What is Gogol's work about? The Enchanted Place. A brief retelling of an enchanted place. Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol

"Enchanted Place"

This true story dates back to the time when the narrator was still a child. The father and one of his sons went to the Crimea to sell tobacco, leaving his wife at home, three more sons and his grandfather to guard the chestnut - a profitable business, there were a lot of travelers, and best of all - Chumaks who told outlandish stories. One evening, several carts of Chumaks arrive, all old acquaintances of their grandfather. We kissed, lit a cigarette, started talking, and then there was a treat. The grandfather demanded that the grandchildren dance and amuse the guests, but he did not endure it for long, he went himself. The grandfather danced gloriously, making such pretzels that it was a wonder, until he reached one place near a bed with cucumbers. This is where his legs became. Tried again - same thing. He scolded and started again - to no avail. Someone laughed from behind. The grandfather looked around, but did not recognize the place: both the bashtan and the Chumaks - everything was gone, there was only one smooth field around. Still, I understood where he was, behind the priest’s garden, behind the volost clerk’s threshing floor. “This is where the evil spirits dragged me!” I started to get out, it wasn’t a month, I found a path in the dark. A light flashed on a grave nearby, and another a little further away. "Treasure!" - the grandfather decided and heaped a large branch for a sign, since he did not have a spade with him. He returned late to the bashtan, there were no Chumaks, the children were sleeping.

The next evening, grabbing a spade and shovel, he headed to the priest’s garden. So, according to all the signs, he went out into the field to his former place: the dovecote sticks out, but the threshing floor is not visible. I went closer to the threshing floor - the dovecote disappeared. And then it started to rain, and the grandfather, unable to find a place, ran back cursing. The next evening he went with a spade to dig a new bed, and, passing the damned place where he could not dance, he struck with a spade in his heart, and ended up in that very field. He recognized everything: the threshing floor, the dovecote, and the grave with a piled up branch. There was a stone on the grave. Having dug around, the grandfather rolled him away and was about to sniff the tobacco, when someone sneezed over his head. I looked around - there was no one. The grandfather began to dig and found the boiler. “Ah, my dear, that’s where you are!” - exclaimed the grandfather. The bird's nose said the same thing, and the ram's head from the top of the tree, and the bear. “It’s scary to say a word here,” muttered the grandfather, and after him the bird’s nose, and the ram’s head, and the bear. Grandfather wants to run - there is a bottomless steep slope under his feet, a mountain looms over his head. Grandfather threw the boiler, and everything became the same. Deciding that evil spirits were only frightening, he grabbed the cauldron and started running.

At this time, both the children and the mother who came were wondering where the grandfather had gone. After dinner, the mother went to pour out the hot slop, and a barrel was crawling towards her: apparently, one of the children, naughty, was pushing her from behind. Her mother threw slop at her. It turned out that it was my grandfather. They opened my grandfather’s cauldron, and in it there was rubbish, squabbles and “I’m ashamed to say what it is.” From that time on, the grandfather swore to believe the devil, blocked the damned place with a fence, and when the neighboring Cossacks hired a field for a tower, something always sprang up in the enchanted place, “the devil knows what!”

One day, a farmer and his son went to the Crimea to sell tobacco, leaving his wife and three sons at home, and his old grandfather to guard the tower. There were a lot of travelers in the whole house near the bashtan, and some of them were Chumaks. Chumaks are masters of telling funny stories.

It was already getting dark in the yard, and at the gate there were carts with Chumaks, all of them familiar to grandfather. We met, smoked, and then went for some treats. The guests were having fun. The grandfather demanded that his grandchildren go dance and amuse the guests, but he could not resist and followed them himself. Having reached the place where the beds with cucumbers grow, he stopped. My legs don't move and that's it. Suddenly someone laughed from behind, the grandfather turned around, but the place was not right. The bashtan disappeared, and instead of the bashtan and Chumaks there was one smooth field. It dawned on him that he was behind the priest’s garden. I started to get out, and then there were graves and lights flashed. The grandfather decided that it was a treasure and threw a large branch over the place. He returned late, the children were sleeping, but there were no Chumaks.

The next morning he took a shovel and went to the priest's garden. While following the signs and entering the field, the threshing floor was not visible, but only the dovecote was visible. I reached the dovecote, and the threshing floor disappeared. And then it began to rain, and the grandfather turned back home, not finding that place. In the evening he got ready to dig a bed where he could not dance. Suddenly he struck with a shovel and instantly found himself in that field, recognizing both the dovecote and the grave with a piled up branch. And on it lies a stone. Grandfather wanted to move the stone away and take a break, take a sniff of tobacco. Someone sneezed overhead. He began to dig, saw the cauldron, was surprised and said: “Oh, there you are!”

