A brief retelling of "dead souls" chapter by chapter. Dead souls Summary of dead souls 1 2 chapters

A rather beautiful small spring chaise, in which bachelors travel: retired lieutenant colonels, staff captains, landowners with about a hundred peasant souls - in a word, all those who are called middle-class gentlemen, drove into the gates of the hotel in the provincial town of NN. In the chaise sat a gentleman, not handsome, but not bad-looking either, neither too fat nor too thin; One cannot say that he is old, but not that he is too young. His entry made absolutely no noise in the city and was not accompanied by anything special; only two Russian men, standing at the door of the tavern opposite the hotel, made some comments, which, however, related more to the carriage than to those sitting in it. “Look,” one said to the other, “that’s a wheel!” What do you think, if that wheel happened, would it get to Moscow or not?” “It will get there,” answered the other. “But I don’t think he’ll get to Kazan?” “He won’t get to Kazan,” answered another. That was the end of the conversation. Moreover, when the chaise pulled up to the hotel, he met a young man in white rosin trousers, very narrow and short, in a tailcoat with attempts at fashion, from under which a shirtfront was visible, fastened with a Tula pin with a bronze pistol. The young man turned back, looked at the carriage, held his cap with his hand, which was almost blown off by the wind, and went his way.

When the carriage entered the yard, the gentleman was greeted by the tavern servant, or sex worker, as they are called in Russian taverns, lively and fidgety to such an extent that it was impossible to even see what kind of face he had. He ran out quickly, with a napkin in his hand, all long and in a long tartan frock coat with the back almost at the very back of his head, shook his hair and quickly led the gentleman up the entire wooden gallery to show the peace bestowed upon him by God. The peace was of a certain kind, for the hotel was also of a certain kind, that is, exactly like the hotels in provincial towns, where for two rubles a day travelers get a quiet room with cockroaches peeking out like prunes from all corners, and a door to the next a room always filled with a chest of drawers, where a neighbor settles down, a silent and calm person, but extremely curious, interested in knowing about all the details of the person passing by. The outer facade of the hotel corresponded to its interior: it was very long, two floors; the lower one was not plastered and remained in dark red bricks, even darker from the wild weather changes and rather dirty in themselves; the top one was painted with eternal yellow paint; below there were benches with clamps, ropes and steering wheels. In the corner of these shops, or, better yet, in the window, there was a whipper with a samovar made of red copper and a face as red as the samovar, so that from a distance one would think that there were two samovars standing on the window, if one samovar was not with pitch black beard.

While the visiting gentleman was looking around his room, his belongings were brought in: first of all, a suitcase made of white leather, somewhat worn, showing that he was not on the road for the first time. The suitcase was brought in by the coachman Selifan, a short man in a sheepskin coat, and the footman Petrushka, a fellow of about thirty, in a spacious second-hand frock coat, as seen from the master's shoulder, a little stern in appearance, with very large lips and nose. Following the suitcase was a small mahogany casket with individual displays made of Karelian birch, shoe lasts and a fried chicken wrapped in blue paper. When all this was brought in, the coachman Selifan went to the stable to tinker with the horses, and the footman Petrushka began to settle down in the small front, very dark kennel, where he had already managed to drag his overcoat and with it some kind of his own smell, which was communicated to the one brought followed by a bag of various servants' toiletries. In this kennel he attached a narrow three-legged bed to the wall, covering it with a small semblance of a mattress, dead and flat as a pancake, and perhaps as oily as the pancake that he managed to demand from the innkeeper.

