1873 From the point of view of the genre, it is an epic story. Outwardly adventurous story, a chain of adventures. This motif of wandering is connected with the comprehension of life. The true plot is an internal psychologism.

"The Enchanted Wanderer"- a story with a fantastic form of narration. Narrative form - oral speeches from the first person - is necessary for the author to create the image of the hero-narrator. Thus, in the work there are several stylistic layers that differ from each other, and a tale is not the only form of narration, although it is predominant. It is a means of expressing the character of the protagonist.

However, fairy tale form determines the plot and composition of the work. The Enchanted Wanderer is a chronicle of the life of one hero, where there is no central event to which all the others would be drawn, but where various episodes freely follow each other. The creation of such a narrative form was fundamental for Leskov. He noticed that the form of the novel is artificial and unnatural, it requires the plot to be rounded and the narrative to be concentrated around the main center, but this does not happen in life: the fate of a person is like a developing tape, and it must be portrayed in this way. Many critics did not accept this plot-compositional the structure of the Leskian text. Critic N. K. Mikhailovsky.

The introduction to the story is an exposition in which the reader, with the help of the narrator, gets acquainted with the scene and the characters. The main part is Ivan Flyagin's story about his life. Thus, composition is a story within a story.

In the enchanted wanderer, as in no other work by Leskova, an intricate attitude to the world is highlighted, which is characteristic of a Russian person. Under the iconic clothes of the narrator, Ivan Flyagin, who reminds his interlocutors of the legendary Russian hero, grandfather Ilya Muromets, hides the powerful life-affirming nature of a daring wanderer, who all his life autocratically tests his fate, with God's help overcomes his autocracy, humbles his pride, but does not at all lose his feelings own dignity of spiritual breadth and responsiveness.

The very figure of the wanderer is associated with the artistic tradition of Russian folklore and ancient literature, with images of passersby kaliks, seekers of a happy fate, Yes, and the poetics of the story largely goes back to walking, one of the most common genres ancient Russian literature. The narration in them was conducted, as a rule, from the first person and was a monologue, unhurried, stately and at the same time biased description of the journey, in which those around receive a deep personal and interested judgment.

Such is the extraordinary life of Flyagin, his wanderings through towns and villages. native land. All this surprisingly corresponds to his active, somewhat daring and at the same time peaceful and kind character. The whole appearance of a sincere hero is also remarkable: fortitude, heroic mischief, indestructible vitality and breadth of his soul, and responsiveness to someone else's grief. Leskov, however, does not idealize the hero. The writer notes the manifestation of his savagery impulses of anarchic self-will both in adolescence, when, out of mischief, he accidentally kills a nun lying on a wagon, and in his youth, when he traps the Tatar Savakirei to death in an honest fight. From his sinful deeds, the hero is gradually cleansed, reaching in his attitude to life truly folk wisdom.

There is another side of Flyagin's wandering: for him it is only a transition from one beast to another until he finds peace in what was determined by Providence, the test of fate. The test of character and the test of the soul - this is the trinity that he overcomes. Fate has prepared for him, the praying and promised son He strengthens character in difficult trials, maintaining height human dignity and nowhere descending to hypocrisy, immodesty, dishonor and shamelessness, nowhere renouncing deep faith, Innocentness and unselfishness, generosity and courage, good-heartedness and peacefulness, firmness and patience make up his unchanging features.

At the same time, the test of the soul, the most difficult test, leads to the achievement of previously absent qualities of the hero. Oh, acquiring humility, a great virtue, which is associated with the knowledge of one’s sinfulness and worthlessness, one’s weakness and a sense of God’s greatness. After all, humility that comes from self-knowledge brings a person closer to God, thus, Flyagin’s whole life becomes meaningful and soulful as liberation through humility and repentance to salvation.

He feels the beauty, fascinated by the beauty of the world. This fascination with the world is also manifested in the feeling of admiration that captures him, for which such piercing and direct words are found. And no matter what they say, no matter what he admires, his naked soul trembles in a living word.

Leskov portrays the hero who has experienced a lot, suffered and gains not only personal, but also huge folk-historical experience in judgments about the world. And therefore, Ivan's words, as if summing up his reflections on his life, are far from accidental: I really want to die for the people. And truly, what could be more beautiful than to wring out one's life for one's people!

