The story “The Enchanted Wanderer” by Nikolai Semenovich Leskov 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 its fantastic form of narration - Leskov imitates oral speech characters, saturating it with dialectisms, colloquial words, etc.

The composition of the story consists of 20 chapters, the first of which is an exposition and a prologue, the following are a narrative about the life of the main character, written in the style of a hagiography, including a retelling of the hero’s childhood and fate, his struggle with temptations.

Main characters

Flyagin Ivan Severyanych (Golovan)– the main character of the work, a monk “in his early fifties”, a former coneser, telling the story of his life.

Grushenka- a young gypsy who loved the prince, who, at her request, was killed by Ivan Severyanych. Golovan was unrequitedly in love with her.

Other heroes

Count and Countess- Flyagin’s first bayars from Oryol province.

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

Girl's mother, who was nursed by Flyagin and her second officer husband.

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

Evgenya Semenovna- the prince's mistress.

Chapter One

The ship's passengers "sailed along Lake Ladoga from Konevets Island to Valaam" with a stop in Korel. Among the travelers, a notable figure was a monk, a “hero-monkorizets” - 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 his “parental promise” - “all my life I died, and there was no way I could die.”

Chapter two

“Former soldier Ivan Severyanich, Mr. Flyagin,” in abbreviated form, tells his companions the long story of his life. The man was “born into a serfdom” and came “from the courtyard people of Count K. from the Oryol province.” His father was the coachman Severyan. Ivan’s mother died during childbirth, “because I was born with an unusually large head, so that’s why my name was not Ivan Flyagin, but simply Golovan.” The boy spent a lot of time with his father at the stables, where he learned to care for horses.

Over time, Ivan was “planted as a postilion” in the six, which was driven by his father. Once, while driving a six, the hero on the road, “for fun,” spotted a monk to death. That same night, the deceased came to Golovan in a vision and said that Ivan was the mother “promised to God,” and then told him the “sign”: “you will die many times and you will never die until your real death comes, and you then you will remember your mother’s promise for you and you will go to the monks.”

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

Chapter Three

Golovan kept pigeons in his stable, but the countess’s cat got into the habit of hunting for birds. Once, angry, Ivan beat the animal, cutting off the cat’s tail. Having learned about what had happened, the hero was given the punishment “flogged and then out of the stable and into the English garden for the path to beat pebbles with a hammer.” Ivan, for whom this punishment was unbearable, decided to commit suicide, but the gypsy robber did not allow the man to hang himself.

Chapter Four

At the request of the gypsy, Ivan stole two horses from the master's stable and, having received some money, went to the “assessor to announce that he was a runaway.” However, the clerk wrote the hero a vacation note 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 teacher, took care of the girl, closely monitored her health, but was very bored. One day, while walking along the estuary, they met the girl’s mother. The woman began to tearfully ask Ivan to give her her daughter. The hero refuses, but she persuades him to secretly bring the girl to the same place every day, secretly from the master.

Chapter Five

During one of the meetings on the estuary, the woman’s current husband, an officer, appears and offers a ransom for the child. The hero again refuses and a fight breaks out between the men. Suddenly an angry gentleman 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 does not have a passport, and the hero will end up in the steppe.

At a fair in the steppe, Ivan witnesses how the famous steppe horse breeder Khan Dzhangar sells his best horses. Two Tatars even had a duel for the white mare - they lashed each other with whips.

Chapter Six

The last to be brought out for sale was an expensive Karak foal. Tatar Savakirei immediately came forward to arrange a duel - to fight with someone for this stallion. Ivan volunteered to act for one of the repairmen in a duel with the Tatar and, using “his cunning skill,” he “flogged” Savakirei to death. They wanted to capture Ivan for murder, but the hero managed to escape with the Asians to the steppe. There he stayed for ten years, treating people and animals. To prevent Ivan from running away, the Tatars “bristled” him - they cut off the skin on his heels, put horse hair there and sewed up the skin. After this, the hero could not walk for a long time, but over time he learned to walk on his ankles.

Chapter Seven

Ivan was sent to Khan Agashimola. The hero, as under the previous khan, had two Tatar wives “Natasha”, from whom they 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”. “An Asian must be brought into the faith with fear, so that he shakes with fright, and they preach to them God of peace.” “An Asian will never respect a humble God without a threat and will beat 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 custom.

Chapter Nine

Once people from Khiva came to the Tatars to buy horses. To intimidate the steppe inhabitants (so that they would not kill them), the guests showed the power of their fire god - Talafa, set fire to the steppe and, until the Tatars realized what had happened, disappeared. The newcomers forgot the box in which Ivan found ordinary fireworks. Calling himself Talafa, the hero begins to scare the Tatars with fire and forces them to accept the Christian faith. In addition, Ivan found caustic earth in the box, which he used to etch away the horse bristles implanted in his heels. When his legs healed, he set off a large firework and escaped unnoticed.

Coming out to the Russians a few days later, Ivan spent only one night with them, and then moved on, since they did not want to accept a person without a passport. In Astrakhan, having started drinking 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 released him “on quitrent.”

Chapter Ten

Ivan began going to fairs and advising ordinary people how to choose a good horse, for which they treated him or thanked him with money. When his “fame thundered through the fairs,” 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 his coneser. From time to time the hero has “outs” - the man drank heavily, although he wanted to end it.

Chapter Eleven

One day, when the prince was away, Ivan again went to the tavern to drink. 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 drunken passion from any other person in one minute.” Ivan asked him to get rid of his addiction. The man, hypnotizing Golovan, makes him get very drunk. Already completely drunk men are thrown out of the tavern.

Chapter Twelve

From the actions of the “magnetizer,” Ivan began to see “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

The gypsies opened the doors to Ivan, and the hero found himself in yet another tavern. Golovan stares at a young gypsy, the singer Grushenka, and spends 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, was angry at first, but then calmed down and said that for “this Grusha he gave fifty thousand to the camp,” if only she would be with him. Now the gypsy lives in his house.

Chapter fifteen

The prince, arranging his own affairs, was at home less and less often with Grusha. 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 - one of the nobles, the secretary’s daughter Evgenya Semyonovna,” who had a daughter with the prince, Lyudochka.

One day Ivan came to the city and stayed with Evgenia Semyonovna, and on the same day the prince came here.

Chapter sixteen

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

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

Chapter Seventeen

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

Chapter Eighteen

As it turned out, the prince secretly took Grushenka into the forest to a beekeeping, assigning three “young healthy single-yard girls” to the girl, 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 - and so she returned.

Ivan tries to dissuade the girl from suicide, but she assured that she would not be able to live after the prince’s wedding - she would suffer even more. The gypsy woman asked to kill her, threatening: “If you don’t kill me,” she said, “I will become the most shameful woman in revenge for all of you.” And Golovin, pushing Grushenka into the water, fulfilled 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 men, Ivan joined the 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 praises: “I, your honor, am not a fine fellow, but a big sinner, and neither earth nor water wants to accept me,” and told his story.

