The plot of A.P. Chekhov’s work “Over-Salted” is how the land surveyor Smirnov hires a cab driver, a hefty fellow, to get to the general’s estate to carry out land surveying. On the road, the land surveyor, out of fear, begins to invent various stories, which greatly frightens the driver. As a result, the cab driver runs into the forest screaming for help. Only after much persuasion from Smirnov does the driver return and they continue on their way. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Over-salted” in 1 minute and in detail in 3 minutes.
Summary
Having received another order for surveying, land surveyor Gleb Gavrilovich Smirnov arrived at the Gnilushki station. But in order to get to the estate of General Khokhotov, he still had to cover a considerable distance - about forty miles on horseback.
Smirnov asked the station gendarme where he could get mail horses. To his horror, he learned that he was in a real hole, and “here you won’t find a traveling dog for a hundred miles.” The gendarme advised the despondent Smirnov to go to the station, where “sometimes there are men in the yard, carrying passengers.”
After a long search, the land surveyor managed to find “a very hefty man, gloomy, pockmarked, dressed in a torn homespun and bast shoes,” who agreed to take him to the estate.
The driver's horse turned out to be skinny and weak and with great difficulty moved the cart from its place. Leaving the station, Smirnov saw in the gathering twilight an endless frozen plain. He was seriously frightened, thinking that “it’s not even an hour - they will attack and rob, so no one will know, even if they were fired from cannons... And the driver is unreliable...”.
Smirnov asked Klim about the safety of the road, and he assured that there was “no mischief” here. But this answer did not satisfy the land surveyor, who decided to play it safe and casually said that he “took three revolvers with him.”
When it got dark, the driver suddenly turned the cart to the left, which greatly alarmed the surveyor. He began to tell Klim that he really loved “to fight with robbers,” and even killed one of them with his own hands. These speeches frightened the driver, but Smirnov could no longer be stopped. He passionately said that he was so strong “that a robber without arms, without legs, will remain, but will also answer before the court.” He did not forget to mention his friendship with important people: judges, police officers and police officers.
Meanwhile, the cart drove into a dense black forest. To further impress Klim, the surveyor told him that four of his comrades, armed to the teeth, would soon catch up with them. He even pretended to show his pistol, but at that moment the driver suddenly “fell out of the cart and ran on all fours towards the thicket.”
The land surveyor, who did not expect such a turn of events, stopped the cart and thought. Realizing that he could not get to the estate on his own, he began to call the runaway cab driver and calm him down. Only two hours later, Klim, convinced of the veracity of his words, left the forest. He admitted that he was scared to death, but after this small incident Smirnov felt at ease in his soul - “the road and Klim no longer seemed dangerous to him.”
Summary of the story
Gleb Gavrilovich Smirnov arrived at a provincial stop with the eloquent name of Gnilushki. The name of the settlement alone indicates the denseness of this place. However, the hero had no choice, because work was waiting for him. General Khokhotov, the owner of a vast estate, was waiting for him at his place. After all, Smirnov was hired to survey land. And this estate was located in the village of Devkino, which was about thirty miles from the Gnilushki station, where Gleb Gavrilovich got off the train. This is where A.P.’s story begins. Chekhov’s “Over-Salted”, a brief summary of which we have presented above in a condensed form.
Meeting Klim
The land surveyor turned to the station gendarme with a question about where post horses could be hired. In those days, such carts played the role of modern regular buses. To this, the peace officer replied that there is no such public transport in Gnilushki, but local villagers sometimes earn extra money as a driver.
For a long time he could not find a cab driver willing to go to a remote village. Finally, Gleb Gavrilovich came across Klim. The author, hinting at the reason for our hero’s fears, describes the cab driver as “a very hefty man, pockmarked, gloomy, dressed in a holey homespun and torn bast shoes.” He agreed to take the master “wherever he needs to go.”
