Summary “His Farewell Bow”
“His Last Bow” is one of the stories of the English writer Arthur Conan Doyle about the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. Included in the self-titled “His Farewell Bow”. Published in 1917, in Strand Magazine. The last story about Holmes by the time of action (but not publication – the stories from the collection “The Archives of Sherlock Holmes” were published in 1921-1927).
Second August 1914, the world on the eve of the First World War. In his home, on the coast of England, one of the best German spies, von Bork, takes over Baron von Herling, the first secretary of the embassy of the German Empire in Britain. During a conversation in which the prospects of a future war are discussed, von Bork proudly presents von Herling with a safe stuffed with secret documents about the British army and navy. One of the best agents who produced the largest part of these priceless papers is, according to von Bork, a certain Oltemont. This is an American
Several years ago, Holmes, at the personal request of the British Prime Minister, decided to infiltrate the spy network of von Bork. Imagining the Irish American, who hates England, Holmes managed to win the trust of von Bork and began to supply the spy with skillful disinformation. On the very eve of the war, the British government decided to arrest von Bork, which Holmes did, using the help of his faithful friend, Dr. Watson.
“His farewell” is one of several stories where the narrative is from a third person. And Conan Doyle planned to put an end to Holmes forever (this is evidenced by the inscription under the story: “Farewell to Sherlock Holmes”). To: Wikipedia: Articles without sources (type: not specified) [source not specified 820 days]
“Last Bow” – a landmark work in the works of VP Astafiev. It involves two main themes for the writer: village and military. In the center of the autobiographical novel is the fate of a boy left without a mother who is raised by a grandmother.
Decency,
With love, V. P. Astafyev draws pictures of children’s pranks and amusements, simple domestic conversations, everyday cares (among which the lion’s share of time and effort is given to garden work, and also simple peasant food). Great joy for the boy is even the first new pants, since he is constantly changing them from junk.
In the figurative structure of the story, the image of the hero’s grandmother is central. She is a respected person in the village. Her big hands in the veins once again emphasize the heroine’s industriousness. “In any case, not the word, but the hands of the whole head.” “Hands do not need to regret.” They say, they all skew and pretend, “says the grandmother. The most common things (cleaning a hut, a pie with cabbage) in grandmother’s performance give so many people warmth and care that are perceived as a holiday. In difficult years, the family helps to survive and have a piece of bread an old sewing machine, on which the grandmother manages to sew half a grains.
VP Astafiev emphasizes the breadth of native spaces. The writer often uses images of the sounding world in the landscape sketches (the rustling of shavings, the rattling of carts, the clatter of hooves, the song of a shepherd’s duda), transmits characteristic smells (forests, grass, rancid grain). In the unhurried narrative, the elements of lyricism are constantly invading: “And through the meadow mist spread, and it was wet grass, nikli flowers of night blindness, daisies wrinkled white eyelashes on the yellow pupils.”
Returning from the war, the narrator goes to visit his grandmother. He wants to meet her first, so he makes his way to the house. The narrator notices how dilapidated the house in which he grew up. The roof of the bathhouse collapsed, the gardens were overgrown, and there was not even a cat in the house, so the mice gnawed at the corners.
The war raged over the world, new states appeared, millions of people died, and nothing changed in the house, and grandmother still sits at the window, winding yarn. She immediately recognizes the grandson, and the narrator notices how grandmother aged. Having admired her grandson with the Order of the Red Star on her chest, the old woman says that she is tired for her 86 years and will soon die. She asks her grandson to come and bury her when her time comes.
In the heart of the narrator “oppressive, quiet, eternal” wine settles. He discovers the details of her lonely life from the villagers. The narrator learns that in recent years the grandmother has arisen, could not carry water from the Yenisei and washed potatoes in the dew; that she went to Molenye in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
The author wants to know about the grandmother as much as possible, “yes the door to the silent kingdom has slammed behind her.” In his stories he tries to tell people about her, so that they remember about their grandmothers and grandfathers, and that her life be “boundless and eternal, as eternal human kindness itself”. “Yes from the crafty this work”, – the author does not have words that convey all love to the grandmother and justify him before her.
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