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In 1846, in Switzerland, Dickens conceived and began writing a new great novel, which he completed in 1848 in England. Its last chapters were written after the February Revolution of 1848 in France. It was Dombey and Son - one of Dickens's most significant works in the first half of his creative career. The realistic skill of the writer, developed in previous years, appeared here in full force.

“Have you read Dombey and Son,” wrote V.G. Belinsky. Annenkov P.V. shortly before his death, getting acquainted with the last work of Dickens. – If not, hurry up and read it. It's a miracle. Everything that Dickens wrote before this novel now seems pale and weak, as if by a completely different writer. This is something so excellent that I’m afraid to say: my head is out of place from this novel.”

“Dombey and Son” was created at the same time as “Vanity Fair” by Thackeray and “Jane Eyre” by S. Bronte. But it is quite obvious that Dickens's novel differs from the works of his contemporaries and compatriots.

The novel was created at the time of the peak of Chartism in England, at the height of revolutionary events in other European countries. In the second half of the 1840s, the groundlessness of many of the writer’s illusions, and above all his belief in the possibility of class peace, became increasingly obvious. His confidence in the effectiveness of the appeal to the bourgeoisie could not help but be shaken. "Dombey and Son" reveals with great conviction the inhumane essence of bourgeois relations. Dickens strives to show the interconnection and interdependence between various aspects of life, the social conditioning of human behavior not only in public but also in personal life. Dickens's novel reflected; program, his aesthetic credo, a moral ideal associated with a protest against the selfishness and alienation of man in society. In Dickens, the beautiful and the good are the highest moral categories; evil is interpreted as forced ugliness, a deviation from the norm, and therefore it is immoral and inhuman.

Dombey and Son is different from all previous Dickens novels and in many of its features marks the transition to a new stage.

In Dombey and Son there is almost an imperceptible connection with literary tradition, that dependence on examples of the realistic novel of the 18th century, which is noticeable in the plot structure of such novels as The Adventures of Oliver Twist, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, even Martin Chuzzlewit. . The novel differs from all previous works of Dickens both in its composition and emotional intonation.

The novel “Dombey and Son” is a work with many characters, and at the same time, when creating it, the author used a new principle for organizing artistic material. If Dickens constructed previous novels as a series of sequentially alternating episodes or included several parallel developing and at certain moments intersecting plot lines, then in Dombey and Son everything, down to the smallest detail, is subordinated to the unity of plan. Dickens departs from his favorite manner of organizing the plot as a linear movement, developing several plot lines that arise from their own contradictions, but are intertwined in one center. It becomes the Dombey and Son company, its fate and the fate of its owner: the life of the owner of the ship's tools shop, Solomon Giles, and his nephew Walter Gay, the aristocrat Edith Granger, the family of the fireman Toodle, and others are connected with them.

Dombey and Son is a novel about the “greatness and fall” of Dombey, a major London merchant. The character on whom the author's main attention is focused is Mr. Dombey. No matter how great Dickens' skill in portraying such characters as the manager of the Dombey and Son form Carker, Dombey's daughter Florence and his early deceased little son Paul, Dombey's wife Edith or her mother Mrs Skewton - all these images ultimately develop the main theme is the Dombey theme.

Dombey and Son is, first and foremost, an anti-bourgeois novel. The entire content of the work, its figurative structure is determined by the pathos of criticism of private property morality. Unlike novels named after the main character, this work has the name of a trading company in the title. This emphasizes the importance of this company for Dombey’s fate and indicates the values ​​that a successful London businessman worships. It is no coincidence that the author begins the work by defining the meaning of the company for the main character of the novel: “These three words contained the meaning of Mr. Dombey’s whole life. The earth was created for Dombey and the Son, so that they could carry out trade on it, and the sun and moon were created to illuminate them with their light... Rivers and seas were created for the navigation of their ships; the rainbow promised them good weather, the wind favored or opposed their enterprises; the stars and planets moved in their orbits in order to preserve the indestructible system in which they were at the center.” Thus, the Dombey and Son firm becomes an image - a symbol of bourgeois prosperity, which is accompanied by the loss of natural human feelings, a kind of semantic center of the novel.

Dickens's novel was originally intended to be a "tragedy of pride." Pride is important, although not the only quality of the bourgeois businessman Dombey. But it is precisely this feature of the protagonist that is determined by his social position as the owner of the Dombey and Son trading company. In his pride, Dombey loses normal human feelings. The cult of business in which he is engaged and the consciousness of his own greatness turn the London businessman into a soulless automaton. Everything in the Dombey house is subordinated to the harsh necessity of fulfilling one's official duties - serving the company. The words “must” and “make an effort” are the main ones in the vocabulary of the Dombey surname. Those who cannot be guided by these formulas are doomed to death, like Dombey’s first wife Fanny, who failed to “make an effort.”

Dickens's ideological plan is revealed in Dombey and Son as the characters' characters develop and the action unfolds. In his portrayal of Dombey - a new version of the Chuzzlewit and Scrooge - the writer achieves a realistic generalization of enormous artistic power. Resorting to his favorite artistic means of constructing a complex image, Dickens paints a portrait detail by detail, creating the typical character of a bourgeois entrepreneur.

The writer carefully writes out appearance Dombey shows him in inextricable connection with his surroundings. The character traits of Dombey, a businessman and exploiter, a callous and selfish egoist, formed in a certain social practice, are transferred to the house in which he lives, the street on which this house stands, and the things that surround Dombey. The house is as prim, cold and majestic inside and out as its owner; most often it is characterized by the epithets “dull” and “deserted”. The household objects that the writer depicts serve to continue the characterization of their owner: “Of all... things, the unbending cold fireplace tongs and the poker seemed to lay claim to the closest relationship with Mr. Dombey in his buttoned tailcoat, white tie, with a heavy gold watch chain and squeaky shoes."