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

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

Chapter Twenty

At the end, the companions asked Ivan how he was doing in the monastery, and whether he had been tempted by a demon. The hero replied that he tempted him by appearing in the image of Grushenka, but he had already completely overcome it. Once Golovan hacked to death a demon who had appeared, but it turned out to be a cow, and another time, because of 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 “to pray in Solovki to Zosima and Savvaty” in order to bow to them before his death, and then gets ready for war.

“The enchanted wanderer seemed to again feel the influx of the broadcasting spirit and fell into quiet concentration, which none of the interlocutors allowed themselves to be interrupted by a single new question.”

Conclusion

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

With the image of Flyagin, Leskov shows the spiritual maturation of a person, his formation and understanding of the world (fascination with the world around him). The author portrayed before us a real Russian righteous man, a seer, whose “prophecies” “remain until time in the hand of one who hides his destinies from the smart and reasonable and only sometimes reveals them to babies.”

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Several travelers, sailing along Lake Ladoga, got into a conversation with an elderly man of enormous height and powerful physique who had recently boarded their ship. Judging by his clothes, he was preparing to become a monk. By nature, the stranger was simple-minded and kind, but it was noticeable that he had seen a lot throughout his life.

He introduced himself as Ivan Severyanych Flyagin and said that he had traveled a lot before, adding: “All my life I died, and there was no way I could die.” The interlocutors persuaded him to tell about how it happened.

Leskov. Enchanted wanderer. Audiobook

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 2 – summary

Ivan Severyanych was born in the Oryol province and came from the serfs of Count K. His father was the master's coachman, and Ivan himself grew up in a stable, from a young age learning everything there is to know about horses.

When he grew up, he also began to drive the count. Once during such a journey I did not yield to him narrow road a cart with an old monk asleep on top of it. Overtaking him, Ivan pulled this monk across the back with a whip. Opening his eyes, he fell sleepily under the wheel of his cart - and was crushed to death.

The case was hushed up, but the dead monk appeared to Ivan in a dream that same day. He reproachfully predicted a difficult life for him in the future. “You will die many times and never die once, and then you will become a monk.”

The prediction immediately began to come true. Ivan was driving his count along the road near a steep mountain - and in the most dangerous place of the descent, the crew’s brake burst. The front horses had already fallen into a terrible abyss, but Ivan held the rear ones by throwing himself onto the drawbar. He saved the Lord, but he himself, hanging a little, flew down from that mountain - and survived only by unexpected happiness: he fell on a block of clay and slid down to the bottom on it, as if on a sled.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 3 – summary

Soon he got a dove and a dove in his stable. But the pigeons that were born to them got into the habit of stealing and there is one cat. Ivan caught her, whipped her and cut off her tail.

This cat turned out to be the master's. The countess's maid came running to scold Ivan for her and hit him on the cheek. He chased her away with a dirty broom. For this, Ivan was severely flogged and sent to tedious work: standing on his knees, small stones for the paths of the count English garden hit with a hammer. Ivan became so unbearable that he decided to hang himself. He went into the forest and jumped from a tree with a noose around his neck, when suddenly a gypsy who came from nowhere cut the rope. With a laugh, he suggested that Ivan run away from the masters and engage in horse stealing with him. Ivan didn’t want to follow the thieves’ path, but there was no other choice.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 4 – summary

That same night he took the two best horses out of the master's stable. They rode off with the gypsy to Karachev and there they sold their horses at a high price. But the gypsy gave Ivan only a ruble out of all the proceeds, saying: “This is because I am a master, and you are still a student.” Ivan called him a scoundrel and broke up with him.

With his last money, through a clerk, he got himself a stamped vacation permit to Nikolaev, arrived there and went to work for a gentleman. That master’s wife ran away with a repairman (an army horse buyer), but his little daughter remained behind. He instructed Ivan to nurse her.

This was an easy matter. Ivan took the girl to the seashore, sat there with her all day and gave her goat milk. But one day a monk, whom he had killed on the road, appeared to him in his doze and said: “Let's go, Ivan, brother, let's go! You still have a lot to endure.” And he showed him in a vision a wide steppe and wild horsemen galloping along it.

And her mother began to secretly visit the girl on the seashore. She persuaded Ivan to give her his daughter, promising him a thousand rubles for this. But Ivan did not want to deceive his master.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 5 – summary

The girl’s mother’s new husband, a lancer repairman, also came ashore. First, he and Ivan got into a fight, scattering those same thousand rubles along the shore, and then Ivan, taking pity, gave his daughter to his mother, and fled from the owner along with this mother and the uhlan. They reached Penza, and there the uhlan and his wife gave Ivan two hundred rubles, and he wandered off to look for a new place.

There was horse trading going on across the Sura River at that time. The Tatar horde of Khan Dzhangar brought whole herds from their Ryn-sands. On the last day of the auction, Dzhangar brought out a white filly of extraordinary agility and beauty for sale. Two noble Tatars began to argue for her - Bakshey Otuchev and Chepkun Emgurcheev. Neither wanted to give in to the other, and in the end they were for the sake of the mare. against all odds They went: taking off their shirts, they sat down opposite each other and began to whip each other with all their strength on the back with a whip. Whoever gives up first will give up the mare to his opponent.

Spectators crowded around. Chepkun won, and he got the mare. And Ivan the hero got excited, and he wanted to take part in such a competition himself.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 6 – summary

And Khan Dzhangar now bred a karak stallion, even better than that mare. Ivan sat down to argue with the Tatar Savakirei for him. They fought with whips for a long time, both bled, and in the end Savakirei fell dead.

The Tatars had no complaints - flogged voluntarily. But the Russian police wanted to arrest Ivan for killing an Asian man. He had to flee with the Tatars of Emgurcheev far to the Steppe, to Ryn-Sands. The Tatars considered him to be a doctor, although Ivan knew only sabur and galangal root among the potions.

Soon a terrible longing for Russia began to torment him. Ivan tried to escape from the Tatars, but they caught him and “bristled” him: they cut his feet and stuffed chopped horse mane under his skin. It became impossible to stand on my feet: the coarse horsehair pricked me like needles. I managed to move somehow, only by twisting my legs, “at the ankles.” But the Tatars did not offend the Russian wanderer any more. They gave him two wives (one was a girl about 13 years old). Five years later, Ivan was sent to treat the neighboring horde of Agashimola, and it stole the “skilled doctor”, migrating far to the side.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 7 – summary

Agishimola gave Ivan two other wives. From all of them he had children, but he, as unbaptized, almost did not consider them his own. In the midst of the steppe monotony, homesickness tormented me more and more. Chewing tough Tatar horse meat, Ivan remembered his village: how they pluck ducks and geese on God’s holiday, and the drunken priest, Father Ilya, goes from house to house, drinks a glass and collects treats. Among the Tatars one had to live unmarried, and could die uninveterate. Often the unfortunate wanderer crawled out behind the yurts and quietly prayed in a Christian way.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 8 – summary

One day Ivan heard that two Orthodox preachers had come to their horde. He hobbled towards them, fell at their feet and asked to help them out from the Tatars. But they said: we do not have a ransom to give for you, and we are not allowed to frighten the infidels with royal power.

