N.S. Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”: description, characters, analysis of the work. Analysis of the work The Enchanted Wanderer by Leskov Life and work of Leskov's story The Enchanted Wanderer

Who among us did not study at school the work of such a writer as Nikolai Semenovich Leskov? “The Enchanted Wanderer” (a summary, analysis and history of creation will be discussed in this article) is the writer’s most famous work. This is what we will talk about next.

History of creation

The story was written in 1872 - 1873.

In the summer of 1872, Leskov traveled along Lake Ladoga through Karelia to the Valaam Islands, where monks lived. On the way, he got the idea to write a story about a wanderer. By the end of the year, the work was completed and proposed for publication. It was called “Black Earth Telemacus”. However, Leskov was refused publication because the work seemed damp to the publishers.

Then the writer took his creation to the Russkim Mir magazine, where it was published under the title “The Enchanted Wanderer, His Life, Experience, Opinions and Adventures.”

Before presenting Leskov’s analysis (“The Enchanted Wanderer”), let us turn to a brief summary of the work.

Summary. Meet the main character

The location is Lake Ladoga. Here travelers meet on their way to the islands of Valaam. It is from this moment that it will be possible to begin the analysis of Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer,” since here the writer gets acquainted with the main character of the work.

So, one of the travelers, horseman Ivan Severyanych, a novice dressed in a cassock, talks about how, from childhood, God endowed him with the wonderful gift of taming horses. The companions ask the hero to tell Ivan Severyanych about his life.

It is this story that is the beginning of the main narrative, because in its structure Leskov’s work is a story within a story.

The main character was born into the family of a servant of Count K. Since childhood, he became addicted to horses, but one day, for the sake of laughter, he beat a monk to death. Ivan Severyanych begins to dream about the murdered man and says that he was promised to God, and that he will die many times and will never die until real death comes and the hero goes to the Chernetsy.

Soon Ivan Severyanych had a fight with his owners and decided to leave, taking a horse and a rope. On the way, the thought of suicide came to him, but the rope with which he decided to hang himself was cut by a gypsy. The hero's wanderings continue, leading him to those places where the Tatars drive their horses.

Tatar captivity

An analysis of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” by Leskov briefly gives us an idea of ​​what the hero is like. Already from the episode with the monk it is clear that he does not value human life highly. But it soon becomes clear that the horse is much more valuable to him than any person.

So, the hero ends up with the Tatars, who have a custom of fighting for horses: two people sit opposite each other and beat each other with whips; whoever holds out longer wins. Ivan Severyanych sees a wonderful horse, enters the battle and beats the enemy to death. The Tatars catch him and “bristle” him so that he does not escape. The hero serves them, moving at a crawl.

Two people come to the Tatars and use fireworks to intimidate them with their “fire god.” The main character finds the visitors' belongings, scares them away with Tatar fireworks and heals his legs with a potion.

Position of coneser

Ivan Severyanych finds himself alone in the steppe. The analysis of Leskov (“The Enchanted Wanderer”) shows the strength of character of the protagonist. Alone, Ivan Severyanich manages to get to Astrakhan. From there he is sent to his hometown, where he gets a job with his former owner to look after the horses. He spreads rumors about him as a wizard, since the hero unmistakably identifies good horses.

The prince finds out about this, and takes Ivan Severyanich to join him as a coneser. Now the hero chooses horses for a new owner. But one day he gets very drunk and in one of the taverns he meets the gypsy Grushenka. It turns out that she is the prince’s mistress.

Grushenka

Leskov’s analysis (“The Enchanted Wanderer”) cannot be imagined without the episode of Grushenka’s death. It turns out that the prince planned to get married, and sent his unwanted mistress to a bee in the forest. However, the girl escaped from the guards and came to Ivan Severyanich. Grushenka asks him, to whom she sincerely became attached and fell in love, to drown her, because she has no other choice. The hero fulfills the girl’s request, wanting to save her from torment. He is left alone with a heavy heart and begins to think about death. Soon a way out is found, Ivan Severyanych decides to go to war in order to hasten his death.

This episode showed not so much the hero’s cruelty as his penchant for strange mercy. After all, he saved Grushenka from suffering, tripling his torment.

However, in war he does not find death. On the contrary, he is promoted to officer, awarded the Order of St. George and given his resignation.

Returning from the war, Ivan Severyanych finds work in the address desk as a clerk. But the service does not go well, and then the hero becomes an artist. However, our hero could not find a place for himself here either. And without performing a single performance, he leaves the theater, deciding to go to the monastery.

Denouement

The decision to go to the monastery turns out to be correct, which is confirmed by the analysis. Leskov’s “The Enchanted Wanderer” (briefly summarized here) is a work with a pronounced religious theme. Therefore, it is not surprising that it is in the monastery that Ivan Severyanych finds peace, leaving his spiritual burdens behind. Although sometimes he sees “demons,” he manages to drive them away with prayers. Although not always. Once, in a fit, he killed a cow, which he mistook for the devil’s weapon. For this he was put in a cellar by the monks, where the gift of prophecy was revealed to him.

