The storyline is the night before Christmas. Brief retelling of the night before Christmas (Gogol N
As part of the project "Gogol. 200 years" RIA Novosti presents a summary of the work "The Night Before Christmas" by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - a story that opens the second part of the cycle "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" and is one of the most famous in the cycle.
For changing last day before Christmas comes a clear frosty night. The maidens and lads had not yet gone out to carol, and no one saw how smoke came out of the chimney of one hut and a witch rose on a broomstick. She flashes like a black speck in the sky, picking up stars in her sleeve, and the devil flies towards her, to whom “the last night was left to stagger along white light". Having stolen the month, the devil hides it in his pocket, assuming that the darkness that has come will keep the rich Cossack Chub, invited to the clerk at kutya, at home, and the hated devil blacksmith Vakula (who painted a picture of the Last Judgment and the shamed devil on the church wall) will not dare to come to Chubova’s daughter Oksana . While the devil is building chickens for the witch, Chub and his godfather, having left the hut, do not dare to go to the sexton, where a pleasant society will gather for varenukha, or, in view of such darkness, return home, and they leave, leaving the beautiful Oksana in the house, dressing up in front of a mirror, for which and finds her Vakula.
The severe beauty taunts him, untouched by his gentle speeches. The frustrated blacksmith goes to unlock the door, on which Chub, who has gone astray and lost his godfather, knocks, deciding to return home on the occasion of the blizzard raised by the devil. However, the blacksmith's voice leads him to think that he did not end up in his hut (but in a similar, lame Levchenko, whose young wife the blacksmith probably came to), Chub changes his voice, and an angry Vakula, poking, kicks him out. The beaten Chub, considering that the blacksmith, therefore, left his own house, goes to his mother, Solokha. Solokha, who was a witch, returned from her journey, and the devil flew in with her, dropping a month in the chimney.
It became light, the blizzard subsided, and crowds of carolers poured into the streets. The girls run to Oksana, and, noticing new laces embroidered with gold on one of them, Oksana declares that she will marry Vakula if he brings her the laces "which the queen wears."
In the meantime, the devil, who has become mellow at Solokha's, is frightened away by the head, who has not gone to the clerk at the kutya. The devil quickly gets into one of the bags left in the middle of the hut by the blacksmith, but the head soon has to climb into the other, as the clerk knocks on Solokha. Praising the virtues of the incomparable Solokha, the clerk is forced to climb into the third bag, since Chub appears. However, Chub also climbs there, avoiding a meeting with the returned Vakula. While Solokha is explaining herself in the garden with the Cossack Sverbyguz, who came after him, Vakula carries away the bags thrown in the middle of the hut, and, saddened by the quarrel with Oksana, does not notice their weight. On the street he is surrounded by a crowd of carolers, and here Oksana repeats her mocking condition. Leaving all but the smallest sacks in the middle of the road, Vakula runs, and rumors are already crawling behind him that he either lost his mind or hanged himself.
Vakula comes to the Cossack Pot-bellied Patsyuk, who, as they say, is "a little like the devil." Having caught the owner eating dumplings, and then dumplings, which themselves climbed into Patsyuk's mouth, Vakula timidly asks for directions to hell, relying on his help in his misfortune. Having received a vague answer that the devil is behind him, Vakula runs away from the quick dumpling that climbs into his mouth. Anticipating easy prey, the devil jumps out of the bag and, sitting on the blacksmith's neck, promises him Oksana that very night. The cunning blacksmith, grabbing the devil by the tail and crossing him, becomes the master of the situation and orders the devil to take himself "to Petemburg, straight to the queen."
Having found Kuznetsov's bags about that time, the girls want to take them to Oksana to see what Vakula caroled. They go after the sled, and Chubov's godfather, having called for help from the weaver, drags one of the sacks into his hut. There, for the obscure, but seductive contents of the bag, there is a fight with the godfather's wife. Chub and the clerk are in the bag. When Chub, returning home, finds a head in the second bag, his disposition towards Solokha is greatly reduced.
The blacksmith, having galloped to St. Petersburg, comes to the Cossacks, who are passing through Dikanka in the autumn, and, pressing the devil in his pocket, seeks to be taken to the tsarina's reception. Marveling at the luxury of the palace and the wonderful paintings on the walls, the blacksmith finds himself in front of the queen, and when she asks the Cossacks who came to ask for their Sich, “what do you want?”, the blacksmith asks her for her royal shoes. Touched by such innocence, Catherine draws attention to this passage of Fonvizin standing at a distance, and Vakula gives shoes, having received which he considers it good to go home.
In the village at this time, the Dikan women in the middle of the street are arguing about exactly how Vakula laid hands on himself, and the rumors that have come about embarrass Oksana, she does not sleep well at night, and not having found a devout blacksmith in the church in the morning, she is ready to cry. The blacksmith, on the other hand, simply overslept Matins and Mass, and waking up, takes out a new hat and belt from the chest and goes to Chub to woo. Chub, wounded by Solokha's treachery, but seduced by gifts, agrees. He is echoed by Oksana, who has entered, ready to marry the blacksmith "and without the slippers." Having started a family, Vakula painted his hut with paints, and in the church he painted a devil, but “so nasty that everyone spat when they passed by.”
The material was provided by the Internet portal briefly.ru, compiled by E. V. Kharitonova
Gogol N.V. included “The Night Before Christmas” in the cycle “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. The events in the work take place at the time just at the time when, after the work of the Commission involved in the abolition, the Cossacks appeared to it.