By the beginning of the seventies, after the apparent failure of the novel "On the Knives", N. S. Leskov leaves this genre and seeks to assert the rights of that literary kind which spontaneously took shape in his work. This period coincided with a noticeable change in worldview ...

When I read this work, it shocked me with its sincerity, soulfulness, and realistic description of images. The story was written in the second half of the 19th century, in a difficult, contradictory time for Russia. It is very similar to our time, the end ...

The story "The Enchanted Wanderer" is one of the best works of the Russian writer of the 19th century. N. S. Leskova. Leskov - master folklore images- depicted in the story wonderful Russian characters that make an unforgettable impression on the reader. Main character...

The amazing Russian writer N. S. Leskov in the story "The Enchanted Wanderer" creates a completely special image, incomparable with any of the heroes of Russian literature. This is Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, "the enchanted wanderer." He has no specific...

1. New!

   The plot structure of the story is similar to the ancient Russian walks of the saints: the influence of the epic epic is manifested in the hero himself - the Russian hero Ivan Severyanych Flyagin. purpose epic hero- accomplishment of a feat, patriotic and Christian ....

The righteous Leskova tells about himself, without hiding anything - the “denouement” with the gypsy Grusha, and the tavern adventures, and the painful life in a ten-year captivity of the Tatars. But with the course of the story, everything petty and everyday in the hero fades into the background. Really,...

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

Of people.
The heroes of his works are Russians in the full sense of the word. They are real heroes, their fate is inextricably linked with the fate of the whole people.
Such is Ivan Severyanych Flyagin (“The Enchanted Wanderer”). Before us is the story of life common man rich in adventure and unusual situations. However, with a more thoughtful reading behind a simple, everyday narrative, one can consider a deep study of the fate of an entire people. Ivan Severyanych is honest and impartial in his judgments about himself. Therefore, the reader has the opportunity to fully evaluate this hero, his positive and negative qualities.
Flyagin had to go through a lot: the lord's wrath, and the Tatar captivity, and unrequited love, and the war. But he comes out of all trials with honor: he does not humiliate himself before the masters, does not submit to adversaries, does not tremble before death, and is always ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of truth. He never and under no circumstances changes his convictions, principles and faith.
Ivan Flyagin is a deeply religious person, and faith helps him to remain himself. After all, he did not accept the Muslim faith in captivity, although this could greatly facilitate his life. Moreover, Ivan tries to escape, fails and escapes again. Why is he doing this? After all, at home he is not waiting better life. Ivan Severyanych's answer is simple: he yearned for his homeland, and it is not worth it for a Russian person to live among the “busurmans”, in captivity. God always lives invisibly in the soul of the “enchanted wanderer”.
And Ivan ends his journey in the monastery as a novice. This is the only place where he finally finds peace and grace, although at first the demons got into the habit of tempting him: at the sight of people in Ivan Severyanych, “the spirit rose”, reminding him of his former troubled life.
Ivan Severyanych follows where his fate drives him, and completely surrenders to the will of chance. He does not have any life planning. And this, Leskov believes, is typical for the entire Russian people. Ivan Flyagin is alien to any selfish act, lies and intrigues. He frankly talks about his adventures, hiding nothing and not brightening up in front of the audience. His, at first glance, disorderly life has a special logic - there is no escape from fate. Ivan Severyanych reproaches himself for not immediately going to the monastery, as promised by his mother, but trying to find a better life, having known only suffering. However, wherever he aspired, wherever he was, he always faced a line that he never dared to cross: he always felt a clear line between righteous and unrighteous, between good and evil, although some of his actions sometimes seem strange. So, he escapes from captivity, leaves his unbaptized children and wives, not at all regretting them, throws the prince’s money at the feet of a gypsy, gives the child entrusted to him to his mother, while taking it away from his father, kills the abandoned and disgraced woman he loves. And what is most striking in the hero is that even in the most difficult situations he does not think about how to act. He is guided by some kind of intuitive moral feeling, which never fails him. Leskov believed that this innate righteousness is an integral feature of the Russian national character.
Inherent in Russian people is the so-called “racial” consciousness, which Ivan Flyagin is fully endowed with. All the actions of the hero are imbued with this consciousness. Being a prisoner of the Tatars, Ivan does not for a moment forget that he is Russian, and with all his heart strives for his homeland, and finally escapes. No one ever told him what to do and how to act. Sometimes his actions seem to be completely illogical: instead of his will, he asks the master for an harmonica, because of some chicks he ruins his prosperous life on the landowner's estate, voluntarily goes into recruits, taking pity on the unfortunate old people, etc. But these actions reveal before the reader that boundless kindness, naivety and purity of the wanderer's soul, which he himself does not even suspect and which helps him to come out of all life's trials with honor. After all, the soul of a Russian person, according to Leskov's deep conviction, is inexhaustible and indestructible.
Then what is the reason for the unfortunate fate of the Russian people? The writer answered this question, revealing the reason tragic fate of his “enchanted wanderer”: the Russian man does not follow the path intended for him by God, but, once lost, he cannot find the way again. Even at the beginning of the story, a monk crushed by horses predicts to Ivan: “... you will die many times and you will never die until your real death comes, and then you will remember your mother’s promise for you and go to black men.” And in these words, the writer embodies the fate of all of Russia and its people, who are destined to endure many sorrows and troubles, until they find their only, righteous path leading to happiness.

