Summary. Leskov "Lefty" - a story about a talent lost by a country that does not protect its true we alth

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

Among the galaxy of the most famous Russian writers, he differs, perhaps, by the greatest adherence to the Russian national tradition. The writer's inner conviction that everything beautiful and exciting must be sought and found in his native land is clearly confirmed in his written works. His heroes are invariably "little greats". The characters are simple, but necessarily bright: eccentrics and righteous people, rebels and wanderers. The writer cannot, in modern parlance, be "calculated" as a narrator, to understand his innermost, personal attitude to what is being stated. He is both mocking and admiring, ironic and simple, sublime and consistent. Such is the writer from God - Nikolai Semenovich Leskov. Summary of the story "Lefty"(however, literary critics call creation a story) when reading, it convinces: the work is both an artistic and reliable retelling of real events.

The story was created by the writer on the basis of a story turned into a legend by folk storytellers. Here is a summary. Leskov's "Lefty" begins with the acquisition of a technical miracle by Emperor Alexander I in the English cabinet of curiosities - a miniature dancing flea. They marveled at the technical miracle and forgot about it. But the next tsar, Nicholas I, who ascended the throne after the sudden death of his father, which happened near Taganrog, draws attention to him. The sovereign sends the Cossack Platov to the Tula masters, urging them on behalf of the tsar to create the impossible - to surpass the art of foreigners. Three masters, having prayed before the icon of St. Nicholas and taking a flea from Platov, lock themselves in the house of the oblique Lefty and - here it is, a real miracle.

Let's continue to retell the summary. Leskov's "Lefty" is a work that gradually "narrows" the narrative to a description of the steps along the "English land" of a single character - a unique self-taught from the people. The master from Tula deserved this "voyage", because he managed to mobilize all his skills and "go all out" in his work. This is very artistically shown by the writer. Platov, having accepted the flea from Lefty's hands, at first notices only that the mechanism is not working. In anger, he "beats" the commoner. However, on the advice of the latter, using the "melkoscope", he notices the horseshoes on the legs of a steel insect. And when the masterreports that each horseshoe is marked with his brand and fastened with nails made by Levsha himself, then Platov understands that the task set by the king has been completed with brilliance. From this moment on, the story becomes more documentary.

What idea becomes obvious if you state not even the whole work, but only its summary? Leskov "Lefty" is a story imbued with the writer's pain through "between the lines" that a person, whatever he may be, has never been a value for our Motherland. Nikolai Semyonovich tells us about this with bitterness, with laughter and with tears, in the language in which Levsha's contemporaries would have retold this story. (Leskov called his creative style based on facts “assembling a mosaic.”) Is this idea of the story relevant today for the Russian land? You will understand this if you try to answer honestly for yourself the question of whether it is easy for our craftsman, who does not speculate, does not resell, but works in good conscience, to be successful and prosperous.

Let's get back to "Lefty". The masters are dressed and sent with a delegation by ship to England. What is the demeanor of this, in essence, a commoner, forced to perform a representative "sovereign" function? What does not hide even a brief summary? Leskov "Lefty" is a patriotic creation about the dignity with which the hero behaves, never losing his composure. On the one hand, Western craftsmen are put to shame - the level of the Russian master is an order of magnitude higher than their own. But on the other hand, here hesuccess and recognition accompany, the British appreciate the masters, they promise him assistance if he decides to marry and settle in Foggy Albion. The left-hander is shown industrial manufactories in an attempt to impress him. But in Russian he does not bow his head to foreign curiosities. However, the guest's inquisitive eye catches useful organizational and technical innovations.

The homesickness wins, the masters are sent to St. Petersburg, he is accompanied by a British skipper. On the way, the men argue on a bet "who will outdrink whom." Already in the city on the Neva, inadvertently removing the insensible Lefty from the ship (apparently, he is simply thrown off like a sack), his head is mortally smashed, then sent to a common people's medical home for the dying. When the sober skipper found his Russian friend near death in the morning, he hurried for help.

What will we see as we continue to study the summary? Leskov "Lefty" is a story that reliably indicates the names of historical figures who are indifferent to ordinary people who bring glory to Russia. They are not interested in “some guy”: the excited Englishman first hurries for help to Count Kleinmichel, then to Platov, then to Commandant Skobelev, but everywhere he encounters arrogant indifference. The last one sends a doctor for formality, but he is already useless - Lefty leaves.

The last words of the master are addressed to the sovereign. His advice is quite sound: according to the English experience, he recommends that the Russian military stop damaging guns by cleaning their barrels with bricks. (How relevant this is on the eve of the Crimeancompany!) It's sad. Lost pearl. A simple man from the people did a great service to his native land. He became a legend, raised the prestige of Russia (which was beyond the power of either counts or princes), benefited everyone except himself. They treated him like a consumer. As always: they didn’t save, didn’t support, like Vysotsky, like Bashlachev…

On the example of the novel "Lefty", we once again see: the writer, a master of works of small forms, demonstrates no less than the authors of epic novels, multi-layered, non-linear dynamics of the plot. His speech is always lively, popular. The writer reverently treats the word, he believes that if you cannot serve Truth and Goodness with your pen, literature is not for you.

The main thing that captivates Nikolai Semenovich is that he firmly believes in the future renewal of the country, as well as in the fact that the true Russian character will be the key to it.