Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich, whose story "Childhood" we will describe in this article, is one of the titans of classical Russian literature. This is the author of such famous works as "Anna Karenina" and "War and Peace". The way to the world of literature was opened before the writer precisely thanks to the story that interests us, as well as to the astute editor of Sovremennik Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov, who published the work of Leo Tolstoy "Childhood" in 1852.
The history of the creation of the work
Lev Nikolaevich in 1851 went to the Caucasus with Nikolai, his brother. At that time there were battles with the highlanders. The atmosphere of the Caucasus inspires the young 23-year-old writer to be creative. But he creates not just a work dedicated to the war, which would be natural. An essay of a completely different nature is written by Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. The story "Childhood" is a nostalgic work created in the genre of pseudo-autobiography.
A year later, after several proofreadings, the first work of a novice writer is ready. He sends his manuscript to Sovremennik, a cult magazine of the time, headed by Nekrasov Nikolai Alekseevich. Immediately, this experienced writer notices the talented work "Childhood" by Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy and publishes a story by an unknown writer on the pages of the magazine. Thus, a great author of fiction, a prose writer, known throughout the world, appeared in our country.
In Sovremennik, Boyhood (in 1854) and Youth (1857) will later be published. They will continue the story of the formation of the personality and life of Nikolenka Irtenev, the main character. However, it was Leo Tolstoy's "Childhood" that was the work from which it all began.
The beginning of the story "Childhood"
The morning of August 12 was bad for the protagonist. He was woken up by a loud bang right above his ear. This is Karl Ivanovich, the teacher, who started a fly hunt by the bedside of the young master. Nikolenka is terribly angry at her teacher. Karl Ivanovich is hateful to him, he does not tolerate his red cap, which the teacher wears in order not to catch a cold in his sore ears; a colorful robe, sugar paper fly-crackers, and German speech.
Karl Ivanovich
Karl Ivanovich, chuckling, tickles Nikolenka's heels. The sleepy dope dissipates, and the boy can no longer imagine how he could have hated Karl Ivanovich, his kind teacher, just a few moments ago. A German has been living in their house for 12 years. He taught the boy and Volodya, his older brother, everything that he himself knows.
So another day begins in the life of Nikolenka Irtenyev. He passed three days ago ten years. The time of his childhood is described.
Representation of members of the Irtenev family
Karl Ivanovich, after a little preparation, takes his pupils (Volodya and Nikolenka) to say hello to Natalya Nikolaevna, mother.
The protagonist perfectly remembers her kind brown eyes, a dry, tender hand, with which she often caressed her sons, as well as a mole on her neck, located in the place where her hair begins to curl. Natalya Nikolaevna begins pouring tea into mugs. Lyubochka, Nikolenka's younger sister, plays music in the same room. Here with her is Mimi, her governess (Marya Ivanovna), a most unpleasant person, according to young Irteniev.
Nikolenka, having kissed her mother's hand, goes to her father's office. Pyotr Alekseevich is a large landowner. He decides from the very morning with Yakov, the clerk, agricultural affairs. Nikolenka admires how handsome and tall his dad is, what a sinewy big hand and calm, even voice he has. The father reminds the boy that they are going to Moscow tonight.
The writer continues his work. Below is his photo. Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy ("Childhood") tells about the following events in the life of boys - the heroes of the work of interest to us.
Volodya and Nikolenka must go to the city
The fact is that Volodya and Nikolenka are already adults. They can no longer stay in the village. Therefore, the father will take them to the city, where they will receive a good education, learn the manners accepted in the world. The boy is happy to go to mysterious Moscow. Only parting with Karl Ivanovich upsets him, whom he loves just like his father, as well as with his mother. Teachers are fired after many years of service. The grown-up Irtenevs no longer need him.
morning lesson
The boy is not allowed to tune in to the lesson by morning experiences. He completely forgets the dialogue he learned in advance, and the calligraphy notebook becomes an ink puddle because of the tears that have dripped on it. To top off this chaotic morning, Grisha appears on the threshold of the classroom - a holy fool, a regular at the estate of the boy's parents. He taps his crutch, makes incoherent predictions, and begs, as usual, for dinner at Natalya Nikolaevna's.
The Irtenievs go hunting
Leo Tolstoy's "Childhood" continues with an episode of the hunt. In full force, the Irtenev family goes to nature. Nikolenka loves such trips very much. Today, besides, their mother is with them along with the girls - Lyubochka, sister, and Katenka, the governess's daughter, for whom the boy experiences his first love feelings.
Adults after an unsuccessful hunt (the main character inadvertently frightened off a hare) are taken to dinner, and the children begin to play Robinson. Nikolenka at this time shows awkward signs of attention to Katenka, but the girl does not indulge the courtship of the little master.
Drawing
Upon returning home, children are occupied with drawing. Only blue paint goes to Nikolenka, and he wants to depict the events of that day. The boy first draws a blue hare, and then turns it into a bush, which, in turn, transforms into a tree, then into a stack, and finally into a cloud. As a result, the drawing is recognized as unusable, and it is thrown away.
