The enchanted wanderer the path of ivan fljagin. The path of spiritual ascent of Ivan Flyagin in the story "the enchanted wanderer". Tale as a form of storytelling. What is the sense of life

The life of NS Leskov was difficult and painful. Misunderstood and unappreciated by his contemporaries, he received blows from right-wing critics as insufficiently loyal and from the left, the same N. A. Nekrasov, who could not fail to see the depth of the writer's talent, but did not publish it in his Sovremennik. And Leskov, the magician of the word, weaved the patterns of Russian speech and lowered his heroes into those abysses in which Dostoevsky's heroes lived painfully, and then lifted them up to heaven, where the world of Leo Tolstoy was.

He paved a path in our prose that connected these two geniuses. This is especially noticeable when you immerse yourself in the system of the story "The Enchanted Wanderer". Ivan Flyagin, whose characteristics will be presented below, then descends into the underworld, then soars to the heights of the spirit.

Hero appearance

Leskov portrays the enchanted wanderer as a typical Russian hero. He is huge, and a long black cassock and a high cap on his head make him even larger.

Ivan's face is dark, he is over 50. His hair is thick, but with a leaden gray. In stature and power, he reminds of Ilya Muromets, a good-natured hero from Russian epics. This is how Ivan Flyagin looks, whose characteristics will reveal the connection between the external and the internal, his wanderings and the dynamics of his development.

Childhood and first murder

He grew up in a stable and knew the temper of every horse, knew how to cope with the most restive horse, and this requires not only physical strength, but fortitude, which the horse will feel and even recognize the owner in a child. And a strong personality was growing up, which was morally somewhat undeveloped. The author tells in detail what Ivan Flyagin was like at that time. A characterization of him is given in the episode when he just like that, from the fullness of forces that have nowhere to apply, playfully killed an innocent monk. There was only a wave of the whip, with which an eleven-year-old boy hit the monk, and the horses carried him, and the monk, falling, immediately died without repentance.

But the soul of the murdered man appeared to the boy and promised that he would die many times, but nevertheless he would become a monk without perishing on the roads of life.

Rescue of a noble family

And right there next to him Leskov, like beads stringing, leads the story of the exact opposite case, when, again without thinking about anything, Ivan Flyagin saves the life of his masters. His characteristic is courage and boldness, which the foolish person does not even think about, but only again simply acts without any thought.

The child was led by God, and he saved him from certain death in a deep abyss. These are the abysses that Leskov immediately throws his character into. But from a young age he is completely disinterested. For his feat asked for accordion Ivan Flyagin. Characteristics of his subsequent actions, for example, refusal of big money for the ransom of a girl with whom he was forced to babysit, will show that he never seeks benefits for himself.

Second murder and escape

Quite calmly, in a fair fight, he killed the Tartar Ivan Flyagin (and it was a dispute over who would screw whom up with a whip), as it should be. The characterization of this act shows that the 23-year-old young Ivan has not matured to assess his own actions, but is ready to accept any, even immoral, rules of the game that are offered to him.

And as a result, he hides from justice among the Tatars. But in the end - he is in captivity, in a Tatar prison. Ivan will spend ten years with his “saviors-infidels” and will yearn for his homeland until he runs away. And he will be driven by determination, endurance and willpower.

Love test

On the path of life, Ivan will meet the beautiful songstress, the gypsy Grushenka. She is so good outwardly that Ivan takes his breath away from her beauty, but her spiritual world is also rich.

The girl, feeling that Flyagin will understand her, tells her simple eternal girlish grief: her beloved played with her and left her. And she cannot live without him and is afraid that she will either kill him along with his new lover, or lay hands on herself. Both of these frightens her - this is not Christian. And asks Grusha Ivan to take sin on his soul - to kill her. Ivan was embarrassed and did not dare at first, but then pity for the girl's unrequited torment outweighed all his doubts. The strength of her suffering led to the fact that Ivan Flyagin pushed Grusha into the abyss. The characteristic of this act is the special side of humanity. It's scary to kill, and Christ's commandment says: "Thou shalt not kill." But Ivan, transgressing through it, reaches the highest level of self-sacrifice - he sacrifices his immortal soul to save the girl's soul. He, while he lives, hopes to atone for this sin.

Going to the soldiers

And here again the chance confronts Ivan with someone else's grief. Under a false name, Ivan Severyanich Flyagin leaves for the war, for certain death. The characteristic of this episode in his life is a continuation of the previous one: compassion and sacrifice lead him to this act. What's above all? To die for the fatherland, for the people. But fate keeps him - Ivan has not yet passed all the tests that she is going to send him.

What is the sense of life?

A wanderer, a wanderer, a pedestrian Kalika, Ivan is a seeker of truth. The main thing for him is to find the meaning of life, associated with poetry. The image and characteristics of Ivan Flyagin in the story "The Enchanted Wanderer" enable the author to embody the dreaminess inherent in the people themselves. Ivan conveys the spirit of seeking the truth. Ivan Flyagin is a wretched person who has experienced so much in his lifetime that it would have been enough for several people. He takes on his soul untold sufferings that lead him to a new, higher spiritual orbit, in which life and poetry are combined.

Ivan Flyagin's characterization as a storyteller

Flyagin-Leskov's tale is deliberately slowed down, as in an epic thoughtful song. But when the forces of events and characters gradually accumulate, it becomes dynamic, impetuous. In the episode of harnessing the horse that even the Englishman Rarey can't handle, the narrative is dynamic and poignant. Descriptions of horses are given in such a way that folk songs and epics are remembered. The horse in the 6th chapter is compared with a bird, which does not fly by its strength.

The image is extremely poetic and merges with Gogol's bird-three. This prose should be read declamatory, slowed down, like a prose poem. And there are many such poems. What is the episode at the end of Chapter 7, when an exhausted wanderer prays so that the snow melted under his knees, and where tears were falling, grass appears in the morning. This is the words of the lyric poet - passion-bearer. This and other miniatures have the right to separate existence. But inserted by Leskov into a large narrative, they give it the necessary coloring, an enriching reflection.

Plan characteristic of Ivan Flyagin

When writing an essay, you can be guided by such a short plan:

• Intro - the enchanted wanderer.
• The appearance of the character.
• Wandering.
• Amulet for life.
• "Sinfulness" of Ivan.
• Unmeasured heroic forces.
• Hero's traits.

In conclusion, it should be said that N. S. Leskov himself walked the earth as an enchanted traveler, although he saw life in all its multi-layered nature. The poetry of life was revealed to NS Leskov in contemplation and meditation, in words. Perhaps the key to "The Enchanted Wanderer" is F. Tyutchev's poem "God Send Your Joy ...". Reread and ponder the path of the wanderer.

The epithet "enchanted" increases the feeling of poetry in the figure of the traveler. Enchanted, captivating, bewitched, maddened, subdued - the range of this spiritual quality is great. For the writer, the enchanted wanderer was a characteristic figure of a person who could be entrusted with part of his dreams, made him an exponent of the reserved thoughts and aspirations of the people.

