, his greatness and solidity, and thereby tries to attract her niece’s attention to the “cloth line” merchant Alexei Dmitrievich Starikov. But Agafya is stubborn: he is a merchant, and his beard is growing, and a nobleman is always better. Thekla comes and complains about the hassle of her business: she kept going home, she was tired of going to offices, but she found about six suitors. She describes the suitors, but the dissatisfied aunt quarrels with Thekla about who is better - a merchant or a nobleman. The doorbell rings. Everyone runs away in terrible confusion, Dunyasha runs to open the door. Ivan Pavlovich Yaichnitsa, the executor, entered, rereads the dowry list and compares it with what is available. Nikanor Ivanovich Anuchkin appears, slender and “giant,” looking for knowledge of the French language in his bride. Mutually hiding the true reason for their appearance, both suitors wait further. Baltazar Baltazarovich Zhevakin, a retired lieutenant of the naval service, arrives and from the doorway mentions Sicily, which starts a general conversation. Anuchkin is interested in the education of Sicilian women and is shocked by Zhevakin’s statement that everyone, including men, speaks French. Scrambled egg is curious about the build of the men there and their habits. Discussions about the oddities of some surnames are interrupted by the appearance of Kochkarev and Podkolesin. Kochkarev, wanting to immediately evaluate the bride, falls to the keyhole, causing Fyokla’s horror.

The bride, accompanied by her aunt, comes out, the suitors introduce themselves, Kochkarev is recommended by a relative of a somewhat vague nature, and Podkolyosin is put forward almost as the head of the department. Starikov also appears. The general conversation about the weather, interrupted by a direct question from Yaichnitsa about what service Agafya Tikhonovna would like to see her husband in, is interrupted by the embarrassed flight of the bride. The grooms, believing to come in the evening "for a cup of tea" and discussing whether the bride's nose is not big, disperse. Podkolesin, having already decided that her nose is too big, and she hardly knows French, tells her friend that he does not like the bride. Kochkarev easily convinces him of the incomparable virtues of the bride and, having taken the word that Podkolesin will not back down, he undertakes to send the rest of the suitors away.

Agafya Tikhonovna cannot decide which suitor she should choose (“If only I could put Nikanor Ivanovich’s lips on Ivan Kuzmich’s nose...”), and wants to cast lots. Kochkarev appears, convincing him to take Podkolesin, and definitely only him, because he is a miracle man, and the rest are all rubbish. Having explained how to refuse the suitors (saying that she is not yet in the mood to get married, or simply: get out, fools), Kochkarev runs away after Podkolesin. Scrambled Eggs arrives, demanding a straight answer: yes or no. Zhevakin and Anuchkin are next. Confused Agafya Tikhonovna blurts out “get out” and, frightened by the sight of Scrambled Eggs (“Wow, he’ll kill you!”), runs away. Kochkarev enters, leaving Podkolesin in the hallway to straighten his stirrup, and explains to the taken aback grooms that the bride is a fool, she has almost no dowry and she doesn’t speak French well. The suitors scold Thekla and leave, leaving Zhevakin, who did not hesitate to marry. Kochkarev sends him away too, promising his participation and undoubted success in matchmaking. To the embarrassed bride, Kochkarev certifies Zhevakin as a fool and a drunkard. Zhevakin eavesdropped and was amazed at the strange behavior of his protector. Agafya Tikhonovna does not want to talk to him, adding to his bewilderment: the seventeenth bride refuses, and why?

