When only two guests remained in the house, the owner invited them to tell about their first love. But it turned out that neither he nor Sergei Nikolaevich had a decent story, and only Vladimir Petrovich agreed to tell about his first love, but on the condition that he would write his story down on paper, and after 2 weeks he would tell it. The listeners had to agree and exactly 2 weeks later he began his story.

He was then only 16 years old, he lived in the country with his father and mother and was bored of idleness. Once an old countess came to them in the neighborhood with a young twenty-one-year-old beautiful daughter named Zinaida. They were very poor despite the title. The next day he was walking in the garden and accidentally saw her, after which he immediately fell in love with her. While he was devising a way to get to know her, his mother, luckily for him, sent him with a note to the princess, where he met her. There he also met one of Zinaida's fans, Belovzorov, who brought her a kitten.

The next day, the princess visited Mother Volodya, and she did not like the princess very much. And in the evening, Volodya accidentally met the princess, who was reading a book on the bench. Then his father suddenly came up, and Volodya noticed how attentively she was examining him, and how magnificent his handsome father looked.

On the next visit, they were already with their daughter, they all sat at the table together. While leaving, Zina whispered to Volodya to be with her tomorrow at 8 o'clock.

He began to go to her, and found that she had a lot of fans - the poet Maidanov, Count Malevsky, Doctor Lushin, retired captain Nirmatsky and hussar Belovzorov. At her house, they played different games with her - forfeits, rope and others. The reward, most often, was a kiss from Zina's hand. After this meeting, Volodya began to have a real passion for Zinaida. She only teased him, and the rest of the fans too. Once, Volodya noticed that she was in love. He began to wonder at whom, secretly hoping that he was the chosen one.

In the meantime, Zinaida was becoming more and more strange - she pulled out hair from Volodya's head, then forced him to jump from a great height, that he almost crashed, then suddenly she kissed him.

One day she asked Belovzorov to get her a horse, although she had never been fond of this before. He, of course, was glad to fulfill her request. Later, Volodya was surprised to see her riding a horse with his father. After that, she avoided him for a while.

Soon, she again began to communicate with him, and even playfully made him into her pages. Malevsky, when they were accidentally left alone, told Volodya that the page should know where the queen was, day and night, highlighting the word "at night." Volodya understood the hint and decided that night to hide in the garden and find out if Zinaida meets with anyone at night. He took a knife and hid in the garden. Several hours passed, he already thought that no one would come, but finally, he heard steps. When the man came closer, he suddenly recognized his father. Fortunately, he did not notice him.

After this incident, a few days later, Volodya came home and was surprised to learn that his father had gone home, and his mother was ill. Having found out from a friend from the servant that the mother had received an anonymous letter, which was told about the connection between her father and Zinaida. In addition, it turned out that the father had written out a large bill to the princess.

The father returned the next day, talked with his mother behind closed doors for a long time, after which they decided to move out of the dacha to the city in the near future. And in the evening, the father publicly kicked Count Malevsky out of the house, saying that he did not like his handwriting. Volodya could not understand how the princess decided to have a relationship with his father, burying her future, instead of marrying, for example, Count Malevsky. When parting with Volodya, Zinaida asked not to be angry with her and kissed him warmly.

Soon they moved to the city, the events began to fade from his memory. Once, Volodya met Dr. Lushin, who said that Belovzorov could not stand parting with Zinaida, went to the Caucasus and disappeared there. Rejoice, he said, that you got off so lightly.

Surprisingly, Volodya did not hold a grudge against his father, and was even proud of him. Every day his father went on horseback riding, one day Volodya asked to go with him. His father took him with him. After some time, near one of the alleys, the father stopped, dismounted from his horse and told Volodya to wait for him here. After a while, he got tired of waiting and decided to look into the alley. What was his surprise when he saw his father talking to Zinaida, who was looking out of the window. Volodya accidentally heard Zina's words that it was time to part with this ..., after which his father flushed and lashed her with a whip. Then the father threw the whip aside and burst into the house. Volodya rushed back to the place where his father had left him. After a while, my father returned, and they rode home.