All episodes of the story are united by the image of the main character - Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, shown as a giant of physical and moral power. “He was a man of large stature, with a swarthy open face and thick wavy hair of a leaden color: so strangely cast his gray. He was dressed in a novice cassock with a wide monastic belt and a high black cloth cap ... This new companion of ours ... in appearance could have been a little over fifty; but he was in the full sense of the word a hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-minded, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in the beautiful picture of Vereshchagin and in the poem of Count A. K. Tolstoy. It seemed that he would not walk in a cassock, but sit on his "chubar" and ride in bast shoes through the forest and lazily sniff how "the dark pine forest smells of tar and strawberries." The hero performs feats of arms, saves people, goes through the temptation of love. He knows from his own bitter experience serfdom, knows what an escape from a cruel master or soldiery is. In the actions of Flyagin, such traits as boundless courage, courage, pride, stubbornness, breadth of nature, kindness, patience, artistry, etc. are manifested. The author creates a complex, multifaceted character, positive at its core, but far from ideal and not at all unambiguous. The main feature of Flyagin is "the frankness of a simple soul." The narrator likens him to God's baby, to whom God sometimes reveals his plans, hidden from others. The hero is characterized by childish naivety in the perception of life, innocence, sincerity, disinterestedness. He is very talented. First of all, in business, which he was engaged in as a boy, becoming a postilian with his master. As far as horses were concerned, he "received a special talent from his nature." His talent is associated with a heightened sense of beauty. Ivan Flyagin subtly feels the feminine beauty, the beauty of nature, words, art - song, dance. His speech is striking in its poetry when he describes what he admires. Like any national hero, Ivan Severyanovich passionately loves his homeland. This is manifested in the painful longing for his native land, when he is in captivity in the Tatar steppes, and in the desire to take part in the coming war and die for his native land. Flyagin's last dialogue with the audience sounds solemn. Warmth and subtlety of feeling in heroism coexist with rudeness, pugnaciousness, drunkenness, and narrow-mindedness. Sometimes he shows callousness, indifference: he marks a Tatar to death in a duel, does not consider unbaptized children his own and leaves them without regret. Kindness and responsiveness to someone else's hope coexist in him with senseless cruelty: he gives the child to his tearfully begging mother, depriving himself of shelter and food, but at the same time, out of pampering, he marks the sleeping monk to death.

Flyagin's courage and freedom of feelings know no bounds (a fight with a Tatar, a relationship with a crush). He surrenders to feeling recklessly and recklessly. Mental impulses, over which he has no control, constantly break his destiny. But when the spirit of confrontation is extinguished in him, he very easily succumbs to the influence of others. The hero's sense of human dignity is in contradiction with the consciousness of the serf. But all the same, Ivan Severyanovich has a pure and noble soul.

The name, patronymic and surname of the hero are significant. The name Ivan, so often found in fairy tales, brings him closer to both Ivan the Fool and Ivan Tsarevich who are going through various trials. In his trials, Ivan Flyagin matures spiritually, morally purifies himself. Patronymic Severyanovich translated from Latin means "severe" And reflects a certain side of his character. The surname indicates, on the one hand, a propensity for a binge lifestyle, but, on the other hand, reminds of the biblical image of man as a vessel, and the righteous as a pure vessel of God. Suffering from the consciousness of his own imperfection, he goes, without bending, towards the feat, striving for heroic service to the motherland, feeling a divine blessing above him. And this movement, moral transformation constitutes the internal storyline of the story. The hero believes and seeks. His life path is the path of knowing God and realizing oneself in God.

Ivan Flyagin personifies the Russian national character with all its dark and light sides, the people's view of the world. It embodies the enormous and untapped potential of the people's power. His morality is natural, folk morality. Figypa Flyagina takes on a symbolic scale, embodying the breadth, boundlessness, openness of the Russian soul to the world. The depth and complexity of Ivan Flyagin's character help to comprehend the various artistic techniques used by the author. The main means of creating the image of the hero is speech, which reflects his worldview, character, social position, etc. Flyagin's speech is simple, full of vernacular and dialectic, it contains a few metaphors, comparisons, epithets, but they are vivid and accurate. The hero's speech style is associated with the popular perception of the world. The image of the hero is also revealed through his relationship to other characters, about which he himself talks. In the tone of the narrative, in the choice of artistic means, the personality of the hero is manifested. The landscape also helps to feel the peculiarities of the perception of the world by the character. The hero's story about life in the steppe conveys his emotional state, longing for his native land: “No, I want to go home ... longing was done. Especially in the evenings, or even when the weather is fine in the middle of the day, hot, it’s quiet in the camp, the whole Tatarva hits the tents from the heat ... A sultry look, cruel; space - no edge; herbs riot; Feather grass, white, fluffy, like a silver sea, is agitated, and in the breeze it carries the smell: it smells of a sheep, and the sun drenches, burns, and the steppe, as if life is painful, is nowhere to be seen, and there is no bottom to the depths of longing ... you know where, and all of a sudden a monastery or a temple will appear in front of you, and you will remember the baptized land and cry. "

The image of the wanderer Ivan Flyagin summarizes the remarkable features of people who are energetic, talented by nature, inspired by an endless love for people. It depicts a man of the people in the intricacies of his difficult fate, not broken, even though "he died all his life and could not die in any way."

The kind and simple-minded Russian giant is the main character and the central figure of the story. This person with a childlike soul is distinguished by irrepressible fortitude, heroic mischief. He acts on the dictates of duty, often on the inspiration of feelings and in an accidental outburst of passion. However, all his actions, even the strangest ones, are invariably born of his inherent humanity. He strives for truth and beauty through mistakes and bitter remorse, he seeks love and generously gives love to people himself. When Flyagin sees a person in mortal danger, he simply rushes to his aid. As a boy, he saves the count and the countess from death, and he himself almost dies. He also goes to the Caucasus instead of the old woman's son for fifteen years. Behind the outward rudeness and cruelty is hidden in Ivan Severyanich a tremendous kindness characteristic of the Russian people. We recognize this trait in him when he becomes a nanny. He truly became attached to the girl he was courting. In dealing with her, he is caring and gentle.

The "enchanted wanderer" is a type of "Russian wanderer" (in Dostoevsky's words). This is a Russian nature that requires development, striving for spiritual perfection. He seeks and cannot find himself. Each new refuge of Flyagin is another discovery of life, and not just a change in one or another occupation. The wide soul of the wanderer gets along with absolutely everyone - whether they are wild Kyrgyz or strict Orthodox monks; he is so flexible that he agrees to live according to the laws of those who accepted him: according to the Tatar custom, he is cut to death with Savarikey, according to the Muslim custom, he has several wives, takes for granted the cruel "operation" that the Tatars performed with him ; in the monastery, he not only does not grumble for being locked up for the whole summer in a dark cellar as punishment, but he even knows how to find joy in this: “Here you can hear the church ringing, and comrades have visited.” But despite such a livable nature, he does not stay anywhere for long. He does not need to humble himself and wish to work in his native field. He is already humble and, by his peasant title, is put in front of the need to work. But he has no peace. In life, he is not a participant, but only a wanderer. He is so open to life that it carries him, and he follows its course with wise humility. But this is not a consequence of mental weakness and passivity, but a complete acceptance of one's own fate. Often Flyagin is not aware of his actions, intuitively relying on the wisdom of life, trusting her in everything. And the higher power, before which he is open and honest, rewards him for this and keeps him.

