The title of the chapters of dead souls. Retelling of the poem "Dead Souls" by Gogol N.V.

HISTORY OF CREATION

⦁ 1935 - the beginning of work on the poem. The idea was put forward by Pushkin, who witnessed the fraud with "dead souls" during his exile. As conceived by N.V. Gogol, the poem was supposed to have three volumes, repeating the structure of Dante's Divine Comedy. Work on the first volume lasted 7 years (1835-1842).
⦁ 1840 - the beginning of work on the second volume of the poem. By 1845, N.V. Gogol had already prepared several options for continuing the poem. In the same year, the writer burned the second part of "Dead Souls", explaining the reason for his act as follows: "The appearance of the second volume in the form in which it was would do more harm than good"

PROBLEMS

Socio-public - the image of Russia of that time;
⦁ moral - showing spiritually dead people - landowners and officials;
⦁ philosophical - what is the meaning of human life.

COMPOSITION AND PLOT

The work traces three intertwining storylines associated with one hero - Chichikov:
⦁ adventures of Chichikov;
⦁ biographies of landowners;
⦁ activities of city officials.
The sequence of events makes a lot of sense: N.V. Gogol sought to reveal in his heroes an ever greater loss of human qualities, the death of their souls.

The composition of the poem is distinguished by clarity and clarity: all parts are interconnected by the plot-forming hero Chichikov, who travels with the goal of getting a million.

exposition
Chapter 1. Chichikov's arrival in the provincial town of N, his acquaintance with officials, the governor and the prosecutor.

tie
Chapters 2-6. Chichikov's trip to the landlords Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin, buying up "dead souls".

climax
Chapters 7-9. The return of Chichikov to the city, the execution of the bill of sale. Ball at the Governor's. Exposing Chichikov the Emilpionist.

"The Tale of Captain Kopeikin"
Chapter 10

denouement
Chapter 11. Chichikov's departure from the city. The story of the author about the life of the hero.

IDEA AND THEMATIC CONTENT

⦁ Topics: the present and future of Russia, the shortcomings, vices and weaknesses of the Russian people, the terrible degradation of the soul.
⦁ Idea: the author tells that people should look at their own vulgarity and become disgusted with it; human souls have become dead, therefore, pointing to vices, the writer wants to bring people back to life. In the necrosis of the souls of the characters - landowners, officials, Chichikov - N.V. Gogol sees the tragic mortification of mankind, the dull movement of history in a vicious circle. The work sounds a hymn to the homeland and people, the hallmark of which is diligence: masters with golden hands became famous for their inventions and creativity. The Russian peasant is always "rich in invention."

GENRE UNIQUENESS

⦁ It is impossible to accurately define the genre of the work: it is both a socio-psychological and adventurous-picaresque novel (the hero is a swindler), at the same time a lyric poem and satire.
⦁ Lyrics in the poem: lyrical digressions about the meaning of life, the fate of Russia, creativity, assessment of the actions of heroes, description of nature and image of the people.
⦁ Epos in a poem: plot, wide coverage of reality, many characters

ARTISTIC FEATURES

⦁ Gradation: the characters are drawn according to the principle one is worse than the other.
⦁ A certain sequence in the description of the landlords: the estate, the courtyard, the interior of the house, the portrait and the author's description, relations with Chichikov, the home environment, the dinner scene.
⦁ Detailing when describing the nature and life of the landowners: for example, Manilov has “eyes as sweet as sugar”; on the table lies a book, "marked on the fourteenth page, which he has been reading for two years."
⦁ Social typing: generalized images of their class.
⦁ Individualization of characters through zoological motifs: Manilov the cat, Sobakevich the bear, Korobochka is a bird, Nozdryov is a dog, Plyushkin is a mouse.

ARTISTIC MEDIA

⦁ Speech characteristics of heroes: for example, in Manilov's speech there are a lot of introductory words and sentences, he speaks pretentiously, he does not finish the phrase; Nozdryov's speech contains a lot of swear words and jargon.
⦁ Proverbs and sayings: “for a friend, seven miles is not a village” (Nozdrev); “a woman is like a bag: what they put in, they carry” (residents of the city of NN); “no matter how you fight with a bull, you can’t get milk from him” (author); “people are so-so, neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan” (about Manilov); “I’m looking for mittens, but both are behind my belt!” (Chichikov); "hooked - dragged, broke - do not ask" (Chichikov); “Crying does not help grief, we need to do the job” (Chichikov); “with a dead body, at least support the fence” (Chichikov about “dead souls”): “it’s wrongly tailored, but tightly sewn” (Chichikov about Sobakevich); “the forty Jacob confirmed one thing about everyone” (Sobakevich about Chichikov); “There is no law on tastes: who loves the priest, and who is a hit” (Sobakevich).
⦁ The solemnity of comparisons, high style, combined with original speech, create a sublimely ironic manner of narration that serves to debunk the base, vulgar world of the owners.
⦁ Authentic folk language. The forms of colloquial, bookish and written business speech are harmoniously woven into the fabric of the narrative. Rhetorical questions and exclamations, the use of Slavicisms, archaisms, sonorous epithets create a certain structure of speech. When describing landowners' estates and their owners, vocabulary is used that is characteristic of everyday speech. The image of the bureaucratic world is saturated with vocabulary characteristic of the depicted environment.

A certain gentleman arrives in the provincial town of NN and stays at a hotel. With him is his coachman Selifan and footman Petrushka. The gentleman is registered as collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, who travels "according to his own needs."

While he was served the usual food for taverns in provincial towns, he asked the servants about local officials and landowners “with extreme precision”. Then the gentleman walks around the city, which, like other provincial cities, turns out to be very ugly. The next day he pays visits to city officials, starting with the governor, and knows how to flatter everyone. About himself, Chichikov modestly says that he is "the worm of this world" and that he "suffered in the service for the truth."

Attends Chichikov and the governor's ball. There he sees men of two kinds - thin, who only curl around the ladies, and the same as Chichikov himself, that is, not "too fat, but not thin either." The latter are honorary city officials, very solid people who sit firmly in official places, making themselves solid fortunes. At the ball, unlike the thin ones, they indulge in a "sensible" occupation - they play cards. Among the officials are the prosecutor, the postmaster and others.

Here Chichikov met the landowners Manilov and Sobakevich. The next day, at a dinner at the police chief, Chichikov meets the landowner Nozdrev, whom the police chief and the prosecutor are closely watching while playing cards. Both officials and landowners liked Chichikov very much, and Manilov and Sobakevich invited him to visit.

Soon Chichikov goes to the landowners who invited him. Manilovka is hard to find. The owner is a person who at first likes, but then immediately wants to move away from him, because mortal boredom comes from him. Manilov and his wife live happily, they give each other beaded cases for toothpicks, treat each other with candy or an apple.

They are not engaged in housekeeping: this is a low subject. The sons of the Manilovs are called Themisgoclus and Alkid. The father admires the abilities of the first son, who pays attention to every insect and already at the age of seven he knows that there are such cities as Paris, St. Petersburg and Moscow. Manilov spends time in dreams, as evidenced by the gazebo called "Temple of Solitary Reflection."

In a conversation with Chichikov, the spouses admire all the officials of the city and their wives. Chichikov willingly agrees with them. After dinner, Manilov talks with the guest about the subject he occupies: Chichikov wants to buy the dead peasants.

Manilov is extremely surprised, but Chichikov says that they are acting according to the law: in the revision tale, the peasants are listed as alive. Having calmed Manilov's fears about the "further views" of Russia, Chichikov wants to agree on a price, but Manilov, who is looking for beauty and nobility in everything, gives Chichikov peasants and is ready to draw up a bill of sale at his own expense. Satisfied Chichikov hurries to Sobakevich.

On the way, Chichikov is immersed in pleasant thoughts and assumptions. Selifan, satisfied with the reception of the Manilov household and having a bit of a "snack", talks good-naturedly with the horses, telling the chubar horse, which is badly lucky, that one must live in truth.

Carried away, Selifan forgets that he must turn off at the third turn. It begins to rain heavily, and Selifan, coming to his senses, rushes along the first cross road. In the darkness, the britzka hits a harrowed field, Selifan, turning, overturns it, and Chichikov falls into the mud.

Fortunately, a dog barking is heard nearby, Selifan directs the horses towards the village, and soon the britzka stops at the house of the landowner Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka, to whom Chichikov asks to spend the night. The hostess notices that Chichikov is dirty, "like a hog." Korobochka is one of the “small landowners” who “cry for crop failures, while hiding money themselves.

In the morning, Chichikov examines Korobochki's estate from the window: there is a chicken coop almost next to the low house, chickens roam under the window. The pig, which has appeared with its family, eats the chicken. Behind the chicken coop there are gardens with stuffed animals, one of which is wearing Korobochka's cap, behind the gardens are peasant huts.

The conversation about dead souls is difficult with Korobochka: she is afraid to sell too cheap. To Chichikov, he says nonsense to all arguments, such as the fact that the dead, perhaps, will still be useful in the household. Exhausted by the conversation with the "cursed old woman" and wiping his forehead, Chichikov calls her "club-headed" to himself.

Only by banging his chair on the floor and remembering the devil does Chichikov cope with the landowner. Souls are bought, Chichikov has a wonderful snack at Korobochka and leaves, returning to the road from which he strayed.

Soon Chichikov stops at a tavern to refresh himself. Nozdryov also comes there, who at the fair "blew his ass", losing four horses. He is accompanied by some friend whom he introduces as his son-in-law Mizhuev.

He constantly contradicts Nozdryov, who, obviously exaggerating, claims that he can drink seventeen bottles of champagne. Nozdryov invites Chichikov to go to him, and Chichikov, thinking that since Nozdryov "lost" he will sell the peasants, he agrees.

The narrator characterizes Nozdryov as a person who does not change at all and who has a "passion to spoil his neighbor."

On the estate, Nozdryov shows his pride - dogs, then demonstrates a broken mill, leading guests across a field covered with bumps and water. Nozdryov says that everything that the guests see even on the other side of the border separating the estate belongs to him. Mizhuev still contradicts.

The treat at dinner is such that it seems that the chef puts everything that comes to hand into the dish. Chichikov notices that Nozdryov is intensively serving the guests with wine, although he himself drinks little.

Mizhuev leaves, citing his wife; Nozdryov scolds him with a "fetyuk". Chichikov asks Nozdryov to transfer the dead peasants in his name, but he wants to know why Chichikov needs it. He dodges, Nozdryov calls him a swindler. Chichikov asks to sell the peasants. Nozdryov is trying to force Chichikov to buy from him either a stallion, or a brown mare, or dogs with increased “side-to-side ribs”.

Then Nozdryov is ready to give everything he offered, plus dead souls, for a britzka. Chichikov refuses everything, Nozdryov calls him Fetyuk and Sobakevich. Trading resumes in the morning. Chichikov agrees to play checkers for souls.

Nozdryov cheats, Chichikov refuses to play, and Nozdryov is going to beat him, calling for help two hefty serf fools. Chichikov is saved by the appearance of the police captain, who came to inform Nozdryov that he is on trial because of the intoxication of a certain landowner Maksimov with rods by him in a drunken state. Chichikov orders Selifan to rush at full speed.

On the way to Sobakevich, the unforeseen happens: Chichikov's carriage runs into Chichikov's carriage, which is coming towards him. A sixteen-year-old blonde sits in a stroller. While the gathered peasants are trying to move the horses, Chichikov thinks how good the blonde is, and also that if they gave her a dowry, then this would be the happiness of a “decent person”.

The village of Sobakevich, where Chichikov soon arrives, shows in the owner a person who cares about strength: everything around is “in some kind of strong and clumsy order.” When Chichikov drives up, two faces look out of the window: one looks like a cucumber, the second looks like a pumpkin. The first is feminine, as it is wearing a cap. These are the faces of Sobakevich and his wife. The owner meets the guest on the porch, and Chichikov sees that he looks like a "medium-sized bear."

The conversation begins with Chichikov praising city officials. Sobakevich calls them all Christ-sellers, about the governor he says that he is a robber and "will kill him for a penny." The conversation about dead souls turns into a real bargain: Sobakevich tries to sell the souls at the highest possible price.

The bargaining ends in mutual benefit, and Chichikov, having learned from Sobakevich that the neighboring landowner, the miser Plyushkin, people are dying like flies, goes to him. Asking the peasants for directions to Plyushkin, Chichikov hears from them some very funny nickname given to the miser by the peasants. In connection with this, the narrator praises the Russian mind and the living Russian word.

