A very brief retelling of the novel “Messrs. Golovlevs”.
The Golovlev estate was managed by Arina Petrovna; she was a prudent and strict woman, unlike her husband Vladimir Mikhailovich. He did not touch business, had affairs on the side and led an idle lifestyle. This did not bother Arina Petrovna; it was important for her to earn more money. It cannot be said that they loved each other, but they lived together for 40 years. They had a daughter and three sons: the eldest Stepan, Anna, Porfiry and Pavel.
When the daughter grew up, she ran away with the cornet and married him without the consent of her parents. But he left her two years later, leaving her alone with two twin daughters, Anninka and Lyubinka. Soon, Arina Petrovna’s daughter Anna dies. After Anna’s death, Arina Petrovna herself had to take care of raising the girls. The Golovlevs' eldest son, Stepan, lost his entire fortune and even sold the estate given to him by his mother for next to nothing. He can only return to his father’s house, where he continued to drink, from which he soon dies.
Pavel lives in his village all alone, and begins to drink out of loneliness, also dies, and his fortune is inherited by Porfiry. He was the meanest of all, even his relatives called him Judas.
When Anninka and Lyubinka grew up, they went to study and became actresses. But their idle life quickly dragged them to the bottom, and they eventually became courtesans. They themselves were sick of such a life that they decided to commit suicide with poison. But only Lyubinka had the courage, she dies. And Anninka returns to her father’s house, where she gradually began to become an alcoholic.
Only Porfiry and his niece remained on the estate. By the end of his life, Judushka was left alone, his sons died (one committed suicide, the other was exiled to Siberia for losing government money, but he falls ill and dies in a village hospital without even getting there). Judushka “brings” the housekeeper Evprakseyushka closer to him. She gives birth to a son from him, but Porfiry abandons his son and sends him with the housekeeper to an orphanage. After this, Evprakseyushka changes her attitude towards the master for the worse. Stops caring for him and treats him badly.
By the end of his life, Judas realized that he was wrong, and very much regretted how he behaved with his loved ones. Out of anger at himself, Porfiry begins to drink and decides to go to Arina Petrovna’s grave to ask for forgiveness, but dies along the way. Anninka won’t even know about this, because she herself was in a dying fever. And everything that was acquired by the Golovlevs goes to their distant relative.
Main characters and their characteristics:
- Pavel Vladimirovich Golovlev is the son of Arina Petrovna, lonely, unsociable, likes to drink, and doesn’t particularly meddle in family matters. He served in St. Petersburg, after which he leaves the service and lives his life aimlessly, drinking himself to death in a village given by his mother, and dies there.
- Arina Petrovna Golovleva is a prudent and powerful landowner who was able to achieve a lot in her life and managed the estate herself.
- Porfiry Vladimirovich Golovlev (Judushka) - the son of Arina Petrovna, vile and resourceful, widowed early, had two sons. I looked for profit in everything. He brought the housekeeper closer to him, who bore him a son, but he abandoned him.
- Vladimir Mikhailovich Golovlev , Arina Petrovna’s husband, led an idle life, did not love his wife and did not do business. He didn’t care what was going on on the estate and all the problems associated with it; he lived his life for his own pleasure.
- Anna Vladimirovna Golovleva (Ulanova) - the daughter of Arina Petrovna, who ran away with a cornet, married without the consent of her parents. Two years later, the cornet leaves her alone with two children. Soon Anna dies.
- Stepan Vladimirovich Golovlev (Styopka the dunce) - the son of Arina Petrovna, studied at the university, worked in the office, but not particularly successfully, quickly squandered his fortune and the house bought for him by his mother, drank and played a lot. By the age of 40, he was left with nothing, returns to his father’s house and continues to drink and dies.
Minor characters and their characteristics:
- Anna Semyonovna and Lyubov Semyonovna Ulanov (Anninka and Lyubinka) are the daughters of Anna, the granddaughter of Arina Petrovna. They worked as actresses in a provincial theater, but quickly fell into one. Lyubinka commits suicide, and Anninka returns home, where she gradually becomes an alcoholic.
- Petenka , the son of Porfiry, lost three thousand government money, turned to his father for help, but he refused him. After the trial he was exiled to Siberia, but on the way he fell ill and died.
- Volodenka , the son of Porfiry, got married without asking his father’s blessing, for which he did not give him money. Tired of poverty, he commits suicide.
- Evprakseyushka , the housekeeper at the Golovlev estate, as a result of her relationship with Judushka, gave birth to a son, Vladimir, whom he quickly got rid of, sending him and the housekeeper to an orphanage.
Minor characters in Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novel “The Golovlevs”
Anninka and Lyubinka
- orphans, daughters of Anna, granddaughters of Anna Petrovna. Having matured, girls strive for a different life, they want to break away from a family where it’s hard to breathe. They go to the theater, work, play, but hard, systematic work was not familiar to them; moral principles were not instilled in them, and they were not prepared for perseverance in life.
So, actresses Anninka and Lyubinka become kept women, and then even worse. Both sisters die. Lyubinka committed suicide, the broken, sick Anninka returned to Golovlevo to die here.
Petenka and Volodenka
- the sons of Judushka Golovlev, suffering from their father’s incredible stinginess. Their lives also ended early.
Evprakseyushka
- housekeeper of Porfiry Vladimirovich, a young woman. She was in a relationship with the owner and had a son with him. Judas, while his mother was delirious in a fever, meanly sent the newborn to an orphanage. After this, Eupraxinya began to hate the master, and she had a desire to destroy him.
A summary of the novel “The Golovlevs” in detail by chapter.
Family Court.
Arina Petrovna Golovleva was born a poor noblewoman, but thanks to her prudence and hard work, by the age of 60 she had four thousand serf souls. Her husband Vladimir Mikhailovich was an ordinary drunkard, lived for his own pleasure, and started affairs. He loved to write poetry, which Arina Petrovna called “foul.”
Author: Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin
He married so that he would have a listener, but his strict wife did not like this “tomfoolery,” which is why they became very distant. Vladimir Mikhailovich becomes an empty place for the family and ends up simply locking himself away from his wife in one of the rooms of the estate. They had four children - a daughter and three sons.
