About the product
The cycle of stories “Notes of a Hunter” by Turgenev was published in 1847 – 1851 in the Sovremennik magazine. The book was published as a separate edition in 1852. The main character of the collection, on whose behalf the story is told, is a young gentleman, hunter Pyotr Petrovich, he travels to nearby villages and retells his impressions about the life of Russian landowners, peasants, and describes the picturesque nature.
On the site you can read online a summary of “Notes of a Hunter” chapter by chapter, as well as take a test on your knowledge of the book. The retelling is suitable for preparing for a literature lesson and for a reading diary.
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.
District doctor
The story is compiled from the words of a district doctor, who told how many years ago he was called to a sick woman who lived in the family of a poor widow, quite far from the city.
The doctor saw that despite the illness, the girl was very beautiful. At night he could not sleep and spent most of his time at the patient's bedside. Feeling affection for the girl’s family, whose members, although not rich, were well-read and educated, the doctor decided to stay. The patient’s mother and sisters accepted this with gratitude, as they saw that Alexandra believed the doctor and followed all his instructions. But every day the girl became worse, and medicines were not delivered in a timely manner along the weather-damaged roads.
Before her death, Alexandra opened up to the doctor, confessed her love to him and announced her engagement to her mother. They spent the last three nights together, after which the girl died. Later, the doctor married the daughter of a wealthy merchant, but she turned out to be lazy and evil.
Main characters
- Pyotr Petrovich (narrator) is a young gentleman, hunter, the main character of the collection, the story is told on his behalf. He travels to nearby villages and retells his impressions about the life of Russian landowners and peasants, and describes the picturesque nature.
- Ermolai is a hunter, a “carefree and good-natured” man of 45 years old, who belonged to Pyotr Petrovich’s neighbor, a “landowner of the old style.” He delivered grouse and partridges to the master's kitchen, hunted with the narrator; was married, but treated his wife rudely.
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Ermolai and the miller's wife
One day the author was going hunting with Ermolai, a neighbor’s serf, who constantly got into trouble, although he got out of them unharmed and was not fit for any work.
Since the peasant’s main duty was to deliver game to the landowner’s table, he knew the surrounding area very well. After spending the day in a birch grove, the heroes decided to spend the night at the mill. The owners allowed us to sit in the hayloft, under a canopy on the street. In the middle of the night, the author woke up from a quiet whisper. After listening, I realized that the miller’s wife Arina was telling Ermolai about her life. She was a maid for Countess Zverkova, who was distinguished by her cruel character and special requirement that her maids be unmarried. After serving for 10 years, Arina began to ask to be allowed to marry Peter, the footman. The girl was refused. And after a while it turned out that Arina was pregnant. For this reason the girl had her hair cut, exiled to the village and married off to a miller. Her child died. Peter was sent to the army.
Summary
Khor and Kalinich
The narrator meets a hunter - a small Kaluga landowner Polutykin. On the way to Polutykin, they stop by a peasant landowner, Khor, who has been living with his children in a lonely estate in the forest for 25 years. The next day, while hunting, the narrator meets another man of Polutykin and Khor’s friend, Kalinich. The narrator spends three days with the rationalist Khor, comparing him with the dreamy Kalinich. Kalinich kept an apiary, got along with animals, “stood closer to nature,” while Khor was closer “to people, to society.”
Pay attention to a more detailed summary of “Khor and Kalinich”.
Ermolai and the miller's wife
The narrator went with the hunter Ermolai on a night hunt. Ermolai was a 45-year-old man who belonged to the narrator’s neighbor – “a landowner of the old style.” The man delivered black grouse and partridges to the master's kitchen. Ermolai was married, but treated his wife rudely. The hunters decided to spend the night in the mill. When the men were sitting by the fire, the miller's wife Arina came to them. Ermolai invited her to visit him, promising to kick his wife out. The narrator recognized the miller's wife as a girl whom the master had once taken from her family and taken to St. Petersburg to serve as his servant. Arina said that the miller bought her.
Raspberry water
On a hot day, while hunting, the narrator went down to the Raspberry Water spring. Not far away, by the river, he saw two old men - Shumikhin’s Stepushka, a poor rootless man, and Mikhail Savelyev, nicknamed Fog. The narrator met Stepushka at the gardener Mitrofan's. The narrator joined the men. Fog remembered his late count, who loved to organize holidays. A man, Vlas, who approached them, said that he had gone to Moscow to see the master so that he could reduce his rent, but the master refused. The quitrent must be paid, but Vlas has nothing, and his hungry wife is waiting for him at home.