Now Ivan Severyanych goes to Slovakia on a pilgrimage to the elders Savvaty and Zosima. Having finished his story, the hero falls into calm concentration and feels a mysterious spirit that is open only to babies.

Leskov's analysis: “The Enchanted Wanderer”

The value of the main character of the work is that he is a typical representative of the people. And in his strength and abilities the essence of the entire Russian nation is revealed.

Interesting, in this regard, is the evolution of the hero, his spiritual development. If at the beginning we see a reckless and carefree dashing guy, then at the end of the story we see a wise monk. But this huge path of self-improvement would have been impossible without the trials that befell the hero. It was they who prompted Ivan to self-sacrifice and the desire to atone for his sins.

This is the hero of the story that Leskov wrote. “The Enchanted Wanderer” (analysis of the work also indicates this) is the story of the spiritual development of the entire Russian people using the example of one character. Leskov, as it were, confirmed with his work the idea that great heroes will always be born on Russian soil, who are capable not only of exploits, but also of self-sacrifice.

“The Enchanted Wanderer” - a story by N. S. Leskov. It tells the story of one of Leskov’s righteous men. This is a man who lived a stormy and eventful life, at the end of which he decided to become a monk.

History of creation. Nikolai Leskov in 1872 traveled to the island of Valaam, where one of the most famous Russian monasteries is located. This prompted him to create a work about a simple wanderer.

About six months later the story was written. Like other works by Leskov, it is designed in a “folk” spirit. The first publisher refused to publish the story because it was allegedly “damp”. However, then the work was published by the Russkiy Mir magazine.

Meaning of the name. Love for life, for others, but at the same time not security. Finding yourself has come a long way. The ability to see the beauty of the world, or rather nature, and be enchanted. The life of the hero of Flyagin's story was difficult, but he knew how to admire.

Heroes. Ivan Flyagin, monk, gypsy, owners, father Elijah, Khan Dzhankar, gypsy Grusha, wife and children.

Plot. The work consists of twenty chapters, each of which is a completely complete story. The hero of the story is Ivan Flyagin, nicknamed Golovan; By the time of the story, he had long since taken monastic vows.

The action begins on a ship sailing to Valaam. Passengers ask Flyagin to talk about his life, which he does with pleasure. He was a serf; He was born into the family of a coachman and from childhood was accustomed to driving and caring for horses. One day, while driving a team, for fun he began to whip a monk, who died from it. At night, the monk comes to him in a dream and reveals to him that his mother “promised him to God,” so he will be on the verge of death many times, but will not be able to die until he takes monastic vows.

This is what happens: he saves his first master from death, refuses to commit suicide, takes part in military operations in the Caucasus and experiences many more adventures, but cannot die. Subsequently, he comes to terms with this gift (or curse) of his. He manages to be captured by the Tatars, fall in love with a gypsy, become a horse specialist (a horse specialist in the service of a master), and kill several people.

For his military merits, he becomes an officer and retires with honor, after which he tries to work in St. Petersburg either as an official or as an artist. Finally, realizing that he cannot settle down anywhere, Golovan makes the final decision to go to the monastery.

Genre of the work. Like other works by Leskov, “The Enchanted Wanderer” is a fairy tale. The author imitates the hero’s oral speech, introduces colloquial and dialect words into it, and a special manner of conversation. The story imitates the speech of not only Flyagin, but also other characters.

Issues. Ivan Flyagin, as one critic notes, resembles Ilya Muromets. This is a real hero, strong, physically strong, but he is also strong spiritually. Golovan remains resilient, optimistic and cheerful, despite the suffering that befalls him. The hero lives a full life, enjoys it, no matter how difficult it may be, and in his old age he fulfills his highest destiny, taking a vow of monasticism.

Critics noted that Leskov too idealizes his righteous people, including Golovan. To this the writer replied that his characters were created based on real people; for example, his grandmother told him about Flyagina. When creating his “legends,” the writer tried to give them the appearance of the most reliable works. It is noteworthy that Flyagin, like the heroes of other Leskov’s works, is a man of “simple rank.”

Leskov exalts his righteous people, who come from the people, and deeply sympathizes with them. Leskov himself said that in this way he fulfills Gogol’s wishes, expressed by him in “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends.” At the same time, these works were on the same wavelength as the work of other Russian writers of those years (such as Turgenev or Nekrasov), who turned their faces to the people.

The common man in The Enchanted Wanderer looked so majestic that the story earned recognition in official circles and even at court. And this despite the fact that it condemns the injustice of the authorities and the arbitrariness of the nobles towards serfs, servants and the poor.

What the author teaches? The story is built according to the hagiographic canon. Here is a story about the hero’s childhood, and his biography, and the struggle with temptations. However, the story is told not in the harsh canonical church language, but in a relaxed fairy-tale manner; The life is an entertaining and to a certain extent humorous story, full of exciting adventures. In such a digestible form, Leskov presents his main ideas - the high destiny of man, the desire for moral perfection and the attraction to the simple Russian people as the bearer of true righteousness.

