Read Summary of “An Ordinary Story” by Goncharov

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Goncharov
Characters of the novel Ordinary Story

The main characters of the work are representatives of the Aduev family represented by uncle Pyotr Ivanovich, his nephew Alexander and his uncle’s young wife Lizaveta Alexandrovna.

Alexander Aduev is presented as a writer in the image of a dreamy, enthusiastic, twenty-year-old young man who came from a village estate to the St. Petersburg capital with the goal of achieving career growth, finding true love, and achieving literary fame. Gradually, the hero feels disappointment in the life around him, namely, dissatisfaction with women and love feelings. Being under the influence of his uncle Pyotr Ivanovich, Alexander begins to show himself as a restrained, calculating person with age. As a result, Alexander Aduev manages to achieve a successful career and marry for convenience, which has nothing to do with love, with a wealthy girl.

Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev is portrayed as a hardworking but calculating thirty-seven-year-old man. The characteristic features of Uncle Alexander are kindness, possession of a sharp mind and intelligence. At a young age, Pyotr Ivanovich is famous for his ardor and passion, but as he grows older he becomes a restrained pragmatist. The elder Aduev has a good fortune, owning a factory and performing bureaucratic service. Having reached forty years old, Pyotr Ivanovich marries a young girl, Lizaveta Alexandrovna.

Lizaveta Aleksandrovna , a young woman of twenty years old, being a smart girl, has an affectionate and kind character, but, despite a comfortable and rich family life with Pyotr Ivanovich, she feels unhappy due to the cold attitude of her husband. After ten years of living with Aduev, Lizaveta Aleksandrovna begins to suffer from a breakdown and feels a final loss of interest in life.

The secondary hero of the novel is mother Alexandra Adueva , portrayed by the writer as a caring mother, a hospitable housewife who devoted her own life to her only child and running the household on the estate. Anna Pavlovna Adueva passes away as soon as her son crosses the thirty-year mark.

Before his trip to St. Petersburg, Alexander experiences the first feeling of falling in love with his neighbor's girl, Sophia, but breaks up with her, dreaming of meeting passionate, ardent feelings in his future life.

Also represented as a non-main character in the work is Nadenka Lyubetskaya , one of Alexander’s lovers, an eighteen-year-old girl of unremarkable appearance, but quite interesting by nature. Twenty-three-year-old Alexander plans to marry Nadenka, but Lyubetskaya begins a relationship with Count Novinsky and this affair is a painful suffering for Aduev, expressed in his deep disappointment in feigned, hypocritical and flighty women.

Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev’s comrade is Count Novitsky , depicted by the writer as an intelligent, courteous, handsome man, a rake who knows how to skillfully hit on female representatives.

Another of Alexander’s beloved is Yulia Tafaeva , who is described as a widowed woman, distinguished by dreaminess, sensitivity and nervousness, who entered into a two-year relationship with the main character after his breakup with Nadenka, which ended with Alexander’s cooling towards Yulia due to sudden boredom.

After breaking up with Tafaeva, Alexander meets an elderly man, Kostyakov , who is another minor character, with whom Aduev prefers to go fishing, talking about the meaning of life.

Other works: ← Alekseev in Oblomov’s novel↑ GoncharovOblomov’s childhood →

Main characters of the novel

Main characters:

Alexander Aduev is a young man, dreamy, naive, who changes under the influence of his uncle.
Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev is Alexander’s rich uncle, a dry, pragmatic person.

Other characters:

Anna Pavlovna Adueva is a poor landowner, Alexander’s mother, a kind and loving woman.
Sonyushka is a girl in love with Alexander, his neighbor in the village.
Alexander Pospelov is a close friend of Alexander.
Nadenka Lyubetskaya is Alexandra’s fiancée from St. Petersburg, a smart, wayward girl.
Lizaveta Aleksandrovna is the young wife of Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev, a kind, open woman.
Surkov is Pyotr Ivanovich’s companion, a flighty man, a great lover of women.
Yulia Pavlovna Tafaeva is a young widow, a romantic, exalted woman, Alexander’s fiancée.
Kostyakov is a degraded old man with whom Alexander fished.
Lisa is a young girl, a summer resident, in love with Alexander.
Evsey is the valet of Alexander Aduev, who lived with him in St. Petersburg.