Mr Dombey's coldness is emphasized metaphorically. The words “cold” and “ice” are often used to describe a businessman. They are played out especially expressively in the chapter “The Christening of the Field”: it’s cold in the church where the ceremony takes place, the water in the font is icy, it’s cold in the state rooms of the Dombey mansion, guests are offered cold snacks and ice-cold champagne. The only person who does not experience discomfort in such conditions is the “icy” Mr. Dombey himself.

The house reflects the fate of its owner in the future: it is “decorated with everything that money can buy” on the days of Dombey’s second wedding and becomes a ruin on the days of his bankruptcy.

Dombey and Son is a social novel; the main conflict revealed through Mr. Dombey's relationship with the outside world is of a social nature: the author emphasizes that the main driving force that determines the fate of people in bourgeois society is money. At the same time, it is possible to define the novel as a family novel - it is a dramatic story about the fate of one family.

Emphasizing that Dombey’s personal qualities are related to his social status, the author notes that even in assessing people, a businessman is guided by ideas about their importance for his business. Trade “wholesale and retail” turned people into a kind of commodity: “Dombey and Son often dealt with the skin, but never with the heart. They provided this fashionable product to boys and girls, boarding houses and books.” Mr. Dombey's financial affairs and the activities of his company, to one degree or another, influence the fate of the other characters in the novel. “Dombey and Son” is the name of the company and at the same time the history of a family, in the members of which its head saw not people, but only obedient executors of his will. Marriage for him is a simple business transaction. He sees his wife’s task as giving the company an heir and cannot forgive Fani for her “negligence”, which manifested itself in the birth of her daughter, who for the father is nothing more than “a counterfeit coin that cannot be invested in the business.” Dombey rather indifferently greets the news of the death of his first wife from childbirth: Fanny “fulfilled her duty” in relation to her husband, finally giving birth to the long-awaited son, giving her husband, or rather, his company, an heir.

However, Dombey is a complex character, much more complex than all of Dickens's previous hero-villains. His soul is constantly weighed down by a burden that sometimes he feels more, sometimes less. It is no coincidence that Mr. Dombey appears to Paul’s nurse as a prisoner “imprisoned in solitary confinement, or a strange ghost who can neither be called nor understood.” At the beginning of the novel, the author does not explain the essence and nature of Dombey's condition. It gradually becomes apparent that much is explained by the fact that the forty-eight-year-old gentleman is also a “son” in the firm of Dombey and Son, and many of his actions are explained by the fact that he constantly feels his duty to the firm.

Pride does not allow Mr. Dombey to indulge in human weaknesses, for example, self-pity on the occasion of the death of his wife. Most of all, he is worried about the fate of little Paul, on whom he places great hopes and whom he begins to educate, perhaps even with excessive zeal, trying to interfere with the natural development of the child, overloading him with activities and depriving him of leisure and fun games.

The children in Dickens's house are generally unhappy, they are deprived of childhood, deprived of human warmth and affection. Simple and warm-hearted people, for example, nurse Toodle, cannot understand how a father can not love little Florence, why he makes her suffer from neglect. However, it is much worse that Dombey, as he is portrayed at the beginning of the story, is generally incapable of true love. Outwardly it may seem that Paul does not suffer from the lack of fatherly love, but even this feeling is dictated by Dombey primarily for business reasons. In the long-awaited son, he sees, first of all, a future companion, an heir to the business, and it is this circumstance that determines his attitude towards the boy, which his father accepts as genuine feelings. Imaginary love takes on a destructive character, like everything that comes from Mr. Dombey. Paul is not an abandoned child, but a child deprived of a normal childhood. He does not know his mother, but remembers the face of Mrs. Toodle bending over his crib, whom he loses due to the whims of his father (Paul “was losing weight and frail after the removal of his nurse and for a long time seemed to be just waiting for the opportunity ... to find his lost mother”). Despite the boy’s fragile health, Dombey strives to “make a man out of him” as quickly as possible, ahead of the laws of development. Little sickly Paul cannot endure the system of education into whose power his father gave him. Mrs. Pipchin's boarding school and the clutches of education at Dr. Blimber's school finally undermine the strength of the already weak child. The tragic death of little Paul is inevitable, for he was born with a living heart and could not become a true Dombey.

With bewilderment rather than with pain, Dombey experiences the premature death of his son, because the boy cannot be saved by money, which in Mr. Dombey’s mind is everything. In essence, he endures the death of his beloved son as calmly as he once did with his words about the purpose of money: “Dad, what does money mean?” - “Money can do anything.” - “Why didn’t they save mom?” This naive and ingenuous dialogue baffles Dombey, but not for long. He is still firmly convinced of the power of money. The loss of his son for Dombey is a great business failure, because little Paul for his father is, first of all, a companion and heir, a symbol of the prosperity of the Dombey and Son company. But as long as the company itself exists, Mr. Dombey’s own life does not seem meaningless. He continues to follow the same path that is already familiar to him.

The money buys a second wife, aristocrat Edith Granger. The beautiful Edith should become an adornment to the company; her feelings are absolutely indifferent to her husband. For Dombey, Edith's attitude towards him is incomprehensible. Dombey is sure that you can buy humility, obedience, and devotion. Having acquired a wonderful “product” in the person of Edith and provided for her, Dombey believes that he has done everything necessary to create a normal family atmosphere. The thought of the need to establish normal human relationships does not even occur to him. Edith's internal conflict is incomprehensible to him, because all relationships, thoughts and feelings of people are accessible to his perception only to the extent that they can be measured with money. The power of money turns out to be far from omnipotent when Dombey collides with the proud and strong Edith. Her departure was able to shake Dombey’s confidence in the indestructibility of his power. The woman herself, whose inner world remained something unknown to her husband, is not of particular value to Dombey. Therefore, he experiences the escape of his wife quite calmly, although his pride is dealt a sensitive blow. It is after this that Dombey becomes almost hated by Florence, his selflessly loving daughter; her father is annoyed by her presence in the house, even by her very existence.