Ivan Severyanich Flyagin lives primarily not with his mind, but with his heart, and therefore the course of life imperiously carries him along, that is why the circumstances in which he finds himself are so varied.

Flyagin reacts sharply to insult and injustice. As soon as the manager of the count, a German, punished him for a misdemeanor with humiliating work, Ivan Severyanich, risking his own life, flees from his homeland. Subsequently, he recalls it this way: "They tore me off terribly cruelly, I could not even get up ... but that would be nothing to me, but the last condemnation to kneel and beat sacks ... this has already tortured me ... I just lost my patience ..." The most terrible and intolerable for a common person is not corporal punishment, but an insult to self-esteem. in despair, he runs away from them and goes “to the robbers”.

In The Enchanted Wanderer, for the first time in Leskov's work, the theme of folk heroism is fully developed. the collective semi-fairy image of Ivan Flyagin appears before us in all its grandeur, nobility of his soul, fearlessness and beauty and merges with the image of the heroic people. Ivan Severyanich's desire to go to war is a desire to suffer one for all. love for the Motherland, for God, Christian aspiration save Flyagin from death during the nine years of his life with the Tatars. During all this time, he could not get used to the steppes. He says: "No, sir, I want to go home ... The melancholy was becoming." What a great feeling is contained in his unpretentious story about loneliness in Tatar captivity: "... There is no bottom here in the depths of longing ... You see, you yourself do not know where, and suddenly a monastery or temple will appear before you, and you will remember the baptized land and cry." From the story of Ivan Severyanovich about himself, it is clear that the most difficult of the diverse life situations he experienced were precisely those that to the greatest extent bound his will, doomed him to immobility.

The Orthodox faith is strong in Ivan Flyagin. In the middle of the night in captivity, he “crawled out on the sly for the rate ... and began to pray ... pray so that even the Indus snow under his knees would melt and where tears fell - you see grass in the morning”.

Flyagin is an unusually gifted person, nothing is impossible for him. The secret of his strength, invulnerability and amazing gift - always to feel joy - lies in the fact that he always acts as circumstances dictate. He is in harmony with the world when the world is harmonious, and he is ready to fight evil when it stands in his way.

At the end of the story, we understand that, having come to the monastery, Ivan Flyagin does not calm down. He foresees a war and is going to go there. He says: "I really want to die for the people." These words reflect the main property of the Russian person - the readiness to suffer for others, to die for the Motherland. Describing the life of Flyagin, Leskov makes him wander, meet with different people and whole nations. Leskov argues that such a beauty of the soul is characteristic only of a Russian person and only a Russian person can manifest it so fully and widely.

The image of Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin is the only "through" image that unites all episodes of the story. As already noted, it has genre-forming features, since his "biography" goes back to works with rigid normative schemes, namely to the lives of saints and adventure novels. The author brings Ivan Severyanovich closer not only to the heroes of the lives and adventure novels, but also to the epic heroes. Here is how the narrator describes Flyagin's appearance: “This new companion could have been given a little over fifty in appearance; but he was in the full sense of the word a hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-minded, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in a beautiful painting by Vereshchegin and in the poem of Count A. K. Tolstoy.4 It seemed that he would not walk in a cassock, but sit on his "chubar" and ride in bast shoes through the forest and lazily sniff how "the dark pine forest smells of tar and strawberries." Flyagin's character is multifaceted. Its main feature is "the frankness of a simple soul." The narrator likens Flyagin to "babies" to whom God sometimes reveals his designs, hidden from the "reasonable". The author paraphrases the Gospel sayings of Christ: "... Jesus said:" ... I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid this from the wise and prudent and revealed it to babies "" (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, verse 25). Wise and reasonable Christ allegorically calls people with a pure heart.

Flyagin is distinguished by childish naivety and innocence. Demons in his performances resemble a large family, in which there are both adults and naughty demon children. He believes in the magical power of the amulet - "a belt girdle from the holy brave prince Vsevolod-Gabriel from Novgorod." Flyagin understands the experience of tamed horses. He subtly feels the beauty of nature.

But, at the same time, a certain callousness and narrowness (from the point of view of an educated, civilized person) is inherent in the soul of the enchanted wanderer. Ivan Severyanovich coolly pinpoints a Tatar to death in a duel and cannot understand why the story of this torture terrifies his listeners. Ivan brutally deals with the maid's cat, who strangled his beloved pigeons. He does not consider unbaptized children from Tatar wives in Ryn-Peski as his own and leaves without a shadow of doubt and regret.

Natural kindness coexists in Flyagin's soul with senseless, aimless cruelty. So, he, serving as a nanny for a young child and violating the will of his father, his master-master, gives the child to the mother and her lover, who tearfully begged Ivan, although he knows that this act will deprive him of his faithful food and make him wander again in search of food and shelter ... And he, in adolescence, out of pampering, marks the sleeping monk to death with a whip.

Flyagin is reckless in his daring: just like that, disinterestedly, he enters into a competition with the Tatar Sawakirey, promising a familiar officer to give a prize - a horse. He surrenders himself entirely to the passions that take possession of him, going into a drunken spree. Struck by the beauty and singing of the gypsy Grusha, he did not hesitate to give her the huge amount of state money entrusted to him.

Flyagin's nature is at the same time unshakably firm (he sacredly professes the principle: "I will not give my honor to anyone") and headstrong, malleable, open to the influence of others and even suggestion. Ivan easily assimilates the ideas of the Tatars about the justification of a deadly duel on whips. Hitherto not feeling the enchanting beauty of a woman, he - as if under the influence of conversations with the degraded master-magnetizer and the eaten "magic" sugar - "mentuor" - is fascinated by the first meeting with Grusha.

Wanderings, wanderings, peculiar "searches" of Flyagin bear a "worldly" color. Even in a monastery, he performs the same service as in the world - as a coachman. This motive is significant: Flyagin, changing professions and services, remains himself. He begins his difficult journey with the post of a postman, a rider on a horse in a harness, and in old age returns to coachman duties.

The service of Leskov's hero "with horses" is not accidental, it has an implicit, hidden symbolism. Flyagin's changeable fate is like the fast running of a horse, and the "two-stranded" hero himself, who has withstood and endured many hardships in his lifetime, resembles a strong "Bityutsk" horse. Both Flagin's irascibility and independence are, as it were, juxtaposed with the proud horse-like disposition, which was described by the "enchanted wanderer" in the first chapter of Leskov's work. The taming of horses by Flagin correlates with the stories of ancient authors (Plutarakh and others) about Alexander the Great, who pacified and tamed the horse Bucephalus.