The narrator recalls with regret his lost youth, when everything attracted him, it was interesting, nothing left him indifferent.

The village of Plyushkin and his house are distinguished by some special dilapidation. The manor's house looks like an old invalid, only two windows are open, but even they are “sighted:. Behind the house is a neglected but picturesque garden. Two village churches are visible, just as neglected. All around rotting master's bread.

The place seems to be dead. Near the house, Chichikov notices a strange-looking figure and cannot determine whether it is a woman or a man. The figure scolds some peasant with "scandalous words", and Chichikov decides that this is most likely the housekeeper. However, he notices that the “housekeeper” has a chin similar to an “iron wire comb”.

It turns out that in front of Chichikov is the owner himself, the richest landowner Plyushkin. There is a terrible mess in his house: there are a lot of small pieces of paper on the bureau, a dried lemon, and so on. At the same time, there are good things in the house: a bureau with mother-of-pearl mosaics, a book in a red cover.

The narrator tells the story of Plyushkin: he used to be a good, “thrifty” owner, distinguished by “wise stinginess”, he had a family: a hospitable wife, daughters and son. But Plyushkin could not stand the test: his wife died, one daughter ran away from home with an officer, his son became a military man, whom the landowner did not like, the second daughter died. Gradually, Plyushkin became more and more stingy and finally turned into "some kind of hole in humanity."

In a lyrical digression, the narrator urges readers not to leave all “human movements” on the path of life, otherwise nothing human will remain on their faces by old age.

Chichikov quickly finds an approach to Plyushkin, saying that he wants to relieve the old man of the obligation to pay taxes for the dead peasants. Plyushkin also has runaway peasants, whom Chichikov also buys.

The landowner calls Chichikov a benefactor and is even going to treat him to a "liquor" in which boogers have appeared. Chichikov refuses, and Plyushkin praises in him a man of "good society." To draw up a bill of sale, Plyushkin must find an attorney in the city, and the landowner recalls the chairman of the chamber, with whom he once studied together. At this moment, a semblance of human feeling flickers on his wooden face. Satisfied with the success of Plyushkin and his voyage in general, Chichikov returns to the city.

In a lyrical digression, the narrator says how easy the life of a writer who portrays a wonderful life, and how harsh the field of one who shows the truth. But he is distracted from sad thoughts and calls "on the road" to see what the hero is doing.

Chichikov begins in the morning to draw up lists of serfs. He imagines the fate of the peasants. Here is Abakum Fyrov, one of Plyushkin's fugitives. Perhaps he became a burlak. Chichikov colorfully imagines how, having finished his hard campaign, the barge gang is having fun in a noisy square. This is how every Russian thinks, imagining "the revelry of a wide life."

After pausing to read the papers, Chichikov hurries to the civil chamber to draw up the bill of sale. On the way he meets Manilov, who brought him a list of peasants tied with an elegant pink ribbon.

In the government office, Chichikov, in order to get to the chairman of the chamber, gives a bribe to an official. The chairman of the chamber, having learned from Sobakevich, who was already present, that Chichikov had bought many peasants, congratulated him, decorated the fortress in such a way that Chichikov paid the smallest amount, and the rest of the money was written off to someone else.

After the paperwork is completed, all those present go to celebrate Chichikov's success with the chief of police, since he can set a luxurious table at any moment: he easily robs merchants.

Chichikov lingers in the city, although he planned to leave immediately after the purchase of the fortress. The city learned that he was a “millionaire”, so they “fell in love even more sincerely” than before. Residents of the city persuade Chichikov to stay for another week or two. All the city ladies are in love with him, he receives a letter with a declaration of love.

At the governor's ball, Chichikov tries to guess the "writer of the letter". The narrator, with obvious caustic irony, admires the ladies of the city of N.

Chichikov, thinking of the ladies, calls them "the haberdashery half of the human race." The author notes that in Russia it is rare to hear a normal Russian word from readers of high society: out of patriotism, they can build themselves a “Russian-style hut”, but they will not speak their native language.

At the ball, Chichikov meets a young blonde woman whose stroller he collided with on the road: she turns out to be the governor's daughter. He forgets about the ladies. Those are offended, utter caustic and caustic remarks against the young beauty.

Unexpectedly, Nozdryov appears at the ball, who wants to imprint a kiss on Chichikov's cheek and at the same time reveals Chichikov's secret about dead souls. Little is believed in Nozdryov, but his words are noticed. At night, Korobochka comes to the city, who wants to know how much dead souls are now.

One of the ladies of the city N hurries to another to tell the news that the landowner Korobochka told the archpriest: Chichikov arrived at night and demanded to sell the dead souls.

The narrator prefers not to reveal the names of the ladies so that touchy readers do not get angry with him. Therefore, he calls one "lady, pleasant in all respects," and the other - "just a pleasant lady." First, the ladies discuss the "fun satin" of one of the ladies' outfits, argue about the scallops that should come into fashion, then move on to the main event.

Chichikov in the story of one lady looks like a robber who, armed to the teeth, broke into Korobochka, threatening to break down the gate. The other lady decides that Korobochka is probably young and pretty.

Upon learning that she is an old woman, this lady says that Chichikov “took to the old woman,” and speaks with contempt of the tastes of the city ladies who have fallen in love with him. She demonstrates excellent "logic", deciding that Chichikov wanted to kidnap the governor's daughter, and invented dead souls as a distraction.

Men learn about Chichikov's enterprise from the ladies. They do not believe in the kidnapping of the governor's daughter, but they are very excited about the appointment of a new governor-general and think that Chichikov would not be an official from his office.

Officials in fear begin to recall their sins. They are trying to find out something about Chichikov from Manilov, but he says that he is ready to vouch for Pavel Ivanovich and would dream of having at least a hundredth of his remarkable qualities.

Sobakevich, who is also rushed by frightened officials, claims that he sold the people alive, which, however, may die during the resettlement.

Frightened to death officials gather at the chief of police to understand who Chichikov is. They talk about their sins, envying the postmaster in this situation: in his not very high position, everyone "will be a saint."

About Chichikov, it is suggested that he may be a “doer of state banknotes”, or maybe “not a doer”. Everyone especially takes up arms against the assumption that Chichikov is a robber: after all, he has a well-intentioned appearance, like all officials, and “violent deeds” are not visible. The postmaster assumes that Chichikov is a certain Captain Kopeikin.

Followed by an inserted "poem" About Captain Kopeikin. He is a hero of the war of 1812, where he lost an arm and a leg, was left without a livelihood. The soldier went to Petersburg to ask the sovereign for a pension. Went to an influential nobleman to make a request. There were a lot of petitioners in the waiting room of a luxurious house. About four hours later, a nobleman finally came out, who graciously walked around everyone.

He told Kopeikin to come and see him the other day. The soldier is delighted: I am sure that the issue has already been resolved and today or tomorrow he will receive a pension. However, he had to go to the nobleman more than once: he said that the sovereign was away, and he could not decide anything without him. Very soon he got tired of visiting the importunate crippled soldier, and Kopeikii himself once said rather “rudely” that he would not leave until he received a resolution.

The minister, outraged that he was being torn away from state affairs, ordered Kopeikin to be taken to his city and advised him to look for a livelihood himself. Two months later, a gang of robbers appeared in the Ryazan forests, whose chieftain, in all likelihood, was Kopeikin.

After listening to the postmaster's story, officials noticed that Kopeikin, unlike Chichikov, had no arms and legs. Other officials also "did not lose face": they suggested that Chichikov was Napoleon in disguise, who had made his way to Russia. Not believing this much, everyone thought to themselves that Chichikov outwardly looked very much like Napoleon, who was also not fat, but not thin either.

So without understanding anything, the officials decided to ask Nozdrev about Chichikov. Nozdryov confirmed that Chichikov was a spy, "a banknote maker", that he was going to take away the governor's daughter. Rumors and gossip most of all turned out to be agitated by the prosecutor, who died of fear.

Chichikov is no longer accepted in the city, and Nozdryov, who appears to him, tells what they say about him, and at the same time adds that he is ready to help him in kidnapping the governor's daughter. Chichikov decides to leave the city the next morning.

Chichikov fails to leave the city early: he himself woke up later than he wanted, and, in addition, Selifan reports that horses need to be shod and the wheel of the britzka needs to be repaired. Chichikov, scolding Selifan, calls the blacksmiths, who, firstly, raise the price six times more, and secondly, they fumble for two hours longer.

Finally Chichikov got ready. The last thing he sees in the city is the prosecutor's funeral. The brichka leaves the city, boundless fields open up, and the narrator turns to Russia. In a lyrical digression, he speaks of the incomprehensible connection that lurks between him and Russia.

The author already sees the great future of Russia: here, in the open, there will definitely be a hero, a great idea will be born. But at this moment, the narrator’s dreams are interrupted by Chichikov’s cry to Selifan: “Hold it, hold it, fools (Selifan almost ran into a britzka rushing towards him).

Chichikov falls asleep on the road, and the narrator notices that he did not take a virtuous person as a hero, since he does not exist, but there is such a person as Chichikov, a scoundrel who needs to be "hooked up".

The narrator tells the biography of the hero. Chichikov was born into a seedy noble family; Once, the father took his son to the city to study and ordered him to save and save money: any friend will cheat, but he will never sell a penny. During his stay at school, Chichikov was able to increase the money given to him by his father: for example, seeing that a friend was very hungry, he showed him something edible, teasing and forcing him to buy.

The teacher, who did not tolerate capable but cheerful students, favored the quiet, well-behaved Pavlusha Chichikov, who knew how to serve. Then, when the teacher was expelled from work and he began to drink out of grief, all the former students collected money and came to him, while Pavlush's favorite got off with giving a nickel. In the service, as in teaching, Chichikov showed tremendous ingenuity.

At first he fell under the command of an old clerk, a man of stony insensitivity, and no amount of subservience brought Chichikov any result: he remained in the same position. But when he learned that the stern clerk had a daughter, an old maid, Chichikov played the part of the groom.

Having received the desired position, Chichikov, of course, left the "bride". However, on the hero's path to the goal, not everything was so smooth. For example, he was expelled from the commission for state construction by a new boss - an enemy of bribes and lies. Profitable service at customs ended as a result of a trifling quarrel between Chichikov and his partner, that is, an accomplice who wrote a denunciation against him.

Grieving over the injustice of fate that befell him (after all, Chichikov says, he didn’t rob anyone, he took where “everyone would take”), he starts a scam with the purchase of dead souls. Finishing the story of Chichikov, the narrator suggests that readers will not see Chichikov in themselves, seeing him in someone else, and encourages them, imbued with Christian humility, to think about their unrighteous life. He also says that he writes the truth, which cannot be shamefully concealed from a feeling of false patriotism.

Chichikov wakes up, orders Selifan to drive faster, and now the britzka is rushing along the road. "What Russian doesn't like to drive fast?" the narrator asks. He represents all of Russia in the form of a troika bird, which rushes forward, "inspired by God", and all states give way to it.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CHICHIKOV

An adventurer who does not disdain any means for his enrichment;
an official who amassed capital by bribery and embezzlement;
the main goal of the hero is acquisition;
a new type of people formed as a result of the development of capitalist relations, a representative of the emerging bourgeoisie

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BOX

⦁ name means thrift, distrust, stupidity;
⦁ landowner-accumulator, puts money in a bag;
⦁ owns a subsistence economy and trades everything that is available in it;
⦁ afraid to sell too cheap: suddenly “dead souls” will come in handy;
⦁ personifies stubbornness, narrow-mindedness: “Another and respectable person, but in reality a perfect Box comes out. As he hacked something into his head, then nothing can overpower him ... "

CHARACTERISTICS OF MANILOV

Name from the verbs "to lure", "to lure";
the landowner-squanderer, his inactivity leads to complete ruin;
. a person “so-so, neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan”;
gave the peasants away for free;
manilovism - a tendency to pseudo-philosophizing, unwillingness to translate dreams into reality; this is the first stage of deadness of the soul

4.4 / 5. 5

Dead Souls is a poem for the ages. The plasticity of the depicted reality, the comical nature of situations and the artistic skill of N.V. Gogol paint the image of Russia not only of the past, but also of the future. Grotesque satirical reality in harmony with patriotic notes create an unforgettable melody of life that resounds through the centuries.

Collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov goes to distant provinces to buy serfs. However, he is not interested in people, but only the names of the dead. This is necessary to submit the list to the Board of Trustees, which "promises" a lot of money. A nobleman with so many peasants had all the doors open. To implement his plan, he pays visits to the landowners and officials of the city of NN. All of them reveal their selfish disposition, so the hero manages to get what he wants. He also plans a profitable marriage. However, the result is deplorable: the hero is forced to flee, as his plans become well known thanks to the landowner Korobochka.