"Christmas Eve". Gogol N. V. The Promise of Vakula
The last Christmas day has come to an end. It was a clear frosty night. No one sees how a couple flies in the sky: the witch collects the stars in her sleeve, and the devil steals the moon. The Cossacks Sverbyguz, Chub, Golova and some others are going to visit the clerk. He will celebrate Christmas. Oksana, Chub's 17-year-old daughter, whose beauty was talked about throughout Dikanka, was left alone at home. She was just dressing up when the blacksmith Vakula, who was in love with the girl, entered the hut. Oksana treated him harshly. At this time, cheerful, noisy girls burst into the hut. Oksana began to complain to them that she had no one to even give little slippers. Vakula promised to get them for her, and those that not every lady has. Oksana, in front of everyone, gave her word to marry Vakula if he brought her such slippers as the queen herself had. The blacksmith, discouraged, went home.
"The Night Before Christmas", Gogol N. V. Guests at Solokha
At this time, the Head came to his mother. He said that he did not go to the deacon because of the snowstorm. There was a knock on the door. The head did not want to be found at Solokha and hid in a coal sack. The deacon knocked. It turns out that no one came to him at all, and he also decided to spend time in Solokha's house. There was another knock at the door. This time the Cossack Chub came. Solokha hid the deacon in a sack. But before Chub had time to tell about the purpose of his arrival, someone knocked again. This returned home Vakula. Not wanting to run into him, Chub climbed into the same sack into which the clerk had climbed before him. Before Solokha had time to close the door behind her son, Sverbyguz came up to the house. Since there was nowhere to hide him, she went out to talk to him in the garden. The blacksmith couldn't get Oksana out of his head. But nevertheless, he noticed the bags in the hut and decided to remove them before the holiday. At that time, fun was in full swing on the street: songs and carols were heard. Among the laughter and conversation of the girls, the blacksmith also heard the voice of his beloved. He ran out into the street, resolutely approached Oksana, said goodbye to her and said that in this world she would not see him again.
"The Night Before Christmas", Gogol N. V. Help of the devil
After running through several houses, Vakula cooled down and decided to turn to Patsyuk, a former Cossack who was known as strange and lazy, for help. In his hut, the blacksmith saw that the owner was sitting with his mouth open, and dumplings themselves were dipped in sour cream and sent to his mouth. Vakula told Patsyuk about his misfortune, said that in such despair he was ready to turn even to hell. At these words, an unclean man appeared in the hut and promised to help. They ran out into the street. Vakula caught the devil by the tail and ordered him to be carried to the queen in Petersburg. At this time, Oksana, saddened by the words of the blacksmith, regretted that she was too harsh with the guy. Finally, everyone noticed the bags that Vakula had already taken out into the street a long time ago. The girls decided that there is a lot of good. But when they untied them, they found the Cossack Chub, the Head and the deacon. They laughed and joked about this incident the whole evening.
N. V. Gogol, "The Night Before Christmas". Content: at the reception of the queen
Vakula flies in the starry sky on the line. At first he was afraid, but then he became so brave that he even made fun of the demon. Soon they arrived in St. Petersburg, and then to the palace. There, at the reception of the queen, there were just Cossacks. Vakula joined them. The blacksmith expressed his request to the queen, and she ordered him to bring out the most expensive shoes embroidered with gold.
Retelling. Gogol, "The Night Before Christmas": the return of Vakula
In Dikanka they began to say that the blacksmith either drowned himself, or accidentally drowned. Oksana did not believe these rumors, but nevertheless she was upset and scolded herself. She realized that she fell in love with this guy. The next morning they served matins, then mass, and only after it did Vakula appear with the promised slippers. He asked Oksana's father for permission to send matchmakers, and then showed the girl the slippers. But she said that she didn’t need them, because she didn’t need them ... Then Oksana didn’t finish and blushed.
The last day before Christmas has passed. A clear winter night has come. Stars looked. The month majestically rose to heaven to shine for good people and the whole world, so that everyone would have fun caroling and glorifying Christ. It was freezing colder than in the morning; but on the other hand it was so quiet that the creak of frost under a boot could be heard half a verst away. Not a single crowd of lads had yet shown under the windows of the huts; the moon alone peeped furtively into them, as if urging the dressed-up girls to run out into the squeaky snow as soon as possible. Then smoke fell in clubs through the chimney of one hut and went in a cloud across the sky, and together with the smoke a witch mounted on a broom rose up. If at that time a Sorochinsky assessor was passing by on a trio of philistine horses, in a hat with a lambskin pommel, made in the manner of a Uhlan, in a blue sheepskin coat lined with black furs, with a devilishly woven whip, which he has a habit of urging his driver, then he would, surely , noticed her, because not a single witch in the world would escape from the Sorochinsky assessor. He knows exactly how many pigs every woman has, and how many canvases are in the chest, and what exactly from her dress and household a good man will lay on Sunday in a tavern. But the Sorochinsky assessor did not pass by, and what does he care about strangers, he has his own parish. Meanwhile, the witch rose so high that only a black speck flickered above. But wherever a speck appeared, there the stars, one after another, disappeared in the sky. Soon the witch had a full sleeve of them. Three or four still glittered. Suddenly, from the opposite side, another speck appeared, increased, began to stretch, and it was no longer a speck. Short-sighted, at least he put wheels from the Komissarov's britzka on his nose instead of glasses, and then he wouldn't have recognized what it was. From the front, he was completely German: the narrow muzzle, constantly twirling and sniffing everything that came across, ended, like our pigs, in a round patch, the legs were so thin that if Yareskov's head had such, he would have broken them in the first Cossack. But on the other hand, behind him he was a real provincial attorney in uniform, because his tail hung as sharp and long as the coat-tails of today; only by the goat's beard under his muzzle, by the small horns sticking out on his head, and that he was not all whiter than a chimney sweep, could one guess that he was not a German and not a provincial attorney, but simply a devil, who had been left to wander around