Read Sologub the Little Demon in abbreviation. “But it only seemed so”

Little devil

Ardalyon Borisovich Peredonov, a literature teacher at a local gymnasium, constantly felt like a subject special attention women. Still would! State Councilor (fifth class in the table of ranks!), a man in the juice, in essence, not married... After all, Varvara... If something happens, Varvara can be sidelined. There's just one thing - without her, you probably won't get an inspector's position. (The director of the gymnasium does not favor him; the students and their parents consider him rude and unfair.) Princess Volchanskaya promised Varvara to intercede for Ardalyon Borisovich, but set the condition for the wedding: it is inconvenient to intercede for the partner of her former house dressmaker. However, first the place, and then the wedding. Otherwise they will just deceive you.

Varvara was extremely disturbed by these moods of his, and she begged the widow Grushina to prepare a letter for money, as if from the princess, with a promise of a place if they got married.

Peredonov was overjoyed, but Vershina, who was trying to pass off the dowryless Marta as him, immediately besieged him: where is the envelope? Business letter- and without an envelope! Varvara and Grushina immediately corrected the matter with a second letter, sent through their St. Petersburg acquaintances. Both Vershina and Rutilov, who wooed Peredonov’s sisters, and Prepolovenskaya, who was hoping to marry his niece, all realized that their case was lost, Ardalyon Borisovich set the wedding day. Already suspicious, he was now even more afraid of envy and kept expecting a denunciation or even an attempt on his life. Prepolovenskaya added fuel to the fire, hinting that Ardalyon Borisovich’s close friend Pavel Vasilyevich Volodin was visiting Peredonov for Varvara Dmitrievna’s sake. This is, of course, nonsense. Varvara considers Volodin a fool, and a crafts teacher at a city school receives four times less than a gymnasium teacher, Peredonov. Ardalyon Borisovich became worried: he would marry Varvara, they would go to the inspector’s place, and on the way they would poison him and bury him like Volodin, and he would be an inspector. Varvara still doesn’t let go of the knife, and the fork is dangerous. (And he hid the cutlery under the bed. The Chinese eat with chopsticks.) So the ram, so similar to Volodin, looks blankly, probably scheming. The main thing is that they will inform you and he will die. After all, Natasha, Peredonov’s former cook, went straight to the gendarme from them. Having met the gendarme lieutenant colonel, Ardalyon Borisovich asked not to believe what Natasha would say about him, she was always lying, and she had a Pole lover.

The meeting gave rise to the idea of ​​visiting the city fathers and assuring them of his trustworthiness. He visited the mayor, the prosecutor, the leader of the nobility, the chairman of the district zemstvo government, and even the police officer. And he told everyone that everything they were saying about him was nonsense. Once he wanted to light a cigarette on the street, he suddenly saw a policeman and asked if he could smoke here. So that the almost already established inspector would not be replaced by Volodin, he decided to mark himself. On the chest, on the stomach, on the elbows he put the letter P in ink.

The cat also became suspicious to him. Strong electricity in wool is the problem. And he took the beast to the barber for a haircut.

Many times already the gray little thing had appeared to him, rolled at his feet, mocked him, teased him: he would stick his head out and hide. And even worse - cards. The ladies, two at a time, winked; aces, kings, jacks whispered, whispered, teased.

After the wedding, the Peredonovs were visited for the first time by the director and his wife, but it was noticeable that they were moving in different circles local society. And not everything is going smoothly for Peredonov at the gymnasium. He visited the parents of his students and complained about their laziness and insolence. In several cases, children were punished for these fictitious faults and complained to the director.

The story of fifth-grader Sasha Pylnikov turned out to be completely wild. Grushina said that this boy was actually a girl in disguise: he was so cute and kept blushing, the quiet boy and the schoolchildren teased him about being a girl. And all this to catch Ardalyon Borisovich.

Peredonov reported to the director about a possible scandal: debauchery would begin in the gymnasium. The director felt that Peredonov was going too far. Nevertheless, the cautious Nikolai Vlasievich, in the presence of the gymnasium doctor, became convinced that Sasha was not a girl, but the rumor did not subside, and one of the Rutilov sisters, Lyudmila, looked into Kokovkina’s house, where her aunt had rented a room for Sasha.

Lyudmila and Sasha became a tender but troubled friendship. Lyudmila awakened in him premature, still unclear aspirations. She came dressed, perfumed, and sprinkled perfume on her Daphnis.

Innocent excitement was the main charm of their meetings for Lyudmila. She said to her sisters: “I don’t love him as much as you think... I love him innocently. I don’t need anything from him.” She bothered Sasha, sat him on her lap, kissed him and allowed him to kiss her wrists, shoulders, and legs. Once she half-begged, half-forced him to be naked to the waist. And she told him: “I love beauty... I wish I had been born in ancient Athens... I love the body, strong, agile, naked... My dear idol, a god-like youth...”