Read the interesting story “What Horses Cry About” by Abramov, written in 1973. For a reading diary and better preparation for a literature lesson, we recommend reading the summary of “What Horses Cry About.” The form of this work is a “story within a story,” in which the author consoles his beloved mare Ryzhukha and remembers his horse Korka, who was killed during the war.

"An Ordinary Story" very brief summary

“An Ordinary Story” by Goncharov, a summary for the reader’s diary:

The novel takes place in the middle of the 19th century. 20-year-old nobleman Alexander Aduev lives with his mother Anna Pavlovna on an estate in the Russian hinterland. A quiet life in the village seems boring to Alexander, and he decides to go to St. Petersburg to make a career and achieve fame. Most of all, he dreams of becoming a famous writer.

In the village, Alexander remains with his beloved Sophia, with whom he has a quiet, calm relationship. However, the young man hopes to meet a more passionate love that will turn his life around. Arriving in St. Petersburg, Alexander settles not far from his uncle Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev. The nephew and uncle turn out to be very different people.

Alexander is a sensitive, dreamy, enthusiastic, open and affectionate young man. Pyotr Ivanovich is a cold, reserved, reasonable man. The uncle advises Alexander to fight his daydreaming and enthusiasm, criticizes his poetry. Pyotr Ivanovich arranges for the young man to serve as a minor official, and also finds him a part-time job in a magazine about agriculture. Ardent, dreamy Alexander understands that life in the capital is much more prosaic than he expected.

2 years pass. Alexander's life in St. Petersburg is getting better. 23-year-old Alexander falls in love with 18-year-old Nadenka Lyubetskaya. The young man abandons his work in the magazine, becomes absent-minded, etc. His uncle advises him not to marry for love. Ardent Alexander does not understand how this is possible. Meanwhile, Pyotr Ivanovich himself marries the young beauty Lizaveta Alexandrovna.

Pyotr Ivanovich despises love and is proud that his marriage is not so much for love as for calculation. Lizaveta Aleksandrovna becomes the best friend of her nephew Alexander and gives him affection and warmth, which the cold Pyotr Ivanovich is not capable of. Lizaveta herself wonders whether she is happy with her smart, rich, but cold husband. The love of Alexander and Nadya continues for more than a year.

Finally, Alexander is going to propose, but Nadenka falls in love with another man - Count Novinsky. Alexander has a hard time dealing with betrayal. A year passes after the breakup with Nadenka. The once dreamy and naive Alexander now hates and despises all people and himself. At 25, he finds himself disappointed in life. Alexander decides to prove to his uncle that he will become a writer.

A young man writes a story for six months, but they refuse to publish it in a magazine. Alexander finally admits that he does not have the writing talent he had hoped for. He burns all his manuscripts.

Meanwhile, Pyotr Ivanovich asks Alexander to court the young widow Yulia Tafaeva (Peter Ivanovich needs this to prevent his companion Surkov’s connection with Tafaeva). Fulfilling his uncle's request, Alexander falls in love with Tafaefa. She reciprocates his feelings. It seems to Alexander that this time he has found a real, strong and constant feeling of love. True, this connection is overshadowed by Alexander’s terrible jealousy.

The relationship lasts about 2 years, and things are heading towards marriage. Suddenly, Alexander grows cold towards Yulia, he becomes bored with her - and he breaks off the relationship. After breaking up with Julia, Alexander falls into apathy and mopes. Service interests him little. He does not believe in love and friendship, does not expect happiness and joy. One day Alexander meets a young girl, Lisa. She soon falls in love with him.

Alexander himself no longer feels the same exalted feeling for Lisa as he does for Nadenka. Lisa's father suspects that Alexander does not intend to get married and demands that he leave Lisa alone. After this, Alexander stops seeing the girl. Over time, Alexander forgets Lisa and continues to live as a hermit. He becomes cold towards everything and feels tired of life. He believes that his uncle's instructions are part of what made him so unhappy. The uncle does not admit his guilt and explains that he always wished him well.

Finally, after 8 years of living in St. Petersburg, Alexander returns to the estate to his mother. Surrounded by maternal care, he rests his soul and takes care of the housework. He enjoys writing articles about agriculture, whereas previously this topic did not inspire him. After living in the village for 1.5 years and burying his mother, Alexander again goes to St. Petersburg. Now he feels that he looks at life and himself correctly. He loves life again, peace finally reigns in his soul.