In the 19th century, the topic of searching for God in a person’s life and the righteous path was relevant. Leskov developed and rethought the theme of righteousness, giving literature several original images. A righteous person is a person who comprehends the truth, or rather the truth of life. The title of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” is symbolic: “enchanted” - bewitched, enchanted, “wanderer” - a person who travels paths, but not in physical terms, but in spiritual ones.

History of creation

In 1872, Leskov traveled around Lake Ladoga, visiting Korely, the islands of Konevets and Valaam. After the trip, the writer begins to think about writing a story about a simple Russian man, a wanderer. Leskov writes the story “Black Earth Telemachus” - this is the first title of the work. In 1873, the writer received a refusal to publish the story in the Russian Messenger magazine. In the same year, the work was published in the Russian World under the title “The Enchanted Wanderer, His Life, Experiences, Opinions and Adventures. A Story. Dedicated to Sergei Egorovich Kushelev.” In the next independent publication in 1874, the dedication was removed.

Analysis of the work

Description of the work

The hero goes through the path of life and he is bewitched by it. The work tells the story of Ivan Flyagin, a simple Russian man who is fond of horses. On the way, tragedies happen to him, in particular, he commits a murder. He goes to a monastery, but wants to defend his homeland, because “I really want to die for the people.” His “truth” is self-sacrifice.

Main character

Ivan Flyagin, the reader meets him at the end of his sacrificial path, in monastic clothes, is about 50 years old. He looks like a hero who guards the Russian land. All Leskov's heroes, and Flyagin is no exception, are people of low rank, but of the highest spiritual beauty. He is an enthusiastic person, loves horses to such an extent that he is ready to sell his relatives for them. The circumstances of his life put him in different, sometimes unimaginable positions: he was a robber and a nanny. Ivan is a hero of “dubious holiness,” as Gorky aptly noted. He tortures a cat and commits murder of a man - he kills the girl he loves because he doesn't want to suffer anymore. But he goes to war instead of the son of strangers, and in the end he ends up in a monastery.

The hero talks about himself - this is a story within a story. This composition is called a frame composition. Ivan Flyagin is a typical representative of the Russian people, thanks to whom the essence of the nation is revealed. Leskov's hero, just like many heroes of the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, while going through life, comprehends the dialectics of the soul. At the beginning, the reader sees a careless guy who does not think about his actions, for example, when he commits the murder of an old monk. In the end, he appears before us as a wise confessor with difficult life experience.

The story “The Enchanted Wanderer” is the story of the hero’s search for the path and place of spirituality in life. The hero managed to find a moral ideal, he conquered sin in himself. Now Flyagin is led along the road of life by a feeling of beauty, fascination with the world, self-denial, sacrifice: “I want to die for the people.” A tall, morally stable personality appears before the reader, who has found meaning in a simple truth - to live for the sake of others.

Gorky wrote about Leskov’s works that “Russian fools... foolishly climb into the thickest mud of earthly life.” But the reader also remembers the biblical truth: a village is not worthwhile without a righteous person. It is Ivan Flyagins who allow humanity not to lose hope that God will win in man and the Devil and his temptations will be put to shame. Leskov's story has made a significant contribution to Russian literature, is studied in the school curriculum, and is known in other languages ​​of the world.

Several travelers, sailing along Lake Ladoga, got into conversation with an elderly man of enormous height and powerful physique who had recently boarded their ship. Judging by his clothes, he was preparing to become a monk. By nature, the stranger was simple-minded and kind, but it was noticeable that he had seen a lot throughout his life.

He introduced himself as Ivan Severyanych Flyagin and said that he had traveled a lot before, adding: “All my life I died, and there was no way I could die.” The interlocutors persuaded him to tell about how it happened.

Leskov. The Enchanted Wanderer. Audiobook

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 2 – summary

Ivan Severyanych was born in the Oryol province and came from the serfs of Count K. His father was the master's coachman, and Ivan himself grew up in a stable, from a young age learning everything there is to know about horses.

When he grew up, he also began to drive the count. Once, during such a journey, a cart with an old monk who had fallen asleep on top of the hay did not give way to him on a narrow road. Overtaking him, Ivan pulled this monk across the back with a whip. Opening his eyes, he fell sleepily under the wheel of his cart - and was crushed to death.

The case was hushed up, but the dead monk appeared to Ivan in a dream that same day. He reproachfully predicted a difficult life for him in the future. “You will die many times and never die once, and then you will become a monk.”

The prediction immediately began to come true. Ivan was driving his count along the road near a steep mountain - and in the most dangerous place of the descent, the crew’s brake burst. The front horses had already fallen into a terrible abyss, but Ivan held the rear ones by throwing himself onto the drawbar. He saved the Lord, but he himself, hanging a little, flew down from that mountain - and survived only by unexpected happiness: he fell on a clay block and slid down to the bottom on it, as if on a sled.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 3 – summary

Soon he got a dove and a dove in his stable. But the pigeons that were born to them got into the habit of stealing and there is one cat. Ivan caught her, whipped her and cut off her tail.