After 2 months, Volodya no longer considered his first love real, he entered the university, he began to have other worries. Six months later, unexpectedly, my father had a stroke and he died. A few days before that, he received a letter, after reading which, he even burst into tears and began to write a letter to Volodya, which began with the words “be afraid of female love”. After the death of his father, his mother sent a large sum to Moscow.

Four years later, Volodya accidentally met Maidanov, who told him that Zinaida had gotten married and was living here nearby. He was very happy and was going to visit her, but there was no time for that, and when he did come, he found out that she had died a few days ago during childbirth.

Retelling plan

1. The owner of the house offers to tell the story of the first love.
2. Young Vladimir falls in love with Zinaida, a neighbor in the country.
3. First conversation with Zinaida.
4. Party at the Zasekins' house. Acquaintance with other gentlemen of Zinochka.
5. Vladimir tells his father about the visit to the Zasekins.

6. Zinaida plays with the feelings of men.
7. Vladimir cannot decide who exactly Zinaida is in love with.
8. The young man is convinced that he is the very lucky one.
9. Vladimir realizes that Zinaida is actually in love with his father.
10. The same guests at Zinaida's house. A game of forfeits with stories.
11. Vladimir is suffering, not knowing for sure whether Zinaida loves him or not.
12. The quarrel of the parents of the young man.
13. Vladimir's family moves to the city.
14. Vladimir furtively sees his father talking to Zina.
15. Vladimir's father dies, and his son receives his unfinished letter.
16. Vladimir learns about the changes in the life of Zinaida. The heroine dies.

Retelling

After the guests had departed, only the owner remained in the house, Sergei Nikolaevich, "a round man with a plump blond face," and Vladimir Petrovich, "a man of about forty, black-haired, with gray hair." The owner offered to tell everyone about his first love. Sergei Nikolaevich admitted that he did not have the first love, but he had the second and then all the others. Well, and a serious feeling, according to him, he had only for his nanny. The owner himself put his first love in several sentences: "... with Anna Ivanovna everything went like clockwork with us: our fathers married us, we very soon fell in love and got married without delay." Only Vladimir Petrovich's first love turned out to be "not quite ordinary". And since he “is not a master of storytelling,” he suggested writing down everything he remembered. Two weeks later, he fulfilled his promise.

When Vladimir Petrovich was sixteen years old (in the summer of 1833), he lived in Moscow with his parents at their dacha near the Kaluga outpost. Vladimir was preparing to enter the university. Parents treated him "indifferently-affectionately" and did not "hinder his freedom." The weather was fine, Vladimir read poetry, walked, rode a horse. In everything he thought about, "there was a half-conscious, bashful premonition of something new, unspeakably sweet, feminine." His family's dacha consisted of two outbuildings: one was a cheap wallpaper factory, the other was for rent. And once the poor family of Princess Zasekina moved in there.

Vladimir used to go to the garden every evening and a raven with a gun kept watch. And then one evening he saw a strange sight: "A tall, slender girl ... four young men crowded around her, and she alternately clapped flowers on their foreheads." And he was filled with such "surprise and pleasure" that he himself wanted her to hit him on the forehead. And then he dropped the gun and looked only at her. Suddenly a man shouted at him, and the girl noticed Vladimir. Laughing, she ran away. The image of this girl did not leave his head.

Vladimir had only one thought in his head: how to meet the girl's family? And one day his mother received a letter from Princess Zasekina "on gray paper sealed with brown sealing wax, which was used only on corks of cheap wine." She asked for patronage and asked permission to come. Mamma could not refuse the princess and asked her son to go to her. Vladimir rejoiced at the fleeting fulfillment of his desires.

Vladimir came to the neighboring wing. It was rather poor and untidy there. Princess Zasekina turned out to be an unpleasant woman of about fifty. Then that girl from the garden appeared in the living room, her name was Zina. The young princess and Vladimir got into conversation. She was twenty-one years old and, pointing out this, said that Vladimir, as the youngest, should always tell her the truth. Zinaida Alexandrovna, as she asked to call herself, communicated with him very frankly and uninhibited. This confused Vladimir a little. He had to admit that he liked her.