Kochkarev brings Podkolesin and forces him, left alone with the bride, to open his heart to her. The conversation about the pleasures of riding in a boat, the desirability of a good summer and the proximity of the Ekateriningof festivities ends in nothing: Podkolesin takes his leave. However, he was returned by Kochkarev, who had already ordered dinner, agreed to go to church in an hour and begged his friend to marry without delay. But Podkolesin leaves. Having rewarded his friend with many unflattering nicknames, Kochkarev hurries to return him. Agafya Tikhonovna, thinking that she has not spent twenty-seven years in girls, is waiting for the groom. Kicked into the room, Podkolyosin is unable to get down to business, and finally Kochkarev himself asks for Agafya Tikhonovna's hand in his place. Everything is arranged, and the bride hurries to get dressed. Podkolesin, already satisfied and grateful, is left alone, since Kochkarev leaves to see if the table is ready (Podkolesin’s hat, however, he prudently cleans up), and reflects that he has been up to now and whether he understood the meaning of life. He is surprised that many people live in such blindness, and if he happened to be a sovereign, he would order everyone to marry. The thought of the irreparability of what will happen now is somewhat embarrassing, and then it frightens him in earnest. He decides to run away, even if through the window, if it is impossible to enter the door, even without a hat, since it is not there, he jumps out the window and leaves in a cab.

Agafya Tikhonovna, Fyokla, Arina Panteleymonovna and Kochkarev, appearing one after another, in bewilderment, which is resolved by the summoned Dunyashka, who has seen the entire passage. Arina Panteleimonovna showers abuse on Kochkarev (“Yes, after that you are a scoundrel, if you are an honest person!”), He runs away after the groom, but Fyokla considers the matter lost: “if the groom darted out the window, then, just my respect!”

Author of the retelling: E. V. Kharitonova

Players. Comedy (1842)

Ikharev, who appeared in the city tavern, meticulously asks the tavern servant Alexei about the guests: who are they, do they play, only among themselves and where do they take cards; generously rewards his understanding and goes to the common room to make acquaintance. Krugel and Shvokhnev appear and ask Gavryushka, the visitor's servant, where the master is from, whether he is playing and whether he is winning now. Having learned that Ikharev recently won eighty thousand, they suspect him of a cheater and are interested in what the master is doing, remaining alone. "He's already a gentleman, he behaves so well: he does nothing," follows the answer. Gavryushka was also rewarded. Ikharev gives Alexei a dozen decks of cards to put them in during the game.

Shvokhnev, Krugel and Ushetelny arrive, paying tribute to the “friendly caresses of the owner.” The dispute about whether a person belongs entirely to society inspires the Comforter, perhaps bringing him to tears, which Ikharev, however, does not trust too much. Having treated themselves to a snack and discussing the amazing properties of cheese, they sit down at the card table, and the guests are convinced that Ikharev is a sharper of the first degree. The consoler, having persuaded the others, admires the master’s skill and, repenting of his previous intention to beat Ikharev, proposes to conclude a friendly alliance. The close community exchanges amazing stories (about an eleven-year-old boy who distorts with inimitable art, about a certain respectable man who studies the key to the design of every card and for this receives five thousand a year). The consolation game reveals the most ingenious possibilities of tossing marked cards without arousing the slightest suspicion. Ikharev, confiding in his friends, talks about his “Adelaide Ivanovna”, a composite deck, each card of which can be accurately guessed by him, and demonstrates his art to the admiring society. While looking for an object for military action, new acquaintances tell Ikharev about the visiting landowner Mikhail Aleksandrovich Glov, who mortgaged an estate in the city for the wedding of his seventeen-year-old daughter and is now waiting for money. The trouble is that he doesn't play at all. Consoling goes after Glov and soon brings him back. The acquaintance is followed by Glov’s complaints about the impossibility of staying in the city, as well as a discussion about the dangers of playing cards, caused by the sight of Krugel and Shvokhnev playing in the corner. Alexey, who entered, reports that Glov’s horses have already been served. Taking his leave, the old man asks Consoler to look after his son, whom he leaves to finish his business in the city, for his son, twenty-two-year-old Sasha, is almost a child and still dreams of the hussars.