History of creation

N.V. Gogol considered A.S. Pushkin by his teacher, who “given” a story about the adventures of Chichikov to a grateful student. The poet was sure that only Nikolai Vasilievich, who had a unique talent from God, was able to realize this “idea”.

The writer loved Italy, Rome. In the land of the great Dante, he began work on a book involving a three-part composition in 1835. The poem was supposed to be similar to Dante's Divine Comedy, depicting the hero's immersion in hell, his wanderings in purgatory and the resurrection of his soul in paradise.

The creative process continued for six years. The idea of ​​a grandiose picture, depicting not only "all of Russia" present, but also the future, revealed "the incalculable riches of the Russian spirit." In February 1837, Pushkin dies, whose “sacred testament” for Gogol is “Dead Souls”: “Not a single line was written without me imagining him before me.” The first volume was completed in the summer of 1841, but did not immediately find its reader. The censors were outraged by The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, and the title was perplexing. I had to make concessions, starting the headline with the intriguing phrase "The Adventures of Chichikov." Therefore, the book was published only in 1842.

Some time later, Gogol writes the second volume, but, dissatisfied with the result, burns it.

The meaning of the name

The title of the work causes conflicting interpretations. The used oxymoron technique gives rise to numerous questions that you want to get answers as soon as possible. The title is symbolic and ambiguous, so the “secret” is not revealed to everyone.

In the literal sense, "dead souls" are representatives of the common people who have gone to another world, but are still listed as their masters. Gradually, the concept is being rethought. The "form" seems to "come to life": real serfs, with their habits and shortcomings, appear before the reader's gaze.

Characteristics of the main characters

1. Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov - "gentleman of the middle hand." Somewhat cloying manners in dealing with people are not without sophistication. Educated, neat and delicate. “Not handsome, but not bad-looking, not ... fat, nor .... thin…”. Prudent and careful. He collects unnecessary knickknacks in his chest: maybe it will come in handy! Seeking profit in everything. The creation of the worst sides of an enterprising and energetic person of a new type, opposed to landowners and officials. We wrote about it in more detail in the essay "".
2. Manilov - "knight of the void." Blond "sweet" talker "with blue eyes". The poverty of thought, the avoidance of real difficulties, he covers up with a beautiful-hearted phrase. It lacks living aspirations and any interests. His faithful companions are fruitless fantasy and thoughtless chatter.
3. The box is "club-headed". Vulgar, stupid, stingy and stingy nature. She fenced herself off from everything around, shutting herself in her estate - the “box”. Turned into a stupid and greedy woman. Limited, stubborn and unspiritual.
4. Nozdrev is a "historical man". He can easily lie what he pleases and deceive anyone. Empty, absurd. Thinks of himself as a broad kind. However, the actions expose the careless, chaotically weak-willed and at the same time arrogant, shameless "tyrant". Record holder for getting into tricky and ridiculous situations.
5. Sobakevich is a "patriot of the Russian stomach." Outwardly, it resembles a bear: clumsy and indefatigable. Totally incapable of understanding the most elementary things. A special type of "drive" that can quickly adapt to the new requirements of our time. Interested in nothing but housekeeping. we described in the essay of the same name.
6. Plyushkin - "a hole in humanity." A creature of unknown gender. A vivid example of a moral fall that has completely lost its natural appearance. The only character (except Chichikov) who has a biography that "reflects" the gradual process of personality degradation. Complete nothingness. Plyushkin's maniacal hoarding "results" into "cosmic" proportions. And the more this passion seizes him, the less of a person remains in him. We analyzed his image in detail in the essay. .

Genre and composition

Initially, the work was born as an adventurous - picaresque novel. But the breadth of the events described and the historical truthfulness, as if "compressed" among themselves, gave rise to "talk about" the realistic method. Making accurate remarks, inserting philosophical reasoning, referring to different generations, Gogol saturated "his offspring" with lyrical digressions. One cannot but agree with the opinion that the creation of Nikolai Vasilyevich is a comedy, since it actively uses the techniques of irony, humor and satire, which most fully reflect the absurdity and arbitrariness of the "squadron of flies that dominate Russia."

The composition is circular: the britzka, which entered the city of NN at the beginning of the story, leaves it after all the vicissitudes that happened to the hero. Episodes are woven into this “ring”, without which the integrity of the poem is violated. The first chapter describes the provincial city NN and local officials. From the second to the sixth chapters, the author introduces readers to the estates of Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich and Plyushkin. The seventh - tenth chapters - a satirical image of officials, the execution of completed transactions. The string of these events ends with a ball, where Nozdrev "narrates" about Chichikov's scam. The reaction of society to his statement is unambiguous - gossip, which, like a snowball, is overgrown with fables that have found refraction, including in the short story ("The Tale of Captain Kopeikin") and the parable (about Kif Mokievich and Mokiya Kifovich). The introduction of these episodes makes it possible to emphasize that the fate of the motherland directly depends on the people living in it. It is impossible to look indifferently at the outrages that are happening around. Certain forms of protest are brewing in the country. The eleventh chapter is a biography of the hero forming the plot, explaining what he was guided by when performing this or that act.

The connecting thread of the composition is the image of the road (you can learn more about this by reading the essay “ » ), symbolizing the path that the state “under the modest name of Rus” passes in its development.

Why does Chichikov need dead souls?

Chichikov is not only cunning, but also pragmatic. His sophisticated mind is ready to “make candy” out of nothing. Not having sufficient capital, he, being a good psychologist, having gone through a good life school, mastering the art of “flattering everyone” and fulfilling his father’s precept “save a penny”, starts a great speculation. It consists in a simple deception of "those in power" in order to "warm their hands", in other words, to help out a huge amount of money, thereby providing for themselves and their future family, which Pavel Ivanovich dreamed of.

The names of the dead peasants bought for a pittance were recorded in a document that Chichikov could take to the Treasury Chamber under the guise of a pledge in order to obtain a loan. He would pawn the serfs like a brooch in a pawnshop, and could re-pawn them all his life, since none of the officials checked the physical condition of people. For this money, the businessman would have bought both real workers and an estate, and would have lived on a grand scale, taking advantage of the favor of the nobles, because the wealth of the landowner was measured by the representatives of the nobility in the number of souls (peasants were then called “souls” in noble slang). In addition, Gogol's hero hoped to win trust in society and profitably marry a rich heiress.

Main idea

A hymn to the motherland and people, the hallmark of which is diligence, sounds on the pages of the poem. Masters of golden hands became famous for their inventions, their creativity. The Russian peasant is always "rich in invention." But there are those citizens who hinder the development of the country. These are vicious officials, ignorant and inactive landowners and swindlers like Chichikov. For their own good, the good of Russia and the world, they must take the path of correction, realizing the ugliness of their inner world. To do this, Gogol ruthlessly ridicules them throughout the entire first volume, however, in the subsequent parts of the work, the author intended to show the resurrection of the spirit of these people using the main character as an example. Perhaps he felt the falsity of subsequent chapters, lost faith that his dream was feasible, so he burned it along with the second part of Dead Souls.

Nevertheless, the author showed that the main wealth of the country is the broad soul of the people. It is no coincidence that this word is placed in the title. The writer believed that the revival of Russia would begin with the revival of human souls, pure, unstained by any sins, selfless. Not just believing in the free future of the country, but making a lot of efforts on this swift road to happiness. "Rus, where are you going?" This question runs like a refrain throughout the book and emphasizes the main thing: the country must live in constant movement towards the best, advanced, progressive. Only on this path "other peoples and states give it way." We wrote a separate essay about the path of Russia: ?

Why did Gogol burn the second volume of Dead Souls?

At some point, the thought of the messiah begins to dominate in the mind of the writer, allowing him to "foresee" the revival of Chichikov and even Plyushkin. The progressive "transformation" of a person into a "dead man" Gogol hopes to reverse. But, faced with reality, the author is deeply disappointed: the heroes and their destinies come out from under the pen far-fetched, lifeless. Did not work out. The impending crisis in worldview became the reason for the destruction of the second book.

In the surviving passages from the second volume, it is clearly seen that the writer depicts Chichikov not in the process of repentance, but in flight towards the abyss. He still succeeds in adventures, dresses in a devilish red coat and breaks the law. His exposure does not bode well, because in his reaction the reader will not see a sudden insight or a paint of shame. He does not even believe in the possibility of the existence of such fragments at least ever. Gogol did not want to sacrifice artistic truth even for the sake of realizing his own idea.

Issues

1. Thorns on the way of the development of the Motherland is the main problem in the poem "Dead Souls", which the author was worried about. These include bribery and embezzlement of officials, infantilism and inactivity of the nobility, ignorance and poverty of the peasants. The writer sought to make his contribution to the prosperity of Russia, condemning and ridiculing vices, educating new generations of people. For example, Gogol despised doxology as a cover for the emptiness and idleness of existence. The life of a citizen should be useful for society, and most of the heroes of the poem are frankly harmful.
2. Moral problems. He considers the absence of moral norms among the representatives of the ruling class as the result of their ugly passion for hoarding. The landowners are ready to shake the soul out of the peasant for the sake of profit. Also, the problem of selfishness comes to the fore: the nobles, like officials, think only about their own interests, the homeland for them is an empty weightless word. High society does not care about the common people, they just use them for their own purposes.
3. Crisis of humanism. People are sold like animals, lost at cards like things, pawned like jewelry. Slavery is legal and is not considered something immoral or unnatural. Gogol covered the problem of serfdom in Russia globally, showing both sides of the coin: the mentality of a serf, inherent in a serf, and the tyranny of the owner, confident in his superiority. All these are the consequences of the tyranny that pervades relationships in all walks of life. It corrupts people and destroys the country.
4. The author's humanism is manifested in attention to the "little man", a critical exposure of the vices of the state system. Gogol did not even try to avoid political problems. He described a bureaucracy functioning only on the basis of bribery, nepotism, embezzlement and hypocrisy.
5. Gogol's characters are characterized by the problem of ignorance, moral blindness. Because of it, they do not see their moral squalor and are not able to independently get out of the quagmire of vulgarity that is engulfing them.

What is the originality of the work?

Adventurism, realistic reality, a sense of the presence of the irrational, philosophical discussions about earthly good - all this is closely intertwined, creating an "encyclopedic" picture of the first half of the 19th century.

Gogol achieves this by using various techniques of satire, humor, pictorial means, numerous details, rich vocabulary, and compositional features.

• Symbolism plays an important role. Falling into the mud "predicts" the future exposure of the main character. The spider weaves its webs to capture the next victim. Like an "unpleasant" insect, Chichikov skillfully conducts his "business", "weaving" the landowners and officials with a noble lie. “sounds” like the pathos of the forward movement of Russia and affirms human self-improvement.
• We observe the characters through the prism of "comic" situations, apt author's expressions and characteristics given by other characters, sometimes built on the antithesis: "he was a prominent person" - but only "at a glance".
• The vices of the heroes of "Dead Souls" become a continuation of the positive character traits. For example, Plyushkin's monstrous stinginess is a distortion of former frugality and thriftiness.
• In small lyrical "inserts" - the thoughts of the writer, hard thoughts, anxious "I". In them we feel the highest creative message: to help humanity change for the better.
• The fate of people who create works for the people or not for the sake of "those in power" does not leave Gogol indifferent, because in literature he saw a force capable of "re-educating" society and contributing to its civilized development. The social strata of society, their position in relation to everything national: culture, language, traditions - occupy a serious place in the author's digressions. When it comes to Russia and its future, through the centuries we hear the confident voice of the “prophet”, predicting the future of the Fatherland, which is not easy, but striving towards a bright dream.
• Philosophical reflections on the frailty of being, on the bygone youth and impending old age, evoke sadness. Therefore, the gentle “fatherly” appeal to the youth is so natural, on whose energy, diligence and education depends on which “path” the development of Russia will go.
• The language is truly folk. The forms of colloquial, bookish and written-business speech are harmoniously woven into the fabric of the poem. Rhetorical questions and exclamations, the rhythmic construction of individual phrases, the use of Slavicisms, archaisms, sonorous epithets create a certain structure of speech that sounds solemn, excited and sincere, without a shadow of irony. When describing landowners' estates and their owners, vocabulary is used that is characteristic of everyday speech. The image of the bureaucratic world is saturated with the vocabulary of the depicted environment. we described in the essay of the same name.
• The solemnity of comparisons, high style, combined with original speech, create a sublimely ironic manner of narration that serves to debunk the base, vulgar world of the owners.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

Within the framework of the project "Gogol. 200 years"RIA Newspresents a summary of the second volume of "Dead Souls" by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - a novel that Gogol himself called a poem. The plot of "Dead Souls" was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. The white version of the text of the second volume of the poem was burned by Gogol. The text has been partially restored on the basis of drafts.