And like the hero of epics, leaving to measure strength "in a clear field", Flyagin is correlated with open, free space: with the road (Ivan Severyanovich's wanderings), with the steppe (ten years of life in the Tatar Ryn-sands), with lake and sea space (meeting narrator with Fljagin on a steamer sailing on Lake Ladoga, pilgrimage of a pilgrim to Solovki). The hero wanders, moves in a wide, open space, which is not a geographical concept, but a value category. Space is a visible image of life itself, sending disasters and trials towards the hero-traveler.

In his wanderings and travels, the Leskov character reaches the limits, the extreme points of the Russian land: he lives in the Kazakh steppe, fights against the mountaineers in the Caucasus, goes to the Solovetsky shrines on the White Sea. Flyagin finds himself on the northern, southern, and southeastern "borders" of European Russia. Ivan Severyanovich did not visit only the western border of Russia. However, the capital near Leskov can symbolically denote precisely the western point of the Russian space. (This perception of Petersburg was typical for Russian literature of the 18th century and was recreated in Pushkin's "Bronze Horseman"). The spatial "scope" of Flyagin's travels is significant: it seems to symbolize5 the breadth, boundlessness, openness of the Russian people's soul to the world.6 But the breadth of Flyagin's nature, the "Russian hero", is not at all tantamount to righteousness. Leskov has repeatedly created in his works the images of the Russian righteous, people of exceptional moral purity, noble and kind to self-sacrifice ("Odnodum", "Non-lethal Golovan", "Cadet Monastery", etc.). However, Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin is not like that. He, as it were, personifies the Russian folk character with all its dark and light sides and the people's view of the world.

The name of Ivan Flyagin is significant. He is like the fabulous Ivan the Fool and Ivan the Tsarevich going through different trials. In these trials, Ivan is cured of his "stupidity," moral callousness, and frees himself. But the moral ideals and norms of Leskov's enchanted wanderer do not coincide with the moral principles of his civilized interlocutors and the author himself. Flyagin's morality is a natural, "common" morality.

It is no coincidence that the patronymic of the Leskov hero is Severyanovich (severus - in Latin: severe). The surname speaks, on the one hand, of the former propensity for drinking and drinking, on the other, it reminds of the biblical image of man as a vessel, and the righteous as a pure vessel of God.

Flyagin's life is partly the atonement for his sins: the "youthful" murder of a monk, as well as the murder of Grushenka, abandoned by her lover, prince, committed at her prayer. The dark, egoistic, "animal" power characteristic of Ivan in his youth is gradually enlightened, filled with moral self-awareness. At the end of his life, Ivan Severyanovich is ready to "die for the people," for others. But the enchanted wanderer does not renounce many actions that are reprehensible for educated, "civilized" listeners, finding nothing wrong in them.

This is not only the limitation, but also the integrity of the character of the protagonist, devoid of contradictions, internal struggle and introspection, 7 which, like the motive of the predetermination of his fate, brings Leskov's story closer to the classical, ancient heroic epic. B.S. Dykhanova characterizes Flyagin's ideas about his fate in the following way: “According to the hero's conviction, his mission is that he is the son of a“ praying ”and“ promised ”, must devote his life to serving God, and the monastery should, it would seem, be perceived as an inevitable end of the path , the acquisition of a true vocation. ”Listeners repeatedly ask the question of whether the predestination was fulfilled or not, but each time Flyagin evades a direct answer.

"Why are you so ... as if you are not probably speaking?

• - Yes, because how can I say for sure when I can't even embrace all my vast, flowing vitality?
• - This is from what?
• - Because, sir, I did a lot not even of my own free will. "

Despite the apparent inconsistency of Flyagin's answers, he is strikingly accurate here. The "audacity of vocation" is inseparable from one's own will, one's own choice, and the interaction of a person's will with life circumstances beyond its control gives rise to that living contradiction that can be explained only by preserving it. In order to understand what his vocation is, Flyagin has to tell his life "from the very beginning." finally, he is twice deprived of his own name (going to the soldier instead of a peasant recruit, then - taking monasticism.) Ivan Severyanovich can present the unity, the wholeness of his life, only retelling it all, from birth. This predetermination of the hero's fate, in subordination and "bewitched" by some force ruling over him, "not by his own will," which is moved by Flyagin, is the meaning of the title of the story.

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov's story "The Enchanted Wanderer" was written in 1872-1873. The work was included in the author's cycle of legends, which was dedicated to the Russian righteous. "The Enchanted Wanderer" is distinguished by a fairy tale form of narration - Leskov imitates the oral speech of the characters, saturating it with dialectisms, vernacular words, etc.

The composition of the story consists of 20 chapters, the first of which is an exposition and a prologue, the next is a story about the life of the main character, written in the style of a life, which includes a retelling of the hero's childhood and fate, his struggle with temptations.

main characters

Flyagin Ivan Severyanich (Golovan)- the main character of the work, a monk "in his early fifties", a former coner, telling the story of his life.

Grushenka- a young gypsy woman who loved the prince, whom Ivan Severyanich killed at her own request. Golovan was unrequitedly in love with her.

Other heroes

Count and Countess- the first bayarets of Flyagin from the Oryol province.

Barin from Nikolaev, for whom Flyagin served as a nanny for his little daughter.

Mother girl, nursed by Flyagin and her second husband, an officer.

Prince- the owner of a cloth factory, for whom Flyagin served as a conveyor.

Evgenia Semyonovna- the prince's mistress.

Chapter one

The passengers of the ship “sailed along Lake Ladoga from the island of Konevets to Valaam” with a stopover in Korela. Among the travelers, a notable figure was a monk, a "bogatyr-monarch" - a former coneser, who was an "expert in horses" and had the gift of a "mad tamer".

The companions asked why the man became a monk, to which he replied that he did a lot in his life according to the “parental promise” - “all my life I was dying, and I could not die in any way”.

Chapter two

"Former coner Ivan Severyanich, Mr. Flyagin" in an abbreviated form tells the companions the long story of his life. The man "was born in a serf rank" and came "from the courtyard people of Count K. from the Oryol province." His father was a coachman Severyan. Ivan's mother died in childbirth, "because I was born with an extraordinary large head, so that is why my name was not Ivan Flyagin, but simply Golovan." The boy spent a lot of time with his father at the stable, where he learned to look after horses.

Over time, Ivan was "hooked" into a six-wheel drive driven by his father. Once, driving a six, the hero on the way, "for the sake of laughter", spotted the death of a monk. On the same night, the deceased came to Golovan in a vision and said that Ivan was a mother "promised to God," and then told him the "sign": then you will remember your mother's promise for you and go to the blacks. "

After a while, when Ivan traveled with the count and countess to Voronezh, the hero saved the gentlemen from death, which earned him a special favor.

Chapter three

Golovan started pigeons in his stable, but the countess's cat got into the habit of hunting birds. Somehow, getting angry, Ivan beat the animal, chopping off the cat's tail. Upon learning of what had happened, the hero was sentenced to "flog and then out of the stables and into the aglitsky garden for the path with a hammer to beat pebbles." Ivan, for whom this punishment was unbearable, decided to commit suicide, but the robber gypsy did not let the man hang himself.