Long road
When the cart, to which the poor little horse was harnessed, set off, it was already getting dark. The road went through wasteland, where there was not a soul, and then turned into a dark forest. One brief glance at the broad-shouldered back of the sullenly hunched driver was enough for fear to creep into the heart of the cowardly land surveyor.
Maybe Klim is not a peasant at all? What if this is a robber who will now take him into the thicket, rob and kill him? To be on the safe side, the land surveyor began to weave all sorts of tales. They say he has three revolvers, and recently shot three robbers, and remained completely unpunished, thanks to his connections. After all, he is on good terms with the police and judges.
What came of the cowardly surveyor's boast
In the story, Chekhov does not reveal what was going on in the soul of the poor driver. But the content of the work gives us the opportunity to understand how everything happened. Listening to such speeches, he thought that his passenger was not a respectable gentleman at all, but a rogue who decided to kill him in order to take possession of the horse and cart. The driver himself was frightened of his passenger and kept looking back at him. Gleb Gavrilovich, considering this behavior as evidence of the sullen cab driver’s unreliability, began to boast even more, and even decided to show him his revolvers.
The coachman is frightened by Smirnov's story
Therefore, when Smirnov told him to slow down (say, four comrades armed with revolvers were catching up with him), the peasant’s nerves could not stand it at all. He jumped off the cart and rushed into the thicket, wherever his eyes looked, screaming at the top of his lungs for the master to take the horse, but to leave him alive.
How mutual fears dissipated
So, left alone in the forest, Smirnov realized what he had done. He began to think about what to do next. It was impossible to travel alone, since the surveyor did not know the road. Stay in the forest hoping to meet someone? You can freeze to death.
Then Smirnov began to appeal to the cab driver, convincing him to return and accept everything that had happened as a bad joke. But he had to call for so long that he lost his voice. Finally, Klim, who was hiding in the thickets, decided that the master was not a bandit, otherwise there would have been no trace of him long ago. So, he came out of the forest and listened to Smirnov’s apologies. They walked the rest of the way in absolute silence.
Brief summary of the story “Over-Salted” (A.P. Chekhov)
This time the Many-wise Litrekon wants to introduce you to the wonderful and extremely instructive story of A.P. Chekhov, which he will present to you in abbreviation. The story “Over-Salted” is one of Chekhov’s humorous works. The meaning of this story, and even its most basic events, can be easily modified into a brief retelling, since the plot is not at all complicated. However, it has nothing to do with salt in its classical sense. The author talks about the “salt” around which people’s lives and relationships are built. But this “salt” is also not so simple - you can also overdo it.
(343 words) Gleb Gavrilovich Smirnov, a land surveyor by profession, found himself at the Gnilushki station, which was an intermediate point on his way to the land plot on which he was supposed to do his work. Gleb Gavrilovich had thirty or forty miles left to his destination, and he hoped that he would cover this distance quickly enough if the driver was sober and the mares were dashing. One strong and awkward driver, Klim, agreed to give the main character a ride, whose name Gleb Gavrilovich learned on the way.
All the way, Smirnov asked Klim about the local residents - whether they were robbers, and Klim denied this in every possible way. Gleb Gavrilovich was clearly interested in this for the sake of his safety; he also doubted the integrity of Klim himself, who could threaten him, because he was physically superior to Smirnov. According to the main character, he was in serious danger in the person of the driver.
As a preventive measure to protect himself from a potential threat, Gleb Gavrilovich begins to intimidate Klim, telling him all sorts of tall tales -
“Listen,” he turned to the driver. - So you're saying it's not dangerous here? It’s a pity... I like to fight with robbers... I look thin, sickly, but I have the strength of a bull... Once three robbers attacked me... So what do you think? I fucked one so much that... that, you know, I gave my soul to God, and the other two went to hard labor in Siberia because of me. And I don’t know where my strength comes from... You take some big guy like you with one hand and... and you knock it off.”