Detailed summary of “Raspberry Water”.
District doctor
One autumn the narrator fell ill: a fever caught him in a hotel in a provincial town. The doctor prescribed him treatment. The men started talking. The doctor told how he treated a girl of about twenty, Alexandra Andreevna, for a fatal illness. The girl did not recover for a long time and during this time mutual sympathy arose between them. Before her death, Alexandra told her mother that they were engaged. After some time, the doctor married a merchant's daughter.
My neighbor Radilov
Once, while hunting partridges with Ermolai, the narrator discovered an abandoned garden. Its owner turned out to be the landowner Radilov, the narrator’s neighbor. He invited the hunters to dine. The owner introduced the guests to his mother, the former landowner Fyodor Mikheich, the sister of his late wife Olya. At dinner, the narrator could not “discover a passion” for anything in his neighbor. Over tea, the owner recalled his wife’s funeral; how he lay in a Turkish hospital with a rotten fever. The narrator noted that any misfortune can be endured. A week later, the narrator learned that Radilov had gone somewhere with his sister-in-law, leaving his mother.
Odnodvorets Ovsyannikov
Luka Petrovich Ovsyannikov is a plump, tall man of about 70 years old. He reminded the narrator of “Russian boyars of pre-Petrine times.” He lived with his wife and did not pretend to be a nobleman or landowner. The narrator met him at Radilov's. During the conversation, Ovsyannikov recalled the past of the narrator’s grandfather: how he took a wedge of land from them; how I was in Moscow and saw the nobles there. Odnodvorets noted that now the nobles, although they have “learned all the sciences,” but “don’t understand the real deal.”
Lgov
Once Ermolai suggested that the narrator go to Lgov, a large steppe village on a swampy river. A local hunter, Vladimir, a freed servant, joined them to help. He knew how to read and write, studied music, and expressed himself elegantly. To get the boat, Vladimir went to Suchok, the master’s fisherman. Suchok said that he managed to work for various gentlemen as a coachman, a cook, a coffee shop worker, an actor, a Cossack woman, and a gardener. The men went out to hunt ducks. The boat began to leak a little and at some point capsized. Ermolai found a ford and soon they were warming up in the hay barn.
Bezhin meadow
The narrator was returning from hunting in the evening and got lost in the twilight. Suddenly he came to a “huge plain” called “Bezhin Meadow”. Peasant children sat near two fires, guarding a herd of horses. The narrator joined them. The boys told stories about the brownie, the mermaid, the goblin, the late master, beliefs about parental Saturday, and other folk legends about “evil spirits.” Pavlusha went for water and, returning, said that it seemed to him as if the drowned man was calling him from under the water. That same year, the boy was killed by falling from a horse.
Detailed summary of “Bezhin Meadow”.
Kasyan with a Beautiful Sword
The narrator and his coachman were returning from hunting when they met a funeral train - they were burying Martyn the carpenter. The narrator's cart broke down, they somehow got to the nearest settlements. Here the narrator met the holy fool Kasyan, a “dwarf of about fifty” nicknamed Blokha. Kasyan gave him his cart, and then went hunting with the narrator.
Seeing that the narrator was shooting birds for fun, Blokha said that “it is a great sin to show blood to the world.” Kasyan himself was engaged in catching nightingales and treating them with herbs. The coachman said that Blokha sheltered the orphan Annushka.
Mayor
The narrator is visiting the young landowner Arkady Pavlych Penochkin. Penochkin had a good education, was known as an enviable groom, and was “strict but fair” with his subjects. However, the narrator visited him reluctantly. The men go to the village of Penochkin Shipilovka. The mayor Sofron Yakovlich was in charge of everything there. At first glance, things in the village were going well. However, the mayor, without the knowledge of the landowner, traded land and horses, abused the peasants, and was the actual owner of the village.
Detailed summary of "The Burmist".
Office
To escape the rain, the narrator stopped in the nearest village, in the “main manor’s office.” He was told that this was the estate of Mrs. Losnyakova Elena Nikolaevna, 7 people work in the office, and the lady herself manages everything. By chance, the narrator overheard a conversation: the merchants pay the chief clerk, Nikolai Eremeich, before concluding a deal with the lady herself. Eremeich, in order to take revenge on the paramedic Pavsh for unsuccessful treatment, forbade Pavel’s fiancée Tatyana to get married. After some time, the narrator learned that the lady had exiled Tatyana.
