Before the exam, recalling all the studied literary works from the school curriculum is not easy. There are a lot of works; you won’t be able to quickly go through them. What should a schoolchild do if there is an exam on his nose and there is no time left to re-read everything? Read chapter summaries. Narratives in volume are small, but at the same time reflect all the main events from the book, clearly demonstrating its plot.
I chapter
The main character Ivan came for six months to the village of Perebrod. He hoped to hear many folk tales and legends here, and thought that looking at people of simple morals would be useful to him as a writer. However, the resident brokers were taciturn, and could not communicate with visitors on an equal footing. Ivan reread all the books he had, and boredom undertook to treat the local peasants. However, he was not a doctor, and the surrounding residents always told him the same symptoms and could not explain in detail what they had in pain. As a result, the main character has only one lesson left - hunting.
But in January the weather turned bad and it became impossible to hunt. Every day a terrible wind howled, and Ivan was very bored, sitting in four walls. Here, the woodman Yarmol, who served with him for a salary, expressed a desire to learn to read and write. The main character eagerly undertook to train the servant, but Yarmola absolutely did not understand anything. In two months, he had difficulty learning only to write his last name.
II chapter
With nothing to do, Ivan walked back and forth across his room. Yarmola stoked the stove. The hero rented a room in an old, leaky landlord's house, and in all the other rooms locked with a key, the wind walked. In Ivan’s imagination, the blizzard seemed like an old evil devil. To dispel the longing, he asked the servant where the wind had come from. Yarmola replied that his witch was sending. Deeply interested, the hero tried out a story about the witches in Polesie from the servant.
Yarmola said that a witch lived here five years ago, but she was driven out for unclean affairs. According to him, she deliberately harmed people. And when one woman refused to give her money, the sorceress threatened that she would remember this. After that, the heroine fell ill and the child died. And then the sorceress with her daughter or granddaughter was kicked out of the village. She now lives in a swamp near Bisov Kut, behind Irinovsky Shlyakh, her name is Manuilikh.
Inspired by the story, the protagonist decided to definitely go there and get acquainted with the witch as soon as the weather improves. Yarmola did not like this venture, and he refused to help Ivan.
Chapter III
With the improvement of the weather, Ivan and Yarmola went into the forest to hunt for a hare. But Ivan got lost and went to a deep swamp. And through it - to the old crooked house, which seemed to him a hut on chicken legs. An old woman appeared in the house, who, sitting by the stove, was collecting fur from chicken feathers in a basket. Looking closely, Ivan realized that the old woman resembles Babu Yaga - a long nose, almost touching the chin, sunken eyes. And then it dawned on him that this was Manuilikha - the witch Yarmola was talking about.
She met the guest extremely unfriendly. There was no milk in the house, and the guest drank water. To soften the old woman a little, Ivan showed her a silver quarter and asked her to tell fortunes. Manuilikh said she hadn’t guessed for a long time, but for the sake of money she laid out cards on Ivan. Before she could tell the prediction to the end, a ringing female voice was heard near the house, singing an old song. A young laughing girl entered the house, holding finches on the apron. Seeing the guest, she blushed and fell silent. Ivan asked her to show the way. Having put finches on the stove next to the starlings, she went out to visit the guest. While she was explaining how to go to Irinovsky Way, Ivan admired her beauty and self-confidence.
The heroine admitted that bosses come to them with her grandmother, accuse her grandmother of witchcraft and take money. And it would be better if no one came at all. Ivan asked if he could wander towards them sometimes. She replied that let him come if he is a good man, but better without a gun - there is no need to kill innocent creatures. When the girl was already running to the house, Ivan asked her name. She said that her name is Alena, and in the local one - Olesya.
Chapter IV
Spring came in Polesie. Every day, admiring the spring nature, and indulging in poetic sadness, Ivan remembered Oles - her young and slender body, a ringing voice with velvet notes, the proud confidence that passed through her words, about her innate nobility.
As soon as the paths dried out, he went to the hut in the forest, taking tea and sugar with him to appease Manuilikh. Olesya spun linen, sitting on a high bench. When she turned, the thread broke, and the spindle rolled on the floor. The old woman met Ivan unfriendly, but the granddaughter graciously received the guest. She said that a bad prediction came to Ivan when she wondered at him that his fate would be unhappy. And also, that soon through it will be bad for a lady with dark hair who will love him. The hero did not really believe her. And then the girl talked about how much without a card can learn a lot about a person. For example, if someone is destined to die a bad death in the near future, she will know it by his face.
Chapter v
Manuilikha set the table and called Olesya for dinner. After a little pause, she called for a guest. After dinner, the granddaughter volunteered to accompany the young man. Along the way, at the request of a man, she showed him a couple of "tricks." First she cut his hand with a Finnish knife, and the place of the cut began to speak, so that after that there was only a scratch. Then she made sure that Ivan, going forward, stumbled and fell out of the blue. Although the nobleman did not believe in witchcraft, fear of the supernatural was awakened in him.