Ivan soon saw one of these preachers killed nearby: the skin had been torn off from his arms and legs, and a cross had been carved on his forehead. Then the Tatars also killed the Jew, who came to spread the Jewish faith among them.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 9 – summary

Soon, out of nowhere, two people came to the Tatars strange man with some boxes. They began to scare the horde with the “god Talafa,” who could cause heavenly fire - and “this very night he will show you his power.” And that same night, in the steppe, something actually hissed, and then multi-colored fire began to rain down from above. Ivan realized that these were fireworks. The newcomers ran away, but abandoned one of their boxes of paper tubes.

Ivan picked up these tubes and began to make lights from them himself. The Tatars, who had never seen fireworks, fell to their knees in fear before him. Ivan forced them to be baptized, and then noticed that the “caustic earth” from which the fireworks were made burned their skin. Pretending to be sick, he began to secretly apply this earth to his feet until they festered, and the horse’s bristles came out with pus. Having set off new fireworks as a warning, Ivan fled from the Tatars, who did not dare to chase him.

The Russian wanderer walked the entire steppe and reached Astrakhan alone. But he started drinking there, ended up with the police, and from there he was taken to his count’s estate. Pop Ilya excommunicated Ivan from communion for three years because he took polygamy in the Steppe. The count did not want to tolerate an innocent person with him, he ordered Ivan to be whipped and let go on rent.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 10 – summary

Ivan went to the fair and, like an expert, began to help the men who were being deceived by the gypsies in the horse trade. He soon gained great fame. One repairman, a noble prince, took Ivan as his assistant.

For three years the wanderer lived well with the prince, earning a lot of money from horses. The prince also trusted him with his savings, because he often lost at cards, and if Ivan lost, he stopped giving him money. Ivan was tormented only by his repeated “outings” (binges) from time to time. Before drinking, he himself gave his money to the prince.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 11 – summary

One time Ivan was especially drawn to “go out” - and at the most inconvenient moment: the prince had just left to trade at another fair, and there was no one to give the money to. Ivan stood strong for a long time, but during a tea party in the tavern one of the most empty regulars accosted him. This little man always begged everyone for a drink, even though he insisted that he used to be a nobleman and once even came to the governor’s wife naked.

He started a florid conversation with Ivan, all the time begging for vodka. Ivan himself began to drink with him. This drunkard began to assure Ivan that he had “magnetism” and could save him from his passion for wine. But before evening they both got so drunk that they barely remembered themselves.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 12 – summary

Ivan was afraid that the “magnetizer” would rob him, and kept feeling for the large bundle of money in his bosom, but it lay there. When they both left the tavern, the rogue muttered some spells on the street, and then brought Ivan to a house with lighted windows, from where a guitar and loud voices could be heard - and disappeared somewhere.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 13 – summary

Entering the house, Ivan saw out of the corner of his eye how some gypsy “magnetizer” was leading out the back door with the words: “Here’s fifty dollars for you for now, and if it’s useful to us, we’ll give you more for bringing him.” Turning to Ivan, the same gypsy invited him to “listen to songs.”

In the large room, drunken Ivan saw a lot of people, and there were quite a few city rich people there. An indescribably beautiful gypsy girl, Grusha, walked among the audience with a tray. She treated the guests to champagne, and in return they put banknotes on the tray. At a sign from the older gypsy, this girl bowed and approached Ivan. The rich people began to wrinkle their noses: why does a man need champagne? And Ivan, having drunk a glass, threw the most of everyone on the tray: a hundred rubles from his bosom. Immediately several gypsies rushed to him and put him in the first row, next to the police officer.

The gypsy choir danced and sang. Pear sang the plaintive romance “Shuttle” in a languid voice and again went with the tray. Ivan threw in another hundred ruble. The pear kissed him for this - as if it stung him. The entire audience danced with the gypsies. Some young hussar began to hover around Grusha. Ivan jumped out between them and began throwing hundred-ruble notes one after another at Grusha’s feet. Then he grabbed the rest of the pile from his bosom and threw it away too.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 14 – summary

He himself did not remember how he got home. In the morning, the prince returned from another fair, having lost to smithereens. He began to ask Ivan for money for “revenge,” and he responded by telling how he had spent as much as five thousand on a gypsy woman. The prince was stunned, but did not reproach Ivan, saying: “I myself am just like you, dissolute.”

Ivan ended up in the hospital with delirium tremens, and when he came out, he went to the prince in the village to repent. But he told him that, having seen Grusha, he himself gave not five thousand, but fifty, so that she would be released to him from the camp. The prince turned his whole life upside down for the gypsy: he retired and mortgaged his estate.

Pear was already living in his village. Coming out to them, she sang a sad song about “sadness of the heart” with a guitar. The prince sobbed, sitting on the floor and hugging a gypsy shoe.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 15 – summary

The windy prince soon got bored with Pear. She felt sad and often told Ivan how jealousy tormented her.

The impoverished prince was looking for a way to recoup his losses. He often went to the city, and Grusha was worried: did he have a new passion there. The prince’s former love, the noble and kind Evgenya Semyonovna, lived in the city. She had a daughter from the prince, who bought the two of them an apartment house to provide for them, but he himself almost never visited them.

While in town once, Ivan stopped by to see Evgenya Semyonovna. Suddenly the prince also arrived. Evgenya hid Ivan in the dressing room, and he heard her entire conversation with the prince from there.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 16 – summary

The prince persuaded Evgenia to mortgage the house in order to get him twenty thousand thousand money. He explained that he wanted to get rich by buying a cloth factory and starting a trade in brightly colored fabrics. But Evgenia immediately guessed: the prince was simply going to give a deposit for the factory, become known as a rich man from this, marry the leader’s daughter - and get rich not from the cloth, but from her dowry. The prince admitted that this was his plan.

Noble Eugenia agreed to give a mortgage on the house, but asked the prince: where will he put his gypsy? The prince replied: Grusha is friends with Ivan, I will marry them and build them a house.

The prince proceeded to purchase the factory, and sent Ivan as his confidant to the fair in Nizhny to collect orders. However, upon returning, Ivan saw that Grusha was no longer in the village. They said: the prince took her somewhere.

They were already preparing the wedding of the prince and the daughter of the leader. Ivan, yearning for Grusha, could not find a place for himself. Once, in excitement, he went out onto a steep river bank and in desperation began to call the gypsy. And she suddenly appeared out of nowhere and hung on his neck.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 17 – summary

All ragged, being at the end of her pregnancy, Grusha trembled with frantic jealousy. She kept repeating that she wanted to kill the prince’s bride, although she herself admitted that she was not guilty of anything.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 18 – summary

Grusha said that when Ivan was in Nizhny, the prince once invited her to ride in a stroller - and took her to some bee in the thicket of the forest, saying: now you will not live with me, but here, in a house under the supervision of three single-yard girls .

