A short story of Turgenev's first love. A short retelling of Turgenev's "First Love"
The story takes place in 1833 in Moscow. The main character, Volodya, is sixteen years old, he lives with his parents in the country and is preparing to enter university. Soon the family of Princess Zasekina moves into the poor outbuilding next door. Volodya accidentally sees the princess and really wants to meet her. The next day, his mother receives an illiterate letter from Princess Zasekina asking for her protection. Mother sends Volodya to Princess Volodya with a verbal invitation to come to her house. There Volodya meets the princess, Zinaida Alexandrovna, who is five years older than him. The princess immediately calls him to her room to untangle the wool, flirts with him, but quickly loses interest in him. On the same day, Princess Zasekina pays a visit to his mother and makes an extremely unfavorable impression on her. However, despite this, the mother invites her and her daughter to dinner. During lunch, the princess noisily sniffs tobacco, fidgets in her chair, spins around, complains about poverty and talks about her endless bills, but the princess, on the contrary, is dignified - the whole dinner talks to Volodin’s father in French, but looks at him with hostility. She does not pay attention to Volodya, however, when leaving, she whispers to him to come to them in the evening.
Arriving at the Zasekins, Volodya meets the princess’s admirers: Doctor Lushin, the poet Maidanov, Count Malevsky, retired captain Nirmatsky and hussar Belovzorov. The evening is stormy and fun. Volodya feels happy: he gets the lot to kiss Zinaida’s hand, all evening Zinaida does not let him go and gives him preference over others. The next day, his father asks him about the Zasekins, then he goes to see them. After lunch, Volodya goes to visit Zinaida, but she does not come out to see him. From this day Volodin’s torment begins.
In the absence of Zinaida, he languishes, but even in her presence it does not make him feel better, he is jealous, offended, but cannot live without her. Zinaida easily guesses that he is in love with her. Zinaida rarely goes to Volodya’s parents’ house: her mother doesn’t like her, her father doesn’t speak to her much, but somehow in a particularly intelligent and significant way.
Unexpectedly, Zinaida changes a lot. She goes for a walk alone and walks for a long time, sometimes she doesn’t show herself to guests at all: she sits in her room for hours. Volodya guesses that she is in love, but does not understand with whom.
One day Volodya is sitting on the wall of a dilapidated greenhouse. Zinaida appears on the road below. Seeing him, she orders him to jump onto the road if he really loves her. Volodya immediately jumps and faints for a moment. Alarmed, Zinaida fusses around him and suddenly begins to kiss him, however, guessing that he has come to his senses, she gets up and, forbidding him to follow her, leaves. Volodya is happy, but...
bsp; the next day, when he meets with Zinaida, she behaves very simply, as if nothing had happened.
One day they meet in the garden: Volodya wants to pass by, but Zinaida herself stops him. She is sweet, quiet and kind to him, invites him to be her friend and grants him the title of her page. A conversation takes place between Volodya and Count Malevsky, in which Malevsky says that pages should know everything about their queens and follow them relentlessly, day and night. It is not known whether Malevsky attached special significance to what he said, but Volodya decides to go into the garden at night to keep watch, taking a small English knife with him. He sees his father in the garden, gets very scared, loses his knife and immediately returns home. The next day, Volodya tries to talk about everything with Zinaida, but her twelve-year-old cadet brother comes to her, and Zinaida instructs Volodya to entertain him. In the evening of the same day, Zinaida, having found Volodya in the garden, carelessly asks him why he is so sad. Volodya cries and reproaches her for playing with them. Zinaida asks for forgiveness, consoles him, and a quarter of an hour later he is already running around with Zinaida and the cadet and laughing.
For a week, Volodya continues to communicate with Zinaida, driving away all thoughts and memories. Finally, returning one day to dinner, he learns that a scene had taken place between father and mother, that the mother had reproached his father for his affair with Zinaida, and that she had learned about this from an anonymous letter. The next day, mother announces that she is moving to the city. Before leaving, Volodya decides to say goodbye to Zinaida and tells her that he will love and adore her until the end of his days.
Volodya once again accidentally sees Zinaida. He and his father are going for a horse ride, and suddenly his father, having dismounted and given him the reins of his horse, disappears into an alley. After some time, Volodya follows him and sees that he is talking to Zinaida through the window. The father insists on something, Zinaida does not agree, finally she extends her hand to him, and then the father raises the whip and sharply hits her on her bare arm. Zinaida shudders and, silently raising her hand to her lips, kisses the scar. Volodya runs away.