1. Leskov throughout his work was interested in the theme of the people. In his works, he repeatedly refers to this topic, revealing the character and soul of the Russian people. At the center of his works are always noble...
2. Ivan's whole life was difficult: he was “bristled” and he served for another person. Throughout the story, Leskov shows that Ivan is naive, like a baby, but at the same time he cannot be...
3. Leskov from the very beginning literary activity focuses on the study folk life. However, already in his early works, the writer is not limited to depicting the general flow of the life of the people, in which...
4. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov entered literature as the creator of strong human natures. "Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district” (1864) - history tragic love and the crimes of Katerina Izmailova. Acting as a rival to the author of "Thunderstorm", Leskov managed to ...
5. “The Enchanted Wanderer” entered the cycle about the righteous, conceived after its creation, created by Leskov in the eighties of the last century. The idea for this cycle was born in the course of a dispute with Pisemsky, who...
6. Tsya from the work of other Russians writers of the 19th century. Leskov is interested in the same problems that interested his contemporaries, he is trying to answer the same questions. And yet, in life...
7. It is no accident that in the story “The Dumb Artist” two unusual artists are compared, and the development of the plot is preceded by the narrator’s reasoning about the very concept of “artist”. “Many of us think that “artists” are just painters...
8. N. S. Leskov. “The Enchanted Wanderer” is a story-narration by Ivan Flyagin about his life and destiny. He was destined to become a monk. But another force - the force of the charm of life - makes him go ...
9. Katerina Lvovna Izmailova is a strong nature, an extraordinary personality, a petty bourgeois trying to fight against the world of property that has enslaved her. Love turns her into a passionate, ardent nature. Katerina did not see happiness in marriage. Days...
10. The narration of the work of N. Leskov Peacock begins with a description of the island of Valaam. The work consists of sixteen chapters. In the first chapter, the author says that this island is the refuge of the monks. The story is told from the perspective of...
11. One of the most interesting works N. S. Leskova is the tale “Lefty”, or “The Tale of the Tula oblique left-hander and steel flea". Behind the veil of irony, even some unreality of the events described, the writer...
12. Literary critics call Leskov's manner of writing “insidious”. The reader of his works finds himself at a kind of crossroads of different meanings, a kind of “semantic crossroads”, when it is impossible to choose one reading option, but it is necessary to take into account a range of different ...
13. Art must and even must preserve as far as possible all the features of folk beauty. Leskov Leskov's story "The Enchanted Wanderer" was written in the second half of the 19th century. Life is at the center of this piece...
14. The protagonist of the story is an uneducated person, not devoid of the shortcomings characteristic of Russians, including friendship with the “green serpent”. However, the main property of the Lefty is an extraordinary, wonderful skill. He wiped his nose with "English...
15. One of the themes that quite often occurs in the work of N. S. Leskov is the theme of a Russian working person, a talented craftsman, a master with golden hands. Such is the hero of the work Lefty, the Tula master who...
Lefty is the hero of N. S. Leskov's story "Lefty" (1881, the first publication under the title "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea (Shop Legend)"). A work created in the spirit of lubok is usually called ...
16. By the beginning of the seventies, after the apparent failure of the novel “On the Knives”, N. S. Leskov leaves this genre and seeks to assert the rights of that literary kind that spontaneously developed in his work. WITH...
17. The most a big problem, revealed by Leskov in the tale “Lefty” is the problem of the lack of demand for the talents of the Russian people. Leskov is overwhelmed not only with feelings of love and affection for his people, but also with pride in ...