the world last night and to teach the sins of good people. Tomorrow, with the first bells for matins, he will run without looking back, tail between his legs, to his lair. Meanwhile, the devil crept slowly towards the moon and was already stretching out his hand to grab it, but suddenly pulled it back, as if burned, sucked his fingers, dangled his foot and ran from the other side, and again jumped back and pulled his hand away. However, despite all the failures, the cunning devil did not leave his pranks. Running up, he suddenly grabbed the moon with both hands, grimacing and blowing, tossing it from one hand to the other, like a peasant who takes out a fire for his cradle with his bare hands; Finally, he hurriedly put it in his pocket and, as if he had never happened, ran further. Nobody in Dikanka heard how the devil stole the moon. True, the volost clerk, coming out of the tavern on all fours, saw that the moon was dancing in the sky for no reason at all, and assured the whole village of it with God; but the laity shook their heads and even laughed at him. But what was the reason for the devil to decide on such a lawless deed? And this is what it was like: he knew that the rich Cossack Chub was invited by the deacon to kutya, where they would be: a head; a relative of a deacon in a blue frock coat, who came from the bishop's singing room, took the lowest bass; the Cossack Sverbyguz and some others; where, in addition to kutya, there will be varenukha, vodka distilled for saffron, and a lot of all kinds of food. In the meantime, his daughter, the beauty of the whole village, would stay at home, and the blacksmith, a strong man and a fellow, who was more disgusting than Father Kondrat's sermons, would probably come to her daughter. In his spare time, the blacksmith was engaged in painting and was known as the best painter in the whole neighborhood. The centurion L.ko, who was still alive then, called him on purpose to Poltava to paint the wooden fence near his house. All the bowls from which the Dikan Cossacks slurped borscht were painted by the blacksmith. The blacksmith was a God-fearing man and often painted images of saints: and now you can still find his evangelist Luke in the T... church. But the triumph of his art was one picture, painted on the church wall in the right vestibule, in which he depicted St. Peter on the day of the Last Judgment, with keys in his hands, driving out an evil spirit from hell; the frightened devil rushed about in all directions, foreseeing his death, and the previously imprisoned sinners beat and drove him with whips, logs, and everything else. At the time when the painter was working on this picture and painting it on a large wooden board, the devil tried with all his might to interfere with him: he pushed invisibly under the arm, raised ashes from the furnace in the forge and sprinkled the picture with it; but, in spite of everything, the work was finished, the board was brought into the church and built into the wall of the narthex, and from that time the devil swore to take revenge on the blacksmith. Only one night remained for him to stagger in the wide world; but even that night he looked for something to vent his anger on the blacksmith. And for this he decided to steal the month, in the hope that the old Chub was lazy and not easy to climb, but the deacon was not so close to the hut: the road went beyond the village, past the mills, past the cemetery, went around the ravine. Even with a month-long night, varenukha and vodka infused with saffron could have lured Chub, but in such darkness no one would have been able to drag him off the stove and call him out of the hut. And the blacksmith, who had long been at odds with him, would never dare to go to his daughter in his presence, despite his strength. In this way, as soon as the devil hid his moon in his pocket, it suddenly became so dark all over the world that not everyone would find the way to the tavern, not only to the clerk. The witch, seeing herself suddenly in the darkness, cried out. Then the devil, riding up like a little demon, grabbed her by the arm and set off to whisper in her ear the same thing that is usually whispered to the entire female race. Wonderfully arranged in our world! Everything that lives in it, everything tries to adopt and imitate one another. Before, it used to be that in Mirgorod one judge and the mayor went around in the winter in sheepskin coats covered with cloth, and all the petty officials wore just naked ones; now both the assessor and the sub-commissary have worn out new fur coats from Reshetilov's fur coats with a cloth cover. The clerk and the volost clerk took the blue Chinese woman for six hryvnia arshins in the third year. The sexton made himself nanke trousers for the summer and a waistcoat of striped garus. In a word, everything climbs into people! When these people will not be vain! You can bet that it will seem surprising to many to see the devil set off in the same place for himself. The most annoying thing of all is that he probably imagines himself handsome, while as a figure - to look ashamed. Erysipelas, as Foma Grigoryevich says, an abomination is an abomination, but he also builds love chickens! But it became so dark in the sky and under the sky that it was no longer possible to see what was going on between them. - So you, godfather, have not yet been to the deacon in the new hut? - said the Cossack Chub, leaving the door of his hut, to a lean, tall, in a short sheepskin coat, a peasant with an overgrown beard, showing that for more than two weeks a fragment of a scythe, with which peasants usually shave their beards for lack of a razor, has not touched it. - There will be a good drinking party now! Chub continued, with a slight grin on his face. "As long as we don't be late." At this, Chub straightened his belt, which tightly intercepted his sheepskin coat, pulled his cap tighter, squeezed a whip in his hand - fear and a thunderstorm of annoying dogs; but, looking up, he stopped ... - What a devil! Look! look, Panas! - What? - said the godfather and raised his head also up. - Like what? no month! — What an abyss! In fact, there is no month. “Something that’s not there,” Chub uttered with some annoyance at the invariable indifference of his godfather. “You don’t even need to. - What should I do! “It was necessary,” Chub continued, wiping his mustache with his sleeve, “some devil, so that he didn’t happen, the dog, to drink a glass of vodka in the morning, intervene! .. Right, as if to laugh ... On purpose, sitting in the hut, looked out the window: the night is a miracle! It is light, the snow shines during the month. Everything was visible as if it were daylight. I didn’t have time to go out the door - and now, at least gouge out my eye! Chub grumbled and scolded for a long time, and meanwhile at the same time pondered what he would decide on. He was dying to chat about all sorts of nonsense at the deacon’s, where, without any doubt, the head, and the visiting bass, and the tar Mikita, who went to Poltava every two weeks to auction and made such jokes that all the laity took their stomachs with laughter. Chub already saw in his mind the varenukha standing on the table. It was all tempting, really; but the darkness of the night reminded him of that laziness which is so dear to all the Cossacks. How nice it would be to lie now, legs tucked under you, on a couch, calmly smoke a cradle and listen through an intoxicating drowsiness to carols and songs of cheerful lads and girls crowding in heaps under the windows. He would, no doubt, have decided on the latter if he had been alone, but now both are not so bored and afraid to walk in the dark at night, and they did not want to seem lazy or cowardly in front of others. Having finished the scolding, he turned again to his godfather: - So no, godfather, a month?