Chapter four

At the request of the gypsy, Ivan stole two horses from the lord's stable and, having received some money, went to the "assessor to announce that he was a runaway." However, the clerk wrote a vacation for the hero for the silver cross and advised him to go to Nikolaev.

In Nikolaev, a certain gentleman hired Ivan as a nanny for his little daughter. The hero turned out to be a good educator, took care of the girl, closely monitored her health, but he was very bored. Once, while walking along the estuary, they met the girl's mother. The woman began with tears to ask Ivan to give her daughter. The hero refuses, but she persuades him secretly from the master to bring the girl every day to the same place.

Chapter five

At one of the meetings on the estuary, the woman's current husband, an officer, appears and offers a ransom for the child. The hero refuses again and a fight breaks out between the men. Suddenly, an angry master appears with a pistol. Ivan gives the child to his mother and runs away. The officer explains that he cannot leave Golovan with him, since he is passportless, and the hero will end up in the steppe.

At the fair in the steppe, Ivan witnesses how the famous steppe horse breeder Khan Dzhangar sells his best horses. For the white mare, two Tatars even staged a duel - lashing each other with whips.

Chapter six

The last to be brought up for sale was an expensive karak foal. The Tatar Sawakirey immediately came forward to arrange a duel - to have a fight with someone for this stallion. Ivan volunteered to play for one of the remonters in a duel with the Tatar and, using "his cunning skill", "screwed up" Sawakirey to death. They wanted to arrest Ivan for murder, but the hero managed to escape with the Asians to the steppe. He spent ten years there, treating people and animals. To prevent Ivan from escaping, the Tatars "bristled" him - they cut off the skin on the heels, covered horse hair there and sewed up the skin. After that, the hero could not walk for a long time, but over time he got used to walking on his ankles.

Chapter Seven

Ivan was sent to Khan Agashimola. The hero, as in the previous khan, had two Tatar wives "Natasha", from whom he also had children. However, the man did not have parental feelings for his children, because they were unbaptized. Living with the Tatars, the man missed his homeland very much.

Chapter Eight

Ivan Severyanovich says that people of different religions came to them, trying to preach to the Tatars, but they killed the "misaners". "The Aziyat should be brought into faith with fear, so that he shakes with fright, and they preach to them a quiet God." "Aziyat will not respect the humble God without threat and will beat the preachers."

Russian missionaries also came to the steppe, but did not want to ransom Golovan from the Tatars. When, after a while, one of them is killed, Ivan buries him according to Christian tradition.

Chapter nine

Once people from Khiva came to the Tatars to buy horses. To intimidate the steppe inhabitants (so that they would not be killed), the guests showed the power of their fiery god - Talaf, set fire to the steppe and, while the Tatars understood what had happened, disappeared. The newcomers forgot the box in which Ivan found the usual fireworks. Calling himself Talafa, the hero begins to frighten the Tatars with fire and forces them to accept their Christian faith. In addition, Ivan found caustic earth in the box, with which he etched away the horse bristles implanted in the heels. When his legs healed, he set off a large fireworks display and fled unnoticed.

Going out a few days later to the Russians, Ivan spent the night with them only one night, and then went on, since they did not want to accept a person without a passport. In Astrakhan, starting to drink heavily, the hero ends up in prison, from where he was sent to his native province. At home, the widowed pious count gave Ivan a passport and let him go "for rent."

Chapter ten

Ivan began to go to fairs and advise ordinary people how to choose a good horse, for which they treated him or thanked him with money. When his "fame at the fairs thundered", the prince came to the hero with a request to reveal his secret. Ivan tried to teach him his talent, but the prince soon realized that this was a special gift and hired Ivan for three years as a coner. From time to time, the hero has "exits" - the man drank heavily, although he wanted to end it.

Chapter eleven

Once, when the prince was not there, Ivan again went to drink at the tavern. The hero was very worried, since he had the master's money with him. In the tavern, Ivan meets a man who had a special talent - "magnetism": he could "bring down drunken passion from any other person in one minute." Ivan asked him to get rid of addiction. The man, hypnotizing Golovan, makes him drink heavily. Already completely drunk men are expelled from the inn.

Chapter twelve

From the actions of the "magnetizer" Ivan began to dream of "disgusting faces on legs", and when the vision passed, the man left the hero alone. Golovan, not knowing where he was, decided to knock on the first house he came across.

Chapter thirteen

Ivan opened the doors of the gypsies, and the hero found himself in another tavern. Golovan gazes at the young gypsy woman, the songstress Grushenka, and lets down all the prince's money on her.

Chapter fourteen

After the help of the magnetizer, Ivan no longer drank. The prince, having learned that Ivan had spent his money, at first got angry, and then calmed down and said that he had given fifty thousand for this Pear to the camp, if only she was with him. Now the gypsy lives in his house.

Chapter fifteen

The prince, arranging his own affairs, was less and less at home with Pear. The girl was bored and jealous, and Ivan entertained and consoled her as best he could. Everyone except Grusha knew that in the city the prince had "another love - from the noble, the secretary's daughter Evgenia Semyonovna," who had a daughter from the prince, Lyudochka.

Once Ivan arrived in the city and stayed with Evgenia Semyonovna, on the same day the prince came here.

Chapter sixteen

By chance, Ivan found himself in the dressing room, where, hiding, he overheard the conversation between the prince and Evgenia Semyonovna. The prince informed the woman that he wanted to buy a cloth factory and was going to get married soon. Grushenka, about whom the man completely forgot, plans to marry Ivan Severyanich.

Golovin was in charge of the factory, so he did not see Grushenka for a long time. Returning back, he learned that the prince had taken the girl somewhere.

Chapter seventeen

On the eve of the prince's wedding, Grushenka appears (“here she escaped to die”). The girl tells Ivan that the prince hid in a “strong place and ordered the guards to strictly guard my beauty,” but she ran away.

Chapter Eighteen

As it turned out, the prince secretly took Grushenka out to the bee-house in the forest, having assigned to the girl three "healthy young girls, one-yard girls," who made sure that the gypsy did not run away anywhere. But somehow, playing blind man's buff with them, Grushenka managed to deceive them - so she returned.

Ivan tries to dissuade the girl from committing suicide, but she assured that she would not be able to live after the wedding of the prince - she would suffer even more. The gypsy asked to kill her, threatening: "You will not kill," he says, "me, I will become the most ashamed woman in revenge for all of you." And Golovin, pushing Grushenka into the water, complied with her request.

Chapter nineteen

Golovin, "not understanding himself," fled from that place. On the way, he met an old man - his family was very sad that their son was being recruited. Taking pity on the old people, Ivan went to recruits instead of their son. Having asked to be sent to fight in the Caucasus, Golovin stayed there for 15 years. Having distinguished himself in one of the battles, Ivan responded to the colonel's praise: “I, your honor, am not a fine fellow, but a great sinner, and neither land nor water wants to accept me,” and told his story.