She began to dress him in her outfits, and sometimes in the tunic of an Athenian or a fisherman. Her tender kisses awakened the desire to do something sweet or painful, tender or shameful to her, so that she would laugh with joy or scream with pain.

Meanwhile, Peredonov was already telling everyone about Pylnikov’s depravity. The townspeople looked at the boy and Lyudmila with vile curiosity. The future inspector himself behaved more and more strangely. He burned the winking and grimacing cards in his face, wrote denunciations about the card pieces, about the flaw, about the ram posing as Volodin. But the worst thing was what happened at the masquerade. The eternal jokers and inventors of the Rutilov sisters dressed Sasha as a geisha and did it so skillfully that the first ladies' prize went to him (no one recognized the boy). A crowd of guests, excited by envy and alcohol, demanded to take off the mask, and in response to the refusal, tried to grab the geisha, but was saved by the actor Bengalsky, who carried her out of the crowd in his arms. While the geisha was being poisoned, Peredonov decided to let fire on the missing piece that had appeared out of nowhere. He brought the match to the curtain. The fire was noticed from the street, so the house burned down, but people were saved. Subsequent events assured everyone that the rumors about Sasha and the Rutilov girls were nonsense.

Peredonov began to realize that he had been deceived. One evening Volodin came in and sat down at the table. They drank more than they ate. The guest bleated and fooled around: “They fooled you, Ardasha.” Peredonov pulled out a knife and slashed Volodin in the throat.

When they entered to take the murderer, he sat dejectedly and muttered something meaningless.

Ardalyon Borisovich Peredonov, a literature teacher at a local gymnasium, constantly felt himself the subject of special attention from women. Still would! State Councilor (fifth class in the table of ranks!), a man in the juice, in essence, not married... After all, Varvara... If something happens, Varvara can be sidelined. There's just one thing - without her, you probably won't get an inspector's position. (The director of the gymnasium does not favor him; the students and their parents consider him rude and unfair.) Princess Volchanskaya promised Varvara to intercede for Ardalyon Borisovich, but set the condition for the wedding: it is inconvenient to intercede for the partner of her former house dressmaker. However, first the place, and then the wedding. Otherwise they will just deceive you.

Varvara was extremely disturbed by these moods of his, and she begged the widow Grushina to prepare a letter for money, as if from the princess, with a promise of a place if they got married.

Peredonov was overjoyed, but Vershina, who was trying to pass off the dowryless Marta as him, immediately besieged him: where is the envelope? Business letter - and without an envelope! Varvara and Grushina immediately corrected the matter with a second letter, sent through their St. Petersburg acquaintances. Both Vershina and Rutilov, who wooed Peredonov’s sisters, and Prepolovenskaya, who was hoping to marry his niece, all realized that their case was lost, Ardalyon Borisovich set the wedding day. Already suspicious, he was now even more afraid of envy and kept expecting a denunciation or even an attempt on his life. Prepolovenskaya added fuel to the fire, hinting that Ardalyon Borisovich’s close friend Pavel Vasilyevich Volodin was visiting Peredonov for Varvara Dmitrievna’s sake. This is, of course, nonsense. Varvara considers Volodin a fool, and a crafts teacher at a city school receives four times less than a gymnasium teacher, Peredonov. Ardalyon Borisovich became worried: he would marry Varvara, they would go to the inspector’s place, and on the way they would poison him and bury him like Volodin, and he would be an inspector. Varvara still doesn’t let go of the knife, and the fork is dangerous. (And he hid the cutlery under the bed. The Chinese eat with chopsticks.) So the ram, so similar to Volodin, looks blankly, probably scheming. The main thing is that they will inform you and he will die. After all, Natasha, Peredonov’s former cook, went straight to the gendarme from them. Having met the gendarme lieutenant colonel, Ardalyon Borisovich asked not to believe what Natasha would say about him, she was always lying, and she had a Pole lover.

The meeting gave rise to the idea of ​​visiting the city fathers and assuring them of his trustworthiness. He visited the mayor, the prosecutor, the leader of the nobility, the chairman of the district zemstvo government, and even the police officer. And he told everyone that everything they were saying about him was nonsense. Once he wanted to light a cigarette on the street, he suddenly saw a policeman and asked if he could smoke here. So that the almost already established inspector would not be replaced by Volodin, he decided to mark himself. On the chest, on the stomach, on the elbows he put the letter P in ink.

The cat also became suspicious to him. Strong electricity in wool is the problem. And he took the beast to the barber for a haircut.

Many times already the gray little thing had appeared to him, rolled at his feet, mocked him, teased him: he would stick his head out and hide. And even worse - cards. The ladies, two at a time, winked; aces, kings, jacks whispered, whispered, teased.