These words were followed by a bird on a branch, a ram's head from a treetop, and a bear. The grandfather was very scared and wanted to run, but suddenly a mountain loomed over his head, and he was afraid to step, because the bottom was invisible under his feet. Grandfather grabbed the cauldron and ran. It was already evening, everyone had had dinner, and the mother saw a barrel rolling towards her. It was the grandfather who was rolling the barrel towards the house. When they opened the cauldron, they saw dirt and debris in it, and the grandfather blocked off this place. The grandfather later believed in the enchanted place.

The story “The Enchanted Place” ( fourth), the second part of “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” ends. It was first published in 1832 in the second book of Evenings. The lack of a manuscript makes it impossible to determine the exact dating of the writing of the story. It is assumed that it refers to the early works of N.V. Gogol and dates back to the period 1829 - 1830.

The storyline intertwines two main motives: the search for treasure and the outrages committed by devils in enchanted places. The story itself originates in folklore stories, in which the main leitmotif is the idea that wealth obtained from evil spirits does not bring happiness. In some ways it has something in common with “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala.” The author denounces the thirst for enrichment, the irrepressible passion for money, which clearly leads to catastrophic consequences, and turns acquired money into trash. The story is based on folk beliefs and legends about enchanted “deceptive places.”

Analysis of the work

The plot of the work

Based on folklore, with which Nikolai Vasilyevich was very familiar from childhood. Legends and beliefs about “enchanted places” and treasures exist among most peoples of the world. The Slavs had a belief that treasures could be found in cemeteries. A candle flared above the grave with the treasure. It is a traditional and popular belief that ill-gotten wealth turns into trash.

The story is rich in rich, bright, original Ukrainian folk language, which is sprinkled with Ukrainian words: “bashtan”, “kuren”, “chumaki”. Folk life is depicted as accurately as possible, Gogol's humor creates a unique atmosphere. The story is structured in such a way that you get a feeling of personal presence, as if you yourself are among the sexton’s listeners. This is achieved through the narrator's precise comments.

The plot is based on the story of the deacon of the local church, Foma Grigorievich, familiar to many readers from the story “The Missing Letter,” about an incident in the life of his grandfather. His story, vivid and memorable, is full of humor. It was no coincidence that the author gave the story the title “Enchanted Place.” It intertwines two worlds: reality and fantasy. The real world is represented by the way of life of people, the fantasy world is represented by a grave, treasure and devilry. The sexton's memories take him back to childhood. The father and his eldest son went to sell tobacco. A mother with three children and a grandfather remained at home. One day, having gone on a spree with visiting merchants, the grandfather began to dance in the garden until he reached one place in the garden and stopped, rooted to the spot, near a bed of cucumbers. I looked around and didn’t recognize the place, but realized that it was located behind the clerk’s threshing floor. Somehow I found a path and saw a candle flare up on a nearby grave. I noticed another grave. A candle flashed on it too, followed by another.

According to folk legend, this happens where the treasure is buried. Grandfather was happy, but he had nothing with him. Having marked the place with a large branch, he went home. The next day he tried to find this place, but found nothing, only accidentally hitting the cucumber bed with a spade, he again found himself in the same place, near the grave on which the stone lay.

And then the real devilry began. Before the grandfather had time to take out the tobacco to smell it, someone sneezed behind his ear. He started digging and unearthed a pot. “Ah, my dear, that’s where you are!” And after him the same words were repeated by a bird, a ram's head from the top of a tree, and a bear. The grandfather got scared, grabbed the cauldron and ran away. At this time, his mother and children began to look for him. After dinner, the mother went out to pour out the hot slop and saw a barrel crawling towards her. Deciding that these were naughty children, the woman poured slop on her. But it turned out that it was my grandfather who was walking.

We decided to see what kind of treasure the grandfather had brought, opened the pot, and there was garbage “and it’s a shame to say what it is.” From then on, the grandfather began to believe only in Christ, and fenced off the enchanted place with a fence.

Main characters

Grandfather Maxim

The hero of the story is Grandfather Maxim. Judging by the sexton’s words, his grandfather was a cheerful and interesting person. In the author's ironic description, he is a cheerful, lively old man who loves to have fun, joke, and brag somewhere. A big fan of listening to Chumakov stories. He refers to his grandchildren only as “dog children,” but it is clear that they are all his favorites. His grandchildren respond to him with the same love.