Almost from the very beginning of the novel, clouds hang over Dombey, which gradually thicken more and more, and the dramatic denouement is accelerated by Dombey himself, his “arrogance” in the author’s interpretation. The death of Paul, the flight of Florence, the departure of his second wife - all these blows that Dombey suffers end in bankruptcy, which is being prepared by Carker Jr. - his manager and confidant. Upon learning of the ruin that he owes to his attorney, Dombey experiences a real blow. It was the collapse of the company that was the last straw that destroyed the stony heart of its owner.

The novel “Dombey and Son” was conceived as a parable about a repentant sinner, but the work is not reduced to a story about how fate punishes Dombey and how he, having gone through the purgatory of remorse and torture of loneliness, finds happiness in the love of his daughter and grandchildren. The merchant Dombey is a typical figure for Victorian England, where the power of gold is growing and people who have achieved relative success in society consider themselves masters of life.

Dickens reveals and precisely establishes the nature of evil: money and private lust. Money gives rise to Mr. Dombey's class self-confidence, it gives him power over people and at the same time dooms him to loneliness, making him arrogant and withdrawn.

One of the greatest merits of Dickens as a realist is that he shows the essence of his contemporary society, which follows the path of technical progress, but to which such concepts as spirituality and compassion for the misfortunes of loved ones are alien. The psychological characteristics of the characters - primarily Dombey himself - in this novel by Dickens, compared to his previous works, become significantly more complex. After the collapse of his company, Dombey shows his best side. He pays off almost all of the company's debts, proving his nobility and decency. This is probably the result of the internal struggle that he constantly wages with himself and which helps him to be reborn, or rather, to be reborn for a new life, not; lonely, not homeless, but full of human participation.

Florence was destined to play a significant role in Dombey's moral degeneration. Her perseverance and loyalty, love and mercy, compassion for the grief of others contributed to the return of her father’s favor and love to her. More precisely, thanks to her, Dombey discovered unspent vitality in himself, the ability to “make an effort,” but now - in the name of goodness and humanity.

At the end of the work, the author shows Dombey’s final rebirth into a caring father and grandfather, nursing Florence’s children and giving his daughter all the love that she was deprived of in childhood and adolescence. The author describes the changes taking place in Dombey's inner world in such a way that they are not at all perceived as the fabulous transformation of the miser Scrooge. Everything that happens to Dombey is prepared by the course of events of the work. Dickens the artist harmoniously merges with Dickens the philosopher and humanist. He emphasizes that social position determines Dombey's moral character, just as circumstances influence the change in his character.

“There is no sharp change in Mr. Dombey,” writes Dickens, “either in this book or in life. The feeling of his own injustice lives in him all the time. The more he suppresses it, the more injustice it becomes. Buried shame and external circumstances can cause the struggle to come to light within a week or a day; but this struggle lasted for years, and victory was not won easily.”

Obviously, one of the most important tasks that Dickens set himself when creating his novel was to show the possibility of moral regeneration of a person. Dombey's tragedy is a social tragedy, and it is performed in the Balzac manner: the novel shows the relationship not only between man and society, but also between man and the material world. Telling about the collapse of the family and the ambitious hopes of Mr. Dombey, Dickens emphasizes that money carries evil, poisons the minds of people, enslaves them and turns them into heartless proud and selfish people. At the same time, the less society influences a person, the more humane and purer he becomes.

According to Dickens, such negative influences are especially painful for children. Depicting the process of formation of the Field, Dickens touches on the problem of upbringing and education, repeatedly raised in his works (“The Adventures of Oliver Twist”, “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby”). Upbringing had a direct bearing on the fate of little Paul. It was intended to mold him into a new Dombey, to make the boy as tough and stern as his father. Staying at the boarding house of Mrs. Pipchin, whom the author calls “an excellent ogress,” and the school of Dr. Blimberg could not break the pure-hearted child. At the same time, by overloading Paul with excessive activities, unnecessary knowledge, forcing him to do things that are completely alien to his consciousness and completely not listening to the child’s inner state, the “false educators” essentially destroy him physically. Excessive stress completely undermines the boy's fragile health, leading to his death. The process of upbringing has an equally unfavorable effect on representatives of a child of a completely different social status - the son of a fireman Toodle. The son of kind and spiritually noble parents, sent by Mr. Dombey to study in the society of the Merciful Grinders, is completely corrupted, losing all the best traits instilled in him in the family.

As in Dickens's previous novels, numerous characters belonging to different social camps can be divided into "good" and "bad". At the same time, in the novel Dombey and Son there is no positive hero and a “villain” opposed to him. The polarization of good and evil in this work was carried out subtly and thoughtfully. Under Dickens's pen, the diversity of life no longer fit into the old scheme of the struggle between good and evil. Therefore, in this work the writer refuses excessive one-linearity and schematism in the depiction of the characters. Dickens strives to reveal not only the character of Mr. Dombey himself, but also the inner world of other characters in the novel (Edith, Miss Tox, Carker Sr., etc.) in their inherent psychological complexity.