This cat turned out to be the master's. The countess's maid came running to scold Ivan for her and hit him on the cheek. He chased her away with a dirty broom. For this, Ivan was severely flogged and sent to do tedious work: on his knees, to beat small stones for the paths of the count's English garden with a hammer. Ivan became so unbearable that he decided to hang himself. He went into the forest and jumped from a tree with a noose around his neck, when suddenly a gypsy who came from nowhere cut the rope. With a laugh, he suggested that Ivan run away from the masters and engage in horse stealing with him. Ivan didn’t want to follow the thieves’ path, but there was no other choice.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 4 – summary

That same night he took the two best horses out of the master's stable. They rode off with the gypsy to Karachev and there they sold their horses at a high price. But the gypsy gave Ivan only a ruble out of all the proceeds, saying: “This is because I am a master, and you are still a student.” Ivan called him a scoundrel and broke up with him.

With his last money, through a clerk, he got himself a stamped vacation permit to Nikolaev, arrived there and went to work for a gentleman. That master’s wife ran away with a repairman (an army horse buyer), but his little daughter remained behind. He instructed Ivan to nurse her.

This was an easy matter. Ivan took the girl to the seashore, sat there with her all day and gave her goat milk. But one day a monk, whom he had killed on the road, appeared to him in his doze and said: “Let's go, Ivan, brother, let's go! You still have a lot to endure.” And he showed him in a vision a wide steppe and wild horsemen galloping along it.

And her mother began to secretly visit the girl on the seashore. She persuaded Ivan to give her his daughter, promising him a thousand rubles for this. But Ivan did not want to deceive his master.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 5 – summary

The girl’s mother’s new husband, a lancer repairman, also came ashore. First, he and Ivan got into a fight, scattering those same thousand rubles along the shore, and then Ivan, taking pity, gave his daughter to his mother, and fled from the owner along with this mother and the uhlan. They reached Penza, and there the uhlan and his wife gave Ivan two hundred rubles, and he wandered off to look for a new place.

There was horse trading going on across the Sura River at that time. The Tatar horde of Khan Dzhangar brought whole herds from their Ryn-sands. On the last day of the auction, Dzhangar brought out a white filly of extraordinary agility and beauty for sale. Two noble Tatars, Bakshey Otuchev and Chepkun Emgurcheev, began to argue over her. Neither wanted to give in to the other, and in the end they were for the sake of the mare. against all odds They went: taking off their shirts, they sat down opposite each other and began to whip each other with all their strength on the back with a whip. Whoever gives up first will give up the mare to his opponent.

Spectators crowded around. Chepkun won, and he got the mare. And Ivan the hero got excited, and he wanted to take part in such a competition himself.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 6 – summary

And Khan Dzhangar now bred a karak stallion, even better than that mare. Ivan sat down to argue with the Tatar Savakirei for him. They fought with whips for a long time, both bled, and in the end Savakirei fell dead.

The Tatars had no complaints - flogged voluntarily. But the Russian police wanted to arrest Ivan for killing an Asian man. He had to flee with Emgurcheev’s Tatars far to the Steppe, to Ryn-Sands. The Tatars considered him a doctor, although Ivan knew only sabur and galangal root among the potions.

Soon a terrible longing for Russia began to torment him. Ivan tried to escape from the Tatars, but they caught him and “bristled” him: they cut his feet and stuffed chopped horse mane under his skin. It became impossible to stand on my feet: the coarse horsehair pricked me like needles. I managed to move somehow, only by twisting my legs, “at the ankles.” But the Tatars did not offend the Russian wanderer any more. They gave him two wives (one was a girl about 13 years old). Five years later, Ivan was sent to treat the neighboring horde of Agashimola, and it stole the “skilled doctor”, migrating far to the side.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 7 – summary

Agishimola gave Ivan two other wives. From all of them he had children, but he, as unbaptized, almost did not consider them his own. In the midst of the steppe monotony, homesickness tormented me more and more. Chewing tough Tatar horse meat, Ivan recalled his village: how ducks and geese were plucked there on God’s holiday, and the drunken priest, Father Ilya, went from house to house, drank a glass and collected treats. Among the Tatars one had to live unmarried, and could die uninveterate. Often the unfortunate wanderer crawled out behind the yurts and quietly prayed in a Christian way.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 8 – summary

One day Ivan heard that two Orthodox preachers had come to their horde. He hobbled towards them, fell at their feet and asked to help them out from the Tatars. But they said: we do not have a ransom to give for you, and we are not allowed to frighten the infidels with royal power.

Ivan soon saw one of these preachers killed nearby: the skin had been torn off from his arms and legs, and a cross had been carved on his forehead. Then the Tatars also killed the Jew, who came to spread the Jewish faith among them.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 9 – summary

Soon, out of nowhere, two strange men came to the Tatars with some boxes. They began to scare the horde with the “god Talafa,” who could cause heavenly fire - and “this very night he will show you his power.” And that same night, in the steppe, something actually hissed, and then multi-colored fire began to rain down from above. Ivan realized that these were fireworks. The newcomers ran away, but abandoned one of their boxes of paper tubes.