Enchanted place

The enchanted place itself can be called the hero of the story. By modern standards, it can be called an anomalous place. Grandfather Maxim discovers this place by chance while dancing. Inside the zone, space and time change their properties, which the old man attributes to evil spirits. The anomalous zone itself also has its own character. It doesn’t show much love to strangers, but it doesn’t overtly harm, only frighteningly. There is no great harm from the presence of this place in the real world, except that nothing grows here. Moreover, it is ready to play with the old man. Sometimes it hides from him, sometimes it opens up easily. In addition, he has many means of intimidation at his disposal: the weather, the disappearing moon, talking ram heads and monsters.

The demonstration of all these miracles frightens the old man for a while and he abandons his find, but the thirst for the treasure turns out to be stronger than the fear. For this, the grandfather receives punishment. The cauldron he had obtained with such difficulty turned out to be filled with rubbish. Science served him well. The grandfather became very pious, swore to associate with evil spirits and punished all his loved ones for this.

Conclusion

With this story, Gogol shows that only wealth that is acquired honestly is useful for future use, and that wealth acquired dishonestly is illusory. Using the example of the story with his grandfather, he gives us the opportunity to believe in good and bright. The writer's contemporaries, including Belinsky and Pushkin Herzen, received the story with rave reviews. For more than 150 years, this story has made the reader smile, immersing him in the amazing Gogol world of wit, fantasy, and folk poetry, in which the very soul of the people comes to life.

"The Enchanted Place" is unique in its skillful use of folklore and folk legends. Even the evil spirit introduced into the story has nothing to do with mysticism. Folk fiction is attractive to us for its everyday simplicity, naive and spontaneous. Therefore, all Gogol’s heroes are saturated with bright colors of life, full of enthusiasm and folk humor.

“The Enchanted Place” is the fourth and final story of the second part of Gogol’s “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. It is told again by the deacon of the local church, Foma Grigorievich. The main character of the story is his grandfather, already familiar to readers from the story “The Missing Letter”.

One summer, when Foma Grigorievich was still a small child, his grandfather planted a garden with melons and watermelons along the road and sold the fruits from it to passing merchants. One day, about six carts stopped at the garden, in which old friends of my grandfather were traveling. Delighted by the meeting, the grandfather treated his old friends well, and then started dancing to celebrate. Making, despite his old age, various intricate knees, he reached one place near a bed of cucumbers - and there his grandfather’s legs suddenly became like wood and stopped serving him. Moving back, he accelerated again, but in the same place he again stood as if under a spell. Cursing Satan, the grandfather suddenly heard someone laughing behind him. He looked around and saw that he was not at all where he had stood a moment before, but on the other side of his village. And it was no longer day, but night.

At a distance, the grandfather noticed a grave. A candle suddenly flashed on it, followed by another. According to popular legend, such things happened in places where treasures were buried. The grandfather was very happy, but he had neither a spade nor a shovel with him. Noticing a place with a large branch of treasure, the grandfather returned home.

The next day he went with a spade to dig for treasure. It turned out, however, that the place he noticed did not look quite the same as the day before. The view of the surrounding area was different, and the grandfather could not find the branch he had left yesterday. Turning back, he walked through the garden to the enchanted place where he could not dance, in his anger he hit the ground with a spade - and again found himself on the same outskirts of the village where he had been the day before. Now she looked the same as then. The grandfather immediately saw the grave there and the branch left on it.

The grandfather began to dig in search of treasure and soon came across a cauldron in the ground. “Ah, my dear, that’s where you are!” - the grandfather cried, and these words of his were suddenly repeated in human voices by a bird that flew in from nowhere, a ram’s head hanging from a tree, and a growling bear. A terrible mug appeared from the stump of a neighboring tree, and suddenly the grandfather seemed to see a deep hole nearby, and behind him a huge mountain. Somehow overcoming his fear, he pulled the cauldron with the treasure out of the ground, grabbed it and ran as fast as he could. From behind, someone is lashing his legs with rods...

Gogol "Enchanted Place". Illustration

Meanwhile, in the garden, Thomas, his brothers and their mother, who had come to feed them dinner, wondered: where had grandfather gone again? Having collected the slops in a bucket after dinner, the mother was looking for where to pour it, and suddenly she saw: a tub was moving towards her, as if by itself. The mother thought that the guys were joking and splashed the slop into the tub, but then there was a scream, and instead of the tub she saw in front of her a drenched grandfather with a large cauldron in his hands. However, instead of the gold that the old man hoped to find, there was rubbish and squabbles in the cauldron...

