A very brief summary for a reader's diary
During his son’s wedding, Captain Gorobets brought out icons for the blessing of the young couple. One of the guests suddenly turned into a terrible monster, and people realized that he was a sorcerer. He was expelled from the wedding with the help of icons.
Before this event, the wife of the named brother of Yesaul, Danila Burulbash, Katerina, was visited by her father, whom she had not seen since childhood. He was always gloomy, refused many Cossack dishes and drank dark liquid from his bottle. Katerina had a dream that the sorcerer who appeared at the wedding was her father.
Once Burulbash saw that his father-in-law had gone to an old castle that stood not far from his farm. Pan Danilo climbed an oak tree to look into the windows of the impregnable castle, and saw that his father-in-law had summoned Katerina’s soul with his witchcraft. Pan Danilo realized that his wife’s dreams were prophetic.
Returning to the farm, Burulbash found a way to put the sorcerer in a deep basement, but he managed to free himself by persuading his daughter to open the door. The sorcerer disappeared, and when the Poles attacked the farm, Pan Danilo, fighting with them, noticed his father-in-law among the enemies. With a well-aimed shot, the sorcerer mortally wounded Burulbash.
The sorcerer appeared to Katerina in a dream and demanded to marry him. For refusal, he killed her little son. From all these shocks, Katerina went crazy. One day a guest came to the farm, in whom she recognized her father as a sorcerer, she rushed at him with a knife, but he pulled it out and killed his daughter.
A wonderful vision appeared outside Kiev: suddenly the Carpathians became visible, and on one of the mountains stood a mounted knight with his eyes closed. In horror, the sorcerer jumped onto his horse and rushed away. Appearing in the schema-monk’s cave, he asked to pray for his lost soul. The schema-monk saw that this man’s sins were too great, and refused to pray for such an unprecedented sinner. In a rage, the sorcerer killed the holy schema-monk.
The sorcerer rode on a horse, but all roads led him to the Carpathians. He found himself in front of the horseman from the vision. The horseman grabbed the sorcerer by the neck, he instantly died and was thrown into the abyss.
At the end of the story it is told how the bandura player sang about an old matter. There lived two Cossacks, sworn brothers, Petro and Ivan. The king promised a large reward for the capture of the Turkish Pasha. The brothers, deciding to catch the pasha, went in different directions. Ivan caught the pasha and, taking the reward, shared it with his friend. But Petro was jealous that Ivan received such an honor from the king, and harbored a grudge.
They went to the lands granted by the king. On a narrow mountain path, Petro pushed his adopted brother into the abyss.
At God's court, Ivan asked that all of Peter's descendants should not know happiness, that the last in his family would be such a villain as had never existed in the world, and that all his ancestors in their graves would experience torment from each of his villainies. And Petro himself, unable to rise from the ground, suffered even more severe torment, for there is no greater torment for a person “than wanting to take revenge and not being able to take revenge.”
And so it all happened, but Ivan himself, at the behest of God, was deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven and must forever sit on a horse and feel how Petro, lying underground in terrible agony, was shaking the whole earth.
Chapter-by-chapter summary (more detailed than summary)
I
In Kyiv, captain Gorobets celebrated the wedding of his son. Many guests arrived, among them was Danilo Burulbash with his wife Katerina and one-year-old son. The guests were surprised that Mrs. Katerina’s father, who had been missing for more than 20 years, did not come to the wedding, and a year ago returned to his daughter when she gave birth to her son Ivan.
The old captain brought out icons to bless the young people and wanted to say a prayer. At this time, the people backed away, pointing to one Cossack, whose face was terribly transformed when the captain raised the icons. The Cossack became a terrible hunchbacked old man.
Everyone shouted that it was the sorcerer who had appeared again. Esaul, holding up icons in front of the old man, said: “Get lost, image of Satan, there is no place for you here!” The old man hissed, clicked his teeth like a wolf, and disappeared.
Old people began to say that there would be trouble, and told stories about this sorcerer. But some time later the fun resumed, the feast continued until late at night.
II
On a quiet night, a canoe sailed along the Dnieper - it was Burulbash with his wife and son returning to his farm, which was on the other side of the river. The two rowers did not sing or talk, their master was lost in thought, and Katerina rocked the child in her arms. Mr. Danilo asked his wife why she was sad. Katerina replied that she was scared by stories about the sorcerer.