The most complex figure in the novel is Karker Jr., a businessman and predator by nature. Carker seduces Alice Merwood, dreams of taking possession of Edith, and on his recommendation, Walter Gay is sent to the West Indies to certain death. Written in the style of grotesque, satirical exaggeration, the image of Karker cannot be considered socially typical. He appears before the reader as a predator grappling with another in a struggle for prey. But at the same time, his actions are not driven by a thirst for enrichment, as evidenced by the ending of the novel: having ruined Dombey, Carker himself does not appropriate anything from his patron’s fortune. He experiences great satisfaction watching Dombey's humiliation and the collapse of his entire personal and business life.

As Genieva E.Yu., one of the authors of “The History of World Literature” (vol. 6), rightly notes, “Carker’s rebellion against Dombey is very inconsistent... The true motives of Carker’s behavior are unclear. Apparently, we can assume that psychologically this is one of the first “underground people” in English literature, torn apart by the most complex internal contradictions.”

In his interpretation of Carker's "rebellion" against Dombey, Dickens remained faithful to the concept of social relationships that was already evident in Nicholas Nickleby. Both Dombey and Carker violate the norms of social behavior that Dickens considered correct. Both Dombey and Carker receive their due retribution: while Dombey fails as an entrepreneur and suffers the greatest humiliation, Carker receives his retribution by meeting death by accident, under the wheels of a speeding train.

The image of the railroad in this episode is not accidental. The express is this “fiery, roaring devil, so smoothly rushing into the distance,” an image of rushing life, rewarding some and punishing others, causing changes in people. It is no coincidence that the author emphasizes that in the last minutes of his life, looking at the sunrise, Karker touched virtue at least for a moment: “When he watched with dull eyes how it rose, clear and serene. Indifferent to those crimes and atrocities that, from the beginning of the world, were committed in the radiance of its rays, who would argue that at least a vague idea of ​​a virtuous life on earth and the reward for it in heaven did not awaken in him.” This is not moralizing, but a philosophy of life that the writer followed throughout his entire work.

It is from the standpoint of that philosophy that he considers not only the behavior of Carker, but also other characters. According to Dickens, evil is concentrated in those who are constantly hypocritical, humiliated, currying favor with their superiors (Miss Tox, Mrs. Skewton, Mrs. Chick, Joshua Bagstock, Mrs. Pipchin, etc.). Close to them stands the inhabitant of the London bottom - the “kind” Mrs. Brown, whose image clearly echoes the images of slum dwellers depicted in “The Adventures of Oliver Twist”. All these characters have their own position in life, which generally boils down to unconditional worship of the power of money and those who possess it.

The writer contrasted the inhumanity of Dombey, his manager Carker and their “like-minded people” with the spiritual greatness and true humanity of Florence and her friends - simple workers, the “little people” of London. This is the young man Walter Gay and his uncle, small shopkeeper Solomon Giles, Giles' friend - retired captain Cuttle, this is, finally, the family of the driver Toodle, the driver himself and his wife - Field's nurse, maid Florence Susan Nipper. Each of them individually and all of them together oppose Dombey’s world not only morally, but also socially, embodying the best qualities of ordinary people. These people live by laws opposite to money-grubbing. If Dombey is confident that everything in the world can be bought with money, these simple, modest workers are incorruptible and selfless. It is no coincidence that, speaking of the fireman Toodle, Dickens emphasizes that this worker is “the complete opposite in every respect to Mr. Dombey.”

The Toodle family is another variation on the Dickensian theme of family, in contrast to the Dombey family and the aristocratic family of the elderly "Cleopatra" - Mrs. Skewton. The healthy moral atmosphere of the Toodle family is emphasized appearance of its members (“a blooming young woman with a face like an apple,” “a younger woman, not so plump, but also with a face like an apple, who was leading two plump children with apple faces by the hands,” etc. .). Thus, Dickens emphasizes that what is normal and healthy is located outside the world of bourgeois businessmen, among ordinary people.

In scenes depicting Paul's illness and death, the author exalts the love of a simple woman - his nurse, Mrs. Toodle. Her suffering is the suffering of a simple and loving heart: “Yes, no one else would shed tears at the sight of him and call him a dear boy, her little boy, her poor, dear, exhausted child. No other woman would kneel down next to his bed, take his emaciated hand and press it to her lips and chest, like a person who has the right to caress her.”

The image of the child, Paul Dombey, presented as an ideal hero, is bright and expressive. Developing the traditions of Wordsworth, Dickens shows the peculiarities of the child's world, rebelling against treating children as small adults. The writer poeticized the world of childhood, conveyed the spontaneity and naivety with which a little person evaluates what is happening. Thanks to the image of Paul Dombey, the writer allows readers to look at everything around them through the eyes of a little “sage” who, with his “strange” and precisely targeted questions, puzzles adults. The boy allows himself to doubt even such unshakable values ​​of the adult world as money, irrefutably proving their powerlessness to save a person.

Among the characters depicted in the novel, the most controversial is the image of Dombey’s second wife, Edith. She grew up in a world where everything is bought and sold, and could not escape its corrupting influence. At first, her mother essentially sold her by marrying her to Granger. Later, with the blessing and assistance of Edith's mother, Mrs. Skewton, a deal is struck with Dombey. Edith is proud and arrogant, but at the same time she is “too humiliated and depressed to save herself.” Her nature combines arrogance and self-contempt, depression and rebellion, the desire to defend her own dignity and the desire to completely destroy her own life, thereby challenging the society she hates.

Dickens's artistic style in Dombey and Son continued to represent a combination of various artistic techniques and trends. However, humor and the comic element are pushed into the background here, appearing in the depiction of secondary characters. The main place in the novel begins to be occupied by an in-depth psychological analysis of the internal reasons for certain actions and experiences of the characters.

