What is the work of the beast Leskov. "Beast

Nikolai Leskov

And the animals heed the holy word.

Life of Elder Seraphim

Chapter one

My father was a famous investigator in his time. He was entrusted with many important tasks, and therefore he was often absent from the family, and his mother, I and servants remained at home.

My mother was still very young then, and I was a little boy.

In the case I now want to relate, I was only five years old.

It was winter, and very cruel. It was so cold that sheep froze at night in the stables, and sparrows and jackdaws fell stiff on the frozen ground. My father was at this time on official duties in Yelets and did not promise to come home even by Christmas, and therefore my mother was going to go to him herself, so as not to leave him alone on this wonderful and joyful holiday. On the occasion of the terrible cold, my mother did not take me with her on a long journey, but left me with her sister, my aunt, who was married to one Oryol landowner, about whom there was a sad fame. He was very rich, old and cruel. Malice and inexorability prevailed in his character, and he did not regret it in the least, but, on the contrary, even flaunted these qualities, which, in his opinion, served as if an expression of courageous strength and inflexible firmness of spirit.

He sought to develop the same courage and firmness in his children, of whom one son was my age.

Everyone was afraid of my uncle, and I was more than everyone, because he wanted to “develop courage” in me, and once, when I was three years old and there was a terrible thunderstorm that I was afraid of, he put me alone on the balcony and locked the door so that such a lesson to wean me from fear during a thunderstorm.

It is clear that I was a guest in the house of such a host reluctantly and with considerable fear, but I, I repeat, was then five years old, and my desires were not taken into account when considering the circumstances that I had to obey.

Chapter Two

In the uncle's estate there was a huge stone house that looked like a castle. It was a pretentious, but ugly and even ugly two-story building with a round dome and a tower, about which terrible horrors were told. The crazy father of the current landowner once lived there, then a pharmacy was established in his rooms. It was also somehow considered scary; but the most terrible thing was that at the top of this tower, in an empty, curved window, strings were stretched, that is, the so-called "Aeolian harp" was arranged. When the wind ran through the strings of this masterful instrument, these strings emitted how many unexpected, just as often strange sounds, passing from a quiet thick roar into restless discordant groans and a frantic rumble, as if a whole host, stricken with fear, persecuted spirits flew through them. Everyone in the house did not like this harp and thought that she was saying something to the formidable lord here and he did not dare to object to her, but because of this she became even more merciless and cruel ... It was undoubtedly noted that if a storm broke out at night and the harp on the tower hummed so that sounds reach the village through the ponds and parks, then the master does not sleep that night and the next morning he gets up gloomy and stern and gives some cruel order that trembles the hearts of all his many slaves.

It was in the customs of the house that no guilt was ever forgiven to anyone there. It was a rule that never changed, not only for man, but even for a beast or some small animal. My uncle did not want to know mercy and did not love him, for he considered him a weakness. Steadfast severity seemed to him beyond all indulgence. That is why in the house and in all the vast villages belonging to this rich landowner, despondent despondency always reigned, which animals shared with people.

Chapter Three

The late uncle was a passionate lover of dog hunting. He rode with greyhounds and hunted wolves, hares and foxes. In addition, in his hunting there were special dogs that took bears. These dogs were called "leeches". They dug into the beast so that they could not be torn off from it. It happened that a bear, into which a leech bit its teeth, killed it with a blow of its terrible paw or tore it in half, but it never happened that the leech fell off alive from the beast.

Now, when bears are hunted only by roundups or with. horned, the breed of leech dogs, it seems, has already completely disappeared in Russia; but at the time of which I am speaking, they were at almost every well-organized, great hunt. There were also a lot of bears in our area then, and hunting for them was a great pleasure.

When it happened to take possession of a whole bear's nest, then from the den they took and brought small cubs. They were usually kept in a large stone shed with small windows built just under the roof. These windows were without glass, with only thick iron bars. The cubs used to climb up to them one by one and hang, holding on to the iron with their tenacious, clawed paws. Only in this way could they look out of their prison into the free light of God.

When we were taken out for a walk before dinner, we liked most of all to go to this barn and look at the funny muzzles of bear cubs exposed from behind bars. The German tutor Kolberg knew how to serve them, on the end of a stick, pieces of bread that we reserved for this purpose at our breakfast.