After seeing off Glov, Consolation goes for his son, believing to play on his hussar predilections and lure out money, two hundred thousand, for the mortgaged estate. The newly-minted hussar is given champagne to drink, they offer to take his sister away and sit down for cards. Enticing the "hussar" and seeing something "Barclay-de-Tolyevsky" in his courage, Consolation forces him to spend all the money. The game stops, Sasha signs the bill. However, he is not allowed to recoup. He runs to shoot, they return him, they convince him to go straight to the regiment, and, having given two hundred rubles, they escort him to the "black-haired". The official Zamukhryshkin from the order comes and announces that Glov's money will not be available earlier than two weeks. Consolation breaks it up to four days. The haste that amazed Ikharev is explained: correct information was received from Nizhny Novgorod that the merchants had sent the goods, the final deal was already on the nose, and instead of the merchants, the sons arrived. Assuming that he will certainly beat them, the Comforter gives Ikharev Glov's bill, begging him not to hesitate and immediately after receiving two hundred thousand to go to Nizhny, takes eighty thousand from him and leaves, following Krugel, hastily to pack up. Shvokhnev leaves, remembering something important.

The blissful loneliness of Ikharev, thinking that since morning he had eighty thousand, and now two hundred, is interrupted by the appearance of young Glov. Having learned from Alexei that the gentlemen have already left, he announces to Ikharev that he has been carried out, "like a vulgar stump." The old father is not a father, an official from the order is also from their company, and he is not Glov, but "was a noble man, involuntarily became a rogue", undertook to participate in deception and lead Ikharev, and for that they promised him, previously beaten to the nines, three thousand , but they didn’t give it, and so they left. Ikharev wants to drag him to court, but, apparently, he cannot even complain: after all, the cards were his, and he participated in an illegal case. His despair is so great that he cannot be comforted even by Adelaide Ivanovna, whom he throws at the door and laments that a rogue will always be found at his side, "who will fool you."

Author of the retelling: E. V. Kharitonova

VOLUME ONE (1835 - 1842)

The proposed history, as will become clear from what follows, took place somewhat shortly after the "glorious expulsion of the French." A collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov arrives in the provincial town of NN (he is not old and not too young, not fat and not thin, rather pleasant and somewhat rounded in appearance) and settles in a hotel. He makes a lot of questions to the tavern servant - both regarding the owner and the income of the tavern, and revealing its solidity: about city officials, the most significant landowners, asks about the state of the region and whether there were "what diseases in their province, epidemic fevers" and other similar adversity.

Having gone on visits, the visitor discovers extraordinary activity (visiting everyone, from the governor to the inspector of the medical board) and courtesy, for he knows how to say something pleasant to everyone. About himself, he speaks somehow vaguely (that he "experienced a lot in his lifetime, endured in the service for the truth, had many enemies who even attempted on his life," and now he is looking for a place to live). At the governor's house party, he manages to gain general favor and, among other things, make acquaintance with the landowners Manilov and Sobakevich. In the following days, he dined with the chief of police (where he met the landowner Nozdryov), visited the chairman of the chamber and the vice-governor, the farmer and the prosecutor, and went to the Manilov estate (which, however, was preceded by a fair author's digression, where, justified by love for detail, the author certifies in detail Petrushka, the visitor's servant: his passion for "the process of reading itself" and the ability to carry with him a special smell, "responding somewhat to residential peace").

Having traveled, against the promise, not fifteen, but all thirty miles, Chichikov finds himself in Manilovka, in the arms of an affectionate master. Manilov's house, standing on a jig, surrounded by several English-style flower beds and a gazebo with the inscription "Temple of Solitary Reflection", could characterize the owner, who was "neither this nor that", not weighed down by any passions, only unnecessarily cloying. After Manilov's confessions that Chichikov's visit was a "May day, a name day of the heart", and a dinner in the company of the hostess and two sons, Themistoclus and Alkid, Chichikov discovers the reason for his arrival: he would like to acquire peasants who have died, but have not yet been declared as such in the revision help, having issued everything legally, as if on the living (“the law - I am dumb before the law”). The first fright and bewilderment are replaced by the perfect disposition of the kind host, and, having made a deal, Chichikov departs for Sobakevich, and Manilov indulges in dreams of Chichikov's life in the neighborhood across the river, of the construction of a bridge, of a house with such a belvedere that Moscow is visible from there, and of their friendship, having learned about which the sovereign would grant them generals. Chichikov's coachman Selifan, much favored by Manilov's yard people, in conversations with his horses misses the right turn and, at the sound of a downpour, knocks the master over into the mud. In the dark, they find lodging for the night at Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka, a somewhat timid landowner, with whom Chichikov also begins to trade dead souls in the morning. Explaining that he himself would now pay taxes for them, cursing the old woman’s stupidity, promising to buy both hemp and lard, but another time, Chichikov buys souls from her for fifteen rubles, receives a detailed list of them (in which Pyotr Savelyev is especially struck by Disrespect -Trough) and, having eaten an unleavened egg pie, pancakes, pies and other things, departs, leaving the hostess in great concern as to whether she had sold too cheap.

