"Childhood" L.N. Tolstoy is an excellent illustration of the morals of that time. The main character and his experiences seem sometimes naive and a little funny. But if you think about it, now children and adolescents are worried about the same problems, rejoice at the same little things. Childhood, especially happy, is something that hardly changes. To refresh your memory before the lesson, read the chapter summary of Tolstoy’s book.
Chapter 1. Teacher Karl Ivanovich
The birthday boy Nikolenka wakes up in the morning when his teacher, Karl Ivanovich (the respectable good-natured German), kills a fly over the boy’s bed. Because of this, the student is not very satisfied and angry, thinking that the teacher only needs to do something unpleasant for him, Nikolenka.
But a minute later he already thinks that Karl Ivanovich is a wonderful person. It is necessary to go down to mother, so Nikolenka and his brother Volodya are brought clothes.
While the boy is being dressed, he recalls what the classroom looks like - with a shelf of books, with rulers, landacrates and a corner for punishments.
Chapter 2. Maman
Nikolenka goes down to the living room - mother and sister Lyuba are sitting there. Lyuba plays the piano, and next to her is the governess Maria Ivanovna. This is a usual morning in the family - Karl Ivanovich habitually greets Natalya Nikolaevna (mother), she asks him how the children slept.
After exchanging morning greetings, mother sends the children to greet her father before he leaves for the threshing floor. This time all the traditional actions were repeated again.
Chapter 3. Dad
Father in his office, together with the clerk, Yakov Mikhailov, disassemble - where and how much money you need to send, invest, etc.
Pyotr Aleksandrovich (father) has been talking with Jacob for a long time about whether it is worth paying the Council by the deadline, with profit from the mills, whether to send funds to Khabarovskoye (the village of his mother), etc.
When Jacob leaves, the father turns his attention to his sons. And he informs them that this night he is going to Moscow and taking them with him - enough for them to sit in the village, it is time to go to study.
Nikolenka feels sorry for mother and Karl Ivanovich - after all, he will now be calculated, and his mother will be lonely.
Chapter 4. Classes
In frustration, Nikolenka cannot concentrate on the lessons, and Karl Ivanovich punishes him. Sam K.I. goes to Uncle Nikolai, complaining that the children are leaving, and he taught them for so many years, was attached and faithful to his family, and in return no gratitude.
After a conversation with uncle, K.I. returns to class and continues the lesson. He stretches for a long time, the teacher does not let the boys go, and in the meantime, it is just about lunch. Nikolenka hears footsteps, but this is not Fock’s butler, who always called for their dinner. The door opens, and after it ...
Chapter 5. The Holy Fool
A person of about 50 enters the room, with a pockmarked face, sparse hair, a curve in one eye. His clothes are torn, a staff in his hand. He moves strangely, his speech incoherent. This is a wanderer and holy fool Grisha. He wanders around the world in the summer and winter barefoot, visits monasteries, gives pictures to people he loves and mumbles something that others consider predictions.
Finally, Fock’s butler appears and calls for dinner. The boys come down, Grisha goes after them.
Downstairs, Lyuba and Marya Ivanovna are already sitting, and their parents are walking around the living room. Daughter M.I. approaches Nikolenka and Lyuba’s girlfriend is Katya, and asks him to persuade the adults to take the girls on a hunt.
Have lunch. Parents argue about Grisha and generally such foolish wanderers. Father believes that these people should not be allowed to roam the world and upset the nerves of respectable citizens with their appearance and predictions. Mother disagrees with him, but does not start a dispute.
At the end of the dinner, the boys decide to ask the adults to take the girls for hunting. They are given the go-ahead, and even mother decides to go with them.
Chapter 6. Hunting preparations
During tea, they call the clerk, Jacob, and give orders for the upcoming hunt. Volodya’s horse limped, and he will be saddled by a hunter. Mother is worried that the frisky mare will certainly carry, Volodya will fall and break.
After lunch, the adults went into the study, and the children went to play in the garden. There they see how they bring horses ready for hunting and a cart. They run to dress.
Finally, everyone is ready, the line-cart for the ladies is served, as are the horses for men. While waiting for their father, the boys ride their horses around the yard. Father leaves, they are sent.
Chapter 7. The Hunt
Outside the gates, everyone but his father sets off on the road, and he goes to the rye field - the harvest is in full swing, and you need to check how things are going.