The writer's narrative style becomes significantly more complicated. It is enriched with new symbolism, interesting and subtle observations. The psychological characteristics of the characters become more complex, the functionality of speech characteristics, supplemented by facial expressions and gestures, expands, and the role of dialogues and monologues increases. The philosophical sound of the novel intensifies. It is associated with images of the ocean and the river of time flowing into it, running waves. The author conducts an interesting experiment with time - in the story about Paul, it either stretches or contracts, depending on the state of health and emotional mood of this little old man, who is solving far from childish issues.

When creating the novel Dombey and Son, Dickens worked more carefully on the language than before. In an effort to maximize the expressiveness of images and enhance their meaning, he resorted to a variety of techniques and rhythms of speech. In the most significant episodes, the writer’s speech acquires special tension and emotional richness.

The scene of Carker's escape after an explanation with Edith can be considered the highest achievement of Dickens as a psychologist. Carker, who defeated Dombey, unexpectedly finds himself rejected by her. His intrigues and deceit turned against him. His courage and self-confidence are crushed: “The proud woman cast him aside like a worm, lured him into a trap and showered him with ridicule, rebelled against him and cast him into the dust. He slowly poisoned the soul of this woman and hoped that he had turned her into a slave, submissive to all his desires. When, plotting a deception, he himself was deceived, and the fox skin was torn off from him, he slipped away, experiencing confusion, humiliation, and fear.” Carker's escape is reminiscent of Sikes's escape from The Adventures of Oliver Twist, but there was a lot of melodrama in the description of this scene. Here the author presents a huge variety of emotional states of the hero. Carker's thoughts are confused, the real and the imaginary are intertwined, the pace of the story quickens. It is like either a mad race on a horse or a fast ride on a railroad. Karker moves at a fantastic speed, so that even thoughts, replacing one another in his head, cannot get ahead of this race. The horror of being overtaken does not leave him day or night. Despite the fact that Karker sees everything happening around him, it seems to him that time is catching up with him. In conveying movement and its rhythm, Dickens uses repeated phrases: “Again the monotonous ringing, the ringing of bells and the clatter of hooves and wheels, and there is no rest.”

When describing positive characters, Dickens, as before, widely uses poetic means of humorous characterization: descriptions of appearance endowed with funny details, eccentric behavior, speech indicating their impracticality and simplicity (for example, Captain Cuttle peppers his speech with what he thinks is suitable occasion quotations).

At the same time, Dickens's skill as a caricaturist is improving: emphasizing the characteristic features of a particular character, he often uses the technique of the grotesque. Thus, the leitmotif of Karker’s image becomes a satirical detail - his shiny white teeth, which become a symbol of his predation and deceit: “A skull, a hyena, a cat together could not show as many teeth as Karker shows.” The author repeatedly emphasizes that this character, with his soft gait, sharp claws and insinuating gait, resembles a cat. The leitmotif of Dombey's image becomes freezing cold. Mrs. Skewton is likened to Cleopatra, reclining on the sofa and “languishing over a cup of coffee” and the room immersed in thick darkness, which is designed to hide her false hair, false teeth, and artificial blush. In describing her appearance, Dickens uses the keyword “false” as the key word. Major Bagstock's speech is dominated by the same expressions, characterizing him as a snob, a sycophant and a dishonest person.

The mastery of portrait and psychological characteristics is very high in Dombey and Son, and even the comic minor characters, having lost the grotesque and comic features characteristic of the heroes of the first period, are portrayed by the writer as people well known to readers who could be distinguished in the crowd.

Contrary to the idea of ​​class peace that Dickens preached in his Christmas stories of the 40s, in the novel written on the eve of the 1848 revolution, he objectively exposed and condemned bourgeois society. The general tone of the narrative in the novel turns out to be completely different than in previously created works. Dombey and Son is Dickens's first novel, devoid of the optimistic intonation that was so characteristic of the writer before. There is no place here for the boundless optimism that defined the character of Dickens's works. In the novel, for the first time, motives of doubt and vague but aching sadness were heard. The author was still convinced that his contemporaries needed to be influenced through persuasion. At the same time, he clearly feels that he is unable to overcome the idea of ​​the inviolability of the existing system of social relations, and cannot instill in others the idea of ​​the need to build their lives based on high moral principles.

The tragic solution to the main theme of the novel, reinforced by a number of additional lyrical motifs and intonations, makes the novel Dombey and Son a work of insoluble and unresolved conflicts. The emotional coloring of the entire figurative system speaks of a crisis that had matured in the minds of the great artist by the end of the 40s.

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Could the digger Danka know what awaited him during his next dive into the bowels of old Moscow? No, of course, there is always enough extreme sports in dungeons. But to fall into an unfamiliar hole without a lantern... In a word, as a result of this adventure, Daniel became the owner of a box with a fragment of an ancient manuscript. Some other words in the same language were scribbled right on top of the text of the manuscript...

What do the ancient writings, apparently written in blood, mean?

Damn? Prophecy?

In any case, their price...

Berserk
Kumin Vyacheslav

The main character ends up in prison, but he has to serve ten years. And for the murder he committed in his cell, he will probably get more punishment. An unexpected solution is found - a recruiter arrives at the prison, and Micah Kemple ends up in the army. He goes through everything: training, combat, captivity. After which he transfers to the elite squad "Berserker"....

Vadim Panov

Shadow of the Inquisitor

I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Every branch of Me that does not bear fruit He cuts off, and every branch that bears fruit He purges, so that it may bear more fruit.

Transbaikalia, Chita region,

Verkhniye Kamenki village.

Two years before the events described.

This year the rains started starting in August, right after the Transfiguration. But in the first week after the holiday they only drizzled, turning the rest of the summer into dreary everyday life covered with water dust. But at the beginning of September they turned into full-blown downpours and made an indecent dirty mess out of the only road connecting the village with the world. However, thaw was not uncommon here, and the natives, whose fleet consisted of assorted jeeps and small trucks, even rejoiced at this time, during which the closed little world of Upper Kamenki was guaranteed not to be invaded by strangers.