Anna, in her youth, runs away with the cornet Ulanov, without receiving her parents' blessing, and gives birth to two twin daughters, Anninka and Lyubinka. Her mother gave her 5 thousand and a miserable village with 30 souls, where there was an old estate in which it was impossible to live. But Anna soon dies, abandoned by her husband. After the death of her daughter, Arina Petrovna had to take over raising the children.
The eldest son Stepan adopted his inexhaustible prankishness from his father. He was careless and irresponsible, even his relatives began to call him Stepka the Dunce. Arina Petrovna allocated him a piece, which consisted of a house in Moscow, but he squandered everything, after which he has to go back to the Golovlevo estate. The mother did not really like the prospect of feeding the adult Stepka the Dunce, so she convenes the other sons to decide what to do with Stepan.
One of the sons, Porfiry, was flattering and hypocritical from childhood, for which his relatives nicknamed him “Judas” and “Blood Drinker.” The youngest son Pavel was apathetic and unsociable, preferring to remain silent. He did not interfere in family affairs, was lonely, had neither a wife nor children.
At this time, Stepan goes to the Golovlevs’ estate; his journey home is paid for by one of his serfs, who has become an innkeeper. Stepan looked very bad from drunkenness, was thin and dirty, and his voice was hoarse and his speech was incoherent. On the way home, he worries whether his stingy mother will accept him, periodically drinking. He traveled the last part of the road on foot through the forest. When he saw the Golovlev estate, he immediately turned pale, because it seemed to him that he saw a coffin there.
Arina Petrovna drove Stepan out onto the porch, and fed him only the leftovers from lunches and dinners, and gave him old and worn clothes. Hungry Styopka asks the peasants for different food, while realizing that his mother earns a lot. Such a life was not pleasant to him, and he began to think about dying as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, Porfiry and Pavel arrived at the estate. They served in St. Petersburg, one in a military unit, the other in a civilian unit. The mother immediately began to complain to them about Styopka the Dunce, who had squandered his entire fortune and was now hanging around her neck. In order to get rid of him as quickly as possible, Arina Petrovna decided to allocate one of her father’s poor villages to him.
Judas dissuades his mother, saying that he will squander everything again and return to her again with nothing. He offers to take from Stepan a written refusal to share in the property. Pavel did not interfere in these matters, he refused to put his brother on trial and simply remained silent. So Arina Petrovna agrees with Porfiry.
The brothers decided to visit Stepan, gave him 50 rubles, which he immediately drank. He sat more and more in a dark room, since his mother did not even give him candles and did not come to him. Stepan finally becomes an alcoholic and signs a waiver for his share of the property sent by his mother. To some extent, he even felt relieved that he had neither a bowl nor a spoon left.
Later, he decides to escape from Golovlevo and does so in a simple robe. In the November rain it freezes and falls. They found Stepan 20 miles from home and brought him back. He is very sick, and his mother continues to worry about her authority and reproaches him for the fact that if he died on the road, it would be a shame for the entire district.
A short time later, Stepan dies. Arina Petrovna notifies the remaining sons about this. She writes that she buried Stepan as expected with all honors. Adding the instruction that everyone who does not honor their parents will end up the same as Stepan.
In a family way.
More than 10 years have passed since the last events. During this period, a peasant reform took place, Vladimir Mikhailych died, and old Arina Petrovna cannot even imagine how she will now live and manage her estates. Porfiry Vladimirovich, seeing this whole situation, is trying to encourage his mother to retire and transfer everything to her sons. Arina Petrovna agreed and began to divide the property. She gave the best part to Judas, and the worse part to Paul. Arina Petrovna left the capital for herself.
Pavel immediately leaves the service and settles in the Dubrovino estate received from his mother. Judushka remains in St. Petersburg, and Arina Petrovna continues to conduct business. Porfiry became the owner of Golovlevo, but his mother continues to improve the estate and buys neighboring arable land and meadows, spending almost all her capital on this.
Porfiry leaves the service and enjoys life on the estate, which his mother improved with all her might. Judas suddenly began demanding an account from his mother for all expenses. Arina Petrovna immediately realized that Porfiry had extracted every penny from her, and was now trying to get her out of the estate.
She was outraged by this attitude of Judas, it aroused anger in the soul of her mother, and she leaves with her granddaughters - Anninka and Lyubinka, who are supported by her in Dubrovino to Pavel. Pavel received Arina Petrovna, but practically did not communicate with her. He drinks a lot and became a toy in the hands of his own manager and housekeeper Julitta, who were thieves.
Due to drunkenness, Pavel falls ill, and the doctor informs Arina Petrovna that he will die one of these days. Paul did not dispose of his property in any way, therefore, according to the law, all this will go to Porfiry, who has already bribed Ulita to tell Judas about her brother’s condition.
Arina Petrovna asked Pavel to transfer the property to his orphan nephews, or at least give the capital to them so as not to be left with nothing. But stubborn Pavel refused her.
Porfiry comes to Dubrovino to visit his dying brother. Paul could not stand his brother Porfiry for his deceit and hypocrisy. Seeing Judas, Paul drives him away and soon dies. The will was never drawn up, so everything goes to Porfiry. Arina Petrovna and the girls move to the wretched village of Pogorelka (the inheritance of her deceased daughter Anna), they have nothing else left.
Having learned that his mother does not want to stay in Golovlevo, Porfiry looks surprised, but at the same time worries how she will return the tarantass on which Arina Petrovna was going to leave. When leaving, the mother replies that the tarantass is her own. Porfiry shouts after them: “You come to us, like a relative!”
Family results.
Arina Petrovna settled with her granddaughters in Pogorelka. Due to old age, she was no longer able to manage the household. The girls, meanwhile, sought to escape from the remote village and went to study in the city to become actresses. Arina Petrovna is left alone and she has to renew her connection with Judushka. She started going to Golovlevo.
Porfiry “brought” the housekeeper Evprakseyushka closer to him. The woman was inconspicuous, narrow-minded, but hard-working, with a broad, powerful back. Arina Petrovna increasingly began to linger on the estate for several days, playing cards with her son and Evprakseyushka. Judas is not against the presence of his mother, the extra mouth did not bother him, since he has someone to carry on empty conversations with until late at night.