There are a lot of people in the field - both women and men. Someone reaps, someone collects in carts and takes away.
When the boys drive up to the viburnum forest, they see that the line has already arrived. And besides the line, there is a cart with a cook. So - there will be tea in the fresh air and ice cream. While the family settles for tea, the hunters with the dogs go on.
Father sends Nikolenka with the dog Zhiran further, behind the hare. They reach the clearing under the oak and sit there - they wait until the other hounds drive the hare.
Nikolenka is lying, examining ants and butterflies. A hare appears at the other end of the clearing, the boy screams, the dog rushes, but the hare escapes safely. Hunters see this and laugh at him. They leave, drive the hare further, and the hero in frustration sits in the clearing.
Chapter 8. Games
The family sits and drinks tea in the fresh air. Children with ice cream and fruit sit separately and think about what to play.
Then they play Robinson, but without much pleasure - the game is already bored, but they haven’t come up with a new one.
Chapter 9. Something like First Love
Nikolenka watches Katya tearing leaves from the trees, shrugs her shoulders. At one point, he kisses her shoulder. The heroine does not understand what kind of tenderness this is. He thinks that he is so used to Katya that he did not pay much attention to her, and now he has paid and loved even more.
On the way back, he deliberately lags behind the line and catches up, equating with Katya. But his horse stands on its hind legs, and the boy almost falls from it.
Chapter 10. What kind of man was my father?
Big growth, strong build, bald head, aquiline nose, small eyes and calm, self-confident movements. He was sensitive and even tearful. He dressed well and so that it all went to his figure. A man with connections. Loved the music.
His image is crowned by the imperious character of a solid person in his convictions. He feels himself the master of the house and the head of the family.
Chapter 11. Classes in the study and living room
Returned from the hunt home. Mother sat at the piano, the children began to paint. Nikolenka got blue paint, the hunting pattern didn’t work out very well, and as a result he threw out the blue sheet and went off to a nap in a chair.
He sees how the clerk Jacob and some people enter the office, teacher Karl Ivanovich comes. From the office you can hear conversations and the smell of cigars.
Nikolenka falls asleep. He wakes up when his father tells his mother that Karl Ivanovich will go to Moscow with his children.
The children decide to go into the room to the holy fool Grisha (he was left to spend the night) and watch his beloved.
Chapter 12. Grisha
Children sit hiding in a closet in Grisha’s room. He comes in, undresses, prays and goes to bed. Lying down, he continues to pray. And children, instead of fun, feel fear.
Nikolenka grabs Katenka, who is sitting next to her, and, realizing that this is her, kisses her hand. The heroine repels the boy, becomes noisy. Grisha baptizes the corners of the room, and the children run away from the closet.
Chapter 13. Natalya Savishna
This chapter tells the story of a maid who served in the family of Nikolai’s mother. At first it was just Natasha’s maid, after the birth of Natalya Nikolaevna (mother), she became a nanny. She wanted to marry the butler Foku (then he was still a waiter), but the owners saw ingratitude in this and drove Natasha away. True, six months later, they realized that without her - as if without hands, they returned, made Natalia Nikolaevna a personal maid. Natasha put on her cap and became Natalya Savishna.
When to N.N. they had already assigned a governess, Natalya Savishna received the keys to the pantry, and became something like a housekeeper, housekeeper.
When N.N. getting married, she gave her governess a free woman who she refused to accept. So, Natalya Savishna remained in the family of her pupil. Now she looked after the children of Natalia Nikolaevna and loved them very much.
At the time of the story N.S. appears when Nikolenka dropped the decanter with kvass and stained the tablecloth. N.S. came, scolded the boy, and he, in his best traditions, was offended by her. While Nikolenka was thinking about how to take revenge on the harmful Natalya, she came and presented him with a cornet (a sheet of paper folded up in a corner) with caramels. And Nikolenka forgave her.
Chapter 14. Separation
In the courtyard there is a chaise, in which Uncle Nikolai puts the boys' things. Yards are watching, and coachmen are preparing a chaise for a trip.
The family sits in the living room together for the last minutes. The atmosphere of sadness and impending separation. Nikolenka is saddened to see her mother’s tears, Foki and Natalya Savishna’s frustration, and at the same time, she wants to leave as soon as possible. Farewell, last kisses, tears ... Sent.
Chapter 15. Childhood
Nikolenka recalls the days spent at home. His games, mother's kisses, a cozy chair in the living room ...