Vladimir examined her throughout the conversation. “Her face seemed even more charming than the day before: everything in him was so delicate, clever and sweet ...” She had fluffy golden hair, an innocent neck, sloping shoulders. Sitting next to her, he could hardly contain his enthusiasm. Then Belovzorov came, "a hussar with a ruddy face and bulging eyes," he brought her the kitten she wished yesterday. And Vladimir had to leave, a footman was sent for him, as he was very late.

Mother met with Princess Zasekina, and she did not like her. Mother called her a vulgar and a slaughterhouse. And Vladimir's father remembered Prince Zasekin, “a well-bred, but empty and absurd person,” who lost his entire fortune. Vladimir's parents seriously thought about how the princess would not ask them for a loan. Later, in the garden, Vladimir met Zinaida, but she did not pay attention to him. But when his father appeared and greeted her, the girl followed him with her eyes.

The next day, the princess and her daughter arrived half an hour before dinner. Zinochka looked important and cold, and the princess "was not ashamed of anything, ate a lot and praised the food." Zinaida did not pay any attention to Vladimir. But after dinner she invited him to visit; and her mother got ready immediately after she had eaten, saying that she hoped for the protection of Maria Nikolaevna and Pyotr Vasilich.

Exactly at eight, Vladimir came to the evening party in a frock coat. Entering the outhouse, he was surprised at the large number of men. They all crowded around the young princess, who was holding her hat. It was decided to play forfeits. Volodya, as a newbie, was lucky, he got a ticket with a kiss. He had the honor to kiss the princess's hand. “My eyes were dim; I wanted to get down on one knee, fell on both - and so awkwardly touched my lips to Zinaïda's fingers that I slightly scratched the end of my nose with her fingernail. The rest of the men openly envied him. After a while, the evening turned into louder fun. Vladimir became intoxicated and "began to laugh and chat louder than others", and the hostess of the holiday kept looking at him, "smiling mysteriously and slyly."

Count Malevsky showed various card tricks, "Maidanov recited excerpts from his poem" The Murderer ", old man Bonifatius was dressed in a cap, and the princess put on a man's hat ..." Belovzorov alone stood alone in the corner and was so angry, will rush and throw us all away. " For Vladimir, this kind of fun was an unnatural and new "crazy" adventure. When everyone had calmed down, the happy "Voldemar" wandered home. He made his way through the back porch to his room. He did not sleep all night until morning. “I got up, went to the window and stood there until morning. The lightning never stopped for a moment; there was, as the people call it, a sparrow night. " The image of Zinaida haunted him all night.

The next morning, his mother scolded Volodya and made him prepare for the exams. Since the hero knew that worries about his studies would be limited only to this, he did not object and went with his father to the garden. The father respected the boy's freedom and calmly asked him to tell about what happened in the evening in the Zasekin house. For Vladimir, his father was a model of masculinity, and he often regretted that his father did not devote more time to him. Once he said to his son: “Take what you can yourself, but don’t give it into your hands: to belong to yourself - this is the whole thing of life”. The young man told his father everything in detail, and he "half-attentively, half-absent-mindedly" listened to him. After that, my father went to Princess Zasekina and was there for more than an hour, then left for the city. Vladimir himself decided to go to the Zasekins and saw in the room only the old princess, who asked "to rewrite one request for her"; he promised to follow through. Then Zina came in, looked at him with "big cold eyes" and left.

The passion and suffering of Vladimir began from that day: he fell in love. Zinaida immediately noticed this and "made fun of my passion, fooled, pampered and tormented me." All the men who visited her house were crazy about her. And she turned everyone around at her whim, and they did not even resist: "She kept everyone at her feet, she needed each of her fans." She called Belovzorov “my beast” or simply “mine”; he would “rush into the fire for her” and already offered her his hand and heart, “Maidanov answered the poetic strings of her soul”, Lushin, “mocking, cynical, knew her better than anyone else” and loved her too

Vladimir's mother did not like his hobby, his father took it calmly. He himself spoke to Zina "little, but somehow especially cleverly and significantly." The young man abandoned his studies and walks, "like a beetle tied to a leg, circling constantly around his beloved outhouse ..." Once Vladimir met a girl in the garden, she sat quietly, without moving. Then she told him to sit down next to her, asked if he loved her. He was silent, everything was clear. Then she burst into tears: “I was disgusted with everything, I would have gone to the end of the world, I cannot bear it, I cannot cope ...” Then they went to her house, listen to Maidanov's poem. When he read it, the eyes of Zinaida and Vladimir met, and at that moment he understood: "My God, she fell in love!"