And no matter how much later they sowed, writes Gogol, that enchanted place in the middle of the garden, nothing worthwhile ever grew there. Something sprang up in this place that you can’t even make out: a watermelon is not a watermelon, a pumpkin is not a pumpkin, a cucumber is not a cucumber... the devil knows what it is!

Gogol's story "The Enchanted Place" is part of the cycle of his integral work "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka." The story tells the story of the life of a grandfather who found himself in very mysterious circumstances. The man (already at an advanced age) finds himself in an “enchanted place.” This all happens due to a strange coincidence of circumstances. The story is told from the perspective of clerk Thomas. Many years have passed since the incident.

This story by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol teaches us not to trust what is inaccessible to our consciousness, not to perform any actions that have an unknown origin. A simple Russian man wanted to understand what happened to him on an ordinary summer evening, but he did not take into account the nature of all these actions and events. Such mysterious and completely incomprehensible events should be treated with great caution. You shouldn't show much interest in something you don't fully understand.

Read the summary of Gogol's Enchanted Place

The main narrator of this work is the clerk Thomas. In his story, he and his readers travel to the distant past, where amazing things happened to his close relative, the nature of which Thomas, even after such a long period of time, was unable to explain.

One day, when Thomas was still just a child, a very strange and at the same time interesting story happened. His father went to work with his son, so they lived with his mother, grandfather and brothers for some time. His grandfather was a unique person, he was significantly different from others, apparently that is why such a story happened to him.

Grandfather guarded the tower in his free time. This business is very profitable, it does not take much effort, you can always entertain yourself by talking with passers-by and customers. This is what happened one evening. One day, while talking with customers, Foma’s grandfather began to dance. Apparently, among the people passing by were many of his acquaintances and comrades. Moreover, the grandfather also forced his grandchildren to participate in this masquerade.

Having gained a taste, the grandfather continued active movements with his legs, but suddenly he realized that he could not move further. Suddenly, he found himself in a completely different place. Those who took part in the conversation and the grandchildren inexplicably disappeared somewhere. The grandfather panicked; the place was completely unfamiliar to him before. He heard some strange laughter, walked past an old cemetery, and saw terrifying pictures. Late at night he returned home.

The next day, he took it upon himself to figure out where this place was and figure out what was wrong here.

He took a shovel with him and went to explore the place to sort out that incomprehensible case. Due to the fact that it suddenly started to rain, the grandfather decided to abandon his idea and resume the search the next day.

The next day, late in the evening, he goes to dig the garden to dig up the beds. While working, he gets angry and hits the ground with force with his spade. Suddenly, he again finds himself in that same unfortunate field. He was not far from the grave. There was a stone on it. He decided to light a cigarette, but heard some suspicious sounds, as if someone had sneezed next to his head. Again the grandfather saw terrible pictures. Animals, a ram's head spoke in front of him, terrible things happened that defied explanation. Grandfather was seriously scared. He wanted to run, but his legs did not obey him. The grandfather threw out the boiler, and suddenly everything became the same as it was before this incident. He, no longer tormenting himself with explanations and guesses about the reason for what happened to him, rushed to run.

By that time, relatives and friends had already begun to sound the alarm because they could not find the grandfather. They wondered how a person could disappear who the day before was absolutely healthy and in good spirits. But a very strange event happened here too. After dinner, when our narrator's mother went to take out the trash can, she found our hero in a barrel. The children, thinking that the barrel was empty, played with it and fooled around. When the mother wanted to empty the trash can into a barrel and found her grandfather there, she could not come to her senses for a long time after what had happened. After all this, the grandfather began to walk past the strange place with caution, after some time he fenced it off so that no one would get into the same strange and incomprehensible story