Strangers were not welcome here.

The governor wants to be elected for a second term, he has paved the entire region, why the hell are you resisting? - The policeman, a fat captain with a big soft nose and big lips, looked upset at his blue and white jeep covered in mud. More precisely, the policeman remembered that the jeep should be white and blue. - I almost lost my axle during the crossing!

It was you, Stepan Vasilyevich, who passed the ford, to the right you must have taken it? - inquired his interlocutor, a stocky, broad-shouldered man with neatly parted hair. - So this year, on the contrary, you have to go to the left, a hole has formed on the right.

Pit! Gregory, what hole? - The policeman cursed briefly. - Pit, ford, pit, swamp... Sit here, little biryuks.

We're used to it. - The man grinned.

Compared to the rumpled and angry policeman, he looked unusually handsome. A clean suit, a clean shirt, trousers tucked into boots that were polished to a shine, a carefully trimmed beard. Grigory was shorter than the captain, but broader in the shoulders and literally breathed powerful strength, the real, powerful expanse of the Siberian taiga... only the left sleeve of his jacket was sewn up, reminiscent of a long-standing and extremely unsuccessful meeting with the connecting rod.

Pit! We're used to it! - The captain sighed. - Why did you call?

The emotions caused by waking up at four in the morning and hundreds of miles of impassable mud subsided, and the policeman finally decided to ask why the head of the administration of a village lost in the taiga woke him up in the middle of the night and demanded his immediate, IMMEDIATE, arrival.

Into the house, please,” Grigory suggested. - My wife has already milked, you can drink some fresh milk from the road, and I’ll tell you how and what.

Speak here. - The policeman took a thermos of strong coffee from the jeep and lit a cigarette. - I don’t want to go into the house, we’ll stay in the cool...

It is possible here too.

The rain had stopped several hours ago, and the captain's desire to enjoy the clean morning air was understandable. The men sat down on a bench by the porch.

So what happened?

“We are restless,” Grigory answered simply.

“Yeah,” the policeman chuckled, “Methodius tore his boot yesterday, and Grandma Nina said it was not good?”

“Sort of,” the one-armed man did not accept the joke. - Fyodor’s two cows died, and I’m afraid that it might come to murder.

What does murder have to do with it? - the captain didn’t understand.

Are the cows dead?

Poisoned? Gregory lowered his eyes.

What does "almost" mean?

The whole village knows that Pelageya killed the cows.

Poisoned? Are there any witnesses? The shepherd needs to be interrogated.

Drank? - the policeman asked gloomily, feeling a wave of rage coming from the depths of his soul. Three hours off-road! At four in the morning I ran out of the house! Give the bastard a good whack in the head!

“I don’t drink,” Gregory continued just as quietly. He tried not to look at the captain. - Our places are like this, Stepan Vasilyevich: we can’t do without sorcerers. If something happens, you won’t get enough. You just arrived three and a half hours later, and what did I call you... I’m not talking about the doctor or veterinarian at all. - The one-armed man spat. - And Pelageya can speak her teeth, relieve pain, give advice on stomach problems, and in general...

What in general?

Rain can cause or drive away.

Why didn’t you send her away? - The policeman nodded at the dirty jeep with a grin. - Without rain, I would have gotten there in an hour and a half.

He saw that Gregory really believed in what he was saying.

And you, Stepan Vasilyevich, if you’re interested, take a ride through our fields,” the one-armed man suggested. - Or through pastures...

What's in the fields? - the captain became wary.

There is no such water there, clouds pass by.

Does Pelageya rule them?

The policeman poured himself more coffee and, taking a long sip, closed his eyes in bliss.

There was nothing strange in the fact that a remote village had its own witch. If in city newspapers you constantly come across sentences: “Damage, I’ll take it off 100%,” then here, in the taiga, as they say, God himself commanded. Another thing, and Stepan was convinced of this, there really was something in these village grandmothers. Some kind of secret. Force. In any case, about ten years ago, such Pelageya spoke her teeth to him. Yes, she spoke so much that until now the captain did not know the way to the dentist’s office.

The situation was clear. Her strong reputation played a cruel joke on the old woman - as soon as a problem arose, they blamed her for everything. We need to calm the men down, prevent lynching and find out...

Why did the cows die?

The veterinarian has arrived,” Grigory said reluctantly. - He said from a broken heart. The cows, they say, could not stand their hard life.

So everything is okay? What do you mean, no crime?

Everyone knows that Pelageya killed the cows,” the one-armed man repeated dully. - No one else.

Why should she?

She and Fedor had a fight. Her grandson got involved with city poachers, Fyodor turned him over to the police, and so Pelageya became enraged. - Grigory lit the next cigarette from the bull, carefully put out the cigarette butt and put it in a jar standing under the bench. - Fyodor was very angry at first.

Understand.

He wanted to have a good conversation with Pelageya, and she wanted him... In general, she showed him the way to... She knows her strength, the old one. There were never any hunters to deal with her. Fyodor to Kalinovka, to the priest, but he turned out to be the only one like you, literate. “The cows have died,” he says, “which means their time has come.” Then Fyodor gave up on everything and went to Chita. I don’t know who he talked to there, but yesterday he returned with some monk, with a preacher. In general, he brought a monk, he gathered the men on a “t-shirt”, this is a clearing on our outskirts, there are kids kicking a ball, he gathered them together and talked about something.

Gregory shrugged.

Just don't say you weren't there.

Well, he was,” muttered the one-armed man. - There were only five men there. And the preacher... - Genuine respect slipped into the man’s voice. - And the preacher said everything correctly. He spoke about God, about faith, about the need to defend it.

From whom?