For the difference in battle, Ivan was appointed an officer and sent to St. Petersburg with the Order of St. George to retire. The service in the address desk did not work out for him, so Ivan decided to go to the artists. However, he was soon kicked out of the troupe, because he stood up for a young actress, hitting the offender.

After that Ivan decides to go to the monastery. Now he lives in obedience, not considering himself worthy for a senior tonsure.

Chapter Twenty

At the end, the companions asked Ivan: how he lives in the monastery, whether he was tempted by a demon. The hero replied that he had tempted by appearing in the form of Grushenka, but he had already completely overcome him. Once Golovan hacked to death a demon that appeared, but he turned out to be a cow, and another time, because of the demons, a man knocked down all the candles near the icon. For this, Ivan was put in a cellar, where the hero discovered the gift of prophecy. On the ship, Golovan goes “on prayer in Solovki, to Zosima and Savvaty,” to bow to them before death, and then he is going to war.

"The enchanted wanderer, as it were, once again felt the inspiration of the broadcasting spirit and fell into a quiet concentration, which none of the interlocutors allowed themselves to interrupt with a single new question."

Conclusion

In The Enchanted Wanderer, Leskov depicted a whole gallery of bright, distinctive Russian characters, grouping the images around two central themes - the theme of wandering and the theme of charm. Throughout his life, the protagonist of the story, Ivan Severyanich Flyagin, through his wanderings tried to comprehend "perfect beauty" (the charm of life), finding it in everything - now in horses, now in beautiful Grushenka, and at the end - in the image of the Motherland for which he is going go to fight.

In the image of Flyagin, Leskov shows the spiritual maturation of a person, his formation and understanding of the world (charm with the surrounding world). The author portrayed before us a real Russian righteous man, a seer, whose "utterances" "remain until the time in the hand of hiding his destinies from the clever and reasonable and only sometimes reveals them to babies."

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Retelling rating

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Reading the works of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov, you invariably note the originality and vivid originality of this writer. His language and style are completely unique and wonderfully harmonize with the plot of this or that work. His works are just as original in content.
Their main theme is the spiritual life of the country and the people. The main thing for the writer is the study of the life of Russia, reflections on its past and future. But, unlike Ostrovsky, Nekrasov and Tolstoy, Leskov focuses on portraying the fate of individual

Of people.
The heroes of his works are Russians in the full sense of the word. They are real heroes, their fates are inextricably linked with the fate of the entire people.
Such is Ivan Severyanich Flyagin (“The Enchanted Wanderer”). Before us is a story about the life of an ordinary person, rich in adventures and unusual situations. However, with a more thoughtful reading behind a simple, everyday narrative, one can consider a deep study of the fate of an entire people. Ivan Severyanich is honest and impartial in his judgments about himself. Therefore, the reader has the opportunity to comprehensively evaluate this hero, his positive and negative qualities.
Flyagin had to endure a lot: the lordly anger, and the Tatar captivity, and unrequited love, and the war. But he comes out of all trials with honor: he does not humiliate himself before the masters, does not submit to adversaries, does not tremble before death and is always ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of truth. He never, under any circumstances, betrays his convictions, principles and faith.
Ivan Flyagin is a deeply religious person, and faith helps him to remain himself. After all, he did not accept the Muslim faith in captivity, although this could greatly facilitate his life. Moreover, Ivan tries to escape, fails and escapes again. Why is he doing this? After all, in his homeland, not a better life awaits him. Ivan Severyanich's answer is simple: he yearned for his homeland, and it is not appropriate for a Russian person to live among the "busurman", in captivity. God always lives invisibly in the soul of the "enchanted wanderer."
And Ivan ends his path in the monastery as a novice. This is the only place where he finally finds peace and grace, although at first the demons got in the habit of tempting him: at the sight of people in Ivan Severyanich, “the spirit rose,” recalling the past restless life.
Ivan Severyanich follows where fate drives him, and completely surrenders to chance. Any planning of life is not peculiar to him. And this, says Leskov, is characteristic of the entire Russian people. Any selfish deed, lies and intrigues are alien to Ivan Flyagin. He frankly talks about his adventures, hiding nothing and not making up for the audience. His, at first glance, chaotic life has a special logic - there is no escape from fate. Ivan Severyanich reproaches himself for not immediately going to the monastery, as promised by his mother, but trying to find a better life, knowing only one suffering. However, wherever he aspired, wherever he was, he always faced a line beyond which he never dared to cross: he always felt a clear line between righteous and unrighteous, between good and evil, although some of his actions sometimes seem strange. So, he escapes from captivity, leaves his unbaptized children and wives, without regretting them at all, throws the prince's money at the feet of a gypsy woman, gives the child entrusted to him to his mother, taking him away from his father, kills the abandoned and disgraced woman he loves. And what is most striking in the hero is that even in the most difficult situations he does not think about what to do. He is guided by some kind of intuitive moral feeling that never fails him. Leskov believed that this innate righteousness was an integral feature of the Russian national character.
The so-called “racial” consciousness, which Ivan Flyagin is fully endowed with, is also inherent in the Russian people. This consciousness permeates all the actions of the hero. Being held captive by the Tatars, Ivan does not for a minute forget that he is Russian, and with all his soul strives for his homeland, finally escapes. Nobody ever told him what to do and how to act. Sometimes his actions, it would seem, are completely illogical: instead of will, he asks the master for a harmonica, because of some chicks he ruins his prosperous life on the landlord's estate, voluntarily goes to recruits, pitying the unfortunate old people, etc. But these actions reveal before the reader that boundless kindness, naivety and purity of the wanderer's soul, which he himself does not even suspect, and which helps him to come out with honor from all life trials. After all, the soul of a Russian person, according to Leskov's deep conviction, is inexhaustible and indestructible.
Then what is the reason for the unhappy fate of the Russian man? The writer answered this question by revealing the reason for the tragic fate of his “enchanted wanderer”: the Russian man does not follow the path intended for him by God, but once lost, he cannot find the way again. Even at the beginning of the story, a monk crushed by horses predicts to Ivan: “You will die many times and never die until your real death comes, and then you will remember your mother’s promise for you and go to the monks”. And in these words the writer embodies the fate of all Russia and its people, who are destined to endure many sorrows and troubles until he finds his only, righteous path leading to happiness.