From the village, Alexander takes away the secret of his uncle, Pyotr Ivanovich: it turns out that in his youth he was an ardent and enthusiastic young man and passionately loved Alexander’s aunt, Marya Gorbatova. Alexander learned about this from his aunt herself, already an elderly woman. Epilogue 4 years after Alexander’s return to St. Petersburg.

Pyotr Ivanovich is worried about the health of his wife, Lizaveta Alexandrovna: she suffers from a breakdown and leads a solitary life. Pyotr Ivanovich understands that with his coldness he has made his wife an unhappy, indifferent creature.

Meanwhile, 34-year-old Alexander, already a successful and wealthy official, is going to marry a pretty rich girl. Now he doesn’t care whether his bride loves him. He has learned his uncle's advice and therefore marries without love, but with calculation. Lizaveta Aleksandrovna regrets that Alexander has become as calculating and reasonable as his uncle.

The essay “The Love Story of Masha Troekurova and Vladimir” from the novel “Dubrovsky” by A. S. Pushkin.

Plot

“An Ordinary Story” is an educational novel that tells about the growing up and disappointment in his own ideals of the ineradicable, as it seems at first, provincial romantic - Alexander Aduev. Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, he comes “under the wing” of his uncle, the dryish businessman Pyotr Aduev. Despite the elder Aduev's attempts to reason with him, the younger Aduev's romantic aspirations invariably leave him heartbroken. Disillusioned with life in the capital, Aduev returns to his mother’s estate, but after his mother’s death he again goes to St. Petersburg to marry a rich heiress and make a career in government.

A short retelling of “An Ordinary Story” by Goncharov

Summary of “An Ordinary Story” by Goncharov:

This summer morning in the village of Grachi began unusually: at dawn, all the inhabitants of the house of the poor landowner Anna Pavlovna Adueva were already on their feet. Only the culprit of this fuss, Adueva’s son, Alexander, slept “as a twenty-year-old youth should sleep, in a heroic sleep.” Turmoil reigned in Rooks because Alexander was going to St. Petersburg for service: the knowledge he acquired at the university, according to the young man, must be applied in practice in serving the Fatherland.

The grief of Anna Pavlovna, parting with her only son, is akin to the sadness of the “first minister in the household” of the landowner Agrafena - his valet Yevsey, Agrafena’s dear friend, goes with Alexander to St. Petersburg - how many pleasant evenings this gentle couple spent playing cards!..

Alexander’s beloved Sonechka also suffers—the first impulses of his sublime soul were dedicated to her. Aduev’s best friend, Pospelov, bursts into Grachi at the last minute to finally hug the one with whom they spent the best hours of university life in conversations about honor and dignity, about serving the Fatherland and the delights of love...

And Alexander himself is sorry to part with his usual way of life. If lofty goals and a sense of purpose had not pushed him on a long journey, he, of course, would have remained in Rooks, with his infinitely loving mother and sister, the old maid Maria Gorbatova, among hospitable and hospitable neighbors, next to his first love. But ambitious dreams drive the young man to the capital, closer to glory.

In St. Petersburg, Alexander immediately goes to his relative, Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev, who at one time, like Alexander, “was sent to St. Petersburg at the age of twenty by his elder brother, Alexander’s father, and lived there continuously for seventeen years.” Not maintaining contact with his widow and son, who remained in Rrach after the death of his brother, Pyotr Ivanovich is greatly surprised and annoyed by the appearance of an enthusiastic young man who expects from his uncle care, attention and, most importantly, the sharing of his heightened sensitivity.

From the very first minutes of their acquaintance, Pyotr Ivanovich almost by force has to restrain Alexander from pouring out his feelings and trying to embrace his relative. Along with Alexander, a letter arrives from Anna Pavlovna, from which Pyotr Ivanovich learns that great hopes are placed on him: not only by his almost forgotten daughter-in-law, who hopes that Pyotr Ivanovich will sleep with Alexander in the same room and cover the young man’s mouth from flies.

The letter contains many requests from neighbors that Pyotr Ivanovich had forgotten to think about for almost two decades. One of these letters was written by Marya Gorbatova, Anna Pavlovna’s sister, who remembered for the rest of her life the day when the still young Pyotr Ivanovich, walking with her through the village surroundings, climbed knee-deep into the lake and plucked a yellow flower as a souvenir for her...