But Grusha soon managed to escape from there: she deceived the girls during a game of blind man's buff. Having eluded them, the gypsy went to the prince’s house - and then she met Ivan.

Grusha asked Ivan to kill her, otherwise she herself would destroy the prince’s innocent bride. Taking a folding knife from Ivan’s pocket, she thrust it into his hands. Ivan pushed the knife away in horror, but Grusha said in rage: “If you don’t kill me, I will become the most shameful woman in revenge for all of you.” He couldn’t hit her with a knife, but he pushed her off a steep slope into the river, and the gypsy drowned.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 19 – summary

Ivan ran in despair wherever his eyes looked. It seemed to him that a pear soul in the form of a girl with wings was flying nearby. By chance he met an old man and an old woman riding in a cart. Having learned that they wanted to recruit their son, Ivan agreed, changing his name, to go into the army instead. So he thought at least partly to atone for his sins.

He fought in the Caucasus for more than fifteen years. In a battle near one gorge, where a river flowed below, several soldiers tried to swim to the other side under the gunfire of rebel mountaineers, but all died from bullets. When there were no other hunters left, the wanderer Ivan volunteered to do the same. Under a hail of shots, he reached the other side of the river and built a bridge. While swimming, Ivan had a vision: Pear was flying above him and blocking him with her wings.

For this feat he received an officer's rank, and soon - his resignation. But the officership did not bring wealth with it. Retired Ivan pushed around for some time, either in a small office position or as an actor in a booth, and then decided to go to a monastery for food. There he was assigned as a coachman.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 20 – summary

Thus ended the ordeal of the enchanted wanderer. True, at the monastery Ivan was often bothered by demons at first, but he resisted them with fasting and fervent prayers. Ivan Severyanych began to read spiritual books, and from this he began to “prophesy” about an imminent war. The abbot sent him as a pilgrim to Solovki. On this trip, the wanderer met on Ladoga with the listeners of his story. He confessed the stories of his own life to them with all the frankness of a simple soul.

In the story “The Enchanted Wanderer,” the author attempted a religious interpretation of Russian reality. In the image of Ivan Flyagin, Leskov portrayed a truly Russian character, revealing the basis of the mentality of our people, closely connected with Orthodoxy. He clothed the parable of the prodigal son in modern realities and thereby again raised eternal questions that humanity has been asking for centuries.

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov created his story in one breath. The entire work took less than a year. In the summer of 1872, the writer traveled on Lake Ladoga, the very place where the action in The Enchanted Wanderer takes place. It is no coincidence that the author chose these protected areas, because the islands of Valaam and Korelu, the ancient dwellings of monks, are located there. It was on this trip that the idea for the work was born.

By the end of the year, the work was completed and acquired the title “Black Earth Telemacus”. The author included in the title a reference to ancient Greek mythology and a reference to the location of the action. Telemachus is the son of King Odysseus of Ithaca and Penelope, heroes of Homer's poem. He is known for fearlessly setting out to find his missing parent. So Leskov’s character embarked on a long and dangerous journey in search of his destiny. However, the editor of the Russian Messenger M.N. Katkov refused to publish the story, citing the “dampness” of the material and pointing out the discrepancy between the title and content of the book. Flyagin is an apologist for Orthodoxy, and the writer compares him to a pagan. Therefore, the writer changes the title, but transfers the manuscript to another publication, the Russkiy Mir newspaper. There it was published in 1873.

Meaning of the name

If everything is clear with the first version of the name, then the question arises, what is the meaning of the title “Enchanted Wanderer”? Leskov put into it an equally interesting idea. Firstly, it points to the hero’s busy life, his wanderings, both on earth and within his inner world. Throughout life path he was coming to realize his mission on earth, this was his main search - the search for his place in life. Secondly, the adjective indicates Ivan’s ability to appreciate the beauty of the world around him and to be enchanted by it. Thirdly, the writer uses the meaning of “witchcraft”, because often the character acts unconsciously, as if not of his own free will. He is guided by mystical forces, visions and signs of fate, and not by reason.

The story is called so also because the author indicates the ending already in the title, as if fulfilling destiny. The mother predicted the future for her son, promising it to God even before birth. Since then, the spell of fate has dominated over him, aimed at fulfilling his destiny. The wanderer does not travel independently, but under the influence of predestination.

Composition

The structure of the book is nothing more than a modernized composition of skaz (a folklore work that implies an oral improvised story with certain genre features). Within the framework of a tale, there is always a prologue and exposition, which we also see in “The Enchanted Wanderer,” in the scene on the ship where the travelers get to know each other. This is followed by the narrator's memories, each of which has its own plot outline. Flyagin narrates the tale of his life in the style that is characteristic of people of his class; moreover, he even conveys the speech characteristics of other people who are the heroes of his stories.

There are a total of 20 chapters in the story, each of which follows without obeying the chronology of events. The narrator arranges them at his own discretion, based on the hero’s random associations. Thus, the author emphasizes that Flyagin lived his entire life as spontaneously as he talks about it. Everything that happened to him was a series of interconnected accidents, just like his narrative - a string of stories connected by vague memories.

It was not by chance that Leskov added the book to the cycle of legends about Russian righteous people, because his work was written according to the canons of the life - a religious genre based on the biography of a saint. The composition of “The Enchanted Wanderer” confirms this: first we learn about the hero’s special childhood, filled with signs of fate and signs from above. Then his life is described, filled with allegorical meaning. The culmination is the battle with temptation and demons. In the finale, God helps the righteous man to survive.

What is the story about?

Two travelers talk on deck about a suicidal sexton and meet a monk who is traveling to holy places to escape temptation. People become interested in the life of this “hero,” and he willingly shares his story with them. This biography is the essence of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer.” The hero comes from serf peasantry and served as a coachman. His mother could hardly bear the child and in her prayers promised God that the child would serve him if born. She herself died in childbirth. But the son did not want to go to the monastery, although he was haunted by visions calling on him to fulfill his promise. While Ivan was stubborn, many troubles happened to him. He became the culprit in the death of the monk, who he dreamed of and foreshadowed several “deaths” before Flyagin came to the monastery. But this forecast did not make me think young man who wanted to live for himself.