The second volume of the poem opens with a description of the nature that makes up the estate of Andrei Ivanovich Tentetnikov, whom the author calls "the smoker of the sky." The story of the stupidity of his pastime is followed by the story of a life inspired by hopes at the very beginning, overshadowed by the pettiness of service and troubles afterwards; he retires, intending to improve the estate, reads books, takes care of the peasant, but without experience, sometimes just human, this does not give the expected results, the peasant is idle, Tentetnikov gives up. He breaks off acquaintances with his neighbors, offended by the treatment of General Betrishchev, stops visiting him, although he cannot forget his daughter Ulinka. In a word, without someone who would tell him an invigorating “forward!”, He completely turns sour.

Chichikov comes to him, apologizing for a breakdown in the carriage, curiosity and a desire to pay respect. Having won the favor of the owner with his amazing talent to adapt to anyone, Chichikov, having lived with him for a while, goes to the general, to whom he spins a story about an absurd uncle and, as usual, begs for the dead.

On the laughing general, the poem fails, and we find Chichikov heading towards Colonel Koshkarev. Against expectation, he gets to Pyotr Petrovich Petukh, whom at first he finds completely naked, carried away by the hunt for sturgeon. At the Rooster, having nothing to get hold of, for the estate is mortgaged, he only overeats terribly, gets acquainted with the bored landowner Platonov and, having incited him to travel together in Russia, goes to Konstantin Fedorovich Kostanzhoglo, married to Platonov's sister. He talks about the ways of managing, by which he increased the income from the estate dozens of times, and Chichikov is terribly inspired.

Very promptly, he visits Colonel Koshkarev, who has divided his village into committees, expeditions and departments and has arranged a perfect paper production in the mortgaged estate, as it turns out. Returning, he listens to the curses of the bilious Costanjoglo to the factories and manufactories that corrupt the peasant, to the peasant's absurd desire to enlighten, and to his neighbor Khlobuev, who has run a hefty estate and is now lowering it for nothing.

Having experienced tenderness and even a craving for honest work, after listening to the story of the farmer Murazov, who made forty millions in an impeccable way, Chichikov the next day, accompanied by Kostanzhoglo and Platonov, goes to Khlobuev, observes the unrest and debauchery of his household in the neighborhood of a governess for children, dressed in fashion wife and other traces of ridiculous luxury.

Having borrowed money from Kostanzhoglo and Platonov, he gives a deposit for the estate, intending to buy it, and goes to the Platonov estate, where he meets his brother Vasily, who effectively manages the economy. Then he suddenly appears at their neighbor Lenitsyn, obviously a rogue, wins his sympathy with his skillfully tickling a child and receives dead souls.

After many gaps in the manuscript, Chichikov is found already in the city at a fair, where he buys fabric of a lingonberry color so dear to him with a spark. He runs into Khlobuev, whom, apparently, he cheated, either depriving him, or almost depriving him of his inheritance by some kind of forgery. Khlobuev, who missed him, is taken away by Murazov, who convinces Khlobuev of the need to work and determines for him to raise funds for the church. Meanwhile, denunciations against Chichikov are being discovered both about forgery and about dead souls.

The tailor brings a new coat. Suddenly, a gendarme appears, dragging smart Chichikov to the governor-general, "angry as anger itself." Here all his atrocities become apparent, and he, kissing the general's boot, plunges into the prison. In a dark closet, tearing his hair and coat tails, mourning the loss of a box of papers, Murazov finds Chichikov, awakens in him with simple virtuous words the desire to live honestly and goes to soften the governor general.

At that time, officials who want to harm their wise superiors and receive a bribe from Chichikov deliver a box to him, kidnap an important witness and write many denunciations in order to completely confuse the matter. Unrest breaks out in the province itself, greatly worrying the governor-general. However, Murazov knows how to feel the sensitive strings of his soul and give him the right advice, with which the Governor-General, having released Chichikov, is already going to use it, how ... - at this point the manuscript breaks off.

The material was provided by the Internet portal briefly.ru, compiled by E. V. Kharitonova

"Dead Souls" summary 1 chapter

At the gates of the hotel in the provincial town of NN, a britzka drove in, in which the gentleman “is not handsome, but not bad-looking, not too fat, not too thin; one cannot say that he is old, but it is not so that he is too young. This gentleman is Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. At the hotel, he eats a hearty meal. The author describes the provincial town: “The houses were one, two and one and a half stories high, with an eternal mezzanine, very beautiful, according to provincial architects.

In places, these houses seemed lost among the wide, field-like streets and endless wooden fences; in some places they crowded together, and here there was noticeably more movement of the people and liveliness. There were signs almost washed away by the rain with pretzels and boots, in some places with painted blue trousers and the signature of some Arshavian tailor; where is the store with caps, caps and the inscription: “Foreigner Vasily Fedorov” ... Most often, darkened double-headed state eagles were noticeable, which have now been replaced by a laconic inscription: “Drinking House”. The pavement was bad everywhere.”

Chichikov pays visits to city officials - the governor, vice-governor, chairman of the chamber * prosecutor, police chief, as well as the inspector of the medical board, the city architect. Chichikov builds excellent relations everywhere and with everyone with the help of flattery, gains confidence in each of those whom he visited. Each of the officials invites Pavel Ivanovich to visit him, although little is known about him.

Chichikov attended a ball at the governor's, where “he somehow knew how to find himself in everything and showed in himself an experienced secular person. Whatever the conversation was about, he always knew how to support it: if it was about a horse farm, he talked about a horse farm; whether they talked about good dogs, and here he reported very sensible remarks; whether they interpreted it with regard to the investigation carried out by the Treasury, he showed that he was not unfamiliar with judicial tricks; whether there was a discussion about the billiard game - and in the billiard game he did not miss; whether they talked about virtue, and he talked about virtue very well, even with tears in his eyes; about making hot wine, and in hot wine he knew Zrok; about customs overseers and officials, and he judged them as if he himself were both an official and an overseer. But it is remarkable that he knew how to clothe all this with some degree, knew how to behave well. He spoke neither loudly nor softly, but exactly as he should. At the ball, he met the landowners Manilov and Sobakevich, whom he also managed to win over. Chichikov finds out the condition of their estates and how many peasants they have. Manilov and Sobakevich invite Chichikov to their estate. While visiting the chief of police, Chichikov met the landowner Nozdrev, "a man of about thirty, a broken fellow."

"Dead Souls" summary chapter 2

Chichikov has two servants - the coachman Selifan and the footman Petrushka. The latter reads a lot and everything in a row, while he is not interested in what he has read, but in folding letters into words. In addition, Parsley has a "special smell" because he very rarely goes to the bathhouse.

Chichikov goes to the Manilov estate. For a long time he cannot find his estate. “The village of Manilovka could lure a few with its location. The master's house stood alone in the south, that is, on a hill, open to all the winds that only take it into their head to blow; the slope of the mountain on which he stood was dressed in trimmed turf. Two or three flowerbeds with lilac and yellow acacia bushes were scattered on it in the English style; here and there five or six birches in small clusters raised their small-leaved thin tops. Beneath two of them was a gazebo with a flat green dome, blue wooden columns and the inscription: "Temple of Solitary Reflection"; lower down is a pond covered with greenery, which, however, is not a wonder in the English gardens of Russian landowners. At the sole of this elevation, and partly along the slope itself, gray log huts darkened up and down ... ”Manilov is glad to have a guest. The author describes the landowner and his household: “He was a prominent person; his features were not devoid of pleasantness, but this pleasantness seemed to have been conveyed too much sugar; in his manners and turns there was something ingratiating himself with favors and acquaintances. He smiled enticingly, was blond, with blue eyes. In the first minute of a conversation with him, you can’t help but say: “What a pleasant and kind person!” In the next minute you will not say anything, and in the third you will say: “The devil knows what it is!” - and move away if you don’t move away, you will feel mortal boredom. You won’t expect any lively or even arrogant word from him, which you can hear from almost anyone if you touch on a subject that torments him ... You can’t say that he was engaged in farming, he never even went to the fields, farming somehow went by itself ... Sometimes, looking from the porch at the yard and the pond, he talked about how good it would be if suddenly an underground passage could be built from the house or a stone bridge built across the pond, on which there would be shops on both sides, and so that merchants and they sold various small goods needed by the peasants ... All these projects ended with only one word. In his study there was always some kind of book, bookmarked on the fourteenth page, which he had been constantly reading for two years. Something was always missing in his house: in the living room there was beautiful furniture, upholstered in smart silk fabric, which, no doubt, was very expensive; but it was not enough for two armchairs, and the armchairs were simply upholstered with matting ... In the evening, a very smart candlestick made of dark bronze with three antique graces, with a mother-of-pearl smart shield, was placed on the table, and next to it was placed some simply copper disabled person, lame, curled up on side and all in fat, although neither the owner, nor the hostess, nor the servants noticed this.

Manilov's wife is very suitable for him in character. There is no order in the house, because she does not follow anything. She is well brought up, she received her upbringing in a boarding school, “and in boarding schools, as you know, three main subjects form the basis of human virtues: the French language, which is necessary for the happiness of family life, the piano, for composing pleasant minutes for a spouse, and, finally, the economic part proper: knitting purses and other surprises.

Manilov and Chichikov show an exaggerated courtesy towards each other, which brings them to the point that they both squeeze through the same door at the same time. The Manilovs invite Chichikov to dinner, which is attended by both of Manilov's sons: Themistoclus and Alkid. The first has a runny nose and bites his brother's ear. Alkid, swallowing tears, all smeared with fat, eats a leg of lamb.

At the end of dinner, Manilov and Chichikov go to the owner's office, where they have a business conversation. Chichikov asks Manilov for revision tales - a detailed register of peasants who died after the last census. He wants to buy dead souls. Manilov is amazed. Chichikov convinces him that everything will happen in accordance with the law, that the tax will be paid. Manilov finally calms down and gives away the dead souls for free, believing that he has rendered Chichikov a great service. Chichikov leaves, and Manilov indulges in dreams, in which it comes to the point that for their strong friendship with Chichikov, the tsar will grant both of them the rank of general.

"Dead Souls" summary chapter 3

Chichikov is poisoned at Sobakevich's estate, but gets caught in heavy rain and loses his way. His cart flips over and falls into the mud. Nearby is the estate of the landowner Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka, where Chichikov comes. He goes into the room, which “was hung with old striped wallpaper; pictures with some birds; between the windows there are small antique mirrors with dark frames in the form of curled leaves; behind every mirror there was either a letter, or an old pack of cards, or a stocking; a wall clock with painted flowers on the dial ... it was impossible to notice anything else ... A minute later the hostess entered, an elderly woman, in some kind of sleeping cap, put on hastily, with a flannel around her neck, one of those mothers, small landowners who cry over crop failures , losses and keep their heads somewhat to one side, but meanwhile they are gaining a little money in motley bags placed in drawers of chests of drawers ... "

Korobochka leaves Chichikov to spend the night in his house. In the morning, Chichikov starts a conversation with her about selling dead souls. The box cannot understand why he needs them, he offers to buy honey or hemp from her. She is constantly afraid to sell cheap. Chichikov manages to convince her to agree to a deal only after he tells a lie about himself - that he conducts government contracts, promises to buy both honey and hemp from her in the future. The box believes it. Bidding has been going on for a long time, after which the deal did take place. Chichikov keeps his papers in a box, consisting of many compartments and having a secret drawer for money.