Ivan picked up these tubes and began to make lights from them himself. The Tatars, who had never seen fireworks, fell to their knees in fear before him. Ivan forced them to be baptized, and then noticed that the “caustic earth” from which the fireworks were made burned their skin. Pretending to be sick, he began to secretly apply this earth to his feet until they festered, and the horse’s bristles came out with pus. Having set off new fireworks as a warning, Ivan fled from the Tatars, who did not dare to chase him.

The Russian wanderer walked the entire steppe and reached Astrakhan alone. But he started drinking there, ended up with the police, and from there he was taken to his count’s estate. Pop Ilya excommunicated Ivan from communion for three years because he took polygamy in the Steppe. The count did not want to tolerate an innocent person with him, he ordered Ivan to be whipped and let go on rent.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 10 – summary

Ivan went to the fair and, like an expert, began to help the men who were being deceived by the gypsies in the horse trade. He soon gained great fame. One repairman, a noble prince, took Ivan as his assistant.

For three years the wanderer lived well with the prince, earning a lot of money from horses. The prince also trusted him with his savings, because he often lost at cards, and if Ivan lost, he stopped giving him money. Ivan was tormented only by his repeated “outings” (binges) from time to time. Before drinking, he himself gave his money to the prince.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 11 – summary

One time Ivan was especially drawn to “go out” - and at the most inconvenient moment: the prince had just left to trade at another fair, and there was no one to give the money to. Ivan stood strong for a long time, but during a tea party in the tavern one of the most empty regulars accosted him. This little man always begged everyone for a drink, even though he insisted that he used to be a nobleman and once even came to the governor’s wife naked.

He started a florid conversation with Ivan, all the time begging for vodka. Ivan himself began to drink with him. This drunkard began to assure Ivan that he had “magnetism” and could save him from his passion for wine. But before evening they both got so drunk that they barely remembered themselves.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 12 – summary

Ivan was afraid that the “magnetizer” would rob him, and kept feeling for the large bundle of money in his bosom, but it lay there. When they both left the tavern, the rogue muttered some spells on the street, and then brought Ivan to a house with lighted windows, from where a guitar and loud voices could be heard - and disappeared somewhere.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 13 – summary

Entering the house, Ivan saw out of the corner of his eye how some gypsy “magnetizer” was leading out the back door with the words: “Here’s fifty dollars for you for now, and if it’s useful to us, we’ll give you more for bringing him.” Turning to Ivan, the same gypsy invited him to “listen to songs.”

In the large room, drunken Ivan saw a lot of people, and there were quite a few city rich people there. An indescribably beautiful gypsy girl, Grusha, walked among the audience with a tray. She treated the guests to champagne, and in return they put banknotes on the tray. At a sign from the older gypsy, this girl bowed and approached Ivan. The rich people began to wrinkle their noses: why does a man need champagne? And Ivan, having drunk a glass, threw the most money onto the tray: a hundred rubles from his bosom. Immediately several gypsies rushed to him and put him in the first row, next to the police officer.

The gypsy choir danced and sang. Pear sang the plaintive romance “Shuttle” in a languid voice and again went with the tray. Ivan threw in another hundred ruble. The pear kissed him for this - as if it stung him. The entire audience danced with the gypsies. Some young hussar began to hover around Grusha. Ivan jumped out between them and began throwing hundred-ruble notes one after another at Grusha’s feet. Then he grabbed the rest of the pile from his bosom and threw it away too.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 14 – summary

He himself did not remember how he got home. In the morning, the prince returned from another fair, having lost to smithereens. He began to ask Ivan for money for “revenge,” and he responded by telling how he had spent as much as five thousand on a gypsy woman. The prince was stunned, but did not reproach Ivan, saying: “I myself am just like you, dissolute.”

Ivan ended up in the hospital with delirium tremens, and when he came out, he went to the prince in the village to repent. But he told him that, having seen Grusha, he gave not five thousand, but fifty, so that she would be released to him from the camp. The prince turned his whole life upside down for the gypsy: he retired and mortgaged his estate.

Pear was already living in his village. Coming out to them, she sang a sad song about “sadness of the heart” with a guitar. The prince sobbed, sitting on the floor and hugging a gypsy shoe.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 15 – summary

The windy prince soon got bored with Pear. She felt sad and often told Ivan how jealousy tormented her.

The impoverished prince was looking for a way to recoup his losses. He often went to the city, and Grusha was worried: did he have a new passion there. The prince’s former love, the noble and kind Evgenya Semyonovna, lived in the city. She had a daughter from the prince, who bought the two of them an apartment house to provide for them, but he himself almost never visited them.

While in town once, Ivan stopped by to see Evgenya Semyonovna. Suddenly the prince also arrived. Evgenya hid Ivan in the dressing room, and he heard her entire conversation with the prince from there.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 16 – summary

The prince persuaded Evgenia to mortgage the house in order to get him twenty thousand thousand money. He explained that he wanted to get rich by buying a cloth factory and starting a trade in brightly colored fabrics. But Evgenia immediately guessed: the prince was simply going to give a deposit for the factory, become known as a rich man from this, marry the leader’s daughter - and get rich not from the cloth, but from her dowry. The prince admitted that this was his plan.