Having reached the main road to the tavern, Chichikov stops to have a snack, which the author provides with a lengthy discussion about the properties of the appetite of middle-class gentlemen. Here Nozdryov meets him, returning from the fair in the chaise of his son-in-law Mizhuev, for he had lost everything on his horses and even his watch chain. Describing the delights of the fair, the drinking qualities of the dragoon officers, a certain Kuvshinnikov, a big fan of “taking advantage of strawberries” and, finally, presenting a puppy, “a real little face,” Nozdryov takes Chichikov (thinking of making money here too) to his home, taking his reluctant son-in-law as well. Having described Nozdryov, “in some respects a historical man” (for everywhere he went, there was history), his possessions, the unpretentiousness of the dinner with an abundance of, however, drinks of dubious quality, the author sends his dazed son-in-law to his wife (Nozdryov admonishes him with abuse and words "fetyuk"), and Chichikov is forced to turn to his subject; but he fails to either beg or buy a soul: Nozdryov offers to exchange them, take them in addition to the stallion, or make them a bet in a card game, finally scolds, quarrels, and they part for the night. In the morning, the persuasion resumes, and, having agreed to play checkers, Chichikov notices that Nozdryov is shamelessly cheating. Chichikov, whom the owner and the mongrels are already attempting to beat, manages to escape due to the appearance of the police captain, who announces that Nozdryov is on trial. On the road, Chichikov’s carriage collides with a certain carriage, and while the onlookers come running to separate the tangled horses, Chichikov admires the sixteen-year-old young lady, indulges in speculation about her and dreams of family life. A visit to Sobakevich in his strong estate, like himself, is accompanied by a substantial dinner, a discussion of city officials, who, according to the owner, are all swindlers (one prosecutor is a decent person, “and even that one, to tell the truth, is a pig”), and is married to the guest of interest deal. Not at all frightened by the strangeness of the object, Sobakevich bargains, characterizes the advantageous qualities of each serf, provides Chichikov with a detailed list and forces him to give a deposit.

Chichikov's path to the neighboring landowner Plyushkin, mentioned by Sobakevich, is interrupted by a conversation with a peasant who gave Plyushkin an apt, but not too printed nickname, and by the author's lyrical reflection on his former love for unfamiliar places and the indifference that has now appeared. Plyushkin, this "hole in humanity", Chichikov at first takes for a housekeeper or a beggar, whose place is on the porch. His most important feature is his amazing stinginess, and he even carries the old sole of his boot into a heap heaped in the master's chambers. Having shown the profitability of his proposal (namely, that he would take over the taxes for the dead and runaway peasants), Chichikov fully succeeds in his enterprise and, refusing tea with cracker, provided with a letter to the chairman of the chamber, departs in the most cheerful mood.