"Dead Souls" summary chapter 4

Chichikov stops at a tavern, to which Nozdryov's chaise soon drives up. Nozdryov is “of medium height, a very well-built fellow with full ruddy cheeks, teeth as white as snow, and sideburns as black as pitch. He was fresh as blood and milk; health seemed to spurt from his face. He said with a very pleased look that he lost, and lost not only his money,

I but also the money of his son-in-law Mizhuev, who is present right there. Nozdryov invites Chichikov to his place, promising a tasty treat. He himself drinks in a tavern at the expense of his son-in-law. The author characterizes Nozdrev^ as a “broken fellow”, from that breed of people who “even in childhood and at school are known as good comrades and, for all that, are heavily beaten painfully ... They soon get to know each other, and before you have time to look back, as they already tell you” you". Friendship will start, it seems, forever: but it almost always happens that the one who makes friends will fight with them that same evening at a friendly feast. They are always talkers, revelers, reckless people, prominent people. Nozdryov at thirty-five was exactly the same as he had been at eighteen and twenty: a go-getter. His marriage did not change him at all, especially since his wife soon departed for the next world, leaving behind two children who he definitely did not need ... At home, he could not sit for more than a day. His sensitive nose could hear him for several tens of miles, where there was a fair with all sorts of congresses and balls; he was already there in the twinkling of an eye, arguing and causing confusion at the green table, for, like all such, he had a passion for cards ... Nozdryov was in some respects a historical person. Not a single meeting he attended was without a story. Some kind of story was bound to happen: either they would lead him out of the gendarme hall by the arms, or they would be forced to push out their own friends ... And he would lie completely without any need: he would suddenly tell that he had a horse of some blue or pink wool, and the like. nonsense, so that the listeners finally all move away, saying: “Well, brother, it seems you have already begun to pour bullets.”

Nozdrev refers to those people who have "a passion to spoil their neighbor, sometimes for no reason at all." His favorite pastime was to exchange things and lose money and property. Arriving at Nozdryov's estate, Chichikov sees an unsightly stallion, about which Nozdryov says that he paid ten thousand for him. He shows a kennel where a dubious breed of dog is kept. Nozdrev is a master of lies. He talks about the fact that in his pond there is a fish of unusual size, that on his Turkish daggers there is a brand of a famous master. The dinner to which this landowner invited Chichikov was bad.

Chichikov begins business negotiations, while saying that he needs dead souls for a profitable marriage, so that the bride's parents believe that he is a wealthy person. Nozdryov is going to donate dead souls and, in addition, he is trying to sell a stallion, a mare, a hurdy-gurdy, and so on. Chichikov flatly refuses. Nozdryov invites him to play cards, which Chichikov also refuses. For this refusal, Nozdryov orders to feed Chichikov's horse not with oats, but with hay, which the guest is offended by. Nozdryov does not feel awkward, and in the morning, as if nothing had happened, he invites Chichikov to play checkers. He recklessly agrees. The landlord starts cheating. Chichikov accuses him of this, Nozdryov climbs in to fight, calls the servants and orders to beat the guest. Suddenly, a police captain appears, who arrests Nozdryov for insulting the landowner Maksimov while drunk. Nozdryov refuses everything, says that he does not know any Maksimov. Chichikov quickly leaves.

"Dead Souls" summary chapter 5

Through the fault of Selifan, Chichikov's chaise collides with another chaise, in which two ladies are traveling - an elderly and sixteen-year-old very beautiful girl. The men gathered from the village separate the horses. Chichikov is shocked by the beauty of the young girl, and after the carts have parted, he thinks about her for a long time. The traveler drives up to the village of Mikhail Semenovich Sobakevich. “A wooden house with a mezzanine, a red roof and dark or, better, wild walls, is a house like those we build for military settlements and German colonists. It was noticeable that during the construction of its architect, he constantly fought with the taste of the owner. The architect was a pedant and wanted symmetry, the owner - convenience, and, apparently, as a result of this he boarded up all the corresponding windows on one side and turned in their place one small one, probably needed for a dark closet. The pediment also did not fit in the middle of the house, no matter how hard the architect struggled, because the owner ordered one column to be thrown out from the side, and therefore there were not four columns, as it was appointed, but only three. The yard was surrounded by a strong and unreasonably thick wooden lattice. The landowner seemed to be fussing a lot about strength. For the stables, sheds and kitchens, full-weight and thick logs were used, determined to stand for centuries. The village huts of the peasants were also built marvelously: there were no brick walls, carved patterns, and other frills, but everything was fitted tightly and properly. Even the well was lined with such strong oak, which is used only for mills and ships. In a word, everything he looked at was stubbornly, without shaking, in some kind of strong and clumsy order.

The owner himself seems to Chichikov like a bear. “To complete the resemblance, the tailcoat on him was completely bearish in color, the sleeves were long, the pantaloons were long, he stepped with his feet and at random and stepped incessantly on other people's legs. The complexion was red-hot, hot, which happens on a copper penny ... "

Sobakevich had a habit of expressing himself straightforwardly about everything. About the governor, he says that he is "the first robber in the world," and the police chief is "a swindler." Sobakevich eats a lot at dinner. He tells the guest about his neighbor Plyushkin, a very stingy man who owns eight hundred peasants.

Chichikov says that he wants to buy dead souls, to which Sobakevich is not surprised, but immediately starts bidding. He promises to sell 100 rudders for each dead soul, while saying that the dead were real masters. Trade for a long time. In the end, they agree on three rubles apiece, and at the same time draw up a document, since each fears dishonesty on the part of the other. Sobakevich offers to buy female dead souls cheaper, but Chichikov refuses, although later it turns out that the landowner nevertheless entered one woman in the bill of sale. Chichikov leaves. On the way he asks the peasant how to get to Plyushkin.

"Dead Souls" summary chapter 6

Chichikov goes to Plyushkin's estate, for a long time he cannot find the master's house. Finally finds a "strange castle" that looks like a "decrepit invalid". “In places it was one floor, in places two; on the dark roof, which did not reliably protect his old age everywhere, two belvederes stuck out, one opposite the other, both already tottering, deprived of the paint that once covered them. The walls of the house slitted bare stucco lattice in places and, apparently, suffered a lot from all sorts of bad weather, rains, whirlwinds and autumn changes. Of the windows, only two were open; the rest were shuttered or even boarded up. These two windows, for their part, were also half-sighted; one of them had a dark pasted triangle of blue sugar paper. Chichikov meets a man of indeterminate sex (he cannot understand whether this is a man or a woman). He decides that this is the housekeeper, but then it turns out that this is the rich landowner Stepan Plyushkin. The author tells how Plyushkin came to such a life. In the past, he was a thrifty landowner, he had a wife who was famous for hospitality, and three children. But after the death of his wife, "Plyushkin became more restless and, like all widowers, more suspicious and stingy." He cursed his daughter, as she ran away and married an officer of the cavalry regiment. The youngest daughter died, and the son, instead of studying, decided to join the military. Every year Plyushkin became more stingy. Very soon the merchants stopped taking goods from him, because they could not bargain with the landowner. All his goods - hay, wheat, flour, canvas - everything rotted. Plyushkin, on the other hand, saved up everything, and at the same time picked up other people's things that he didn’t need at all. His stinginess knew no bounds: for all Plyushkin's household there were only boots, he kept rusk for several months, he knew exactly how much liquor he had in his decanter, because he made marks. When Chichikov tells him what he came for, Plyushkin is very happy. He offers the guest to buy not only dead souls, but also runaway peasants. Traded. The received money hides in a box. It is clear that this money, like others, he will never use. Chichikov leaves, to the great joy of the owner, refusing the treat. Returns to the hotel.

"Dead Souls" summary chapter 7

After all the registered merchants, Chichikov becomes the owner of four hundred dead souls. He reflects on who these people were in life. Leaving the hotel on the street, Chichikov meets Manilov. Together they go to make a bill of sale. In the office, Chichikov gives a bribe to the official Ivan Antonovich Kuvshinnoye Rylo to speed up the process. However, the giving of a bribe goes unnoticed - the official covers the banknote with a book, and it seems to disappear. Sobakevich sits at the head. Chichikov arranges for the bill of sale to be completed within a day, since he supposedly needs to leave urgently. He gives the chairman a letter from Plyushkin, in which he asks him to be an attorney in his case, to which the chairman gladly agrees.

Documents are drawn up in the presence of witnesses, Chichikov pays only half of the fee to the treasury, while the other half "was attributed in some incomprehensible way to the account of another petitioner." After a successful deal, everyone goes to dinner at the police chief, during which Sobakevich eats a huge sturgeon alone. The tipsy guests ask Chichikov to stay and decide to marry him. Chichikov informs the audience that he is buying peasants for withdrawal to the Kherson province, where he has already acquired an estate. He himself believes in what he says. Parsley and Se-lifan, after sending the drunken owner to the hotel, go for a walk in a tavern.

"Dead Souls" summary chapter 8

Residents of the city are discussing what Chichikov bought. Everyone tries to offer him help in delivering the peasants to the place. Among the proposed - a convoy, a police captain to pacify a possible rebellion, enlightenment of serfs. A description of the city dwellers follows: “they were all kind people, living in harmony with each other, treated in a completely friendly way, and their conversations bore the stamp of some special simplicity and brevity: “Dear friend Ilya Ilyich”, “Listen, brother, Antipator Zakharyevich!”... To the postmaster, whose name was Ivan Andreevich, they always added: “Sprechen zadeich, Ivan Andreich?” - in a word, everything was very family. Many were not without education: the chairman of the chamber knew by heart "Lyudmila" Zhukovsky, which was still not a cold news at that time ... The postmaster went more into philosophy and read very diligently, even at night, Jung's "Nights" and "The Key to the Mysteries of Nature" by Eckartshausen , from which he made very long extracts ... he was witty, flowery in words and loved, as he himself put it, to equip speech. Others were also more or less enlightened people: some read Karamzin, some Moskovskie Vedomosti, some didn’t even read anything at all ... As for plausibility, it’s already known, they were all reliable consumptive people, there was no one among them. All were of the kind to which the wives, in tender conversations taking place in solitude, gave names: egg-pods, chubby, pot-bellied, nigella, kicks, buzz, and so on. But in general, they were kind people, full of hospitality, and a person who ate bread with them or spent an evening playing whist was already becoming something close ... "

City ladies were “what they call presentable, and in this respect they could be safely set as an example to everyone else ... They dressed with great taste, drove around the city in carriages, as the latest fashion prescribed, a lackey swayed behind, and a livery in gold braid ... In morals, the ladies of the city of N. were strict, filled with noble indignation against everything vicious and all sorts of temptations, they executed all weaknesses without any mercy ... It must also be said that the ladies of the city of N. were distinguished, like many ladies of St. Petersburg, by unusual caution and decency in words and expressions. They never said: “I blew my nose”, “I sweated”, “I spat”, but they said: “I relieved my nose”, “I managed with a handkerchief”. In no case was it possible to say: "this glass or this plate stinks." And you couldn't even say anything that would give a hint of this, but instead they said: "this glass is not behaving well" or something like that. In order to ennoble the Russian language even more, almost half of the words were completely thrown out of the conversation, and therefore it was very often necessary to resort to French, but there, in French, it’s another matter: words were allowed there that were much harder than those mentioned.

All the ladies of the city are delighted with Chichikov, one of them even sent him a love letter. Chichikov is invited to the governor's ball. Before the ball, he spins for a long time in front of the mirror. At the ball, he is in the spotlight, trying to figure out who the author of the letter is. The governor introduces Chichikov to her daughter - the very girl he saw in the britzka. He almost falls in love with her, but she misses his company. Other ladies are outraged that all of Chichikov's attention goes to the governor's daughter. Suddenly, Nozdryov appears, who tells the governor about how Chichikov offered to buy dead souls from him. The news quickly spreads, while the ladies pass it on as if they do not believe in it, since everyone knows the reputation of Nozdryov. Korobochka comes to the city at night, who is interested in the prices of dead souls - she is afraid that she has sold too cheap.

"Dead Souls" summary chapter 9

The chapter describes the visit of a "pleasant lady" to a "lady pleasant in every way". Her visit falls an hour earlier than the usual time for visits in the city - she is in such a hurry to tell the news she has heard. The lady tells her friend that Chichikov is a robber in disguise, who demanded that Korobochka sell him dead peasants. The ladies decide that the dead souls are just a pretext, in fact Chichikov is going to take the governor's daughter away. They discuss the behavior of the girl, herself, recognize her as unattractive, mannered. The husband of the mistress of the house appears - the prosecutor, to whom the ladies tell the news, which confuses him.

The men of the city are discussing the purchase of Chichikov, the women are discussing the kidnapping of the governor's daughter. The story is replenished with details, it is decided that Chichikov has an accomplice, and this accomplice is probably Nozdrev. Chichikov is credited with organizing a peasant riot in Borovki, Zadi-railovo-tozh, during which the assessor Drobyazhkin was killed. In addition, the governor receives news that a robber has escaped and a counterfeiter has appeared in the province. There is a suspicion that one of these persons is Chichikov. The public can't decide what to do.