Some time later, Volodya and his parents moved to St. Petersburg, entered the university, and six months later his father died of a stroke, a few days before his death he received a letter from Moscow, which excited him extremely. After his death, his wife sent a fairly significant amount of money to Moscow.
Four years later, Volodya meets Maidanov at the theater, who tells him that Zinaida is now in St. Petersburg, she is happily married and is going abroad. Although, Maidanov adds, after that story it was not easy for her to form a party for herself; there were consequences... but with her mind anything is possible. Maidanov gives Volodya Zinaida’s address, but he goes to see her only a few weeks later and learns that she suddenly died from childbirth four days ago.
One of the most famous works of the Russian classic is “First Love”. Turgenev ( summary The story will demonstrate this) introduces the reader to the emotional experiences of the young character. The work was published in 1860. And its plot is based on the author’s own experience, on the events that took place in his family.
Meet the main character
Where does the summary of Turgenev's story begin? Events unfold in Moscow. The main character Vladimir turned sixteen years old. Together with his parents, he comes to the dacha to relax and prepare for exams. After some time, the family of Princess Zasekina settled in the neighborhood. The boy, seeing the princess, dreams of meeting her.
When Volodya's mother receives a letter from them asking for protection, she sends her son to the princess's house. He should invite this family to visit. There the teenager meets Princess Zinaida Alexandrovna.
She is five years older than Vladimir. At first she begins to flirt with the teenager, but her interest quickly fades. This is how love begins." Turgenev (the summary will continue to get acquainted with the characters) describes the Zasekin family in an extremely unflattering way.
Unpleasant experience, or return visit
When the princess and her daughter came to dinner at Volodya’s parents’ house, they made a not very pleasant impression on his mother. The eldest Zasekina constantly complained about her poverty, while constantly sniffing tobacco and fidgeting around the table. And throughout the dinner, the young princess talked with Vladimir’s father in French and behaved very proudly.
Despite the fact that during the meal she did not pay any attention to the teenager, when she left, she whispered to him to come to their house. Volodya, who came to visit, was simply happy. Although young Zasekina introduced him to several of her admirers, she nevertheless did not leave his side for a minute.
She showed her affection in every possible way and even allowed me to kiss his hand. But this is only the beginning of the story "First Love". Turgenev (the summary continues to follow his narrative) describes further events in a slightly different light.
First disappointments, or Relationship with Zinaida
The father asks the boy about his visit to the house of the princely family and goes to visit them himself. And when Volodya came the next time, Zinaida didn’t even come out to him. The teenager begins to suffer from the feelings that have taken hold of him. He is constantly jealous of her. When a girl is not around, he feels bad, but in her company Vladimir does not feel any better. Of course, the princess guessed about Volodya’s love.
She does not come to him, knowing full well that his mother did not like her. And the boy’s father is reluctant to communicate with her. Suddenly the girl completely changed. I stopped communicating with people, preferring loneliness. She walked for a long time and rarely went out to see guests. Volodya realized that Zinaida had fallen in love. But who?
"First Love": content (retelling)
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev continues to acquaint us with how the relationships of the heroes develop. Some more time passes, and Volodya sees a girl sitting on the wall of the greenhouse. He jumped towards her and, having hit himself, lost consciousness. Zinaida got scared and began to try to bring him to his senses. The girl begins to kiss Vladimir, and when she realizes that he has already woken up, she quickly leaves. Of course, the teenager is happy.
The young princess does not stop communicating with Volodya, who is in love with her. He appoints him as his page, who must follow his lady of his heart everywhere. And one day the teenager decided to go into the garden at night to protect the girl, but saw his father there. Frightened, he ran away. What will the summary tell you next? First love (Turgenev I.S. describes in detail the emotions of the teenager) unfortunately did not bring Volodya any reciprocal feelings from the chosen one.
Family troubles, or the connection between a father and a young princess
Some more time passes, and Vladimir learns that there was a scandal between the parents, during which the mother accused her husband of treason. The culprit of the father's infidelity turned out to be the boy's beloved, Zinaida. The parents are going to return to St. Petersburg, and Volodya, before leaving country house, says goodbye to the princess, making a promise to love her for the rest of his life.
But this was not their last meeting. When he and his father go for a walk, he witnesses some kind of conversation between him and Zinaida. The father tried to prove something to the girl, but she did not agree, and the man hit her hand with a whip. Frightened Volodya ran away.
