A very brief retelling of the story “The Old Genius.”
Some time ago, an elderly landowner loaned a dandy from St. Petersburg fifteen thousand rubles against the security of her estate. The heroine knew this man’s mother and trusted him. The agreed upon period had already expired, but the young man had no intention of returning the borrowed amount. Realizing that without this money the family could face terrible hunger and loss of housing, the old woman went to St. Petersburg in search of the debtor.
Everything went according to plan - the heroine won in court, the decision was made quickly and in favor of the prosecution. However, there was a serious hitch - the paper with the receipt never reached the dandy; quite influential people stood behind him. As it turned out, the debtor is listed in an apartment building, but lives with a certain lady. Therefore, it is simply impossible to deliver the document to him.
Everyone sympathized with the old woman only in words, but no one dared to help. The dandy borrowed from half the city, but never returned the money to anyone. But fortunately for the old woman, on her life’s path she met a person who offered to help. The man, calling himself a genius, offered to pay the old woman a sum of 500 rubles - 200 for himself and 300 for his assistant. The heroine had no choice but to accept this offer.
At this time, the debtor was getting ready to travel with the lady with whom he lived. On the day when the dandy was leaving the city, Genius’ assistant intercepted him at the station and provoked a brawl, giving the debtor several slaps in the face. The police intervened and both were arrested.
As soon as the victim identified himself, the police officer immediately gave him a receipt accusing him of non-payment of debt. The debtor immediately wrote out a check in the name of the old woman - if only she would be allowed to leave the site as soon as possible. So the main character received what rightfully belonged to her, and the Genius confirmed his nickname with a truly brilliant act.
Analysis of N. Leskov’s story “Old Genius”
The plot of Nikolai Leskov’s story “The Old Genius” is based on a situation that, unfortunately, is typical both for Russia of the 19th century and for Russia today. A rich dandy deceived an old woman by not paying her debt, and now her house is being taken away from her. Officials do not protect the old woman, the debtor has too many connections. Although the old woman is right according to the law, an “insurmountable obstacle” arises where you just need to find the debtor and serve him with the court paper.
The composition of N. Leskov’s work “Old Genius” is based on the stories of the observer herself. Artistic techniques include irony and sarcasm, sometimes creating a tragicomedy effect. The author acts as a narrator in the work, creating his own image of a person who sympathizes with the old woman, gives her some money, but also does not believe that she will achieve the truth.
When the old woman is already completely desperate, a certain Ivan Ivanovich appears, who, for a considerable percentage, undertakes to solve the case in an obviously not very legal way. Which he succeeds in doing.
The idea of N. Leskov’s story “The Old Genius” is the defenselessness of a weak person before people in power in a bureaucratic state. Also the idea of the story is Leskov’s idea that if the Law does not protect citizens, the Law is violated. Citizens have to act on their own, and cunning people like the “old genius” have their share of this.
The themes of N. Leskov’s story “The Old Genius” are the theme of bureaucracy, the theme of the “little man”, the theme of Christian philanthropy and conscience, as well as the lack of such among those in power.
Images from N. Leskov’s story “The Old Genius”:
First of all, the image of the old woman is interesting. This is a believing woman, she does not wish harm on anyone, even her debtor. She is simple-minded and spontaneous. The old woman does not understand the laws by which rich dandies and officials live: “How can he not be given a summons if his fortune is much greater than he owes us?” – she is perplexed.
The image of the “old genius”: this is a “dark personality”. One can speak about his genius only with a bit of irony. This is a cunning and experienced man, a former official. He just figured out how to catch swindlers, whom neither the Law nor conscience can influence.
He “pushed the old woman’s offender to the wall” with a public scandal at the station and a report to the police, which prevented the debtor from going abroad with his mistress. The image of Ivan Ivanovich in the story is positive, because only this rascal managed to save the old woman and her family from hunger and cold.
The author creates an ironic aura of mystery over the “mysterious plan of the genius of thought” of Ivan Ivanovich. But the plan turns out to be simple: drag the debtor to the police in any way, put him in an awkward position, so that the police “at the same time” serve a summons.
The image of a dandy is presented little by little in small details. He is a complete egoist, who is not touched by tears or pleas. Money and connections have left nothing of morality in him; he only intends to have fun and live at the expense of others. The only way to influence a dandy is to publicly interfere with his plans. So is his rich mistress, who ran away at the beginning of the fight at the station.
The image of the narrator was mentioned above. The image of the “Serbian fighter”, a hooligan and a drinker, also turns out to be positive in the story. After all, he is the “executor of the plan” to save the old woman. This soldier has his own ideas about justice. On his way to start a fight once again, he assures the old woman that everything will be “honest and noble.”
Also in the story there is a composite image of officials without names. Leskov very sharply and ironically showed the typical shortcomings of this class. This is uselessness and reluctance to use existing power, or laziness and cowardice to use it, as well as idle talk.
N. S. Leskov
Main characters and their characteristics:
Ivan Ivanovich (Old Genius) is a man with whom no one is closely acquainted and does not know his true identity.
Helps others, but takes a small fee for it. Responsive, responsible and honest, but modest and secretive person. He always does his job well and keeps his word. He does not give his real name, perhaps because he does not want to boast about his virtue and prefers to work anonymously.
The old woman is the main character of the story. A provincial landowner, kind and sympathetic, ready to help in difficult times (which is why she provides financial support to the dandy). A dandy is a young man of pleasant appearance who dresses fashionably, creating the image of a man who is handsome on the outside but ugly on the inside. Borrows from friends and never pays back, has influential patrons. Gambling - his problems with money are associated with card failures.