Nostalgia embraces the boy and lulls him to sleep.
Chapter 16. Poems
A month has passed since the moment when Nikolenka and her brother moved to Moscow. Boys get ready for grandma’s birthday. Volodya painted a Turk for her (the “head”, as the drawing teacher says), and the younger brother decided to donate poetry. He wrote two verses in haste, and then nothing went into his head. Found a poem by Karl Ivanovich, decided to take as a sample. Wrote, long rewrote beautifully. But at the last moment he did not like the final lines - "... and we love as a mother." It was too late to remake something, and ceremonial clothes had already been brought.
The three of us went down - Karl Ivanovich, Volodya and Nikolenka - in tailcoats, reminded and all with their presents. Grandmother graciously accepted both the box from Karl Ivanovich and the Turk from Volodya. It was Nikolenka’s turn. He was already completely froze, and was afraid to give his parcel with verses. An elderly woman unfolded, started reading aloud, then, without reading up, asked the boys' father to read again and completely - she was not allowed to have low vision. Nikolenka was ready to fall through the ground, but her grandmother said that all this was charming and put the bundle to the rest of the gifts. Princess Varvara Ilyinichna appeared.
Chapter 17. Princess Kornakova
The princess seems to Nikolenka to be a not very pleasant-looking woman - a small, biliary, puny, with unpleasant gray-green eyes. She talks a lot, even despite her grandmother's apparent displeasure. The princess boasts of her son Etienne - a young rake, and does not give the hostess a word. They discuss parenting methods.
Then Kornakova decides to meet the boys. Father represents Volodya as a secular youth, and Nikolenka - as a poet - small and with swirls. The hero begins to speculate that he is foolish of himself, as his mother had long told him. And since his face is not too beautiful, he needs to become an intelligent and kind person. But in moments like this, Nikolenka seems that there will be for him, ugly, happiness on earth.
Chapter 18. Prince Ivan Ivanovich
Kornakova listened to Nikolenka’s poems, talked to her grandmother and left.
Another friend came - an elderly man in a uniform, with a face of remarkable beauty - Prince Ivan Ivanovich.
With him, the grandmother again discusses the grandchildren. She believes that the boys should have been sent to the city for education much earlier, because now they are completely wild - they even can’t enter the room. Also discuss the income of parents, their relationship.
Nikolenka, involuntarily overheard this conversation, tiptoed out of the room.
Chapter 19. Ivins
Acquaintance with the Ivins family. They have three boys in the family, and the second of them, Seryozha, is the object of adoration of Nikolenka. The boy tries to imitate his friend, considers him the most beautiful person, but Seryozha pays almost no attention to the hero. With their Ivins, their tutor, Herr Frost, arrived - the type of young Russian German who wants to be well done and red tape.
In the front garden, children play robbers. Seryozha is one of the robbers, and Nikolenka is a gendarme. But at one point, Ivin falls, breaks his knee, and the hero, instead of arresting him in the game, begins to inquire about his health. Seryozha is angry, he says that you can find out after the game. Nikolenka is delighted with the stamina and courage of her hero.
Ilenka Grap, the son of a poor foreigner who owed something to the boys' grandfather, joined the company.
After playing the robbers, the children go to the house. There they mess around and flaunt each other with different gymnastic things. And then the boys decide to force Ilenka to do gymnastic tricks. They forcefully put him on his head, and when he gets into the eye of Seryozha with fear, they begin to call names. Ilya’s crying, and Ivin says that there’s nothing to be with him, let him sit alone. In Nikolenka, admired by Seryozha, not a drop of his usual pity wakes up.
Chapter 20. The guests gather
Nikolenka is impatient - he is waiting for the Ivins to arrive. A wheelchair pulls up, but strangers come out of it. A boy is waiting in the hallway. One of the unfamiliar figures turns out to be a charming girl of Nikolai’s years. In a muslin dress, curly, big-eyed. This is Sonechka Valakhin, together with her mother.
The grandmother introduces the Valakhins to her grandson and sends the children to dance and have fun. In the hallway, meanwhile, the children of Princess Kornakova had already appeared - all equally unpleasant and ugly, especially Etienne.
He immediately begins to boast that he does not ride in a wheelchair, but on a gantry. A footman appears and asks where Etienne is doing the whip. He says that he does not remember, but maybe he lost - then he will pay. The footman reminds that he already owes money to several servants, but Etienne roughly cuts him off and leaves. When he comes to see his grandmother, she treats him with some contempt, but the young prince does not notice this.