From the very first meeting, Pyotr Ivanovich, a rather dry and businesslike man, begins raising his enthusiastic nephew: he rents Alexander an apartment in the same building where he lives, advises where and how to eat, with whom to communicate. Later he finds a very specific thing to do: service and - for the soul! — translations of articles devoted to agricultural problems.

Ridiculing, sometimes quite cruelly, Alexander’s predilection for everything “unearthly” and sublime, Pyotr Ivanovich gradually tries to destroy the fictional world in which his romantic nephew lives. Two years pass like this.

After this time, we meet Alexander already somewhat accustomed to the difficulties of St. Petersburg life. And - madly in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya. During this time, Alexander managed to advance in his career and achieved some success in translations. Now he became a fairly important person in the magazine: “he was involved in the selection, translation, and correction of other people’s articles, and he himself wrote various theoretical views on agriculture.”

He continued to write poetry and prose. But falling in love with Nadenka Lyubetskaya seems to close the whole world before Alexander Aduev - now he lives from meeting to meeting, intoxicated by that “sweet bliss with which Pyotr Ivanovich was angry.”

Nadenka is also in love with Alexander, but, perhaps, only with that “little love in anticipation of a big one” that Alexander himself felt for Sophia, whom he had now forgotten. Alexander's happiness is fragile - Count Novinsky, the Lyubetskys' neighbor in the dacha, stands in the way of eternal bliss.

Pyotr Ivanovich is unable to cure Alexander of his raging passions: Aduev Jr. is ready to challenge the count to a duel, to take revenge on an ungrateful girl who is unable to appreciate his high feelings, he sobs and burns with anger... Pyotr Ivanovich’s wife, Lizaveta Aleksandrovna, comes to the aid of the distraught young man ; she comes to Alexander when Pyotr Ivanovich turns out to be powerless, and we do not know exactly how, with what words, with what participation the young woman succeeds in what her smart, sensible husband failed to do. “An hour later he (Alexander) came out thoughtfully, but with a smile, and fell asleep peacefully for the first time after many sleepless nights.”

And another year has passed since that memorable night. From the gloomy despair that Lizaveta Alexandrovna managed to melt, Aduev Jr. turned to despondency and indifference. “He somehow liked to play the role of the sufferer. He was quiet, important, vague, like a man who, in his words, had withstood the blow of fate...” And the blow was not slow to repeat: an unexpected meeting with an old friend Pospelov on Nevsky Prospekt, a meeting that was all the more accidental because Alexander did not even know about the move his soulmate to the capital - brings confusion into the already disturbed heart of Aduev Jr.

The friend turns out to be completely different from what he remembers from the years spent at the university: he is strikingly similar to Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev - he does not appreciate the wounds of the heart experienced by Alexander, talks about his career, about money, warmly welcomes his old friend in his home, but no special signs of attention doesn't show it to him.

It turns out to be almost impossible to cure sensitive Alexander from this blow - and who knows what our hero would have come to this time if his uncle had not applied “extreme measures” to him!.. Discussing with Alexander about the bonds of love and friendship, Pyotr Ivanovich cruelly reproaches Alexander the fact that he closed himself only in his own feelings, not knowing how to appreciate someone who is faithful to him. He does not consider his uncle and aunt his friends; he has not written to his mother for a long time, who lives only in thoughts of her only son. This “medicine” turns out to be effective - Alexander again turns to literary creativity.

This time he writes a story and reads it to Pyotr Ivanovich and Lizaveta Alexandrovna. Aduev Sr. invites Alexander to send the story to the magazine to find out the true value of his nephew’s work. Pyotr Ivanovich does this under his own name, believing that this will be a fairer trial and better for the fate of the work. The answer was not slow to appear - it puts the finishing touches on the hopes of the ambitious Aduev Jr....

And just at this time, Pyotr Ivanovich needed the service of his nephew: his companion at the plant, Surkov, unexpectedly falls in love with the young widow of Pyotr Ivanovich’s former friend, Yulia Pavlovna Tafaeva, and completely abandons his affairs. Valuing business above all else, Pyotr Ivanovich asks Alexander to “make Tafaeva fall in love with himself,” pushing Surkov out of her home and heart. As a reward, Pyotr Ivanovich offers Alexander two vases that Aduev Jr. liked so much.