From that moment, Vladimir noticed that Zinaida had changed. She often walked alone or sat in her room. All the gentlemen who visited their house noticed that the young man was in love. Once Lushin interrogated him why he went to the princess and whether his new feelings were good for the young man. Then the old princess entered the room where they were talking and made Dr. Lushin scold Zina for often drinking ice water. The doctor warned the girl that she could catch a cold and die. She replied that "there is a road for her, such a life is worth risking it for a moment of pleasure."

In the evening of the same day, all the same guests gathered at the Zasekins' house. Vladimir was there too. The guests discussed Maidanov's poem, and the young princess sincerely praised her. But she herself suggested a different plot: young girls sing a hymn, they are dressed in white dresses, dark wreaths and gold. Bacchantes call them to her. One goes to them, and the Bacchantes, surrounding her, carry the girl away. Maidanov promised to use this plot for a lyric poem. Then all the guests begin to play the "comparison" game that the princess invented. She asked everyone what the clouds look like? And then she herself answered that these were "purple sails that were on Cleopatra's golden ship when she went to meet Antony ..." After thinking, she asked how old Antony was. Everyone answered that he was very young, only Lushin exclaimed that he was forty. Vladimir went home soon after. “She fell in love,” his lips involuntarily whispered. - But who?

As the days passed, Zina became more and more strange and incomprehensible. Once Vladimir found her crying in the room. She grabbed his hair and pulled out a tuft, and then she regretted it.

When the young man returned home, he heard his mother scolding his father for something. Vladimir could not hear anything. Only later did my mother tell him that Zinaida Alexandrovna was one of those women who would do anything. Once, in a secluded place, on the ruins of a greenhouse, he sat on a high wall and thought about the young princess. Suddenly he saw her walking by. Seeing the young man, she asked him to jump down to her, if he loved her so much. Vladimir, without hesitation, jumped down, fell and lost consciousness. When he began to come to his senses, the girl said, bending over him: "How could you do this, how could you obey, because I love you, get up." And she began to cover his head with kisses, then, seeing that he woke up, called him a mischievous person and left. And Vladimir remained sitting on the road. Everything hurt him, but “the feeling of bliss that I experienced then did not repeat itself in my life. Exactly: I was still a child. "

All day Vladimir was cheerful and proud. With delight he recalled every word of the princess and her kisses. Then he went to her, experiencing terrible embarrassment, but she accepted him very calmly. This hurt the young man very much, he realized that she treated him like a child. Then Belovzorov came, he was looking for a horse for her to ride, but he could not find anything suitable. Then she said that she would ask Pyotr Vasilich, the boy's father. "She mentioned his name so easily and freely, as if she were sure of his willingness to serve her." Belovzorov was jealous and said that he didn't care what she would do and with whom. But she reassured him that she promised to take him with her on a horse ride.

The next morning Vladimir walked for a long time, intending to indulge in "despondency and sorrow", but the good weather and fresh air disturbed his memories of Zinaida's kisses. He lay on the grass and thought about her. And when I was walking back home along the path, I saw my father and Zinaida galloping on horses. Pyotr Vasilich smiled at her. And a few seconds later Belovzorov rushed after them. Vladimir thought that Zina was very pale, and then hurried home for dinner.

All the following days Zinaida “told herself sick,” and her men were gloomy and gloomy. And only Lushin once said: “But I, fool, thought she was a flirt! It can be seen that it is sweet to sacrifice oneself - for others. " Vladimir did not understand this expression. He was worried that Zina was avoiding him. Once he watched her by the elderberry bush, from where he liked to look at her window. And that evening she appeared in the window. The girl was in all white and was herself white, and her gaze was motionless. Three days later, Vladimir met her in the garden, her face smiling, "as if through a haze." Zina invited him to be friends, and the young man took offense at her, saying that he could have been in a different role before. Then she confessed to him that she loved him as "a child, sweet, good, smart," and told him that from that day on, Vladimir would be her page.

