The first part of the autobiographical trilogy of Tolstoy's childhood. Leo Tolstoy - Childhood. Adolescence. Youth

The sixteenth spring of Nikolai Irtenyev is coming. He is preparing for university exams, full of dreams and thoughts about his future destiny. In order to more clearly define the purpose of life, Nikolai starts a separate notebook where he writes down the duties and rules necessary for moral perfection. On a passionate Wednesday, a gray-haired monk, confessor, comes to the house. After confession, Nikolai feels like a pure and new person. But at night, he suddenly remembers one of his shameful sins, which he hid in confession. He hardly sleeps until morning and at six o'clock he hurries in a cab to the monastery to confess again. Joyful, Nikolenka comes back, it seems to him that there is no person in the world better and cleaner than him. He is not restrained and tells the driver about his confession. And he replies: "Well, sir, your master's business." The joyful feeling disappears, and Nikolai even experiences some distrust of his excellent inclinations and qualities.

Nikolai successfully passes the exams and is enrolled in the university. The family congratulate him. By order of his father, the coachman Kuzma, the cabman and the bay Handsome are at the complete disposal of Nikolai. Deciding that he is already quite an adult, Nikolai buys many different knick-knacks, a pipe and tobacco on the Kuznetsk bridge. At home, he tries to smoke, but feels nauseous and weak. Dmitri Nekhlyudov, who has come to fetch him, reproaches Nikolai, explaining all the stupidity of smoking. Friends, together with Volodya and Dubkov, go to a restaurant to celebrate the younger Irtenyev's admission to the university. Observing the behavior of young people, Nikolai notices that Nekhlyudov differs from Volodya and Dubkov in a better, correct way: he does not smoke, does not play cards, does not talk about love affairs. But Nikolai, because of boyish delight in front of adulthood I want to imitate Volodya and Dubkov. He drinks champagne, lights a cigarette in a restaurant from a burning candle, which stands on the table in front of strangers. As a result, a quarrel with a certain Kolpikov arises. Nikolai feels insulted, but takes all his offense on Dubkov, unfairly yelling at him. Understanding all the childishness of his friend's behavior, Nekhlyudov calms and comforts him.

The next day, on the orders of his father, Nikolenka goes, as a fully grown man, to make visits. He visits the Valakhins, Kornakovs, Ivins, Prince Ivan Ivanovich, with difficulty enduring long hours of forced conversations. Nikolai feels free and easy only in the company of Dmitry Nekhlyudov, who invites him to visit his mother in Kuntsevo. Along the way, friends are talking different topics, Nicholas admits that in Lately completely confused in the variety of new impressions. He likes Dmitri's calm prudence without a hint of edification, the free and noble mind, he likes that Nekhlyudov forgave the shameful story in the restaurant, as if not attaching special significance to it. Thanks to conversations with Dmitry, Nikolai begins to understand that growing up is not a simple change in time, but a slow formation of the soul. He admires his friend more and more and, falling asleep after a conversation in the Nekhlyudovs' house, thinks about how good it would be if Dmitry married his sister or, conversely, he married Dmitry's sister.

The next day, Nikolai leaves for the village by mail, where memories of childhood, of mother with new force come alive in it. He thinks a lot, reflects on his future place in the world, on the concept of good manners, which requires a huge inner work on himself. enjoying village life, Nicholas gladly realizes in himself the ability to see and feel the most subtle shades of the beauty of nature.

Father at forty-eight marries a second time. The children do not like their stepmother; after a few months, the father and his new wife develop a relationship of “quiet hatred”.

With the beginning of his studies at the university, it seems to Nikolai that he dissolves in a mass of the same students and is largely disappointed new life. He rushes about from talking with Nekhlyudov to participating in student revels, which are condemned by his friend. Irtenev is annoyed by conventions secular society, which seem for the most part a pretense worthless people. Among the students, Nikolai makes new acquaintances, and he notices that the main concern of these people is to get pleasure from life, first of all. Under the influence of new acquaintances, he unconsciously follows the same principle. Negligence in studies bears fruit: Nikolai fails at the first exam. For three days he does not leave the room, he feels truly unhappy and has lost all the former joy of life. Dmitri visits him, but because of the cooling that comes in their friendship, Nekhlyudov's sympathy seems condescending to Nikolai and therefore insulting.

Late one evening, Nikolai takes out a notebook on which is written: "Rules of life." From the surging feelings associated with youthful dreams, he cries, but not with tears of despair, but of remorse and moral impulse. He decides to re-write the rules of life and never change them again. The first half of youth ends in anticipation of the next, happier one.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is one of the most famous Russian writers. His most famous novels are Anna Karenina, Sunday, War and Peace, as well as the trilogy Childhood, Adolescence, Youth. Many works of the great writer were filmed, so in our time we have the opportunity not only to read, but also to see the heroes of the novels with our own eyes. One of the screened books is the complete interesting events trilogy "Childhood, adolescence, youth." A brief summary of the novel will help to better understand the problems of the work. Perhaps someone will have a desire to read the novel in its entirety.