When the canoe reached the cemetery on the shore, cries for help were heard. The cross staggered, a dead man rose from the grave, groaned that he was stuffy and went underground. The same thing happened with the second and third graves. And suddenly everything disappeared...
Burulbash said that the sorcerer is frightening so that people do not get to his unclean nest. Then he told Katerina that it seemed to him that her father did not want to live in harmony with them - he arrived stern, gloomy, always angry.
III
The next morning Pan Danilo woke up late and began sharpening a new saber, and Katerina began to embroider. Suddenly her father came and began angrily asking his daughter why she returned home late. Pan Danilo said that you should not ask her about this, but him, since here it is customary that the husband answers, not the wife. Word for word, Pan Danilo and father-in-law quarreled and began to fight with sabers. When the blades flew away, they took up the muskets. Danilo fired and missed, but his father-in-law wounded him in the arm. Pan Danilo wanted to take the Turkish pistol hanging on the wall, but his wife threw herself at his feet and begged him not to continue the battle. Katerina said that if her husband was killed, she would throw herself into the Dnieper, and her son would remain an orphan, and no one would protect him from the wicked Poles.
Pan Danilo came to his senses. He made peace with his father-in-law, asking for his forgiveness. He forgave, but did not shake hands, and Danilo thought that he did not do the Cossack thing, asking for forgiveness, although he was not guilty of anything.
IV
The next morning Katerina woke up and told her husband that she had a dream that her father was the freak they saw at the wedding. In a dream he said that he would be a glorious husband to her. Danilo said that he still cannot understand what kind of person her father is, that he probably committed a lot of sins in a foreign land, which is why he is so gloomy and angry.
When they sat down to dinner, Mr. Father refused dumplings and pork and ate only cabbage and “lemishka with milk.”
In the evening, Danilo saw through the window a light flash in the old castle on the cape, then he saw a boat, and something flashed in the castle again. He and his Cossacks gathered to see those places to see if everything was calm there. The Cossacks saw how their master's father-in-law walked towards the castle, and headed there. Pan Danilo climbed a tall oak tree in front of the lighted window and saw that the room was light without candles, and there were wonderful signs on the walls. The door opened, Katerina’s father entered the room, put a pot on the table and began throwing herbs into it. The appearance of the father-in-law began to change and he turned into a sorcerer who was seen at the wedding.
A woman appeared before the sorcerer, as if woven from thin air; Danilo recognized her as his wife. The sorcerer asked where her lady is now. She replied that Mrs. Katerina was sleeping now. From their subsequent conversation, Danilo realized that this was the soul of his wife and that the sorcerer wanted to make Katerina become his wife.
V
Returning home, Danilo learned that Katerina had dreamed the same thing that he had seen in reality in the castle. Danilo said that her father is the Antichrist, and Katerina renounced her father.
VI
Because he wanted to sell the Ukrainian people to Catholics and burn down Christian churches, they put the sorcerer in chains and put him in a basement. Tomorrow he was supposed to be executed.
Seeing Katerina from the basement window, the sorcerer called her over and said that if she let him out, he would repent, go into the caves and pray to God day and night. Katerina said that she would not be able to unfasten the chains, but the sorcerer, it turns out, put fog in the eyes of the Cossacks, and instead of his hands they chained a dry tree. He said that he could pass through the walls, but he couldn’t do that here, since they were built by the holy schema-monk. He assured Katerina that he would repent, she opened the locks, the sorcerer said goodbye and disappeared.
VII
When Pan Danilo found out that the sorcerer had escaped, he thought that the devil had released him, since instead of the sorcerer there was a log clad in iron.
VIII
In the tavern near the border road, the Poles had been feasting for two days, mocking Orthodoxy, calling the Ukrainian people their slaves. You could hear people talking here about Pan Danila’s farm and his beautiful wife. “This gang has gathered for no good cause!”
IX
Danilo sat in his little room and thought. He told his wife that his death was near and that she should not leave her son when he was gone.
A Cossack entered the hut and announced that an army of Poles was coming to the farm. Danilo ordered to saddle the horses, take up weapons and how to greet the uninvited guests. The Cossacks and Poles fought in the mountains for several hours, the enemies began to scatter, but then Danilo saw his father-in-law standing on the mountain and aiming at him with a musket. Danilo drove his horse straight towards him, but a shot rang out, the sorcerer disappeared behind the mountain, and Pan Danilo fell off his horse, and his soul flew out of his body.
Katerina grieved for her husband, cried, was killed, and from Kyiv Captain Gorobets rode to the rescue.