After dinner, the same guests gathered at Zinaida's. Everyone was having the same fun as before, only without the "gypsy element". And now they were playing a new game: it was necessary to tell "something certainly invented." Gusar Belovzorov could not invent anything, and the next fant was taken by Zinaida. She presented the young queen's ball. “Everywhere gold, marble, crystal, silk, lights, diamonds, flowers, incense, all the whims of luxury. Everyone crowds around her, everyone lavishes the most flattering speeches before her. And there, near the fountain, the one I love, who owns me, is waiting for me. " Throughout the story, the guests were silent, and only Lushin sometimes spoke cynically about Zina's invention. Then the girl anticipated the events and put herself in the place of the queen. She said that Belovzorov would challenge the stranger to a duel, Maidanov would write a long iambic about him, Malevsky would bring him poisoned candy. What Voldemar would have done, she dropped. But Malevsky cynically screwed up that Vladimir, as her personal page, "would have kept her train when she ran into the garden." The princess was indignant and asked him to leave. After such insolence, everyone supported her. Malevsky apologized for a long time, and the princess allowed him to stay. The game of forfeits did not last long.
That night the young man could not fall asleep for a long time, he kept wondering if there was any hint in the princess's story. He dreamed of being that lucky one at the fountain. Then he decided to go to the garden. For a moment it seemed to him that he saw a girl there, but then everything around froze. "I felt a strange excitement: as if I went on a date - and remained alone, passed someone else's happiness."

The next day Volodya met Malevsky, he warned the “page” that he should “stay awake at night and watch, observe with all his might. Remember - in the garden, at night, by the fountain - that's where you have to watch. You will thank me ”. The young man returned to his room, took an English knife and chose in advance a place where to watch. The night was quiet, no one was in sight. Vladimir thought that Malevsky was making fun of him. Then he heard the creak of the door and rustles and saw his father. And "the jealous, ready to kill Othello suddenly turned into a schoolboy." Vladimir threw away the knife and went to his bench by Zina's window. "The small curved glass of the window turned dimly blue in a weak light: behind them - I saw it - a whitish curtain was carefully and quietly descending ...". Volodya did not know what to think.

In the morning Vladimir got up with a headache and "it seems that something was dying in him." Zinaida was visited by her younger brother, also Volodya. She asked the young man to treat him with love, to walk with him, in general, to take him under his protection. When Vladimir invited the cadet to take a walk in the garden, Zina was very happy, and he thought that he had never seen “such lovely colors” on her face.

In the evening “young Othello” cried, and when the princess kissed him on his wet cheek, he whispered through sobs: “I know everything; why did you play with me, what did you need my love for? " The girl confessed to him that she was guilty and very sinful, but just did not understand that he knew? The boy was silent, and soon he and the younger Volodya were already running and playing.

All the weeks that followed were feverish. Volodya did not want to know if Zinaida loved him, and did not want to admit to himself that she loved another. Returning home one day for dinner, he noticed that something extraordinary had happened. From Philip, the barman, he learned that his mother and father had quarreled violently, and everyone in the house heard. She accused Pyotr Vasilich of infidelity, in connection with a neighboring young lady, to which her father hinted at the years of Maria Nikolaevna, and she burst into tears. Now mother is unwell, and father has gone somewhere. This news was "beyond the power" of Vladimir, "this sudden discovery crushed him." “It was all over. All my flowers were torn out at once and lay scattered and trampled around me. "

Mother wanted to go to town alone at first, but father talked to her, and she calmed down. Then the preparations for home began, "everything was done quietly and slowly." Vladimir wandered around like a stray, thinking how Zina could decide on such an act: "... this is love, this is passion ...", and he went to say goodbye to the princess. Seeing her, he told her: "Believe me, Zinaida Alexandrovna, no matter what you do, no matter how you torment me, I will love and respect you until the end of my days." And she kissed him. “Who knows who this long, goodbye kiss was looking for, but I eagerly tasted its sweetness. I knew it would never happen again. " Vladimir's family moved to the city. The worries slowly subsided, and the boy had nothing against his father. But Vladimir was destined to see Zinaida again.