The novel "Childhood, adolescence, youth"

Lev Nikolayevich wrote his novel for five years. The work "Childhood, adolescence, youth" tells about the life of a boy in different periods his life. The book describes the experiences, first love, resentment, as well as a sense of injustice that many boys experience during their growing up periods. In this article we will talk about the trilogy written by Leo Tolstoy. “Childhood, adolescence, youth” is a work that will definitely not leave anyone indifferent.

"Childhood, adolescence, youth." Summary. Book one. "Childhood"

The novel begins with a description of Nikolenka Irtenyev, who some time ago turned 10 years old. Karl Ivanovich, a teacher, takes him and his brother to their parents. Nikolenka loves her parents very much. The father announces to the boys that he is taking them with him to Moscow. The children are upset by this decision of their father, Nikolenka likes to live in the village, communicate with Katenka, her first love, and go hunting, and he really does not want to part with his mother. Nikolenka has been living with her grandmother for six months now. On her birthday, he reads poetry to her.

Soon the hero realizes that he is in love with Sonya, whom he recently met, and admits this to Volodya. Suddenly, his father receives a letter from the village that Nikolenka's mother is sick and asks them to come. They come and pray for her health, but to no avail. After some time, Nikolenka was left without a mother. This left a deep imprint on his soul, as this was the end of his childhood.

Book two. "Boyhood"

The second part of the novel "Childhood, adolescence, youth" describes the events that took place after Nikolenka moved to Moscow with her brother and father. He feels changes in himself and in his attitude to the world around him. Nikolenka is now able to empathize and sympathize. The boy understands how the grandmother who lost her daughter suffers.

Nikolenka goes deeper and deeper into herself, believing that he is ugly and not worthy of happiness. He is jealous of his handsome brother. Grandmother Nikolenka is told that the children were playing with gunpowder, although it was only lead shot. She is sure that Karl has grown old and looks after the children badly, so she changes their tutor. It is hard for children to part with their teacher. But Nikolenka does not like the new French teacher. The boy allows himself to be insolent to him. For some unknown reason, Nikolenka tries to open her father's briefcase with the key and breaks the key in the process. He thinks that everyone is against him, so he hits the tutor and swears with his father and brother. They close him in a closet and promise that they will flog him with rods. The boy feels very lonely and humiliated. When he is released, he asks his father for forgiveness. Nikolenka begins to convulse, which shocks everyone. After twelve hours of sleep, the boy feels better and is pleased that everyone is worried about him.

After some time, Nikolenka's brother, Volodya, enters the university. Soon their grandmother dies, the whole family is very upset by the loss. Nikolenka cannot understand people who swear because of their grandmother's inheritance. He also notices how his father has aged and concludes that with age people become calmer and softer.
When there are several months left before entering the university, Nikolenka begins to prepare intensively. He meets Dmitry Nekhlyudov, Volodya's acquaintance from the university, and they become friends.

Book three. "Youth"

The novel "Childhood, adolescence, youth" in the third part tells about the time when Nikolenka continues to prepare for entering the university at the Faculty of Mathematics. He is looking for his purpose in life. Soon the young man enters the university, and his father gives him a carriage with a coachman. Nikolenka feels like an adult and tries to light a pipe. He starts to feel sick. He tells Nekhlyudov about this incident, who in turn tells him about the dangers of smoking. But the young man wants to imitate Volodya and his friend Dubkov, who smoke, play cards and talk about their love affairs. Nikolenka goes to a restaurant where he drinks champagne. He has a conflict with Kolpikov. Nekhludoff reassures him.

Nikolay decides to go to the village to visit his mother's grave. He remembers his childhood and thinks about the future. His father remarries, but Nikolai and Vladimir disapprove of his choice. Soon the father begins to get along badly with his wife.

Studying at the University

While studying at the university, Nikolai meets many people whose meaning of life is only to have fun. Nekhlyudov tries to reason with Nikolai, but he succumbs to the opinion of the majority. In the end, Nikolai fails his exams, and regards Dmitry's consolation as an insult.

One evening, Nikolai finds his notebook with the rules for himself, in which he wrote a very long time ago. He repents and cries, and later begins to write for himself a new notebook with the rules by which he is going to live all his life, without changing his principles.

Conclusion

Today we talked about the content of the work written by Leo Tolstoy. "Childhood, adolescence, youth" - a novel with deep meaning. After reading it summary, each reader will be able to draw certain conclusions, despite not having read it in its entirety. The novel "Childhood, adolescence, youth" teaches us not to withdraw into ourselves with our experiences, but to be able to sympathize and empathize with other people.