The reader, of course, guessed what the author was talking about in the story “First Love”. Turgenev (the summary of his work is coming to an end) does not reveal all the details of the connections of his characters, apparently leaving the reader the opportunity to draw his own conclusions.
The last events of the work, or the Fate of the young princess
Volodya and his family return to St. Petersburg. He successfully passes his exams and enters the university. But six months pass, and his dad dies from a stroke. This happened almost immediately after my father received a letter. After reading it, he suddenly became excited. When my father was buried, Volodya’s mother sent a very large sum of money to Moscow. The teenager did not know any more details.
Four years pass. One day, going to a theatrical performance, the now matured Vladimir meets Maidanov, who once also courted Zinaida Alexandrovna. He tells Volodya that the princess has already married and will soon be leaving abroad.
Consequences of a long history, or Death of a beloved
Maidanov also added that it was very difficult for Zinaida to find her husband after those events that had some negative consequences. But the girl turned out to be smart enough and still achieved her goal. The young man also said the address where Zinaida Alexandrovna now lived.
But several weeks passed before Volodya decided to pay her a visit. And when he arrived, he found out that the young woman had died in childbirth. This is how I.S. ends his first love (a brief chapter-by-chapter summary demonstrates the development of the feelings of the maturing Volodya) brought the young man nothing but bitter memories.
I. S. Turgenev’s story “First Love” begins with a description of the situation that preceded the emergence of the memories of the protagonist Vladimir Petrovich about the days of his youth. He ended up visiting and stayed there until late at night. They started telling stories about first love. Vladimir Petrovich admitted that his story was special, but begged his companions to be patient until he put everything that happened to him on paper. Two weeks later, the friends met again, and the story from the notebook was read out.
Chapter 1
The main character, sixteen years old, on the eve of meeting his first love, relaxing at his parents' dacha near Moscow, was preparing to enter university. Volodya was in a state of anticipation of something special in his life. Soon the family of Princess Zasekina settled in the poor outbuilding next door.
Chapter 2
One day the hero wandered into the territory near the neighbors' outbuilding. Behind the fence he saw a blond girl of extraordinary beauty, surrounded by a company of young people. She joked with them - they joyfully accepted her jokes.
Volodya was stunned to look at the girl’s graceful figure and light and charming movements. The company noticed him. The girl laughed, and the young man, burning with shame, ran home.
Chapter 3
Volodya fell in love and was looking for a reason to see the object of his passion again. His mother instructed him to go to the neighbors and invite them to visit. This was facilitated by a letter from Princess Zasekina, in which she complained about her plight and asked for help. The letter was extremely illiterate.
Chapter 4
The young master saw that the neighbors’ living room was cramped and untidy. The princess had the simplest manners. But her daughter was completely different from her. With a slight grin, Zinaida invited “Voldemar” to help untangle her threads. They met, and Volodya was invited to the princess for the evening.
Chapter 5–7
Volodya's mother found Princess Zasekina a vulgar, selfish woman and said that she, being the daughter of a clerk, married Zinaida's father when he lost all his fortune. It was said about Zinaida that she is neither like her mother nor her father - she is educated and smart.
In the evening, the young man saw Zinaida again surrounded by fans. She played forfeits with them and immediately involved the confused “Voldemar” in the game. The others were introduced to him. Among them were Doctor Lushin, Count Malevsky, hussar Belovzorov, retired captain Nirmatsky, poet Maidanov.
During the game, Volodya received the treasured phantom - a kiss from the girl's hand. As a result, he was in an ecstatic state and felt happy for the rest of the evening.
Chapter 8
Pyotr Vasilyevich, Volodya’s father, had no time family life. He lived in his own world and repeated that the sweetest thing is power and the opportunity to belong only to oneself.
Volodya tells his father about his visits to the Zasekins and not right away, but he decides to mention Zinaida. The father thinks about it and, having finished the conversation, tells the servant to saddle the horse. He headed towards the Zasekins. In the evening, the young man saw a different Zina - thoughtful, pale, with carelessly tied up hair.
Chapter 9
Volodya can no longer think about anything or anyone except her, and compares himself to soft wax in her hands. Zinaida herself says about herself that she is an actress and behaves accordingly - she plays with her fans, sometimes drawing them closer to her, sometimes pushing them away.
