Recall the mandatory program of Russian literature! Leo Tolstoy "Childhood" (summary). The author wrote this work in 1852. This is the first of three stories about the life of Nikolai Irtenyev. The hero tells in the first person about the early period of his life, nostalgically regretting the irrevocable freshness of children's feelings, carelessness, love and faith.
Summary of Childhood (Chapters 1-6)
In the morning, a few days after his decade, Irtenyev Nikolenka was awakened by a teacher (or rather, by the clap of his fly swatter). The boy was offended that they woke up him, the little and defenseless, and not his elder brother Volodya. From anger and self-pity, he burst into tears, explaining the tears with a terrible dream. But after the teacher, tickling and laughing good-naturedly, began to lift Nikolenka out of bed, Karl Ivanovich was forgiven and called "sweet."
Every morning, the mentor and the boys went down to the living room to wish their mother good morning.
Resurrecting mother in the imagination, Nikolenka never managed to recreate her whole look. Most often I remembered a birthmark on my neck, an embroidered collar, a look of always kind brown eyes and dry tender hands. In German, she asked Karl Ivanovitch about how the children slept, if Nikolenka was crying.
Often they forced the father to make calculations. He gave financial orders to serf clerk Jacob. He was stingy, like every good and faithful servant, but he had rather strange ideas about the benefits of the master, taking care of increasing his income at the expense of the lady (namely, her estate Khabarovsky).
Having greeted his sons, Papa said that since they had already grown up, it was time to seriously study. To do this, he takes them to Moscow to the house of his grandmother, and maman and sisters will remain in Petrovsky. The brothers were amazed at the news. Nikolenka was sorry for the mother and the old teacher, who, true, would be denied home. Feeling, he cried.
Summary of Childhood (Chapters 7-12)
Dad took the boys with him to hunt, and the girls also asked. With them in the carriage went maman. After there was tea, fruit, ice cream and, of course, children's games in the fresh air.
Later, already at home, everyone went about their business. Mother played the piano, serfs came to their father with a report. Volodya, Nikolenka and the girls decided to take a closer look at the holy faith’s chains, which her mother sheltered.
For the rest of her life Nikolenka remembered the sincere, powerful prayer of a true Christian - the holy fool Grisha, whom they became unwitting witnesses. He prayed with love for all who gave him shelter. When there were not enough words, he tumbled to the ground in sincere tears pouring in a stream.
Summary of Childhood (Chapter 13)
The red-cheeked, cheerful and fat Natasha was taken into the house by a young girl as a female servant for her grandmother. As a maid, Natalia was distinguished by her zeal and meekness. After mother was born, and the maid became a nanny, and here she also deserved rewards and praises for the affection and fidelity that the young lady gave (Natalya’s family did not work out).
Having married, maman tried to thank Natalya Savishna, as she was now called, for her service. She was granted a free and lifetime pension of three hundred rubles. But Our faithful one broke the document with the official seal and remained to serve as a housekeeper, supervising the economy and giving love and care now to the third generation of its masters.
Summary of Childhood (Chapters 14-28)
The boys lived in Moscow, in the house of their grandmother, for more than six months. The children studied, danced at balls, met with Moscow relatives: Princess Kornakova, Prince Ivan Ivanovich, the Ivins, even managed to fall in love with Sonechka Valakhina.
Having received an alarming letter from his wife, his father again drove them to Petrovsky. Unfortunately, the children found mother already unconscious. Nikolenka was very upset by the death and funeral of her maman. His sufferings were a little relieved by pious conversations and sincere tears of Natalya Savishna, who selflessly loved the deceased.
Grandmother learned about the death of her daughter only upon the return of the Irtenyevs to Moscow. Her sadness and grief were touching and strong, but for some reason Nikolenka sympathized and empathized more with Natalya Savishne, because she was convinced that no one so purely and sincerely regretted his mother like this loving and faithful creature.
With the death of maman, Nikolenka ended her childhood. The time of adolescence began.
Summary of Tolstoy's “Childhood” only opens up the vast world created by the author. An inquisitive reader, turning to the full text of the story, learns much more interesting things about the life of a landowner estate, about the noble system of raising and educating children in the nineteenth century.