X
The boat sailed along the Dnieper and moored to the shore. The sorcerer, upset by the defeat of the Poles, came out of it. He went down to his dugout, began throwing herbs into a pot there, and casting spells. A white cloud appeared in the middle of the hut, in which a wonderful face shone and looked at the sorcerer with motionless eyes. Horror seized the sorcerer, he screamed, knocked over the pot, and the vision disappeared.
XI
Katerina has already been in Kyiv for 10 days in the family of the old captain, but even here she has no peace from the sorcerer. She saw in a dream that he threatened to kill her child if she did not marry him. Katerina was reassured by Gorobets, his son, and his son’s young wife, but she was inconsolable because she herself released the sorcerer.
We all agreed to spend the night together, everyone fell asleep, and suddenly Katerina woke up and saw that her son had been stabbed to death. Everyone seemed petrified by the unheard-of crime.
XII
Far from the Ukrainian region, behind Poland there are large mountains. There, below them, above the lakes, a hero of enormous stature rides at night on a huge black horse. His eyes are closed - he is sleeping, and a sleeping baby is holding onto the hero from behind.
The sleepy hero rode through the mountains for many nights. He arrived at the highest mountain, the horse stopped, and the rider fell asleep even more deeply, and he could not be seen because of the clouds.
XIII
Out of grief, Katerina became crazy, danced, sang, but all her songs were mixed up. The poor lady secluded herself in her farm and shunned people. At night she ran through the forest with a knife, looking for her father.
One morning a guest arrived, learned about the death of the owner of the farm and, crying, said that he was his friend in battle. Mrs. Katerina did not take her eyes off him and listened like a reasonable person. The guest said that Master Danilo once asked him, if he died, to take Katerina to him and marry her. Then the lady looked at him and, crying out that it was his father, rushed at the guest with a knife. He pulled out the knife and killed his crazy daughter. The Cossacks wanted to catch him, but the sorcerer jumped on his horse and rushed off.
XIV
A miracle appeared beyond Kiev: suddenly the Black Sea, the Crimea, and in the other direction the land of Galich, the Carpathian Mountains became visible, and on a high mountain stood a mounted knight with his eyes closed.
The sorcerer, seeing this miracle, was frightened, because he recognized the face of the knight that appeared to him during the divination. The sorcerer jumped on his horse and rushed home to find out from the evil spirits what such a miracle meant. Suddenly the horse stopped, turned its muzzle towards the sorcerer and laughed. In horror, the sorcerer drove the horse back to Kyiv, to the holy places.
XV
In the cave, in front of the lamp, sat a schema-monk who had closed himself off from the world for many years. Suddenly a terrible-looking man ran into the cave and desperately shouted for the schema-monk to pray for his lost soul. He crossed himself, opened the holy book and, horrified, said that he could not pray for such a sinner as had never happened in the world. This was indicated to him by holy letters filled with blood. The sorcerer, in a rage, rushed to the schema-monk and killed him.
The sorcerer jumped on his horse and headed to the Crimea to the Tatars, without knowing why. But on the way he got lost, and it was as if someone had led him to the Carpathian Mountains. On a high peak the sorcerer saw a horseman, who, opening his eyes and seeing the sorcerer, laughed.
This knight grabbed the sorcerer, lifted him into the air, and then the sorcerer died. Already dead, he opened his eyes and saw the dead, similar in face to him, who rose from Kyiv, the land of Galich and the Carpathians. They stood around the knight, and he laughed and threw the sorcerer into the abyss. The dead rushed there, picked him up and sank their teeth into him. One of them, taller and scarier than all of them, could not rise from the ground, since he grew incredibly large in the ground. He was only able to move a little, and from this a shaking began throughout the entire earth, many huts overturned, and many people died.
A whistle is often heard across the Carpathians; it’s in the abyss “the dead are gnawing the dead.” The earth often shook all over the world. Literate people interpret that this is because “flames are snatched out of a mountain near the sea and burning rivers flow.” But the old people who live in the Galich land in Hungary claim that shaking occurs when a dead person who has grown up in the ground wants to rise and shakes the earth.
XVI
In the city of Glukhov, people gathered near a blind old man and listened to him play the bandura and sing wonderful songs. He sang about the previous hetmanate, when the Cossacks were in glory, and then said that he would sing “about an old matter,” and sang about the story of two Cossacks Ivan and Peter. They lived like brothers and agreed to divide everything in half: fun, grief, booty. They fought for King Stepan of Sedmigrad.