- Not. - Wonderful, right! Let me sniff some tobacco. You, godfather, have glorious tobacco! Where do you take it? — What the hell, glorious! - the godfather answered, closing the birch tavlinka, pierced with patterns. "The old hen won't sneeze!" “I remember,” Chub continued in the same way, “the late tavern keeper Zozulya once brought me tobacco from Nizhyn. Oh, there was tobacco! good tobacco! So, godfather, how should we be? it's dark outside. “So, perhaps, let’s stay at home,” said the godfather, grabbing the door handle. If the godfather had not said this, then Chub would surely have decided to stay, but now it was as if something was pulling him to go against the grain. - No, godfather, let's go! you can't, you have to go! Having said this, he was already vexed with himself for what he had said. It was very unpleasant for him to drag himself on such a night; but he was consoled by the fact that he himself purposely wanted it and did not do it the way he was advised. Kum, without expressing the slightest movement of annoyance on his face, like a man who absolutely does not care whether he sits at home or drags himself out of the house, looked around, scratched his shoulders with a batog stick, and the two godfathers set off on the road. Now let's see what the beautiful daughter does, left alone. Oksana was not yet seventeen years old, as in almost all the world, and on the other side of Dikanka, and on this side of Dikanka, there was only talk about her. The lads in a herd proclaimed that there had never been a better girl and never would be in the village. Oksana knew and heard everything that was said about her, and was capricious, like a beauty. If she walked not in a plank and spare tire, but in some kind of hood, she would have dispersed all her girls. The lads chased her in droves, but, having lost patience, they left her little by little and turned to others who were not so spoiled. Only the blacksmith was stubborn and did not leave his red tape, despite the fact that it was no better to deal with him than with others. After her father's departure, for a long time she dressed up and coaxed herself in front of a small mirror in a tin frame and could not stop admiring herself. “What did people decide to praise, as if I were good? she said, as if absent-mindedly, only to chat about something to herself. “People lie, I’m not good at all.” But the fresh face that flashed in the mirror, alive in childish youth, with shining black eyes and an inexpressibly pleasant smile that burned through the soul, suddenly proved the opposite. “Are my black eyebrows and my eyes,” continued the beauty, not letting go of the mirror, “are so good that they have no equal in the world? What's so good about that upturned nose? and cheeks? and in the lips? Like my black braids look good? Wow! one can be frightened of them in the evening: they, like long snakes, intertwined and coiled around my head. I see now that I'm not good at all! - and, pushing the mirror a little further away from her, she cried out: - No, I'm good! Ah, how good! Miracle! What joy I will bring to the one whom I will be the wife! How my husband will admire me! He won't remember himself. He will kiss me to death." - Wonderful girl! - whispered the blacksmith, who quietly entered, - and she has little boasting! He stands for an hour, looking in the mirror, and does not look enough, and still praises himself aloud! “Yes, lads, do you like me? look at me,” continued the pretty coquette, “how smoothly I step forward; I have a shirt sewn with red silk. And what tapes on the head! You never see a richer galloon! My father bought all this for me so that the best fellow in the world would marry me! And, smiling, she turned in the other direction and saw the blacksmith... She screamed and sternly stopped in front of him. The blacksmith dropped his hands. It is difficult to tell what the marvelous girl's swarthy face expressed: both severity was visible in it, and through the severity some kind of mockery of the embarrassed blacksmith, and a barely noticeable flush of annoyance thinly spread over her face; and it was all so mixed up and it was so indescribably good that kissing her a million times was all that could be done at that time in the best possible way. - Why did you come here? - So Oksana began to speak. “Do you want to be kicked out the door with a shovel?” You are all masters to drive up to us. Instantly sniff out when the fathers are not at home. Oh, I know you! What, is my chest ready? - It will be ready, my dear, after the holiday it will be ready. If you only knew how much you fussed around him: for two nights he did not leave the forge; but not a single priest will have such a chest. He put the iron on the fitting such as he did not put on the centurion's gibberish when he went to work in Poltava. And how it will be painted! Even if the whole neighborhood comes out with your little white legs, you will not find such a thing! Red and blue flowers will be scattered throughout the field. It will burn like fire. Don't be angry with me! Let me at least talk, at least look at you! - Who forbids you, speak and look! Then she sat down on the bench and again looked in the mirror and began to straighten her braids on her head. She glanced at her neck, at the new shirt embroidered with silk, and a subtle feeling of self-satisfaction expressed itself on her lips, on her fresh cheeks, and shone in her eyes. "Let me sit next to you!" said the blacksmith. “Sit down,” Oksana said, keeping the same feeling in her lips and in her satisfied eyes. - Wonderful, beloved Oksana, let me kiss you! - said the encouraged blacksmith and pressed her to him, intent on grabbing a kiss; but Oksana turned away her cheeks, which were already at an inconspicuous distance from the blacksmith's lips, and pushed him away. What else do you want? When he needs honey, he needs a spoon! Go away, your hands are tougher than iron. Yes, you smell like smoke. I think I've been smeared all over with soot. Then she brought up the mirror and again began to preen in front of him. “She doesn’t love me,” the blacksmith thought to himself, hanging his head. - She has all the toys; but I stand before her like a fool and keep my eyes on her. And everyone would stand before her, and the