1. Throughout his entire career, Leskov was interested in the topic of the people. In his works, he repeatedly refers to this topic, revealing the character and soul of the Russian person. In the center of his works are always noble ...
2. Ivan's whole life was difficult: he was both "reprimanded" and he served for another person. Throughout the story, Leskov shows that Ivan is naive, like a baby, but at the same time he cannot be ...
3. From the very beginning of his literary career, Leskov concentrated his main attention on the study of folk life. However, already in his early works, the writer does not limit himself to depicting the general stream of people's life, in which he is lost ...
4. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov entered literature as the creator of strong human natures. "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (1864) is the story of the tragic love and crimes of Katerina Izmailova. Having acted as a rival to the author of The Thunderstorm, Leskov was able to ...
5. “The Enchanted Wanderer” entered the cycle about the righteous, conceived after its creation, created by Leskov in the eighties of the last century. The idea of ​​this cycle was born in the course of a dispute with Pisemsky, who in ...
6. Tsya from the work of other Russian writers of the XIX century. Leskov is interested in the same problems that interested his contemporaries, he tries to answer the same questions. And nevertheless, during life ...
7. It is not by chance that two unusual artists are compared in the story "The Dumb Artist", and the development of the plot is preceded by the narrator's reasoning about the very concept of "artist". “Many people here think that“ artists ”are only painters ...
8. N. S. Leskov. “The Enchanted Wanderer” is a story-telling by Ivan Flyagin about his life and destiny. He was destined to become a monk. But another force - the force of the charm of life - makes him go ...
9. Katerina Lvovna Izmailova is a strong person, an extraordinary personality, a bourgeois woman who is trying to fight against the world of property that has enslaved her. Love turns her into a passionate, ardent nature. In marriage, Katerina did not see happiness. Days ...
10. The narration of the work of N. Leskov Peacock begins with a description of the island of Valaam. The work consists of sixteen chapters. In the first chapter, the author says that this island is a refuge for monks. The story is told from the perspective of ...
11. One of the most interesting works of NS Leskov is the tale "Lefty", or "The Tale of the Tula oblique left-hander and the steel flea." Behind a veil of irony, even some unreality of the events described, the writer ...
12. Literary critics call Leskov's writing style "insidious." The reader of his works finds himself at a kind of crossroads of different meanings, a kind of “semantic crossroads”, when it is impossible to choose one reading option, but it is necessary to take into account the range of different ...
13. Art must and even must preserve as much as possible all the features of national beauty. Leskov Leskov's story "The Enchanted Wanderer" was written in the second half of the 19th century. At the center of this work is life ...
14. The protagonist of the story is an uneducated person who is not devoid of inherent disadvantages in Russia, including friendship with the "green serpent." However, the main property of Lefty is extraordinary, wonderful skill. He wiped his nose with "English ...
15. One of the themes that is quite often encountered in the work of N. S. Leskov is the theme of a Russian working man, a talented craftsman, a master with golden hands. Such is the hero of the Lefty's work, a Tula master who shod ...
LEVSHA is the hero of NS Leskov's story "Levsha" (1881, the first publication under the title "The Tale of the Tula oblique Lefty and the steel flea (shop legend)"). A piece created in the spirit of a lubok is usually called ...
16. By the beginning of the seventies, after the obvious failure of the novel "On Knives", NS Leskov abandoned this genre and seeks to assert the rights of the literary family that spontaneously took shape in his work. WITH...
17. The biggest problem disclosed by Leskov in the tale “Lefty” is the problem of the lack of demand for the talents of the Russian people. Leskov is overwhelmed not only with feelings of love and affection for his people, but also with pride in ...

Retelling plan

1. Meeting of travelers. Ivan Severyanich begins a story about his life.
2. Flyagin finds out his future.
3. He runs away from home and gets into a nanny to the daughter of a master.
4. Ivan Severyanich finds himself at the auction of horses, and then in Ryn-Peski in captivity by the Tatars.

5. Release from captivity and return to hometown.

6. The art of handling horses helps the hero to settle down with the prince.

7. Acquaintance of Flyagin with Grushenka.

8. The prince's fleeting love for the pear. He wants to get rid of the Gypsy.

9. Death of Grushenka.

10. Service of the hero in the army, in the address desk, in the theater.

11. The life of Ivan Severyanich in the monastery.
12. The hero discovers in himself the gift of prophecy.

Retelling

Chapter 1

On the Ladoga Lake, on the way to the island of Valaam, there are several travelers on the ship. One of them, dressed in a novice cassock and looking like a "typical bogatyr", is Mr. Ivan Severyanich Flyagin. He is gradually drawn into the conversation of passengers about suicides and, at the request of his companions, begins a story about his life: having God's gift for taming horses, all his life "he perished and could not perish in any way."

Chapters 2, 3

Ivan Severyanich continues his story. He came from a family of courtyards of Count K. from the Oryol province. His "parent" coachman Severyan, Ivan's "parent" died after giving birth because he "was born with an unusually large head," for which he received the nickname Golovan. From his father and other coachmen Flyagin "comprehended the secret of knowledge in the animal", from childhood he became addicted to horses. Soon he became so accustomed that he began to "show the posters' mischief: to pull some peasant he met with a whip on his shirt." This mischief led to misfortune: once, returning from the city, he accidentally kills a monk who has fallen asleep on a cart with a blow of the whip. The next night, the monk appears to him in a dream and reproaches him for taking his life without repentance. Then he reveals that Ivan is a son "promised to God." "But, - he says, you are a sign that you will perish many times and will never perish until your real" destruction "comes, and then you will remember your mother's promise for you and go to the blacks." Soon Ivan and his owners set off for Voronezh and on the way saves them from death in a terrible abyss, and falls into mercy.

After returning to the estate after a while, Golovan brings pigeons under the roof. Then he discovers that the owner's cat is dragging the chicks, he catches her and chops off the tip of her tail. As a punishment for this, he was severely flogged, and then sent to the "Aglitsky garden to beat pebbles with a hammer." The last punishment "tortured" Golovan and he decides to commit suicide. A gypsy rescues him from this fate, who cuts the rope prepared for death and persuades Ivan to run away with him, taking his horses with him.

Chapter 4

But, having sold the horses, they did not agree on the division of the money and parted. Golovan gives the official his ruble and silver cross and receives a vacation certificate (certificate) that he is a free man, and goes around the world. Soon, trying to get a job, he ends up with one master, to whom he tells his story, and he begins to blackmail him: either he will tell the authorities everything, or Golovan goes to serve as a "nanny" to his little daughter. This master, a Pole, convinces Ivan with the phrase: “Are you a Russian person? A Russian person can handle everything. " Golovan has to agree. He does not know anything about the mother of a girl, an infant, and does not know how to deal with children. He has to feed her with goat's milk. Gradually Ivan learns to care for the baby, even to treat him. So he unnoticeably becomes attached to the girl. Once, when he was walking with her by the river, a woman who turned out to be the girl's mother came up to them. She begged Ivan Severyanich to give her the child, offered him money, but he was implacable and even had a fight with the lady’s current husband, an officer-lancer.

Chapter 5

Suddenly Golovan sees an angry master approaching, he feels sorry for the woman, he gives the child to his mother and runs with them. In another city, the officer soon sends the passportless Golovan away, and he goes to the steppe, where he finds himself at the Tatar horse auction. Khan Dzhangar sells his horses, and the Tatars set prices and fight for horses: they sit down opposite each other and lash each other with whips.

Chapter 6

When a new handsome horse is put up for sale, Golovan does not hold back and, speaking for one of the remonters, drives the Tatar to death. “Tatarva - that's okay: well, he killed and killed - that was why he was in such condition, because he could detect me, but his own people, our Russians, even annoyingly don’t understand this, and got mad.” In other words, they wanted to transfer him to the police for the murder, but he fled from the gendarmes to the very Rynpieski. Here he gets to the Tatars, who, so that he does not run away, "bristle" his legs. Golovan serves as a doctor among the Tatars, moves with great difficulty and dreams of returning to his homeland.

