“This story happened in reality,” the author claims from the first lines of his story. Here is a summary of it. “Wonderful Doctor” is distinguished by its capacious meaning and vibrant language. The documentary base gives the narrative a special intriguing aftertaste. The finale reveals a secret.
Summary of the story "Wonderful Doctor." Hungry children
Two little boys stopped in front of a shop window with gastronomic abundance and, swallowing saliva coming up, animatedly discuss what they saw. They are amused by the appearance of a rosy piglet with a sprig of greens in its mouth. The author gives the story of a "still life" behind glass in the highest degree of aesthetics and appetite. Here are the "garland of sausages" and the "pyramids of soft golden tangerines." And hungry kids throw "love-greedy" eyes on them. Kiev, which was preparing for the Christmas holidays, looks too contrasted in comparison with the miserable slender figures of poor children.
Fateful year
Grisha and Volodya went on behalf of their mother with a letter of help. Yes, only the doorman of an influential addressee scolded the little rags with abuse. And so they returned to their home - a cellar with "walls crying from damp." Description Mertsalov family causes acute compassion. A seven-year-old sister is lying in a fever, and a hungry baby is torn from a cry nearby in a cradle. An emaciated woman “with a blackened face from grief” gives the boys the remnants of a cold stew, which there is nothing to warm up. Father is with his hands "swollen" from the frost. We learn that in this fateful year, he became ill with typhus and lost the position of manager, which brought a modest income. Misfortunes poured one after another: the children began to hurt, all their savings were gone, the daughter died, and now another was seriously ill. Nobody gave alms, and there was no one to ask. Here is a description of the misfortunes, their summary.
Wonderful doctor
Despair embraces Mertsalov, he leaves home, wanders around the city, hoping for nothing. Tired, he sits down on a bench in the city garden and feels a desire to commit suicide. At this moment, a stranger appears in the alley. He sits down beside him and starts a friendly conversation. When the old man mentions gifts bought for acquaintances of children, Mertsalov cannot stand it and begins to scream fervently and viciously that his children are "dying of hunger." The old man listens attentively to an inconsistent story and offers help: it turns out that he is a doctor. Mertsalov leads him to himself. The doctor examines a sick girl, writes out a prescription, gives money to buy firewood, medicine and food. That same evening, Mertsalov recognizes the name of his benefactor by a label on a bottle of medicine - this is Professor Pirogov, an outstanding Russian physician. Since then, it’s like an “angel descended” on a family, and her affairs went uphill. So says Kuprin. The wonderful doctor (to summarize this conclusion by the end) acted very humanly, 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 major post at the bank and was always especially sensitive to the needs of poor people.