III.
"Childhood, adolescence, youth"

The story "Childhood, adolescence and youth" is, if not the very first work of Count Tolstoy, then at least one of the first. It was written over the course of five years, from 1852 to 1857, with significant, however, interruptions, since during the same time some other of his works were also written by the novice artist. This story, told from the point of view of its hero, depicts the life of a Russian man of the landlord environment, starting from the first childhood memories and ending with it. adolescence. Judging by some of the words of the author, as if by accident, he broke loose in his story, one might think that he had a grandiose plan - to trace a person’s life to the very grave, to describe all ages, as he described childhood, adolescence and youth. So, in one place he writes: "I am convinced that if I am destined to live to a ripe old age, my story will catch up with my age," etc. (I, p. 240). If our assumption is correct, then we can sincerely regret that Count Tolstoy did not fulfill this plan. The book that came out from under his pen human life, judging by its beginning, could be a bold and instructive disclosure of the truth of this life, especially interesting because, by the very task, it should present all this truth, all the content of life from the first glimpses of consciousness to its loss in the impotence of death and as a result, it should fully and completely express the artist's view of life.

Returning from these unfulfilled possibilities to reality, we first of all meet with the question of the main idea or intention of the story under consideration. The rich everyday descriptive material contained in it, and the accusatory aspirations that at one time dominated our literature, made some critics see the center of gravity of the whole story in the depiction of the landlord life of serf Russia. The very choice of plot was explained by the desire to show the conditions under the influence of which every child of the privileged class of our society inevitably had to grow and develop into a certain character. For our part, we readily admit that anyone who wishes will indeed find much in Count Tolstoy's story. characteristic features depicted time and known public environment that many people in the story, such as Nikolai Irtenyev’s father, his grandmother, a German teacher, all famous Carl Ivanych, - Natalya Savishna captured with a few strokes, Dubkov, Prince Nekhlyudov, have the undoubted significance of types belonging to a certain time; but, despite this, it seems to us that Count Tolstoy wrote his story, obeying a different creative motive, that he was faced with the task of showing the emerging human soul not depending on certain socio-historical conditions, but depending on the laws of development inherent in it ; that he wanted to represent the gradual change of life as a consequence of the inevitable metamorphoses of the soul. As a realist, he embodied his idea in the forms of the actual life of the then (that is, pre-reform) Russia; as an artist, he created images full of truth and power, images that naturally rise to the significance of types - but all this is only the material necessary for expressing an idea, only a canvas on which the artist embroiders the patterns of a person’s inner life. This assumption is supported primarily by chosen by the author story form. This form, as is well known, is autobiographical. For an objective depiction of everyday life, this form is the most inconvenient, since it always puts the personality of the narrator between the image and the reader and forces him to constantly reckon with his character (unless the narrator is an impersonal and spineless self, which cannot, of course, be said about Nikolai Irtenyev).

If the artist brings to the fore an interest in the inner life of a person, if his task is to depict this or that mental state, then the autobiographical form of the work, on the contrary, is very appropriate, since it allows the whole story to be turned into a characterization of the hero-narrator. And Count Tolstoy, with remarkable skill, took advantage of the conveniences of the form he had chosen. Read the language, listen to the tone, peer into the manner of the story in certain parts of the story, corresponding to childhood, adolescence and youth, and you will see that in the first - this story breathes with the freshness and naive poetry of childhood impressions; in the second - you already feel the first flashes of still unconscious passions and concepts, bringing so far only some kind of vague anxiety into the hitherto calm world of the child's soul; in the third, you hear the story of a young man who is constantly carried away by some idea, constantly striving to realize this or that hero in his person, and most of all afraid of the simplicity and naturalness of life. But not only the form of the story confirms the idea we have expressed about its main task; its content leads to the same conclusion, a significant part of which is the psychological analysis never abandoned by Count Tolstoy, aimed in the work being analyzed at revealing those peculiar and already forgotten by us mental states that we lived in childhood and adolescence.

The plot of the story is simple in the highest degree. It can even be said that it is completely absent, since the action of the story is not driven by the chaining of any external events and circumstances, but by the natural process of growth of its hero. Therefore, we will not follow the course of its events, but will turn directly to the dignity that each of the ages described by him has in the eyes of the author. - The most harmonious age, the happiest time in the image of our artist is childhood. In the soul of the child, the painful discord of internal contradictions has not yet arisen, for him the time has not yet come for the inevitable doubts in every attachment, in every feeling; he rejoices in carefree and pure joys, he loves completely and wholeheartedly, he greedily catches still new impressions of life for him. Everything is interesting for little Nikolenka Irtenyev: and Karl Ivanovich, whom he already knows how to love, like an orphan, like a lonely person; and the pope, in whom he sees an impeccable image of what a man should be, and about the possibility of condemning which he has not yet thought of a single thought; and holy fool Grisha with his chains and prayers; and hunting, and horses, which he knew in detail. But at the top of all childhood memories, at the unattainable height of beauty and poetry, stands for him the image of his mother. In this image, Count Tolstoy presented that Russian woman of our wealthy nobility - pure, tender, strict with herself, infinitely loving and forgiving - who by some miracle appeared in our life amid the prevailing rudeness and licentiousness, and who in our more "enlightened" time is ready, it seems, to move into the realm of tradition. This image of the mother is also remarkable for the fact that in all the work of Count Tolstoy, this is perhaps the only person with perfect character. The artist spared her from the corrupting action of his analysis and, having created her with a few light strokes, surrounded her with that poetic radiance that goes so well with the memories of a son who lost his beloved mother in childhood.