Noble Eugenia agreed to give a mortgage on the house, but asked the prince: where will he put his gypsy? The prince replied: Grusha is friends with Ivan, I will marry them and build them a house.

The prince began to purchase the factory, and sent Ivan as his confidant to the fair in Nizhny to collect orders. However, upon returning, Ivan saw that Grusha was no longer in the village. They said: the prince took her somewhere.

They were already preparing the wedding of the prince and the daughter of the leader. Ivan, yearning for Grusha, could not find a place for himself. Once, in excitement, he went out onto a steep river bank and in desperation began to call the gypsy. And she suddenly appeared out of nowhere and hung on his neck.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 17 – summary

All ragged, being at the end of her pregnancy, Grusha trembled with frantic jealousy. She kept repeating that she wanted to kill the prince’s bride, although she herself admitted that she was not guilty of anything.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 18 – summary

Grusha said that when Ivan was in Nizhny, the prince once invited her to ride in a stroller - and took her to some bee in the thicket of the forest, saying: now you will not live with me, but here, in a house under the supervision of three single-yard girls .

But Grusha soon managed to escape from there: she deceived the girls during a game of blind man's buff. Having eluded them, the gypsy went to the prince’s house - and then she met Ivan.

Pear asked Ivan to kill her, otherwise she herself would destroy the prince’s innocent bride. Taking a folding knife from Ivan’s pocket, she thrust it into his hands. Ivan pushed the knife away in horror, but Grusha said in rage: “If you don’t kill me, I will become the most shameful woman in revenge for all of you.” He couldn’t hit her with a knife, but he pushed her off a steep slope into the river, and the gypsy drowned.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 19 – summary

Ivan ran in despair wherever his eyes looked. It seemed to him that a pear soul in the form of a girl with wings was flying nearby. By chance he met an old man and an old woman riding in a cart. Having learned that they wanted to recruit their son, Ivan agreed, changing his name, to go into the army instead. So he thought at least partly to atone for his sins.

He fought in the Caucasus for more than fifteen years. In a battle near one gorge, where a river flowed below, several soldiers tried to swim to the other side under the gunfire of rebel mountaineers, but all died from bullets. When there were no other hunters left, the wanderer Ivan volunteered to do the same. Under a hail of shots, he reached the other side of the river and built a bridge. While swimming, Ivan had a vision: Pear was flying above him and blocking him with her wings.

For this feat he received an officer's rank, and soon - his resignation. But the officership did not bring wealth with it. Retired Ivan pushed around for some time, either in a small office position or as an actor in a booth, and then decided to go to a monastery for food. There he was assigned as a coachman.

Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”, chapter 20 – summary

Thus ended the ordeal of the enchanted wanderer. True, at the monastery Ivan was often bothered by demons at first, but he resisted them with fasting and fervent prayers. Ivan Severyanych began to read spiritual books, and from this he began to “prophesy” about an imminent war. The abbot sent him as a pilgrim to Solovki. On this trip, the wanderer met on Ladoga with the listeners of his story. He confessed the stories of his own life to them with all the frankness of a simple soul.

The story “The Enchanted Wanderer” by Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was written in 1872-1873. The work was included in the author’s cycle of legends, which was dedicated to the Russian righteous. “The Enchanted Wanderer” is distinguished by its storytelling form - Leskov imitates the characters’ oral speech, filling it with dialectisms, colloquial words, etc.

The composition of the story consists of 20 chapters, the first of which is an exposition and a prologue, the next are a narrative about the life of the main character, written in the style of a hagiography, including a retelling of the hero’s childhood and fate, his struggle with temptations.

Main characters

Flyagin Ivan Severyanych (Golovan)– the main character of the work, a monk “in his early fifties”, a former coneser, telling the story of his life.

Grushenka- a young gypsy who loved the prince, who, at her request, was killed by Ivan Severyanych. Golovan was unrequitedly in love with her.

Other heroes

Count and Countess- the first Bayars of Flyagin from the Oryol province.

Barin from Nikolaev, for whom Flyagin served as a nanny for his little daughter.

Girl's mother, who was nursed by Flyagin and her second officer husband.

Prince- owner of a cloth factory, for whom Flyagin served as a coneser.

Evgenya Semenovna- the prince's mistress.

Chapter first

The ship's passengers "sailed along Lake Ladoga from Konevets Island to Valaam" with a stop in Korel. Among the travelers, a notable figure was a monk, a “hero-monkorizets” - a former coneser who was “an expert in horses” and had the gift of a “mad tamer.”

The companions asked why the man became a monk, to which he replied that he did a lot in his life according to his “parental promise” - “all my life I died, and there was no way I could die.”