Once King Stepan announced that for the capture of the Turkish Pasha he would give as much salary to the daredevil as he would give to the whole army. The named brothers decided to catch the pasha and went in different directions.
Ivan managed to capture the pasha, and he brought the prisoner to the king. He praised the Cossack and ordered him to be given the promised salary. On the same day, Ivan divided the reward in half between himself and Peter. He took it, but was jealous that Ivan had received such honor from the king, and harbored revenge in his soul.
Both Cossacks went beyond the Carpathians, to the land granted by the king. Ivan put his son on a horse and tied him to him. On a narrow road, Petro pushed his dozing brother into the abyss.
Ivan grabbed the branch, and the horse flew to the bottom of the hole. The Cossack began to climb up with his son over his shoulders, looked up and saw that Petro was pointing a pike at him to push him down. Ivan asked to have mercy on at least the innocent baby, but Petro laughed and pushed them into the abyss. He took all the goods for himself and became very rich.
When Petro died, God called the souls of both brothers to judgment. He told Ivan to choose his brother’s execution himself. After much thought, Ivan said that this man had betrayed him and deprived him of his offspring.
He asked God so that all the descendants of this sinner would not be happy and that the last in his family would be such a fierce villain as there had never been before. So that from each of his deeds his ancestors rose from their graves, enduring torment. And Petro could not get up and endured even greater torment.
Ivan asked God that when the time came for retribution for the atrocities of the last of Peter’s family, God would raise Ivan on a horse to a high peak. So that a villain would come to him and Ivan would throw him into the hole, and all his dead ancestors would come to bite him for the torment that they suffered because of him. And Petro would not be able to rise from the ground in order to take revenge on the villain, and his bones would grow more and more. This torment will be the most terrible, since “there is no greater torment than wanting to take revenge and not being able to take revenge.”
God answered that the execution invented by Ivan was terrible, but still let it be so. God also said that Ivan would not have the Kingdom of Heaven; he would forever sit on his horse on the top of the mountain.
That’s how it all came true: to this day, a marvelous equestrian knight stands on the Carpathian Mountains and watches how in the hole “the dead are gnawing at the dead man” and feels how Petro, lying in the ground, grows and terribly shakes the whole earth.
When the bandura player finished his song about Ivan and Peter and began to sing funny sayings, many people listening to the song stood for a long time, “with their heads down, thinking about the terrible thing that happened in the old days.”
Contents “Terrible Revenge” by chapters
Summary of “Terrible Revenge” by Gogol with a description of each chapter:
Chapter 1
His sworn brother, Danilo Burulbash, came to celebrate the wedding of the son of Yesaul Gorobets with his beautiful wife Katerina and one-year-old son. The guests regretted that Katerina’s old father, who had recently returned from distant countries after a long absence, did not come with them - “he probably would have told a lot of wonderful things.” In the midst of the fun, the captain took the icons to bless the young people. At that moment, one of the guests turned into an ugly old man. No one doubted that it was a sorcerer.
Chapter 2
Late at night Burulbash and his family were returning home. When his boat sailed past the cemetery, a terrible groan was heard, and a “dried up dead man” appeared from the ground, followed by another - even more terrible. Out of fear, “the rowers dropped their hats into the Dnieper.” Danilo calmed the Cossacks and his wife, and soon the boat left the terrible place behind.
Chapter 3
The next morning, Danilo had a strong quarrel with Katerina’s father, who did not behave at all like a Christian and an honest Cossack. In the heat of a quarrel, the men grabbed their weapons, and the old man managed to wound his son-in-law in the arm. Katerina began to beg her husband to make peace with her father, and he reluctantly agreed for the sake of his son.
Chapter 4
Katerina told her husband a dream in which her father was the ugly sorcerer they saw at the wedding. Danilo had no doubt that the old man had “committed a lot of sins in a foreign land.” He followed Katerina's father as he secretly made his way into an abandoned black castle. Looking out the window, Danilo was dumbfounded: the old man, in the guise of a sorcerer, summoned Katerina’s soul and demanded her consent to their wedding.
Chapter 5
The next morning, Katerina told her husband her nightmare, but Danilo explained that everything really happened. In anger, the Cossack began to reproach himself for getting involved “with the Antichrist tribe.” Katerina cried bitterly - it was not her fault at all for who her father turned out to be. Burulbash softened and promised not to let anyone offend her.