The story "The Enchanted Wanderer" presents its reader with the image of a person who cannot be compared with any of the characters in Russian literature. This is the image of a hero who easily merges with any troubles of his life path. Flyagin Ivan Severyanych, or “enchanted wanderer”, as the author of the story called him, is “fascinated” by his own life, in particular, and the whole world, in general. He accepts life as a gift, a great miracle that has no limits and boundaries. Wherever the hero's fate throws him, he discovers something new and surprising for himself, and, maybe because of that, he is absolutely not afraid of change.

The image of Flyagin absorbed everything Russian. This is a man similar to the hero of ancient epics - he is huge in stature, has an open face, and his hair is curly and shimmers with noble gray hair. He looks about fifty years old, he is kind, simple-hearted and open-hearted to everyone he meets. The fact that Ivan Severyanych does not get along in one place does not mean that he is fickle or frivolous, such a way of life rather indicates that the hero strives to drink the whole world to the bottom. At least as much as he will be in time for the years allotted to him by God.

Life of Ivan Severyanych Flyagin

At birth, Flyagin took the life of his mother (he was born with a very large head, for which he received the nickname "Golovan"), but at the same time, he seems to be invulnerable to death, which he is ready to accept at any moment. The hero keeps the horses at the edge of the cliff, almost commits suicide, wins the most dangerous duel, flees from captivity, avoids bullets during hostilities. All his life he walks on the edge of death, but the earth is in no hurry to accept him.

From childhood, Ivan loved horses and knew how to handle them. But his fate was such that he had to flee and steal horses. Wandering, Flyagin gets to the Tatars and spends 10 years of his life in captivity (he is captured at the age of 23). After a while, Flyagin enters the army and serves in the Caucasus for 15 years. Here he performs a feat for which he is promoted to officer and given an award (St. George Cross). As a result, Flyagin becomes a nobleman. In the end, at the age of about 50, Flyagin goes to a monastery (on one of the islands in Lake Ladoga). In the monastery, Flyagin receives a church name - Father Ishmael. Having become a monk, Flyagin also serves as a coachman in the monastery. But even in the monastery, Flyagin does not find peace: he is overcome by demons, he discovers the gift of prophecy. The monks are trying in every possible way to expel from him " evil spirit", but all to no avail. Finally, Flyagin is released from the monastery, and he sets off to wander around the holy places.

Flyagin observes the canons of his own morality, remaining honest to others and himself throughout life. On his account the broken lives of a monk, a Tatar and a young gypsy. But, none of the misdeeds of the wanderer is born out of hatred or lies, is not committed with a thirst for profit or out of fear for one's own life. The monk died as a result of an accident, the Tatar was slain in battle on an equal footing, while the gypsy herself begged to end her unbearable existence. In the story of this unfortunate Ivan, he took the sin upon himself, thereby freeing the girl from the need to commit suicide.

Ivan Severyanych talks about his life to random fellow travelers during a water trip on a ship. The hero hides nothing, since his soul is an open book. In the struggle for justice, he is cruel, as with the case when he cut off the tail of the master's cat because she got into the habit of strangling his pigeons. But in a different situation, Flyagin went to war for a boy they were afraid to lose loving parents. The only reason for certain actions of Ivan is the natural force that beats out of him over the edge. All this power and prowess of the Russian hero in management is a rather complicated thing. From that, and not always Ivan Severyanych could calculate it correctly. And therefore, the hero of the story cannot be called impeccable, he is multifaceted - merciless and kind, smart and naive, impudent and romantic.

Retelling plan

1. Meeting travelers. Ivan Severyanych begins the story of his life.
2. Flyagin finds out his future.
3. He runs away from home and ends up as a nanny to the daughter of a master.
4. Ivan Severyanych finds himself at the auction of horses, and then in Ryn-Peski, captured by 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's acquaintance with Grushenka the gypsy.