The dark forest they were passing through brought particular fear to Smirnov. Ultimately, he went so far with the threats against the robbers that he turned them on Klim himself, and he was so scared that he jumped off the cart and ran into the forest. It turned out that all this time Gleb Gavrilovich was making the driver feel terrible, and he “over-salted” him so much that Klim, running into the forest, shouted:
“ - Guard! Take, you damned one, both the horse and the cart, just don’t ruin my soul! Guard!".
Frightened and thinking about what had happened, Gleb Gavrilovich decided to soften the situation, began to call Klim back and convince him that all the tales he told about fights with robbers and revolvers in his pockets were a simple joke. Klim believed Gleb Gavrilovich, and they continued on their way.
Author: Rimma Simonyan
A summary of the story “Over-Salted” in detail.
Author: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Land surveyor Gleb Gavrilovich Smirnov arrived at a small station called Gnilushki; he was on his way to conduct land surveying at the general’s estate Devkino. Gleb Gavrilovich needed to ride 30–40 miles on horseback to his destination.
The land surveyor asked the station gendarme where he could find post horses. To which the station gendarme, yawning, said that the only way to get there was by passing cart.
Gleb Gavrilovich trudged behind the station and, after a long search, finally found a gloomy, strong fellow named Klim, who agreed to take the surveyor to his destination. The cart was harnessed to a horse, young, but skinny and unkempt.
She walked very slowly, but the driver assured the passenger that after a while the horse would run so hard that you couldn’t stop it.
It was getting dark when the cart left the station. It was quiet, cold and frosty. On the way, Smirnov was overcome by anxiety: the area was deserted, gloomy, a dense impenetrable forest, the cab driver was unreliable and suspicious.
Fear began to overcome Gleb Gavrilovich, and in order to somehow calm down, the surveyor began to question Klim. Have there been any robbery attacks on passing people here before? “God has mercy,” the cab driver answered, but this did not reassure Gleb Gavrilovich, and he began to lie that he had taken three revolvers with him, so nothing scared him.
Noticing that the cart suddenly turned left, Smirnov became even more frightened and added: “I like to fight with robbers!”, and then told a fictitious story about how three people attacked him.
He allegedly killed one, and two are now in hard labor as punishment for the crime. The driver was silent, and Smirnov continued to invent that he could crush a big guy like Klim with one hand. And then he added that he is a statesman, so if anyone wants to do something bad to him, he will answer in court.
Suddenly the horse rode very quickly, which frightened the surveyor immensely, and Klim constantly turned to look at Smirnov. “He’s probably up to something,” flashed through Gleb Gavrilovich’s head.
Then the land surveyor said that he did not advise rushing to drive the horse, because four comrades were riding behind them, who were about to catch up with them, and continued, they are stocky guys and each has a pistol.
The driver did not stop looking back at Smirnov and he was hooked, completely frightened, the surveyor decided to show the driver his revolvers and, for clarity, began to rummage in his pockets. At this time, Klim literally fell off the cart and ran on all fours into the thicket shouting for help.
Gleb Gavrilovich did not expect such a turn of events. He stopped the horse, sat comfortably on the cart and began to think about what to do next. The prospect of sitting in a dark forest, in the cold, all night did not appeal to him.
Smirnov began to call the man, affectionately calling him Klimushka, but he responded only two hours later. Smirnov spent a long time explaining to the cab driver that he was joking about pistols, fights, and friends. He finally came out of the thicket, returned to the cart and said to the passenger: “Master, I almost died of fear.”
Having understood each other, the companions got into the cart and drove on. Smirnov was no longer frightened by the darkness, the gloom of the landscape, or the driver himself.
Retelling of the story “Over-Salted” by Chekhov A.P.
Retelling plan 1. Land surveyor Smirnov travels to a distant village to survey (determine the boundaries of land plots). 2. Smirnov, afraid of robbers and a hefty driver, tells fictitious stories about his courage. 3. The driver Klim, frightened, hides in the thicket. 4. Smirnov understands that he was carried away by boastful stories. With persuasion, he manages to calm Klim down so he can continue on his way.