Once Vladimir and his father were on horseback. “We drove along all the boulevards, visited the Devichye Pole, jumped over several fences, crossed the Moskva River twice ...” Then my father noticed that the horses were tired. And he left them to Vladimir, and he himself went somewhere. Volodya walked with the horses along the shore, walking in the direction where his father had retired. And suddenly he was dumbfounded, because he saw him with Zinaida. My father almost noticed him, but it was obvious that he was too busy talking. A strange strong feeling made Vladimir stay where he was.

Pyotr Vasilich insisted on something, but Zina did not agree. Then he struck her hand with his whip, and she only kissed the scar on her that was scarlet. The father threw out his whip. Vladimir could hardly resist not to interfere. He returned to the place where his father had left him. Soon the father approached. The young man asked where he was doing the whip, the father replied that he threw it away. And Vladimir saw how much tenderness and regret his strict features could express.

Two months passed, Vladimir entered the university. Volodya's feelings made him old, and he already treated his experiences as something childish. Once he had a dream that Belovzorov was threatening his father covered in blood, and Zinaida was sitting with a red stripe on her forehead in the corner.

A year and a half later, my father died of a stroke in St. Petersburg, but not long before that he asked mother for something and cried. Then Vladimir received an unfinished letter from Pyotr Vasilyevich: "My son, fear female love, fear this happiness, this poison ..." After the death of his father, Matushka sent a significant sum to Moscow. XXII

Four years later, Vladimir graduated from the university and once met Maidanov at the theater. The latter told him that Zinaida Zasekina had become Mrs. Dolskoy, despite the "consequences", but with "her mind, anything is possible," and gave her address in the hotel. Vladimir was getting ready for a long time, and when he came to the hotel, he was told that Mrs. Dolskaya had died of childbirth. This bitter thought "dug into his heart with all the strength of an irresistible reproach," and meanwhile:

From indifferent lips I heard the news of death,

And I listened indifferently to her ...
He wanted to pray for Zinaida, for his father and for himself.

Turgenev Ivan

First love

I.S.Turgenev

First love

Dedicated to P.V. Annenkov

The guests have long since departed. The clock struck half past twelve. Only the owner remained in the room, yes Sergei Nikolaevich, yes Vladimir Petrovich. The owner called and told him to take the rest of the dinner.

So, this matter is settled, - he said, sitting deeper into an armchair and lighting a cigar, - each of us is obliged to tell the story of our first love. It's your turn, Sergey Nikolaevich

Sergei Nikolaevich, a plump man with a plump blond face, looked first at the owner, then lifted his eyes to the ceiling.

I didn’t have my first love, ”he said at last,“ I just started with the second.

This is how?

Very simple. I was eighteen years old when for the first time I dragged myself after a very pretty young lady; but I courted her as if the case were not new to me: just as I courted others afterwards. As a matter of fact, for the first and last time I fell in love for about six years with my nanny; but this is a very long time ago. The details of our relationship have faded from my memory, but if I remembered them, who might be interested?

So what can be done? - the owner began. - In my first love, too, there is not much amusing; I did not fall in love with anyone until I met Anna Ivanovna, my present wife, and everything went like clockwork with us: our fathers married us, we very soon fell in love with each other and entered into marriage without delay. My tale is expressed in two words. I confess, gentlemen, when I raised the question of first love, I hoped for you, I will not say old, but not young bachelors either. Will you amuse us with something, Vladimir Petrovich?

My first love really belongs to the number of not quite ordinary, - answered Vladimir Petrovich with a slight hesitation, a man of about forty, black-haired, with gray hair.

AND! - said the owner and Sergei Nikolaevich in one voice. - So much the better ... Tell me.

Excuse me ... or not: I will not tell; I am not a master of storytelling: it comes out dry and short, or lengthy and false, and if you will allow me, I will write down everything that I remember in a notebook and read it to you.

At first the friends did not agree, but Vladimir Petrovich insisted on his own. Two weeks later they met again, and Vladimir Petrovich kept his promise.

Here's what was in his notebook:

I was sixteen then. This took place in the summer of 1833.

I lived in Moscow with my parents. They rented a dacha near the Kaluzhskaya outpost, opposite Neskuchny. I was preparing for university, but I worked very little and took my time.

