For his famous story “the Beast” Nikolai Semenovich Leskov as the epigraph used the expression: “And the beasts of snimaju Holy word” (“the Life of the elder Seraphim”).
Indeed, in his story the animals understand people with a good heart and don’t understand the hard-hearted and evil. But a kind word and a pleasure to the beast.
In our hunting literature, the name of Leskov’s “not seen” — he’s not even included in the collection “Russian hunting and culture” (second Edition. Moscow. 2001). Although, in my opinion, he deserves more — the story of “the Beast” is a masterpiece of hunting literature.
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was born in the village of Pea in Orel region on 16 February 1831 in the family of an official. Father Leskov — Semyon Dmitrievich was distinguished by the hardness of belief, was close to Decembrist Ryleyev and Bestuzhev, resigned, selling in the views with the provincial authorities, and moved to the farm Panine, where the family lived in a tiny house, “which consisted of one large peasant log house, plastered inside and covered with straw.”
The charm of the beautiful Russian nature, legends, legends about the miraculous Wanderers and noble robbers, the hunting passion of the uncle forever sunk into the memory of the boy. Since childhood he has seen tyrants and landlords had taken to heart the fate of lordly slaves and, as it happens, the fate of wild animals in the manor ruthless uncle, the landlord.
N. Leskov received a good home education and studied at the Oryol gymnasium, the second is not finished. With 16 years began working as a clerk in the eagle, and then in Kiev. From his father inherited Leskov absolute honesty in business and firm in their beliefs.
Soon Leskov left government service and went to work for the husband of his aunt A. Scotto, managing the estates of the counts Perovsky and Naryshkin. The work was linked to the trips to Russia. The writer visited the North, the Volga region, Kazakhstan, the Baltics, Karelia and got a lot of different impressions about the lives of ordinary people. This gave him the right to write about himself: “I have not studied the people… I grew up in… people with kasanka in hand, I slept with him on the dewy grass night under a warm sheepskin coat. With the people I was your man”. “All the forces of the soul” Leskov hated serfdom. No, he didn’t become a revolutionary, he felt “distrust of the rebellion”, but warmly sympathetic to many democratic ideals.
In 1861 Leskov moved to St. Petersburg. Literary career began with writing articles, feuilletons, stories. Generosity Leskov had a strong effect on his work. He fully expressed the bitter view on Russian reality that is full of surprises and “mockery of life”. So is the short story “the Beast.”
Leskov was a boy, when he lived for some time with an aunt that was married to a landowner of Orel. The landlord “was very rich, old and cruel”. “In character he was dominated by nastiness and relentlessness”. The landowner was proud of these qualities and considered them an expression of the “indomitable fortitude”. In the house of his uncle “never tell anyone no wine is not goodbye, even for a beast or some small animal.” In the house and in all the villages that belonged to the uncle, was a very dreary dullness.
Uncle was an avid lover of hunting hounds. With hounds he hunted wolves, foxes, hares. There were special dogs that took bears. They were called “palcami”. “They dug into the beast so that they cannot be torn away”. Bears were numerous, and uncle sometimes managed to take the cubs alive. They tended yard Hrabosky.
Among the bears was chosen the most intelligent and gave him free to walk around the yard, but only as long as the bear is behaving still. This bear was Sganarelle, who for five years has not done any “pranks”. But human nature took its course, and No one has done: tore off the wing of the goose, turned back to the foal and attacked a man. Graboske told them to lock Sganarelle in the pit, and from there one road — the execution using the “Plavac”, but if they fail, the bullet from a heavy cooperativismo fitting doing their job.
Sganarelle for his sins certainly had to pay a cruel death. His execution was as afternoon entertainment for guests. Armed guests gathered at the pit with the bear. Breakfast Strause, Morgenrote German, English Mortimeri Warsaw and the Collet (rifle, named after the gunsmiths who created them) sported on the shoulders of guests.
Uncle ordered to chase the bear out of the pit and start to poison him, but the bear would not come out, and Hrabosky sent to the hole, so he brought him up. No one hugged Hrabosky and began gently licking him, complaining about his fate. Finally, Graboske managed to persuade the bear to leave the pit. Baiting began. No one killed a few “Plavac”, the beam dispersed the onlookers and after shot of cooperativismo fitting ran into the woods.
Hrabosky was accused of having helped save his friend’s Sganarelle, and he threatened severe punishment. He was saved by a miracle after hearing the priest’s words about forgiveness, the uncle cried, called Hrabosky, gave him his freedom and one hundred rubles in money. But Hrabosky refused and remained loyal slave uncle until his death. Leskov thereby emphasized the slavish nature of Russian people.
Sganarelle searched but did not find.
Leskov loved in man, the wisdom of kindness, but even more I appreciated the kindness of wisdom.
In an effort “to justify Russia”, he had a very critical attitude to the Russian reality and to all that he saw wrong in his own country. “He loved Russia, all what she is… — wrote about Leskove Bitter, but he loved it, not turning a blind eye”. It is the author’s outrage at the “Russian heart” is particularly noticeable in the story “the Beast.”
The writer merits before the Russian literature is so great. Gorky believed that N. With. Leskov deserves to stand alongside such writers as L. N. Tolstoy, N. In. Gogol, I. S. Turgenev.
N. With. Leskov died on 21 (March 5) February 1895. He was buried in St. Petersburg.