Retelling Land surveyor Smirnov arrived at Gnilushki station. There were still thirty or forty miles left to the village to which he was called for land surveying. At the station, the surveyor turned to the gendarme with a request to help him find post horses to continue his journey. The station gendarme advised Smirnov to go behind the station, where there are sometimes men standing who carry passengers. After a long discussion, he managed to come to an agreement with the big guy. Smirnov got into the old cart. The horse was young, but skinny, so it moved slowly. The driver explained that the filly was young, nimble, she just needed to run, and then you couldn’t stop her. It was dusk when the cart left the station. There was nothing visible ahead. The land surveyor suddenly thought that robbers might attack him and rob him. And the driver caused him alarm because he looked suspicious. In order to somehow calm himself down, Smirnov asked the driver what his name was, and were there any robbers playing pranks in this forest? The driver replied that his name was Klim, and the place here was quite calm. But the land surveyor did not rest on this. He began to tell Klim a fictitious story about how he alone dealt with ten robbers. And now I also took three revolvers with me. It was already completely dark. The cart suddenly creaked, squealed, trembled, and reluctantly turned left. The surveyor became wary. He was afraid that this man would take him into the forest and rob him. He began to tell the story of how he dealt with three robbers. The driver got scared and drove the horse even faster. Smirnov asks to hold the horse, explaining that four more comrades must leave the station behind him. And he tells the driver not to look back, there is nothing interesting about him. Unless there are revolvers in your pocket. And Smirnov began to rummage in his pockets. Here Klim completely chickened out, fell out of the cart and ran on all fours towards the thicket. In a frightened voice he began to shout: “Guard! Take, you damned one, both the horse and the cart, just don’t ruin my soul!..” Not expecting such a turn of events, the surveyor stopped the horse, sat down comfortably in the cart and wondered what to do? It was impossible to travel further alone; he did not know the way. And then he had to call Klim. For two hours he kept screaming in the forest, until suddenly he heard someone moan. Klim said in fear that he was afraid, what if he killed him? The surveyor began to calm the driver down, saying that he was joking about revolvers. Klim got into the cart and they moved on.
Summary (details)
One land surveyor, named Gleb Smirnov, arrived at the Gnilushki station, from where he had to go further to the estate of General Khokhotov. It turned out that there were no post horses, and he was advised at the station to find some man with a horse to take him to the place.
After a long search, Gleb found a huge and gloomy man named Klim, who agreed to take him. The horse moved off with great reluctance, but the driver assured that it would run quickly, it just needed to get a running start. Meanwhile, it began to get dark and the surveyor began to be overcome by fear. He began to come up with various stories so that Klim would begin to be afraid of him and would not rob him somewhere along the way in the forest. At first he said that he took three pistols with him, then he came up with a story that one day he was attacked by three robbers, but he killed one, and the other two went to Siberia to do hard labor.
Klim began to look back at him, and he decided that he was up to something, so he began to come up with more stories. He said that he was very strong, that he could cripple any thug, that all the judges were friends with him, that the authorities had placed police officers behind every bush, etc.
Finally, when he told the man not to drive fast, since they were to be caught up from the station by four familiar men with pistols, Klim could not stand it, jumped off the cart, and ran on all fours into the forest, shouting, “Guard!” and, - Master, take everything, just don’t kill!
Land surveyor Gleb realized that he had gone too far with the stories and really scared the man. Now he himself was scared because he didn’t know the way further, it was deep night outside, and perhaps wolves were roaming somewhere nearby. He himself began to shout at Klim, persuading him to return, shouting that he had made it all up, that all his stories were untrue.
He called Klim for two hours and, in the end, he finally came out, overcoming his fear. Having made sure that the master was not going to kill him, they set off further on their journey.
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