Summary of “Old Genius” for a reader’s diary
Full name of the author : Leskov Nikolay Semenovich
Title : Old genius
Number of pages : 11. Leskov N. S. “Old genius.” Prospekt Publishing House. 2021
Genre : Story
Year of writing : 1884
The material was prepared jointly with a teacher of the highest category, Kuchmina Nadezhda Vladimirovna.
Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 27 years.
Minor characters and their characteristics:
The lawyer is a true professional in his niche.
He helps his grandmother win a difficult case in court, but only formally - she never achieves payment of the debt. He does his job honestly and efficiently, but, unfortunately, his powers are limited.
Narrator - tells the story, but does not directly participate in the events.
The old woman tells him about what happened, but the narrator is unable to help her. There is no information about his identity in the work.
The Serbian money-grubber is the assistant of the Old Genius, a mysterious person. Quite charismatic and ready to do a good deed. A former military man, he is addicted to alcohol. Representatives of the law are typical officials who are capable of overstepping moral principles for the sake of their own safety and preservation of status. They fear that by contacting the dandy's patrons, they will get into serious trouble.
Summary in detail on the chapters of “Old Genius”.
Chapter 1
A few years ago, an unpleasant incident happened to an elderly landowner. Being a sympathetic and good-natured woman, she decided to help financially one young man from St. Petersburg.
Author: Nikolai Semenovich Leskov
The old lady trusted the dandy because she knew his mother, and besides, he held a good position and belonged to a noble family - the heroine could not even think that something could go wrong.
Without thinking twice, the heroine mortgaged the estate in which she lived with her daughter and granddaughter and gave the young man the required amount.
The period for which the old landowner lent the money has almost expired, and the dandy seems to have disappeared without a trace. Realizing that there was no point in writing letters, the heroine collected the necessary things and went to the capital in search of the debtor, because the mortgage was coming to an end.
Chapter 2
At first, all the old lady’s efforts were quite successful: she got a good lawyer who knew her business, and the court ruled in her favor. However, when the time came to put the sentence into practice, it turned out that this dandy was a relative of a certain influential person, and it would not be possible to “restrain” him as an ordinary swindler.
He needed to personally hand over the paper with a receipt, but none of the bailiffs dared to do this. They all, as one, persuaded the old woman to forget about the debt and return home - the dandy had borrowed from half the city, and no one had yet waited for the borrowed funds to be returned. But the honest and kind old landowner hoped to the last that justice would still prevail and did not want to give up. She was asked to appeal to higher authorities.
Chapter 3
Communication with representatives of those same “higher authorities” turned out to be quite difficult for the heroine. They didn’t help her in any way, but only advised her to look for the debtor in order to serve the document herself. Although the old lady knew that he was in his own house every day, there was a problem, which was that this house did not belong to the dandy.
The house was registered in the name of his wife, with whom the young man also had financial troubles at one time, which even went to trial. The old lady was even ready to give a bribe to the highest authorities, raising it to 3 thousand rubles, but even for money no one agreed to pay a visit to the dandy to hand over the papers.
Desperate because the case had not progressed for a long time, the main character took unusual and desperate measures - she had to hire a detective. This man called himself a genius and promised to hand over the papers to the debtor for only 500 rubles.
The woman shared this whole story with the narrator, reporting her fears about the mysterious detective. Moreover, she knew nothing at all about him - only the name he introduced himself with: Ivan Ivanovich. Deciding to finally think everything over, the old woman asked the detective for some time.
Chapter 4
The old woman's position became more and more precarious every day. It's Christmas Eve, and the house where the heroine lived with her family is about to be put up for sale.
In addition, having met the debtor on the street, the woman desperately shouted that he owed her a round sum, but was only brought to justice for violating order in a public place. But the most stunning news for her was that the phantom was soon going to go abroad with “the lady of his heart” for an indefinite period.
Realizing that there might not be a chance to receive payment, the old woman again contacted the mysterious genius. Having borrowed 150 rubles from the narrator, which was missing for the fee set by the detective, the heroine met with the detective, in whom she felt inexplicable trust, although she did not know him at all.
Chapter 5
The narrator was extremely surprised when, just a few days later, the old woman returned the debt to him and announced that she was going home, showing a check for 15 thousand, and even with interest. The narrator asked: how did she manage to return the entire amount in such a short time? The heroine replied that all this was thanks to the merits of the venerable Ivan Ivanovich.
The heroine said that the detective found a certain “Serbian fighter” who helped him complete the job. In the morning, Ivan Ivanovich advised him to give his assistant some vodka, supposedly for courage. Trusting the detective with all her soul, the old woman did not ask him why this was needed, but dutifully completed the assignment.
Then all three went to the station, where her debtor was leaving on a trip. The old woman spotted him in the crowd and pointed him out to the “fighter.” He went to the swindler and his lady and walked past them several times, and then, turning to the dandy, asked why he was looking at him like that?
Perplexed, the dandy objected that he had not looked at him at all, but the “fighter” provoked a conflict by slapping the swindler several times in the face. The police came to eliminate the commotion and immediately arrested them. Having learned the name of the victim, the policeman handed him a paper with information about the unpaid debt. The dandy had no choice but to put his signature on it and write a check in the name of the old lady in order to leave the station as soon as possible.
So the old woman received the amount that belonged to her, and detective Ivan Ivanovich could rightfully be called a genius.