century would not take her eyes off her! Wonderful girl! What wouldn't I give to know what's in her heart, who she loves! But no, she doesn't need anyone. She admires herself; torments me, the poor; and I do not see the light behind sadness; and I love her so much as no other person in the world has ever loved and will never love. Is it true that your mother is a witch? Oksana said and laughed; and the blacksmith felt that everything inside him laughed. This laughter seemed to resonate at once in his heart and in his quietly quivering veins, and with all that, vexation sank into his soul that he was not in the power to kiss the face that laughed so pleasantly. - What do I care about my mother? you are my mother, and father, and everything that is dear in the world. If the king called me and said: “Blacksmith Vakula, ask me for everything that is best in my kingdom, I will give everything to you. I will order you to make a golden forge, and you will forge with silver hammers. “I don’t want,” I would say to the king, “neither expensive stones, nor a golden forge, nor your whole kingdom: give me better my Oksana!” - See what you are! Only my father himself is not a blunder. You'll see when he doesn't marry your mother," Oksana said with a sly smile. "However, the girls don't come... What does that mean?" It's high time to carol. I get bored. “God be with them, my beauty!” - No matter how! with them, right, the lads will come. This is where the balls come in. I imagine what they will say funny stories! So do you have fun with them? - Yes, it's more fun than with you. BUT! someone knocked; right, girls with lads. “What can I expect more? said the blacksmith to himself. - She's mocking me. I am as dear to her as a rusty horseshoe. But if so, it will not get, at least, to another to laugh at me. Let me just notice for sure who she likes more than me; I will teach...” A knock on the door and a voice that sounded sharply in the cold: “Open it!” interrupted his thoughts. “Wait, I’ll open it myself,” said the blacksmith and went out into the hallway, intent on breaking off the sides of the first person who came across with annoyance. The frost increased, and it became so cold upstairs that the devil jumped from one hoof to another and blew into his fist, wanting to somehow warm his freezing hands. It is not surprising, however, to freeze to death for someone who pushed from morning to morning in hell, where, as you know, it is not as cold as it is in winter with us, and where, putting on a cap and standing in front of the hearth, as if in fact a cook, roasted he sinners with such pleasure, with which a woman usually fries sausage at Christmas. The witch herself felt that it was cold, despite the fact that she was warmly dressed; and therefore, raising her hands up, she put her foot aside and, having brought herself into such a position as a man flying on skates, without moving a single joint, she descended through the air, as if along an icy sloping mountain, and straight into the pipe. The devil followed her in the same order. But since this animal is more agile than any dandy in stockings, it is not surprising that at the very entrance to the chimney he ran into the neck of his mistress, and both found themselves in a spacious stove between the pots. The traveler slowly pushed back the shutter to see if her son Vakula had called guests into the hut, but, seeing that there was no one there, turning off only the bags that lay in the middle of the hut, she got out of the stove, threw off the warm casing, recovered, and no one could find out that she rode a broom a minute ago. The mother of the blacksmith Vakula was no more than forty years old. She was neither good nor bad. It is difficult to be good in such years. However, she was so able to enchant the most sedate Cossacks (who, by the way, do not interfere with the remark, had little need for beauty), that both the head and the clerk Osip Nikiforovich went to her (of course, if the clerk was not at home), and the Cossack Korniy Chub, and the Cossack Kasyan Sverbyguz. And, to her credit, she knew how to deal with them skillfully. It never occurred to any of them that he had a rival. Whether a pious peasant, or a nobleman, as the Cossacks call themselves, dressed in a kobenyak with a widlog, went to church on Sunday or, if the weather was bad, to a tavern, how not to go to Solokha, not eat fat dumplings with sour cream and not chat in a warm hut with a talkative and obsequious hostess. And the nobleman deliberately gave a big detour before he reached the tavern, and called it - to go along the road. And if Solokha used to go to church on a holiday, putting on a bright plakht with a Chinese spare, and over her blue skirt, on which a golden mustache was sewn on the back, and stand right next to the right wing, then the clerk would already cough correctly and squint involuntarily at that side of the eye the head was stroking his mustache, the settled man was wrapping his ear around and saying to his neighbor who was standing near him: “Oh, good woman! damn woman! Solokha bowed to everyone, and everyone thought that she bowed to him alone. But a hunter to interfere in other people's affairs would immediately notice that Solokha was the friendliest of all with the Cossack Chub. Chub was a widow; eight stacks of bread always stood in front of his hut. Every time two pairs of stout oxen stuck their heads out of the wicker shed into the street and lowed when they envied the walking godfather - a cow, or uncle - a fat bull. The bearded goat climbed to the very roof and rattled from there in a harsh voice, like a mayor, teasing the turkeys that were walking around the yard and turning around when he envied his enemies, the boys, who mocked at his beard. In Chub's chests there were a lot of linen, zhupans, and old kuntush with gold galloons: his late wife was a dandy. In the garden, besides poppies, cabbage, sunflowers, two more fields of tobacco were sown every year. Solokha found it not superfluous to attach all this to her household, thinking in advance about what order it would take when it passed into her hands, and doubled her favor for old Chub. And so that somehow her son Vakula would not drive up to his daughter and not have time to clean up everything for himself, and then he would probably not allow her to interfere in anything, she resorted to the usual means of all forty-year-old gossips: to quarrel Chub with the blacksmith as often as possible. Perhaps these very cunning and sharpness of hers were the fault that in some places the old women began to say, especially when they drank too much somewhere at a merry gathering, that Solokha was definitely a witch; that the lad Kizyakolupenko saw behind her a tail the size of no more than a woman's spindle; that she ran across the road like a black cat the Thursday before last; that a pig once ran up to the priest, crowed like a rooster, put Father Kondrat's hat on his head and ran back. It happened that when the old women were talking about this, some cow shepherd Tymish Korostyavy came. He