Gardelins by Ertel in a brief summary
The widow of the actual State Councilor Tatyana Ivanovna Gardenina, along with her three children, usually spent the winter in Petersburg. Because of the signs of anemia in her daughter Elise, an impressionable girl of about seventeen, the family lived abroad for some time in the summer, which upset her sons-and the younger, fifteen-year-old Raf, still under the supervision of the tutors, and the elder Yuri, who had already entered the school.
In the winter of 1871 the home doctor, noticing the improvement in Elise’s health, allows the family to leave for the summer to a village near Voronezh. Tatyana Ivanovna writes to the housekeeper Felitsa Nikanorovna to prepare the estate for the arrival of the owners. In response letter, in addition to complaints about the new “free” times, spoiled the former serfs, which will “do not need to,” the housekeeper informs the lady that the St. Petersburg university is studying medicine by the son of the bar steward
Elise reads a lot and often imagines herself in the place of the heroines of Dostoevsky’s novels. During one walk, she picks up a woman beaten up in a drunken brawl, and brings her to her house. When Elise tries to reassure and persuade not to do so, she is attacked. The servants, discussing what is happening – whether it is seen to drag all sorts of ditches into the house and call doctors! – whisper in awe: “Well, the time has come!”
“The new time” is hard to be experienced and in the fiefdom – provincial village of Gardenine. The governor Martin Lukyanich Rakhmanny only because of his natural wit and knowledge of the peasant “from within” contains in strictness and order peasants and those living around fellow residents. Debt obligations he tied
The governor teaches to farm his only son Nikolai, a boy of nineteen. Nikolai was nowhere near the county town, he did not study anywhere, but even the germs of home education that he received, in combination with the natural mind, reveal remarkable abilities in him. Nicholas’s desire for self-development manifests itself in conversations with the old joiner Ivan Feodotych, the clerk Agey Danilic, the watchman of the distant farm Agafoklom Ernik, merchant Rudoev. Each of these people is unique in its own way, the stories of their lives represent a huge material for Nikolai for his own reflections on human destiny. Especially striking young man confession Ivan Fedotych. In his youth he fell in love with the maid Lyudmila. Liked her and his best friend Emelyan. Lyudmila preferred Ivan Druzhba, “who did not see the light before,” was cut short by a terrible event: Emelian falsely testified to the master, as if he saw that Ivan had stolen a hundred-ruble note from his office. Ivan almost was not shaved in the soldiers, but they had mercy and only punished in the stable. Ivan, after much thought, urged Yemelyan to come to him and, in a Christian way, forgave him. Returning from work in the distant village, Ivan found Emelyan already married to Lyudmila. Two years later they were born a girl, Tatiana. But God did not give Emelian happiness: the consciousness of his own sin, he began to heat in wine and finally drank after the death of his wife. Tatiana grew up, lived with Ivan, they got used to each other and “mocked” the courtyard – were married. Yemelyan before his death asked Ivan: “Are we with you?” – he cried and died, holding hands of his daughter and an old friend… Emelian falsely testified to the master, as if he saw that Ivan had stolen a hundred-ruble note from his office. Ivan almost was not shaved in the soldiers, but they had mercy and only punished in the stable. Ivan, after much thought, urged Yemelyan to come to him and, in a Christian way, forgave him. Returning from work in the distant village, Ivan found Emelyan already married to Lyudmila. Two years later they were born a girl, Tatiana. But God did not give Emelian happiness: the consciousness of his own sin, he began to heat in wine and finally drank after the death of his wife. Tatiana grew up, lived with Ivan, they got used to each other and “mocked” the courtyard – were married. Yemelyan before his death asked Ivan: “Are we with you?” – he cried and died, holding hands of his daughter and an old friend… Emelian falsely testified to the master, as if he saw that Ivan had stolen a hundred-ruble note from his office. Ivan almost was not shaved in the soldiers, but they had mercy and only punished in the stable. Ivan, after much thought, urged Yemelyan to come to him and, in a Christian way, forgave him. Returning from work in the distant village, Ivan found Emelyan already married to Lyudmila. Two years later they were born a girl, Tatiana. But God did not give Emelian happiness: the consciousness of his own sin, he began to heat in wine and finally drank after the death of his wife. Tatiana grew up, lived with Ivan, they got used to each other and “mocked” the courtyard – were married. Yemelyan before his death asked Ivan: “Are we with you?” – he cried and died, holding hands of his daughter and an old friend… Ivan almost was not shaved in the soldiers, but they had mercy and only punished in the stable. Ivan, after much thought, urged Yemelyan to come to him and, in a Christian way, forgave him. Returning from work in the distant village, Ivan found Emelyan already married to Lyudmila. Two years later they were born a girl, Tatiana. But God did not give Emelian happiness: the consciousness of his own sin, he began to heat in wine and finally drank after the death of his wife. Tatiana grew up, lived with Ivan, they got used to each other and “mocked” the courtyard – were married. Yemelyan before his death asked Ivan: “Are we with you?” – he cried and died, holding hands of his daughter and an old friend… Ivan almost was not shaved in the soldiers, but they had mercy and only punished in the stable. Ivan, after much thought, urged Yemelyan to come to him and, in a Christian way, forgave him. Returning from work in the distant village, Ivan found Emelyan already married to Lyudmila. Two years later they were born a girl, Tatiana. But God did not give Emelian happiness: the consciousness of his own sin, he began to heat in wine and finally drank after the death of his wife. Tatiana grew up, lived with Ivan, they got used to each other and “mocked” the courtyard – were married. Yemelyan before his death asked Ivan: “Are we with you?” – he cried and died, holding hands of his daughter and an old friend… Returning from work in the distant village, Ivan found Emelyan already married to Lyudmila. Two years later they were born a girl, Tatiana. But God did not give Emelian happiness: the consciousness of his own sin, he began to heat in wine and finally drank after the death of his wife. Tatiana grew up, lived with Ivan, they got used to each other and “mocked” the courtyard – were married. Yemelyan before his death asked Ivan: “Are we with you?” – he cried and died, holding hands of his daughter and an old friend… Returning from work in the distant village, Ivan found Emelyan already married to Lyudmila. Two years later they were born a girl, Tatiana. But God did not give Emelian happiness: the consciousness of his own sin, he began to heat in wine and finally drank after the death of his wife. Tatiana grew up, lived with Ivan, they got used to each other and “mocked” the courtyard – were married. Yemelyan before his death asked Ivan: “Are we with you?” – he cried and died, holding hands of his daughter and an old friend… Yemelyan before his death asked Ivan: “Are we with you?” – he cried and died, holding hands of his daughter and an old friend… Yemelyan before his death asked Ivan: “Are we with you?” – he cried and died, holding hands of his daughter and an old friend…
The merchant of the Handicrafts gives Nicholas books from his library, evaluates the boy’s first poem experience. Nikolai reads greedily and reads a lot, writes his notes about the peasant life in the newspaper. In a reduced form, these notes are printed. Martin Lukyanich is proud of his “writer” son. He no longer prevents Nikolai from sitting out for books.
