Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is a famous Russian writer. His works we are familiar with the school bench. We all remember him "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", "Dead Souls" and other famous creations. In 1835 he finished his mystical novel "Viy" Gogol. The summary of the work, stated in this article, will help to refresh the main moments of the story in memory. The story stands apart in the writer's work. Viy is an ancient Slavic demonic being. It could kill with one glance only. His image and embodied in his story Gogol. The work "Wii" in its time was not appreciated by critics. Belinsky called the story "fantastic", devoid of useful content. But Nikolai Vasilyevich himself attached great importance to this work. He changed it several times, deleting the details of the description of the terrible fairy-tale creatures that destroyed the protagonist. The story was published in the collection Mirgorod.
"Viy", Gogol (short summary): introduction
The most long-awaited event for seminarians in the Kiev Seminary is vacancies when all students go home. They go home in groups, earning on the road spiritual hymns. Three bursakas: the philosopher Homa Brutus, the theologian Freebie and the rhetorician Tiberius Gorodets - stray from the road. At night they go out to an abandoned village, where they knock on the first hut with a request to allow the night. The mistress of the old woman agrees to let them in with the condition that they lie down in different places. She defines Brutus' homeless for the night in an empty sheep's cowshed. Without having had time to close his eyes, the bursak sees how the old woman comes to him. Her gaze seems sinister to him. He understands that he is a witch. The old woman approaches him and quickly jumps to his shoulders. The philosopher does not have time to recover, as he already flies through the night sky with a witch on his back. Homa tries to whisper prayers and feels that the old woman is weakening at the same time. After selecting the moment, he slides out from under the damned witch, sits down on it and begins to groom her with a log. In exhaustion the old woman falls to the ground, and the philosopher continues to beat her. There are groans, and Homa Brutus sees that before him lies a young beauty. In fear, he runs away.
"Viy", Gogol (short summary): developments
Soon the rector of the seminary calls Khoma to him and informs him that a wealthy centurion from a distant farm sent him a tent and six healthy Cossacks to take the seminarian to read prayers over his departed daughter who returned from a walk beaten. When the bursak is brought to the farm, the centurion asks him where he could get acquainted with his daughter. After all, the last wish of the pannochka was that the seminarist Homa Brutus should read it. Bursak says that he does not know his daughter. But when he sees her in the coffin, he notes with fear that this is the same witch that he was courting with a log. Over dinner, residents of the farm tell Homa different stories about the dead pannochku. Many of them noticed that devilry was going on with her. By night, the seminarian is taken to the church where the coffin stands, and is locked there. Approaching the choir, Homa draws a protective circle around himself and begins to read the prayers loudly. Towards midnight the witch rises from the coffin and tries to find a bursak. The protective circle does not allow it to do so. Homa breathes his last breath. There is a rooster cry, and the witch returns to the coffin. The lid closes. The next day the seminarian asks the centurion to let him go home. When he refuses to him in this request, he tries to escape from the farm. They catch him and, by night, are taken to church again and locked up. There, Khoma, not having time to draw a circle, sees that the witch has again risen from the coffin and walks around the church - looking for him. She reads spells. But the circle again does not allow her to catch the philosopher. Brutus hears how a countless army of evil forces is breaking into the church. Of the last strength, he reads prayers. The rooster screams, and everything disappears. In the morning Hom is taken out of the church gray.
"Viy", Gogol (short summary): the denouement
It was time for the third night of prayers to be read by a seminarian in the church. The same circle is protected by Khoma. The witch is wild. The evil force, bursting into the church, tries to find and grab the bursak. The latter continues to read the prayers, trying not to look at the spirits. Then the witch screams: "Bring Viya!" Walking hard, a squat monster with large eyelids covering his eyes enters the church. An inner voice tells Homa that you can not look at Vija. The monster demands that his eyelids be opened. The evil spills to fulfill this command. The seminarian, unable to resist, casts a glance at Vii. He notices it and points at it with an iron finger. All the evil force rushes to Khoma, who immediately emits a spirit. A roar of cocks is heard. The monsters rush out of the church. But this is the second cry, the first they did not hear. To leave the evil spirit does not have time. The church still remains standing with an unclean force stuck in the cracks. No one will come here again. After all these events, Freebies and Tiberius Gorodets, having learned about the difficult fate of Khoma, remember the soul of the departed. They conclude that he died from fear.
The work "Viy" is not included in the compulsory curriculum for studying literature in general schools. But it is very interesting for us. In the atmosphere of ancient fairy tales, this mystical tale allows to plunge (here is a brief retelling). "Viy" Gogol wrote more than one and a half centuries ago. Then the product caused a lot of talk and talk. In our time it is read with no less trembling.