“But from no one,” Grigory calmly answered. - Protect yourself within yourself, be strong, and not give in to temptations. Judge a person by his deeds, not by his words. In general, he said everything correctly. And this morning he ordered the men to gather in the square and invite the others. He stayed overnight with Fyodor. - Gregory again took out a jar and crumpled a half-smoked cigarette into it. “The preacher also said that humility and submission are not the same thing, that one must stand firmly on faith and unite with those who are equally strong.

"Unite!" The word penetrated the policeman’s head like a red-hot needle, recalling the rumors circulating in Chita about the mysterious religious organization, whose preachers actively worked among the parishioners of the region.

Is this monk by chance not from the Orthodox Union? Not from the Curia?

The one-armed man nodded.

That's rubbish! - the captain could not restrain himself.

The matter was taking a completely bad turn: the policeman was absolutely displeased with all these religious and sectarian affairs. At the last meeting in the district administration, Colonel Kolobkov announced the appearance of the mysterious Union of Orthodox Christians and warned them to keep an eye on the preachers. But this is in the city. Stepan was sure that in his wilderness they had never even heard of such exoticism, and here it is on you!

You said that Pelageya does good. It takes the rain away from the fields, it speaks to the teeth... Why didn’t the men bring Fyodor to his senses?

And again, the threat of destruction loomed over the abode of magicians and sorcerers, descendants of the disappeared ancient races - the Secret City, invisible to prying eyes, spread out on the banks of the Moscow River in the middle of the modern metropolis. The first fires have already blazed, the blood of the unfortunate people has already been shed, sacrificed to the eternal desire for world domination. It seems that everything is ready for the start of a new war, and the times of the Inquisition will come to Earth again. Who benefits from causing conflict between people and residents? Secret City? Who is this mysterious puppeteer pulling the strings of destinies and events? And does he know that sometimes a puppet can control its puppeteer?

And again, the threat of destruction loomed over the abode of magicians and sorcerers, descendants of the disappeared ancient races - the Secret City, invisible to prying eyes, spread out on the banks of the Moscow River in the middle of the modern metropolis. The first fires have already blazed, the blood of the unfortunate people has already been shed, sacrificed to the eternal desire for world domination. It seems that everything is ready for the start of a new war, and the times of the Inquisition will come to Earth again. Who benefits from quarreling people and residents of the Secret City? Who is this mysterious puppeteer pulling the strings of destinies and events? And does he know that sometimes a puppet can control its puppeteer?

Transbaikalia, Chita region, Verkhnie Kamenki village. Two years before the events described.

This year the rains started starting in August, right after the Transfiguration. But in the first week after the holiday they only drizzled, turning the rest of the summer into dreary everyday life covered with water dust. But at the beginning of September they turned into full-blown downpours and made an indecent dirty mess out of the only road connecting the village with the world. However, thaw was not uncommon here, and the natives, whose fleet consisted of assorted jeeps and small trucks, even rejoiced at this time, during which the closed little world of Upper Kamenki was guaranteed not to be invaded by strangers.

Strangers were not welcome here.

– The governor wants to be elected for a second term, he has paved the entire region, why the hell are you resisting? – The policeman, a fat captain with a big soft nose and big lips, looked upset at his blue and white jeep covered in mud. More precisely, the policeman remembered that the jeep should be white and blue. – I almost lost my axle during the crossing!

- It was you, Stepan Vasilyevich, who passed the ford, to the right, you must have taken it? - inquired his interlocutor, a stocky, broad-shouldered man with neatly parted hair. - So this year, on the contrary, you have to go to the left, a hole has formed on the right.

- Pit! Gregory, what hole? – The policeman cursed briefly. - Pit, ford, pit, swamp... Sit here, little biryuks.

- We're used to it. – The man grinned.

Compared to the rumpled and angry policeman, he looked unusually handsome. A clean suit, a clean shirt, trousers tucked into boots that were polished to a shine, a carefully trimmed beard. Grigory was shorter than the captain, but broader in the shoulders and literally breathed powerful strength, the real, powerful expanse of the Siberian taiga... only the left sleeve of his jacket was sewn up, reminiscent of a long-standing and extremely unsuccessful meeting with the connecting rod.

- Pit! We're used to it! – The captain sighed. - Why did you call?

The emotions caused by waking up at four in the morning and hundreds of miles of impassable mud subsided, and the policeman finally decided to ask why the head of the administration of a village lost in the taiga woke him up in the middle of the night and demanded his immediate, IMMEDIATE, arrival.

“Into the house, please,” Grigory suggested. “My wife has already milked, you can drink some fresh milk from the road, and I’ll tell you how and what.”

- Speak here. “The policeman took a thermos of strong coffee from the jeep and lit a cigarette. “I don’t want to go into the house, we’ll stay in the cool.”

- You can do it here too.

The rain had stopped several hours ago, and the captain's desire to enjoy the clean morning air was understandable. The men sat down on a bench by the porch.

- So what happened?

“We are restless,” Grigory answered simply.

“Yeah,” the policeman chuckled, “Methodius tore his boot yesterday, and Grandma Nina said it was not good?”

“Sort of,” the one-armed man did not accept the joke. “Fyodor’s two cows died, and I’m afraid that it may come to murder.”

-What does murder have to do with it? – the captain didn’t understand. -Are the cows dead?

- Poisoned?

Gregory lowered his eyes.

– What do you mean “almost”?

“The whole village knows that Pelageya killed the cows.”

- Poisoned? Are there any witnesses? The shepherd needs to be interrogated.

- Drank? – the policeman asked gloomily, feeling a wave of rage coming from the depths of his soul. Three hours off-road! At four in the morning I ran out of the house! Give the bastard a good whack in the head!