did not fail to tell how in the summer, just before Petrovka, when he lay down to sleep in the barn, putting straw under his head, he saw with his own eyes that a witch, with a loose scythe, in one shirt, began to milk the cows, and he could not move, so was bewitched; after milking the cows, she came to him and smeared his lips with something so vile that he spat all day afterwards. But all this is somewhat doubtful, because only the Sorochinskiy assessor can see the witch. And that is why all eminent Cossacks waved their hands when they heard such speeches. "The bitch women are lying!" was their usual answer. Getting out of the stove and recovering, Solokha, like a good housewife, began to clean up and put everything in its place, but she did not touch the bags: “Vakula brought this, let him take it out himself!” The devil, meanwhile, when he was still flying into the chimney, somehow accidentally turned around, saw Chub, arm in arm with his godfather, already far from the hut. In an instant, he flew out of the stove, crossed their path and began to tear heaps of frozen snow from all sides. A blizzard has risen. The air turned white. The snow tossed back and forth in a net and threatened to close the eyes, mouths and ears of pedestrians. And the devil flew back into the chimney, firmly convinced that Chub would return with his godfather, find the blacksmith and treat him so that he would not be able to pick up a brush and paint offensive caricatures for a long time. In fact, as soon as a blizzard picked up and the wind began to cut right in the eyes, Chub already expressed remorse and, slamming the droplets deeper on his head, treated himself, the devil and godfather with scoldings. However, this annoyance was feigned. Chub was very pleased with the blizzard that had risen. The clerk still had eight times the distance they had traveled. The travelers turned back. The wind blew on the back of my head; but nothing could be seen through the rushing snow. - Stop, cousin! we seem to be going the wrong way,” Chub said, stepping back a little, “I don’t see a single hut. Oh, what a blizzard! Turn around, godfather, a little to the side, if you find the way; and in the meantime I'll look here. The evil spirit will pull to drag along such a blizzard! Don't forget to scream when you find your way. Eck, what a pile of snow has Satan thrown into his eyes! The road, however, was not visible. Kum, stepping aside, wandered back and forth in long boots, and finally came across a tavern. This discovery pleased him so much that he forgot everything and, shaking off the snow, went into the passage, not in the least worrying about the godfather who remained on the street. It seemed to Chub between the fact that he had found the way; stopping, he began to shout at the top of his voice, but, seeing that the godfather was not, he decided to go himself. Walking a little, he saw his hut. Drifts of snow lay beside her and on the roof. Clapping his hands frozen in the cold, he began to knock on the door and shout commandingly to his daughter to open it. - What do you need here? the blacksmith came out sternly. Chub, recognizing the blacksmith's voice, stepped back a little. “Eh, no, this is not my hut,” he said to himself, “a blacksmith will not wander into my hut. Again, if you look closely, then not Kuznetsova. Whose house would this be? Here on! did not recognize! this is the lame Levchenko, who recently married a young wife. He has only one house similar to mine. It seemed to me, and at first a little strange, that I had come home so soon. However, Levchenko is now sitting with the deacon, I know that; why the blacksmith?.. E-ge-ge! he goes to his young wife. That's how! good! .. now I understand everything. Who are you and why are you hanging around under the doors? said the blacksmith, more severely than before, and coming closer. “No, I won’t tell him who I am,” Chub thought, “what good, he’ll nail it down, damned freak!” and, changing his voice, answered: - It's me, good man! I came for your amusement to carol a little under the windows. "Go to hell with your carols!" Vakula shouted angrily. - Why are you standing? Hear, get out this hour! Chub himself already had this prudent intention; but it seemed to him vexingly that he was compelled to obey the orders of the blacksmith. It seemed that some evil spirit was pushing him by the arm and forcing him to say something in defiance. “Why are you really screaming like that?” he said in the same voice, "I want to carol, and that's enough!" - Ege! but you won’t get tired of words! .. - Following these words, Chub felt a painful blow to his shoulder. - Yes, as I see it, you are already starting to fight! he said, stepping back a little. - Go, go! shouted the blacksmith, giving Chub another push. - What are you! - said Chub in such a voice, which depicted both pain, and annoyance, and timidity. - I see you are fighting in earnest, and you are still fighting painfully! - Go, go! the blacksmith shouted and slammed the door. “Look how brave you are!” said Chub, left alone in the street. - Try to come! wow, what a! here's a big one! Do you think I won't find a trial for you? No, my dear, I'll go, and I'll go straight to the commissioner. You will know me! I will not see that you are a blacksmith and painter. However, look at the back and shoulders: I think there are blue spots. It must have been a painful thrashing, son of the enemy! It’s a pity that it’s cold and you don’t want to throw off the casing! Wait, you demonic blacksmith, so that the devil beats both you and your forge, you will dance with me! Look, damned shibenik! However, now he is not at home. Solokha, I think, is sitting alone. Hm... it's not far from here; would go! The time is now such that no one will catch us. Maybe even that will be possible ... Look how painfully the damned blacksmith beat! Here Chub, scratching his back, went in the other direction. The pleasantness that awaited him ahead when meeting with Solokha lessened the pain a little and made insensible the very frost that crackled through all the streets, not drowned out by the blizzard whistle. From time to time, on his face, whose beard and mustache the blizzard lathered with snow more quickly than any barber, tyrannically grabbing his victim by the nose, showed a semi-sweet mine. But if, however, the snow had not baptized back and forth everything in front of your eyes, then for a long time you could still see how Chub stopped, scratched his back, said: “The damned blacksmith hit painfully!” — and set off again. At the time when the nimble dandy with a tail and a goat's beard was flying out of the chimney and then back into the chimney, the little palm hanging in a sling at his side, in which he hid the stolen moon, somehow accidentally caught in the stove, the moon also dissolved, using In this case, he flew out through the chimney of Solokhina's hut and smoothly rose through the sky. Everything lit up. Blizzards as never happened. The snow caught fire in a wide silver field and was sprinkled all over with crystal stars. The