Comparing his present with the time he experienced long ago in childhood, the author writes: “Will that freshness, carelessness, the need for love and the strength of faith that you possess in childhood ever return? better than that when the two best virtues - innocent gaiety and the boundless need of love - were the only motives in life? Where are those fervent prayers? Where best gift- those pure tears of tenderness? A comforting angel flew in, wiped away those tears with a smile, and sang sweet dreams to the unspoiled childish imagination. Has life left such heavy traces in my heart that these tears and these delights have departed from me forever? Are there only memories left?

These lines give the impression of some kind of loss realized by a person. There was something big and beautiful, flashed in childhood and then disappeared forever, leaving in the soul only the memory of some kind of bliss, of some kind of Eden, from which the awakened passions and the developed mind expelled you.

It is this process of development that the author depicts further, describing adolescence and youth, depicts with his inherent courage and truth. "Have you, reader, at a certain time in your life suddenly noticed that your view of things has completely changed, as if all the objects that you had seen up to that time suddenly turned to you in another, still unknown side? This kind of moral change took place in me for the first time during our journey, from which I consider the beginning of my adolescence. For the first time, the thought came to me that we are not alone, that is, our family, we live in the world, that not all interests revolve around us, but that there is another life of people who have nothing to do with us, who do not care about us and even have no idea of ​​our existence.

Soon with soul little hero there was another change: he began to comprehend some special meaning women. The following scene served as the beginning of this revelation. Once, standing on the stairs, he heard the voice of Masha (a young maid): "Well, you, what are you playing about! And when Marya Ivanovna comes - will it be good?" - She won’t come, Volodya’s voice (Nikolai’s elder brother) said in a whisper, and after that something stirred, as if Volodya wanted to keep her. "Well, where do you put your hands? Shameless!" And Masha, with her kerchief pulled to one side, from under which one could see a white, plump neck, ran past me.

“I can’t express to what extent this discovery amazed me; however, a feeling of amazement soon gave way to sympathy for Volodya’s act: I was no longer surprised by his act itself, but by how he realized that it was pleasant to do so. And I involuntarily wanted to imitate omu".

Our hero met with a feeling of hatred (he hated his teacher - Jerome), and with a feeling of loneliness. The destructive work of thought also began in him, as if to harm a person, directed primarily to what is most dear to him. “I love my father,” says Irtenyev, but a person’s mind lives independently of the heart and often contains thoughts that offend feelings, incomprehensible and cruel to him. And such thoughts, despite the fact that I try to remove them, come to me.

Finally, abstract questions became available to the growing thought of our hero, and he was greatly carried away by them. "My childish weak mind, with all the fervor of inexperience, tried to understand those questions, the proposal of which is the highest level to which the human mind can reach, but the solution of which is not given to him." Then the thought came to him that our happiness depends on ourselves and that a person who is accustomed to endure suffering cannot be unhappy; - and so, in order to accustom himself to these sufferings, he went into the closet and, like a little fakir, lashed himself with a rope on his bare back so painfully that tears involuntarily appeared in his eyes; then he remembered that death awaits him every hour and that therefore it is absurd to worry about the future, and you only need to use the present, - and under the influence of this thought he abandoned his lessons and for three days "was engaged only in the fact that, lying on his bed, he enjoyed reading some some romance and eating gingerbread with Kronovsky honey, which I bought with the last money "; then he was fond of skepticism and thought that apart from him, no one and nothing exists in the whole world. “There were moments when, under the influence of this constant idea, I reached such a degree of folly that sometimes I quickly looked around in the opposite direction, hoping to surprise by surprise the emptiness (neant) where I was not.”

For us, the most interesting thing here is that general conclusion, which the author makes about the meaning of the mind in the matter of human happiness. "Pitiful, insignificant spring of moral activity - the mind of man!" we read. “My weak mind could not penetrate the impenetrable, and in overwork lost one by one the convictions that, for the happiness of my life, I should never have dared to touch. weakened my willpower, and the habit of constant moral analysis, which destroyed the freshness of feeling and clarity of mind.

And so - this is the lot of man! Higher and higher rising but steps spiritual development While freeing his consciousness more and more completely from the domination of passions and habits, man at the same time moves further and further away from his happiness. For happiness, some kind of shrine, some kind of cherished area, something unconditionally beautiful and obligatory is needed, and the developed and free thought of a person knows no barriers for himself, makes everything the subject of his analysis, by virtue of the nature of things everywhere finds spots and shadows He sees in the most beautiful reality only a faint resemblance of the ideal and, flying around the life of a person, takes away from him one by one the conditions of his happiness. This idea, however, is not new: even Shakespeare noticed this fate, weighing on the human spirit, and gave it eternal expression in Hamlet. It is only characteristic that Count Tolstoy finds it necessary to express the same thought.

