Introducing A. Kuprin's story (summary): "The Wonderful Doctor"

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

"This story actually happened," the author claims from the first lines of his story. Let's give a brief summary of it. "The Miraculous Doctor" is distinguished by its capacious meaning and vivid language. The documentary basis gives the story a special intriguing flavor. The final reveals the mystery.

Summary of the story "The Miraculous Doctor". Hungry kids

In front of a showcase with a gastronomic abundance, two little boys stopped and, swallowing saliva, they are animatedly discussing what they saw. They are amused by the sight of a ruddy roast pig with a sprig of greens in its mouth. The author gives the story of the "still life" behind glass in a highly aesthetic and appetizing way. Here are "garlands of sausages" and "pyramids of pale golden tangerines." And the hungry kids cast “love-greedy” looks at them. Kyiv, preparing for the Christmas holidays, looks too contrasting in comparison with the pitiful thin figures of beggar children.

Fatal Year

Grisha and Volodya went on errandsmother with a letter of help. Yes, only the doorman of an influential addressee drove away the little ragamuffins with abuse. And so they returned to their home - a basement with "walls weeping from dampness." The description of the Mertsalov family causes acute compassion. A seven-year-old sister is lying in a fever, next to her in a cradle, a hungry baby is torn from screaming. An emaciated woman “with a face blackened with grief” gives the boys the remnants of cold stew, which there is nothing to warm up. The father appears with his hands “swollen” from frost. We learn that in that fateful year he fell ill with typhus and lost his position as manager, which brought a modest income. One after another, misfortunes rained down: the children began to get sick, all the savings were gone, the daughter died, now another was seriously ill. No one gave alms, and there was no one to ask. Here is a description of the misfortunes, their summary.

Wonderful doctor

Despair seizes Mertsalov, he leaves home, wanders around the city, hoping for nothing. Tired, he sits down on a bench in the city garden and feels the urge to commit suicide. At that moment, a stranger appears in the alley. He sits down next to him and starts a friendly conversation. When the old man mentions the gifts bought for the children he knows, Mertsalov breaks down and begins to shout hotly and angrily that his children are "dying of hunger." The old man listens attentively to the confused story and offers to help: it turns out that he is a doctor. Mertsalov leads him to him. The doctor examines a sick girl, writes out a prescription, gives money to buyfirewood, medicine and food. On the same evening, Mertsalov recognizes the name of his benefactor by the label on the bottle of medicine - this is Professor Pirogov, an outstanding Russian physician. Since then, it was like an “angel descended” on the family, and her affairs went uphill. So says Kuprin. The wonderful doctor (let's summarize this conclusion to the end) acted very humanely, and this changed not only the circumstances, but also the worldview of the heroes of the story. The boys grew up, one of them took a big post in the bank and was always especially sensitive to the needs of the poor.