The matter, however, takes an unexpected turn: Alexander falls in love with a young widow and evokes a reciprocal feeling in her. Moreover, the feeling is so strong, so romantic and sublime that the “culprit” himself is not able to withstand the outbursts of passion and jealousy that Tafaeva unleashes on him.

Brought up on romance novels, married too early to a rich and unloved man, Yulia Pavlovna, having met Alexander, seems to throw herself into a whirlpool: everything she read and dreamed about now falls on her chosen one. And Alexander does not pass the test...

After Pyotr Ivanovich managed to bring Tafaeva to her senses with arguments unknown to us, another three months passed, during which Alexander’s life after the shock he experienced is unknown to us. We meet him again when he, disappointed in everything he lived before, “plays checkers with some eccentrics or fishes.” His apathy is deep and inescapable; nothing, it seems, can bring Aduev Jr. out of his dull indifference.

Alexander no longer believes in either love or friendship. He begins to go to Kostikov, about whom Zaezzhalov, a neighbor in Grachi, once wrote in a letter to Pyotr Ivanovich, wanting to introduce Aduev Sr. to his old friend. This man turned out to be just the right thing for Alexander: he “could not awaken emotional disturbances” in the young man.

And one day on the shore where they were fishing, unexpected spectators appeared - an old man and a pretty young girl. They appeared more and more often. Lisa (that was the girl’s name) began to try to captivate the yearning Alexander with various feminine tricks. The girl partially succeeds, but her offended father comes to the gazebo for a date instead. After an explanation with him, Alexander has no choice but to change the place of fishing. However, he doesn’t remember Lisa for long...

Still wanting to awaken Alexander from the sleep of his soul, his aunt asks him one day to accompany her to a concert: “some artist, a European celebrity, has arrived.” The shock experienced by Alexander from meeting beautiful music strengthens the decision that had matured even earlier to give up everything and return to his mother, in Grachi. Alexander Fedorovich Aduev leaves the capital along the same road along which he entered St. Petersburg several years ago, intending to conquer it with his talents and high appointment...

And in the village, life seemed to have stopped running: the same hospitable neighbors, only older, the same endlessly loving mother, Anna Pavlovna; Sophia just got married without waiting for her Sasha, and her aunt, Marya Gorbatova, still remembers the yellow flower. Shocked by the changes that have occurred with her son, Anna Pavlovna spends a long time asking Yevsey how Alexander lived in St. Petersburg, and comes to the conclusion that life itself in the capital is so unhealthy that it has aged her son and dulled his feelings.

Days pass after days, Anna Pavlovna still hopes that Alexander’s hair will grow back and his eyes will sparkle, and he thinks about how to return to St. Petersburg, where so much has been experienced and irretrievably lost.

The death of his mother relieves Alexander from the pangs of conscience, which do not allow him to admit to Anna Pavlovna that he was again planning to escape from the village, and, having written to Pyotr Ivanovich, Alexander Aduev again goes to St. Petersburg...

Four years pass after Alexander's return to the capital. Many changes happened to the main characters of the novel. Lizaveta Alexandrovna was tired of fighting her husband’s coldness and turned into a calm, sensible woman, devoid of any aspirations or desires.

Pyotr Ivanovich, upset by the change in his wife’s character and suspecting she has a dangerous illness, is ready to give up his career as a court adviser and resign in order to take Lizaveta Alexandrovna away from St. Petersburg, at least for a while.

But Alexander Fedorovich reached the heights that his uncle once dreamed of for him: “a collegiate adviser, a good government salary, through outside labor”, he earns considerable money and is also preparing to get married, taking three hundred thousand and five hundred souls for his bride...

At this point we part with the heroes of the novel. What, in essence, is an ordinary story!..