Youth, according to Count Tolstoy, begins from the time when noble thoughts and strivings for moral improvement, previously only pleasing to the mind, become accessible to feelings and find a living organ for themselves in the moral nature of a recent child that has already taken shape. The essence of our hero's new mood is best expressed in the following sincere and strong impulse: "How could I not understand this (that beauty, happiness and virtue are easy and possible for him), how bad I was before, how I could and can be good and happy in the future! he said to himself: "I must quickly, quickly, this very minute become a different person and begin to live differently." Anyone who has had a youth with more than just revelry physical strength, but also with a moral content, he will remember that it was precisely these words that he spoke to himself, that these same images of beauty, happiness and virtue beckoned him into the future, and that outside of them he did not understand and did not want life. But we live... And which of us has realized this beauty and happiness in his life? Are there even those among us who have retained faith in these radiant ideals, whose need for beauty has not been replaced by the desire for comfort, the thirst for happiness - the search for pleasant sensations, the desire for virtue - the need for universally recognized morality? .. How is this fall of life accomplished? - not the external life, which is always the same, but our inner world, our soul? - Let's turn to the story and see what came out of the young man Irtenyev's desire to "become a different person."

This striving is expressed by Irtenev in a whole series of dreams. So, before confession, he dreamed that he would be cleansed of all sins and would no longer commit acts that now torment him; he dreamed that he would go to church every Sunday, that he would help the poor out of his money, that he would clean his room himself so as not to embarrass a person; he also dreamed of becoming the first scientist in Europe; dreamed of how he would go for a walk on the Sparrow Hills and meet her there. About her, about an imaginary woman (who was for him a little Sonichka, a little Masha, the servant's wife, at the time when she washes linen in the trough, and a little bit of a woman with pearls on a white neck, whom he saw in the theater), he dreams very much. many; he also dreams of glory, of how people will know and love him - and God only knows what he did not dream about then. These dreams do not remain without influence on his life: thus, remembering "one shameful sin", which he concealed at confession, he decides to go to the monastery and confess a second time. The episode of this trip is artistically a true masterpiece: Count Tolstoy conveys it with a touch of humor, which does not prevent him from noting the sincere tenderness of the young man at the moment of confession, and at the same time allowing him to point out the conceited feeling that makes the young zealot his moral purity tell the driver about the purpose of your trip to the monastery.

Having passed the last exam at the university, our hero, in order to look like a big man, goes shopping and spends all his money on buying things that are completely unnecessary to him; he also buys tobacco for himself, since he, as a student, needs to smoke. Arriving home, he tries to smoke, but out of habit he felt dizzy, he became nauseous, and, lying on the sofa, he thought sadly with disappointment: it’s not fate, like others, to hold the chubuk between the middle and ring fingers, puff and blow smoke through a blond mustache.

Further, the author tells us how a young man, striving for beauty and truth, invented love for himself. "I was ashamed for a long time, looking at all my lovers in love, because I lagged behind them," says the frank and truthful narrator. And so, seeing one young lady, Sonechka, whom he had known as a child, he decided at that very moment that he was in love with her. He told his friend Dmitry Nekhlyudov about this feeling; upon his arrival in the village, for the holidays, he, imitating lovers, walked for two whole days in front of his family, sad and thoughtful; on the third day, however, the pretense was no longer enough and he completely forgot about his love.

Then Count Tolstoy reveals in his hero the vain desire, so characteristic of young men, to show himself to be a different person than he is, a desire that led the student Irtenyev into the wilds of the most desperate lies, forcing him to draw phrases whose thoughts he did not sympathize with at all, or to let on himself unusual and alien him mood.

But showing all the lies and falsehood that the reality of youth is full of, Count Tolstoy does not forget the beauty that lives in the dreams, impulses and aspirations of this age. It is worth reading, for example, the following excerpt, filled with poetic charm, depicting youthful dreams inspired by a picture of a clear summer night: "Everything (in this picture) received for me strange meaning- the meaning of too much beauty and some unfinished happiness. And now she appeared, with a long, black braid, high breasts, always sad and beautiful, with bare arms, with voluptuous embraces. She loved me, I sacrificed my whole life for one minute of her love. As the moon stood higher and higher, brighter and brighter in the sky, the lush brilliance of the pond, evenly intensifying like a sound, became clearer and clearer, the shadows became blacker and blacker, the light more transparent and more transparent, and peering and listening to all this, something it told me that with bare arms and ardent embraces, she was still far, far from all happiness, that love for her was far, far from all good; and the more I looked at the tall, full moon, the true beauty and the good seemed to me higher and higher, purer and purer, closer and closer to Him, to the source of everything beautiful and good, and tears of some kind of unsatisfied, but exciting joy welled up in my eyes.