Picture or drawing Enchanted place

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To the question Brief retelling of Gogol, an enchanted place asked by the author Dianka Burdiyan the best answer is The main character, Rudy Panko, a famous storyteller of tales, begins his next narration, confirming the belief: if “the devilish force wants to faint, it will faint; By God, he’ll faint.” He remembers an old story that happened to his grandfather.
One day, the grandfather took him and his brother, then just boys, to chase sparrows and magpies on the tower. Familiar Chumaks drove by. Their grandfather began to treat them to melons, and asked his grandchildren to dance a Cossack dance. Yes, he couldn’t sit still and started dancing. And some kind of devilry happened here. Only the grandfather wanted to “take a walk and throw some of his things into the whirlwind with his feet - his legs won’t rise, and that’s all.” He started up again, but didn’t dance, looked around, didn’t see anything familiar, but only a smooth field. I started looking closer and came across a path in the dark. A candle flared on a grave to the side of the path. He decided that it was a treasure, but there was nothing to dig with. To avoid losing this place, he knocked down a large tree branch.
The next day, when it began to get dark in the field, the grandfather took a spade and shovel and went to look for the treasure. But he never found it, only the rain got it wet. Grandfather cursed Satan and returned with nothing. The next day, the grandfather, as if nothing had happened, went to the bashtan to dig a bed for late pumpkins. And when he passed by that enchanted place, he walked into its middle and struck the hearts with a spade. And suddenly I found myself in the same field again. I found a hiding place, pushed away a stone, and decided to sniff some tobacco. Suddenly someone sneezed from behind. I looked around - no one. I started digging and saw a boiler. Then the evil spirits began to frighten him: a bird’s nose, a ram’s head and a bear alternately appeared in front of him. It was so scary that my grandfather wanted to give up everything, but it was a pity to part with the treasure. He somehow grabbed the cauldron and “let’s run as far as the spirit could; He only hears something behind him and scratches his legs with rods...”
...A long time ago, mother came from the farm with a pot of hot dumplings, everyone had dinner, mother washed the dishes, but grandfather was still not there. She washed the pot and went into the kitchen, and grandfather was there. He boasted, opened the boiler, and there: “What did you think was there? Well, at least after thinking carefully, eh? gold? This is what is not gold: rubbish, squabbles... I’m ashamed to say what it is.”
From that time on, the grandfather told his grandchildren not to believe the devil: “And it happened that when he heard that there was trouble in another place, he himself would be baptized and force us. And he blocked off the enchanted place with a fence and threw all the weeds and rubbish that he raked out of the chestnut there. So nothing good ever grew in this place.”

Answer from Dima Senkovets[newbie]
Sexton Foma, sitting with his friends, agrees to tell another story on the condition that it will be the last. Then he begins to argue that if the devil’s power wants to make a person faint, then “by God, he will faint.” Following this, the narrator recalls a story from his childhood, when he was eleven years old, or maybe more.
One day at the beginning of spring, his father took him to the Crimea to sell tobacco, which was then in price. I took my three-year-old brother with me. My mother, Foma and my brother Ostap, and my grandfather remained at home. The grandfather sowed a bashtan (melon tree) and moved from the farm to live in a kuren (hut) near the bashtan, and took the children with him to scare away the magpies and sparrows. The kids not only watched the melons, watermelons and pumpkins, but also fed on everything that grew there in the garden. Visitors often stopped to buy watermelon or melon, and from surrounding villages they brought chickens, eggs, and turkeys for exchange. Life was good.
And most of all, my grandfather liked that carts of Chumaks passed by every day - up to fifty a day. Sometimes there was a meeting with old friends.
One day, towards evening, familiar Chumaks drove up to them. They said hello, unharnessed the oxen to graze, and they themselves lit their pipes and sat down with their grandfather near the smoking area. Time flew by unnoticed during the stories. After the afternoon snack, the grandfather began to treat everyone with melons.
While the Chumaks were eating, the grandfather began to encourage Foma and Ostap to dance the Cossack. Looking at the dancing grandchildren, the grandfather could not resist and also went to “twist his legs.” Near the bed of cucumbers there was a smooth place on which the grandfather was dancing. Having reached the middle, he already wanted to “sweep out” some special thing, but for some reason his legs did not lift. The grandfather accelerated, reached the middle - he didn’t take it! Do whatever you want! Legs like wooden steel. The grandfather began to swear: “Look, this is a devilish place! look, satanic obsession! Herod, the enemy of the human race, will get involved!”
Grandfather didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of the Chumaks, so he started dancing again. And again, as soon as he reached the unfortunate place, he couldn’t dance - and that’s it!
The grandfather sent several more curses addressed to Satan. He hears someone laughing behind him. The grandfather looked around - there was no bashtan, no Chumaks, but only a smooth field. Then I took a closer look: the place was not completely unfamiliar. Here is the dovecote in the priest’s garden, sticking out behind the forest, and here is the threshing floor of the volost clerk. There was no month: instead of it, a white spot flashed through the cloud.