Publication history

The novel “An Ordinary Story” was written by Goncharov relatively quickly, without the slowness and doubts that were characteristic of him later, while working on “Oblomov” and “The Cliff”. “The novel was conceived in 1844, written in 1845, and in 1846 I still had a few chapters left to write,” Goncharov later recalled. Apparently, already in 1845, “An Ordinary History” was read by Goncharov in the Maykovs’ salon, and the author of the novel made some changes to his text, in accordance with the instructions of Valerian Maykov. Then, for quite a long time, the manuscript of “An Ordinary History” was in the possession of M. A. Yazykov, a regular at literary salons, who, at Goncharov’s request, should have handed it over to Belinsky, but did not do so, considering the novel to be of little significance. The situation was saved by Nekrasov, who took this manuscript from Yazykov and handed it to Belinsky. Apparently, in the spring of 1846, Goncharov read the first part of “Ordinary History” in Belinsky’s circle in Lopatin’s house[1].

Convinced that “Ordinary History” was a remarkable work, Belinsky suggested that Goncharov give this novel to the almanac “Leviathan,” which Belinsky intended to publish in 1846. On May 14, 1846, Belinsky wrote to his wife: “Tell Maslov that Nekrasov will in St. Petersburg in mid-July, and ask him to deliver the letter enclosed here to the address, even through the Maykovs, if he does not know where Goncharov lives.” One must think that in this letter from Belinsky we were talking about “Ordinary History” for “Leviathan”. At the end of June - after Belinsky had left for the south - Nekrasov talked about this topic with Goncharov, but without any success. In the fall, the idea of publishing the almanac finally disappeared, and “Ordinary History” was bought by Nekrasov and Panaev for Sovremennik. “We explained the matter about the magazine to Goncharov,” Nekrasov wrote to Belinsky, “he said that Kraevsky gives him 200 rubles per sheet; we offered him the same money, and we will have this novel. I also bought another story of his from him.”[2].

In February 1847, Goncharov, according to I. I. Panaev, “beams while reading his proofs and trembles with delight, trying at the same time to pretend to be completely indifferent.” “Ordinary History” appeared in the third and fourth (March and April) books of the Sovremennik magazine. In 1848, Goncharov’s novel was published as a separate edition[3].

The plot of “An Ordinary Story” in parts and chapters

I. A. Goncharov “Ordinary History” summary with a description of each chapter:

Part one

Chapter 1

“One summer, in the village of Grachakh, the poor landowner Anna Pavlovna Adueva” had troubles in her house from early morning. Everyone was preparing for the departure to St. Petersburg of the landowner’s only son, the young man Alexander.

Anna Pavlovna agreed to let her son “go to St. Petersburg for service, or, as she said, to see people and show herself off,” but the upcoming separation was very difficult for her. She began to persuade Alexander to stay in his native Rrach, marry Sonyushka, the daughter of Marya Karpovna, and live peacefully, enjoying the beauties of nature.

However, Alexander was bored with his cramped home world - he dreamed of glory and brilliant exploits for the glory of the Fatherland. The future seemed to him in the most rosy colors - “he knew about grief, tears, disasters only by hearing.”

Neighbor Anton Ivanovich, a priest, Marya Karpovna and her daughter Sonya, as well as close friend Alexander Pospelov, came to the farewell dinner. The young man said goodbye to Sonya, promising her to return and arrange their happiness. As a gift from her, he received “hair and a ring.”

Together with the master, his valet Yevsey, the lover of the housekeeper Agrafena, went to St. Petersburg.

Chapter 2

Arriving in St. Petersburg, Alexander first visited his uncle Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev, an important official who “was reputed to be a man with money.” At first, the elder Aduev ordered to convey that he was not at home, and he would return only after three months, but, remembering the kindness of Anna Pavlovna, he decided to accept his nephew.

Pyotr Ivanovich undertook to teach the young man the rules of behavior in secular society, and talked about the peculiarities of St. Petersburg life. Alexander compared St. Petersburg with the provinces, and these comparisons were not in favor of the city on the Neva: people here were indifferent, the houses were monotonous, there was no space and natural beauty. Uncle shared with Alexander that here such concepts as “love” and “friendship” have a completely different value, and advised him to throw away Sonya’s hair and ring in order to focus on important things.

Pyotr Ivanovich got Alexander a job in the department. Having learned that his nephew was writing poetry, he ordered him to quit this stupid occupation, and instead of rhyming, start translating German articles on agriculture, which would bring him additional income.

Chapter 3

During the two years of his life in St. Petersburg, Alexander “changed a lot, matured.” He learned to “control himself, and did not show impulses and excitement so often.” Continuing to serve in the department, the young man wrote essays, stories, and poems. He did not give up his dream of love, and after some time he admitted to his uncle that he was in love with the charming Nadenka Lyubetskaya.