So, entering through adolescence, which destroyed the naive and charmingly pure world of childhood, into youth, a person meets in it many wonderful hopes, feels in himself many forces and aspirations that should give him complete and high happiness; but as soon as he begins to live, to spend this promising reserve of strength, his life is filled with some kind of pettiness and lies, so unlike the great expectations from her. Are these expectations being met? later periods human life, the story under consideration does not speak of this, lowering the curtain before us even before the end of youth; but other works of the artist-Tolstoy, to which we now turn, speak of this.

Childhood. Nikolenka Irteniev turned ten years ago three days ago. Karl Ivanovich, Nikolenka's teacher, takes him and his brother to their parents. Nikolenka loves and is proud of her parents. For him, there is nothing more beautiful than the face of his mother, and even his father, strict and serious, admires Nikolenka.

The father announces to Nikolenka and his brother Volodya that he is taking them to Moscow. Nikolenka is very upset by his father's decision. He liked to live in the village, go hunting, communicate with courtyard people, and Katenka was here, this is his first love. They are going to leave the next day. Nikolenka gets even more upset when she has to leave. He hugs his mother and cries. They get into the chaise and leave. All Nikolenka's thoughts and memories are only about her mother. He cries and waves his handkerchief goodbye to her.

A month has passed since Nikolenka with his father and brother settled in Moscow, in the house of his grandmother. At her grandmother's name day, Nikolenka meets relatives and other guests. He presents his grandmother with a gift in the form of a poem, and was very worried when it was read out. He meets Sonechka, and soon confesses to Volodya that he loves her.

Six months have passed, the family receives a letter from the village. It says that mother is very ill and asks them to come. Without hesitation, they leave for the village. But mum's getting worse, she can't get out of bed. She soon dies in agony. Before her death, she asks the blessing of the Mother of God so that she does not leave her children.

Nikolenka cannot believe in her mother's death. Seeing her in a coffin, he screams out of the room. This is where his childhood ends. The whole family moves to Moscow, periodically returning to the village to visit their mother's grave.

Adolescence. After moving to Moscow, Nikolenka feels a change in herself. He has new emotions, he begins to understand the behavior of the people around him. He remembers his mother, and sees grief in the eyes of his grandmother, who lost her daughter. Nikolenka is interested in the opposite sex, but he believes that he is doomed to loneliness. He considers himself ugly and envious of his handsome brother.

Grandmother believes that Karl Ivanovich does not look after them well and decides to change their tutor. But the new teacher is not to Nikolenka's taste. Nikolenka believes that everyone is opposed to him. He yells at his brother, hits the tutor, tries to break open his father's briefcase. For this he is put in a closet. Nikolenka feels humiliated. He apologizes to his father, but begins to convulse. Everyone is worried about him, and he is only happy about it.

But still Nikolenka feels loneliness. He goes deeper into himself. Most time he spends in thoughts and reflections. He spies on the relationship between the maid and the tailor, and does not understand their love manifestations.

His brother Volodya enters the university. Nikolenka is jealous of her brother's adulthood, but still rejoices for him. Their grandmother dies, he is very worried about her death. He cannot understand people who are more interested in her legacy. He sees his father getting old. He notices that with age people become softer and more tender.

A couple of months remain before Nikolenka enters the university. Nikolenka takes up his mind and prepares for the Faculty of Mathematics. He is fully committed to self-education. Nikolenka gets acquainted with Prince Dmitry Nikhlyudov, Volodya's acquaintance from the university. Nikolenka sees a like-minded person in Dmitry, they become friends.

Youth. Nikolenka is doing her best to prepare for entering the university. Nikolai is looking for his purpose in life, he starts a notebook for the rules and responsibilities that he sets for himself. He strives for perfection. One day on a passionate Wednesday, a monk visits their house. Nicholas confesses to him and feels renewed and pure. But at night he cannot sleep, he thinks only that he hid one sin. He cannot sleep and goes to the monastery at dawn. He confesses to the monk about the hidden sin. Now he is completely clean. But he is in no hurry to rejoice. He is tormented by doubts about his hobbies and inclinations.

Nikolai surrenders entrance exams and goes to university. The father is very pleased with the success of his son and puts at his disposal a coachman with a carriage and a horse. Nikolay, feeling his adulthood, decides to buy a pipe with tobacco. The first time he smokes, he feels dizzy and nauseous. He tells his friend Nekhlyudov about this incident. That, in turn, explains all the harm and stupidity of smoking. Nikolay with Volodya and their friends gather in a restaurant to celebrate their friend's admission to the university. Nikolai sees how Nekhlyudov's behavior differs greatly from the rest. It seems to him that Nekhlyudov is too correct, he wants to imitate the rest of his friends. It seems to Nikolai that the use of tobacco and alcohol looks like an adult. He lights up from a candle in a restaurant, thus provoking a restaurant visitor who is outraged by his behavior. But Nekhlyudov reassures him.