One day the hero found his beloved in some new mood. Seeing him, she said thoughtfully: “The same eyes...” And then doomedly said that she was disgusted with everything. Volodya, at her request, read poetry to her. He guessed that the girl fell in love. But who?
Chapter 10–12
Doctor Lushin, when meeting with a young man, tries to warn him against passionate feelings, saying that the choice of a house for visits is unsuccessful for the young man, the air there is harmful. Reminds me of the need to prepare for university and hints that there is a lot going on around Volodya that he should know.
Zinaida is becoming more and more strange. She allows herself unexpected antics: she grabs Volodya by the hair, asking: “Does it hurt? Doesn’t it hurt me?” - and ends up tearing out a clump of hair. Then she asks him to jump down to her high altitude, and when he, without thinking, jumps and loses consciousness, showers him with hot kisses.
Chapter 13–15
The young man constantly remembers Zinaida’s kisses and feels at the height of bliss. But when he meets her, he realizes that she treats him like a child. The girl is planning a horse ride the next day.
The next morning Volodya sees that his father is riding with Zinaida on horseback and is enthusiastically telling the girl something, bending low towards her. Over the next week, Zinaida said she was sick and did not show herself to anyone. Then she avoided Volodya’s company for a long time, but in the end she asked him for forgiveness for her coldness and offered him friendship.
Chapter 16
When Zinaida hosted guests again, she offered to tell dreams. Her story turned out like this: she imagines the life of a certain queen, around whom suitors crowd, and each of them is ready to give everything for her. But she herself belongs only to the one who is waiting for her at the fountain, waiting for her to appear to him. Volodya quickly realizes that Zinaida’s dream should be understood as a hint about her life. He admires her image of an “adventurer” and is enchanted with renewed vigor.
Chapter 17–19
The young man meets Malevsky on the street, and he hints to him that the “pages” need to be constantly near their mistress during the day and especially at night. It becomes clear to Volodya that we are talking about the girl’s double life and decides to find out the truth at night. In the garden, he suddenly sees his father, hiding under a wide cloak and quickly hurrying somewhere. The young man does not dare to give free rein to his guesses.
But the situation is soon resolved. Something strange is going on in Volodya’s house. The wife does not speak to her husband, and the servants gossip that an unpleasant scene occurred between the owners. Volodya's mother accused his father of infidelity, and the young man guessed everything. He decided to see Zinaida for the last time and when they met, he admitted to her that he would always, no matter what she did, be about her exclusively. good opinion. Zinaida responded with a hot kiss. They said goodbye forever.
Chapter 20
The main character's family moved to the city. One day, Pyotr Vasilyevich took his son with him for a horseback ride around the outskirts of Moscow. At the end of the walk, the father asked his son to wait for him and went off somewhere. A lot of time passed, and Volodya decided to look for his father. He found it near the window wooden house, behind the curtain of which Zinaida was sitting.
The girl extended her hand, and Pyotr Vasilyevich hit her with a whip. Zina just shuddered and kissed the mark of the blow. The offender threw the whip and ran towards her. The scene shocked the young man. A new thought came to his mind: this is love. A completely different feeling - not what he himself experienced.
Six months later, Volodya’s father died from a stroke. Before his death, he managed to tell his son: “Be afraid of a woman’s love...” Later, already as a student, Volodya met Maidanov and learned from him that Zinaida had gotten married and was now in Moscow. Volodya wanted to meet her, but got caught up in business. When he appeared at the indicated address, it was too late: the princess died from childbirth four days ago. The hero's story ends with his reasoning about the frivolous nature of youth.
When all the guests left, only the owner, Sergei Nikolaevich, and his guest Vladimir Petrovich remained in the house. The owner suggested telling everyone about his first love. Vladimir Petrovich, a man of about forty, declares that his first feeling was not entirely ordinary, so he will not talk about it, but will write everything down in a notebook and read it. Two weeks later, the friends met again, and Vladimir Petrovich began his story.
He was then sixteen years old. The action took place in the summer of 1833. His parents rented a dacha near the Kaluga outpost, not far from Neskuchny. He was preparing to enter university. The dacha consisted of a wooden manor house and two outbuildings. Princess Zasekina moved into one of the outbuildings when she arrived on vacation.
One day, while wandering around the garden, Vladimir saw a girl surrounded by young people whom he really liked. He dreamed of meeting her. A little later, his mother received a letter from Zasekina asking for her protection, after which the families met. The neighbors took turns visiting each other. Zinaida, that was the name of the subject of Vladimir’s dreams, was Zasekina’s daughter. She was older than Vladimir: she was already twenty-one years old. They begin to communicate, the young man often visits her and gradually realizes that he is in love. Zinaida, guessing about his passion, “fooled, spoiled and tormented him.”