After the wedding, the Peredonovs were visited for the first time by the director and his wife, but it was noticeable that they moved in different circles of local society. And not everything is going smoothly for Peredonov at the gymnasium. He visited the parents of his students and complained about their laziness and insolence. In several cases, children were punished for these fictitious faults and complained to the director.

The story of fifth-grader Sasha Pylnikov turned out to be completely wild. Grushina said that this boy was actually a girl in disguise: he was so cute and kept blushing, the quiet boy and the schoolchildren teased him about being a girl. And all this to catch Ardalyon Borisovich.

Peredonov reported to the director about a possible scandal: debauchery would begin in the gymnasium. The director felt that Peredonov was going too far. Nevertheless, the cautious Nikolai Vlasievich, in the presence of the gymnasium doctor, became convinced that Sasha was not a girl, but the rumor did not subside, and one of the Rutilov sisters, Lyudmila, looked into Kokovkina’s house, where her aunt had rented a room for Sasha.

Lyudmila and Sasha became a tender but troubled friendship. Lyudmila awakened in him premature, still unclear aspirations. She came dressed, perfumed, and sprinkled perfume on her Daphnis.

Innocent excitement was the main charm of their meetings for Lyudmila. She said to her sisters: “I don’t love him as much as you think... I love him innocently. I don’t need anything from him.” She bothered Sasha, sat him on her lap, kissed him and allowed him to kiss her wrists, shoulders, and legs. Once she half-begged, half-forced him to be naked to the waist. And she said to him: “I love beauty... I wish I had been born in ancient Athens... I love the body, strong, dexterous, naked... My dear idol, a god-like youth...”

She began to dress him in her outfits, and sometimes in the tunic of an Athenian or a fisherman. Her tender kisses awakened the desire to do something sweet or painful, tender or shameful to her, so that she would laugh with joy or scream with pain.

Meanwhile, Peredonov was already telling everyone about Pylnikov’s depravity. The townspeople looked at the boy and Lyudmila with vile curiosity. The future inspector himself behaved more and more strangely. He burned the winking and grimacing cards in his face, wrote denunciations about the card pieces, about the flaw, about the ram posing as Volodin. But the worst thing was what happened at the masquerade. The eternal jokers and inventors of the Rutilov sisters dressed Sasha as a geisha and did it so skillfully that the first ladies' prize went to him (no one recognized the boy). A crowd of guests, excited by envy and alcohol, demanded to take off the mask, and in response to the refusal, tried to grab the geisha, but was saved by the actor Bengalsky, who carried her out of the crowd in his arms. While the geisha was being poisoned, Peredonov decided to let fire on the missing piece that had appeared out of nowhere. He brought the match to the curtain. The fire was noticed from the street, so the house burned down, but people were saved. Subsequent events assured everyone that the rumors about Sasha and the Rutilov girls were nonsense.

Peredonov began to realize that he had been deceived. One evening Volodin came in and sat down at the table. They drank more than they ate. The guest bleated and fooled around: “They fooled you, Ardasha.” Peredonov pulled out a knife and slashed Volodin in the throat.

When they entered to take the murderer, he sat dejectedly and muttered something meaningless.

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Brief summary of works of Russian literature of the first half of the 20th century (collection 2) Yanko Slava

The Little Devil – Novel (1902)

The Little Devil – Novel (1902)

Ardalyon Borisovich Peredonov, a literature teacher at a local gymnasium, constantly felt himself the subject of special attention from women. Still would! State Councilor (fifth class in the table of ranks!), a man in the juice, in essence, not married... After all, Varvara... If something happens, Varvara can be sidelined. There’s just one thing: without her, you probably won’t get an inspector’s position. (The director of the gymnasium does not favor him; the students and their parents consider him rude and unfair.) Princess Volchanskaya promised Varvara to intercede for Ardalyon Borisovich, but set the condition for the wedding: it is inconvenient to intercede for the partner of her former house dressmaker. However, first the place, and then the wedding. Otherwise they will just deceive you.

Varvara was extremely disturbed by these moods of his, and she begged the widow Grushina to prepare a letter for money, as if from the princess, with a promise of a place if they got married.