While Chichikov sleeps in the hotel, the author sadly reflects on the baseness of the objects he depicts. Meanwhile, a satisfied Chichikov, having woken up, composes merchant fortresses, studies the lists of acquired peasants, reflects on their expected fates and finally goes to the civil chamber in order to quickly conclude the deal. Met at the hotel gate, Manilov accompanies him. Then follows a description of the official place, Chichikov’s first ordeals and a bribe to a certain jug snout, until he enters the chairman’s apartment, where, by the way, he finds Sobakevich. The chairman agrees to be Plyushkin’s attorney, and at the same time speeds up other transactions. The acquisition of Chichikov is discussed, with land or for withdrawal he bought peasants and in what places. Having found out that they were leaving for the Kherson province, having discussed the properties of the sold men (here the chairman remembered that the coachman Mikheev seemed to have died, but Sobakevich assured that he was still alive and “became healthier than before”), they finished with champagne and went to the police chief, “father and to a benefactor in the city" (whose habits are immediately outlined), where they drink to the health of the new Kherson landowner, become completely excited, force Chichikov to stay and attempt to marry him.

Chichikov's purchases make a splash in the city, a rumor is circulating that he is a millionaire. Ladies are crazy about him. Several times trying to describe the ladies, the author becomes shy and retreats. On the eve of the governor's ball, Chichikov even receives a love letter, though unsigned. Having used, as usual, a lot of time on the toilet and being pleased with the result, Chichikov goes to the ball, where he passes from one embrace to another. The ladies, among whom he is trying to find the sender of the letter, even quarrel, challenging his attention. But when the governor's wife approaches him, he forgets everything, for she is accompanied by her daughter ("Institute, just graduated"), a sixteen-year-old blonde, whose carriage he encountered on the road. He loses the favor of the ladies, because he starts a conversation with a fascinating blonde, scandalously neglecting the rest. To complete the trouble, Nozdryov appears and loudly asks if Chichikov has bought a lot of the dead. And although Nozdryov is obviously drunk and the embarrassed society is gradually distracted, Chichikov is not given a whist or the subsequent dinner, and he leaves upset.

About this time, a carriage enters the city with the landowner Korobochka, whose growing anxiety forced her to come in order to find out what the price of dead souls is. The next morning, this news becomes the property of a certain pleasant lady, and she rushes to tell it to another, pleasant in all respects, the story acquires amazing details (Chichikov, armed to the teeth, bursts into Korobochka in the dead of midnight, demands the souls that have died, instills terrible fear - " the whole village came running, the children were crying, everyone was screaming." Her friend concludes that the dead souls are only a cover, and Chichikov wants to take away the governor’s daughter. Having discussed the details of this enterprise, Nozdryov’s undoubted participation in it and the qualities of the governor’s daughter, both ladies let the prosecutor know everything and set off to riot the city. In a short time, the city is seething, adding news about the appointment of a new governor-general, as well as information about the papers received: about a counterfeit banknote maker who showed up in the province, and about a robber who fled from legal prosecution. Trying to understand who Chichikov was, they remember that he was certified very vaguely and even spoke about those who attempted to kill him. The postmaster's statement that Chichikov, in his opinion, is Captain Kopeikin, who took up arms against the injustices of the world and became a robber, is rejected, since from the postmaster's entertaining story it follows that the captain is missing an arm and a leg, but Chichikov is intact. The assumption arises whether Chichikov is Napoleon in disguise, and many begin to find a certain resemblance, especially in profile. Questions of Korobochka, Manilov and Sobakevich do not produce results, and Nozdryov only increases the confusion by declaring that Chichikov is definitely a spy, a maker of false banknotes and had an undoubted intention to take away the governor’s daughter, in which Nozdryov undertook to help him (each of the versions was accompanied by detailed details right down to the name the priest who took up the wedding). All this talk has an enormous effect on the prosecutor; he suffers a blow and dies.

