Today, any educated person is familiar with the collection of stories and essays "Notes of the Hunter" by Turgenev. Their summary, however, each sets out in its own way. One reader prefers the deep folk wisdom embedded in the “Choir and Kalynich”; another - watercolor fleeting strokes of "Beige Meadow"; the third cannot isolate something, stringing, like beads, story after story, trying to catch the essence of each. In this article we will try to consider what idea the book “Notes of the hunter” expresses. Turgenev, as a writer, is multidimensional, therefore, we ask you not to take the conclusions of the article as the only possible opinion, but, after reading the book, make your verdict. "Notes of the hunter" belong to the classics that should be re-read in order to notice new shades.
Social Work Ideas
Recall what social ideas Turgenev's Notes of a Hunter contain. The summary of the collection can be expressed in one phrase: a general, presented with the help of various mini-plots, a picture of the life of the Russian people. Serfdom became a clear brake on the further development of Russia. Moreover, the basis for the preservation of this form of legalized slavery was the understanding of what constitutes the Russian peasantry. “For slavery” two political movements openly and actively advocated. First, we are talking about the populist position of the big bourgeoisie (at the same time - the official point of view of the authorities). She translated the question into the plane of psychology, ranting that the landowners are fathers and peasants are children. Accordingly, the lawlessness of the peasants was "covered" by the harmony of relations. The second point of view was expressed by the so-called Narodniks. They cherished any reforms in Russia, starting from the time of Peter I, idealizing pre-Petrine, boyar Russia. Both views were false, it was pure discourse that led public attention away from the essence of the issue.
Summary
It would seem that the lyricist Turgenev wrote “Notes of the Hunter”. The summary of the book, based on the title, should be quite banal: the impressions of the Oryol landowner, a nature lover, fond of hunting. Which is easier? I went hunting, hung a gun on a nail. He took a pen and wrote another “summary report”. But no! The work, consisting of 25 seemingly completely different parts, turned out to be monolithic, giving a vivid and truthful reflection of the Russian hinterland of the mid-19th century. This is one of the most striking and imaginative books about peasant Russia. It is written so masterfully that later descendants will call the Turgenev syllable "verses in prose."
The story "Ferret and Kalynich" tells the story of two serf friends from the peasant milieu. The value is that the characters are real. The village of Khorevka, Ulyanovsk District, Kaluga Region, is an overgrown Khorya farm. Both of them are not "slaughtered" peasants, both are bright personalities, intellectually exceeding the level of their "master", landowner Polutykin. Ferret is a business executive, organizer and hard worker. He and his six sons and their families jointly run a strong, profitable peasant farm. At the same time, Khor remains in the status of a serf, evading Polutykin’s offer to redeem himself, considering it a waste of money and regularly paying doubled rent. Kalynich is a man of high spirituality and intimacy with nature. He is the first assistant Polutykin in hunting games. But this is not the main thing in him. He understands nature. To pacify an unbroken horse, to speak of pain, to calm worried bees - this is Kalinych's strength. It is with this story that the view of the bourgeois and the Narodniks on the Russian peasantry “Notes of the Hunter” by Turgenev is refuted. The summary of “Korya and Kalinych” asserts, in contrast to the Narodniks, that the Russian people are not afraid of change, but go to them if they see practical sense in it. The whole content of the story contradicts the bourgeois position about the "landowner fathers": both peasants are much smarter, deeper and more interesting than their master, Polutykin.
The story “Bezhin Meadow” introduces us together with a resting landowner-hunter hiding in the steppe into a boy’s free-rein. Children graze horses in the night, rest around the fire, talk. In their lips, fiction is confused with reality, the beauty of the steppe with the perception of life. An artist of the word, Turgenev depicts a real, fleeting and thoughtless picture. Each, reading the story, finds in it an analogy with his childhood, carried away into the distance, like horses on the steppe.
Limited by the scope of the article, we can only mention some other stories. Bitterness and pain are heard in the mouth of the 50-year-old Vlas, who lost his son, an assistant in the household (Lingonberry Water). Barin, not distinguished by the breadth of his soul, not only did not sympathize with him, but refused to lower the rent, and Vlas’s position became generally hopeless. In the story “Yermolai and the Mill” we learn about the plight of the miller Arina, whose love for the servant Petrushka was literally “trampled” by the angry landowner Zverkov. He shaved the pregnant servant, dressed in rags, and sent him to the village. The writer’s alarm is filled with the story “Knocks.” The title of the story is both direct and figurative. They say that if you press your ear to the ground in the steppe, then you can hear the approaching or retreating horsemen. A landowner-hunter, riding a tarantass in Tula for a shot with the coachman Philofei, hears such a sound. Soon they were overtaken by blocking the road, a cart pulled by a trio. The cart was ruled by a tall, strong man, with him were six more men, all of whom were drunk. They asked for money. Having received - left. A meeting with the robbers turned out to be good luck for the landowner, but soon, as the story testifies, under similar circumstances a merchant was killed in the steppe.
Each of the 25 stories contributes its own nuance, tint to the general canvas of the picture of folk life “Notes of the hunter”. The picture is alarming. Behind the beauty of nature and Russian characters, obvious glaring social contradictions are visible. The whole point of the collection is reduced to the urgent need for the widest state reforms for the whole country.
Conclusion
Oddly enough, not the fiery revolutionaries, but the lyric poet Turgenev turned this question, as the people say, "from head to foot." The book was relevant, readers loved it. Turgenev himself recalls an episode of how young fellow soldiers who met him at the railway station expressed their gratitude from all over Russia, bowing to the waist.
Immediately after writing in the category of classics, Chernyshevsky and Herzen carried her. It is difficult to overestimate what role they played in the abolition of serfdom, “Notes of the Hunter” by Turgenev. Their summary was familiar to many people, but the fact that this book was one of the favorites of Emperor Alexander II, the Liberator, historians testify.