Anninka and Lyubinka eventually became actresses, but not in Moscow, but in Kharkov. The girls live a carefree life, relaxing with gentlemen from high society - officers and lawyers. They don’t come to Golovlevo, they just write letters.
During the same period, one of Porfiry’s sons, Volodenka, commits suicide. He once married without his father’s blessing, and he refused to help him with money. Because of poverty, Volodenka committed suicide. On the anniversary of his death, Arina Petrovna and Porfiry Vladimirovich play cards.
Suddenly they hear a bell, it’s Judushka’s second son, Petenka, who has arrived. He is dejected and gloomy, but does not immediately talk about the reason for his arrival. As it turned out, he lost three thousand rubles of government money, and he faces trial. He decided to borrow money from his grandmother, but she says that she herself was left with nothing, advising Petenka to turn to his father.
Judushka’s son understood that his father would not give him money, and persuaded Arina Petrovna to threaten him with a curse. Porfiry is superstitious, and could have been scared. The next morning Petenka goes to his father to ask for money, but he rudely refuses him. Petenka is furious and blames his father for Volodenka’s death and begins to sob out of hopelessness. At this moment, Arina Petrovna gets up from her chair and, turning to Porfiry, shouts: “I curse you!”
Niece.
Porfiry calmly reacted to his mother’s curse and was not afraid of it. The mother's curse seemed to him completely differently, so the desired effect was not achieved. Following Petenka, the next day Arina Petrovna also leaves for Pogorelka and never returns to Golovlevo, because she became ill and practically did not get out of bed.
After a while, Judas comes to her and asks her to get up and walk around the room. But that same night Arina Petrovna dies. The burner goes to Anninka and Lyubinka. Having buried his mother, Porfiry takes 15 thousand rubles of her money, a carriage and two cows to Golovlevo.
A month later, Judushka receives a notice of the death of Petenka, who, before reaching his place of exile, fell ill and died in one of the village hospitals. Meanwhile, Anninka arrives in Golovlevo, having learned about her grandmother’s death. The once thin girl became a tall and stately woman that Judas himself glanced sideways at her breasts.
Anninka went to Arina Petrovna’s grave. She walked through the empty rooms in Pogorelka and thought about how low she had sunk. She returned to Golovlevo with great bitterness in her soul. At the same time, Judas had completely unrelated feelings for Anninka - he looked at her and kept trying to pat her on the knee.
Judas invited his niece to give up acting and live with him on the estate. Anninka was frightened by his assertiveness, and she hurries to leave, but the preparation of documents for the inheritance was delayed, and Porfiry kept postponing the trip to the office, increasingly paying unambiguous attention to his niece.
Finally, the documents were ready and Anninka was getting ready to leave. Porfiry Vladimirovich came to his niece and handed her a piece of paper, where he wrote that he had prayed to God to leave Anninka to him. And as if God answered him, he should take Anninka by the plump waist and press her to his heart.
“Ugh, uncle!” the niece said with disgust, “What disgusting things!” To which Judushka replied: “Apparently you need hussars...” and left.
Following Anninka, Porfiry shouts whether she will return soon, but she replies that she is scared with him, and she does not want to return.
Unallowed family joys.
Even before the incident with Petenka, Evprakseyushka, the housekeeper, whom Porfiry “brought closer” to him, became pregnant by him. Arina Petrovna was happy about this event, but dies before the birth of the child. Porfiry Vladimirovich remains at a loss. He hoped that Arina Petrovna would take care of the birth and the child, and now he himself would have to deal with these matters, which he did not like at all.
One evening, while calculating the budget in his office, Judushka hears a cry from Evprakseyushka’s room, but he didn’t even move. The moans continued to be heard, when suddenly Julitta ran in with the words: “Eupraxeyushka is bad, as if she wouldn’t give her soul to God!” To which Porfiry reacted sharply, indignant that he was distracted from prayer. He told them to send for the priest and pray. Judas refused to even look at her, meanwhile Evprakseyushka still gave birth to a boy.
Julitta brought the baby to Porfiry, but he drove her away. The son was named Vladimir. After the ceremony, he called the priest for tea and began to tell his story that Evprakseyushka herself “fell into adultery from a small mind.” Father realized that Judas was not going to recognize his son and was shocked by his lies. Porfiry called Ulita and said that Volodka needed to be placed somewhere, supposedly so that he would grow up to be a good person. In fact, he just wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible. He sent Ulita and Volodya to Moscow, gave her some money and then regretted that he had paid a lot for his “pranks”.
Exhausted.
Evprakseyushka stopped respecting Porfiry for his action and rebelled. Judushka didn’t like the insolence that he even attacked her with his fists, but Evprakseyushka was not afraid of him. Porfiry was taken aback and went into the office. She continues to harass Judas, and later she completely stopped caring about the master and went on a spree with others.
Porfiry Vladimirovich practically stopped leaving his office, sits there and imagines in his fantasies how he would impose fines on peasants and take revenge on those who once offended him. It was like a binge, but a peculiar one - not alcoholic, but mental.
He was overgrown, flabby, sitting in a dirty robe - this is exactly how Evprakseyushka saw him, whom he immediately drove away. Judas continued to revel in his fantasies, imagining different situations. He remembers his mother, but not Arina Petrovna herself, but her mistakes, because of which they did not earn more.
Calculation.
Winter has come, Porfiry Vladimirovich has completely withdrawn into himself. Anninka unexpectedly returned. She looked different. Anninka was sick, which is why not a trace of her beauty remained. She reported that Lyubinka committed suicide.
The sisters played in the provincial theater, which later moved to the city. There Lyubinka made an acquaintance with the zemstvo leader Lyulkin, and his friend, the merchant Kukishev, followed Anninka. Lyulkin gave Lyubinka gifts, and she sang songs in front of his friends. Anninka fought off Kukishev to the last. Later, her salary was cut, and her roles became scarce. Lyubinka persuaded her sister to take a closer look at Kukishev, she agreed out of despair. He taught Anninka to drink vodka.