Chichikov himself, sitting in the hotel with a slight cold, is surprised that none of the officials visits him. Finally, having gone on visits, he discovers that they do not receive him at the governor's, and in other places they fearfully shun him. Nozdryov, visiting him at the hotel, among the general noise he made, partly clarifies the situation by announcing that he agrees to hasten the kidnapping of the governor's daughter. The next day, Chichikov hurriedly leaves, but is stopped by a funeral procession and forced to contemplate the whole world of bureaucracy flowing behind the coffin of the prosecutor Brichka leaves the city, and the open spaces on both sides of it evoke sad and encouraging thoughts about Russia, the road, and then only sad about their chosen hero. Concluding that it is time for the virtuous hero to give rest, but, on the contrary, to hide the scoundrel, the author sets out the life story of Pavel Ivanovich, his childhood, training in classes where he already showed a practical mind, his relationship with his comrades and teacher, his service later in the state chamber, some commission for the construction of a government building, where for the first time he gave vent to some of his weaknesses, his subsequent departure to other, not so profitable places, transfer to the customs service, where, showing honesty and incorruptibility almost unnatural, he made a lot of money in collusion with smugglers, went bankrupt, but dodged the criminal court, although he was forced to resign. He became a confidant, and during the fuss about the pledge of the peasants, he put together a plan in his head, began to go around the expanses of Russia, in order to buy dead souls and put them in the treasury as living, get money, buy, perhaps, a village and provide future offspring.

Having again complained about the properties of his hero's nature and partly justified him, having found him the name of "owner, acquirer", the author is distracted by the urged running of horses, the similarity of the flying troika with rushing Russia and the ringing of a bell completes the first volume.

VOLUME TWO (1842 - 1852, published posthumously)

It opens with a description of the nature that makes up the estate of Andrei Ivanovich Tentetnikov, whom the author calls “the smoker of the sky.” The story of the stupidity of his pastime is followed by the story of a life inspired by hopes at the very beginning, overshadowed by the pettiness of his service and troubles later; he retires, intending to improve the estate, reads books, takes care of the man, but without experience, sometimes just human, this does not give the expected results, the man is idle, Tentetnikov gives up. He breaks off acquaintances with his neighbors, offended by General Betrishchev’s address, and stops visiting him, although he cannot forget his daughter Ulinka. In a word, without someone who would tell him an invigorating “go ahead!”, he completely turns sour.

Chichikov comes to him, apologizing for a breakdown in the carriage, curiosity and a desire to pay respects. Having won the favor of the owner with his amazing ability to adapt to anyone, Chichikov, having lived with him for a while, goes to the general, to whom he weaves a story about a quarrelsome uncle and, as usual, begs for the dead. The poem fails at the laughing general, and we find Chichikov heading to Colonel Koshkarev. Contrary to expectations, he ends up with Pyotr Petrovich Rooster, whom he finds at first completely naked, keen on hunting sturgeon. At Rooster's, not having anything to get hold of, for the estate is mortgaged, he only overeats terribly, meets the bored landowner Platonov and, having encouraged him to travel together across Rus', goes to Konstantin Fedorovich Kostanzhoglo, married to Platonov's sister. He talks about the methods of management with which he increased the income from the estate tenfold, and Chichikov is terribly inspired.

Very quickly he visits Colonel Koshkarev, who has divided his village into committees, expeditions and departments and has organized a perfect paper production in the mortgaged estate, as it turns out. Having returned, he listens to the curses of the bilious Kostanzhoglo against the factories and manufactories that corrupt the peasant, the peasant’s absurd desire to educate, and his neighbor Khlobuev, who has neglected a sizable estate and is now selling it for next to nothing. Having experienced tenderness and even a craving for honest work, having listened to the story of the tax farmer Murazov, who made forty million in an impeccable way, Chichikov the next day, accompanied by Kostanzhoglo and Platonov, goes to Khlobuev, observes the unrest and dissipation of his household in the neighborhood of a governess for children, dressed in fashion wife and other traces of absurd luxury. Having borrowed money from Kostanzhoglo and Platonov, he gives a deposit for the estate, intending to buy it, and goes to Platonov’s estate, where he meets his brother Vasily, who efficiently manages the estate. Then he suddenly appears at their neighbor Lenitsyn, clearly a rogue, wins his sympathy with his ability to skillfully tickle a child and receives dead souls.