While the servants were managing and fiddling around, the master went to the common room. What kind of common halls there are, anyone passing by knows very well: the same walls, painted with oil paint, darkened at the top from pipe smoke and stained below with the backs of various travelers, and even more so with native merchants, for merchants came here on trade days in full swing. - let’s all drink our famous pair of tea; the same smoke-stained ceiling; the same smoked chandelier with many hanging pieces of glass that jumped and tinkled every time the floor boy ran across the worn oilcloths, briskly waving a tray on which sat the same abyss of tea cups, like birds on the seashore; the same paintings covering the entire wall, painted with oil paints - in a word, everything is the same as everywhere else; the only difference is that one painting depicted a nymph with such huge breasts, which the reader has probably never seen. Such a play of nature, however, happens in various historical paintings, it is unknown at what time, from where and by whom, brought to us in Russia, sometimes even by our nobles, art lovers, who bought them in Italy on the advice of the couriers who carried them. The gentleman took off his cap and unwound from his neck a woolen scarf of rainbow colors, the kind that the wife prepares for married people with her own hands, providing decent instructions on how to wrap themselves up, and for single people - I probably can’t say who makes them, God knows, I’ve never worn such scarves . Having unwound his scarf, the gentleman ordered dinner to be served. While he was served various dishes common in taverns, such as: cabbage soup with puff pastry, specially saved for travelers for several weeks, brains with peas, sausages and cabbage, fried poulard, pickled cucumber and the eternal sweet puff pastry, always ready to serve ; While all this was being served to him, both heated and simply cold, he forced the servant, or sexton, to tell all sorts of nonsense - about who previously ran the inn and who now, and how much income he gives, and whether their owner is a big scoundrel; to which the sexton, as usual, replied: “Oh, big, sir, swindler.” Both in enlightened Europe and in enlightened Russia there are now very many respectable people who cannot eat in a tavern without talking to the servant, and sometimes even making a funny joke at his expense. However, the visitor wasn’t all asking empty questions; he asked with extreme precision who the governor of the city was, who the chairman of the chamber was, who the prosecutor was - in a word, he did not miss a single significant official; but with even greater accuracy, if not even with sympathy, he asked about all the significant landowners: how many peasant souls do they have, how far they live from the city, what their character is and how often they come to the city; He asked carefully about the state of the region: were there any diseases in their province - epidemic fevers, any killer fevers, smallpox and the like, and everything was so thorough and with such accuracy that it showed more than just simple curiosity. The gentleman had something dignified in his manners and blew his nose extremely loudly. It is not known how he did it, but his nose sounded like a trumpet. This apparently completely innocent dignity, however, gained him a lot of respect from the tavern servant, so that every time he heard this sound, he shook his hair, straightened up more respectfully and, bending his head from on high, asked: is it necessary? what? After dinner, the gentleman drank a cup of coffee and sat down on the sofa, placing a pillow behind his back, which in Russian taverns, instead of elastic wool, is stuffed with something extremely similar to brick and cobblestone. Then he began to yawn and ordered to be taken to his room, where he lay down and fell asleep for two hours. Having rested, he wrote on a piece of paper, at the request of the tavern servant, his rank, first and last name for reporting to the appropriate place, to the police. On a piece of paper, going down the stairs, I read the following from the warehouses: “Collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, landowner, according to his needs.” When the floor guard was still sorting out the note from the warehouses, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov himself went to see the city, which he seemed to be satisfied with, for he found that the city was in no way inferior to other provincial cities: the yellow paint on the stone houses was very striking and the gray paint was modestly darkening on wooden ones. The houses were one, two and one and a half floors, with an eternal mezzanine, very beautiful, according to the provincial architects. In some places these houses seemed lost among a street as wide as a field and endless wooden fences; in some places they huddled together, and here the movement of people and liveliness was more noticeable. 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 a store with caps, caps and the inscription: “Foreigner Vasily Fedorov”; where there was a drawing of billiards with two players in tailcoats, the kind that guests in our theaters wear when they enter the stage in the last act. The players were depicted with their cues aimed, their arms turned slightly backwards and their legs slanted, having just made an entrechat in the air. Underneath it all was written: “And here is the establishment.” In some places there were tables with nuts, soap and gingerbread cookies that looked like soap on the street; where is the tavern with a fat fish painted and a fork stuck into it. Most often, the darkened double-headed state eagles were noticeable, which have now been replaced by the laconic inscription: “Drinking house.” The pavement was pretty bad everywhere. He also looked into the city garden, which consisted of thin trees, badly grown, with supports at the bottom, in the form of triangles, very beautifully painted with green oil paint. However, although these trees were no taller than reeds, it was said about them in the newspapers when describing the illumination that “our city was decorated, thanks to the care of the civil ruler, with a garden consisting of shady, wide-branched trees, giving coolness on a hot day,” and that when In this case, “it was very touching to see how the hearts of the citizens trembled in an abundance of gratitude and flowed streams of tears as a sign of gratitude to the mayor.” Having asked the guard in detail where he could go closer, if necessary, to the cathedral, to public places, to the governor, he went to look at the river flowing in the middle of the city, on the way he tore off a poster nailed to a post, so that when he came home he could read it thoroughly, looked intently at a lady of good appearance walking along the wooden sidewalk, followed by a boy in military livery, with a bundle in his hand, and, once again looking around everything with his eyes, as if in order to clearly remember the position of the place, he went home straight to his room, supported lightly on the stairs by a tavern servant. Having had some tea, he sat down in front of the table, ordered a candle to be brought to him, took a poster out of his pocket, brought it to the candle and began to read, squinting his right eye slightly. However, there was little that was remarkable in the playbill: the drama was given by Mr. Kotzebue, in which Rolla was played by Mr. Poplyovin, Cora was played by the maiden Zyablova, other characters were even less remarkable; however, he read them all, even got to the price of the stalls and found out that the poster was printed in the printing house of the provincial government, then he turned it over to the other side to find out if there was anything there, but, not finding anything, he rubbed his eyes and folded it neatly and put it in his little chest, where he was in the habit of putting everything he came across. The day, it seems, was concluded with a portion of cold veal, a bottle of sour cabbage soup and a sound sleep in full swing, as they say in other parts of the vast Russian state.

Chichikov - the main character of Gogol's "Dead Souls"

The entire next day was devoted to visits; the visitor went to make visits to all the city dignitaries. He visited with respect the governor, who, as it turned out, like Chichikov, was neither fat nor thin, had Anna around his neck, and it was even rumored that he was presented to the star; however, he was a great good-natured man and sometimes even embroidered on tulle himself. Then he went to the vice-governor, then he visited the prosecutor, the chairman of the chamber, the police chief, the tax farmer, the head of state-owned factories... it’s a pity that it is somewhat difficult to remember all the powers that be; but suffice it to say that the visitor showed extraordinary activity regarding visits: he even came to pay his respects to the inspector of the medical board and the city architect. And then he sat in the chaise for a long time, trying to figure out who else he could pay the visit to, but there were no other officials in the city. In conversations with these rulers, he very skillfully knew how to flatter everyone. He somehow hinted in passing to the governor that entering his province is like entering paradise, the roads are velvet everywhere, and that those governments that appoint wise dignitaries are worthy of great praise. He said something very flattering to the police chief about the city guards; and in conversations with the vice-governor and the chairman of the chamber, who were still only state councilors, he even said “your excellency” twice in error, which they liked very much. The consequence of this was that the governor extended an invitation to him to come to his house that same day, and other officials, too, for their part, some for lunch, some for a Boston party, some for a cup of tea.