Biryuk
The narrator is caught in the forest by a severe thunderstorm. He decides to wait out the bad weather, but a local forester comes up and takes him to his house. Forester Foma, nicknamed Biryuk, lived with his twelve-year-old daughter in a small hut. The forester's wife ran away with the tradesman long ago, leaving him with two children. When the rain stopped, Biryuk followed the sound of the ax and caught the thief who was chopping down the forest. The thief turned out to be a poor man. He first asked to be released, and then began to scold Biryuk, calling him a “beast.” The narrator was going to protect the poor man, but Biryuk, although angry, let the thief go.
Detailed summary of “Biryuk”.
Two landowners
The narrator introduces readers to two landowners with whom he often hunted. “Retired Major General Vyacheslav Illarionovich Khvalynsky” is a man “in adulthood, in his prime,” kind, but cannot treat poor and unofficial nobles as equals and a bad master, reputed to be a miser; loves women very much, but is not married.
Mardarii Apollonych Stegunov is his complete opposite - “a hospitable man and a buffoon”, lives in the old way. The peasants, although the master punished them, believed that he was doing everything right and such a master as theirs “you wouldn’t find in the whole province.”
Lebedyan
About five years ago the narrator found himself in Lebedyan “at the very collapse of the fair.” After lunch, I found young Prince N. in a coffee shop with retired lieutenant Khlopakov. Khlopakov knew how to live off his rich friends.
The narrator went to see the horses at the horse dealer Sitnikov. He offered horses at too high a price, and when Prince N. arrived, he completely forgot about the narrator. The narrator went to the famous breeder Chernobay. The breeder praised his horses, but sold the narrator a “scorched and lame” horse, and then did not want to take it back.
Tatyana Borisovna and her nephew
Tatyana Borisovna is a woman of about 50, a free-thinking widow. She lives constantly on her small estate and rarely hangs out with other landowners. About 8 years ago I gave shelter to the son of my late brother Andryusha, who loved to draw. The woman’s acquaintance, college adviser Benevolensky, who “burned with a passion for art,” without knowing anything about it, took the talented boy to St. Petersburg. After the death of his patron, Andryusha returned to his aunt. He has completely changed, lives on his aunt’s means, says that he is a talented artist, but is not going to St. Petersburg again.
Death
The narrator goes to the forest cutting site with his neighbor Ardalion Mikhailovich. One of the men was crushed to death by a tree. After what he saw, the narrator thought that the Russian man “dies as if he were performing a ritual: coldly and simply.” The narrator remembered how another neighbor of his “in the village, a man was burned in a barn,” how in the village hospital a man, having learned that he might die, went home to give the last orders about the housework. I remembered the last days of my student friend Avenil Sorokoumov. I remembered how the landowner was dying and tried to pay the priest “for her waste.”
Singers
The narrator, escaping the heat, enters the “Prytynny” tavern, which belonged to Nikolai Ivanovich. The narrator witnesses a singing competition between “the best singer in the area” Yashka the Turk and Ryadchik. The rower sang a dance song, and those present sang along with him. Yashka performed a mournful song, and “a Russian, truthful, ardent soul sounded and breathed in him.” The narrator's eyes welled up with tears. Yashka won the competition. The narrator, so as not to spoil the impression, left. The tavern's visitors celebrated Yashka's victory until late at night.
Detailed summary of “Singers”.
Petr Petrovich Karataev
Five years ago, the narrator, staying at a post house, met a small nobleman, Pyotr Petrovich Karataev. He went to Moscow to serve and shared his story. The man fell in love with the serf Matryona and wanted to ransom her, but the lady refused. Karataev stole Matryona. But one day, to “show off,” Matryona went to the lady’s village and ran over the master’s cart. They recognized the girl and wrote a complaint against Karataev. To pay off, he went into debt. Feeling sorry for Peter, Matryona herself returned to the master. A year later, the narrator met Karataev in Moscow in a billiard room. He sold the village and looked disappointed in life.
Date
The narrator fell asleep in a birch grove, hiding in the shade of the trees. When I woke up, I saw a young peasant girl Akulina sitting nearby. The “spoiled” valet of a rich master, Viktor Alexandrych, came to her. The valet said he was leaving tomorrow, so they wouldn't see each other next year. The girl burst into tears, but Victor treated her indifferently. When the valet left, the narrator wanted to console the girl, but she ran away in fear.