Pyotr Ivanovich advised him to marry not for love, but with calculation, “after all, love will pass - this is a banal truth.” He also admitted that he plans to tie the knot soon.

Chapter 4

“Alexander’s life was divided into two halves”: in the mornings he worked in the department, and in the evenings he visited the Lyubetskys’ dacha. His chosen one “was not a beauty and did not instantly attract attention,” but Alexander fell in love with her for her “ardent mind, wayward and fickle heart.”

Her mother raised Nadenka herself, without a governess, and spoiled her in every possible way. She was one of those simple-minded and kind women “who find everything beautiful that children do.” As a result, Nadenka “managed herself, her mother, her time, and her activities as she wanted.”

At dusk, the lovers retired to the lush garden to dream about the future. Nadya was afraid that these happy moments would never happen again, but Alexander invariably assured her of the eternity of their feelings. Happy, he sailed home at dawn to go to work again in the morning.

Chapter 5

Having reached “the apogee of his happiness,” Alexander abandoned his service and his literary works. The uncle “advised to give up the trifles,” but the young man only smiled and remained silent in response. Pyotr Ivanovich warned that he would not give him money. However, this did not frighten the young man in love, who sincerely believed “that he is the only one in the world who loves and is loved so much.”

Alexander again began to write poetry, which he published in the magazine under a different name. Once he sent a story, but it was returned with a wish to work harder.

The year appointed by Nadenka as a probationary period passed unnoticed. Alexander was ready to talk with her mother about the upcoming marriage, but everything changed with the appearance of the young, handsome and courteous Count Novinsky, who quickly turned the girl’s head.

Having learned that the Lyubetskys had returned from their dacha to the city, Alexander decided to explain himself to Nadenka. So he found out that she fell in love with someone else and was not going to marry him. Left alone, the unhappy lover “began to sob loudly, but without tears.”

Chapter 6

That same evening, Alexander went to his uncle to share his grief. He announced his intention to challenge the count to a duel, to which the sensible Pyotr Ivanovich objected, “that fighting is stupid in general.” You need to be patient and methodically attack the weaknesses of your offender, while remaining polite and calm, without stooping to humiliation and insults. This is the only way the enemy can stop seeing the woman he loves in a rosy light.

Pyotr Ivanovich explained to his nephew that it was not Nadenka’s fault that she fell in love with another. He advised Alexander to take his mind off sad thoughts by doing something useful.

Part two

Chapter 1

A year passed, and Alexander gradually “moved from gloomy despair to cold despondency.” He replaced his hatred of Nadenka and the Count with deep contempt. He even “liked to play the role of a sufferer” - Pyotr Ivanovich’s young wife, Lizaveta Aleksandrovna, sympathetically listened to his complaints and consoled him as best she could.

The woman found herself between two poles - a cold and calculating husband who provides her with a decent life, and a passionate nephew who is ready to do any kind of madness for the sake of love. Lizaveta Alexandrovna herself was ready to go through any tests, just to live life to the fullest.

In his suffering, Alexander came to the point that he began to despise all people. His uncle brought him to his senses, accusing him of ingratitude towards his friend Pospelov, his uncle, his aunt, and even his mother, to whom he had not written for several months. Lizaveta Aleksandrovna made him promise to create, and Pyotr Ivanovich advised him not to engage in nonsense, but to direct his energy to achieving financial well-being, after which he would profitably marry.

Chapter 2

After a conversation with his uncle, Alexander decided to choose his own path in order to walk along it “not with timid, but with firm and even steps.” He excitedly began working on the story, but Pyotr Ivanovich did not like it. He decided to send the story to the magazine under his own name, but he was told that the work was written by a young man who was angry with the whole world and had false values. Having lost faith in his own talent, Alexander burned all his literary works in his heart.

Pyotr Ivanovich asked his nephew for a favor. His companion Surkov, a great lover of women, began to spend large sums on his new hobby - the beautiful widow Yulia Pavlovna Tafaeva. Alexander must make the widow fall in love with him, and then “the capital will remain intact, factory affairs will go on as usual.” The young man reluctantly agreed.