The bears were looked after and fed by a young traveler named Ferapont; but, as this name was difficult for the common people to pronounce, it was pronounced “Krapon”, or even more often “Kraposhka”. I remember him very well: Khraposhka was of medium height, a very dexterous, strong and courageous guy of about twenty-five. Khrapon was considered handsome - he was white, ruddy, with black curls and big black bulging eyes. In addition, he was unusually brave. He had a sister, Annushka, who was in care, and she told us fascinating things about the courage of her daring brother and about his extraordinary friendship with the bears, with whom he slept together in winter and summer in their barn, so that they surrounded him from all sides. and laid their heads on it as on a pillow.

In front of my uncle's house, behind a wide round flower garden surrounded by a painted lattice, there was a wide gate, and opposite the gate in the middle of the curtain was a tall, straight, smoothly ironed tree, which was called the "mast". At the top of this mast was attached a small platform, or, as it was called, "arbor".

From among the captive cubs, one “smart” one was always selected, who seemed to be the most intelligent and trustworthy in character. Such a one was separated from other brothers, and he lived in freedom, that is, he was allowed to walk around the yard and in the park, but mainly he had to keep a guard post at the post in front of the gate. Here he spent most of his time, either lying on the straw at the very mast, or climbing up it to the "gazebo" and sitting here or also sleeping, so that neither annoying people nor dogs would pester him.

Not all bears could live such a free life, but only some, especially smart and meek ones, and even then not during their entire life, but until they began to reveal their bestial, uncomfortable inclinations in the hostel, that is, until they behaved quietly and did not touch anything. no chickens, no geese, no calves, no man.

The bear, which disturbed the tranquility of the inhabitants, was immediately condemned to death, and nothing could save him from this sentence.

Chapter Four

Khrapon was supposed to select the "smart bear". Since he treated cubs most of all and was revered as a great connoisseur of their nature, it is clear that he alone could do this. Khrapon, on the other hand, was responsible for making an unsuccessful choice, but from the very first time he chose for this role an amazingly capable and intelligent bear, who was given an unusual name: bears in Russia are generally called “bears”, and this one bore the Spanish nickname “ Sganarelle". He has lived in freedom for five years and has not done a single "prank" yet. - When they said about a bear that “he is naughty”, this meant that he had already revealed his bestial nature by some kind of attack.

Then the “naughty” was put for some time in the “pit”, which was arranged in a wide clearing between the threshing floor and the forest, and after a while they let him out (he himself got out on a log) to a clearing and then he was poisoned by "young leeches" (that is, grown-up puppies of bear dogs). If the puppies did not know how to take it and there was a danger that the beast would go into the forest, then the two best hunters standing in the reserve "secret" rushed at him with selected experienced packs, and then the matter came to an end.

If these dogs were so clumsy that the bear could break through “to the island” (that is, to the forest), which was connected to the vast Bryansk woodland, then a special shooter with a long and heavy Kuchenreiter fitting was put forward and, aiming “from a bipod”, sent the bear deadly bullet.

For a bear to ever get away from all these dangers, such a case had never happened before, but it was scary to think if this could happen: then deadly punishments would await all those responsible.

The narrator, then still a five-year-old boy, was visiting his uncle in the Oryol province. Not only the serfs, but also family members were afraid of his wrath. He did not forgive anyone even the slightest mistakes.

The landowner was a great hunter. He bred a special breed of dogs, which they called leeches, as they differed from other dogs in a stranglehold. Often hunters from serfs, on the orders of the master, brought little bear cubs to the estate and gave them up to Ferapont, who served as a traveler. The most calm and obedient bear guarded the landowner's household. But if any pranks were noticed behind him, the landowner arranged a hunt for him for his guests.

For the fifth year, the yard was guarded by Ferapont's favorite - a bear named Sganarelle. He was a good-natured animal and loved his teacher very much. Yes, and Ferapont became very attached to the bear and treated him like a close friend. But around Christmas, animal instinct began to wake up in Sganarelle. The angry landowner decided to get rid of the bear. He invited guests to the holiday, and ordered the bear to be put in a deep hole.

Sganarelle was a smart bear. On the day of the hunt, he categorically refused to get out of the pit, no matter how they mocked him and provoked those around him. In the end, the bear managed to get out of the hole and break through the dense ring of hunters. Ferapont managed to help him hide in the forest, for which the landowner threatened to severely punish him for spoiling the hunt.