Later, Lyulkin shot himself, and Kukishev was exiled to Siberia for their “dirty deeds” in the office. The sisters' situation became worse and worse, Anninka began to cough. They had sunk to the very bottom, so Lyubinka suggested that her sister die together by drinking poison. Lyubinka prepared two glasses, but Anninka chickened out at the last moment. So Lyubinka died, and Anninka returned to Golovlevo to live out her time.
Anninka regretted that she did not decide to commit suicide. In the evenings, she came to Evprakseyushka, who poured her vodka and looked with pity, not understanding how the once young beautiful girl could come to such a life. Sometimes Judas would come out, look at them for a few minutes in silence, and leave.
Later, Judushka himself began to pour water for Anninka, and they began to drink together every evening until they passed out. The gentlemen woke up late and got drunk again in the evening, and so day after day passed. Porfiry began to imagine his dead relatives, and his conscience suddenly awakened. Judas understands the ugliness of her actions towards her family. He gets sick and wants to die quickly. He and Anninka had a frank conversation about forgiveness. Then they went to their rooms.
Porfiry Vladimirovich suddenly decided to go to his mother’s grave. It was March, and he left in ordinary home clothes. The next morning the master's body was found. At this time, Anninka is in her bed in a dying fever.
The servants went to fetch a distant relative of the Golovlevs, who had been closely watching what was happening on the Golovlev estate since last fall.
Brief summary of the novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs” by Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E.
Family Court Burmister Anton Vasiliev came from Moscow. The lady Arina Petrovna calls him a “saddle bag” because he is “weak in tongue.” He constantly gave away Arina Petrovna’s secrets.
He tells the lady that her son Stepan Vladimirych’s house in Moscow was sold for debts. Arina Petrovna is amazed. The house cost twelve thousand, but they sold it for eight! But Arina Petrovna always demanded unquestioning obedience from her children! “Her husband is a frivolous and drunken man (Arina Petrovna readily says about herself that she is neither a widow nor a husband’s wife); the children partly serve in St. Petersburg, partly they take after their father and, as “hateful” ones, are not allowed to take part in any family affairs.” Arina Petrovna feels lonely.
“The husband called his wife “witch” and “devil,” the wife called her husband “windmill” and “stringless balalaika.” So they have been married for forty years. Here Vladimir Mikhailych began to watch for the servant girls.
“There were four children: three sons and a daughter. She didn’t even like to talk about her eldest son and daughter; she was more or less indifferent to her youngest son and only the middle one, Porfish, was not so much loved, but rather feared.”
Stepan Vladimirych, the eldest son, is called in the family “Styopka the dunce” or “Styopka the mischievous one.” He is his father's favorite, but his mother does not like him. Arina Petrovna often gets it in her son’s conversations with his father. No matter how they beat Styopka, he did not stop his mischief. “Either he will cut the girl Anyutka’s headscarf into pieces, then sleepy Vasyutka will put flies in her mouth...”
At the age of twenty, “Stepan Golovlev completed a course at one of the Moscow gymnasiums and entered the university. But his student life was bitter.” “Nevertheless, thanks to his ability to quickly grasp and remember what he heard, he passed the exam with success and received a candidate’s degree.” His mother just shrugged her shoulders.” Then they sent Styopka to Moscow and placed a supervisor over him, a clerk, “who has interceded in Golovlev’s cases since ancient times.” The house that Arina Petrovna bought him brought Styopka good money. Yes, the “boobs” just burned out. “Then he began to visit his mother’s wealthy peasants who lived on their own farms in Moscow; from whom I dined, from whom I begged a quarter of tobacco, from whom I borrowed small things.”
Daughter Annushka also did not live up to her hopes. “When her daughter left the institute, Arina Petrovna settled her in the village, hoping to make her a gifted home secretary and accountant, and instead, Annushka, one fine night, fled from Golovlev with the cornet Ulanov and got married to him.” Anna Petrovna “gave her a capital of five thousand and a village of thirty souls with a fallen estate, in which there was a draft from all the windows and there was not a single living floorboard. After two years, the young capital lived, and the cornet fled to God knows where, leaving Anna Vladimirovna with two twin daughters: Anninka and Lyubinka. Then Anna Vladimirovna herself died three months later, and Arina Petrovna, willy-nilly, had to shelter the orphans at home. Which she did, placing the little ones in the outbuilding and assigning the crooked old woman Palashka to them.”
“...The younger children, Porfiry and Pavel Vladimirych, were in service in St. Petersburg: the first - in the civil service, the second - in the military. Porfiry was married, Pavel was single.
Porfiry Vladimirych was known in the family under three names: Judas, the blood drinker and the frank boy, which nicknames were given to him by Styopka the dunce as a child.” The boy loved his mother very much. Only Arina Petrovna could not understand “what exactly he exudes from himself: poison or filial piety.”
“Mysterious words were spoken to Arina Petrovna: “the hen is clucking, clucking, clucking, but it will be too late.” What could they mean?
Pavel Vladimirych is “the complete personification of a person devoid of any actions.” He “loved to live alone, alienated from people. He would hide in a corner, pout and start fantasizing.”
Judas regularly sent letters to his mother telling him how things were going with him. Pavel won’t write an extra word.
“Arina Petrovna re-read these letters from her sons and kept trying to guess which of them would be her villain.”
For a long time, Arina Petrovna could not come to her senses after the news of the atrocity of her eldest son. She was most afraid that her son would return to her house. She then decided to convene a family council to decide the share of her eldest son.
“While all this was happening, the culprit of the mess, Styopka the dunce, was already moving from Moscow towards Golovlev.”
Now “Stepan Golovlev is not yet forty years old, but in appearance he cannot be given less than fifty. Life has worn him out to such an extent that it has not left on him any sign of a noble son.”
To the passengers, Golovlev appears to be a gentleman, but they quickly figure him out. Stepan Vladimirych “goes home as if to the Last Judgment.” “Here is uncle Mikhail Petrovich (in common parlance “Brawler Bear”), who also belonged to the “hateful” group and whom grandfather Pyotr Ivanovich imprisoned with his daughter in Golovlevo, where he lived in the people’s room and ate from the same cup with the dog Trezorka. Here is Aunt Vera Mikhailovna, who, out of mercy, lived in the Golovlev estate with her brother Vladimir Mikhailych and who died “from moderation”, because Arina Petrovna reproached her with every piece eaten at dinner, and with every log of firewood used to heat her room. He will have to go through approximately the same thing.”