Hamlet of Shchigrovsky district
During one of the trips, the narrator spent the night with the landowner and hunter Alexander Mikhailych G***. The narrator could not sleep and his roommate told him his story. He was born in the Kursk province, then entered the university and joined a circle. At the age of 21 he went to Berlin, fell in love with the daughter of a professor he knew, but ran away. He wandered around Europe for two years and returned to his village. He married the daughter of a widowed neighbor. Having been widowed, he served in the provincial town. Now I realized that he was an unoriginal and insignificant person. Instead of introducing himself, he told the narrator to call him “Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky district.”
Tchertophanov and Nedopyuskin
Returning from a hunt, the narrator met two friends - Pantelei Eremeich Tchertopkhanov and Tikhon Ivanovich Nedopyuskin. Nedopyuskin lived with Tchertopkhanov. Panteley was known as a proud man, a bully, and did not communicate with his fellow villagers.
Nedopyuskin's father, having served in the army, achieved nobility and gave his son a job as an official in the chancellery. After his death, the lazy and gentle Tikhon was a majordomo, a parasite, and a half-butler, half-jester.
The lady bequeathed the village to Nedopyuskin. The men became friends when Tchertop-hanov saved him from the bullying of the other heirs of the lady.
The end of Tchertopkhanov
Tchertopkhanov was abandoned by his beloved Masha two years ago. As soon as he survived this, Nedopyuskin died. Tchertopkhanov sold the estate he inherited from a friend and ordered a beautiful statue for Nedopyuskin’s grave. Once Tchertop-hanov saw men beating a Jew. For his rescue, the Jew gave him a horse, but Panteley promised to pay 250 rubles for it. Patel became accustomed to the horse, calling him Malek-Adel, but the animal was stolen. Tchertop-hanov spent a year traveling in search of a horse. He returned with the horse, but they gave him arguments that it was not Malek-Adel. Panteley released the horse into the forest, but it returned. Then Tchertopkhanov shot the animal, and then drank for a whole week and died.
Living relics
In rainy weather, Ermolai and the narrator stopped at the farm of the narrator’s mother. In the morning, in the apiary, the narrator was called by Lukerya, a woman 28–29 years old, a former beauty who now looked like a mummy. About 6-7 years ago she accidentally fell and after that she began to dry out and wither away. The narrator offered to take her to the hospital, but the woman refused. Lukerya recounted her dreams to Pyotr Petrovich: in one, she dreamed that “Christ himself” came out to meet her, calling her his bride; and in the other, her own death, which did not want to take her.
From the farm foreman, the narrator learned that Lukerya is called “Living Relics.” A few weeks later the woman died.
Knocking
The narrator and the peasant Filofey were traveling to Tula to buy some shot. On the way, the cart fell into the river: the conductor dozed off. After they got out of the water, the narrator fell asleep and woke up to the sound of the cart and the clatter of hooves. Felofey, with the words: “Knocking!”, said that these were robbers. Soon they were overtaken by drunken men, one of them ran up to the narrator’s cart, asked for money for his hangover, and the company left. The narrator saw a cart of men in Tula near a tavern. Afterwards, Ermolai said that on the night of their trip, a merchant was robbed and killed on the same road.
Forest and steppe
The narrator reflects that “hunting with a gun and a dog is beautiful in itself.” Describes the beauty of nature at dawn, the view that opens before the hunter, how “pleasant it is to wander through the bushes at dawn.” It's gradually getting hotter. Having descended to the bottom of the ravine, the hunter quenches his thirst with water from the spring, and then rests in the shade of the trees. Suddenly a thunderstorm begins, after which “it smells like strawberries and mushrooms.” Evening comes, the sun sets, the hunter returns home. Both the forest and the steppe are good at any time of the year. “However, it’s time to end <...> in the spring it’s easy to part, in the spring even the happy are drawn into the distance...”
Khor and Kalinich
Comparing two provinces, Kaluga and Oryol, the author comes to the conclusion that they differ not only in the beauty of nature and the variety of animals that can be hunted, but also in people, their appearance, character, and thoughts. Acquaintance with the landowner Polutykin, who invited the hunter to stay on his property for a joint hunt, led the author to the house of the peasant Khor. It is there that the meeting with two such different people as Khor and Kalinich takes place.