In the evening, guests and even children anxiously waited for the appearance of the owner of the house. He came, accompanied by two hunting dogs, and settled himself in a chair. Among the guests was an old priest, Father Alexei. He quietly began to tell those present about the Christmas holiday, about love for each other, about the ability to forgive and sympathize, console and support, because it was not in vain that Christ was born. Father Alexei spoke for a long time, and everyone perfectly understood to whom these words were intended. And suddenly everyone saw that the owner of the house was crying. Later he ordered to call Ferapont. The landowner signed a license for him and allowed him to leave. But Ferapont remained on the estate and until the end of his life was for the landowner not only a devoted servant, but also a true friend, although he was already considered a free man. Together they did many good deeds, so even after their death, they were not forgotten in the district.

The story teaches compassion for any living being, kindness and mercy.

Other retellings for the reader's diary

• Summary of Medvedko Mamin-Sibiryak

  Once my coachman Andrey suggested that I take a bear cub, he found out that the hunters gave the animal to the neighbors. Neighbors were in a hurry to give someone such a glorious animal.

The story is in the first person, a hero who recalls a story from his childhood that happened on the day of the Nativity of Christ. He, a five-year-old boy, was left as an aunt, since his father was serving in Yelets at that time, and his mother went to visit him.

My aunt's husband was a rather strict and cruel Oryol landowner, not the most friendly fame went about him. The house, in which the landowner's family lived, inspired melancholy and a certain fear throughout the district. In this house, no one has ever been forgiven for any dirty trick, whether the offender is a person or an animal, everyone had to be punished.

The old landowner was very fond of bear hunting, for this he kept special dogs - leeches, which dug into the skin of a clubfoot from all sides, which could not be torn off.

If during the hunt they found little bear cubs in the den, they were brought to the yard and locked in a special barn. They were looked after by a young guy Khrapon (Ferapont) who arrived. He even slept with the bears, so he knew the character of each animal well, and chose the most meek of them to protect the possessions. If the bear eventually began to play pranks, that is, he did dirty tricks to the owner, he was first thrown into the pit, and then the uncle organized the persecution of the bear. The animal was lured out of the pit, poisoned with leeches, and then killed with a shot.

But for five years in a row, a bear named Sganarelle served as a guard. He became a real friend to Khrapon, knew how to beat the drum, wore his favorite hat with a peacock feather. One day, the bestial instinct woke up in Sganarelle, and he was drawn to "pranks", for which he had no forgiveness. The uncle ordered Khrapon to throw the bear into the pit and announced that on Christmas Day, after the festive dinner, Sganarelle would be "baited". This announcement greatly upset the children, and especially Khrapon. He then had to lead a friend to the pit.

Christmas came and guests came to the landowner to look at the persecution of Sganarelle. But not everything went according to Uncle's plan. The bear, as if sensing trouble, did not want to under any torture, leaves the pit, then his uncle ordered Khrapon to take the beast out. He immediately fulfilled the desire of the owner. But Sganarelle managed to escape into the forest, making a lot of noise and frightening all the guests. After the “baiting”, the family members and the remaining guests are horrified to see what fate the uncle will prepare for Khrapon, who considers him guilty of the failure of the spectacle. But, having heard the priest's story about the miracles of the Nativity of Christ, the cruel landowner suddenly begins to cry, asks for repentance and forgives everything to Khrapon, while granting him freedom. The subject, on the other hand, thanks the owner for forgiveness and remains to serve him faithfully until the end of his days.

My father was a famous investigator in his time. He was entrusted with many important tasks, and therefore he was often absent from the family, and his mother, I and servants remained at home.

My mother was still very young then, and I was a little boy.

In the case I now want to relate, I was only five years old.

It was winter, and very cruel. It was so cold that sheep froze at night in the stables, and sparrows and jackdaws fell stiff on the frozen ground. My father was at this time on official duties in Yelets and did not promise to come home even by Christmas, and therefore my mother was going to go to him herself, so as not to leave him alone on this wonderful and joyful holiday. On the occasion of the terrible cold, my mother did not take me with her on a long journey, but left me with her sister, my aunt, who was married to one Oryol landowner, about whom there was a sad fame. He was very rich, old and cruel. Malice and inexorability prevailed in his character, and he did not regret it in the least, but, on the contrary, even flaunted these qualities, which, in his opinion, served as if an expression of courageous strength and inflexible firmness of spirit.