After many seizures in the manuscript, Chichikov is found already in the city at a fair, where he buys fabric that is so dear to him, the lingonberry color with a sparkle. He runs into Khlobuev, whom, apparently, he spoiled, either depriving him, or almost depriving him of his inheritance through some kind of forgery. Khlobuev, who let him go, is taken away by Murazov, who convinces Khlobuev of the need to work and orders him to collect funds for the church. Meanwhile, denunciations against Chichikov are discovered both about the forgery and about dead souls. The tailor brings a new tailcoat. Suddenly a gendarme appears, dragging the well-dressed Chichikov to the Governor-General, “angry as anger itself.” Here all his atrocities become clear, and he, kissing the general’s boot, is thrown into prison. In a dark closet, Murazov finds Chichikov, tearing his hair and tails of his coat, mourning the loss of a box of papers, with simple virtuous words awakens in him a desire to live honestly and sets off to soften the Governor-General. At that time, officials who want to spoil their wise superiors and get a bribe from Chichikov, deliver a box to him, kidnap an important witness and write many denunciations in order to completely confuse the matter. Unrest breaks out in the province itself, greatly worrying the Governor-General. However, Murazov knows how to feel the sensitive strings of his soul and give him the right advice, which the Governor-General, having released Chichikov, is about to use when “the manuscript breaks off.”

Author of the retelling: E. V. Kharitonova

Portrait. Tale (1st ed. - 1835, 2nd ed. - 1842)

The tragic story of the artist Chartkov began in front of a bench in the Shchukinsky yard, where, among many paintings depicting peasants or landscapes, he spotted one and, having given the last two kopecks for it, brought it home. This is a portrait of an old man in Asian clothes, seemingly unfinished, but captured with such a strong brush that the eyes in the portrait looked as if they were alive. At home, Chartkov learns that the owner came with a policeman, demanding payment for the apartment. The annoyance of Chartkov, who has already regretted the two-kopeck piece and is sitting, due to poverty, without a candle, is multiplied. He reflects, not without bile, on the fate of a young talented artist, forced to a modest apprenticeship, while visiting painters “with just their usual manners” make noise and collect a fair amount of capital. At this time, his gaze falls on the portrait, which he has already forgotten - and the completely alive eyes, even destroying the harmony of the portrait itself, frighten him, giving him some kind of unpleasant feeling. Having gone to sleep behind the screens, he sees through the cracks a portrait illuminated by the moon, also staring at him. In fear, Chartkov curtains him with a sheet, but then he imagines eyes shining through the sheet, then it seems that the sheet has been torn off, and finally he sees that the sheet is really gone, and the old man has moved and crawled out of the frame. The old man comes behind the screen to him, sits at his feet and begins to count the money that he takes out of the bag he brought with him. One package with the inscription “1000 chervonets” rolls to the side, and Chartkov grabs it unnoticed. Desperately clutching the money, he wakes up; the hand feels the heaviness that was just in it. After a series of successive nightmares, he wakes up late and heavy. The policeman who came with the owner, learning that there is no money, offers to pay with work. The portrait of an old man attracts his attention, and, looking at the canvas, he carelessly squeezes the frames - a bundle known to Chartkov with the inscription “1000 chervonets” falls on the floor.

On the same day, Chartkov pays off with the owner and, consoled by stories about treasures, drowning out the first movement to buy paints and lock himself up in the studio for three years, rents a luxurious apartment on Nevsky, dresses dandy, advertises in a walking newspaper, and already the next day he receives a customer. An important lady, having described the desired details of the future portrait of her daughter, takes her away when Chartkov seemed to have just signed and was ready to grab something important in her face. The next time, she remains dissatisfied with the resemblance that has appeared, the yellowness of the face and the shadows under the eyes, and, finally, she takes Chartkov's old work, Psyche, slightly updated by the annoyed artist, for a portrait.

