The story of Alexei Tolstoy's "Childhood of Nikita." Summary

Staying in emigration in France and immensely dreaming of returning to his homeland, Count Alexei Tolstoy created his most poetic work "Childhood of Nikita."

The brief content of this autobiographical novel covers the long-past last year of the author's carefree childhood.

The idea of an autobiographical work

He lived in the estate of his stepfather AA Bostrom, whom he loved as his own father, near Samara, in the estate Sosnovka. The main character - the boy Nikita - the writer gave his own rich imagination and impressionability. Images of his parents the writer created by type of his own. Moreover, Nikita's mother is called the same way as Alexei Tolstoy's mother Alexandra Leontievna. The image of the teacher Arkady Ivanovich was created, based also on the real person - the tutor Arcady Slovokhotov. The author, without renaming, introduced the narrative of his childhood friends - Mishka Koryashonok and Stepka Karnaushkin. The story "Nikita's Childhood" is rich in various characters. The summary of the work can be summarized as briefly as immersing the reader in the fairy-tale world of childhood.

The fascinating world of Nikita

The child perceives himself as part of his dear manor, located in the middle of the steppe. This Nikita resembles a miracle: hundreds of miles of bare space, and around the parents' house - a large and dense garden, a pond. Poplars grow, poplars, willows, lindens.

The work gives a detailed description of the house itself, its economic buildings, not empty cowshed and stables, a garden, a pond, a dam.

There is a childlike rapturous description of his mysterious rooms and the cramped bindings of old books in the library. This house keeps family legends about great-grandfather Afrikane Afanasych, exhausted by unhappy love. He, according to the stories of Nikolina's mother, led a strange way of life. At night I read and wrote, but slept during the day. My grandfather abandoned the farm, the courtyards fled from him, the grass grew in the fields ...

Decorated with many colorful and juicy scenes of contemplation of nature, the work "Childhood Nikita." The summary of the story can be reduced to this unity of the boy with nature. He does not just feel like a part of it, but also perceives it through images that are pre-fantasized. For example, a starling in the perception of Nikita is endowed with human qualities to such an extent that he received the nickname Zheltukhin. The main character calls the cat the main character only, like Vasily Vasilyitch, he poetises both the horses of his stepfather, and every bird seen, whether it's a bright Oriole or a vociferous lark.

Beginning of the story

From the chapter "Sunny morning", begins "Childhood of Nikita." The brief content of the story is about the games with the village folk in the midst of the charm of the snowdrifts that cover the huts to the chimneys themselves; A shallow stream of spring waters; The dark garden, lit by July lightning; September dense, like milk, fogs. The boy saw how the whole life of people in the midst of this recurring dance of the seasons passes organically and naturally, and birth and death are like sunrise and sunset.

Specific children's logic of narrative in this work can not fail to note the short content written by us. Tolstoy's "Childhood of Nikita," while working on it, himself introduced a special enthusiastically nostalgic mood, which he himself noted in his memoirs. Very anxiously the author tells the story of how he, not indifferent to his sister Lila, together with her discovered in the empty room of the estate the ring that great-grandfather once gave to his beloved. The ring lay inside a vase with lion's heads, standing on the wall clock for several decades. And Lily herself (Nikita put a ring on her finger) was strikingly reminiscent of the features of her great-grandmother, whose portrait in an amazon with a veil hung on a wall in a secret room. Alexey Tolstoy wrote about this episode in a provocative manner.

A work of an autobiographical nature

What will we notice if we distinguish from the author's narrative about the most romantic year of the life of the protagonist a concise, concise content? Tolstoy's "Childhood Nikita", following the rules of the genre, continued the tradition of Leo Tolstoy ("Childhood, adolescence, adolescence"), M. Gorky ("Childhood", "In People."), S. Aksakov ("The Childhood of Bagrov Grandson" ).

All these books are valuable for reading by adults, especially parents. They are autobiographical and help to understand how the child thinks, explain the motives of his actions. However, if we talk about the author's style of these artistic autobiographies, it should be pointed out that Alexei Tolstoy is the only one of all the above-mentioned classics who told about his childhood from a third person.

Poetization by the boy of the seasons

The summary of the story "Childhood of Nikita" introduces us to the hospitable celebrations of Christmas in the manor. Children of domestic peasants, just like the children of the owner, make toys for the Christmas tree. And when it is decorated and lit by dozens of candles, all the kids, happy with the gifts received, in the landlord's house greet this bright holiday. This holiday the main character of the story loves more than others.

Description of the spring and the waking nature is also included in the summary of the book "Childhood of Nikita", as it occupies a significant place in the book. After all, the main character himself identifies himself with nature, sincerely believing at the behest of the soul that all natural resources around him are his relatives. He is enthralled by tens of thousands of streams from melting snow in March in the steppe. He, enjoying, breathes a full breast in the spring "sharp and clean" air. And something very important seemed icebreaker on the river, when she showed her violent temper, rising above the dam, and with a noise falling into the pools.

And then Alexei Tolstoy wrote in a childlike way about the Maya honey trill of the Orioles. About the steppe eagle floating in the hot summer sky tells us "Nikita's Childhood". The very brief content of this work invariably indicates the connection between the emerging personality of the protagonist and the world around him. Is not this the defining feature of childhood? Perhaps Alexei Tolstoy brings us to the realization of this nuance?

The boy's need to feel this unity is extremely important for his personality. Therefore, even the teacher Arkady Ivanovich does not scold him when he escapes from the lesson to look at the river. It is no coincidence that the author in the chapter "On the cart" used such a romantic comparison: "On a cart, like in a cradle, Nikita swam under the stars, looking at distant worlds."

Conclusion

The original title of the piece sounded like "A Tale of Many Excellent Things". It is obvious that it was written by the author in a single creative impulse, on one inspiration.

The last chapter of the story has a short title - "Departure". Her ending begins with a message that Nikita managed to pass the exam for entering the second grade. And the book ends with a sad phrase: "This event ends his childhood."