“Three days later, the mayor Finogen Ipatych announced to him from his mother a “situation” that he would receive board and clothing and, in addition, a pound of Faler a month.”
All day long Styopka walked around the room and thought about the huge money his mother received.
“Stepan Vladimirych waited all morning to see if the brothers would come, but the brothers did not come. Finally, at about eleven o’clock, the zemstvo brought the two promised juices and reported that the brothers had now had breakfast and locked themselves in the bedroom with their mother.”
At the family council, Mama again tells the story of her enrichment. “And the first time I had only thirty thousand money for banknotes - I sold daddy’s distant pieces, about a hundred souls - and with this amount I set out, it’s a joke, to buy a thousand souls! I served a prayer service at Iverskaya and went to Solyanka to try my luck. And so what!
As if the intercessor saw my bitter tears - she left the estate behind me! And what a miracle: how I gave thirty thousand, in addition to the government debt, as if I had cut off the entire auction! Before they were noisy and excited, but now they stopped making more noise, and it suddenly became quiet all around. This person present stood up and congratulated me, but I don’t understand anything! The solicitor was here, Ivan Nikolaich, and came up to me: with a purchase, he said, madam, and I seemed to be standing like a wooden post! And how great is God’s mercy! Just think: if, in such a frenzy of mine, someone suddenly shouted out of mischief: I give thirty-five thousand! - after all, I, perhaps, in unconsciousness, would have given all forty! Where would I get them?
“As you say, so it will be! Condemn him - he will be guilty, condemn me - I will be guilty,” Arina Petrovna says to her sons.
Porfiry Vladimirych refused to try his brother. And Arina Petrovna decided to forgive Stepka and give him the Vologda village (part of her father’s estate).
But then she decides: “As long as daddy and I are alive, well, he will live in Golovlev, he won’t die of hunger.”
Styopka the dunce has taken root in Golovlev. At his mother’s request, he signed “everyone’s waivers - now he’s clean!” “Only one thought rushes about, sucks and crushes - and this thought: a coffin! coffin! coffin!"
One day Arina Petrovna was informed that Stepan Vladimirych had disappeared from Golovlev at night. “It turned out that during the night he reached the Dubrovinskaya estate, twenty miles from Golovlev.” Stepan Vladimirych slept for a long time after such a walk.
Arina Petrovna came to talk to him. I even found kind words. But the dunce didn’t say a word to her.
“In December of the same year, Porfiry Vladimirych received a letter from Arina Petrovna with the following content: “Yesterday morning a new test, sent from the Lord, befell us: my son, and your brother, Stepan, died...”
In a related way In July, Pavel Vladimirych feels very bad. The doctor says he has two days left. He also says that the owner is dying from vodka. Now everything should go to “Judas, the legal heir.”
Now “from an uncontrollable and quarrelsome owner of the Golovlev estates, Arina Petrovna has become a modest hanger-on in the house of her youngest son, an idle hanger-on who has no voice in economic decisions.”
“The first blow to Arina Petrovna’s power was dealt not so much by the abolition of serfdom, but by the preparations that preceded this o.
Judas instinctively understood that “if mamma begins to trust in God, then this means that there is some flaw in her existence. And he took advantage of this flaw with his characteristic cunning dexterity.”
“Arina Petrovna divided the estate, leaving only the capital with her. At the same time, Porfiry Vladimirych was allocated the best part, and Pavel Vladimirych the worst part.”
“That inner image of Porfishka the bloodsucker, which she had once guessed with such rare insight, suddenly seemed to shroud in fog.”
“The matter ended with the fact that, after a long polemical correspondence, Arina Petrovna, offended and indignant, moved to Dubrovino, and after that Porfiry Vladimirych retired and settled in Golovlev.”
“To top it all off, Arina Petrovna made a terrible discovery: Pavel Vladimirych was drinking. This passion ate into him stealthily, thanks to rural loneliness, and finally received that terrible development that was supposed to lead to an inevitable end.” Soon Pavel Vladimirych began to hate his brother. “He hated Judas and at the same time was afraid of him. He knew that Judas’s eyes exuded a bewitching poison, that his voice, like a snake, crawls into the soul and paralyzes a person’s will.”
Arina Petrovna decided to talk to her dying son. But Ulitushka, who was in cahoots with Judushka, did not want to leave them alone. Then she left anyway. But the conversation did not yield results. Pavel did not transfer the capital to his mother.
“Arina Petrovna barely had time to go downstairs when a carriage pulled by fours appeared on a hillock near the Dubrovinsk church. In the carriage, in a place of honor, sat Porfiry Golovlev without a hat and was baptized into the church; Sitting opposite him were his two sons: Petenka and Volodenka.” The servants did not want the new owner to come at all. After all, the old man gave them a month's wages and allowed them to keep the cows on the master's hay.
Judas put on a real show: he tried to cheer everyone up, he joked with everyone. At this time, Pavel Vladimirych “was in indescribable anxiety. He was lying on the mezzanine all alone and at the same time he heard that some unusual movement was happening in the house.” And then “suddenly the hated figure of Judas appeared at his bedside.” He allegedly came to inquire about his brother’s health. Pavel began to kick Judas out, but he only mocked: “Wait a minute, I’d better fix your pillow!” Paul finally understood that Judushka decided to “let his own mother go around the world.”
While this conversation was happening upstairs, the grandmother was talking downstairs with her grandchildren. They told her that the priest beats them, does not let them go anywhere, and listens at the door. This is how Arina Petrovna found out that Judas was afraid of her curse. She tells Volodya to go and eavesdrop on his father’s conversation with his brother. “Volodenka tiptoes towards the doors and disappears through them.” From Petenka, Arina Petrovna learns that they came because Ulitushka reported: “the doctor was here and if not today, then tomorrow uncle will certainly die.” When Volodenka returns, he reports that he didn’t hear anything. And then Judas comes. He says his brother is really bad.