frost seemed to warm up. Crowds of lads and girls appeared with sacks. The songs rang out, and carolers did not crowd under the rare hut. The month is amazing! It is hard to tell how good it is to huddle on such a night between a bunch of laughing and singing girls and between lads ready for all the jokes and inventions that a merrily laughing night can only inspire. It's warm under a tight casing; the frost burns the cheeks even more vividly; and in pranks, the evil one himself pushes from behind. Heaps of girls with bags broke into Chub's hut and surrounded Oksana. Shouts, laughter, stories deafened the blacksmith. Everyone vied with each other in a hurry to tell the beauty something new, unloaded sacks and boasted of the biscuits, sausages, dumplings, which they had already managed to collect enough for their carols. Oksana, it seemed, was in complete pleasure and joy, chatting now with one, then with another, and laughing incessantly. With a kind of annoyance and envy, the blacksmith looked at such gaiety, and this time he cursed the carols, although he himself was crazy about them. — Hey, Odarka! - said the cheerful beauty, turning to one of the girls, - you have new slippers! Ah, how good! and with gold! It’s good for you, Odarka, you have such a person who buys everything for you; and I have no one to get such glorious slippers. - Do not grieve, my beloved Oksana! - picked up the blacksmith, - I will get you such slippers as a rare lady wears. - You? said Oksana, looking quickly and haughtily at him. “I’ll see where you can get slippers that I could put on my leg.” Can you bring the very ones that the queen wears. See what you want! the crowd of girls shouted with laughter. “Yes,” the beauty continued proudly, “be all of you witnesses: if the blacksmith Vakula brings those very slippers that the queen wears, then here is my word that I will marry him that same hour.” The girls took the capricious beauty with them. - Laugh, laugh! said the blacksmith, following them out. - I'm laughing at myself! I think, and I cannot imagine where my mind has gone. She doesn't love me—well, God bless her! as if there was only one Oksana in the whole world. Thank God, there are many good girls in the countryside even without her. What about Oksana? she will never be a good mistress; she is just a master of dressing up. No, come on, time to stop fooling around. But at the very moment when the blacksmith was preparing to be decisive, some evil spirit carried before him the laughing image of Oksana, who said mockingly: “Get out, blacksmith, the queen’s slippers, I will marry you!” Everything in him was worried, and he thought only of Oksana. Crowds of carolers, lads especially, girls especially, hurried from one street to another. But the blacksmith walked on and saw nothing and did not participate in those gaiety that he once loved more than anyone else. The devil, meanwhile, was seriously softening up with Solokha: he kissed her hand with such antics, like an assessor at a priest’s, took hold of her heart, groaned and said bluntly that if she did not agree to satisfy his passions and, as usual, to reward, then he was ready to everything: he will throw himself into the water, and send his soul straight into hell. Solokha was not so cruel, moreover, the devil, as you know, acted in concert with her. She still liked to see the crowd dragging behind her and was rarely without company; this evening, however, I thought to spend alone, because all the eminent inhabitants of the village were invited to kutya to the deacon. But everything went differently: the devil had just presented his demand, when suddenly the voice of a hefty head was heard. Solokha ran to open the door, and the nimble devil climbed into the lying bag. The head, shaking off the snow from his drops and drinking a glass of vodka from Solokha's hands, said that he had not gone to the deacon because a snowstorm had risen; and seeing the light in her hut, he turned to her, intending to spend the evening with her. Before the head had time to say this, a knock was heard at the door and the voice of the deacon. “Hide me somewhere,” whispered the head. “I don’t want to meet the deacon now. Solokha thought for a long time where to hide such a dense guest; finally chose the largest bag of coal; she poured the coal into a tub, and a hefty head with a mustache, with a head and with drops, entered the bag. The deacon came in, groaning and rubbing his hands, and said that he had no one and that he was heartily glad of this occasion. take a walk she had a little and was not afraid of a blizzard. Then he came closer to her, coughed, grinned, touched her full bare arm with his long fingers and said with an air that showed both slyness and self-satisfaction: - And what is it with you, magnificent Solokha? And having said this, he jumped back a little. - Like what? Hand, Osip Nikiforovich! Solokha answered. — Hm! hand! heh! heh! heh! said the deacon, cordially pleased with his beginning, and walked up and down the room. “And what do you have, dearest Solokha?” - he said with the same air, approaching her again and grabbing her lightly by the neck with his hand, and jumping back in the same order. “It’s as if you don’t see, Osip Nikiforovich! Solokha answered. - Neck, and on the neck monisto. — Hm! on the neck monisto! heh! heh! heh! And the clerk again walked up and down the room, rubbing his hands. “And what is this with you, incomparable Solokha?” It is not known what the deacon would now touch with his long fingers, when suddenly there was a knock at the door and the voice of the Cossack Chub. “Oh, my God, an outsider! the deacon shouted in fright. - What now, if they catch a person of my rank? .. It will reach Father Kondrat! .. But the clerk's fears were of a different kind: he was more afraid that his half would not recognize him, who, with her terrible hand, made the narrowest of his thick braids. "For God's sake, virtuous Solokha," he said, trembling all over. “Your kindness, as the scripture of Luke says, the head of the trine ... trine ... They are knocking, by God, they are knocking!” Oh, hide me somewhere! Solokha poured coal into a tub from another sack, and the clerk, not too bulky in body, climbed into it and sat on the very bottom, so that half a sack of coal could be poured over it. - Hello, Solokha! - said, entering the hut, Chub. “Maybe you weren’t expecting me, were you?” really didn't expect it? maybe I interfered? .. - continued Chub, showing on his face a cheerful and significant mien, which made it known in advance that his clumsy head was working and preparing to crack some kind of caustic and intricate joke. “Maybe you were having fun with someone here? .. maybe you hid someone already, huh? - And, delighted with such a remark of his, Chub laughed, inwardly triumphant that he alone enjoys the favor of Solokha. - Well, Solokha, let me drink some vodka now. I think my throat is frozen from the damn frost. God sent such a night before Christmas! How I grabbed it, you hear, Solokha, how I grabbed it ... my hands ossified: