Brief description “Coming Cook”
The novel is preceded by a letter to the anonymous benefactor “chamberlain and various orders to the knight” in order to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that praise or indignation turns to dust, as well as a person who praises or denigrates this book. The author turns to the reader in verse, urging him to be attentive, but indulgent.
The narrator recounts that she was a widowed nineteen, since her husband was killed near Poltava and, as a man of simple rank, left her without any content. And since the life of the poor widow corresponds to the saying “Shay-de, a widow, wide sleeves, it would be where to put unreasonable words,” the heroine easily agreed to the offer of the brigade to accept the patronage of a very handsome butler nobleman. On his money, the heroine dressed up, hired a servant and soon attracted the attention of all of Kiev, where she lived, with her beauty and gaiety.
Soon at the gate of her house appeared a gentleman
His master, Sveton, soon received a letter from his elderly father, who had a premonition of an imminent demise. Sveton did not dare leave the city without his girlfriend, but his friend and neighbor on the estate suggested they go together and leave him in his village under the guise of a relative. On the way, Sveton confessed that he was married and recently married. This worried the narrator, since she had a presentiment of the calamities that threatened her. A premonition of it was fully justified, and during another meeting with beloved Sveton, the cabinet in the room
In Moscow, the narrator managed to get a job as a cook for a secretary who was living with bribes and petitions of petitioners. The secretary’s wife did not differ in virtue – she betrayed her husband and was prone to drunkenness, so she made her cook confidante. The clerk who lived in the house entertained the heroine with his stories. In his opinion, the true example of intelligence and learning is the famous secretary and attorney of the Martony. The poets are not at all what the heroine thinks about them. Once she got into the office of an ode to a certain Lomonosov, so none of the orders could understand it, and therefore this ode was declared nonsense, inferior in every respect to the last clerical memorandum. Marton had to endure the stupidity of the clerk, since he generously endowed it. Dressed up with his help, she began to attract the attention of the hostess admirers. The secretary’s wife did not tolerate this and refused Marton from the place. The narrator was not interested in this house, and she left without regret.
Very soon, with the help of a pimp, the heroine found a place in the house of a retired lieutenant colonel. The childless widower, delighted with the beauty and graceful dress of Martony, invited her to dispose of all her possessions and even promised to leave all the estate to her, since she does not have any heirs. The heroine agreed without delay and began to “please his money.” The old man’s delight was so great that he did not allow the narrator to go to his former apartment for his belongings and gave her immediately the keys to the chests and caskets with the jewelry of his late wife. For the first time the heroine saw such a quantity of pearls and, forgetting about proprieties, immediately began to re-arrange all the pearls. The old man in love helped her.
Next, the narrator says that the payment for a well-fed and prosperous life was seclusion, since she was forbidden to leave the house. The only place she ever visited was the church, where she went with the lieutenant-colonel. However, even there she managed to meet her next love. The elegant appearance and reverence of her lover allowed her to stand in the church near the choir among the venerable people. Once Marton caught himself
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look young man. Her master, also noticing the attention of a smart young man, barely coped with his excitement and at home demanded from “Russian Helena” of assurances of love and loyalty.
Soon a petitioner with a large number of certificates came to them in the hope of finding a place. The narrator found a note among the papers with confessions of love from Ahel, a stranger from the church. Counting on the place in the house of a jealous old man did not have to, but the servant gave Marton a cunning advice. Ahel, disguised as a woman’s dress, enters the house in the guise of the elder sister of the narrator. Their meetings with Marton took place just before the eyes of a jealous old man, who not only suspected nothing, but did not hide his admiration for the tenderness and love of two imaginary sisters.
Achel was so attached to Marton that he invited her to marry him. Lovers are engaged. Marton did not suspect anything, even when Ahelle advised her to get the old man a fee for living with him our heroine, in other words, to take out all the valuable things. Pearls and money to take out unnoticed was the easiest thing that the story-teller did and passed the values to Ahel. Secretly getting out of the old man’s house, Marton discovered that Ahel disappeared with the things, and his search was futile.
Prigozhey cook had to return to the widower. The narrator found him inconsolable with grief. He accepted it without reproach. The governor, who had taken a very rough approach to Marton, was immediately fired, but he held his anger and avenged the heroine. As soon as the lieutenant colonel died, his sister appeared claiming the inheritance (she learned everything from the offended steward), and managed not only to seize property, but also to plant Marton in jail.
In the prison, the narrator had to tightly, but unexpectedly appeared Ahel with his friend Svidal. They managed to free Marton. Once in the wild, the narrator quickly recovered, began to dress up and have fun again. The only thing that really upset her is jealousy and rivalry between Ahel and Svidal. The first thought that he had more rights to Marton because of his long acquaintance. During the card game in the lobster, both admirers quarreled to such an extent that Svidal summoned Ahel to a duel. For several hours Marton was unaware of the fate of her lovers. Suddenly appears Ahel, reports that he killed Svidal, and, using the faint of the heroine, disappears.
The narrator seriously succumbed and recovered from the illness only when Svidal appeared. It turns out, taking advantage of the duel, he pretended to be dead and forced Ahel to flee forever from the city. He also explained that his ingenuity is not accidental, but dictated by the love for the lovely Marton. Our heroine, taught by bitter experience, did not rely solely on love and henceforth started to save chervontsi and expensive gifts.
Soon, Martona met a young noblewoman who married a merchant. The society that was gathering in the merchant’s house was very amusing and noble, but it served the heroine as a good school. The very mistress in general had criminal intentions to extort her husband-merchant. To this end, she hired a little Russian from the servants of Martony and persuaded him to prepare a poison.
For the unlucky merchant everything ended well, as the servant of the narrator did not poison him, but only caused his temporary infallibility with his tincture. For which he was generously rewarded. Suddenly Martona received a letter from Ahel, in which he reported on the desire to die, because he could not bear to regret the death of a friend and the loss of a lover. In order to part with life, Ahel takes poison and dreams to say goodbye to his beloved Marta. The narrator and her beloved Svidal went together to Ahel, but only Marton entered the house. She learned that Ahel had been driven to despair by remorse and, having decided to leave her a purchase for an estate acquired with her own money, decided to die. One mention of the name Svydal led him into a frenzy, and he could not realize that his friend was alive.
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