"Dead Souls" summary chapter 10

Officials are so concerned about the current situation that many even lose weight from grief. They collect a meeting from the chief of police. The police chief decides that Chichikov is Captain Kopeikin in disguise, an invalid without an arm and a leg, a hero of the war of 1812. Kopeikin, after returning from the front, received nothing from his father. He goes to Petersburg to seek the truth from the sovereign. But the king is not in the capital. Kopeikin goes to the nobleman, the head of the commission, whose audience he has been waiting for a long time in the waiting room. The general promises help, offers to come in one of these days. But the next time he says that he cannot do anything without the special permission of the king. Captain Kopeikin is running out of money, and the porter won't let him see the general anymore. He endures many hardships, eventually breaking through to an appointment with the general, saying that he can no longer wait. The general escorts him very rudely, sends him out of St. Petersburg at public expense. After some time, a gang of robbers appears in the Ryazan forests, led by Kopeikin.

Other officials nevertheless decide that Chichikov is not Kopeikin, since both his arms and legs are intact. It is suggested that Chichikov is Napoleon in disguise. Everyone decides that it is necessary to interrogate Nozdryov, despite the fact that he is a known liar. Nozdryov says that he sold dead souls to Chichikov for several thousand and that already at the time when he was at school with Chichikov, he was already a counterfeiter and a spy, that he was going to kidnap the daughter of the governor and Nozdryov himself helped him. Nozdryov realizes that he has gone too far in his stories, and possible problems frighten him. But the unexpected happens - the prosecutor dies. Chichikov does not know anything about what is happening because he is ill. Three days later, having left the house, he discovers that he is either not received anywhere, or is received in a strange way. Nozdryov informs him that the city considers him a counterfeiter, that he was going to kidnap the daughter of the governor, that the prosecutor died through his fault. Chichikov orders to pack things.

"Dead Souls" summary chapter 11

In the morning Chichikov could not leave the city for a long time - he overslept, the chaise was not laid, the horses were not shod. Leave only in the evening. On the way, Chichikov meets a funeral procession - the prosecutor is being buried. Behind the coffin are all the officials, each of whom thinks about the new governor-general and their relationship with him. Chichikov leaves the city. Next - a lyrical digression about Russia. "Rus! Russia! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful far away I see you: poor, scattered and uncomfortable in you; daring divas of nature, crowned with daring divas of art, will not amuse, will not frighten the eyes, cities with many-windowed high palaces, grown into cliffs, picture trees and ivy, grown into houses, in noise and in the eternal dust of waterfalls; the head will not tip back to look at the stone blocks piled up endlessly above it and in the heights; they will not flash through the dark arches thrown one on top of the other, entangled in vine branches, ivy and countless millions of wild roses; Why is your melancholy song, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea, heard and heard incessantly in your ears? What's in it, in this song? What calls, and sobs, and grabs the heart? What sounds painfully kiss, and strive to the soul, and curl around my heart? Russia! what do you want from me? what incomprehensible bond lurks between us? Why do you look like that, and why did everything that is in you turn eyes full of expectation on me? .. And a mighty space menacingly embraces me, reflecting with terrible force in my depths; my eyes lit up with an unnatural power: wow! what a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! Russia!..»

The author discusses the hero of the work and the origin of Chichikov. His parents are nobles, but he doesn't look like them. Chichikov's father sent his son to the city to an old relative so that he could enter the school. The father gave his son parting words, which he strictly followed in life - to please the authorities, to hang out only with the rich, not to share with anyone, to save money. He did not have any special talents, but he had a "practical mind." Chichikov knew how to make money as a boy - he sold treats, showed a trained mouse for money. He pleased the teachers, the authorities, and therefore graduated from school with a gold certificate. His father dies, and Chichikov, having sold his father's house, enters the service. He betrays a teacher expelled from school, who was counting on a fake of his beloved student. Chichikov serves, striving to please his superiors in everything, even caring for his ugly daughter, hinting at a wedding. Gets a promotion and doesn't get married. Soon Chichikov is included in the commission for the construction of a government building, but the building, for which a lot of money has been allocated, is being built only on paper. Chichikov's new boss hated his subordinate, and he had to start all over again. He enters the service at the customs, where his ability to search is revealed. He is promoted, and Chichikov presents a project to catch smugglers, with whom at the same time he manages to collude and get a lot of money from them. But Chichikov quarrels with a friend with whom he shared, and both are put on trial. Chichikov manages to save some of the money, starts everything from scratch as an attorney. He comes up with the idea of ​​​​buying dead souls, which in the future can be pledged to the bank under the guise of living ones, and, having received a loan, hide.

The author reflects on how readers can relate to Chichikov, recalls the parable of Kif Mokievich and Mokiya Kifovich, son and father. The existence of the father is turned into a speculative side, while the son is rowdy. Kifa Mokievich is asked to appease his son, but he does not want to interfere in anything: “If he remains a dog, then let them not find out about it from me, let it not be me who betrayed him.”

At the end of the poem, the britzka is moving quickly along the road. “And what Russian does not like to drive fast?” "Oh, threesome! bird troika, who invented you? To know that you could only be born among a lively people, in that land that does not like to joke, but spread out evenly and evenly for half the world, and go and count the miles until it fills your eyes. And not a cunning, it would seem, road projectile, not captured by an iron screw, but hastily, alive with one ax and a hammer, a smart Yaroslavl peasant equipped and assembled you. The coachman is not in German boots: a beard and mittens, and the devil knows what he sits on; but he got up, and swung, and dragged on the song - the horses whirlwind, the spokes in the wheels mixed into one smooth circle, only the road trembled, and the pedestrian who stopped screamed in fright - and there she rushed, rushed, rushed! .. And it was already visible in the distance, as something dusts and drills the air.

Isn't that how you, Russia, that brisk, unbeatable troika, are rushing about? The road smokes under you, the bridges rumble, everything lags behind and is left behind. The contemplative, amazed by God's miracle, stopped: is it not lightning thrown from the sky? what does this terrifying movement mean? and what kind of unknown power lies in these horses unknown to the light? Oh, horses, horses, what horses! Are whirlwinds sitting in your manes? Does a sensitive ear burn in every vein of yours? They heard a familiar song from above, together and at once strained their copper breasts and, almost without touching the ground with their hooves, turned into only elongated lines flying through the air, and all inspired by God rushes! .. Russia, where are you rushing to? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer. A bell is filled with a wonderful ringing; the air torn to pieces rumbles and becomes the wind; flies past everything that is on earth,
and, squinting, step aside and give her way to other peoples and states.

N. V. Gogol is known to readers for his original works, where a non-trivial plot always stands out. The famous "Dead Souls" were especially fond of the public. The main events of the poem are the organization and implementation of the most interesting scam of the protagonist. In order to convey the versatility and innovation of the book, the Wise Litrecon made a brief retelling of the chapters, where each part of the work will appear in an abbreviation. If you think that he missed something, signal it in the comments.

The poem, like the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time", begins with the author's appeal to his reader. N.V. Gogol explains the main "task" that he set for Chichikov, for the work as a whole -

Show the shortcomings and vices of a Russian person, and not his dignity and virtue.

He assures that the best characters will be in other parts. The author also requires interaction from readers - he declares that he will be grateful to someone who expresses his opinion about the work, will be able to point out unfortunate moments in the text. One lifetime is not enough to know at least a hundredth part of what is happening in Russia. But for the sake of "the truth of the matter", and not for the sake of a red word, he planned to write this book, so he will need the help of every person, even an uneducated one. So he hopes to get to know Russia better in order to write other parts.

In the end, he thanks all the critics and journalists for their feedback.

Chapter One: Chichikov's Arrival

The action takes place in the provincial town of NN. Chichikov arrives at a mediocre and banal hotel. Together with him are the coachman Selifan and the footman Petrushka, the retinue of a nobleman. N.V. Gogol pays special attention to the portrait of the hero. Chichikov "is not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin." His suitcase was tattered, indicating that he traveled frequently. For 2 rubles a day, he got a room with cockroaches and weathered furnishings typical of the province.

First of all, he asked the tavern servant about the income of the hotel, about all the high-ranking officials of the city, about the landowners. His manner of blowing his nose loudly subdued the interlocutor. Unlike ordinary visitors, he did not ask empty, meaningless questions. It was especially surprising to hear about his interest in pestilence and epidemics in this region. All information, judging by the tone and participation in the voice, was extremely important for Chichikov. Then he walked around the city, during the walk he tore off the poster and carefully read it, folding it into a wooden chest where all sorts of things were stored.

In the first chapter, the character immediately begins to make visits. He visited all the officials, he showed special respect for everyone: he praised the governor of his city and “velvet roads”, the vice-governor was mistakenly addressed as “Your Excellency”. Skillful flattery helps him win invitations to dinners, breakfasts, and other events.

At the evening at the governor's, he carefully examined all the people and actively got acquainted. He divided the guests into thick and thin: the former succeed in life, the latter are always on the premises of the former. Some are solid and resourceful, others spend everything, but do not earn. Chichikov talks about himself without unnecessary details, "vaguely." He listens more than he talks. It is known from his stories that he “suffered for the truth”, therefore he did not rise to a high post and retired. The enemies hated him so much that they even attempted on his life. Now he has retired and is looking for a place to settle in order to live his life in peace. Chichikov introduced himself as a landowner and collegiate adviser.

The hero shows helpfulness: it is appropriate to make compliments to officials and landowners, subtly asks for all the necessary information. It is here that the society of the city is revealed. Some ladies blindly follow the French fashion, others, due to lack of funds, dressed “in what God sent to the provincial city. The fat gentlemen played whist until night (our hero was also in this company), the thin gentlemen followed the ladies. At the governor's, Chichikov met Manilov and Sobakevich. Subsequently, he will pay a visit to these landowners. After the whist, the hero showed his ability to argue: he did it so kindly that everyone liked to listen to him.

The next day, the hero comes to the chief of police, where he meets the familiar and suspicious master Nozdrev, whose acquaintances are closely watching his game. Then he makes a visit to the chairman of the chamber, the vice-governor, the farmer and the prosecutor, showing all the virtues of a secular person: he knows how to talk about everything, knowing absolutely nothing.

As a result, all the inhabitants of the city highly appreciated the guest. Even Sobakevich, who rarely praised anyone, called the interlocutor pleasant.

Chapter 2: Manilow

The author describes the servants of the protagonist. Petrushka wore a frock coat from the master's shoulder, had large features. He was silent, read a lot and indiscriminately, not understanding what he read. He slept without undressing, and had a unique smell that he carried with him everywhere. The coachman was his opposite, but the author interrupts himself and argues that sometimes for a Russian a hated acquaintance with a higher rank is more precious than friendship.

In this chapter, Chichikov makes his first visit to the "sugar-eyed" landowner Manilov. On the way he sees the same thing as everywhere else: dilapidated villages, thin forest, cattle. But it is no coincidence that he mistakenly searches for the "village of Zamanilovka." Both the place and the owner himself resemble something lifeless, viscous. The stone two-story house is open to all winds, the park is not well maintained in the English manner. The modest pavilion bears the proud name of the Temple of Solitary Reflection. Near the house there are 200 gray huts. Even the weather that day was to match the estate and the landowner - neither this nor that, neither gloomy nor bright.

Manilov, a blue-eyed, middle-aged blond with pleasant features, is "neither this nor that". The author complains that it is difficult to describe this small character. It is good to talk with him for the first 5 minutes, and then boredom takes death from his flattery and sweetness. He is not burdened by anything, he does not care about anything, he does not even have real interests. But he always fantasized about something. For example, he wanted to lead an underground passage through the house, build a stone bridge over the river, and put merchant shops on it.

Something was always missing in his house (for several years he could not fit two armchairs with the necessary material, for 8 years the necessary room had been standing without furniture), the hero had not been engaged in his household for a long time, and the whole house stood on the shoulders of the clerk. The servants stole and drank, the barn was empty. No one followed them, because the wife was a match for her husband: an idle and "sugar" woman without interests and will. In her boarding school, she learned three things: French, needlework, and playing the piano. She was pretty and tastefully dressed.

Manilov may seem like a pleasant person at first glance, but then his excessive “sugarness” appears (for example, he and Chichikov argued for several minutes who would be the first to pass through the door). At the table, he discussed all the inhabitants of the city, and pretentiously praised everyone. The character tried to appear literate and educated (but for two years now he has had a dusty book with a bookmark on the same page 14 on his desk), complained about the lack of equally delicate and intelligent neighbors. Then he praised the guest, described the spiritual pleasure from the conversation with him. He introduced his sons: he gave the children names formed from two languages ​​at once (Themistoclus and Alklid). Wanting to be pleasant, the visitor praised the boys' ordinary answers to stupid questions.

