Summary Victim of the evening

PD Boborykin
The Victim of the Evening
Rainy November evening in 186 * in St. Petersburg Mary Mikhailovna – twenty-three-year-old rich widow of the Guards adjutant – begins to keep an intimate diary to understand the reasons for his constantly bad mood. It turns out that she never loved her husband, that she is bored with her son, a three-year-old “sour” Vodka, and the capital’s light does not provide any entertainment, except for trips to the Mikhailovsky Theater for performances with cancan. Handra does not dispel either the letter received by Marya Mihajlovna from Paris from the cousin of Stepa Labazin, who became during their separation “philosopher” and “physicist”, nor her visit to her married secular friend Sophie. Finding Sophie with her lover, the narrator makes her a severe reprimand, although she realizes herself that she is more likely to envy the stranger, even the past, but still happiness. A certain novelty

in the life of Marya Mikhailovna is, in truth, introduced to the “clever” Plavikova, in whose salon on Thursdays different “writers” gather, including the forty-year-old (that is, much older) Dombrovich. Having succumbed to idle curiosity, the narrator also begins to read European journals, tries to maintain conversations about the philosophy of B. Spinoza and in general about the “smart”, but she only has a burning interest in the way of life of French women, to whom, forgetting all about secular ladies, men. In order to get to know Clemence, the most brilliant of these courtesans, she goes on Christmas masquerades, meeting Dombrovic everywhere. Even Clemence, when their acquaintance finally took place, speaks primarily about Dombroviche, emphasizing, that he is much higher than all secular dandies. Dąbrowicz, with whom the narrator is seen more and more often, does not deceive his expectations: he is charming, tactful, witty, able to spend hours arguing about writers, people of the world, and himself. “After talking with him, you somehow calm down and put up with life,” the narrator enters into the diary, noticing that she begins to judge a lot about her new acquaintance. The diary is filled with thoughts about women – “blue stockings” and “nihilists”, stories about spiritual sessions, secular gossip, but with each new record, Dombrovic becomes more and more the central hero. He recalls his meetings with Lermontov, severely evaluates Turgenev and other contemporary writers, proves how harmful marriage is to married women,
Two months after the acquaintance, the inevitable happens: for the first time in Dombrovich’s apartment and having allowed himself champagne at breakfast, the narrator is given to his teacher. At first she, of course, feels dishonored and almost raped: “And this is done among the white day… A slim, civilized man acts with you as a fallen woman” – but quickly calms down, because “nothing can be turned back already “, and a few days later he writes down in his diary:” What’s there to be jealous about? I’ll say right away: I can not live without it, it should have happened! ” Without revealing her secret, Marya Mihailovna and Dombrovich almost every evening are seen in a secular society, and, following the advice of their mentor, our narrator now enjoys “suckers” from now on, and the dignitaries incomparably greater success than before. In her life, at last, the meaning appeared, and the week is now so full of affairs that time flies just like an emergency train: cares about spectacular dresses, visits, troubles for patronizing an orphanage, theater. But most importantly: twice a week, meeting with her lover at home, the rest of the days, Marya Mikhailovna, telling the servants that she needed to go to Gostiny Dvor for shopping, sneaks into Tolmazov lane, where Dombrovich removes a room with furniture specially for intimate visits. The training on “part of the strawberry,” as Dombrovic puts it, is in full swing: an experienced seducer first introduces his student to the novel “Dangerous Liaisons”, “Confessions” by J. J. Rousseau, other scandalous books, and then persuades her to adopt participation in secret parties, where five dissolute aristocrats, who, in the light of the maidens and the most impregnable women of the capital, meet with their lovers. Champagne, seductive toilets, cancan, writing acrostics on various indecent words, table stories about who, how and when he lost his innocence, is the world of the sweet vice in which Marya Mikhailovna began to sink. And, probably, I would have sunk to my head if one evening, when the supper of the metropolitan satyrs and bacchantes had gone into a real orgy, Stepan Labazin, a virtuous Stepan, suddenly did not appear among the feasts. It turns out that he had just returned from foreign wanderings