Summary of "Childhood" (the story of Leo Tolstoy)

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

Remember the compulsory program in Russian literature! Leo Tolstoy "Childhood" (summary). The author wrote this work in 1852. This is the first story of three available about the life of Nikolai Irteniev. The hero tells in the first person about the early period of his life, nostalgically regretting the irretrievable freshness of childhood feelings, carelessness, love and faith.

Summary of "Childhood" (chapters 1-6)

In the morning, a few days after his decade, Nikolenka Irteniev was woken up by a teacher (or rather, by the cotton of his fly swatter). The boy was offended that it was he who was awakened, small and defenseless, and not his older brother Volodya. From anger and self-pity, he burst into tears, explaining the tears with a terrible dream. But after the teacher, tickling and laughing good-naturedly, began to lift Nikolenka out of bed, Karl Ivanovich was forgiven and called "cute".

Every morning, the mentor went down to the living room with the boys to wish their mother wellam.

Resurrecting mother in her imagination, Nikolenka never managed to recreate her whole appearance. Most often I remembered the birthmark on the neck, the embroidered collar, the look of always kind brown eyes and dry, tender hands. She inquired in German from Karl Ivanovich about how the children slept, whether Nikolenka was crying.

Often they caught my father doing the calculations. He gave financial orders to the serf clerk Yakov. He was stingy, like any good and devoted servant, but he had rather strange ideas about the benefits of the master, taking care of increasing his income at the expense of the lady (namely, her Khabarovsk estate).

After saying hello to his sons, dad said that since they were already grown up, it was time to get serious about their studies. To do this, he takes them to Moscow to his grandmother's house, and maman and his sisters will remain in Petrovsky. The brothers were shocked by this news. Nikolenka felt sorry for her mother and the old teacher, who, no doubt, would be denied a home. Feeling emotional, he began to cry.

Summary of "Childhood" (chapters 7-12)

Daddy took the boys hunting with him, and the girls asked too. Maman rode with them in a carriage. After that there was tea, fruit, ice cream and, of course, children's outdoor games.

Later, at home, everyone went about their business. Mother played the piano, the serfs came to the father with a report. Volodya, Nikolenka and the girls decided to take a closer look at the chains of the holy fool who was sheltered by mother.

Nikolenka remembered for the rest of his life the sincere, powerful prayer of the presentChristian - holy fool Grisha, whom they became unwitting witnesses. He prayed with love for all those who gave him shelter. When words were not enough, he fell to the ground in sincere, flowing tears.

Summary of "Childhood" (Chapter 13)

Red-cheeked, cheerful and fat Natasha was taken into the house by a young girl as a female servant for her grandmother. As a maid, Natalya was distinguished by diligence and meekness. After the mother was born, and the maid became a nanny, and here she also deserved awards and praise for the affection and loy alty she gave to the young lady (Natalia's family did not work out).

When she got married, maman tried to thank Natalya Savishna, as she was now called, for her service. She was granted a free and lifelong pension of three hundred rubles. But faithful to her, Ours tore the document with the official seal and remained to serve as a housekeeper, supervising the household and giving love and care to the now third generation of her masters.

Summary of "Childhood" (chapters 14-28)

The boys lived in Moscow, in their grandmother's house, for more than six months. The children studied, danced at balls, met their Moscow relatives: Princess Kornakova, Prince Ivan Ivanovich, the Ivin brothers, and even managed to fall in love with Sonechka Valakhina.

Having received an alarming letter from his wife, the father again took them to Petrovskoe. Unfortunately, the children found the mother already unconscious. Nikolenka took the death and funeral of his maman very hard. The pious conversations and sincere tears of Natalya Savishna eased his suffering a little,who loved the deceased selflessly.

Grandma found out about her daughter's death only after the return of the Irtenevs to Moscow. Her sadness and grief were touching and strong, but for some reason Nikolenka sympathized and empathized more with Natalya Savishna, because he was convinced that no one so purely and sincerely regretted his mother as this loving and devoted creature.

With the death of maman, Nikolenka's childhood ended. The time of adolescence has begun.

Summary of Tolstoy's "Childhood" only reveals a huge world created by the author. An inquisitive reader, turning to the full text of the story, will learn much more interesting things about the life of a landowner's estate, about the noble system of raising and educating children in the nineteenth century.