Peredonov was overjoyed, but Vershina, who was trying to pass off the dowryless Marta as him, immediately besieged him: where is the envelope? Business letter – without an envelope! Varvara and Grushina immediately corrected the matter with a second letter, sent through their St. Petersburg acquaintances. Both Vershina and Rutilov, who wooed Peredonov’s sisters, and Prepolovenskaya, who was hoping to marry his niece, all realized that their case was lost; Ardalyon Borisovich set a wedding day. Already suspicious, he was now even more afraid of envy and kept expecting a denunciation or even an attempt on his life. Prepolovenskaya added fuel to the fire, hinting that Ardalyon Borisovich’s close friend Pavel Vasilyevich Volodin was visiting Peredonov for Varvara Dmitrievna’s sake. This is, of course, nonsense. Varvara considers Volodin a fool, and a crafts teacher at a city school receives four times less than a gymnasium teacher, Peredonov. Ardalyon Borisovich became worried: he would marry Varvara, they would go to the inspector’s place, and on the way they would poison him and bury him like Volodin, and he would be an inspector. Varvara still doesn’t let go of the knife, and the fork is dangerous. (And he hid the cutlery under the bed. The Chinese eat with chopsticks.) So the ram, so similar to Volodin, looks blankly, probably scheming. The main thing is that they will inform you and he will die. After all, Natasha, Peredonov’s former cook, went straight to the gendarme from them. Having met the gendarme lieutenant colonel, Ardalyon Borisovich asked not to believe what Natasha would say about him, she was always lying, and she had a Pole lover.

The meeting gave rise to the idea of ​​visiting the city fathers and assuring them of his trustworthiness. He visited the mayor, the prosecutor, the leader of the nobility, the chairman of the district zemstvo government, and even the police officer. And he told everyone that everything they were saying about him was nonsense. Once he wanted to light a cigarette on the street, he suddenly saw a policeman and asked if he could smoke here. So that the almost already established inspector would not be replaced by Volodin, he decided to mark himself. On the chest, on the stomach, on the elbows he put the letter P in ink.

The cat also became suspicious to him. Strong electricity in wool is the problem. And he took the beast to the barber for a haircut.

Already many times the gray little thing had appeared to him, rolled at his feet, mocked him, teased him: he would stick his head out and hide. And even worse - cards. The ladies, two at a time, winked; aces, kings, jacks whispered, whispered, teased.

After the wedding, the Peredonovs were visited for the first time by the director and his wife, but it was noticeable that they moved in different circles of local society. And not everything is going smoothly for Peredonov at the gymnasium. He visited the parents of his students and complained about their laziness and insolence. In several cases, children were punished for these fictitious faults and complained to the director.

The story of fifth-grader Sasha Pylnikov turned out to be completely wild. Grushina said that this boy was actually a girl in disguise: he was so cute and kept blushing, the quiet boy and the schoolchildren teased him about being a girl. And all this to catch Ardalyon Borisovich.

Peredonov reported to the director about a possible scandal: debauchery would begin in the gymnasium. The director felt that Peredonov was going too far. Nevertheless, the cautious Nikolai Vlasievich, in the presence of the gymnasium doctor, became convinced that Sasha was not a girl, but the rumor did not subside, and one of the Rutilov sisters, Lyudmila, looked into Kokovkina’s house, where her aunt had rented a room for Sasha.

Lyudmila and Sasha became a tender but troubled friendship. Lyudmila awakened in him premature, still unclear aspirations. She came dressed, perfumed, and sprinkled perfume on her Daphnis.

Innocent excitement was the main charm of their meetings for Lyudmila. She said to her sisters: “I don’t love him as much as you think... I love him innocently. I don’t need anything from him.” She bothered Sasha, sat him on her lap, kissed him and allowed him to kiss her wrists, shoulders, and legs. Once she half-begged, half-forced him to be naked to the waist. And she said to him: “I love beauty... I wish I had been born in ancient Athens... I love the body, strong, agile, naked... My dear idol, a god-like youth...”

She began to dress him in her outfits, and sometimes in the tunic of an Athenian or a fisherman. Her tender kisses awakened the desire to do something sweet or painful, tender or shameful to her, so that she would laugh with joy or scream with pain.

Meanwhile, Peredonov was already telling everyone about Pylnikov’s depravity. The townspeople looked at the boy and Lyudmila with vile curiosity. The future inspector himself behaved more and more strangely. He burned the winking and grimacing cards in his face, wrote denunciations about the card pieces, about the flaw, about the ram posing as Volodin. But the worst thing was what happened at the masquerade. The eternal jokers and inventors of the Rutilov sisters dressed Sasha as a geisha and did it so skillfully that the first ladies' prize went to him (no one recognized the boy). A crowd of guests, excited by envy and alcohol, demanded to take off the mask, and in response to the refusal, tried to grab the geisha, but was saved by the actor Bengalsky, who carried her out of the crowd in his arms. While the geisha was being poisoned, Peredonov decided to let fire on the missing piece that had appeared out of nowhere. He brought the match to the curtain. The fire was noticed from the street, so the house burned down, but people were saved. Subsequent events assured everyone that the rumors about Sasha and the Rutilov girls were nonsense.

Peredonov began to realize that he had been deceived. One evening Volodin came in and sat down at the table. They drank more than they ate. The guest bleated and fooled around: “They fooled you, Ardasha.” Peredonov pulled out a knife and slashed Volodin in the throat.

When they entered to take the murderer, he sat dejectedly and muttered something meaningless.

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