After a while, Pavel Vladimirych dies. Everyone regrets his death. Arina Petrovna will now have to go to Pogorelka. But first, Pogorelka needs to be “fixed.” “Three days later, Arina Petrovna had everything ready to leave. They celebrated the mass, performed the funeral service and buried Pavel Vladimirych.” “The dinner began with family bickering. Judas insisted that mamma sit in the master's place; Arina Petrovna refused.”
Family results When Arina Petrovna moved to Pogorelka, “the infirmities of old age came to her, not allowing her to leave the house...”. “And then one fine morning Anninka and Lyubinka announced to their grandmother that they could not and did not want to stay any longer in Pogorelka.” “With the departure of the orphans, the Gorelovsky house plunged into a kind of hopeless silence.” Arina Petrovna decided to dismiss the servants. She left only the housekeeper Afim-yushka and “the one-eyed soldier Markovna, who cooked the food and washed the clothes.”
Sleepless village nights began. Arina Petrovna became completely weak and decided to return to Golovlevo. At first she began to visit there. Judas took “a maiden of clergy named Eupraxia as his housekeeper.”
“All contact with the outside world was completely severed. Judas did not receive any books, newspapers, or even letters. One of his sons, Volodenka, committed suicide; with the other, Petenka, he corresponded briefly and only when he sent money.” The housekeeper, the maiden Eupraxia, “was the daughter of the sexton at the Church of St. Nicholas in Kapelki and was in all respects the purest treasure. She had neither quick thinking, nor resourcefulness, nor even quickness, but instead she was hard-working, unrequited and made almost no demands. Even when he “brought her closer” to him - and then she only asked: “Can she, whenever she wants, drink cold kvass without asking?”
And so the three of them lived together, Arina Petrovna, Porfiry Vladimirych and Evprakseyushka. They played cards and remembered the past. Arina Petrovna received a letter from the orphans. Now they are in Kharkov, “entered the theater stage.” Judas didn’t like this at all. The young master Pyotr Porfiryich arrives. “Judas stood up and froze in place, pale as a sheet.”
“He was a guy of about twenty-five, quite handsome in appearance, in a road officer’s uniform. That’s all that can be said about him, and Judas himself hardly knew anything more.” “Porfiry Vladimirych is lying in bed, but cannot close his eyes. He senses that his son’s arrival portends something unusual, and already in advance all sorts of empty teachings are born in his head.” “There is no doubt that something bad happened to Petenka, but no matter what happens, he, Porfiry Golovlev, must be above these accidents. You yourself are confused - unravel yourself; If you knew how to brew porridge, you also knew how to dissolve it; If you love to ride, you also love to carry sleds. Exactly; this is exactly what he will say tomorrow, no matter what his son tells him.”
Petenka came to Golovlevo to resolve one issue: he squandered government money and wants to take it from his father to return it. Arina Petrovna saw that something was wrong with Petenka. She asked Evprakseyushka about this. From her, Arina Petrovna learned that Petenka had “laid in wait” for Evprakseyushka. And his father saw this and got very angry. Petenka goes to his grandmother to ask for a loan. He even promises her interest, but his grandmother sends him to his father.
The next day Petenka tells Judas that he lost three thousand. The father refuses to give his son money, and Petenka calls him a murderer. In the dining room there is a quarrel between father and son in the presence of Arina Petrovna. Petenka says that it was Judas who killed Vladimir, that it was he who allowed him to die. “And suddenly, at that very moment when Petenka filled the dining room with sobs, Arina Petrovna rose heavily from her chair, extended her hand forward and a cry burst out of her chest: “Pro-kli-nnaaay!”
Niece “Judas still didn’t give Petenka any money, although, like a good father, he ordered chickens, veal, and a pie to be placed in the cart at the moment of departure.
Then, despite the cold and wind, he personally went out onto the porch to see his son off, checked whether he could sit comfortably, whether he had wrapped his legs well, and, returning to the house, spent a long time crossing the window in the dining room, sending a message in absentia to the cart that was taking Petenka away.” .
“Contrary to Petenka’s expectations, Porfiry Vladimirych endured his mother’s curse quite calmly and did not deviate even an inch from those decisions that, so to speak, were always sitting ready in his head. True, he turned slightly pale and rushed to his mother shouting:
“Mummy! Darling! Christ is with you! Calm down, my dear! God is merciful! Everything will be fine!"
“The day after Petenka left, Arina Petrovna left for Pogorelka and never returned to Golovlevo. She spent about a month in complete solitude, without leaving the room and rarely, rarely allowing herself to say a word even to the servants.” Sometimes Porfiry Vladimirych came to her and “called his mother to Golovlevo.”
“One morning, as usual, she was about to get out of bed and could not.
She did not feel any particular pain, did not complain about anything, but simply could not get up. She wasn’t even alarmed by this circumstance, as if it was in the order of things.” The next day Judas arrived. “It was much worse for Arina Petrovna.” “Porfiry Vladimirych, in felt boots, like a snake, slid to his mother’s bed; his long and lean figure swayed mysteriously, engulfed in twilight. Arina Petrovna watched him with either frightened or surprised eyes and huddled under the blanket.”
Arina Petrovna asked the orphans to come. “Having buried his mother, Porfiry Vladimirych immediately set about bringing her affairs to light. While sorting through the papers, he found up to ten different wills (in one of them she called him “disrespectful”); but they were all written at a time when Arina Petrovna was a powerful lady, and lay unformed, in the form of projects. Therefore, Judas was very pleased that he did not even have to bend his soul, declaring himself the only legal heir of the property left after his mother.” Soon “a letter arrived from Petenka, in which he notified of his upcoming departure to one of the distant provinces and asked whether daddy would send him allowance in his new position.” Porfiry replied that he would pray for his son.
“It is not known whether this letter reached Petenka; but no more than a month after his deportation, Porfiry Vladimirych received official notification that his son, before reaching the place of exile, took to the hospital in one of the passing towns and died.”
“Then, when the performances stopped, Anninka arrived in Golovlevo and announced that Lyubinka could not go with her, because even earlier she had signed up for the entire Lent and, as a result, went to Romny, Izyum, Kremenchug, etc., where she I had to give concerts and sing the entire cascade repertoire.”