The next day, Nikolai visits several houses at the request of his father. But he feels most comfortable when communicating with Nekhlyudov. Nikolai sees the nobility of Dmitry's soul and remembers the seriousness of growing up. He visits Dmitry's mother's house and dreams of being related to them.

Nikolai decides to go to the village. He visits his mother's grave and reminisces about his childhood. He thinks about his place in the future. His father will marry again. But Nikolai and Volodya do not approve of his choice. Soon, the father and his new wife develop a difficult relationship.

At the university, Nikolai meets new people and notices that their goal is to enjoy life. Nekhlyudov tries to reason with him, but the influence of the masses has a great effect on him. He fails his exams, and considers Dmitry's consolations an insult.

One evening he finds his old notebook with the rules he wrote for himself. He cries in remorse. But again he writes new rules for himself, which he is going to adhere to and not change his principles.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Childhood. Adolescence. Youth

© AST Publishing House LLC, 2017

Teacher Karl Ivanovich

On August 12, 18 ..., exactly on the third day after my birthday, on which I was ten years old and on which I received such wonderful gifts, at seven o'clock in the morning Karl Ivanovich woke me up by hitting a clapperboard made of sugar paper over my very head on a stick - on a fly. He did it so awkwardly that he touched the icon of my angel hanging on the oak headboard, and that the dead fly fell right on my head. I poked my nose out from under the blanket, with my hand stopped the icon, which continued to swing, threw the dead fly on the floor, and, though with sleepy, but angry eyes, surveyed Karl Ivanitch. He, in a colorful cotton robe, belted with a belt of the same material, in a red knitted yarmulke with a tassel, and in soft goat boots, continued to walk near the walls, take aim and clap.

“Let’s suppose,” I thought, “I’m small, but why does he disturb me? Why doesn't he kill flies near Volodya's bed? there are so many! No, Volodya is older than me; but I am least of all: that is why he torments me. All his life he thinks about it, - I whispered, - how to make trouble for me. He sees very well that he woke me up and frightened me, but he shows as if he does not notice ... a nasty person! And the dressing gown, and the hat, and the tassel - how nasty!

While I was mentally expressing my annoyance with Karl Ivanovich in this way, he went up to his bed, looked at the clock that hung above it in an embroidered beaded shoe, hung the clapperboard on a carnation, and, as was noticeable, in the most pleasant mood turned to us.

- Auf, Kinder, auf!.. s'ist Zeit. Die Mutter ist schon im Saal! he shouted in a good German voice, then he came up to me, sat down at my feet and took a snuffbox out of his pocket. I pretended to be asleep. Karl Ivanovich first sniffed, wiped his nose, snapped his fingers, and only then set to work on me. He chuckled and began to tickle my heels. - Nu, nun, Faulenzer! he said.

No matter how I was ticklish, I did not jump out of bed and did not answer him, but only buried my head deeper under the pillows, kicked my legs with all my might and tried my best to keep from laughing.

“How kind he is and how he loves us, and I could think so badly of him!”

I was annoyed both with myself and with Karl Ivanovich, I wanted to laugh and I wanted to cry: my nerves were upset.

“Ach, lassen Sie, Karl Ivanitch!” I cried with tears in my eyes, sticking my head out from under the pillows.

Karl Ivanovich was surprised, left my soles alone and began to ask me with anxiety: what am I talking about? didn’t I see something bad in a dream? .. His good german face, the participation with which he tried to guess the cause of my tears, made them flow even more abundantly: I was ashamed, and I did not understand how, a minute before, I could not love Karl Ivanovich and find his dressing gown, cap and tassel disgusting; now, on the contrary, all this seemed to me exceedingly sweet, and even the tassel seemed a clear proof of his kindness. I told him that I was crying because I had a bad dream - that maman had died and they were carrying her to bury. I invented all this, because I absolutely did not remember what I dreamed that night; but when Karl Ivanovich, touched by my story, began to console and reassure me, it seemed to me that I had definitely seen this horrible dream, and tears poured out for another reason.

When Karl Ivanovich left me and I, rising up on the bed, began to pull the stockings over my small legs, the tears subsided a little, but gloomy thoughts about a fictitious dream did not leave me. Uncle Nikolai came in - a small, clean little man, always serious, neat, respectful and a great friend of Karl Ivanovich. He carried our dresses and shoes: Volodya's boots, and I still had unbearable shoes with bows. With him, I would be ashamed to cry; moreover, the morning sun shone merrily through the windows, and Volodya, mimicking Marya Ivanovna (the sister's governess), laughed so cheerfully and sonorously, standing over the washbasin, that even serious Nikolai, with a towel on his shoulder, with soap in one hand and with a washstand in the other, smiling, he said:

- It will be for you, Vladimir Petrovich, if you please, wash your face.

I was quite amused.

– Sind Sie bald fertig? - I heard the voice of Karl Ivanych from the classroom.