One day, while walking, he met his beloved girl with his father, they were galloping past him on horseback. Vladimir decides to keep an eye on them, and in the evening he again witnesses their secret meeting. He sees that Zinaida is sincerely in love with his father. Soon, Vladimir’s mother becomes aware of her husband’s affair with a neighboring princess, after which a scandal occurs between them, and they leave back to Moscow. However, Vladimir was destined to meet Zinaida again.
My father went horseback riding every day, and once he took Vladimir with him. Stopping at one of the alleys, he gave his son the reins of his horse, asking him to wait here, and he left. Since he did not appear for a long time, Vladimir went after him. Suddenly he saw his father standing at the open window wooden house and talking to a woman, who turned out to be Zinaida. Unexpectedly, in the midst of the conversation, the father raised the whip and hit it on the hand of the girl, who silently raised her hand to her lips and kissed the scarlet scar that appeared.
Two months later, Vladimir entered the university, and six months later his father died of a stroke. The young man received an unfinished letter from his father, which excited him greatly. In it, the father wrote: “My son, fear a woman’s love, fear this happiness, this poison...”
Four years later, the young man graduated from university. One day at the theater he met an old acquaintance of Maidanov, who informed him about Mrs. Dolskaya’s arrival in St. Petersburg. She turned out to be Zinaida Zasekina, who is now married. Maidanov gave him the address of his former lover, but he could not immediately visit her due to his busy schedule. Only two weeks later he went to her hotel, where he learned that Mrs. Dolskaya had died four days ago from childbirth.
. “First Love” is one of his most striking works.
In contact with
The story of the Russian classic begins with introducing the reader to the situation that preceded the fact that the author suddenly delved into memories. The main character of the work, Vladimir Petrovich, starts a story about the days of his youth.
He came to visit and stayed there until late. The interlocutors started talking about the experience of their first love. The author then admitted that his story was special, but persuaded his friends to wait until he described everything that happened on paper. A couple of weeks later, the friends made an appointment again, and the story from the notebook was read to them by the author himself.
“First Love”: chapter-by-chapter summary
Chapter 1
The main character, being a young man of sixteen, on the eve of meeting the girl who was to become his first love, was relaxing at his parents' dacha near Moscow and preparing for university exams. Volodya had a presentiment of the approach of something extraordinary in his life. Soon in the next poor outbuilding The princely Zasekin family settled.
Chapter 2
On one of those summer days main character story ended up on the territory next to the Zasekins' outbuilding. Behind the fence he saw a blond girl of extraordinary beauty, surrounded by a company of young men. She laughed at them, and they only joyfully responded to her fun.
Volodya looked in confusion:
- graceful figure,
- light and charming movements of the young lady.
The company noticed him. The girl laughed, and the young man, burning with shame he did not understand, ran away to his room.
Chapter 3 - 4
Volodya fell in love with a neighbor and was looking for an excuse to meet the object of his attraction again. Mother gave him instructions to go to the neighbors and invite them to visit. The reason for this was a letter from Princess Zasekina, where she complained about her unenviable position and begged for help. The note was extremely poorly written.
The young master noticed that his neighbors’ guest room was cramped and dirty. The princess turned out to have rather simple manners. But the heiress was not at all like her. With a slight smile Zinaida, that was the name of the lovely girl, asked “Voldemar” to help her unravel the skein of thread. They introduced themselves to each other, and Volodya was asked to come to the princess for dinner.
Chapter 5−7
Mother Volodya spoke negatively about Zasekina and found the princess a vulgar, selfish person, and said that the princess, who grew up in the family of a clerk, went down the aisle with Zinaida’s father when he squandered all his fortune. Mother said about young Zasekina that she was unlike any of her parents and was educated and smart.
In the evening, Volodya met with Zinaida, however, she was again surrounded by fans. They played forfeits, and the girl immediately pulled the embarrassed “Voldemar” into the game. He was introduced to the company. Among those present were:
- poet Maidanov,
- Dr. Lushin,
- Count Malevsky,
- hussar Belovzorov,
- retired captain German.
During the game, Volodya got a cherished phantom - to kiss the girl's hand. Thanks to this, he was in an ecstatic state for the rest of the evening and experienced a feeling of great happiness.