Chapter two

“Former Coneser Ivan Severyanych, Mr. Flyagin,” in abbreviated form, tells his companions the long story of his life. The man was “born into a serfdom” and came “from the courtyard people of Count K. from the Oryol province.” His father was the coachman Severyan. Ivan’s mother died during childbirth, “because I was born with an unusually large head, so that’s why my name was not Ivan Flyagin, but simply Golovan.” The boy spent a lot of time with his father at the stables, where he learned to care for horses.

Over time, Ivan was “planted as a postilion” in the six, which was driven by his father. Once, while driving a six, the hero on the road, “for fun,” spotted a monk to death. That same night, the deceased came to Golovan in a vision and said that Ivan was the mother “promised to God,” and then told him the “sign”: “you will die many times and you will never die until your real death comes, and you then you will remember your mother’s promise for you and you will go to the monks.”

After a while, when Ivan traveled with the count and countess to Voronezh, the hero saved the gentlemen from death, which earned him special favor.

Chapter Three

Golovan kept pigeons in his stable, but the countess’s cat got into the habit of hunting for birds. Once, angry, Ivan beat the animal, cutting off the cat’s tail. Having learned about what had happened, the hero was given the punishment “flogged and then out of the stable and into the English garden for the path to beat pebbles with a hammer.” Ivan, for whom this punishment was unbearable, decided to commit suicide, but the gypsy robber did not allow the man to hang himself.

Chapter Four

At the request of the gypsy, Ivan stole two horses from the master's stable and, having received some money, went to the “assessor to announce that he was a runaway.” However, the clerk wrote the hero a vacation note for the silver cross and advised him to go to Nikolaev.

In Nikolaev, a certain gentleman hired Ivan as a nanny for his little daughter. The hero turned out to be a good teacher, took care of the girl, closely monitored her health, but was very bored. One day, while walking along the estuary, they met the girl’s mother. The woman began to tearfully ask Ivan to give her her daughter. The hero refuses, but she persuades him to secretly bring the girl to the same place every day, secretly from the master.

Chapter Five

During one of the meetings on the estuary, the woman’s current husband, an officer, appears and offers a ransom for the child. The hero again refuses and a fight breaks out between the men. Suddenly an angry gentleman appears with a pistol. Ivan gives the child to his mother and runs away. The officer explains that he cannot leave Golovan with him, since he does not have a passport, and the hero will end up in the steppe.

At a fair in the steppe, Ivan witnesses how the famous steppe horse breeder Khan Dzhangar sells his best horses. Two Tatars even had a duel for the white mare - they lashed each other with whips.

Chapter Six

The last to be brought out for sale was an expensive Karak foal. Tatar Savakirei immediately came forward to arrange a duel - to fight with someone for this stallion. Ivan volunteered to act for one of the repairmen in a duel with the Tatar and, using “his cunning skill,” he “flogged” Savakirei to death. They wanted to capture Ivan for murder, but the hero managed to escape with the Asians to the steppe. There he stayed for ten years, treating people and animals. To prevent Ivan from running away, the Tatars “bristled” him - they cut off the skin on his heels, put horse hair there and sewed up the skin. After this, the hero could not walk for a long time, but over time he learned to walk on his ankles.

Chapter Seven

Ivan was sent to Khan Agashimola. The hero, as under the previous khan, had two Tatar wives “Natasha”, from whom they also had children. However, the man did not have parental feelings for his children, because they were unbaptized. Living with the Tatars, the man missed his homeland very much.

Chapter Eight

Ivan Severyanovich says that people of different religions came to them, trying to preach to the Tatars, but they killed the “misaners”. “An Asian must be brought into the faith with fear, so that he shakes with fright, and they preach to them God of peace.” “An Asian will never respect a humble God without a threat and will beat preachers.”

Russian missionaries also came to the steppe, but did not want to ransom Golovan from the Tatars. When, after a while, one of them is killed, Ivan buries him according to Christian custom.

Chapter Nine

Once people from Khiva came to the Tatars to buy horses. To intimidate the steppe inhabitants (so that they would not kill them), the guests showed the power of their fire god - Talafa, set fire to the steppe and, until the Tatars realized what had happened, disappeared. The newcomers forgot the box in which Ivan found ordinary fireworks. Calling himself Talafa, the hero begins to scare the Tatars with fire and forces them to accept the Christian faith. In addition, Ivan found caustic earth in the box, which he used to etch away the horse bristles implanted in his heels. When his legs healed, he set off a large firework and escaped unnoticed.

Coming out to the Russians a few days later, Ivan spent only one night with them, and then moved on, since they did not want to accept a person without a passport. In Astrakhan, having started drinking heavily, the hero ends up in prison, from where he was sent to his native province. At home, the widowed, pious count gave Ivan a passport and released him “on quitrent.”

Chapter Ten

Ivan began going to fairs and advising ordinary people how to choose a good horse, for which they treated him or thanked him with money. When his “fame thundered through the fairs,” the prince came to the hero with a request to reveal his secret. Ivan tried to teach him his talent, but the prince soon realized that this was a special gift and hired Ivan for three years as his coneser. From time to time the hero has “outs” - the man drank heavily, although he wanted to end it.