and, having learned from Arisha’s maid that Marya Mikhailovna had found herself in the depths of debauchery, immediately rushed to save her. The awakened shyness and repentance of our narrator do not have a limit. In the presence of Stepa, she once and for all breaks up her relationship with Dombrovichem – a man who is undoubtedly bright and talented, but, like all the people of the forties, lashed out, corrupted and extremely selfish. Now Marya Mihailovna, who spent a few days talking with Stepa’s resonator, wants to have a “whole world view” and, forgetting that there are men in the world, to take the path of selflessness and caring for others. On the advice of Stepa, she meets a certain Lizava-that Petrovna, who gave the poor all her fortune and devoted herself to re-educating the fallen girls. Together with the new mentor, the narrator visits hospitals, doss-houses, soldiers’ houses and, on the contrary, posh entertainment houses, a scandal everywhere with prito-nosoderzhatelnitsami and the word of love trying to revive prostitutes to a new, honest life. Maria Mikhaylovna’s eyes open and unhappy Russian girls, whom she thinks have been pushed into the path of vice only by appalling poverty, and a whole gallery of French women, German women, English women who came to St. Petersburg brothels specifically to earn their own dowry or money for old age. With a patriotic desire to save precisely the stray Matresh, Annushka, Palash narrator creates something like a correctional home, teaches girls to read and write the virtues, but soon becomes convinced that her wards are either trying again to get into a spree, or by all the truths and crooks extort money from her. Disappointed in the prospects of asceticism and having thoroughly talked with the unchangeable adviser Stepa, Marya Mikhailovna comes to the conclusion that many women do not work for themselves at all because of poverty, but for the sake of enjoyment,
The unexpected illness of the child is hindering plans to leave St. Petersburg abroad. Marya Mikhailovna, who did not even expect herself to love her “sour” Volodka so much, decides to spend the summer at the dacha near Oranienbaum, away from the capital’s “vanity fair.” Stepa settles with them under the same roof, continuing work on enlightenment of a cousin in the spirit of positivism of the sixties. Marya Mikhailovna, admitting that she was always indifferent to nature, to music and to poetry, under the influence of conversations with Stepa develops emotionally and intellectually. She reads no longer French novels, but “On the Eve” by I. Turgenev, “La Fontaine’s Fables,” “Hamlet” by V. Shakespeare, other clever books. But a little bit all the same suffers from the fact that there is no one around who could appreciate her as a woman. The change in a respectable and virgin life introduces Alexander Petrovich Krotkov. This twenty-six-year-old scientist, Stepan’s acquaintance in foreign life, also settled for the summer with his cousin under Oranienbaum. He despises women, which at first offends, and then provokes our narrator. Her diary is filled with a retelling of Krotkov’s arguments about science, cosmopolitanism, women’s emancipation and other important things. Marya Mikhailovna is losing her hard-won balance. She again falls in love and is enraged at only one thought: “This person is now walking around Peter-692 and then provokes our narrator. Her diary is filled with a retelling of Krotkov’s arguments about science, cosmopolitanism, women’s emancipation and other important things. Marya Mikhailovna is losing her hard-won balance. She again falls in love and is enraged at only one thought: “This person is now walking around Peter-692 and then provokes our narrator. Her diary is filled with a retelling of Krotkov’s arguments about science, cosmopolitanism, women’s emancipation and other important things. Marya Mikhailovna is losing her hard-won balance. She again falls in love and is enraged at only one thought: “This person is now walking around Peter-692
Burgu, smokes his cigars, reads books and thinks as much about me as about the Chinese emperor. “However, Alexander Petrovich seems to be quite ready to combine his fate with the story of the narrator, but… The result is a marriage of convenience, at best It is a dream of an alliance of equals, then it goes crazy with passion, and the diary turns into a series of frenzied confessions, accusations and self-accusations, thoughts that the entire life of the narrator is “one wandering, one helpless and hopeless weakness of the spirit”, and in all her “actions, thoughts, words, hobbies are only instincts.” Therefore, deciding to commit suicide, Marya Mikhailovna makes farewell visits, says goodbye to the saint in her self-deception Lizaveta