Anninka has changed a lot, she has become beautiful and brave, even cheeky. Anninka says that Golovlev is boring. She reproaches her uncle for not giving Petenka money. “Anninka went to her grandmother’s grave, asked Voplinsky’s priest to serve a memorial service, and when the sextons sadly drew out the eternal memory, she cried.” “Anninka returned to her uncle, boring and quiet.” She began to laugh at her uncle: “Why, uncle, did you take two cows away from Pogorelka?” Judas just shrugs. Then “Judushka again reached out to Anninka and, in a kindred manner, patted her on the knee with his hand, and, of course, by accident, he hesitated a little, so that the orphan instinctively moved away.” Judas invites Anninka to live with him, but she refuses. The girl decides to leave Golovlev as soon as possible. Judas tries to hold her back, but Anninka insists on her own. She is going to go to Moscow to enter the stage there. In the city, Anninka received her inheritance, and Judushka removed her guardianship. He begged the girl to stay for another week. All this time he hoped that Anninka would stay with him. But she still left.
Unauthorized family joys “Once, not long after the disaster with Petenka, Arina Petrovna, a guest in Golovlev, noticed that Evprakseyushka seemed to be swollen. Brought up in the practice of serfdom, in which the pregnancy of courtyard girls served as the subject of detailed and not devoid of entertaining research and was considered almost a profitable article, Arina Petrovna had a sharp and unmistakable view on this matter, so that it was enough for her to stop her eyes on Evprakseyushka’s body to the latter, without words and in full consciousness of guilt, turned away from her her face, which was set on fire.”
The snail, who also had a relationship with Porfiry Vladimirych, kept reporting on the pregnant woman. And she laughed at the master, asking him if he would call the baby son. The master “almost ignored Evprakseyushka and did not even call her by name, and if he sometimes happened to ask about her, he would express himself like this: “Why is she... still sick?” The day of birth has arrived.
When Ulitushka brought a child to Judas, he turned away from him and said that he did not love them and was afraid. I didn’t even ask if the baby was a boy or a girl. The child was named Vladimir. The master decided to send him to an educational institution. And even so that Evprakseyushka doesn’t know.
Escheated After Anninka’s arrival, Evprakseyushka thought about her life and youth. She wanted true love, a “young friend.” “Porfiry Vladimirych limited himself to announcing to her that the newborn was being given into good hands, and to console her, he gave her a new shawl.” When she soon remembered her son, “hatred appeared, a desire to annoy, to spoil life, to lime; The most intolerable of all wars began - a war of nagging, teasing, and petty pricks.
But it was only such a war that could break Porfiry Vladimirich.”
Evprakseyushka began to threaten the master that she would leave him. And he, oddly enough, decided to hold her. In May, Ignat the clerk and Arkhip the coachman began to fight for Evprakseyushkin’s heart. “Euprakseyushka ran between them and, as if crazy, rushed to one, then to the other. Porfiry Vladimirych was afraid to look out the window so as not to become a witness to a love scene, but he could not help but hear.”
“In a short time, Porfiry Vladimirych became completely wild.” “Meanwhile, Evprakseyushka was thrilled with carnal lust. Prancing indecisively between the clerk Ignat and the coachman Arkhipushka and at the same time glancing sideways at the red-faced carpenter Ilyusha, who had contracted with a whole team to repair the master’s cellar, she did not notice anything that was happening in the master’s house.”
Porfiry Vladimirych began to spend all his time making calculations - how to earn more money. He often spoke to his mother. He reproached her for the loss she caused him. Then he began to think about how to earn more money. Everything is not enough for him.
Porfiry Vladimirych lends grain to Fock at inhuman interest rates. Foka asks to reduce the percentage. Then Judas sends him to another moneylender.
Calculation “It’s mid-December: the surrounding area, caught in an endless shroud of snow, is quietly numb; During the night, so many snowdrifts had accumulated on the road that the peasants' horses were floundering heavily in the snow, carrying out empty firewood. And there is almost no trace of the Golovlev estate. Porfiry Vladimirych was so unaccustomed to visits that with the onset of autumn he boarded up both the main gate leading to the house and the front porch, leaving the household to communicate with the outside world through the maiden porch and side gates.”
On this day, “the Pogorelkovskaya young lady, Anna Semyonovna,” comes to Golovlevo. She just changed a lot. Some “weak, frail creature with a sunken chest, sunken cheeks, an unhealthy complexion, sluggish movements, a stooped, almost hunched creature” arrived here. She learns from Evprakseyushka that “something happened to my uncle out of boredom.” Anninka says that a month ago her sister committed suicide and poisoned herself.
When she saw Judushka, “this time Anninka felt emotional, and she really felt emotional. She must have been very sick inside, because she threw herself on Porfiry Vladimirych’s chest and hugged him tightly.” She says that she came to him to die. “This is how this first family date happened. With the end of it, Anninka entered into a new life in that same hateful Golovlev, from which she, twice during her short life, did not know how to escape.”
Anninka's attempts to establish herself in Moscow were in vain. “Both she and Lyubinka belonged to those lively, but not particularly talented actresses who play the same role all their lives.” Anninka had to come to her sister in Samovarnoye. Lyubinka lived in luxury. It was provided for by the zemstvo leader Tavrilo Stepanych Lyulkin. “Lyubinka received her sister with open arms and announced that a room had been prepared for her in her apartment.” But there was a quarrel between the sisters. “Anninka settled in a hotel and stopped all relations with her sister.”
After the performance, Anninka receives a note with a hundred-ruble note: “And if something happens, the same amount. A merchant selling fashionable goods, Kukishev.” “Anninka got angry and went to complain to the owner of the hotel, but the owner announced that Kukishev had such a “character” to congratulate all the actresses on their arrival, but by the way, he is a meek person and there is no point in being offended by him. Following this advice, Anninka sealed the letter and money in an envelope and, “having returned everything as it belonged the next day, she calmed down.”
But Kukishev turned out to be stubborn. In addition, he was friends with Lyubinka, who “directly promised him her assistance.”
Anninka heard rumors that Lyubinka was leading a dissolute lifestyle. She found this very unpleasant. Lyubinka lived luxuriously, so her “friend” had to spend more and more money.