The visitor seemed to avoid talking much about himself; if he spoke, then in some general places, with noticeable modesty, and his conversation in such cases took somewhat bookish turns: that he was an insignificant worm of this world and did not deserve to be cared for much, that he had experienced a lot in his life , suffered in the service for the truth, had many enemies who even attempted his life, and that now, wanting to calm down, he is finally looking to choose a place to live, and that, having arrived in this city, he considered it an indispensable duty to show his respect to its first dignitaries. That's all that the city learned about this new face, who very soon did not fail to show himself at the governor's party. Preparations for this party took more than two hours, and here the visitor showed such attentiveness to the toilet, which has not even been seen everywhere. After a short afternoon nap, he ordered to be washed and rubbed both cheeks with soap for an extremely long time, propping them up from the inside with his tongue; then, taking a towel from the inn servant’s shoulder, he wiped his plump face from all sides with it, starting from behind his ears and first snorting twice or twice into the inn servant’s very face. Then he put on his shirtfront in front of the mirror, plucked out two hairs that had come out of his nose, and immediately after that he found himself in a lingonberry-colored tailcoat with a sparkle. Thus dressed, he rode in his own carriage along the endlessly wide streets, illuminated by the meager lighting from the flickering windows here and there. However, the governor's house was so lit, even if only for a ball; a carriage with lanterns, two gendarmes in front of the entrance, postilions shouting in the distance - in a word, everything is as it should be. Entering the hall, Chichikov had to close his eyes for a minute, because the shine from the candles, lamps and ladies' dresses was terrible. Everything was flooded with light. Black tailcoats flashed and rushed separately and in heaps here and there, like flies rush on white shining refined sugar during the hot July summer, when the old housekeeper chops and divides it into sparkling fragments in front of the open window; the children are all looking, gathered around, curiously following the movements of her hard hands, raising the hammer, and aerial squadrons of flies, raised by the light air, fly in boldly, like complete masters, and, taking advantage of the old woman’s blindness and the sun disturbing her eyes, sprinkle tidbits where scattered, where in thick heaps. Sated by the rich summer, which already lays out tasty dishes at every turn, they flew in not at all to eat, but just to show off, walk back and forth on the sugar heap, rub their hind or front legs one against the other, or scratch them under your wings, or, stretching out both front legs, rub them over your head, turn around and fly away again, and fly again with new annoying squadrons. Before Chichikov had time to look around, he was already grabbed by the arm by the governor, who immediately introduced him to the governor’s wife. The visiting guest did not let himself down here either: he said some kind of compliment, quite decent for a middle-aged man with a rank neither too high nor too low. When the established pairs of dancers pressed everyone against the wall, he, with his hands behind him, looked at them for two minutes very carefully. Many ladies were well dressed and in fashion, others dressed in whatever God sent them to the provincial city. The men here, as everywhere else, were of two kinds: some thin, who kept hovering around the ladies; some of them were of such a type that it was difficult to distinguish them from those from St. Petersburg, they also had very deliberately and tastefully combed sideburns or simply beautiful, very smoothly shaven oval faces, they also casually sat down to the ladies, they also spoke French and they made the ladies laugh just like in St. Petersburg. Another class of men were fat or the same as Chichikov, that is, not too fat, but not thin either. These, on the contrary, looked sideways and backed away from the ladies and only looked around to see if the governor’s servant was setting up a green whist table somewhere. Their faces were full and round, some even had warts, some were pockmarked, they did not wear their hair on their heads in clumps, curls, or in a “damn me” manner, as the French say, their hair their hair was either low cut or slicked back, and their facial features were more rounded and strong. These were honorary officials in the city. Alas! fat people know how to manage their affairs in this world better than thin people. The thin ones serve more on special assignments or are just registered and wander here and there; their existence is somehow too easy, airy and completely unreliable. Fat people never occupy indirect places, but always straight ones, and if they sit somewhere, they will sit securely and firmly, so that the place will sooner crack and bend under them, and they will not fly off. They do not like external shine; the tailcoat on them is not as cleverly tailored as on the thin ones, but in the boxes there is the grace of God. At the age of three, the thin one does not have a single soul left that is not pawned in a pawnshop; the fat man was calm, lo and behold, a house appeared somewhere at the end of the city, bought in his wife’s name, then at the other end another house, then a village near the city, then a village with all the land. Finally, the fat man, having served God and the sovereign, having earned universal respect, leaves the service, moves over and becomes a landowner, a glorious Russian gentleman, a hospitable man, and lives and lives well. And after him, again, the thin heirs, according to Russian custom, send all their father’s goods by courier. It cannot be concealed that almost this kind of reflection occupied Chichikov at the time when he was looking at society, and the consequence of this was that he finally joined the fat ones, where he met almost all the familiar faces: a prosecutor with very black thick eyebrows and a somewhat winking left eye as if he were saying: “Let’s go, brother, to another room, there I’ll tell you something,” - a man, however, serious and silent; the postmaster, a short man, but a wit and a philosopher; Chairman of the House, a very reasonable and amiable man - who all greeted him as an old acquaintance, to which Chichikov bowed somewhat to the side, however, not without pleasantness. He immediately met the very courteous and polite landowner Manilov and the somewhat clumsy-looking Sobakevich, who stepped on his foot the first time, saying: “I beg your pardon.” They immediately handed him a whist card, which he accepted with the same polite bow. They sat down at the green table and did not get up until dinner. All conversations stopped completely, as always happens when they finally indulge in something meaningful. Although the postmaster was very talkative, he, having taken the cards in his hands, immediately expressed a thinking physiognomy on his face, covered his lower lip with his upper lip and maintained this position throughout the game. Leaving the figure, he hit the table firmly with his hand, saying, if there was a lady: “Get off, you old priest!”, If there was a king: “Get off, Tambov man!” And the chairman said: “I’ll hit him with a mustache!” And I hit her on the mustache!” Sometimes, when the cards hit the table, expressions would burst out: “Ah! was not there, for no reason, just with a tambourine! Or simply exclamations: “worms! worm-hole! picencia!” or: “Pikendras! picurushuh pichura!” and even simply: “pichuk!” - the names with which they baptized the suits in their society. At the end of the game they argued, as usual, quite loudly. Our visiting guest also argued, but somehow extremely skillfully, so that everyone saw that he was arguing, and yet he was arguing pleasantly. He never said: “you went,” but: “you deigned to go,” “I had the honor to cover your deuce,” and the like. In order to further agree on something with his opponents, he each time presented them all with his silver and enamel snuff-box, at the bottom of which they noticed two violets, placed there for the smell. The visitor's attention was especially occupied by the landowners Manilov and Sobakevich, who were mentioned above. He immediately inquired about them, immediately calling several of them to the side of the chairman and the postmaster. Several questions he asked showed the guest not only curiosity, but also thoroughness; for first of all he asked how many peasant souls each of them had and in what position their estates were, and then he inquired about their first and patronymic names. In a short time he completely managed to charm them. The landowner Manilov, not yet an old man at all, who had eyes as sweet as sugar and squinted them every time he laughed, was crazy about him. He shook his hand for a very long time and asked him to earnestly honor him by coming to the village, which, according to him, was only fifteen miles from the city outpost. To which Chichikov, with a very polite bow of his head and a sincere handshake, replied that he was not only very willing to do this, but would even consider it a most sacred duty. Sobakevich also said somewhat laconically: “And I ask you,” shuffling his foot, shod in a boot of such a gigantic size, for which one can hardly find a corresponding foot anywhere, especially at the present time, when heroes are beginning to appear in Rus'.