Khor is a wealthy, stern, stooped man. He lives in a strong aspen house in the swamps. Many years ago, his father’s house burned down and he begged the landowner for the opportunity to live further away, in the swamps. At the same time, they agreed to pay the quitrent. Since then, Khorya’s large and strong family has lived there.
Kalinich is a cheerful, tall, smiling, easy-tempered, unambitious person. On weekends and holidays he is engaged in trading. Without him, a slightly strange but passionate hunter, landowner Polutykin never went hunting. Throughout his life, Kalinich never built a home for himself or started a family.
Being so different, Khor and Kalinich are bosom friends. The author with amazing accuracy, down to the smallest detail, draws all the features of their characters. They enjoy spending time together. During the three days spent with Khor, the hunter managed to get used to them and left them with reluctance.
Lgov
One day the author was offered duck hunting on a lake near the large village of Lgov. Hunting on the overgrown lake was rich, but getting prey became difficult. Therefore, it was decided to take a boat. During the hunt, the author meets two interesting people:
•
a freedman named Vladimir was distinguished by his literacy and erudition; he had previously served as a valet and even studied music;
•
the elderly peasant Suchok, who changed many owners and jobs during his long life.
While working, Bitch's leaky boat begins to sink. Only in the evening the tired hunters manage to get out of the lake.
Kasyan with a beautiful sword
Returning from a hunt, the coachman and the author meet a funeral procession.
Realizing that this was a bad sign, the coachman hurried to overtake the procession, however, the axle of the cart broke. In search of a new axis, the author follows the Yudin settlements, where he meets the dwarf Kasyan, a settler from the Beautiful Sword, who was considered a holy fool by the people, but they often turned to him for herbal treatment. He lived with his adopted girl Alyonushka and loved nature. The axle was replaced and the hunt continued, but without success. As Kasyan explained, it was he who took the animals away from the hunter.
Bezhin meadow
While hunting for black grouse in the Tula province, the author got a little lost.
As night fell, he went out into the meadow, popularly called Bezhin. Here the hunter meets a group of peasant boys who were herding horses. Having settled down by the fire, the children start talking about all sorts of evil spirits that were found in the area. Children's stories were about a brownie who supposedly settled in a local factory; the mysterious mermaid who invited the carpenter Gavrila to her; about a talking white lamb living on the grave of a drowned man, whom the huntsman Ermila saw and much more. Everyone tried to tell something unusual and mysterious. The conversation about evil spirits lasted almost until dawn.
Mayor
One day the author stayed overnight with a neighbor, a retired military man, landowner Arkady Pavlovich Penochkin.
The neighbor was a literate and educated man, however, in his house people felt uncomfortable and restless. The next morning we decided to go together to Shipilovka, which was located not far from Ryabovo, where the author was supposed to hunt. There the landowner proudly showed off the estate, the house and the surrounding area. Until the mayor Safron arrived, who began to complain about the increase in taxes, a small amount of land.
As local peasants later told the author, Penochkin was the owner of Shipilovka only on paper. In reality, everything was controlled by a prosperous and wealthy mayor, who deceived both the owner and the peasants.
Odnodvorets Ovsyannikov
The author met the elderly nobleman Ovsyannikov from the landowner Radilov.
At 70 years old, Ovsyannikov has earned a reputation as an intelligent, educated and worthy person. Conversations with him were full of deep meaning. The author especially liked the arguments of the one-palace regarding the comparison of modern morals and the foundations of Catherine’s times. At the same time, the parties to the conversation never came to an unambiguous conclusion. Previously, there was more lack of rights for the weaker than the wealthy and strong, but life was quieter and calmer. Modern ideas of humanism and equality, promoted by “advanced people” such as Ovsyannikov’s nephew Mitya, frighten and confuse the elderly nobleman, since there is a lot of empty talk, and no one takes concrete action.
My neighbor Radilov
Once, while hunting in one of the neglected gardens of the Oryol province, the author and Ermolai met the landowner Radilov, who invited them to dinner.
Present at the table were the landowner's mother, a sad little old woman, the ruined living Fyodor Mikheich, and the sister of Radilov's late wife, Olga. During lunch there was a casual conversation, but it was noticeable that the landowner and his sister-in-law were watching each other. Having visited Radilov a week later, the hunter learned that the landowner and Olga had left, leaving the old mother alone and sad.