First, he almost died in an accident, then he lost his master’s favor and sinned by stealing the owner’s horses. For his sin, he really didn’t receive anything, so he made false documents and hired himself as a nanny for a Pole. But even there he did not stay long, again violating the master’s will. Then, in a fight for a horse, he accidentally killed a man, and to avoid prison he went to live with the Tatars. There he worked as a doctor. The Tatars did not want to let him go, so they forcibly captured him, although there he started a family and children. Later, the newcomers brought fireworks, with which the hero scared off the Tatars and ran away. By the grace of the gendarmes, he, like a runaway peasant, ended up on his native estate, from where he was expelled as a sinner. Then he lived for three years with the prince, whom he helped choose good horses for the army. One evening he decided to get drunk and squandered government money on the gypsy Grusha. The prince fell in love with her and bought her, but later he stopped loving her and drove her away. She asked the hero to take pity on her and kill her, he pushed her into the water. Then he went to war instead of the only son of poor peasants, accomplished a feat, acquired the rank of officer, retired, but could not settle in a peaceful life, so he came to the monastery, where he really liked it. This is what the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” is written about.

The main characters and their characteristics

The story is rich actors from a variety of classes and even nationalities. The images of the heroes in the work “The Enchanted Wanderer” are as multifaceted as their motley, heterogeneous composition.

  1. Ivan Flyagin- the main character of the book. He is 53 years old. This is a gray-haired old man of enormous stature with a dark, open face. This is how Leskov describes him: “He was in in every sense words hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-minded, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in the beautiful painting by Vereshchagin and in the poem by Count A.K. Tolstoy.” This is a kind, naive and simple-minded person, possessing extraordinary physical strength and courage, but devoid of bragging and swagger. He is frank and sincere. Despite low birth, he has dignity and pride. This is how he speaks about his honesty: “Only I have not sold myself, either for big money or for little, and I will not sell myself.” In captivity, Ivan does not betray his homeland, since his heart belongs to Russia, he is a patriot. However, even with all its positive qualities the man did a lot of stupid, random things that cost the lives of other people. This is how the writer showed the inconsistency of Russian national character. Maybe that’s why the character’s life story is complex and eventful: he was a prisoner of the Tatars for 10 years (from the age of 23). After some time, he entered the army and served in the Caucasus for 15 years. For his feat he deserved a reward ( St. George's Cross) and officer rank. Thus, the hero acquires the status of a nobleman. At the age of 50, he entered a monastery and received the name Father Ishmael. But even at a church service, a wanderer seeking the truth does not find peace: demons come to him, he acquires the gift of prophecy. The exorcism of demons did not produce results, and he was released from the monastery to travel to holy places in the hope that this would help him.
  2. Pear– a passionate and deep nature, captivating everyone with her languid beauty. At the same time, her heart is faithful only to the prince, which reveals her strength of character, devotion and honor. The heroine is so proud and adamant that she asks to kill herself, because she does not want to interfere with the happiness of her treacherous lover, but she is also unable to belong to another. Exceptional virtue contrasts in her with the demonic charm that destroys men. Even Flyagin commits a dishonorable act for her sake. The woman, combining positive and negative forces, after death takes the form of either an angel or a demon: she either protects Ivan from bullets, or confuses his peace in the monastery. Thus, the author emphasizes the duality of female nature, in which mother and temptress, wife and mistress, vice and holiness coexist.
  3. Characters noble origins are presented in a caricatured, negative way. Thus, the owner of Flyagin appears to the reader as a tyrant and a hard-hearted person who does not feel sorry for the serfs. The prince is a frivolous and selfish scoundrel, ready to sell himself for a rich dowry. Leskov also notes that nobility itself does not provide privileges. In this hierarchical society, only money and connections give them, which is why the hero cannot get a job as an officer. This is an important characteristic of the noble class.
  4. Gentiles and foreigners also has a peculiar characteristic. For example, the Tatars live as they please, they have several wives, many children, but there is no real family, and, therefore, no real love either. It is no coincidence that the hero does not even remember his children who remained there; no feelings arise between them. The author demonstratively characterizes individuals, but the people as a whole, in order to emphasize the lack of individuality in them, which is not possible without a single culture, social institutions - everything that the Orthodox faith gives to Russians. The writer got it both from the gypsies, dishonest and thieving people, and from the Poles, whose morality is cracking. Getting acquainted with the life and customs of other peoples, the enchanted wanderer understands that he is different, he is not on the same path with them. It is also significant that he does not have relationships with women of other nationalities.
  5. Spiritual Characters stern, but not indifferent to Ivan’s fate. They became a real family for him, a brotherhood that cares about him. Of course, they don't immediately accept it. For example, Father Ilya refused to confess to a runaway peasant after a vicious life among the Tatars, but this severity was justified by the fact that the hero was not ready for initiation and still had to undergo worldly trials.

Subject

  • In the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” the main theme is righteousness. The book makes you think that a righteous person is not one who does not sin, but one who sincerely repents of his sins and wants to atone for them at the cost of self-denial. Ivan sought the truth, stumbled, made mistakes, suffered, but God, as we know from the parable of the Prodigal Son, is more valuable to the one who returned home after long wanderings in search of the truth, and not to the one who did not leave and accepted everything on faith. The hero is righteous in the sense that he took everything for granted, did not resist fate, walked without losing his dignity and without complaining about the heavy burden. In his search for the truth, he did not turn towards profit or passion, and in the end he came to true harmony with himself. He realized that his highest destiny was to suffer for the people, “to die for the faith,” that is, to become something greater than himself. A great meaning appeared in his life - service to his homeland, faith and people.
  • The theme of love is revealed in Flyagin’s relationship with the Tatars and Grusha. It is obvious that the author cannot imagine this feeling without unanimity, conditioned by one faith, culture, and paradigm of thinking. Although the hero was blessed with wives, he could not love them even after the birth of their children together. Pear also did not become his beloved woman, because he was captivated by only the outer shell, which he immediately wanted to buy, throwing government money at the feet of the beauty. Thus, all the hero’s feelings turned not to an earthly woman, but to abstract images of the homeland, faith and people.
  • The theme of patriotism. Ivan more than once wanted to die for the people, and at the end of the work he was already preparing for future wars. In addition, his love for his homeland was embodied in a reverent longing for his fatherland in a foreign land, where he lived in comfort and prosperity.
  • Faith. The Orthodox faith, which permeates the entire work, had a huge influence on the hero. It manifested itself both in form and in content, because the book resembles the life of a saint, both compositionally and in ideological and thematic terms. Leskov considers Orthodoxy to be a factor determining many properties of the Russian national character.

Problems

The rich range of issues in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” includes social, spiritual, moral and ethical problems of the individual and the whole people.