Chapter 8 - 9
Pyotr Vasilyevich, Volodya’s father, did not pay much attention to the family. He was in his inner world and kept repeating that the sweetest thing was to have the opportunity to belong only to himself and power.
Volodya told his father about his visits to the Zasekins, and even if not right away, he still dared to mention Zina. Father deep in thought and at the end of the conversation he orders the servant to saddle the horse.
He went to the Zasekins. In the evening, the young man saw Zina differently for the first time - pale, thoughtful, with carelessly collected curls.
Volodya is no longer able to think about anyone or anything except her, and compares himself with the soft wax in her palms. Zina herself declares herself to be an actress and behaves accordingly - she plays with her admirers, sometimes drawing them closer to her, sometimes pushing them away.
Once the hero found his beloved in some new mood. Seeing him, she said detachedly: “The same eyes...” And then she said doomedly that she was fed up with everything. Volodya, at her request, recited poetry to her. He realized that the girl had fallen in love. But who?..
Chapter 10−12
Doctor Lushin, having met with the young man, tries to warn him against ardent feelings, says that the choice of home for frequent visits is unfavorable for him, that the atmosphere there is harmful. Reminds us of the importance of preparing for university and hints that there is a lot going on around Volodya that he should know.
Zina is becoming more and more strange. She allows herself sudden antics: for example, she grabs Volodya by the hair, asking: “Does it hurt? Doesn’t it hurt me?” - and as a result, he tears out a piece. She tells him to jump towards her from an impressive height and, when he jumps without further hesitation and faints, she covers his face with passionate kisses.
Chapter 13−15
The young man constantly remembers about Zina's kisses and feels at the height of bliss. However, when meeting her, he cannot help but notice that she looks at him like a child. The girl is planning a horse riding excursion for the coming day.
Volodya finds out the next morning that his parent is riding with Zina. Through the window, the young man sees that his father is enthusiastically telling something to the girl, bending low towards her. Over the next week, Zina said she was sick and did not go out to see anyone. Afterwards, she avoided Volodya’s company for a long time, but as a result, she asked him for forgiveness for his dryness and offered him her friendship.
Chapter 16
When Zinaida started taking again having guests, one day she suggested telling dreams. Her story went like this: in her nightly dreams she imagines the life of some queen, whose surroundings are again full of suitors, and each of them intends to give everything for her. However, she herself belongs only to the one who is waiting for her at the fountain, waiting for her to come to him. Volodya understands that Zina’s dream must be understood as an allegory about her life. He admires her role as an “adventurer” and becomes enchanted with renewed vigor.
Chapter 17−19
The young man bumps into Malevsky on the street, and he gives him a hint that the “pages” need to be near their mistress inseparably, both during the day and, especially, at night. It becomes clear to Volodya that we're talking about about the double life of his beloved and decides at night to find out the truth. In the garden, he suddenly meets his father, hiding under a spacious cloak and quickly hurrying somewhere. The young man does not dare to give freedom to his guesses.
However, the situation is soon resolved. Something strange is happening in Volodya’s home. Mother does not speak to father, and the servants gossip that a very repulsive scene happened between the owners. Volodya’s mother accused his parent of treason, and the young man guessed everything. He decided to see Zina for the last time and when they met, he admitted to her that he would always, no matter what she did, have only the best opinion of her. Zina responded with a passionate kiss. They said goodbye forever.
Chapter 20
The protagonist's family returned to the city. One day, Pyotr Vasilyevich took his son with him for a horseback ride around the Moscow outskirts. At the end of the walk, the parent asked his son to wait and went off somewhere. Quite a long time passed, and the young man went in search of his parent. He found it near the window log house, behind the curtain of which Zinaida was hiding.
The girl stuck her hand out the window, and Pyotr Vasilyevich hit her with a whip. The girl only shuddered, after which she kissed the wound from the blow. The offender threw the whip and flew towards her. The incident shocked the young man. He was overwhelmed by a new thought: this is love. A completely different feeling - not what he himself experienced.
Six months later, Volodya’s father died of a stroke. Before his death, he managed to say to his son: “Fear a woman’s love...”
Subsequently, already as a student, Volodya met Maidanov and learned from him that Zina had entered into marriage and this moment resides in the capital. Volodya wanted to meet her, but he was consumed by business. When he finally showed up for the indicated appointment, it was too late: the princess died four days ago during childbirth. The hero's story ends with reflections on the reckless nature of youth.