Alexey Tolstoy is a writer, publicist and prominent public figure of the Soviet period. He is known for his historical, social and psychological novels. But in our article we will turn to the science fiction genre, or rather, the novel "Engineer Hyperboloid Garin." A summary of this work will be our main theme.
About the book
Alexey Tolstoy completed his science fiction work in 1927. The novel “Engineer Hyperboloid Garin” (a brief summary will be considered below), according to the author’s plan, is divided into three parts: adventurous, heroic and utopian.
The idea to write a similar work arose from the writer in 1922, when he first saw the construction of the Shukhov tower. Later, already working on the novel, Tolstoy studied all the latest theories of molecular physics.
“Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin”: summary
The events of the novel unfold in 192 ... year. In the Leningrad long abandoned country house near the Krestovka River, a stabbed man is found. A trace of torture remained on his body. The investigation is carried out by Vasily Vitalyevich Shelga, a criminal investigator. A house is searched, and equipment for conducting physical and chemical experiments is found in the basement. There is an assumption that the murdered man is Petr Petrovich Garin, an engineer.
From the very first lines it becomes clear that the novel also has detective elements. And the classic, for such works, intrigue with the discovery of a dead body is made by the plot of the whole work by Alexey Tolstoy ("The Engineer Hyperbinoid Garin").
The summary tells that the real Garin is an immoral and incredibly conceited person, but a very talented scientist who is developing a thermal miracle beam. He is pursued by foreign killers, but the engineer manages to escape, and instead of him, one of his assistants, Garin's double, dies.
Shelga accidentally meets the living Garin, but takes him for a double. The engineer himself, realizing this, does not tell Vasily the truth, but pretends to be Pyankov-Pitkevich. Men agree on mutual assistance in the investigation of the murder. Shelga quickly realizes that he was deceived. But he doesn’t have time to detain Garin - he leaves for Paris.
Paris
The American billionaire Rolling, who buys chemical plants throughout Europe, is in the French capital. He, along with his Russian mistress Zoya Monroz, has long been interested in Garin's invention. It was they who sent the killers for the engineer to Leningrad.
Once in Paris, Garin is looking for his employee Victor Lenoir. And persuades him to make up, becoming a double engineer.
What is hyperboloid for?
Shows himself a master of action-packed works of Tolstoy. The Engineer Hyperboloid Garin (a brief summary illustrates this) is not just a fantastic work, but a skillfully circled detective novel.
A boy Vanya gets to Leningrad from Siberia. On his back is written a message addressed to Garin by the scientist Nikolai Mantsev. This man went to Kamchatka before the revolution to prove Garin’s theory. The hunch was that there is an Olivine belt underground , which contains all the existing metals in molten form. Among these metals is gold, which Garin needed to rule the world. But to get the coveted jewelry, you need a hyperboloid.
But to create a hyperboloid, you need a huge mine and a large amount of money that you can get from Rolling. To this end, Garin, posing as Pyankov-Pitkevich, goes to the billionaire. At the meeting, he offers cooperation on behalf of engineer Garin. But Rolling does not take the offer seriously and drives the visitor.
Garin, fearing for his life, sends a telegram to Shelge with a request to come to Paris. The investigator leaves, hoping to arouse the interest of the scientist with the information sent by Mantsev.
Unexpected alliances
To understand the urgency of the work and the intensity of events can help even a very brief content. “Engineer Hyperboloid Garin” is a novel that constantly surprises the reader. So, Zoya Monroz goes over to Garin’s side after another unsuccessful attempt on the scientist. Rolling again attacks Garin, who has to enter into an open battle. The result of the battle is the complete defeat of the billionaire, who turned out to be a prisoner on the Arizona yacht from his failed victim.
Garin brings to the same ship Shelga, with whom he concludes a temporary truce. The operative secretly hopes to return the scientist’s invention to the Soviet Union.
Plan implementation
Events of the novel "Engineer Hyperboloid Garin" continue to unfold. A summary of the chapters describes the beginning of the implementation of Garin’s ideas.
To make Rolling a monopolist, Garin explodes with a hyperboloid all the chemical plants in Germany. An expedition to Kamchatka, sent to scientists, finds Mantsev's parking lot. The researcher dies, but all his documents are saved and transferred to Garin.
On the island captured by Zoe, a hyperboloid is being built for drilling. The mining of gold begins , which Garin sells for nothing, causing a financial crisis in the capitalist world.
In exchange for stabilizing the global economy, Garin asks for power from the most influential capitalists and receives it. Zoe is proclaimed queen of the Golden Skeleton. But the long-awaited world domination does not bring Garina joy, he is seized by boredom.
Denouement
The denouement of the novel “Engineer Hyperboloid Garin” is approaching. The summary describes the uprising of workers that broke out on the Golden Island, which is headed by Shelga. Garin again changes places with another double, and he goes to the Golden Island to regain the hyperboloid.
He and Zoya set sail on the Arizona yacht, but they don’t reach their cherished goal, but fall into the typhoon. Garin and Monroz are shipwrecked and thrown onto a desert island. Months pass. All this time, lovers are forced to huddle in a hut of palm leaves and eat fish. In a dream, wonderful memories of the life they lost come to them.