  • Search for the truth. In an effort to find his place in life, the hero stumbles upon obstacles and does not overcome all of them with dignity. Sins that become a means to overcome the path become a heavy burden on the conscience, because he does not withstand some tests and makes a mistake in choosing the direction. However, without mistakes there is no experience that led him to the realization of his own belonging to the spiritual brotherhood. Without trials, he would not have suffered his truth, which is never given easily. However, the price for revelation is invariably high: Ivan became a kind of martyr and experienced real spiritual torment.
  • Social inequality. The plight of the serfs is becoming a problem of gigantic proportions. The author not only depicts the sad fate of Flyagin, whom the master brought to injury by sending him to the quarry, but also separate fragments of the lives of others ordinary people. The fate of the old people, who almost lost their only breadwinner, who was recruited, is bitter. The death of the hero's mother is terrible, because she died in agony without medical care and any help at all. The treatment of serfs was worse than that of animals. For example, horses worried the master more than people.
  • Ignorance. Ivan could have realized his mission faster, but no one was involved in his education. He, like his entire class, did not have a chance to go out into the world, even after acquiring freedom. This restlessness is demonstrated by the example of Flyagin’s attempt to settle in the city even in the presence of the nobility. Even with this privilege, he could not find a place for himself in society, since not a single recommendation can replace upbringing, education and manners, which were not learned in the stable or in the quarry. That is, even a free peasant became a victim of his slave origin.
  • Temptation. Any righteous person suffers from the scourge of demonic power. If we translate this allegorical term into everyday language, it turns out that the enchanted wanderer was struggling with his dark sides - selfishness, desire for carnal pleasures, etc. It’s not for nothing that he sees Pear in the image of the tempter. The desire he once felt for her haunted him in his righteous life. Perhaps he, accustomed to wandering, could not become an ordinary monk and come to terms with a routine existence, and he clothed this craving for active action and new searches in the form of a “demon.” Flyagin is an eternal wanderer who is not satisfied with passive service - he needs torment, feat, his own Golgotha, where he will ascend for the people.
  • Homesickness. The hero suffered and languished in captivity in an inexplicable desire to return home, which was stronger than the fear of death, stronger than the thirst for the comfort with which he was surrounded. Because of his escape, he experienced real torture - horsehair was sewn into his feet, so he could not escape during all these 10 years of captivity.
  • The problem of faith. In passing, the author told how Orthodox missionaries died trying to baptize the Tatars.

main idea

Before us comes the soul of a simple Russian peasant, which is illogical, and sometimes even frivolous in its actions and deeds, and the worst thing is that it is unpredictable. The hero’s actions cannot be explained, because inner world this seemingly commoner is a labyrinth in which you can get lost. But no matter what happens, there is always a light that will lead you to the right path. This light for the people is faith, unshakable faith in the salvation of the soul, even if life has darkened it with falls. Thus, main idea in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” is that every person can become a righteous person, you just need to let God into your heart by repenting of evil deeds. Nikolai Leskov, like no other writer, was able to understand and express the Russian spirit, which A.S. spoke about allegorically and vaguely. Pushkin. The writer sees in a simple peasant, who embodied the entire Russian people, a faith that many deny. Despite this apparent denial, the Russian people do not stop believing. His soul is always open to miracles and salvation. She searches to the last for something holy, incomprehensible, spiritual in her existence.

The ideological and artistic originality of the book lies in the fact that it transfers the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son to the author’s contemporary realities and shows that Christian morality knows no time, it is relevant in every century. Ivan also became angry at the usual way of things and left his father’s house, only his home from the very beginning was the church, so his return to his native estate did not bring him peace. He left God, indulging in sinful amusements (alcohol, mortal combat, theft) and getting deeper and deeper into the quagmire of depravity. His path was a heap of accidents, in which N.S. Leskov showed how empty and absurd life is without faith, how aimless its course is, which always takes a person to the wrong place where he would like to be. As a result, like his biblical prototype, the hero returns to his roots, to the monastery that his mother bequeathed to him. The meaning of the work “The Enchanted Wanderer” lies in finding the meaning of existence, which calls Flyagin to selfless service to his people, to self-denial for the sake of highest goal. Ivan could not do anything more ambitious and correct than this dedication to all of humanity. This is his righteousness, this is his happiness.

Criticism

Critics' opinions about Leskov's story, as always, were divided due to the ideological differences of the reviewers. They expressed their thoughts depending on the magazine in which they published, because the editorial policy of the media of those years was subordinated to a certain direction of the publication, its main idea. There were Westerners, Slavophiles, Pochvenniks, Tolstoyans, etc. Some of them, of course, liked “The Enchanted Wanderer” because their views were justified in the book, while others categorically disagreed with the author’s worldview and what he called the “Russian spirit.” For example, in the magazine " Russian wealth"Critic N.K. Mikhailovsky expressed his approval of the writer.

In terms of the richness of the plot, this is perhaps the most remarkable of Leskov’s works, but what is especially striking in it is the absence of any center, so that, strictly speaking, there is no plot in it, but there is a whole series fabulas strung like beads on a thread, and each bead is on its own and can be very conveniently taken out, replaced with another, or you can string as many more beads as you like on the same thread.

A critic from the magazine “Russian Thought” responded equally enthusiastically to the book:

Truly wonderful, capable of touching the hardest soul, a collection of lofty examples of virtues with which the Russian land is strong and thanks to which “the city stands”...

N. A. Lyubimov, one of the publishers of the Russian Messenger, on the contrary, refused to print the manuscript and justified the refusal to publish by saying that “the whole thing seems to him more like raw material for making figures, now very vague, than a crafted description of something in the reality of what is possible and what is happening.” This remark was eloquently answered by B. M. Markevich, who was the first listener of this book and saw what a good impression it made on the public. He considered the work to be something “in highest degree poetic." He especially liked the descriptions of the steppe. In his message to Lyubimov, he wrote the following lines: “His interest is maintained equally all the time, and when the story ends, it becomes a pity that it is over. It seems to me that there is no better praise for a work of art.”

In the newspaper "Warsaw Diary" the reviewer emphasized that the work is close to folklore tradition and has truly folk origin. The hero, in his opinion, has phenomenal, typically Russian endurance. He talks about his troubles in a detached manner, as if about the misfortunes of others:

Physically, the hero of the story is brother To Ilya Muromets: he endures such torture from the nomads, such an environment and living conditions that he is not inferior to any hero of antiquity. In the moral world of the hero, that complacency prevails, which is so characteristic of the Russian common man, due to which he shares the last crust of bread with his enemy, and in war, after the battle, he gives help to the wounded enemy along with his own.

Reviewer R. Disterlo wrote about the peculiarities of the Russian mentality, depicted in the image of Ivan Flyagin. He emphasized that Leskov managed to understand and portray the simple-minded and submissive nature of our people. Ivan, in his opinion, was not responsible for his actions, his life seemed to have been given to him from above, and he resigned himself to it as with the weight of a cross. L.A. Annensky also described the enchanted wanderer: “Leskov’s heroes are inspired, enchanted, mysterious, intoxicated, foggy, crazy people, although according to their internal self-esteem they are always “innocent”, always righteous.”

ABOUT artistic originality Literary critic Menshikov spoke out about Leskov’s prose, emphasizing, along with the originality, the shortcomings of the writer’s style:

His style is irregular, but rich and even suffers from the vice of wealth: satiety.

You cannot demand from paintings what you demand. This is a genre, and a genre must be judged by one standard: is it skillful or not? What directions should we take here? This way it will turn into a yoke for art and strangle it, like a bull being crushed by a rope tied to a wheel.