Ivan asked how is it possible that Olesya, unable to even read, living in the woods, speaks like a young lady? The girl said that this is from her grandmother, that she is very smart and knows everything about everything. But she did not want to tell the details of where her grandmother came from. In parting, the young man told her his name, and Olesya shook his hand.
Chapter VI
Ivan began to visit the hut often. Manuilikha did not like this, but she was cajoled by the gifts brought by the guest — either a handkerchief or a jar of jam, and Olesya stood up for him. Each time she escorted him to Irinovsky’s hat, and then the man himself escorted the girl back. She was interested in everything that the interlocutor knows - cities, people, the structure of the earth and sky. Her stories fascinated her, for her it seemed fabulous and incredible.
Once, having heard about Petersburg, the girl said that she would never live in the city. Ivan asked, what if her husband was from there? Olesya replied that she would not have a spouse, and that she would not marry - she should not be in church. The girl so strongly and deeply believed in fate, in a kind of curse that she rejected all the arguments and explanations of Ivan. And each time, touching on this topic, they argued, and this argument caused mutual irritation. But, despite the disagreement on this issue, they became increasingly attached to each other.
Yarmola began to avoid Ivan. He no longer wanted to learn to read and write. And when the hero raised the topic of hunting, the servant always found an excuse. The owner already wanted to fire him, but restrained his pity for the large impoverished Yarmola family.
Chapter VII
Ivan again came to Olesa, and found the inhabitants of the hut in a dejected mood. Grandmother, sitting on the bed, held her head in her hands and swayed back and forth. And the granddaughter tried to seem calm, but could not keep up the conversation. Ivan asked Olesya what happened to them, but she just waved it off, said that he could not help. But Manuilikha was angry with her granddaughter for her stubborn pride, and told Ivan everything as it is.
It turned out that a police officer came to them and demanded to leave the house within twenty-four hours. Manuilikha begged this dwelling from the old landowner when she and her granddaughter were kicked out of the village. But now a new owner took possession of the land, and he wanted to drain the swamps. Having listened to the old woman, Ivan made an indefinite promise to pat about it.
Chapter VIII
While the hero was drawing a draft of a forest cottage on the veranda, the officer arrived. Ivan persuaded him to go into the house, luring him with a drink. After several glasses, he expressed a request not to touch Manuilikh and her granddaughter. Evpikhiy Afrikanovich did not want to go to meet him for thanks. Helping the "witches", he could lose his job.
After a short argument, the officer stopped looking at Ivan's gun hanging on the wall and began to praise him. The hero understood the hint, and presented the gun to Eupsychius as a gift. Then, already leaving, the officer asked for a fresh radish, with which they had a bite. The young man promised to send a basket of radishes and whipped butter. As a result, Evpikhiy Afrikanovich pledged not to touch the old woman and her granddaughter yet, but warned that they would not get off with gratitude alone.
IX chapter
The officer kept his promise, and for some time left the women alone. However, Ivan’s relationship with Olesya deteriorated. The girl no longer sought to communicate with him, did not accompany him, and avoided those to which they had lively conversations. Every day a man came into the forest hut, and sat on a low shaky bench next to her, watching her work. He did not understand why the girl suddenly began to behave coldly, but, wherever he was, he constantly thought about her.
Once, after he spent the whole day in a hut and went home late in the evening, he fell ill with a fever. He was shivering along the way, he was staggering, and did not understand how he ended up at home. At night, Ivan raved, he dreamed of strange and unthinkable nightmares. In the afternoon, consciousness returned to him, but he was very weak, and the disease prevented him from conducting normal everyday affairs. Six days later, the man managed to recover. His appetite returned, his body grew stronger, and he was again pulled into a forest hut.
X chapter
Five days after recovery, Ivan came to Olesya. The girl was delighted with him. It turned out she was bored too. After talking about his illness, and about the doctor who came to him, they, as before, went together into the forest. The heroine admitted that she was afraid of fate, because the lady with the dark hair with whom the trouble should happen is herself. Therefore, she did not want to meet with Ivan. Then, when he got sick and didn’t come for a long time, she missed him so much that she decided: whatever happens, but she won’t refuse happiness.
They confessed their love to each other, and together spent a magical night in a silent pine forest. Despite the fact that at first Ivan did not believe the bad omens that Olesya was afraid of, at the end of the meeting he was also swept by a vague foreboding of trouble.