“Meanwhile, Kukishev acted so cleverly that he managed to interest the public in his harassment. The public somehow suddenly realized that Kukishev was right and that the maiden Pogorelskaya 1st (as she was printed in the posters) was not God knows what kind of “frump” to play hard to get.” “Finally, they insisted that the entrepreneur take away some roles from Anninka and give them to Nalimova. And what’s even more curious is that Lyubinka took the most active part in all this underground intrigue, with Nalimova as her confidante.”
“Anninka was living on her last spare money. Another week - and she could not avoid the inn...” Every day she received notes: “Pericola! Submit! Yours Kukishev.”
Then Lyubinka came to her sister and began to brag about her outfits and fortune and praise Kukishev.
“On September 17, on Lyubinka’s name day, the poster for the Samovarnov Theater announced an extraordinary performance. Anninka appeared again in the role of “Beautiful Elena”. Kukishev won... Anninka “became a good girl.”
“Anninka left her sister not for the hotel, but for her own apartment, small, but cozy and very nicely decorated. Kukishev also entered there after her.”
Kukishev and Lyulkin even began to compete to see who could buy the most outfits for their “kral”. Soon Kukishev wanted Anninka to “accompany him” by drinking vodka. “One day Anninka took a glass filled with green liquid from the hands of her lover and threw it down her throat at once. Of course, she couldn’t see the light, choked, coughed, became dizzy, and this brought Kukishev into frantic delight.”
Soon Kukishev and Lyulkin were caught embezzling. Lyulkin immediately shot himself. They began to say about Anninka and Lyubinka that it was all because of them.
“With the end of the case, the sisters had the opportunity to leave Samovarny. And there was time, because the hidden thousand rubles was coming to an end.” The sisters went to Krechetov. There “Lyubinka was received by Captain Papkov, Anninka by the merchant Zabvenny. But the former freedoms no longer existed.”
“Anninka, being more nervous, completely sank and seemed to have forgotten about the past and was not aware of the present. Moreover, she began to cough suspiciously: apparently some mysterious illness was approaching her..."
“Little by little, the sisters began to be taken to hotels to visit passing gentlemen, and a moderate fee was established for them.”
Soon Lyubinka was poisoned. She offered to do the same to Anninka, but she chickened out.
In Golovlevo, Anninka began to live in complete disarray. All day long she walked around the room alone. “From 11 o’clock the revelry began. Having previously made sure that Porfiry Vladimirych had calmed down, Evprakseyushka placed various village pickles and a decanter of vodka on the table.”
The next morning, Judas himself offered Anninka a drink. But during the communication, a quarrel occurred. Anninka started it. She recalled “the Golovlev murders and mutilations.”
Judas began to think that there was no one even to take advantage of his savings. “I repeat: my conscience has awakened, but fruitlessly. Judas moaned, got angry, tossed about and with feverish embitterment waited for the evening, not only to get drunkenly, but in order to drown his conscience in wine. He hated the “slutty girl” who with such cold impudence opened up his ulcers, and at the same time he was irresistibly drawn to her, as if not everything between them had yet been expressed, and there were still more ulcers that also needed to be etched.
Every evening he forced Anninka to repeat the story of Lyubin’s death, and every evening the idea of self-destruction matured more and more in his mind.” “In addition, his physical health has deteriorated sharply. He was already coughing seriously and at times felt unbearable attacks of suffocation, which, regardless of moral torment, in themselves are able to fill life with sheer agony.”
Porfiry Vladimirych was finally convinced that he was largely to blame. He said that he himself must ask everyone for forgiveness for his atrocities. Judas “got out of bed and put on a robe. It was still dark outside, and not the slightest rustle could be heard from anywhere. Porfiry Vladimirych walked around the room for some time, stopped in front of the image of the Redeemer in a crown of thorns, illuminated by a lamp, and peered into it.
Finally he made up his mind. It is difficult to say how conscious he was of his decision, but after a few minutes he crept to the front hall and clicked the hook that locked the front door.
The wind howled outside and a wet March snowstorm swirled, sending showers of melted snow into our eyes. But Porfiry Vladimirych walked along the road, walking through puddles, not feeling either snow or wind and only instinctively tucking the hem of his robe.”
“The next day, early in the morning, a horseman galloped up from the village closest to the churchyard where Arina Petrovna was buried with the news that the stiff corpse of Golovlev’s master had been found a few steps from the road.
They rushed to Anninka, but she was lying in bed in an unconscious position, with all the signs of a fever. Then they equipped a new horseman and sent him to Goryushkino to “sister” Nadezhda Ivanovna Galkina (daughter of Aunt Varvara Mikhailovna), who since last autumn had been vigilantly following everything that was happening in Golovlevo.”
Briefly about the history of the creation of the work.
Saltykov-Shchedrin first wrote the story “Family Court” in 1875. It was he who became the first chapter of the novel in the future. After the story was published in the magazine, Turgenev wrote a letter to the author saying that he would be interested in reading the development of this story.
So Saltykov-Shchedrin continued to develop the storyline, creating new stories about the history of the Golovlev family. The final part was written in 1880. Only after this, the author combined all the parts into one novel, “The Golovlevs.”
History of creation
The history of the creation of the work is connected with the personal, cultural and historical circumstances of the writer’s life. Mikhail Evgrafovich grew up in the family of a landowner. As an adult, he spoke about the landowner environment in the following way: “The environment in which I spent most of my life was very vile...”. This impression was strengthened by observing how, after the abolition of serfdom, peasants fought for their lands. During this period, anti-serfdom ideas sounded more loudly in the works of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
The analyzed work “grew” from the cycle of stories “Well-Intentioned Speeches.” The writer published them in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. The first of them, “Family Court” (1875), received a positive response from I. Turgenev, which became the impetus for the creation of the following stories. Gradually, a complete family history emerged: individual works were united by theme and characters. When turning the cycle of stories into a novel, the writer made edits to certain parts. The novel was completed only in 1880; in general, work on it lasted for five years.
Initially, the author wanted to call the novel “Episodes from the Life of One Family,” but he himself rejected it.
Check out what else we have:
for the most impatient -
A very brief summary of “Lord Golovlevs”