The next day Chichikov went for lunch and evening to the police chief, where from three o'clock in the afternoon they sat down to whist and played until two o'clock in the morning. There, by the way, he met the landowner Nozdryov, a man of about thirty, a broken fellow, who after three or four words began to say “you” to him. Nozdryov was also on first name terms with the police chief and the prosecutor and treated him in a friendly manner; but when they sat down to play the big game, the police chief and the prosecutor examined his bribes extremely carefully and watched almost every card he played with. The next day Chichikov spent the evening with the chairman of the chamber, who received his guests in a dressing gown, somewhat oily, including two ladies. Then I was at an evening with the vice-governor, at a big dinner with the tax farmer, at a small dinner with the prosecutor, which, however, was worth a lot; at the after-mass snack given by the mayor, which was also worth lunch. In a word, he never had to stay at home for a single hour, and he came to the hotel only to fall asleep. The newcomer somehow knew how to find his way around everything and showed himself to be an experienced socialite. Whatever the conversation was about, he always knew how to support it: whether it was about a horse factory, he talked about a horse factory; were they talking about good dogs, and here he made very practical comments; whether they interpreted the investigation carried out by the treasury chamber, he showed that he was not unaware of the judicial tricks; whether there was a discussion about a billiard game - and in a billiard game he did not miss; they talked about virtue, and he talked about virtue very well, even with tears in his eyes; about making hot wine, and he knew the use of hot wine; about customs overseers and officials, and he judged them as if he himself were both an official and an overseer. But it’s remarkable that he knew how to dress it all up with some kind of sedateness, he knew how to behave well. He spoke neither loudly nor quietly, but absolutely as he should. In a word, no matter where you turn, he was a very decent person. All officials were pleased with the arrival of a new person. The governor explained about him that he was a well-intentioned person; the prosecutor - that he is a sensible person; the gendarme colonel said that he was a learned man; the chairman of the chamber - that he is a knowledgeable and respectable person; the police chief - that he is a respectable and kind person; the police chief's wife - that he is the most kind and courteous person. Even Sobakevich himself, who rarely spoke kindly of anyone, arrived quite late from the city and had already completely undressed and lay down on the bed next to his thin wife, said to her: “I, darling, was at the governor’s party, and at the police chief’s. had lunch and met the collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov: a pleasant person! “To which the wife answered: “Hm!” - and pushed him with her foot.

This opinion, very flattering for the guest, was formed about him in the city, and it persisted until one strange property of the guest and the enterprise, or, as they say in the provinces, a passage about which the reader will soon learn, led almost to complete bewilderment. the whole city.

In a remote corner of Russia, in a beautiful area among high hills, forests and plains, there was the estate of the 33-year-old gentleman Andrei Ivanovich Tentetnikov. He was not a bad person by character, but inactive - one of those who are called “smokers of the sky.” Waking up in the morning, he sat on the bed for a long time, rubbing his eyes. Then he sat for two hours drinking tea, watching from the window the scenes in the yard, where usually the barman Grigory was arguing with the housekeeper Perfilyevna or the greyhound squealed as the cook doused him with boiling water. Having seen enough, Tentetnikov went to his office to write a serious essay that was supposed to embrace the whole of Russia from a civil, political, religious, philosophical point of view, resolve the difficult questions posed to it by time, and clearly define its great future. But this colossal enterprise made almost no progress. Having bitten the pen and lightly drawn on the paper with it, Tentetnikov began to read, then smoked his pipe - this is where his day usually ended.

In his youth, Andrei Ivanovich served in a St. Petersburg department, but retired, bored with copying monotonous papers and quarreling with his boss. He left for his estate, deciding that he would benefit his fatherland through wise management of the peasants.

Gogol. Dead Souls. Volume 2, chapter 1. Audiobook

However, Tentetnikov’s good goals collapsed because he did not understand anything about agriculture. Things on the estate after his arrival did not get better, but worse. Andrei Ivanovich realized his inability to carry out practical activities, lost his zeal and only admired the surrounding views. There was no one nearby who could shout an invigorating word to him: forward, which Russian people crave everywhere, of all classes and trades.