Karl Ivanovich remains
At this time, a drama is being played out in the house with Karl Ivanovich, a teacher, whom it was decided to dismiss the day before. Leo Tolstoy ("Childhood") describes this story in this way. The German, offended, went to complain of ingratitude to Pyotr Nikolaevich, but he became so agitated that he forgot all the words in Russian, burst into tears and promised to serve without pay, if only he would not be separated from his pupils. Pyotr Nikolayevich, taking pity on the old man, decided to take a teacher to Moscow and secure his former salary. Justice restored. The protagonist of the story is happy.
Friendship of two Natalias
After the events described above, the narrator introduces us to another inhabitant of the house of Nikolenka's parents - Natalia Savishna, the housekeeper. Once it was just a yard girl, Natashka, who lived in the village of Khabarovka, where Natalya Nikolaevna, the boy's mother, grew up. A young peasant woman, at the request of the girl's father, a clarinetist, was taken into the house. When Nikolenka's mother was born, she became her nanny. Thus was born the cordial friendship of two Natalias - a serf and a young lady. And when Natalya Nikolaevna, in gratitude for the years of service, wrote a free letter to Savishna, she burst into tears, because she did not want to leave the yard for any.
Farewell to home
Nikolenka, looking through the years, admits that in her childhood she did not appreciate Savishna's love. And today, before leaving, saying goodbye to her, he only briefly kisses the tearful old woman on the cap.
The boy longs to come to Moscow as soon as possible, to go on an adventure. Nikolenka, looking out of the carriage, sees her mother in a blue fluttering kerchief, which she supports with her hand. The boy then did not suspect that he would see his mother like this for the last time.
Nikolenka and Volodya in Moscow
The Moscow episode begins in the life of the young Irtenevs. And now the first disturbing test gets in the way of the boys - acquaintance with relatives located in the city. Volodya and Nikolenka first go to the grandmother princess. For a relative, each of them prepares a gift. Nikolenka composes a poem for her. At first it seems to him quite tolerable, but by the time he read it in public, the boy is practically convinced that the poems turned out to be false and bad. But it's not true! Nikolenka, of course, respects and loves her grandmother, but not at all in the same way as her mother.
Acquaintance with distant relatives, new love
The boys get acquainted in her house with distant relatives - very handsome and stately, despite the fact that he was already seventy years old, Ivan Ivanovich, the prince; and also Kornakova, the bilious princess. A little later, Nikolenka and Volodya also get acquainted with their peers, the Ivin brothers, take part in their games, see real dances, and Nikolenka falls in love again. The subject of his adoration is now Sonechka Valahina.
He thinks about her every time before going to sleep. This is serious, Nikolenka Irnetiev is convinced.
Mother's death
For half a year now, the boys have been living with their grandmother in a Moscow house. A letter from the village disturbs their hectic life. The boys' mother writes that she is seriously ill, her days are numbered, and asks her husband to bring the children to the village as soon as possible. Pyotr Alekseevich immediately rushes to his wife. However, her relatives find her already delirious. Natalya Nikolaevna does not recognize anyone, does not see anything, and dies in terrible agony on the same day.
Funeral of Natalya Nikolaevna
The most painful memories were left in Nikolenka's soul by the funeral of his mother. Many people gathered for them, for some reason everyone wept, pitied the orphans, and prayed. Nikolenka cries out through the years that they had no right to cry about her and talk like that. After all, in fact, no one cared about their grief and her death. And Nikolenka himself could not comprehend what was happening. He writes, recalling the time that he despised himself for not feeling a sense of bitterness.
Nikolenka sees her mother in the coffin and cannot reconcile herself to the fact that this waxy and yellow face belongs to the one whom the boy loved more than anyone in the world. A peasant girl screams in horror when she is brought to the deceased. The protagonist also screams and runs out of the room, struck by despair before the mystery of death and the bitter truth.
A gray-haired old woman stood out among those present, who did not cry, but only knelt in a corner and silently prayed. It was Natalya Savishna, a man who truly loved the deceased. She died after a while - she died calmly and quietly, having prepared for a month for her funeral. And now her grave is in the estate, not far from the place where Nikolenka's mother is buried.
End of childhood
The story "Childhood" by Leo Tolstoy is completed by the following events. The whole house moves to Moscow 3 days after the funeral. Visiting the village later, the boy always comes to the grave of his mother.
The life of the Irtenevs continued in the same way. In the morning they got up in their rooms, had breakfast at the table, walked along the paths and fell asleep in warm beds when night came. It seems that everything has remained the same as it was ... only there was no mother. Childhood has gone with her.
So ends Leo Tolstoy's "Childhood". The next two parts ("Adolescence" and "Youth") continue to talk about the life of the protagonist. The work (Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, "Childhood") is part of this trilogy. It concludes with Youth, published in 1857.
"Dialectics of the Soul"
"Childhood" (Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy), the chapters of which were briefly described by us, is a work in which Tolstoy used for the first time a technique later called by critics "the dialectic of the soul." Depicting the state of the protagonist, Lev Nikolaevich uses an internal monologue, indicating a change in Nikolenka's mood from sadness to joy, from anger to a sense of shame and awkwardness. It is these sudden and rapid changes ("dialectics of the soul") that the author will use in his most famous works in the future. The story of Leo Tolstoy "Childhood" is considered very important in the work of this writer.