Chapter Eleven

One day, when the prince was away, Ivan again went to the tavern to drink. The hero was very worried, since he had the master’s money with him. In the tavern, Ivan meets a man who had a special talent - “magnetism”: he could “bring drunken passion from any other person in one minute.” Ivan asked him to get rid of his addiction. The man, hypnotizing Golovan, makes him get very drunk. Already completely drunk men are thrown out of the tavern.

Chapter Twelve

From the actions of the “magnetizer,” Ivan began to see “disgusting faces on legs,” and when the vision passed, the man left the hero alone. Golovan, not knowing where he was, decided to knock on the first house he came across.

Chapter Thirteen

The gypsies opened the doors to Ivan, and the hero found himself in yet another tavern. Golovan gazes at a young gypsy, the singer Grushenka, and spends all the prince’s money on her.

Chapter fourteen

After the help of the magnetizer, Ivan no longer drank. The prince, having learned that Ivan had spent his money, at first became angry, but then calmed down and said that for “this Grusha he gave fifty thousand to the camp,” if only she would be with him. Now the gypsy lives in his house.

Chapter fifteen

The prince, arranging his own affairs, was at home less and less often with Grusha. The girl was bored and jealous, and Ivan entertained and consoled her as best he could. Everyone except Grusha knew that in the city the prince had “another love - one of the nobles, the secretary’s daughter Evgenya Semyonovna,” who had a daughter with the prince, Lyudochka.

One day Ivan came to the city and stayed with Evgenia Semyonovna, and on the same day the prince came here.

Chapter sixteen

By chance, Ivan ended up in the dressing room, where, hiding, he overheard the conversation between the prince and Evgenia Semyonovna. The prince told the woman that he wanted to buy a cloth factory and was going to get married soon. Grushenka, whom the man had completely forgotten about, plans to marry off to Ivan Severyanich.

Golovin was busy with the affairs of the factory, so he did not see Grushenka for a long time. Returning back, I learned that the prince had taken the girl somewhere.

Chapter Seventeen

On the eve of the prince's wedding, Grushenka appears (“she rushed out here to die”). The girl tells Ivan that the prince “hid him in a strong place and appointed guards to strictly guard my beauty,” but she ran away.

Chapter Eighteen

As it turned out, the prince secretly took Grushenka into the forest to a bee, assigning three “young, healthy single-yard girls” to the girl, who made sure that the gypsy did not run away. But somehow, playing blind man's buff with them, Grushenka managed to deceive them - and so she returned.

Ivan tries to dissuade the girl from suicide, but she assured that she would not be able to live after the prince’s wedding - she would suffer even more. The gypsy woman asked to kill her, threatening: “If you don’t kill me,” she said, “I will become the most shameful woman in revenge for all of you.” And Golovin, pushing Grushenka into the water, fulfilled her request.

Chapter nineteen

Golovin, “not understanding himself,” fled from that place. On the way, he met an old man - his family was very sad that their son was being recruited. Taking pity on the old men, Ivan joined the recruits instead of their son. Having asked to be sent to fight in the Caucasus, Golovin stayed there for 15 years. Having distinguished himself in one of the battles, Ivan responded to the colonel’s praises: “I, your honor, am not a fine fellow, but a great sinner, and neither earth nor water wants to accept me,” and told his story.

For his distinction in battle, Ivan was appointed an officer and sent to retire with the Order of St. George in St. Petersburg. His service at the address desk did not work out, so Ivan decided to become an artist. However, he was soon kicked out of the troupe because he stood up for a young actress, hitting the offender.

After this, Ivan decides to go to a monastery. Now he lives in obedience, not considering himself worthy for senior tonsure.

Chapter Twenty

At the end, the companions asked Ivan how he was doing in the monastery, and whether he had been tempted by a demon. The hero replied that he tempted him by appearing in the image of Grushenka, but he had already completely overcome it. Once Golovan hacked to death a demon who had appeared, but it turned out to be a cow, and another time, because of demons, a man knocked down all the candles near the icon. For this, Ivan was put in a cellar, where the hero discovered the gift of prophecy. On the ship, Golovan goes “to pray in Solovki to Zosima and Savvaty” in order to bow to them before his death, and then gets ready for war.

“The enchanted wanderer seemed to again feel the influx of the broadcasting spirit and fell into quiet concentration, which none of the interlocutors allowed themselves to be interrupted by a single new question.”

Conclusion

In “The Enchanted Wanderer,” Leskov depicted a whole gallery of bright, original Russian characters, grouping images around two central themes – the theme of “wandering” and the theme of “charm.” Throughout his life, the main character of the story, Ivan Severyanych Flyagin, through his travels, tried to comprehend “perfect beauty” (the charm of life), finding it in everything - now in horses, now in the beautiful Grushenka, and in the end - in the image of the Motherland for which he is going go to fight.

With the image of Flyagin, Leskov shows the spiritual maturation of a person, his formation and understanding of the world (fascination with the world around him). The author portrayed before us a real Russian righteous man, a seer, whose “prophecies” “remain until time in the hand of one who hides his destinies from the smart and reasonable and only sometimes reveals them to babies.”

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