He was, however, almost awakened by something that looked like love. Ten miles from his village lived a general who had a daughter, Ulinka. Ardent, responsive to generous impulses, she was alive, like life itself. When she spoke, everything in her mind followed her thoughts—the expression on her face, the tone of her conversation, her movements, the very folds of her dress. It seemed that she herself would fly away following her own words. After meeting Ulinka, Tentetnikov’s boring life was illuminated for a moment.

However, her father, the general, treated young Andrei Ivanovich too familiarly and sometimes even told him You. Tentetnikov endured this for a long time, gritting his teeth, but finally he directly expressed his resentment and stopped going to the general. Love for Ulinka ended at the very beginning, and Tentetnikov again indulged in a lazy, idle existence...

This morning he was looking out of the window with his usual thoughtfulness and suddenly saw a troika with a chaise drive through the gate. A gentleman of unusually decent appearance jumped out of it with the speed and dexterity of an almost military man. The stranger entered Andrei Ivanovich’s room and bowed with incredible dexterity, maintaining a respectful position of his head somewhat to one side. He explained that he had been traveling around Russia for a long time, prompted by curiosity, and that he was forced to stop by his estate due to a sudden breakdown in the carriage. Having finished his speech, the guest shuffled his foot with charming pleasantness and, despite his full body, jumped back a little with the ease of a rubber ball.

This man was already familiar to the reader, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. He told Tentetnikov that he suffered a lot for the truth, that even his very life was more than once in danger from enemies, and likened his fate to a ship in the middle of the seas, driven from everywhere by treacherous winds. At the conclusion of his speech, he blew his nose into a white cambric handkerchief as loudly as Andrei Ivanovich had ever heard. Chichikov had not lost any of his inherent dexterity.

He settled with Tentetnikov for several days and immediately approved of the owner’s philosophical slowness, saying that it promised a hundred-year life. Tentetnikov liked Chichikov, who had never seen a man so helpful and accommodating.

Spring was beginning, and the surroundings of Tentetnikov’s estate were blooming after winter hibernation. The active Chichikov happily walked through the fields, watching the beginning of rural work. “What a brute Tentetnikov is, however! – he thought, getting to know everything better. - Such an estate and run it that way. You could have fifty thousand a year in income!”

Chichikov had long been attracted by the idea of becoming a landowner himself. He also imagined a young, fresh, white-faced woman from a wealthy class who would also know music. The children's generation of young descendants was also imagined...

Pavel Ivanovich's servants, Petrushka and Selifan, also took root in the village. Petrushka became friends with the barman Grigory, becoming a regular with him at the local tavern. The coachman Selifan really enjoyed going to spring round dances with stately, white-breasted village girls.

Chichikov was still careful not to talk about dead souls with Tentetnikov. But he remarked to the young owner: “No matter how I turn your circumstances around, I see that you need to get married: you will fall into hypochondria.” Tentetnikov sighed and told him the story of his love for Ulinka and the quarrel with her father. Hearing her, Chichikov was taken aback: for a minute he looked intently into Andrei Ivanovich’s eyes, not knowing how to decide about him: whether he was an absolute fool, or just a fool - he quarreled with the father of his beloved girl over one word You.

He began to convince Tentetnikov: this insult is completely empty, the generals tell everyone You, and why not allow this to an honored, respectable person? “On the contrary,” Tentetnikov objected. - If he were a poor man, not arrogant, not a general, then I would let him tell me You and would even accept it respectfully.”

“He’s a complete fool,” Chichikov thought to himself, “he’ll allow the ragamuffin, but not the general!” But out loud he began to convince Andrei Ivanovich to reconcile with the general and offered to act as a mediator in this matter: to go to the general, as if to pay respects, and meanwhile arrange a peace settlement.

After hesitating, Tentetnikov agreed. The next day, Chichikov jumped into his carriage with the ease of almost a military man and drove out of the gate, and Andrei Ivanovich, who remained at home, became filled with such excitement of spirit that he had not experienced for a long time.

Tasks:

the formation of ideas about the role of the landowner Nozdryov in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”;
development of skills in characterizing a literary character;
development of imaginative thinking.

Equipment:

illustrations of B. Kustodiev’s paintings “Merchant’s Wife at Tea”, “Tavern”, “Innkeeper”, “Fair”, “Still Life with Pheasants”;
illustrations by P. M. Boklevsky (“Nozdryov”) to N. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”.

Characteristics plan(offered to students before analyzing the topic as homework for the previous lesson):

1. Nozdryov. His role in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”:

a) portrait characteristics of the hero; the role of the portrait in understanding the essence of the hero;

b) Nozdryov’s speech, examples of vivid words and expressions; the role of speech characteristics;

c) Nozdryov’s estate, office interior;

d) what is the significance of the remark that “dinner, apparently, was not the main thing in Nozdryov’s life; the dishes did not play a big role: some were burnt, some were not cooked at all”;

e) Nozdryov’s reaction to Chichikov’s proposal to sell dead souls;

g) what is the purpose of introducing the character into the text of the poem.

2. What new features of Chichikov’s nature appear before the reader? How does he reveal himself in communication with Nozdryov?

During the classes

I. Immersion in the topic.

Presentation of illustrations of B. Kustodiev’s paintings “Merchant’s Wife at Tea”, “Still Life with Pheasants”, “Inn”, “Innkeeper”, “Fair”.

What associations do you have when you perceive these illustrations?
Why are they presented at the beginning of the conversation about the landowner Nozdryov?
What is the similarity between these illustrations and the content of chapter 4 of the poem “Dead Souls,” which tells about Nozdryov?