Nobody hindered my freedom. I did what I wanted, especially since I parted with my last French tutor, who could not get used to the thought that he had fallen "like a bomb" (comme un bombe) into Russia, and with a fierce expression on his face spent days on the bed. My father treated me with indifference and affection; my mother paid almost no attention to me, although she had no children besides me: other concerns absorbed her. My father, a young and very handsome man, married her of convenience; she was ten years older than him. My mother led a sad life: she was incessantly worried, jealous, angry - but not in the presence of my father; she was very afraid of him, and he behaved strictly, coldly, distantly ... I have not seen a person more exquisitely calm, self-confident and autocratic.

I will never forget the first weeks I spent in the country. The weather was wonderful; we moved from the city on the ninth of May, on the very Niko-lin day. I walked in the garden of our dacha, then along Neskuchny, then behind the outpost; I took some book with me — Kaidanov’s course, for example — but rarely unfolded it, and mostly read aloud poetry, which I knew a lot from memory; the blood was fermenting in me, and my heart ached - so sweet and funny: I was still waiting, shy of something and marveled at everything, and I was all ready; fantasy played and rushed around quickly around the same performances, as at the dawn of a swift around a bell tower; I thought, was sad and even cried; but through the tears and through the sadness, inspired now by the melodious verse, now by the beauty of the evening, the joyful feeling of a young, boiling life emerged like spring grass.

I had a riding horse, I saddled it myself and rode away alone, galloped off and imagined myself a knight at a tournament - how merrily the wind blew in my ears! - or, turning his face to the sky, he received its shining light and azure into an open soul.

I remember that at that time the image of a woman, the ghost of female love, almost never appeared in certain outlines in my mind; but in everything that I thought, in everything that I felt, there was a half-conscious, bashful premonition of something new, unspeakably sweet, feminine ...

This premonition, this expectation penetrated my entire composition: I breathed it, it rolled through my veins in every drop of blood ... it was destined to come true soon.

Our dacha consisted of a wooden manor house with columns and two low outbuildings; in the outbuilding to the left was a tiny factory of cheap wallpaper ... I went there more than once to watch a dozen thin and disheveled boys in greasy dressing gowns and with drunken faces now and then jumped on wooden levers that pressed the quadrangular stumps of the press, and thus the weight of their puny bodies were embossed with colorful wallpaper patterns. The wing to the right was empty and was being leased. One day three weeks after May 9 - the shutters in the windows of this outbuilding opened, women appeared in them - some family settled in it. I remember that on the same day at dinner my mother asked the butler who our new neighbors were, and, hearing the name of Princess Zasekina, at first she said, not without some respect: "Ah! Princess ..." and then added: "It must be , some poor one. "

On three cabbies, sir, the butler remarked, serving the dish respectfully, they don't have their own carriage, sir, and the furniture is very empty.

Yes, - objected mother, - but still better. The father looked at her coldly: she was silent.

Indeed, Princess Zasekina could not be a rich woman: the outbuilding she hired was so decrepit, and small, and low that people, although somewhat prosperous, would not agree to settle in it. However, I then ignored it all. The princely title had little effect on me: I recently read Schiller's The Robbers.

I was in the habit of wandering around our garden every evening with a gun and watching the crows. I have long felt hatred for these cautious, predatory and crafty birds. On the day we were talking about, I also went to the garden - and, in vain proceeding all the alleys (the crows recognized me and only croaked abruptly from a distance), accidentally approached a low fence that separated our property itself from a narrow strip of the garden that stretched behind the outhouse to the right and belonged to him. I walked with my head down. Suddenly I heard voices; I looked over the fence and turned to stone. A strange sight presented itself to me.

Year of publication of the book: 1860

Turgenev's work "First Love" is autobiographical from beginning to end. Perhaps that is why in the story the author managed to convey the feelings of the protagonist as fully as possible. Thanks to this, Turgenev's story "First Love" is just as relevant to read now as at the time of its writing, and the work itself has found reflection and recognition in cinema. Moreover, it was filmed not only in Russia. It was such books as "First Love" that allowed Turgenev to enter, and the work to receive high marks from readers.