Nikolenka’s everything is drawn in front of Sonia, and for the first time she’s disappointed that Iviny arrived - now Seryozha will see Sonechka and will show her herself.
Chapter 21. Before the mazurka
There will be dances, and Nikolenka and Volodya do not have like gloves for them. The hero finds only one - old and torn, and comes up with a question about gloves to his grandmother, and she laughs and tells Valakhin that this is how her grandson is ready to go wild for a dance with Sonya. The girl laughs, but this episode helped Nikolenka overcome her shyness, and they soon set off to dance.
Together they laugh at that torn glove and dance. Nikolenka talks about Karl Ivanovich, about herself. After the square dance, Sonechka leaves, and for the next dance he invites an adult girl, taking her from under the nose of another gentleman.
Chapter 22. Mazurka
Nikolenka sits and considers people dancing in the hall. The boy notices that everyone does not dance the way they taught him. He didn’t get a pair on the mazurka, but he was cheerful after dancing with Sonya. However, the girl, whom he took away for the last dance, decides to entertain him and sends one of the princesses to dance with him.
Confused, Nikolenka begins to dance not as is customary here, but as he was taught. She is perplexed, and her father says that since you don’t know how, then don’t take it. He takes the princess away, and the son remains in complete frustration - even his father is ashamed of him, and Sonya also laughed. He wants to be home again, where everything is so clear, friendly and warm.
Chapter 23. After the Mazurka
The young man, from whom Nikolenka took the lady to a dance, decides to cheer and amuse the boy — he jokes, pours him wine until the adults see it. In the end, the hero gets intoxicated and amused.Sonia persuades her mother to stay for another half hour and leads Nikolenka to dance.
After funny dances, the boy again becomes discouraged - he is still not good enough for a girl like Sonechka. Before the heroine leaves, they persuade that the girl will persuade her mother to come again on Tuesday. All the boys are fascinated by Sonya, but Nikolenka is sure - she liked him the most.
Chapter 24. In bed
Volodya and Nikolenka in their room. They discuss - what a charm this Sonya is, and what each of them would do for her - Nikolenka is ready to jump out of the window, and Volodya - to kiss her all.
Their discussions are naive and pure, but still both are embarrassed.
Chapter 25. Letter
Six months have already passed since leaving the village. Father receives a letter and says that they all need to go to Petrovskoye - home. Mother writes about her affairs at home, about the successes of the sister of the boys Lyubochka and admits that she is very ill.
A note from the governess Marya Ivanovna is enclosed in the letter, and she asks to hurry with the arrival while mother is still alive.
Chapter 26. What awaited us in the village
The boys arrived with their father in Petrovskoye. There they learn that mother has been awake for six days now. In the room they meet the doctor, Natalia Savishnu and the maid girl.
Just arrived, they found the last minutes of their dear mother’s life, who was so kind and affectionate with all the household.
Chapter 27. Woe
The next day, late in the evening, Nikolenka sneaks into the hall, where there is a coffin with his mother. He cannot reconcile with her death and, looking at a body in a coffin, represents her alive.
The next morning is a requiem. During her Nikolenka decently cries, is baptized. But in his thoughts he worries that the trench coat is shaking him, and as if not to dirty the trousers on his lap. The whole family and servants are in complete despair and sadness. The last one to say goodbye to the deceased is a peasant with a child in her arms. The girl is frightened of the face of the deceased and screams. This upsets Nikolenka even more.
Chapter 28 — Last Sad Memories
For several days, Nikolenka regularly comes to Natalya Savishna - she tells him stories about his mother, her childhood and how the deceased loved her maid. Three days after the funeral, the half-orphaned boys and their father leave for Moscow.
Grandmother already learns about the death of Natalya Nikolaevna from them, and for a week falls into unconsciousness. She either runs around the rooms, or imagines that Natalya Nikolaevna came to her, or screams. A week later, the old woman’s grief sheds tears.
Nikolenka understands that the time of childhood is over. In the end, he mentions that he did not see Natalya Savishnu anymore - soon after her mistress she died, and she herself, having ordered everything about her funeral for another month. She died after a serious illness, but with a smile on her face and peace of mind - she was faithful to her masters all her life, did not take anything else, and before death she gave 10 rubles to the priest so that he would give them to the poor in his parish.