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Many are familiar with Nikolai Leskov’s work “The Enchanted Wanderer”. Indeed, this story is one of the most famous in Leskov’s work. Let's do it now brief analysis story "The Enchanted Wanderer", look at the history of writing the work, discuss the main characters and draw conclusions.

So, Leskov wrote the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” in the period from 1872 to 1973. The fact is that the idea appeared during the author’s journey through the waters of Karelia, when he went in 1872 to the island of Valaam, a famous refuge for monks. At the end of that year, the story was almost finished and was even being prepared for publication under the title “Black Earth Telemachus.” But the publishing house refused to publish the work, considering it raw and unfinished. Leskov did not back down, turning to the editors of the magazine for help." New world", where the story was accepted and published. Before we directly analyze the story "The Enchanted Wanderer", we will briefly consider the essence of the plot.

Analysis of "The Enchanted Wanderer", the main character

The events of the story take place on Lake Ladoga, where travelers met, whose goal was Valaam. Let's get acquainted with one of them - horseman Ivan Severyanich, who is dressed in a cassock; he told the others that since his youth he has had a wonderful gift, thanks to which he can tame any horse. The interlocutors are interested in listening to the life story of Ivan Severyanych.

The hero of "The Enchanted Wanderer" Ivan Severyanych Flyagin begins the story by saying that his homeland is the Oryol province, he comes from the family of Count K. As a child, he fell terribly in love with horses. Once, for fun, he beat one monk so much that he died, which shows the main character’s attitude towards human life, which is important in The Enchanted Wanderer, which we are now analyzing. Next, the main character talks about other events in his life - amazing and strange.

It is very interesting to note in general the consistent organization of the story. Why can you define it as a tale? Because Leskov constructed the narrative as oral speech, which imitates an improvisational story. At the same time, not only the manner of the main character-narrator Ivan Flyagin is reproduced, but also the peculiarity of the speech of other characters is reflected.

In total, “The Enchanted Wanderer” has 20 chapters, the first chapter is a kind of exposition or prologue, and other chapters directly tell the story of the life of the main character, and each of them is a complete story. If we talk about the logic of the tale, it is clear that the key role here is played not by the chronological sequence of events, but by the memories and associations of the narrator. The story resembles the canon of life, as some literary scholars say: that is, first we learn about the hero’s childhood years, then his life is consistently described, and we can also see how he struggles with temptations and temptations.

Conclusions

Main character in the analysis of "The Enchanted Wanderer", he typically represents the people, and his strength, as well as abilities, reflect the qualities inherent in the Russian person. You can see how the hero develops spiritually - initially he is just a dashing, careless and hot guy, but at the end of the story he is an experienced monk who has matured for years. However, his self-improvement became possible only thanks to the trials that were his lot, because without these difficulties and troubles he would not have learned to sacrifice himself and try to atone for his own sins.

In general, thanks to this, albeit brief, analysis of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer,” it becomes clear what the development of Russian society was like. And Leskov managed to show this in the fate of just one of his main characters.

Note for yourself that the Russian person, according to Leskov, is capable of sacrifice, and not only the strength of a hero is inherent in him, but also the spirit of generosity. In this article we have made a brief analysis of The Enchanted Wanderer, we hope you find it useful.

Retelling plan

1. Meeting of travelers. Ivan Severyanych begins a story about his life.
2. Flyagin finds out his future.
3. He runs away from home and ends up as a nanny for the daughter of a gentleman.
4. Ivan Severyanych finds himself at a horse auction, and then in Ryn-Peski as a prisoner of the Tatars.

5. Release from captivity and return to hometown.

6. The art of handling horses helps the hero get a job with the prince.

7. Flyagin meets the gypsy Grushenka.

8. The prince’s fleeting love for Grushenka. He wants to get rid of the gypsy woman.

9. Death of Grushenka.

10. The hero's service in the army, in the address desk, in the theater.

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

Retelling

Chapter 1

On Lake Ladoga, on the way to the island of Valaam, several travelers meet on a ship. One of them, dressed in a novice cassock and looking like a “typical hero”, is Mr. Flyagin Ivan Severyanych. He gradually gets involved in the passengers' conversation 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 “died and could not die.”

Chapters 2, 3

Ivan Severyanych continues the story. He came from a family of servants of Count K. from the Oryol province. His “parent,” his coachman Severyan, Ivan’s “mother” died after childbirth because he “was born with an unusually large head,” for which he received the nickname Golovan. From his father and other coachmen, Flyagin “learned the secret of knowledge in animals”; from childhood he became addicted to horses. Soon he became so comfortable that he began to “show postilion mischief: to pull some guy he met across his shirt with a whip.” This mischief led to trouble: one day, returning from the city, he accidentally kills a monk who had fallen asleep on a cart with a blow of his 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 the son “promised to God.” “And here,” he says, is a sign for you that you will die many times and will never die until your real “destruction” comes, and then you will remember your mother’s promise for you and will go to the monks.” Soon Ivan and his owners go to Voronezh and on the way saves them from death in a terrible abyss, and falls into mercy.

Upon returning to the estate after some time, Golovan starts pigeons under the roof. Then he discovers that the owner’s cat is carrying the chicks, he catches her and chops off the tip of her tail. As punishment for this, he is severely flogged, and then sent to “the English garden for the path to beat pebbles with a hammer.” The last punishment “tormented” Golovan and he decides to commit suicide. He is saved from this fate by a gypsy who cuts the rope prepared for death and persuades Ivan to run away with him, taking the horses with him.

Chapter 4

But, having sold the horses, they did not agree on the division of money and separated. Golovan gives the official his ruble and silver cross and receives a leave certificate (certificate) that he is a free man and sets off around the world. Soon, trying to get a job, he ends up with a gentleman, to whom he tells his story, and he begins to blackmail him: either he will tell everything to the authorities, or Golovan will go to serve as a “nanny” for his little daughter. This gentleman, a Pole, convinces Ivan with the phrase: “After all, you are a Russian person? The Russian man can handle everything.” Golovan has to agree. About the girl's mother, infant, he doesn’t know anything, he doesn’t know how to deal with children. He has to feed her goat milk. Gradually, Ivan learns to care for the baby, even treat him. So he quietly becomes attached to the girl. One day, when he was walking with her by the river, a woman approached them, who turned out to be the girl’s mother. She begged Ivan Severyanych to give her the child, offered him money, but he was relentless and even got into a fight with the lady’s current husband, a lancer officer.