Chapter 6
Danilo ordered the sorcerer to be chained and put in a basement, and his castle to be burned to the ground. Katerina’s father knew that his execution would take place the next day, but he could not get out of the dungeon, which in the past had been the cell of the holy schema-monk. Seeing Katerina, the old man began to beg to be released “for the sake of his unfortunate mother,” who died many years ago. He promised that he would spend the rest of his days in a monastery, where he would atone for his sins. Katerina believed the insidious sorcerer and set him free. Realizing what she had done, she fainted.
Chapter 7
Fearing her husband’s fierce temper, Katerina did not find the strength to admit that it was she who freed the sorcerer. Burulbash had no doubt that he escaped thanks to magic.
Chapter 8
“On the border road, in a tavern,” the Poles were feasting with their priest. They drank, cursed, played cards and did all sorts of mischief. In their drunken conversations, they often mentioned the farm of the glorious Cossack Burulbash and his beautiful wife. Apparently, "not Chapter 9
Danilo shared with his wife a premonition of imminent death. The Cossack Stetsko ran into the hut and reported the approach of the Poles. A terrible battle broke out, in which Danilo fell dead at the hands of the sorcerer. Captain Gorobets rode up to help, but it was already too late.
Chapter 10
In his dugout, the old sorcerer began to summon Katerina’s soul, but instead of it “someone’s wonderful face” appeared. The old man was seriously frightened and knocked over the pot of magic potion.
Chapter 11
Katerina and her son settled in the house of the captain, but even there her soul could not find the long-awaited peace. She again had a terrible dream in which the sorcerer threatened to kill her child if she did not become his wife. Katerina told captain about everything, and he and the Cossacks stood guard the whole next night. Waking up, Katerina saw her dead son in the cradle.
Chapter 12
A strange horseman appeared in the Carpathians - “a hero with inhuman growth” on a huge black horse. His eyes were sleepily closed, and a sleeping boy sat behind him. Having climbed the highest mountain, he stopped in thought, and dark clouds hid him from human eyes.
Chapter 13
After suffering, Katerina lost her mind. One day an unfamiliar man came to the captain, pretending to be an old friend of Burulbash. He said that he promised Danila to marry his wife if he died prematurely. Katerina recognized her father as a guest and rushed at him with a knife. The sorcerer snatched the weapon from her, swung it and “killed his crazy daughter,” after which he disappeared without a trace.
Chapter 14
An unprecedented miracle happened outside Kiev - “suddenly it became visible far to all corners of the world.” The gigantic rider on his horse also became visible. The old sorcerer recognized with horror the very face that he had seen during his divination. In insane fear, he went to the holy places.
Chapter 15
The sorcerer ran into the cave to the schema-monk and asked to pray for him. Seeing the bloodshot letters in his book, the holy elder refused to do so. In anger, the sorcerer killed him and rushed away. He tried to get as far as possible from the Carpathians, but all roads led him to the mysterious horseman. Seeing the sorcerer, the giant grabbed him, laughed loudly and threw him into a deep abyss. Immediately all the dead came running to sink their teeth into his body.
Chapter 16
In one town, a bandura player entertained onlookers with ancient stories. He said that in the old days there lived two brothers - Ivan and Petro, who shared equally both joy and sorrow. Once the king, who was at war with the Turks, promised a large reward to the one who captured the Turkish pasha. The brothers decided to try their luck and went in different directions.
Fortune smiled on Ivan, and he honestly shared the reward with his brother. However, Petro “harbored revenge deep in his soul,” and, taking advantage of the opportunity, pushed Petro and his little son into the abyss, and he himself took possession of all the wealth.
When Petro died, God called the souls of both brothers to himself, and suggested that Ivan inflict punishment on the traitor. He asked that all his brother’s descendants live in sin and “have no happiness on earth.” When the last one in Peter's family dies, all the ancestors will rise from their graves and begin to gnaw on his body. Petro himself “would have gnawed at himself, and his bones would have grown larger and larger the further.”
God agreed with such terrible revenge, but also ordered Ivan to stand on the mountain forever and look at the torment of his brother and his descendants.
This is interesting: Gogol’s story “The Enchanted Place” is part of the cycle of his integral work “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. The story tells the story of the life of a grandfather who found himself in very mysterious circumstances. On our website you can read a summary of “The Enchanted Place”. The story is told from the perspective of clerk Thomas. Many years have passed since the incident.