The paintings show the fullness of life, a riot of colors, bright colorful personalities, vanity, transience of the moment, dynamics. The subjects of the paintings in one way or another reflect the distinctive features of Nozdryov’s nature. The illustrations help to penetrate Nozdryov’s world, the world of extravagance, “extraordinary lightness,” the world of impetuosity, some kind of higher emotionality, the world of openness and “love” for everyone.

II. Study of the text in connection with the topic.

1. Portrait characteristics of the hero and the role of the portrait in understanding the essence of the hero’s character.

Chapter 4: He was of average height, a very well-built fellow with full rosy cheeks, teeth white as snow and jet-black sideburns, he was as fresh as blood and milk; his health seemed to be dripping from his face.

The main details of the portrait are rosy cheeks, freshness of the face, the key word of the portrait is health. The details reflect the essence of the hero’s inner portrait, his broken character, his senseless actions. Just as his health overflows, so his emotionality goes beyond all boundaries.

2. The hero's speech. Examples of the most striking and typical words and expressions of the hero. The role of speech characteristics.

As a man is, so is his speech (Cicero):

And I, brother,...

Blown away...

Swelled, lost everything...

Kiss me, soul, death love you...

Banchishka

Distortion of French words: burdashka, bonbon, rosette, bezeshka, superflu.

Nozdryov's speech is as sparkling as his nature. This speech cannot be called fearless; it is the speech of an emotional, assertive person who does not care about tomorrow. The main values of life are partying, drinking, dogs, and in general everything that is called “carousing.” This is a person distinguished by “restless briskness and liveliness of character,” as Gogol put it. All this is reflected in the hero’s speech.

But can we see only the negative in the speech portrait of the hero?

We cannot say that Nozdryov is devoid of creativity. His speech is a game with generally accepted words, and not every person is capable of this game. Nozdryov is busy creating speeches. Note his experiments with French words.

3. Nozdryov's estate. His house. What significance does the interior play for understanding the essence of Nozdryov’s nature?

Stable: two horses, the rest of the stalls are empty.

A pond in which there was a fish of such size that two people could hardly pull it out.

Kennel: the most worthy sight on Nozdryov’s estate.

Mill: “then we went to inspect the water mill, where the flutter was missing, into which the upper stone, which quickly rotates on a spindle, is installed - “fluttering,” in the wonderful expression of the Russian peasant.”

Nozdryov's House:

Cabinet. However, there were no visible traces of what happens in offices, that is, books or paper; Only sabers and two guns hung - one worth three hundred, and the other eight hundred rubles.

The barrel organ: it played not without joy, but in the middle of it, it seems, something happened, for the mazurka ended with the song: “Malbrug went on a hike,” and “Malbrug went on a hike” unexpectedly ended with some long-familiar waltz. Nozdryov had long ago stopped whistling, but there was one very lively pipe in the barrel organ, which did not want to calm down, and for a long time afterwards it whistled alone.

Pipes: wooden, clay, meerschaum, smoked and unsmoked, covered with suede and not covered, a pipe with an amber mouthpiece, recently won, a pouch embroidered by some countess, somewhere at the post station, who fell head over heels in love with him, whose handles in his words, they were the most sublime superflue - a word that probably meant the highest point of perfection for him.

Nozdryov is a Russian landowner, but a landowner devoid of any spiritual life. Maybe he devotes all his energy to managing the estate and has no time to immerse himself in reading? No, the estate has long been abandoned, there is no rational management. Consequently, there is neither spiritual nor material life, but there is emotional life, which has absorbed everything. Constant lies, the desire to argue, passion, the inability to suppress one’s feelings - this is what constitutes the essence of Nozdryov. For a Russian landowner, hunting is one of the components of life, and for Nozdryov the kennel replaced everything. He is a certain Troekurov, who has lost power and influence, and has changed his rough, strong nature.

4. What is the significance of Gogol’s remark that “dinner, apparently, was not the main thing in Nozdryov’s life; the dishes did not play a big role: some were burnt, some were not cooked at all”? Remember that both Manilov and Korobochka Chichikov are treated well, and the description of the dinner takes up quite a bit of space in the chapter.

Lunch, eating food, abundance and variety of dishes is a symbolic designation of animal life in Gogol. Thus, the author emphasizes that the hero is devoid of spirituality. Nozdryov is depicted as an extremely emotional person, in whom there are living feelings, although distorted, so there is no description of eating food here.

5. How does Nozdryov react to Chichikov’s proposal to sell dead souls? How to evaluate Nozdryov’s behavior after Chichikov’s refusal to continue playing checkers?

This broken fellow is devoid of any moral principles, social preferences, this is a kind of childishness, a kind of primitivism, a prehistoric existence of relationships.

III. Key takeaways from the lesson

1. What new features of Chichikov’s nature appear before the reader? How does he reveal himself in communication with Nozdryov?

Chichikov is, of course, the antipode of Nozdryov. The conditions in which Pavel Ivanovich was formed forced him to hide his emotions and desires, forced him to think first, then act, made him prudent and enterprising. In Chichikov there is no emotionality, no recklessness, no stupidity, no “life over the edge.” The hero of the new capitalist era, the era of selfishness and calculation, is deprived of strong emotions, and therefore deprived of a sense of the fullness of life. These thoughts come to us precisely at the moment of reading the chapter about Nozdryov. Thus, the chapter represents the type of Russian landowner, but also reveals a lot about the nature of the main character, Chichikov.

Nozdryov at 35 years old was exactly the same as he was at eighteen and twenty: a lover of a walk;
He could not sit at home for more than a day;
He had a passion for cards;
He did not play entirely sinlessly and purely;
Nozdryov was in some respects a historical person;
The closer someone got with him, the more likely he was to annoy everyone: he spread a fable, the stupidest of which is difficult to invent, upset a wedding, a trade deal...;
Restless agility and liveliness of character;
Nozdryov is a trash person.