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

9. Death of Grushenka.

10. The service of the hero in the army, in the address table, in the theater.

11. Life of Ivan Severyanych in the monastery.
12. The hero discovers in himself 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" - Mr. Flyagin Ivan Severyanych. He is gradually drawn into the conversation of passengers about suicides and, at the request of his companions, begins a story about his life: having God's gift to tame horses, he “died and could not die in any way” all his life.

Chapters 2, 3

Ivan Severyanych continues the story. He came from a kind of courtyard people of Count K. from the Oryol province. His "parent" coachman Severyan, Ivan's "parent" died after giving birth because he "was born with an unusually large head", for which he received the nickname Golovan. From his father and other coachmen, Flyagin "learned the secret of knowledge in the animal", from childhood he became addicted to horses. He soon got used to it so much that he began to "show postatory mischief: to pull out some oncoming peasant with a whip on his shirt." This mischief led to trouble: one day, returning from the city, he accidentally kills a monk who fell asleep on a wagon with a 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." “But,” he says, “it’s a sign for you that you will die many times and you will never die until your real“ death ”comes, and then you will remember your mother’s promise for you and go to blacks.” Soon Ivan and his hosts go to Voronezh and on the way save them from death in a terrible abyss, and fall into mercy.

Upon returning to the estate after some time, Golovan breeds pigeons under the roof. Then he discovers that the owner's cat is carrying chicks, he catches her and cuts 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 stones with a hammer." The last punishment “tormented” Golovan and he decides to commit suicide. From this fate he is saved by a gypsy, who cuts the rope prepared for death and persuades Ivan to run away with him, taking his horses with him.

Chapter 4

But, having sold the horses, they did not agree on the division of money and parted. Golovan gives the official his ruble and silver cross and receives a holiday form (certificate) that he is a free man, and goes around the world. Soon, trying to get a job, he gets to one gentleman, to whom he tells his story, and he begins to blackmail him: either he will tell the authorities everything, or Golovan goes to serve as a "nanny" to his little daughter. This gentleman, a Pole, convinces Ivan with the phrase: “After all, you are a Russian person? A Russian person can handle everything.” Golovan has to agree. He does not know anything about the mother of a girl, a baby, he does not know how to deal with children. He has to feed her goat's milk. Gradually, Ivan learns to take care of the baby, even to treat him. So he imperceptibly becomes attached to the girl. Once, 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 inexorable and even got into a fight with the lady's current husband, a lancer officer.

Chapter 5

Suddenly Golovan sees an angry owner approaching, he feels sorry for the woman, he gives the child to his mother and runs with them. In another city, an officer soon sends the passportless Golovan away, and he goes to the steppe, where he ends up at the Tatar auction of horses. Khan Dzhangar sells his horses, and the Tatars set prices and fight for 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 repairmen, traps the Tatar to death. “Tatarva - they’re nothing: well, he killed and killed - there were such conditions for that, because he could detect me, but his own, our Russians, even annoyingly don’t understand this, and got angry.” 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 gets to the Tatars, who, so that he does not run away, "bristle" his legs. Golovan serves as a Tatar doctor, 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 honor them for his children”, because they are “unbaptized” . He is more and more homesick for his homeland: “Ah, sir, how all this memorable life from childhood will go to be remembered, and will press on the soul that where you disappear, you are excommunicated from all this happiness and have not been in the spirit for so many years, and you live unmarried and die inveterate, and melancholy will seize you, and ... wait until night, crawl out slowly behind the headquarters, so that neither your wife, nor children, and no one from the filthy ones would see you, and you will begin to pray ... and you pray ... you pray so much that even the snow of the indus will melt under the knees, and where tears fell, you will see grass in the morning.

Chapter 8

When Ivan Severyanych was already completely desperate to get home, Russian missionaries came to the steppe "to set their faith." He asks them to pay a ransom for him, but they refuse, claiming that before God "everyone is equal and it's all the same." Some time later, one of them is killed, Golovan buries him according to the Orthodox tradition. He explains to the listeners that "an Asian must be brought to faith with fear," because they "will never respect a humble God without a threat."

