Nekrasov, "Dead Lake": a summary

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is familiar to readers from the poetic poem "Who should live well in Russia." But not only poems and poems are his literary merit. Nekrasov's "Dead Lake" is a deep and vivid prose of the 19th century.

About the writer

Nikolai Alekseevich is the son of a landowner in the Yaroslavl province. Born in the village of Greshnevo, where he spent his childhood. He was a fragile and sickly boy, he grew up too impressionable.

I was fond of literature, the first works appeared in childhood. Seriously took up this business, being a young man. He was in love with Avdotya Panaeva, co-author of the novel Dead Lake. As a married woman and the mistress of a literary salon, she rejected the advances of a young writer.

How did the novel start?

Nekrasov created his "Dead Lake", according to one version, based on childhood impressions. Such a lake existed in reality, its location is still being debated. Some argue that we are talking about Lake Ivanovo, located ina few kilometers from the former estate of the Nekrasovs in Greshnevo. And the latter are sure that Kuleomajärvi, located near Vyborg, became the prototype of the dead lake. It is with him that the greatest number of terrible legends are associated.

A summary of the "Dead Lake" (Nekrasov N. A.) can be found below.

Briefly about the main things

The novel is easy to read, but it exudes some kind of hidden sadness. The description of the lake is quite creepy, people with a developed imagination are able to imagine it in all colors.

There are a lot of main characters, you can get confused in them. And women-heroines seem boring, monotonous. However, as you immerse yourself in the book, you begin to realize that this is a misconception.

The main characters are the actress Lyubskaya, the daughter of a gypsy Lyuba, Count Tavrovsky and retired ensign Pokizovkin. People of completely different classes, with individual views on life and their own history. The author opens the worldview of each of them, draws parallels, giving the reader the opportunity to compare the characters with each other.

Main characters in brief

Actress Lyubskaya is a young, lonely and very beautiful person. It’s so hard in life, too much male attention is paid to the beauty, and it’s simply unbearable to resist him. And the moral fall of Lyubskaya takes place, the type of activity of which cannot but affect the way of life. It is no coincidence that in Nekrasov's novel "Dead Lake", the content of which is summarized here, the girl isactress. In the old days, this kind of activity was considered extremely low, although it required a certain appearance and education.

Count Tavrovsky is another image of a depraved person. His title, appearance and character allow him to behave extremely badly. Although the Count is a kind man, his lusts prevail over his nobility.

Ensign Pokizovkin is another matter. This is a principled and honest person, a kind of voice of the people. He is an excellent friend, devoted to his family, has his own inner core and strives for certain ideals. A soldier is a hard worker who never learned to trade his own conscience.

Lyuba is the daughter of a gypsy, just the ideal of femininity, tenderness and innocence. She grew up on the shores of the Dead Lake, the moral purity of the girl can be envied by we althy young ladies. Having no money, Lyuba has a high morality, which cannot be bought. But this purity destroys the young lady, the meeting with Count Tavrovsky does not bode well for her. Lyuba falls in love with a handsome joker, but he is too deceitful and conceited. The count's perfidy prompts a young gypsy to commit suicide.

Description of the lake

With the content of "Dead Lake" by Nekrasov, we have read above. More precisely, we talked about the main characters of the novel. But what is remarkable, and the secondary characters are distinguished by certain, very vividly described characters. Almost all the characters are parentless, brought up by relatives or strangers out of mercy. This makes the novel even more tragic than a series of suicides,described in it.

What is Dead Lake? An eerie and alluring sight: just imagine a living fence of hills from all sides. Tall trees lean over its quiet surface, casting terrible shadows on the surface of the water. When the wind gets too strong, the tops of the trees only sway a little, making long-drawn-out creaks. The wind prefers to bypass this lake, howling loudly behind the hills. High reeds also protect the water surface, occasionally you can hear how the frogs hiding in its depths start their sad songs. A gloomy spruce forest lurks on the shore, it pulls its paws to the lake, as if trying to protect it from sunlight. And this whole picture brings despondency and horror to the uninvited guest of the lake. Is it possible to approach him? It is possible, but the metallic surface of the water does not seem alluring, on the contrary, its grayness creates a repulsive impression.

Suicides

In Nekrasov's novel Dead Lake, the characters drown in calm water. And they take this step on their own, as was the case with the gypsy girl Lyuba. She threw herself into the waters of the lake, unable to survive the duplicity of Count Taurovsky.

Here, the adult gypsy, Lyuba's mother, finds her final resting place. There is an episode in the novel that tells about the search for her body - very sad and rather frightening in its hopelessness. In insane despair, the landowner Kuratov swam across the lake, calling out to the gypsy, shouting her name. Probably mad, he believed that the woman would hear him at the bottom of the lake and float up to meet him. Peasants gathered here, they heldtorches, and bonfires sparkled on the shore to warm the people who were looking for the body. And against the backdrop of twilight, it looked majestic, but very creepy.

Decoupling

Dead Lake (N. Nekrasov wrote it at the end of the 19th century) ends pretty well. At least in comparison with the horrors and despair that the unfortunate suicides and those who were associated with them had to endure. The younger generation of nobles simply dried up the gloomy waters, and the forest was ennobled, turning it into a wonderful park. Stripped of its frightening majesty, the lake soon faded from human memory.

Scary fact

It is believed that the book "Dead Lake" by Nekrasov is based on real events. At least the episode with the search for the body of a gypsy is a kind of "hello" from the writer's childhood.

One day he went hunting with his father, a schoolboy and two yard boys. They walked, talking merrily, and did not notice how the high school student Fyodor Uspensky lagged behind the Nekrasovs. Moreover, at some two hundred meters, as it turns out later. Nikolai's father, Alexei Sergeevich, heard a single shot, turned around sharply and saw Fyodor walking around in the shallow water of the lake. The Nekrasovs immediately went back, hoping to reason with the schoolboy, but did not have time to get to him. As Nikolai himself later said, Fedor screamed loudly, and running to the cry, the Nekrasovs saw him drowning in the lake. Aleksey Sergeevich rushed after the boy, and this, taking into account his inability to swim. Having reached it, he began to pull it out, but it was no longer possible to help the high school student.seemed possible. The landowner felt that he himself was sinking, he had to get out of the lake. With great difficulty, the landowner was able to do this.

Peasants were thrown in search of the body of the schoolboy, but their mission was not crowned with success. Although people dived into the dark waters until late at night, the corpse surfaced only after four days. Fyodor Uspensky was buried at home, and Nikolai Alekseevich never remembered this terrible episode of his life, until a certain moment.

There are a lot of obscure things in the circumstances of the death of the high school student, which we will never know about now. There was a version that he shot a duck on the lake and swam for his prey. There was a shot, but are they swimming in clothes and with a hunting bag?

According to the second hypothesis, Uspensky fell into one of the pools, they were located close enough to the shore. He began to panic, could not cope with his own fear and died.

Nekrasov's novel "Dead Lake", a brief description of which can be read above, includes this frightening episode.

Conclusion

We examined the material about one of the unpopular works of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. Despite this, the novel is quite recommended for reading by lovers of Russian literature.