The main national trait of the Russian character is openness, “breadth of soul.” In Nozdryov, Gogol depicts how this trait is distorted if there is no spiritual life.

IV. Homework

A written answer to the question: “What human type does Gogol depict when representing the landowner Nozdryov?”

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The action of N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" takes place in one small town, which Gogol calls NN. Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov visits the city. A man who plans to purchase the dead souls of serfs from local landowners. With his appearance, Chichikov disrupts the measured city life.

Chapter 1

Chichikov arrives in the city, accompanied by servants. He checks into an ordinary hotel. During lunch, Chichikov asks the innkeeper about everything that is happening in NN, finds out who the most influential officials and famous landowners are. At a reception with the governor, he personally meets many landowners. Landowners Sobakevich and Manilov invite the hero to pay them a visit. Chichikov visits the vice-governor, the prosecutor, and the tax farmer for several days. He gains a positive reputation in the city.

Chapter 2

Chichikov decided to go outside the city to Manilov’s estate. His village was a rather boring sight. The landowner himself was an incomprehensible person. Manilov was most often in his dreams. There was too much sugar in his niceness. The landowner was very surprised by Chichikov's offer to sell him the souls of dead peasants. They decided to make a deal when they met in the city. Chichikov left, and Manilov was perplexed for a long time at the guest’s proposal.

Chapter 3

On the way to Sobakevich, Chichikov was caught in bad weather. His chaise had lost its way, so it was decided to spend the night in the first estate. As it turned out, the house belonged to the landowner Korobochka. She turned out to be a businesslike housewife, and the contentment of the inhabitants of the estate was evident everywhere. Korobochka received the request to sell dead souls with surprise. But then she began to consider them as goods, she was afraid to sell them cheaper and offered Chichikov to buy other goods from her. The deal took place, Chichikov himself hastened to move away from the difficult character of the hostess.

Chapter 4

Continuing his journey, Chichikov decided to stop at a tavern. Here he met another landowner Nozdryov. His openness and friendliness immediately endeared me to everyone. Nozdryov was a gambler, he did not play fairly, so he often took part in fights. Nozdryov did not appreciate the request to sell dead souls. The landowner offered to play checkers for their souls. The game almost ended in a fight. Chichikov hurried away. The hero really regretted that he trusted such a person as Nozdryov.

Chapter 5

Chichikov finally ends up with Sobakevich. Sobakevich looked like a large and solid man. The landowner took the offer to sell dead souls seriously and even began to bargain. The interlocutors decided to finalize the deal in the near future in the city.

Chapter 6

The next point of Chichikov’s journey was a village belonging to Plyushkin. The estate was a pitiful sight, desolation reigned everywhere. The landowner himself reached the apogee of stinginess. He lived alone and was a pitiful sight. Plyushkin sold his dead souls with joy, considering Chichikov a fool. Pavel Ivanovich himself hurried to the hotel with a feeling of relief.

Chapter 7-8

The next day, Chichikov formalized transactions with Sobakevich and Plyushkin. The hero was in excellent spirits. At the same time, news of Chichikov’s purchases spread throughout the city. Everyone was surprised at his wealth, not knowing what souls he was actually buying. Chichikov became a welcome guest at local receptions and balls. But Nozdryov gave away Chichikov’s secret, shouting about dead souls at the ball.

Chapter 9

Landowner Korobochka, having arrived in the city, also confirmed the purchase of dead souls. Incredible rumors began to spread throughout the city that Chichikov actually wanted to kidnap the governor’s daughter. He was forbidden to appear on the threshold of the governor's house. None of the residents could answer exactly who Chichikov was. To clarify this issue, it was decided to meet with the police chief.

Chapter 10-11

No matter how much they discussed Chichikov, they could not come to a common opinion. When Chichikov decided to pay visits, he realized that everyone was avoiding him, and coming to the governor was generally prohibited. He also learned that he was suspected of manufacturing counterfeit bonds and plans to kidnap the governor's daughter. Chichikov is in a hurry to leave the city. At the end of the first volume, the author talks about who the main character is and how his life developed before appearing in NN.

Volume two

The narrative begins with a description of nature. Chichikov first visits the estate of Andrei Ivanovich Tententikov. Then he goes to a certain general, ends up visiting Colonel Koshkarev, then Khlobuev. Chichikov's misdeeds and forgeries become known and he ends up in prison. A certain Murazov advises the Governor General to let Chichikov go, and this is where the story ends. (Gogol burned the second volume in the stove)

A rather beautiful chaise drove into the gates of the hotel in the provincial town of NN, in which sat “a gentleman, not handsome, but not of bad appearance, neither too fat nor too thin; I can’t say that I’m old, but I can’t say that I’m too young.” His entry into the city was not marked by anything special. When the carriage entered the courtyard, the gentleman was met by the tavern servant - a lively and nimble young man. He quickly escorted the visitor up the entire wooden “galdar” to show “the peace sent to him by God.” This “peace” was common for all hotels in provincial cities, where for a reasonable fee you can get a room with cockroaches “peeping out like prunes from all corners.”

While the visitor was looking around, his belongings were brought into the room: first of all, a noticeably “worn” suitcase made of white leather, which had been on the road many times, as well as a small mahogany chest, shoe trees and a chicken wrapped in paper. The suitcase was carried in by the coachman Selifan, a short man in a sheepskin coat, and the footman Petrushka, a young man of about thirty, a little stern at first glance. While the servants were busy, the master went to the common room and ordered dinner to be served to him, which consisted of dishes usual for all taverns: cabbage soup with puff pastry, which was specially saved for travelers for several weeks, brains with peas, sausage and cabbage, fried poultry, pickled cucumber and sweet puff pastry.