Chapter 3

Yulia Pavlovna was about twenty-three years old. She was a faint-hearted young woman, but at the same time very pretty, smart, dreamy. Having been brought up on French novels, Julia was forced at an early age to marry a boring, but wealthy and respected man. Her marriage lasted five years.

Alexander and Julia liked each other because they had similar characters. Soon Surkov, seeing that the widow was not attracted to him, lost interest in her. Pyotr Ivanovich thanked his nephew “for his friendly zeal,” but he was ashamed to admit that he was truly in love with Yulia.

The young people decided to get married, but two years later Alexander was tired of this relationship. Julia could not come to terms with the idea that her groom had stopped loving her. Pyotr Ivanovich had to intervene in the matter and explained things to the widow. He suggested that Alexander throw love out of his head and “do something more important.”

Chapter 4

Alexander has not appeared at his uncle’s for three months. Having learned that his nephew was always “playing checkers with some eccentrics or fishing,” Pyotr Ivanovich became worried. He tried to shake Alexander, bring him back to life, but all in vain. After breaking up with Yulia, the young man became disillusioned with love and friendship and lost the meaning of life. More and more often, he began to lean toward the idea that he should have stayed in his district and married Sophia.

Alexander “looked for conversations with people with a bilious, embittered mind, with a hardened heart,” or people much lower than him in development or social status. This is how he met the degenerate old man Kostyakov, with whom he often fished. One day, while fishing, Aduev saw an elderly man with his daughter, a beautiful young girl named Lisa. Alexander tried to avoid Lisa’s company, but thereby unwittingly made her fall in love with him.

Despite his indifference towards the girl, Alexander still agreed to go on a date with her. The next day, instead of Lisa, her father was in the gazebo, not believing in the decency of the young man. After an unpleasant conversation, “tears flowed from Alexander’s eyes, tears of shame, rage at himself, despair.” The consciousness of his own insignificance led Aduev to the bridge, but he never decided to commit suicide.

Lisa waited for Alexander until late autumn, while he calmly fished with old man Kostyakov in another place.

Chapter 5

Over time, Aduev forgot both Lisa and her father, he “became calm again, even cheerful.” One day Lizaveta Alexandrovna invited him to a concert, and, listening to the beautiful music of Paganini, the young man sadly remembered his bygone years.

After the concert, the aunt called Alexander for a frank conversation, and he admitted that he had been looking for peace of mind for a long time, but could not find it. He believed that his uncle was involved in his melancholy, and it was his fault that at the age of twenty-five he grew old in soul, having lost faith in friendship, love and his own talent. However, Alexander did not hold a grudge against his uncle, who from the very beginning warned him about all the difficulties of life in St. Petersburg.

Two weeks later, Alexander decided to resign and “go to the village.” He said goodbye to the city in which he lost all his dreams, hopes and vitality.

Chapter 6

Anna Pavlovna barely recognized her son when he returned to his home. Alexander’s pitiful, emaciated appearance struck the woman so much that she “cryed bitterly.”

Seeing Agrafena, Evsey “stopped as if petrified, and looked at her silently, with stupid delight” - even after so many years of separation, their feelings did not cool down.

Alexander’s mother gently asked him about his life in St. Petersburg, but “but could not find out the reason why he became thin, pale and where his hair went.” Yevsey assured the hostess that the young master had lost weight and looked ugly because of the high cost of living in the city.

Tired of the tricky life in St. Petersburg, Alexander was able to relax in the provinces and find peace of mind. So a year and a half passed, and he began to feel bored and desire to return to the noisy capital. He wrote a letter to his aunt in which he admitted that he had forgotten all his dreams and was ready for the realities of life.

Epilogue

“Four years after Alexander’s second visit to St. Petersburg,” the once fit and dashing Pyotr Ivanovich “seemed to have sunk.” He fully realized that his dryness towards his wife undermined her fragile health and made her life empty and colorless. Pyotr Ivanovich decided to sell the plant, retire and devote all his time to Lizaveta Aleksandrovna.

Alexander came to visit his uncle - during this time he “put on weight, went bald”, and blushed. He rose to the rank of collegiate adviser and received a cross. Alexander announced his intention to marry. His bride is very rich, pretty, and he doesn’t need anything else. Alexander admitted that all his hobbies were mistakes of his youth. Pyotr Ivanovich was very proud of his nephew, and even allowed himself to be hugged for the first and last time.