At the end of dinner, Chichikov goes to the owner's pleasant bluish office. He asked about the peasants, and Manilov called a yellow-faced, pompous clerk of about 40 years old. He undertook to compile a list of the dead peasants. The guest tells about his intention - he wants to buy dead souls from the landowner. At first, Manilov was frightened, asked about the legality of the enterprise, but then he kindly agreed to the deal, since the interlocutor said a lot of smart words, which completely confused the landowner. After that, Chichikov was moved and even shed a tear, complaining about the unjust persecution in the service and thanking the owner of the house. Then Pavel Ivanovich said goodbye, having learned the way to Sobakevich.

Until dinner, Manilov dreamed of a cordial friendship with Chichikov, dreamed of their luxurious trips and acquaintance with the sovereign, but could not understand why the guest needed the dead souls that he gave him without taking money?

Chapter 3: Box

The hero, together with his coachman Selifan, goes to Sobakevich. At this time, the hero thinks about his adventure, and the coachman talks to the horses and reproaches the especially lazy horse. However, the coachman, reproaching the bay horse for a “dishonest life”, misses the right turn, and even a thunderstorm begins. The tipsy coachman overturned the britzka at the turn: the owner fell into the mud. So they accidentally end up with the landowner Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka. The maid accepted them reluctantly, with distrust, but the status of a nobleman solved all problems: the gates opened. The hostess - an old woman in a hastily dressed cap - complained that there was nothing to treat the guest: it was night in the yard. Pavel Ivanovich understood from her answers that he was lost in the wilderness. After giving the laundry to the laundry, he went to bed.

Before readers is the image of a stingy hostess, always putting something off "for a rainy day." Such people cry for poverty and crop failures, while they themselves save a decent amount. Their economy is established, nothing is wasted, even the old hoods go to distant heirs in good condition.

In the morning he saw a well-established economy (a lot of cattle, a large garden, the contentment of the peasants who lived in strong and renovated huts, she had 80 souls in total) and the modest decoration of the house (paintings with birds, old clocks). Chichikov decided not to be modest, as in dealing with Manilov. Paying attention to this, the author talks about the richness of the shades of the Russian language: the boss speaks to his subordinates like Prometheus, but those who are higher in rank fawn like a partridge. Our man, unlike a foreigner, speaks with his environment in different ways: with those who have 200 souls, one tone, and with those who have a hundred more, another.

It was not easy for Chichikov to make a deal with her. The interlocutor even suggested that the buyer wants to dig the peasants out of the ground. The guest was finally convinced that the landowner was "a strong-headed and club-headed woman." She was afraid to sell too cheap, because she had never dealt with such a product. To all the arguments of the interlocutor, she replied that when the merchants came in large numbers, she would check the prices, but for now it was too early to sell. In conversation, she complained about poverty, crop failure, actively bargained, not understanding why the guest needed such a product. As a result, Chichikov lost his temper, broke a chair and mentioned devils. By chance, he also mentioned that he supposedly manages government contracts, and came to find a good supplier of various products. Then the old woman began to curry favor with the official, she really wanted a large order. He promised to buy also hemp, flour, lard, but later. Having agreed to sell the dead peasants to Chichikov, the landowner worried for a long time whether she had taken too little for them.

The serf girl escorted the britzka to the main road: Chichikov was on his way to Sobakevich's.

Chapter 4: Nozdryov

Chichikov and Selifan stop for a bite to eat. The author describes the unusually spacious stomach of a gentleman of an average hand, who eats everything and in large quantities. No amount of money can buy it.

The writer describes the tavern: pine walls, carved decorations, a frosty samovar, a fat hostess. She told the traveler everything she knew about herself and her family, but most importantly, about the local nobles. She gave them an interesting description:

Manilov will be grander than Sobakevich: he orders the chicken to be boiled at once, and asks for veal too; if there is mutton's liver, then he will ask for mutton's liver, and will just try everything, but Sobakevich will ask one thing, but he will eat it all, even demand a surcharge for the same price.

Travelers meet Nozdrev in the tavern. N.V. Gogol immediately describes the portrait of the hero, without even naming him.

This is a character "of medium height, a very well-built fellow with full ruddy cheeks, with snow-white teeth and jet-black sideburns."

He was healthy and fresh, a man in full bloom. Nozdryov arrived at the tavern on the "philistine" - he lost his wagon, watch, chain - everything that was with him, at the fair, where he drank for several days in a row with officers and his son-in-law. He jokes, tells some stories all the time and constantly exaggerates and lies (his son-in-law reproaches him for this). He treats Chichikov like a brother, although he knows him very little. The interlocutor, after persuasion, goes to the estate of the landowner.

The author describes the lively and restless character of Nozdrev: he is a prominent and daring scorcher, at 35 he behaved like 18. He often cheated at cards, was fond of women (he is a widower, a pretty nanny takes care of the children). He was often beaten for cheating and other dirty tricks that he did to people for no reason. Calling everyone friends, he suddenly upset an engagement or a deal, and then he also reproached the one who stopped all acquaintance with him. Often he pulled down all the cards he had. He especially liked to lie and compose fables. The author says that this character in Russia is eternal.

First of all, Nozdryov shows the guest the stable. N.V. It is no coincidence that Gogol draws attention to this scene - it emphasizes the similarity between the landowner and the horse. Then they look at the kennel and the mill. The landlord especially loves his dogs.

They went to an office where neither books nor papers were beaten. Only weapons hung there: daggers, guns, sabers. In addition, there were many smoking pipes. Then there was lunch, but tasteless: the chef mixed the ingredients in one heap, not caring about the compatibility and degree of readiness of the dishes. But the owner himself was indifferent to the table: he leaned on alcohol. Several wines were served. He actively poured one of them to the guests, but not to himself. Chichikov also poured it out. As a result, the drunk son-in-law went to his wife, and our heroes were left alone.

Chichikov is trying to make a deal with Nozdryov, hoping to buy dead peasants from him as well. However, such a proposal greatly puzzled the landowner. He refused to sell peasants to him until Chichikov told him his idea in full. The hero lies that he wants to get married, and the bride's parents want the groom to have more than 300 souls. A perceptive interlocutor catches him in a lie and says that Pavel Ivanovich is a big swindler. The owner scolded him, they quarreled. Chichikov spent the night with terrible thoughts: the joker and liar Nozdryov could ruin his business.

In the morning it turned out that Nozdryov himself wants to get as much profit as possible: he offers his friend to buy a horse, a mare from him, or to play for money. They end up playing chess. In this scene, the image of the landowner is fully revealed. Chichikov notices that Nozdryov is deceiving him, so he tries to leave his estate as quickly as possible. Here the owner became furious and ordered the servants to beat the guest. Pavel Ivanovich was already preparing for fights, with the advent of the police captain, it becomes known that Nozdrev is on trial for beating the landowner Maximov. Then the guest ran away and went to Sobakevich.

Chapter 5: Sobakevich

They left Nozdryov: everyone, even the horses that did not receive oats, were unhappy. Chichikov and Selifan continue their journey. Through the fault of the servant, they are embroiled in a new trouble - their wagon is mated with someone else's. While the coachmen are correcting an unpleasant situation, Chichikov admires a young girl with golden hair, who is sitting in a wagon with her mother. “Glorious grandmother,” says the main character. But even Chichikov's thoughts about the girl "with a prudently chilled character" are connected with money. In his opinion, if she were rich (200 thousand dowry), she would be the happiness of a “decent person”. He also thought that while the girl is perfect, because anything can be made out of her. But the aunts and gossips a year after the boarding school will fill her head with all sorts of "women", and all immediacy will turn into stiffness and puffiness of a secular young lady in search of a profitable groom. She will lie all her life and say only what is supposed to be, and no more than she should. But the girl had already left, and our hero went about his business.

In this chapter, Chichikov makes a visit to the landowner Sobakevich. His estate was prosperous, strong, large, like the hero. There was no beauty, but there was practicality and reliability. Everything was "stubborn, without shaking, in some kind of strong and clumsy order." The landowner himself reminded Chichikov in his appearance of a bear, "he was even called Mikhailo Semyonovich." Even his suit was the color of bear hair. His complexion shone with red-hot copper. Facial features were large, sharp, without small details. The legs are huge, the gait is clubfoot. He himself was silent, gloomy, clumsy.

The whole room was a reflection of the owner of the estate. The bellied walnut dressing table resembled a bear, as did the rest of the furniture. Portraits of “healthy and strong people” hung on the walls, even pets (a strong and fat thrush in a cage) looked like Sobakevich. His wife was tall, her head resembled a cucumber, and her author compared it to a palm tree.

At dinner, the heroes had time to discuss all the officials, each of whom was scolded by the landowner either as a fool or as a robber. The whole city, in his opinion, was a den of Christ-sellers and swindlers, one prosecutor was nothing, although “yes, he is a pig,” concluded the owner of the house. They ate hearty and dense: lamb side, stuffed turkey, cheesecakes. After that, the guest felt an unprecedented heaviness.

After the hostess leaves, Chichikov floridly tells him about his “subject”: Sobakevich was not embarrassed by such an offer, he bargained with the hero for a long time, trying to get as much benefit as possible. He even praised the quality of the souls as if it mattered. His souls were excellent workers: Mikheev made excellent spring carriages, Stepan Cork had extraordinary strength, Milushkin made stoves, and Telyatnikov made high-quality boots. Sorokoplekhin even brought 500 rubles in dues.

After fierce bargaining and disputes, the deal was completed, but Chichikov had never been so difficult: Sobakevich was a real fist who squeezed his benefit out of everything he saw. Suddenly, the silent man became a great orator when it came to money. He was smart, and even hinted to the petitioner that his interest was not entirely legitimate. As a result, the landowner forces him to leave a deposit of 25 rubles and writes a receipt.

At dinner, Chichikov learned about Plyushkin, and that his souls were dying in batches because of his greed. He decided to go there.

The author talks about the strength and accuracy of the Russian word: it reflects the essence so accurately that you cannot distort it with any effort. The word will croak and reveal the essence to the world, as if the person with whom he was awarded would not try to ruin him.

Chapter 6: Plushkin

On the way to another landowner - Plyushkin - Chichikov sadly recalls his youth. He notes that now he looks at the world with a "chilled" look. Previously, everything was interesting to him, but now nothing attracts his attention, everything is tired.

Gradually he approaches his destination. Everything in the estate reflects the essence of the owner: an old abandoned garden, dilapidated and rotten buildings, a terrible road. People walked in rags, the roofs of the houses resembled a sieve, from the wall - the ribs of the deceased. There was no glass even on some of the windows of the old and ugly manor house, huge and unkempt. There was mold, rust, dirt everywhere.

The area was definitely dead: there were no people anywhere. Having met the housekeeper, who rudely scolded the peasant, the guest went into the house. There he met only a pile of rubbish that had not been removed for a hundred years. Even expensive things deteriorated under a layer of dust. The stupid pile of pictures did not please, but confused the eyes. Along with the sole of the boot and the broken shovel were exquisite and beautiful things.

From the middle of the ceiling hung a chandelier in a linen bag, the dust made it look like a silk cocoon in which a worm sits.

The housekeeper came to the guest, but she turned out to be a gentleman, it was just not easy to recognize him under rags. This is an old man with a protruding chin, nimble eyes, reminiscent of mice. Plyushkin was distinguished by rare greed: he picked up all the rubbish he found from the road and saved it in the room. Even from the peasants, he managed to steal buckets or something else. At the same time, there was so much rotting and superfluous goodness in his barns that it would have been enough for two such estates until the end of time.

The reader will learn the life story of this hero. We are shown the reason why Plyushkin launched his business in such a way. The landowner was a hospitable and excellent businessman, an intelligent and well-mannered conversationalist, all the neighbors were his welcome guests, and the family was a full bowl. But suddenly he was completely alone when he lost his beloved wife. A mental disorder forced him to quarrel with his children: two daughters and a son. The eldest daughter Alexandra ran away with an officer and got married, and her father cursed her. Because of this, over time, he became meaner, sloppier, more suspicious. The son also deceived expectations: instead of service, he chose military affairs, and the old man did not even give him money for uniforms. The youngest daughter soon died. And so Plyushkin became a miser and a keeper of useless wealth. Somehow the son lost at cards, and his father finally cursed him. The daughter forgave when she brought her grandchildren, but did not give a single gift.