While the food was being served, the master forced the servant to talk all kinds of nonsense about the inn and the innkeeper - who previously ran the inn and who runs it now, what income they receive, asked about the owner, etc. Then he turned the conversation to officials - he found out who was the governor of the city, who was the chairman of the chamber, who was the prosecutor, asked about all the important landowners, inquired about the “state of the region” - asked if there had been any diseases recently, from which many people usually die of people. All questions were thorough and had deep meaning. Listening to the tavern servant, the gentleman blew his nose loudly.

After lunch, the visitor drank a cup of coffee, sat down on the sofa, putting a pillow under his back, began to yawn and asked to be taken to his room, where he lay down and fell asleep for two hours. After resting, he wrote on a piece of paper, at the request of the tavern servant, information about himself, which newcomers to the city should send to the police: “Advisor Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, landowner, according to his needs.” After this, he went to inspect the city, and was pleased, as he found that the city was in no way inferior to other provincial cities. The stone houses were painted yellow, which caught the eye, the wooden houses were painted grey. From time to time there were signs with pretzels and boots, more often - darkened double-headed state eagles, which have now been replaced by the inscription “Drinking House”.

The visiting gentleman devoted the entire next day to visits - he paid his respects to all the city dignitaries. He visited the governor, the vice-governor, the prosecutor, the chairman of the chamber, the police chief, the tax farmer, the head of state-owned factories, and even the inspector of the medical board and the city architect. In conversations with the rulers, he was able to very skillfully flatter everyone. He tried not to talk much about himself, and if he did, it was with noticeable modesty and bookish phrases: “that he is an insignificant worm of this world and is not worthy of being cared for much, that he has experienced a lot in his life, endured in the service for It’s true that he had many enemies who even attempted his life, and that now, wanting to calm down, he was finally looking to choose a place to live, and that, having arrived in this city, he considered it an indispensable duty to pay his respects to its first dignitaries.”

Soon after this, the gentleman “showed himself” at the governor’s party. Getting ready to see the governor, he showed increased attention to his toilet - “he rubbed both cheeks with soap for a long time, propping them up from the inside with his tongue,” then he carefully dried himself, pulled out two hairs from his nose and put on a lingonberry-colored tailcoat.

Entering the hall, Chichikov had to close his eyes for a minute, because the shine from the candles, lamps and ladies' dresses was terrible. Everything was flooded with light. Black tailcoats flashed and rushed separately and in heaps here and there, like flies scampering on white shining refined sugar during the hot July summer...

Before Chichikov had time to look around, he was already grabbed by the arm by the governor, who immediately introduced him to the governor’s wife. The visiting guest did not let himself down here either: he said some kind of compliment, quite decent for a middle-aged man with a rank neither too high nor too low. When the established pairs of dancers pressed everyone against the wall, he, with his hands behind him, looked at them for two minutes very carefully. Many of the ladies were well dressed and in fashion, others dressed in whatever God sent them to the provincial city. Men here, as elsewhere, were of two kinds: some thin, who all hovered around the ladies; some of them were of such a type that it was difficult to distinguish them from those from St. Petersburg, they also had very deliberately and tastefully combed sideburns or simply beautiful, very smoothly shaven oval faces, they also casually sat down to the ladies, they also spoke French and they made the ladies laugh just like in St. Petersburg. Another class of men were fat or the same as Chichikov, that is, not too fat, but not thin either. These, on the contrary, looked sideways and backed away from the ladies and only looked around to see if the governor’s servant was setting up a green whist table somewhere. Their faces were full and round, some even had warts, some were pockmarked, they did not wear their hair on their heads in crests, curls, or in a “damn me” manner, as the French say - their hair They were either cut low or sleek, and their facial features were more rounded and strong. These were honorary officials in the city...

Having carefully examined those present, Chichikov joined the fat ones, where he met almost all the familiar faces: the prosecutor, a serious and silent man; the postmaster, a short man, but a wit and a philosopher; chairman of the chamber, a very reasonable and kind person. They all greeted him as if they were an old acquaintance, to which Chichikov bowed somewhat sideways, however, not without pleasantness. He immediately met the polite landowner Manilov and the somewhat clumsy Sobakevich. Calling aside the chairman and the postmaster, he asked them how many peasant souls Manilov and Sobakevich had and the state of their estates, and then inquired about their names and patronymics. After some time, he managed to charm the mentioned landowners.

The landowner Manilov, not yet an old man at all, who had eyes as sweet as sugar and squinted them every time he laughed, was crazy about him. He shook his hand for a very long time and asked him to earnestly honor him by coming to the village, which, according to him, was only fifteen miles from the city outpost. To which Chichikov, with a very polite bow of his head and a sincere handshake, replied that he was not only very willing to do this, but would even consider it a most sacred duty. Sobakevich also said somewhat laconically: “And I ask you,” shuffling his foot, shod in a boot of such a gigantic size, for which one can hardly find a corresponding foot anywhere, especially at the present time, when heroes are beginning to emerge in Rus'.

The next day Chichikov went to lunch with the police chief, where they played whist until two in the morning. There, by the way, he met the landowner Nozdryov, “a man of about thirty, a broken fellow, who after three or four words began to say “you” to him. Nozdryov was also on first name terms with the police chief and the prosecutor and treated him in a friendly manner; but when they sat down to play the big game, the police chief and the prosecutor examined his bribes extremely carefully and followed almost every card he played with.”

For the next few days, Chichikov did not sit in the hotel for an hour and came here only to fall asleep. “He somehow knew how to find himself in everything and showed himself to be a secular person... he knew how to behave well. He spoke neither loudly nor quietly, but absolutely as he should. In a word, no matter where you turn, he was a very decent person. All officials were pleased with the arrival of a new person.”