Turgenev's "First Love" summary

A summary of Turgenev's First Love should start with a story about the main character. This is Volodya. He is sixteen years old and he and his parents came from Moscow to their dacha. Soon the impoverished princess Zasekina with her daughter arrives in the outbuilding next to their house. Volodya liked Zasekina the youngest very much, and he wants to get to know her. Moreover, the very next day there is a great chance. The princess in an illiterate letter asks for patronage from Volodya's mother and she sends her son with an invitation to dinner. At the Zasekin's house, Volodya meets Zinaida Alexandrovna and goes with her to straighten the wool in her room. But for five years, the eldest princess quickly loses interest in him.

Further reading Turgenev's "First Love" summary, you can find out how Zasekina and her daughter visited Volodya's house. The princess's mother did not like the princess, because she had been fidgeting in her chair all evening and sniffing tobacco, and the princess was talking to Volodya's father in French. And, despite the fact that the whole dinner Zinaida Aleksandrovna did not pay attention to Volodya, at the end of the evening she invited him to come to her in the evening.

In the Zasekin house, Volodya meets the princess's admirers. They are Doctor Lushiniy, the poet Maidanov, Count Malevsky, the hussar Belovzorov and Captain Nirmatsky. The evening is very fun, and the princess even lets Volodya kiss her hand. The next day, his father asks him about the evening spent and goes himself to the Zasekins' house. After that, Zinaida does not go out to him, and the protagonist "First Love" Turgenev is tormented by jealousy and resentment. This allows Zasekina to understand that Volodya is in love with her.

Further, in the summary of Turgenev's First Love, one can read about how Zinaida Alexandrovna suddenly changes. She walks for a long time by herself and Volodya realizes that she is also in love, but he does not understand who. Once Volodya was sitting on the wall of a collapsed greenhouse and, seeing him, the princess ordered to get down if he loved her. Volodya immediately jumps down and loses consciousness from an unsuccessful landing. Zinaida rushes to him and kisses him until she realizes that Volodya has already woken up. Volodya is simply in "seventh heaven" and is ready to quote poetry, but at the next meeting he does not show his happiness. Nevertheless, the princess invites the protagonist of the story "First Love" by Turgenev to become her friend and page.

Further in the work of Turgenev "First Love" you can read about Volodya's conversation with Malevsky, in which the latter says that the page must follow his queen relentlessly and know everything about her. That is why Volodya takes a knife and decides to guard under Zinaida's window. But suddenly his father appears and, having lost the knife, Volodya runs away. The next day, it is not possible to talk to the princess, as her 12-year-old brother arrives, and Zinaida entrusts the main character with taking care of him. In response to Volodya's words that Zinaida is playing with him, the princess asks for forgiveness and for about a week Volodya, driving away bad thoughts, communicates with Zinaida Alexandrovna.

Further in Turgenev's "First Love" a summary, you can learn how, once returning home, Volodya found the litter of his mother and father. The mother accused her father of having connections with Zinaida and decided to leave the next day. Volodya says goodbye to the princess, promising to love her always. He thinks that he will not see her again, but somehow during a horse ride with his father, his father stopped the horse and said that he needed to leave. The protagonist of Turgenev's First Love follows his father down the alley and sees that his father is arguing about something with Zinaida Alexandrovna, who looked out the window. She stretches out her hand to her father, but he beats her with a whip, while Zinaida kisses the scar of the wound.

Volodya's family moved to St. Petersburg, and six months later, his father received a letter that worried him very much. He died soon after, and his mother sent a large sum of money to Moscow. Further in the story of Turgenev "First Love" you can read about the events taking place after 4 years. Volodya meets Maidanov and he tells that Zinaida got married, now lives in St. Petersburg, but is going abroad and gives Volodya an address. The protagonist of the story "First Love" Turgenev only a few weeks later goes to her, but learns that she died after giving birth.

Turgenev's story "First Love" on the site Top books

The popularity of Turgenev's "First Love" to read is so great that it allowed the work to take a high place in our rating. But these are not all the achievements of the story. In addition, it has taken a high place in the rating and due to the consistently high interest it will most likely be presented in the ratings of our site more than once.

You can read Turgenev's story "First Love" online at the Top Books website.

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