Petrovna, finally goes round all the St. Petersburg theaters, including Alexandrinsky, where the “Thunderstorm” of A. Ostrovsky was going, and… Once again turning away from Krotkov’s confessions of love, refusing to listen to all the usual reasons of Stepa, Marya Mikhailovna kisses the son asleep in the crib and re-reads the will, recorded under her dictation by the faithful Stepan. The fate of Volodka is entrusted in this testament to Alexander Petrovich Krotkov. The diary should be passed on to the son, “when he is able to understand it, in which he will find an explanation and, perhaps, a good life lesson.” And the narrator herself takes poison, leaving her life with a smile on her lips and a Shakespearean couplet from Hamlet: “How can you not crave such an outcome? Die, fall asleep.” finally goes to all the St. Petersburg theaters, including Alexandrinsky, where the “Thunderstorm” of A. Ostrovsky was going, and… Once again turning away from Krotkov’s confessions of love, refusing to listen to all the usual reasons of Stepa, Marya Mikhailovna kisses a sleeping son and re-reads the will, recorded under her dictation by the faithful Stepan. The fate of Volodka is entrusted in this testament to Alexander Petrovich Krotkov. The diary should be passed on to the son, “when he is able to understand it, in which he will find an explanation and, perhaps, a good life lesson.” And the narrator herself takes poison, leaving her life with a smile on her lips and a Shakespearean couplet from Hamlet: “How can you not crave such an outcome? Die, fall asleep.” finally goes to all the St. Petersburg theaters, including Alexandrinsky, where the “Thunderstorm” of A. Ostrovsky was going, and… Once again turning away from Krotkov’s confessions of love, refusing to listen to all the usual reasons of Stepa, Marya Mikhailovna kisses a sleeping son and re-reads the will, recorded under her dictation by the faithful Stepan. The fate of Volodka is entrusted in this testament to Alexander Petrovich Krotkov. The diary should be passed on to the son, “when he is able to understand it, in which he will find an explanation and, perhaps, a good life lesson.” And the narrator herself takes poison, leaving her life with a smile on her lips and a Shakespearean couplet from Hamlet: “How can you not crave such an outcome? Die, fall asleep.” Thunderstorm “A. Ostrovsky, and… Once again turning away from Krotkovskie confessions of love, refusing to listen to all the usual reasons Stepa, Marya Mikhailovna kisses a sleeping son in the crib and re-reads the will, recorded under her dictation by the faithful Step. The fate of Volodka is entrusted to This testament to Alexander Petrovich Krotkov, the diary should be passed on to his son, “when he is able to understand him. In it he will find an explanation and, perhaps, a good everyday lesson. “And the narrator herself takes poison, leaving with a smile on her lips and a Shakespearean couplet from Hamlet:” How can you not crave such an outcome? To die, to fall asleep. ” Thunderstorm “A. Ostrovsky, and… Once again turning away from Krotkovskie confessions of love, refusing to listen to all the usual reasons Stepa, Marya Mikhailovna kisses a sleeping son in the crib and re-reads the will, recorded under her dictation by the faithful Step. The fate of Volodka is entrusted to This testament to Alexander Petrovich Krotkov, the diary should be passed on to his son, “when he is able to understand him. In it he will find an explanation and, perhaps, a good everyday lesson. “And the narrator herself takes poison, leaving with a smile on her lips and a Shakespearean couplet from Hamlet:” How can you not crave such an outcome? To die, to fall asleep. ” Marya Mikhailovna kisses the son asleep in the crib and re-reads the will, recorded under her dictation by the faithful Stepan. The fate of Volodka is entrusted in this testament to Alexander Petrovich Krotkov. The diary should be passed on to the son, “when he is able to understand it, in which he will find an explanation and, perhaps, a good life lesson.” And the narrator herself takes poison, leaving her life with a smile on her lips and a Shakespearean couplet from Hamlet: “How can you not crave such an outcome? Die, fall asleep.” Marya Mikhailovna kisses the son asleep in the crib and re-reads the will, recorded under her dictation by the faithful Stepan. The fate of Volodka is entrusted in this testament to Alexander Petrovich Krotkov. The diary should be passed on to the son, “when he is able to understand it, in which he will find an explanation and, perhaps, a good life lesson.” And the narrator herself takes poison, leaving her life with a smile on her lips and a Shakespearean couplet from Hamlet: “How can you not crave such an outcome? Die, fall asleep.”