In a short time, Chartkov comes into fashion; grasping one general expression, he paints many portraits, satisfying a variety of claims. He is rich, accepted in aristocratic houses, speaks sharply and arrogantly about artists. Many who knew Chartkov before are amazed at how the talent, so noticeable at the beginning, could disappear in him. He is important, he reproaches youth for immorality, becomes a miser, and one day, at the invitation of the Academy of Arts, having come to look at a painting sent from Italy by one of his former comrades, he sees perfection and understands the whole abyss of his fall. He locks himself in the workshop and plunges into work, but is forced to stop every minute because of ignorance of the elementary truths, the study of which he neglected at the beginning of his career. Soon a terrible envy seizes him, he begins to buy up the best works of art, and only after his quick death from a fever combined with consumption, it becomes clear that the masterpieces, for the acquisition of which he used all his vast fortune, were cruelly destroyed by him. His death is terrible: the terrible eyes of the old man seemed to him everywhere.

Chartkov's story had some explanation a short time later at one of the auctions in St. Petersburg. Among the Chinese vases, furniture and paintings, the attention of many is attracted by an amazing portrait of a certain Asian man, whose eyes are painted with such art that they seem alive. The price quadruples, and then the artist B. comes forward, declaring his special rights to this canvas. To confirm these words, he tells a story that happened to his father.

Having outlined to begin with a part of the city called Kolomna, he describes a usurer who once lived there, a giant of Asian appearance, capable of lending any amount to anyone who wishes, from the niche of an old woman to wasteful nobles. His interest seemed small and the terms of payment very favorable, but by strange arithmetic calculations, the amount to be returned increased enormously. The worst of all was the fate of those who received money from the hands of the sinister Asian. The story of a young brilliant nobleman, whose disastrous change in character brought the wrath of the empress upon him, ended with his madness and death. The life of a wonderful beauty, for the sake of her marriage with whom her chosen one made a loan from a usurer (for the bride's parents saw an obstacle to marriage in the frustrated state of affairs of the groom), a life poisoned in one year by the poison of jealousy, intolerance and whims that suddenly appeared in the previously noble character of her husband. Having encroached even on the life of his wife, the unfortunate man committed suicide. Many less prominent stories, since they happened in the lower classes, were also associated with the name of the pawnbroker.

The father of the narrator, a self-taught artist, when he was about to portray the spirit of darkness, often thought about his terrible neighbor, and one day he comes to him and demands to draw a portrait of himself in order to remain in the picture "quite like alive." The father gladly sets to work, but the better he manages to capture the appearance of the old man, the more vividly the eyes come out on the canvas, the more painful feeling takes possession of him. No longer able to endure the growing disgust for work, he refuses to continue, and the old man's pleas, explaining that after death his life will be preserved in the portrait by supernatural power, frighten him completely. He runs away, the unfinished portrait is brought to him by the old man's maid, and the usurer himself dies the next day. Over time, the artist notices changes in himself: feeling jealous of his student, he harms him, his paintings show the eyes of a usurer. When he is about to burn a terrible portrait, a friend begs him. But even he is forced to soon sell it to his nephew; got rid of him and nephew. The artist understands that a part of the moneylender's soul has moved into a terrible portrait, and the death of his wife, daughter and young son finally assure him of this. He places the elder in the Academy of Arts and goes to the monastery, where he leads a strict life, seeking all possible degrees of selflessness. Finally, he takes up a brush and paints the Nativity of Jesus for a whole year. His work is a miracle filled with holiness. To his son, who came to say goodbye before traveling to Italy, he tells a lot of his thoughts about art and among some instructions, telling the story of the usurer, he conjures to find a portrait going from hand to hand and destroy it. And now, after fifteen years of vain searching, the narrator has finally found this portrait, and when he, and with him the crowd of listeners, turns to the wall, the portrait is no longer on it. Someone says "Stolen". Maybe you are right.

Author of the retelling: E. V. Kharitonova

<< Back: Alexander Ivanovich Polezhaev 1804 or 1805-1832 (Sashka. Poem (1825, published 1861))

>> Forward: Alexander Ivanovich Herzen 1812-1870 (Who is to blame? Novel (1841-1846). The Thieving Magpie. Tale (1846). Past and thoughts. Autobiographical book (1852-1868))

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