Plyushkin did not welcome the guest, justifying himself that there was no hay, no food, and in general only losses. The 70-year-old man, however, was very happy with Chichikov's proposal. He, of course, suspected that the visitor was stupid to do such things, but he could not resist the benefit. He had 120 dead peasants.

He called Proshka, and it turned out that all the peasants had the same boots, which everyone who came to the master put on and took off in the hallway. Even in the cold, they walked barefoot to the house. The owner ordered to serve Easter cake, which was brought by his daughter. He had already become a cracker and spoiled on top, but the landowner believed that he would be suitable for tea. He even ordered mold crumbs not to be thrown away, but to be given to the hens. The owner also offered a liquor, from which he fished out the dirt with his own hands. But Chichikov refused, and the owner liked it very much.

However, his eyes "have not gone out yet." Remembering his school friend, to whom he wanted to entrust a trip to the city on the Chichikov case, his face lit up with sincere feeling. But after that it faded and became vulgar again. He constantly accused the servants of theft and extravagance, although no one stole anything.

As a result, Plyushkin also sold runaway peasants to the guest, desperately bargaining with him. After Chichikov made his deal with the landowner, he continued on his way. And the owner of the house thought that it would be nice to leave a clock in the will for such a good person.

Chichikov returned to the city in a good mood because of a good deal.

Chapter 7: Deal

The author in a lyrical digression compares the two writers. One describes only sublime and heroic characters, writes what people like to read. Everyone loves him, everyone respects him, glory and honor are at his feet, and they equate him almost with God. But unfortunate is the other who writes what is really there. The characters of his heroes are mundane, boring, miserable, like everyday life. The public does not recognize him, and he is like a bachelor who has neither a home nor a family. He refers himself to the second category and invites us to see what his hero does.

He woke up and began to decorate the peasants, imagining the story of their whole life. It turned out that most of the peasants, judging by the notes of Sobakevich, did not die a natural death, but at work. He made up stories about Plyushkin's peasants: where did they run away to? What happened to them? Someone is in prison, and someone went to barge haulers, in a word, an unenviable fate.

In this part of the poem, our hero goes to the civil ward. At the entrance, Chichikov meets the soft-spoken Manilov, who accompanies him into the room. It's dirty and unkempt in there.

Themis just what it is, in a negligee and a bathrobe received guests

The hero quickly wanted to complete his work, but curious officials deliberately detained him. Chichikov is sent to one, then to another. Everyone wants to get a reward, and our hero understands all the hints. In the chairman's office, he meets Sobakevich. He willingly harms and says that all the sold peasants are alive. Chichikov also composes to justify the purchase. All the details of his deals are carefully discussed, the hero himself is forced to stay one more day - to celebrate.

After the “official part”, the heroes go to the police chief (who takes bribes from merchants with excellent delicacies), where they drink for the new Kherson landowner, and even try to marry him. The hero got so drunk that upon arrival home he ordered to count the new peasants and line them up. The servants also got drunk.

Chapter 8: Governor's Ball

Chichikov became famous throughout the province, his purchases "became the subject of conversation." Both officials and ladies talk about him. Everyone is discussing whether he will be able to settle in Kherson, whether his peasants will work in good conscience, and so on.

Here the author describes the ladies of the city, but it is difficult for him: timidity interferes. They are presentable, courteous and experts in etiquette, but sometimes they quarrel over trifles, and then their husbands also mischief each other. Outwardly, they are richly dressed, have a chic departure. Their morality is valued, for scandals they scourge delinquent persons without pity. But quiet romances and intrigues get away with it. They spoke in a mixture of French and Russian, half of the words were completely thrown out of speech in order to ennoble it. These ladies were so carried away by the guest that on the eve of the evening they bought up all the expensive fabrics. The hero is even sent an unsigned love letter. At the ball, he was in the spotlight - everyone was interested in him, they took him for a millionaire. Everywhere he was called, praised, hugged, felt. Everyone wanted to be his friend. The ladies froze in anxious expectation, whom he would prefer. The hall was stuffy with perfume and crowded with dresses. He himself could not figure out who wrote to him. All the ladies surrounded him, attacked him with conversations and hints, he completely lost his head, but suddenly the governor's wife called out to him, and he saw her blond daughter. Soon he became interested in this sixteen-year-old girl, whom he met once, leaving Nozdryov. He even felt the awkwardness of youth, timidity, when he began to follow her. Fantasy hit him in the head, and he already wanted to marry the girl.

Noticing this, the ladies stopped paying attention to him. Moreover, indignation spread throughout the hall, and the women were offended and opposed to Chichikov and his passion. Sharp remarks and gossip instantly destroyed the girl's reputation. However, everyone around still believed that he bought the living peasants, that he was the owner of a large estate. The drunken Nozdryov accidentally reveals the secret of Chichikov. At the ball, he asks the hero about the dead peasants. Society is in disarray, and an upset Chichikov soon leaves the secular party. So far, the gossip and the liar have not been believed, but rumors have spread throughout the city.

At the end of the chapter, Chichikov stigmatizes the balls, saying that they were invented for women to pull on themselves a thousand rubles of dues or bribes from their husbands. And all in order to throw dust in the eyes of the rest of the women. Roughly, he reprimanded the society dandies, who only talk in vain. Then he attacked Nozdryov with his drunken frankness.

But at that very time, while our hero was awake and thinking, Korobochka arrived in the city, fearing that she had cheapened the sale of souls, and wanting to find out how much this product is now in the city.

Chapter 9: The collapse of the scam

In the morning, one noble person rushed at all times to her friend - she was carrying news. Two ladies - Anna Grigorievna and Sofia Ivanovna - gossip about the mysterious millionaire Chichikov. Each of them expresses their opinion, mentioning in the dialogue the story that Korobochka told. The landowner complained that Chichikov deceived her, treated her rudely, almost broke the gate. By force of arms, he demanded that his will be done. Moreover, she talked about the fact that he was buying dead souls (describing the conversations of gossips, the author shows their vanity and stupidity: they are only interested in outfits and rumors, and they distort and exaggerate every story. Each wanted to stigmatize everyone for what they fell in love with Chichikov, who turned out to be a scoundrel).

Soon the whole city began to discuss Chichikov again, but not as a millionaire, but as a real criminal. There were even rumors about his intentions to kidnap the provincial daughter. The girl was immediately branded an immoral and ugly mannered doll. The people were divided into two parties: the ladies were talking about the kidnapping and that Nozdryov was involved. The men believed that he was either a swindler or an official sent for a secret check. An investigation began: but neither Chichikov's servants, nor Sobakevich and Manilov reported anything interesting.

As a result, the hero was not allowed into any house, he was no longer invited to dinners, to balls. The whole company gathered at the chief of police to resolve the issue with Chichikov. The matter was complicated by the fact that a new governor-general was appointed in the region, and that, judging by the papers sent, a counterfeiter and a fugitive robber were hiding in their city. Maybe Pavel Ivanovich is not the one he claims to be?

Chapter 10: Consequence

Having gathered at the “benefactor of the city”, the residents try to guess what Chichikov is. Everyone was afraid that this was an auditor, and the prospect of checking made the gentlemen lose weight. Everyone reproached each other for being dishonest and for making life easier for them. As a result, a version arose that Chichikov was Captain Kopeikin.

This chapter presents the story of Captain Kopeikin. This is a story about a poor honest military man who became a victim of injustice. He returned from the battles disabled, and Captain Kopeikin did not have enough money either for housing or for food. He decided to seek help from the authorities. After many unsuccessful attempts to talk to the general, he went directly to him in the waiting room. Kopeikin was promised to rectify the situation, but when the tsar arrives. He refused to leave, he was taken out by force. After that, no one saw him, but a gang of robbers appeared in the forests under his leadership. But here's the bad luck: the hero has neither an arm nor a leg, but Chichikov is whole.

Then they thought that the guest looked like Napoleon, each thought to himself that this might be true. In those days, people believed that Bonaparte was the embodiment of an overseas monster, the real Antichrist. But this version did not catch on. Then we went to Nozdryov. The author is surprised that everyone knows that he is a liar, but at the first opportunity they went to him. He compares the officials of the city with a man who avoided and was afraid of doctors all his life, but was willingly treated by a healer who heals with spitting and screaming.

Nozdryov himself did not leave the house for 4 days and chose seclusion in order to choose a good card, which he would continue to rely on in games. He planned to sit like this for 2 weeks, but agreed to an invitation in anticipation of a good party.

The landowner confused fellow citizens even more. He made up a fiction that Chichikov studied with him at the same school, that he was a counterfeiter, that he really needed to steal the governor's daughter. He admitted that he helped him, and even gave the exact details of a non-existent adventure out of a simple desire to attract everyone's attention. Convinced that he was lying, the inhabitants of the city became even more confused. The prosecutor even died from the strain.

All this time, Chichikov was sick with flux and suffered from a sore throat. As soon as he recovered, he, surprised that no one visited him, went to his friends, but he was either not received, or received so strangely that he began to fear for their mental health.

Nozdryov came to him and told him that everyone in the city considered him a counterfeiter, and only the landowner himself defended his friend. Then he reproached him for the idea of ​​kidnapping the governor's daughter, offered to help him by lending him 3,000 rubles. Chichikov got frightened, sent the guest out, and decided to leave the next morning.

Chapter 11: Chichikov's Flight

Chichikov was delayed and left only in the evening, as the horses had to be shod. On the way, he came across the prosecutor's funeral. Having missed the procession, he left the city.

The author talks about Russia: although it cannot boast of bright attire, beautiful cities, contentment and wealth, it has a special beauty of empty and huge fields, colorless and wild forests. Then he lovingly describes the road, which more than once helped him to forget his worries. The beauty of her night, her loneliness and the endless string of changing landscapes pleases the eye. Then he spoke about his hero. Ladies will not like Chichikov, the author is sure. He is fat and not at all perfect, and the public does not forgive the hero for this. But he promises to portray such impeccably beautiful Slavs, man and woman, that they will arouse pride in the reader for the people, but that will be later. In the meantime, it is necessary to describe the scoundrel, the writer concluded. He describes to us the childhood of his hero.

Chichikov was from a poor noble family. I was born like no other.

At the beginning, life looked at him somehow sourly and uncomfortably, through some kind of cloudy, snow-covered window: no friend, no comrade in childhood!

Mother died early. A sick and strict father brought up reluctantly, tore at the ears. Sending the child to school, he ordered him to obey his superiors, to try to please future bosses in everything, to be careful about money and not to make friends. A penny is man's only friend.

Chichikov, already in his school years, knew how to find ways to get money: he was not treated, but he was treated, and he hid delicacies and sold them. He also sold pies, performed with a trained mouse, and made wax figurines. He had no abilities in the sciences, but he pleased his teachers so much that he studied well. He graduated from school brilliantly, because his mentor valued not intelligence, but good manners. But then he repented of his attitude towards Pavel: when the teacher became impoverished and found himself in poverty, former students collected money for him. And only Pavel gave very little, barely allowing himself to be persuaded.

After school, he manages to get into the Treasury. His father, having gone to another world, left him quite a bit of money. To move up the career ladder, Chichikov often deceived other people. By cunning, the hero tried to achieve his goals. For example, with flattery and antics, he achieved the patronage of the boss, and then forgot the way to his house and the desire to marry his ugly daughter. Nevertheless, he was caught for taking bribes in a new place, but he did not give up and ended up in customs. There he started a new scam related to smuggling, but an accomplice wrote a denunciation against him without sharing a woman with him. Having lost almost all the loot, he again did not lose heart. The hero went to serve, and in a new place he got the idea to put non-existent peasants in the board of trustees, where they would give 200 rubles for each. According to the audit, they were all considered alive, and after that he already expected to leave with the money. There Pavel Ivanovich ended up in the city.

The author says that his hero is not even a scoundrel, but an "acquirer", and his shortcoming is rooted in this. However, the reason for the unattractiveness of Chichikov is that the author showed him like that. If the reader had personally met him, he would have formed a different opinion, and Pavel Ivanovich would have seemed a remarkable person. The writer is now afraid that critics will be unfair to him, he is especially afraid of patriots who usually live thinking only about their own benefit, but raise a cry when they hear that something is not right around. The author reproached the reader that he would begin to look for signs of Chichikov in others, but not in himself, that he would only laugh at the book, but would not change anything in himself.

The last lines are devoted to fast driving: the daring Russian loves it. The author compares the troika made by our master with Rus, lovingly describes its movement. That is what other countries are letting go.