His voice was stern and no longer had that expression of kindness that moved me to tears. In the classroom, Karl Ivanovich was a completely different person: he was a mentor. I quickly dressed, washed, and, still with a brush in my hand, smoothing my wet hair, came to his call.

Karl Ivanitch, with spectacles on his nose and a book in his hand, was sitting in his usual place, between the door and the window. To the left of the door there were two shelves: one was ours, for children, the other was Karl Ivanovich, own. On ours there were all sorts of books - educational and non-educational: some were standing, others were lying. Only two large volumes of "Histoire des voyages", in red bindings, primly rested against the wall; and then they went, long, thick, large and small books - crusts without books and books without crusts; you used to press and stick everything in the same place when they were ordered to put the library in order before the recreation, as Karl Ivanovich loudly called this shelf. Collection of books on own if it was not as large as on ours, then it was even more diverse. I remember three of them: a German pamphlet on the manure of vegetable gardens for cabbage - without binding, one volume of history Seven Years' War- in parchment, burned from one corner, and full course hydrostatics. Karl Ivanovich Bo ́ spent most of his time reading, even spoiled his eyesight with it; but apart from these books and the Northern Bee, he read nothing.

Among the items that lay on the shelf of Karl Ivanovich, there was one that reminds me of him most of all. This is a cardon circle inserted into a wooden leg, in which this circle moved by means of pegs. A picture was pasted on the mug, representing caricatures of some lady and a hairdresser. Karl Ivanovich glued it very well, and he himself invented and made this circle in order to protect his weak eyes from bright light.

As I now see in front of me a long figure in a padded robe and a red cap, from under which one can see rare grey hair. He sits near a table on which stands a circle with a hairdresser who casts a shadow over his face; in one hand he holds a book, the other rests on the arm of the chair; next to him lies a clock with a painted huntsman on the dial, checkered scarf, a black round snuffbox, a green spectacle case, tongs on a tray. All this is so sedately, neatly in its place, that from this order alone one can conclude that Karl Ivanovich has a clear conscience and a peaceful soul.

It used to happen that you would run down the hall to your fill, tiptoe upstairs to the classroom, look - Karl Ivanovich was sitting alone in his armchair and with a calmly majestic expression was reading one of his favorite books. Sometimes I found him even at such moments when he was not reading: his glasses went down on his big aquiline nose, his blue half-closed eyes looked with some special expression, and his lips smiled sadly. The room is quiet; all you can hear is his even breathing and the striking of the clock with the huntsman.

It happened that he did not notice me, and I stood at the door and thought: “Poor, poor old man! There are many of us, we play, we have fun, but he is all alone, and no one caresses him. He tells the truth that he is an orphan. And what a terrible story! I remember how he told it to Nikolai - it's terrible to be in his position! And it will become so pitiful that you used to go up to him, take him by the hand and say: “Lieber Karl Ivanovich!” He loved it when I told him so; always caresses, and it is clear that he is touched.

Landcards hung on the other wall, all almost torn, but skilfully pasted over by the hand of Karl Ivanovich. On the third wall, in the middle of which there was a door down, two rulers hung on one side: one was cut, ours, the other was brand new, own, used by him more for encouragement than for shedding; on the other, a black board, on which our big misdeeds were marked with circles and small ones with crosses. To the left of the board was a corner where we were put on our knees.

How I remember this corner! I remember the damper in the oven, the vent in that damper, and the noise it made when it was turned. Sometimes you stand, stand in a corner, so that your knees and back hurt, and you think: “Karl Ivanovich forgot about me: he must be calmly sitting on an easy chair and reading his hydrostatics, but what does it feel like to me?” - and you will begin, in order to remind yourself, to slowly open and close the damper or pick the plaster from the wall; but if suddenly too large a piece falls with a noise to the ground - right, fear alone is worse than any punishment. You look back at Karl Ivanovich, and he is sitting with a book in his hand and seems not to notice anything.

In the middle of the room stood a table covered with a tattered black oilcloth, under which in many places one could see the edges cut with penknives. There were several unpainted stools around the table, but from long use of varnished stools. The last wall was occupied by three windows. This is what the view looked like from them: right under the windows there is a road on which every pothole, every pebble, every rut has long been familiar and dear to me; behind the road is a sheared linden alley, behind which in some places one can see a wicker palisade; through the alley one can see a meadow, on one side of which there is a threshing floor, and opposite a forest; far away in the forest, the watchman's hut is visible. From the window to the right, a part of the terrace is visible, on which the big ones usually sat until dinner. It used to happen that while Karl Ivanovich was correcting a sheet of dictation, you looked in that direction, you saw the black head of your mother, someone's back, and you vaguely heard talking and laughter from there; It will become so annoying that you can’t be there, and you think: “When will I be big, will I stop studying and will I always sit not at dialogues, but with those whom I love?” Annoyance will turn into sadness, and, God knows why and about what, you will think so hard that you don’t even hear how Karl Ivanovich is angry for mistakes.