Chapter 7

Golovan has been living with the Tatars for several years, he already has several wives and children "Natasha" and "Kollek", whom he regrets, but admits that he could not love them, "he did not respect them for his children," because they are "unbaptized" ... He misses his homeland more and more: “Oh, damn it, how all this memorable life from childhood will go to be remembered, and it will implode your soul, that where you disappear from all this happiness, you haven’t been excommunicated for so many years, and you live unmarried and die unsung, and longing will overwhelm you, and ... you will wait for the night, crawl out slowly at the rate, so that neither your wives, nor children, and none of the nasty ones will see you, and you will begin to pray ... and you pray ... you pray so that even the Indus snow under the knees will melt and where the tears fell, you will see the grass in the morning. "

Chapter 8

When Ivan Severyanich was already completely desperate to get home, Russian missionaries came to the steppe "to set their faith." He asks them to pay a ransom for him, but they refuse, claiming that before God "all are equal and do not care." After some time, one of them is killed, Golovan buries him according to the Orthodox tradition. He explains to his listeners that "an Asian should be brought into faith with fear," because they "will never respect the humble God without threat."

Chapter 9

Somehow two people came to the Tatars from Khiva to buy horses in order to “make war”. In the hope of intimidating the Tatars, they demonstrate the power of their fiery god Talafa. But Golovan discovers a box with fireworks, he introduces himself as Talafa, frightens the Tatars, converts them to the Christian faith and, finding "caustic earth" in the boxes, heals his legs and escapes. In the steppe, Ivan Severyanich meets a Chuvashin, but refuses to go with him, because he simultaneously reveres both the Mordovian Keremeti and the Russian Nicholas the Wonderworker. On his way, he comes across Russians, they cross themselves and drink vodka, but drive away the passportless Ivan Severyanich. In Astrakhan, the wanderer ends up in prison, from where he is taken to his hometown. Father Ilya excommunicates him for three years from the sacrament, but the count, who has become pious, lets him go "for rent."

Chapter 10

Golovan settles down on the horse part. He helps the peasants to choose good horses, fame goes about him as a magician, and everyone demands to tell a "secret". One prince takes him to his post as a coner. Ivan Severyanich buys horses for the prince, but from time to time he has drunken "exits", in front of which he gives the prince all the money for safety.

Chapter 11

Once, when the prince sells a beautiful horse to Dido, Ivan Severyanich is very sad, “makes a way out,” but this time he keeps the money with him. He prays in church and goes to a tavern, from where he is kicked out, when, after getting drunk, he begins to argue with a “pre-empty-empty” person who claimed that he was drinking because “he voluntarily took on weakness” so that it would be easier for others, and Christian feelings do not allow him to quit drinking. They are kicked out of the inn.

Chapter 12

A new acquaintance imposes on Ivan Severyanich "magnetism" to free himself from "zealous drunkenness", and for this he gives him a lot of water. At night, when they walk down the street, this man brings Ivan Severyanich to another tavern.

Chapter 13

Ivan Severyanich hears beautiful singing and enters a tavern, where he spends all his money on the beautiful gypsy songstress Grushenka: “You cannot even describe her as a woman, but as if she’s like a bright snake, she moves her tail and bends her whole camp, and from black eyes she burns fire. Curious figure! " "So I became mad, and all my mind was taken away from me."

Chapter 14

The next day, obeying the prince, he learns that the owner himself gave fifty thousand for Grushenka, ransomed her from the camp and settled her in his country estate. And Grushenka drove the prince mad: “This is what I feel sweet now that I turned my whole life upside down for her: I retired, and I pledged my estate, and from now on I’ll live here without seeing a person, but only everything. I will look at her face alone. "

Chapter 15

Ivan Severyanich tells the story of his master and Grunya. After some time, the prince gets tired of the "love word", from the "emeralds of Yahontovs" he falls asleep, besides, all the money runs out. Grushenka feels the prince's cooling, she is tormented by jealousy. Ivan Severyanich "became from that time to her easily: when the prince was not there, every day, twice a day, he went to her outhouse to drink tea and as he could entertain her."

Chapter 16

Once, having gone to the city, Ivan Severyanich overhears the conversation of the prince with his former mistress Evgenia Semyonovna and learns that his master is going to marry, and that the unfortunate and sincerely in love with him Grushenka wants to marry Ivan Severyanich. Returning home, Golovan learns that the prince had secretly taken the gypsy woman into the forest to a bee. But Pear runs away from her guards.

Chapters 17, 18

Grusha tells Ivan Severyanich what happened while he was away, how the prince got married, how she was sent into exile. She asks to kill her, to curse her soul: “Be quick to my soul for a savior; I no longer have the strength to live like this and suffer, seeing his betrayal and outrage against me. Have pity on me, my dear; stab me once against my heart. " Ivan Severyanitch recoiled, but she kept crying and exhorting him to kill her, otherwise she would lay hands on herself. “Ivan Severyanich terribly wrinkled his eyebrows and, biting his mustache, as if exhaled from the depths of his diverging chest:“ She took the knife out of my pocket ... took it apart ... straightened the blade from the handle ... and put it in my hands ... , - he says, - me, I will become the most ashamed woman in revenge to all of you. " I trembled all over, and told her to pray, and did not prick her, but took her from the steepness into the river and shoved her ... "

Chapter 19

Ivan Severyanich runs back and on the way he meets a peasant cart. The peasants complain to him that their son is being taken as a soldier. In search of an imminent death, Golovan pretends to be a peasant son and, having given all the money to the monastery as a contribution for Grushin's soul, goes to war. He dreams of perishing, but "neither land nor water wants to accept him." Once Golovan distinguished himself in business. The colonel wants to present him for the award, and Ivan Severyanich talks about the murder of a gypsy. But his words are not confirmed by the request, he is promoted to an officer and dismissed with the Order of St. George. Taking advantage of the colonel's letter of recommendation, Ivan Severyanich gets a job as a "clerk" at the address desk, but the service does not go well, and he goes to the artists. But even there he did not take root: rehearsals take place on Holy Week (sin!), Ivan Severyanich gets to portray the "difficult role" of a demon ... He leaves the theater for a monastery.

Chapter 20

Monastic life does not bother him, he remains there with horses, but he does not consider taking the tonsure worthy for himself and lives in obedience. When asked by one of the travelers, he says that at first a demon appeared to him in a "seductive female form," but after earnest prayers, only little demons, children, remained. Once he was punished: he was put in a cellar for a whole summer until frost. Ivan Severyanich did not lose heart there either: “here you can hear the church bells, and the comrades came to visit.” They rescued him from the cellar because the gift of prophecy was revealed in it. They let him go on a pilgrimage to Solovki. The wanderer admits that he expects a near death, because the "spirit" inspires him to take up arms and go to war, and he "really wants to die for the people."

Having finished the story, Ivan Severyanich falls into quiet concentration, again feeling in himself "the influx of a mysterious broadcasting spirit that opens up only to babies."