I won’t unfasten the casing! how the blizzard caught ... - Open it! came a voice from outside, followed by a push at the door. “Someone is knocking,” said Chub, who had stopped. - Open it! shouted louder than before. - It's a blacksmith! said Chub, clutching at the drops. - Do you hear, Solokha, where you want to take me; I don't want to show myself to this damned freak for anything in the world, so that he comes running, the devil's son, under both eyes on a bubble in a mop of size! Solokha, frightened herself, tossed about like mad, and, forgetting herself, gave a sign to Chub to climb into the very sack in which the deacon was already sitting. The poor clerk did not even dare to cough and grunt in pain when a heavy peasant sat almost on his head and placed his boots, frozen in the cold, on both sides of his temples. The blacksmith entered without a word, without taking off his cap, and almost collapsed on the bench. It was obvious that he was in a very bad mood. At the very moment Solokha was shutting the door behind him, someone knocked again. It was the Cossack Sverbyguz. This one could no longer be hidden in a bag, because such a bag could not be found. He was heavier in body than the head itself and taller than Chubov's godfather. And so Solokha took him out into the garden to hear from him everything that he wanted to announce to her. The blacksmith absentmindedly looked around the corners of his hut, listening from time to time to the far-reaching songs of carolers; finally fixed his eyes on the sacks: “Why are these sacks lying here? It's time to get them out of here. Through this foolish love, I have gone completely silly. Tomorrow is a holiday, and there is still all sorts of rubbish in the hut. Take them to the forge!" Here the blacksmith sat down on the huge sacks, tied them tighter, and prepared to hoist them over his shoulders. But it was noticeable that his thoughts wandered God knows where, otherwise he would have heard Chub hissing when a hair on his head was tied with a rope tied in a bag, and his hefty head began to hiccup quite clearly. “Won’t this worthless Oksana get out of my mind? - said the blacksmith, - I don’t want to think about her; but everything is thought about, and, as if on purpose, about her alone. Why is it so that a thought creeps into one's head against one's will? What the hell, the bags seem to be heavier than before! There must be something else here besides coal. I'm a fool! I forgot that now everything seems harder to me. Before, I used to be able to bend and unbend in one hand a copper nickel and a horseshoe; and now I won’t lift sacks of coal. Soon I will fall from the wind. No, he cried, after a pause and emboldened, what a woman I am! Don't let anyone laugh at you! At least ten such bags, I will lift everything. - And he cheerfully heaped bags on his shoulders that two hefty people would not have carried. “Take this one too,” he continued, picking up the little one, at the bottom of which the devil lay curled up. - Here, it seems, I put my instrument. - Having said this, he went out of the hut, whistling a song:Don't mess around with a woman.
Noisier and noisier the songs and shouts rang out through the streets. The crowds of the jostling people were enlarged by the arrivals from neighboring villages. The lads were naughty and furious enough. Often, between the carols, some cheerful song was heard, which one of the young Cossacks immediately managed to compose. Then suddenly one of the crowd, instead of a carol, would release a carol and roar at the top of his voice:Shchedryk, bucket!
Give me a dumpling
Porridge breast,
Kilce cowbaski!
“The Night Before Christmas” is the first story of the second book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” by N. V. Gogol.
In Little Russian Dikanka, the night before Christmas comes. A witch flies out of the chimney of a house on a broomstick and begins to collect stars from the sky in her sleeve. Next to her in the sky is shown, which grabs a hot month and hides it in his pocket. In this way, the devil wants to take revenge on the village blacksmith and painter Vakula, who painted in the church an unpleasant picture for him about the expulsion of the unclean from hell.
Vakula is passionately in love with Oksana, the daughter of the Cossack Chub. Chub is going to spend the night before Christmas drinking at the clerk's, while Vakula is waiting for Oksana to be left at home without a father to come and declare his love to her. But the devil, having stolen the moon from the sky, plunges Dikanka into darkness with the expectation that this darkness will force Chub to stay at home and upset the blacksmith's plan.
"The Night Before Christmas" ("Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka"). 1961 film
However, Chub still goes to treat the deacon. Young Oksana, seeing off her father,. Vakula enters her hut. He tells Oksana about his love, but the capricious coquette only laughs at him. A heated explanation is interrupted by an unexpected knock on the door. Dissatisfied with this hindrance, Vakula leaves the door with the intention of hitting the side of the uninvited guest.
Knocking on the hut is none other than its owner, Chub. The devil, the insidious enemy of Vakula, made a snowstorm on his way, which nevertheless forced Oksana's father to leave the thought of drinking at the deacon's and return home. But because of the heavy snow, Chub is not quite sure that he is knocking on his own hut, and not on someone else's. And Vakula, who came out to knock in the middle of a snowstorm, does not recognize Chub. He tells him to get out, rewarding him with two strong cuffs. Mistakenly believing that the hut is really not his, Chub decides to spend the rest of the night before Christmas with Vakula's mother, Solokha, with whom he has been playing love tricks for a long time.
Gogol. Christmas Eve. audiobook
Name: Christmas Eve
Genre: Tale
Duration: 10min 21sec
Annotation:
The villagers are getting ready for Christmas night. Chub is expected to visit the clerk at home, who will leave his arrogant beauty daughter Oksana alone. The blacksmith Vakula is waiting for Chub to leave the house to pay a visit to Oksana. He is hopelessly in love with her, but his love is unrequited. He would get the moon out of the sky for her if he could. For her, he was ready for anything.
And in fact, someone actually removed the moon from the sky that night. And none other than the devil himself. He harbored a grudge against the blacksmith, because he painted the devil on the walls of the church, and even so truthfully. The picture showed that the devil has a great lack of sinners who are destined to go to him, to hell. The devil wanted to destroy the plans of the villagers and stole the light that the moon gave. He hoped that Chub would stay at home, thereby preventing Vakula from spending that evening with his beloved Oksana. And this story will tell what can happen when the devil and people interfere in each other's affairs.
N.V. Gogol - The night before Christmas. Listen to short audio content online.