He sought to develop the same courage and firmness in his children, of whom one son was my age.

Everyone was afraid of my uncle, and I was more than everyone, because he wanted to “develop courage” in me, and once, when I was three years old and there was a terrible thunderstorm that I was afraid of, he put me alone on the balcony and locked the door so that such a lesson to wean me from fear during a thunderstorm.

It is clear that I was a guest in the house of such a host reluctantly and with considerable fear, but I, I repeat, was then five years old, and my desires were not taken into account when considering the circumstances that I had to obey.

In the uncle's estate there was a huge stone house that looked like a castle. It was a pretentious, but ugly and even ugly two-story building with a round dome and a tower, about which terrible horrors were told. The crazy father of the current landowner once lived there, then a pharmacy was established in his rooms. It was also somehow considered scary; but the most terrible thing was that at the top of this tower, in an empty, curved window, strings were stretched, that is, the so-called "Aeolian harp" was arranged. When the wind ran through the strings of this masterful instrument, these strings emitted how many unexpected, just as often strange sounds, passing from a quiet thick roar into restless discordant groans and a frantic rumble, as if a whole host, stricken with fear, persecuted spirits flew through them. Everyone in the house did not like this harp and thought that she was saying something to the formidable lord here and he did not dare to object to her, but because of this she became even more merciless and cruel ... It was undoubtedly noted that if a storm broke out at night and the harp on the tower hummed so that sounds reach the village through the ponds and parks, then the master does not sleep that night and the next morning he gets up gloomy and stern and gives some cruel order that trembles the hearts of all his many slaves.

It was in the customs of the house that no guilt was ever forgiven to anyone there. It was a rule that never changed, not only for man, but even for a beast or some small animal. My uncle did not want to know mercy and did not love him, for he considered him a weakness. Steadfast severity seemed to him beyond all indulgence. That is why in the house and in all the vast villages belonging to this rich landowner, despondent despondency always reigned, which animals shared with people.

The late uncle was a passionate lover of dog hunting. He rode with greyhounds and hunted wolves, hares and foxes. In addition, in his hunting there were special dogs that took bears. These dogs were called "leeches". They dug into the beast so that they could not be torn off from it. It happened that a bear, into which a leech bit its teeth, killed it with a blow of its terrible paw or tore it in half, but it never happened that the leech fell off alive from the beast.

Now, when bears are hunted only by roundups or with. horned, the breed of leech dogs, it seems, has already completely disappeared in Russia; but at the time of which I am speaking, they were at almost every well-organized, great hunt. There were also a lot of bears in our area then, and hunting for them was a great pleasure.

When it happened to take possession of a whole bear's nest, then from the den they took and brought small cubs. They were usually kept in a large stone shed with small windows built just under the roof. These windows were without glass, with only thick iron bars. The cubs used to climb up to them one by one and hang, holding on to the iron with their tenacious, clawed paws. Only in this way could they look out of their prison into the free light of God.

When we were taken out for a walk before dinner, we liked most of all to go to this barn and look at the funny muzzles of bear cubs exposed from behind bars. The German tutor Kolberg knew how to serve them, on the end of a stick, pieces of bread that we reserved for this purpose at our breakfast.

The bears were looked after and fed by a young traveler named Ferapont; but, as this name was difficult for the common people to pronounce, it was pronounced “Krapon”, or even more often “Kraposhka”. I remember him very well: Khraposhka was of medium height, a very dexterous, strong and courageous guy of about twenty-five. Khrapon was considered handsome - he was white, ruddy, with black curls and big black bulging eyes. In addition, he was unusually brave. He had a sister, Annushka, who was in care, and she told us fascinating things about the courage of her daring brother and about his extraordinary friendship with the bears, with whom he slept together in winter and summer in their barn, so that they surrounded him from all sides. and laid their heads on it as on a pillow.

In front of my uncle's house, behind a wide round flower garden surrounded by a painted lattice, there was a wide gate, and opposite the gate in the middle of the curtain was a tall, straight, smoothly ironed tree, which was called the "mast". At the top of this mast was attached a small platform, or, as it was called, "arbor".

From among the captive cubs, one “smart” one was always selected, who seemed to be the most intelligent and trustworthy in character. Such a one was separated from other brothers, and he lived in freedom, that is, he was allowed to walk around the yard and in the park, but mainly he had to keep a guard post at the post in front of the gate. Here he spent most of his time, either lying on the straw at the very mast, or climbing up it to the "gazebo" and sitting here or also sleeping, so that neither annoying people nor dogs would pester him.