Xi chapter
Ivan and Olesya met every night in the forest, because Manuilikh was against their connection. The hero realized that he no longer wanted to live without Olesya, and seriously thought about getting married. One of the June evenings, he admitted that his affairs in Perebrod were over, and he was leaving soon. The girl was hurt by these words, but she took them humbly. The nobleman immediately offered to go to his grandmother and say that she would be his wife. But his chosen one opposed, citing either a lack of education or a reluctance to leave her grandmother alone. The man put her before a choice: either he or a relative. Olesya asked to give her two days to ponder, and to talk with her grandmother. But then Ivan realized that she was again afraid of the church. And he was right. But the beloved did not listen to him.
Late at night, when they had already said goodbye and moved away from each other, Olesya called out to Ivan, and ran to him with eyes full of tears. She asked if he would be glad if she did go to church. The hero said that a man may not believe, laugh, but a woman must certainly be devout. When she disappeared from sight, Ivana suddenly became seized with an alarming foreboding, he wanted to run after her and beg not to go there. However, the young man decided that this was superstitious fear, and did not obey his inner feeling.
Xii chapter
The next day, Ivan went on his horse, nicknamed Taranchik, to a nearby town on official business. The morning was stuffy, windless. Driving through the whole Perebrod, he noticed that from the church to the tavern the whole square was filled with carts. It was the feast of the Holy Trinity, and in Perebrod gathered peasants from the surrounding villages.
Having finished business and returning back, Ivan lingered on the road for an hour and a half to change the horseshoe. Between four and five in the afternoon he arrived at Perebrod. At the tavern and in the square drunken people crowded, children were running under the horses. At the fence, a trembling tenor sang a blind lyre, surrounded by a crowd. Making his way between people, Ivan noticed their hostile, unceremonious looks. Someone from the crowd shouted slurred words in a drunken voice, and a restrained laughter was heard. Some woman tried to reason with a drunken man, but he only got stronger. He stated that Ivan was not his boss, adding: "He is only in his forest ...". The nobleman seized rage. He grabbed a whip. But then a thought flashed through him that it was exactly what had happened to him once before. Lowering the whip, he galloped home.
Yarmola said that a clerk from a neighboring estate was waiting in the house. Clerk Nikita Nazarych Mishchenka, in a red-and-gray-gray jacket and red tie, at the sight of Ivan jumped to his feet and bowed. Laughing, Nikita Nazarych said that today the local "marvels" caught the witch and wanted to smear them with tar. The hero grabbed the clerk by the shoulders and demanded to tell everything. From his words, little could be understood, and Ivan restored all the events of that day only two months later, questioning another eyewitness to the incident. It turned out that Olesya came to church during the mass. And, although she remained in the hallway, everyone noticed her and sent hostile glances at her. After the Mass, women surrounded her from all sides, scoffed and cursed. The crowd was getting bigger and bigger. Olesya tried to slip out of the circle, but she was pushed towards the middle. Then one old woman shouted that she should be smeared with tar. The tar and brush were immediately in the hands of women, and they passed them to each other. Out of despair, the girl threw herself at one of the torturers, and she fell. Following the first, the others fell, a tumbling ball formed on the ground. Olesa managed to slip out and escape. Running back fifty steps, she turned and screamed the words of the threat. Ivan did not listen to Mishenka, and, riding the Taranchik, rode into the forest.
Xiii chapter
When Ivan went into the hut, Olesya was lying on the bed facing the wall. Manuilikh sat next to her. Seeing the man, the old woman stood up and accused him that it was he who had forced the granddaughter to go to church. Then, laying her elbows on the table and clasping her head in her hands, she began to sway and cry. Ten minutes later, the girl gave a voice. She did not want Ivan to see her face, but the hero gently turned her towards him. Olesya was all bruised.
Olesya said that soon they and her grandmother would have to leave these places, because now, no matter what happens, everyone will be blamed on them. Ivan tried to convince her that they could live together happily, but the girl was adamant. She said that only grief awaits them, and therefore they must part, and that she regrets only one thing - that she has no child from Ivan.
When the man went out onto the porch, accompanied by an old woman, half of the sky was covered by a black cloud.
XIV chapter
On the same day there was a terrible thunderstorm in Perebrod. The thunder and lightning did not subside, a hail the size of a walnut rained down from the sky and bounced off the ground. In the old house rented by Ivan, the city knocked out a kitchen window. In the evening, the man lay down with clothes, thinking that he would not fall asleep that night. But he seemed to close his eyes for a moment, and open them, he discovered that it was already sunny morning. Yarmola stood next to the bed, and said that it was time for the hero to leave here.It turned out that the hail caused a lot of destruction, and people think that this witch sent a thunderstorm. And evil words also speak of her lover.
Hastily jumping to the forest house, Ivan found it empty, with open doors and shutters. Remained only a bare wooden bed, but rags and rubbish. Red beads were hung on the window frame - a memory of Ivan about Olesya's pure, tender love.