Post-reform life brings new events to Gardenino. Quarrels in peasant families are becoming more frequent, sons are separated from their parents, peasants are completely shirking their work, and drunkenness is flourishing. Martin Lukyanich with difficulty keeps the peasants from ripening riots, the danger of which increases before the oncoming epidemic of cholera. The pedigree trotter Rabbit on the run comes first, but the next night it is poisoned by competitors from another plant. And everyone associates this incredible hitherto event with new times. “People were dismissed!” – sighs the manager.
Arrives in Gardenino bar family. At this time, the student Ephraim arrives. He makes a pleasant impression on the lady with his education, good manners. The lady asks him to work with Eliz. The girl also likes to communicate with a young man, boldly and directly expressing their views. Their relationship develops into a feeling that is mainly based on fascination with revolutionary ideas. The old housekeeper spies on Ephraim and Elise and, when he hears their confessions of love, rushes at Ephraim in rage. Elise falls in a fit. The housekeeper is frightened, not understanding what is happening, and she asks the lady to go to the monastery. Learning about the relationship between Elise and the student, Gardenina dismisses his father, the stablesman. Kapiton Averyanich, understanding the reason for his dismissal, drives his son out of the house. The wife of a stableman, a hammered woman, living only with love for her son, He does not tolerate such a blow and dies. The stable is hung up. Ephraim and Elise escape from home and secretly get married in St. Petersburg. Life in Gardenin completely comes out of its own, relatively quiet until now, current. The lady leaves, she sends a new manager. The whole economy is being rebuilt, unprecedented machines appear, creating an impression of progress, for which the new manager is in favor.
But there are people who, in this chaos of the nascent new life destroying the old foundations, plant the sprouts of good and humanity. The brightest of them is Nikolai Rahmanny. During this time, he went through a difficult and difficult path of knowing life. At the time when he went to Ivan Fedotych and his young wife, unexpectedly for himself he fell in love with Tatiana, and one evening, when the old man was not at home, young people become secret lovers. Tatiana confesses her husband’s treason, and Ivan Fedotych takes his wife to a distant village. Nikolay experiences his act, repents, especially when he finds out that Tatyana is having a baby – his son.
Nikolai meets Vera Turchaninova, the daughter of a police bailiff, they jointly open an abandoned village school for peasant children, in which Vera teaches. When Vera comes to the county town, intending to explain to Nikolay, who is temporarily working there, and to consent to a marriage with him, he confuses her in confusion by marrying the other – the daughter of the owner of the house in which he lives. Before that, the host’s daughter arranged a meeting with Nicholas, whose father became a witness, and Nikolai agreed to become the husband of this cunning girl in confusion. Faith in despair is leaving. But Nikolai meets with understanding from his future father-in-law, who, having understood all the circumstances of the upcoming marriage of his daughter, advises Nikolai to quickly flee from his child.
Fate brings Nicholas to the house of Tatyana and Ivan Fedotych, he sees his little son there. Ivan Fedotych, noticing that Nikolai and Tatiana truly love each other, with Christian senility humor blesses them and leaves them stranger.
Ten years later, Tatiana ruled in her own shop, waiting for her husband to go to the city to sit in the zemstvo assembly. She is helped by a twelve-year-old son, here is a well-groomed and kindly old man, Martin Lukyanich. He proudly tells visitors about his son, Nikolai Rahmann, who is now the “chief specialist on zemstvo business in the county.”
Returning from the zemstvos, Nicholas meets in the town of Raphael Konstantinovich Gardenin, who admires with admiration the recent report on the schools made by Nikolai in the Zemstvo. Young people talk about the affairs and concerns of the zemstvos, about the needs of the school, recalling their past lives. Gardenin invites Nicholas to call on him at his estate. Nicholas sees an updated village, changed farm buildings, but he meets and ragged, drunk men. He thinks that a new life is being born hard, that the only way to it is hard everyday work, the “voluntary yoke” of which he never wants to take off. In the estate, Nicholas listens to the manager’s story about the new arrangement of the economy, meets his wife. This is Vera Turchaninova, who long ago forgot the aspirations of her youth,
Nikolay with relief leaves Gardenin, thinking about the upcoming meeting with his wife and son, and the sense of grief of a past life gradually leaves him. He does not think about his life, but about life in general, and the exciting call of the future lights up in his heart.
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