Not all bears could live such a free life, but only some, especially smart and meek ones, and even then not during their entire life, but until they began to reveal their bestial, uncomfortable inclinations in the hostel, that is, until they behaved quietly and did not touch anything. no chickens, no geese, no calves, no man.

The bear, which disturbed the tranquility of the inhabitants, was immediately condemned to death, and nothing could save him from this sentence.

Khrapon was supposed to select the "smart bear". Since he treated cubs most of all and was revered as a great connoisseur of their nature, it is clear that he alone could do this. Khrapon, on the other hand, was responsible for making an unsuccessful choice, but from the very first time he chose for this role an amazingly capable and intelligent bear, who was given an unusual name: bears in Russia are generally called “bears”, and this one bore the Spanish nickname “ Sganarelle". He has lived in freedom for five years and has not done a single "prank" yet. - When they said about a bear that “he is naughty”, this meant that he had already revealed his bestial nature by some kind of attack.

It would seem that the realist and satirist, the virtuoso stylist N. S. Leskov, were not too interested in questions of mercy. Nevertheless, in almost every of his works, as if in the background, encrypted, it sounds: people, be kind comrade to a friend -

The ethical aspect, without canceling the social denunciation, comes to the fore in the story "The Beast". In this situation, again, a person is tested for humanity. Events are seen, as it were, with double vision: the impressions of a five-year-old child, who perceives the world purely emotionally, are already transmitted by a mature person as his childhood memories.

In the world of adults, the concepts of "beast" and "man" are divorced far away. In children's perception, the bear Sganarelle and the serf Ferapont are equated with a feeling of love and compassion for both of them: "We felt sorry for Sganarel, sorry for Ferapont, and moreover, we could not decide for ourselves which of the two we pity more." But the man and the beast in Lesk's story are also artistically equalized. It constantly sounds like a bear and a serf, described in almost the same words: the handsome Ferapont - "medium height, very dexterous, strong and courageous", Sganarelle was "a big, seasoned bear, of extraordinary strength, beauty and dexterity" This is a resemblance even more increases the unconscious imitation of a bear to a person. Sganarelle knew how to walk on two paws, beat a drum, sew with a big stick, drag coolies with flour to the mill, put on a peasant's hat.

Rational logic seems to justify the destruction of the bear, in which animal instincts have awakened. But an illogical human feeling, a feeling of compassion for another living being, rises up against it. And Leskov’s direct spiritual movement of a child is more unmistakable than rational logic, which reveals its internal inconsistency. The beast is condemned to death, and he is sentenced to death according to the law invented by people for people. The devotion of the beast to man makes us evaluate the very sentence as a betrayal on the part of people. No wonder an unexpected parallel arises, emerging from the pit of Sganarelle resembles King Lear. And to the naive question of the child, is it possible to pray for Sganarelle, the old nanny, after thinking, answers that "the bear is also God's creation, and he swam with Noah in the ark"

Ferapont still saves the beast, but the essence of the story is that, having saved the bear from the inevitable death, he thereby saves the man, corrupted by the unlimited power of the serf. Despotism, subjectively understood as courageous strength and unbending firmness of spirit, gives way to kindness, which was previously regarded as unforgivable weakness. No wonder Ferapont is called the "tamer of the beast."

A kind of "taming of the beast" occurs in the story "The Old Genius". The right to such a “strange rapprochement” is given by the narrator’s remark: the debtor of the “little old woman” was “a poisoned beast” and therefore was not afraid of any hints or threats from his defenseless creditor. The same story is read with a smile, but it has its own drama. This drama is not only in the threat of poverty and homelessness hanging over the old woman, her sick daughter and granddaughter. It is no less important that the debtor betrayed their trust and thereby shook their faith in people in general. The "old genius", restoring trampled justice, returns both the lost faith in the obligatory triumph of good, and the inevitability of retribution for evil

Leskov is not sorry for the "passage genius" of such a high definition, he does not put any irony into it "Genius" punished "villainy", and for the author it is not the small "scale" of genius that is important, but its high essence is important Human talent, what would it be no matter how manifested, he constantly brings a bright, life-affirming beginning to life, because, according to Leskov, it is necessary to be connected with the spiritual beauty and warmth of the human heart.