Chapter 5

Suddenly Golovan sees the angry owner approaching, he feels sorry for the woman, he gives the child to the mother and runs away with them. In another city, an officer soon sends the passportless Golovan away, and he goes to the steppe, where he ends up at a Tatar horse auction. Khan Dzhangar sells his horses, and the Tatars set prices and fight for the horses: they sit opposite each other and whip 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 repairers, screws the Tatar to death. “Tatarva - they’re okay: well, he killed and killed - that’s why they were in such condition, because he could detect me, but our own, our Russians, it’s annoying how they don’t even understand this, and they got fed up.” In other words, they wanted to hand him over to the police for murder, but he ran away from the gendarmes to Rynpeski itself. Here he ends up with the Tatars, who, to prevent him from escaping, “bristle” his legs. Golovan serves as a doctor for 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 “Kolek”, whom he regrets, but admits that he could not love them, “he did not regard them as his children” because they were “unbaptized” . He yearns more and more for his homeland: “Oh, sir, how all this memorable life from childhood will come to mind, and it will haunt your soul that where are you missing, separated from all this happiness and have not been in spirit for so many years, and you live unmarried and die uninveterate, and melancholy will overwhelm you, and... you wait until nightfall, you creep out slowly behind the headquarters, so that neither your wives, nor your children, nor any of the filthy ones will see you, and you begin to pray... and you pray... you pray so much that even The snow will melt under your knees and where the tears fell, you will see grass in the morning.”

Chapter 8

When Ivan Severyanych completely despaired of getting home, Russian missionaries came to the steppe “to establish their faith.” He asks them to pay a ransom for him, but they refuse, claiming that before God “all are equal and all the same.” After some time, one of them is killed, Golovan buries him according to Orthodox custom. He explains to his listeners that “an Asian must be brought into faith with fear,” because they “will never respect a humble God without a threat.”

Chapter 9

One day, two men from Khiva came to the Tatars to buy horses to “make war.” Hoping to intimidate the Tatars, they demonstrate the power of their fire god Talafa. But Golovan discovers a box with fireworks, introduces himself as Talafa, scares 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. There are also Russians on his way, they cross themselves and drink vodka, but they drive away the passportless Ivan Severyanych. In Astrakhan, the wanderer ends up in prison, from where he is taken to his hometown. Father Ilya excommunicates him from communion for three years, but the count, who has become a pious man, releases him “on quitrent.”

Chapter 10

Golovan gets settled in the horse section. He helps men choose good horses, he is famous as a sorcerer, and everyone demands to tell him the “secret”. One prince takes him to the post of coneser. Ivan Severyanych buys horses for the prince, but periodically he has drunken “outings”, before which he gives all the money to the prince for safekeeping.

Chapter 11

One day, when the prince sells a beautiful horse to Dido, Ivan Severyanich becomes very sad and “makes an exit,” but this time he keeps the money to himself. He prays in church and goes to a tavern, from where he is kicked out when, having gotten drunk, he begins to argue with a “very empty” man who claimed that he drinks because he “voluntarily took on weakness” so that it would be easier for others, and His Christian feelings do not allow him to stop drinking. They are kicked out of the tavern.

Chapter 12

A new acquaintance puts “magnetism” on Ivan Severyanych to free him from “zealous drunkenness”, and for this he gives him a lot of water. At night, when they are walking down the street, this man leads Ivan Severyanych to another tavern.

Chapter 13

Ivan Severyanych hears beautiful singing and goes into a tavern, where he spends all his money on the beautiful singing gypsy Grushenka: “You can’t even describe her as a woman, but it’s like she’s like a bright snake, moving on her tail and bending all over, and her black eyes are burning.” fire. A curious figure! “So I went crazy, and all my mind was taken away from me.”

Chapter 14

The next day, having obeyed the prince, he learns that the owner himself gave fifty thousand for Grushenka, bought her from the camp and settled her on his country estate. And Grushenka drove the prince crazy: “That’s what’s sweet to me now, that I turned my whole life upside down for her: I retired, and pawned my estate, and from now on I’ll live here, not seeing a person, but only everything.” I’ll be the only one to look her in the face.”

Chapter 15

Ivan Severyanych tells the story of his master and Grunya. After some time, the prince gets tired of the “love word”, the “Yakhont emeralds” make him sleepy, and besides, all the money runs out. Grushenka feels the prince's cooling and is tormented by jealousy. Ivan Severyanych “became from that time on easy access to her: when the prince was not there, every day twice a day he went to her outhouse to drink tea and entertained her as best he could.”

Chapter 16

One day, going to the city, Ivan Severyanych overhears the prince's conversation with ex-lover Evgenia Semyonovna and learns that his master is going to get married, and wants to marry the unhappy Grushenka, who sincerely loved him, to Ivan Severyanich. Returning home, Golovan learns that the prince secretly took the gypsy woman into the forest to a bee. But Grusha escapes from his guards.

Chapters 17, 18

Grusha tells Ivan Severyanych 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: “Quickly become the savior of my soul; I no longer have the strength to live like this and suffer, seeing his betrayal and abuse of me. Have pity on me, my dear; stab me once with a knife against the heart.” Ivan Severyanych recoiled, but she kept crying and exhorting him to kill her, otherwise she would commit suicide. “Ivan Severyanych furrowed his eyebrows terribly and, biting his mustache, seemed to exhale from the depths of his expanding chest: “I took the knife out of my pocket... took it apart... straightened the blade from the handle... and thrust it into my hands... “You won’t kill “- he says, “me, I will become the most shameful woman in revenge for all of you.” I trembled all over, and told her to pray, and did not stab her, but just took her off the steep slope into the river and pushed her..."

Chapter 19

Ivan Severyanych runs back and on the road meets a peasant cart. The peasants complain to him that their son is being drafted into the army. In search of a quick death, Golovan pretends to be a peasant’s son and, having given all the money to the monastery as a contribution for Grushin’s soul, goes to war. He dreams of dying, but “neither the earth nor the water wants to accept him.” Once Golovan distinguished himself in action. The colonel wants to nominate him for a reward, and Ivan Severyanych talks about the murder of a gypsy woman. But his words are not confirmed by the request; he is promoted to officer and sent into retirement with the Order of St. George. Taking advantage of the colonel’s letter of recommendation, Ivan Severyanych gets a job as a “research officer” at the address desk, but the service does not go well, and he goes into acting. But he didn’t take root there either: rehearsals are held during Holy Week (sin!), Ivan Severyanych gets to portray the “difficult role” of a demon... He leaves the theater for the monastery.

Chapter 20

Monastic life does not bother him, he remains with the horses there, but he does not consider it worthy to take monastic vows and lives in obedience. In response to a question from one of the travelers, he says that at first a demon appeared to him in a “seductive female image“, but after fervent prayers, only small demons, children, remained. Once he was punished: he was put in a cellar for the whole summer until frost. Ivan Severyanych did not lose heart there either: “here you could hear the church bells, and your comrades visited.” They freed him from the cellar because the gift of prophecy was revealed in him. They released him on pilgrimage to Solovki. The wanderer admits that he is waiting near death, because the “spirit” inspires to take up arms and go to war, and he “really wants to die for the people.”

Having finished the story, Ivan Severyanych falls into quiet concentration, again feeling within himself “the influx of the mysterious broadcasting spirit, revealed only to babies.”