Chapter 9

Somehow, two people from Khiva came to the Tatars to buy horses in order to “make war”. Hoping to intimidate the Tatars, they demonstrate the power of their fiery god Talafy. But Golovan discovers a box of fireworks, introduces himself as Talafoy, frightens the Tatars, converts them to the Christian faith and, having found “caustic earth” in the boxes, heals his legs and runs away. In the steppe, Ivan Severyanych meets a Chuvash, but refuses to go with him, because he simultaneously honors both the Mordovian Keremeti and the Russian Nicholas the Wonderworker. Russians also come across on his way, they cross themselves and drink vodka, but 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 for three years from communion, but the count, who has become devout, releases him "for quitrent".

Chapter 10

Golovan is arranged for the horse section. He helps the peasants to choose good horses, he is famous as a sorcerer, and everyone demands to tell the "secret". One prince takes him to his post as koneser. Ivan Severyanych buys horses for the prince, but from time to time he has drunken "outputs", before which he gives the prince all the money for safekeeping.

Chapter 11

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

Chapter 12

A new acquaintance imposes "magnetism" on Ivan Severyanych in order to free him from "zealous drunkenness", and for this he gives him extra water. At night, when they are walking along 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 the money on the beautiful songstress gypsy Grushenka: “you can’t even describe her as a woman, but as if like a bright snake, she moves on her tail and bends all over, and from her black eyes it burns fire. Curious figure! “So I became mad, and all my mind was taken away.”

Chapter 14

The next day, having obeyed the prince, he learns that the owner himself gave fifty thousand for Grushenka, bought her out of the camp and settled her in 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 mortgaged the estate, and from now on I’ll live here, not seeing a person, but only everything I will look her in the face."

Chapter 15

Ivan Severyanych tells the story of his master and Gruni. After some time, the prince gets bored with the “love word”, from the “yakhont emeralds” he gets sleepy, besides, all the money ends. Grushenka feels the prince's cooling, she is tormented by jealousy. Ivan Severyanych “became from that time easily entered by her: when the prince was away, every day twice a day he went to her wing to drink tea and entertained her as much as he could.”

Chapter 16

Once, going to the city, Ivan Severyanych overhears the conversation of the prince with his former mistress Evgenia Semyonovna and learns that his master is going to marry, and wants to marry the unfortunate and sincerely loved Grushenka to Ivan Severyanych. Returning home, Golovan learns that the prince secretly took the gypsy woman to the bee-bee in the forest. But Grusha escapes from her guards.

Chapters 17, 18

Grusha tells Ivan Severyanych what happened while he was gone, how the prince got married, how she was sent into exile. She asks to kill her, to curse her soul: “Become quickly for my soul for the savior; I no longer have the strength to live like this and suffer, seeing his betrayal and desecration of me. Have pity on me, my dear; hit me once with a knife against the heart. Ivan Severyanych recoiled, but she wept and exhorted him to kill her, otherwise she would kill herself. “Ivan Severyanych wrinkled his eyebrows terribly and, biting his mustache, seemed to exhale from the depths of his diverging chest: “She took the knife out of my pocket ... took it apart ... straightened the blade from the handle ... and puts it in my hands ...“ You won’t kill , - she says, - me, I will become the most shameful woman to all of you in revenge. I trembled all over, and ordered her to pray, and I didn’t prick her, but took it from the steep into the river and shoved it ... "

Chapter 19

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

Chapter 20

The monastic life does not burden him, he remains there with the horses, but he does not consider it worthy to take the tonsure and lives in obedience. To the question of one of the travelers, he says that at first the demon appeared to him in "seductive female image”, but after fervent prayers, only small demons, children, remained. Once he was punished: they put him in a cellar for the whole summer until frost. Ivan Severyanych did not lose heart there either: “Here you can hear the church bells, and the comrades came to visit.” They saved him from the cellar because the gift of prophecy was revealed in him. They let him go on a pilgrimage to Solovki. The Stranger admits that he expects an imminent death, because the “spirit” inspires him to take up arms and go to war, and he “really wants to die for the people.”

Having finished the story, Ivan Severyanych falls into quiet concentration, again feeling in himself "the influx of a mysterious broadcasting spirit, which is revealed only to babies."