“I don’t drink,” Grigory continued just as quietly. He tried not to look at the captain. “Our places are like this, Stepan Vasilyevich: we can’t do without sorcerers.” If something happens, you won’t get enough. You just arrived three and a half hours later, and what did I call you... I’m not talking about the doctor or veterinarian at all. – The one-armed man spat. - And Pelageya can speak her teeth, relieve pain, give advice on stomach problems, and in general...

– What in general?

– Rain can cause or drive away.

- Why didn’t you send me away? “The policeman nodded at the dirty jeep with a grin. – Without rain, I would have gotten there in an hour and a half.

He saw that Gregory really believed in what he was saying.

“And you, Stepan Vasilyevich, if you’re interested, take a ride through our fields,” suggested the one-armed man. - Or through pastures.

-What's in the fields? – the captain became wary.

“There’s no such water there, the clouds are passing by.”

– Does Pelageya rule them?

The policeman poured himself more coffee and, taking a long sip, closed his eyes in bliss.

There was nothing strange in the fact that a remote village had its own witch. If in city newspapers you constantly come across sentences: “Damage, I’ll take off 100,” then here, in the taiga, as they say, God himself commanded. Another thing, and Stepan was convinced of this, there really was something in these village grandmothers. Some kind of secret. Force. In any case, about ten years ago, such Pelageya spoke her teeth to him. Yes, she spoke so much that until now the captain did not know the way to the dentist’s office.

The situation was clear. Her strong reputation played a cruel joke on the old woman - as soon as a problem arose, they blamed her for everything. We need to calm the men down, prevent lynching and find out...

- Why did the cows die?

“The veterinarian came,” Grigory said reluctantly. – He said from a broken heart. The cows, they say, could not stand their hard life.

- So everything is all right? What do you mean, no crime?

“Everyone knows that Pelageya killed the cows,” the one-armed man repeated dully. - No one else.

- Why should she?

– She had a fight with Fedor. Her grandson got involved with city poachers, Fyodor turned him over to the police, and so Pelageya became enraged. – Grigory lit the next cigarette from the bull, carefully put out the cigarette butt and put it in a jar standing under the bench. “Fyodor was very angry at first.

- Understand.

- He wanted to have a good conversation with Pelageya, and she wanted him... In general, she showed him the way to... She knows her strength, the old one. There were never any hunters to deal with her. Fyodor to Kalinovka, to the priest, but he turned out to be the only one like you, literate. “The cows have died,” he says, “which means their time has come.” Then Fyodor gave up on everything and went to Chita. I don’t know who he talked to there, but yesterday he returned with some monk, with a preacher. In general, he brought a monk, he gathered the men on a “t-shirt”, this is a clearing on our outskirts, there are kids kicking a ball, he gathered them together and talked about something.

Gregory shrugged.

- Don't say you weren't there.

“Well, it was,” muttered the one-armed man. “There were only five men there.” And the preacher... - Genuine respect slipped into the man’s voice. “But the preacher said everything correctly.” He spoke about God, about faith, about the need to defend it.

- From whom?

“But from no one,” Grigory answered calmly. – Protect yourself within yourself, be strong, and not give in to temptations. Judge a person by his deeds, not by his words. In general, he said everything correctly. And this morning he ordered the men to gather in the square and invite the others. He stayed overnight with Fyodor. – Grigory again took out a jar and crumpled a half-smoked cigarette into it. – The preacher also said that humility and submission are not the same thing, that you need to stand on faith firmly and unite with those who are equally strong.

"Unite!" The word penetrated the policeman’s head like a hot needle, recalling the rumors circulating in Chita about a mysterious religious organization whose preachers were actively working among the parishioners of the region.

– Is this monk by chance not from the Orthodox Union? Not from the Curia?

The one-armed man nodded.

- From there.

- This is rubbish! – the captain could not restrain himself.

The matter was taking a completely bad turn: the policeman was absolutely displeased with all these religious and sectarian affairs. At the last meeting in the district administration, Colonel Kolobkov announced the appearance of the mysterious Union of Orthodox Christians and warned them to keep an eye on the preachers. But this is in the city. Stepan was sure that in his wilderness they had never even heard of such exoticism, and here it is on you!

– You said that Pelageya does good. It takes the rain away from the fields, it speaks to the teeth... Why didn’t the men bring Fyodor to his senses?

“We saw good things from her,” Grigory shrugged. “But she destroyed the cows in vain.” And the witch must be punished for this. – He paused. “We know her strength, but we won’t allow her to play pranks.”

- Then why did you call me?

The one-armed man grinned.

- Because the men need to be cooled down. With you, Stepan Vasilyevich, they will not commit murder. And I don’t want to ruin their lives. Cows aren't worth it.

- And what about yourself? You are the power here.

- What kind of power am I? – the one-armed man was surprised. “The men decide everything themselves, and I just have to shift the papers.” “He nodded at his empty sleeve. “You, captain, know yourself why I was appointed to the village council, and now the “head of the administration.” If it weren't for that damned bear, would I have bothered with such nonsense?

- And now you would be with men? – the policeman asked harshly.

“It would be,” Grigory answered after a short pause. - Because the witch needs to be punished. – He was silent again. - But I would have called you anyway. Everyone in our family is reasonable.

The crowd in the village center was not large. The men, about twenty to twenty-five, tightly surrounded the tall monk in a black robe, a group of women stood at a distance, not approaching, but carefully listening to what the preacher was saying. Children, the inevitable companions of gatherings, were absent this time. When the policeman and Grigory approached the meeting, the monk fell silent, and the men looked at the newcomers with gloomy looks. The captain looked at the crowd for a few moments, then smiled broadly:

- Great!

– Good morning“, - after a moment, the dark-haired, but with gray hair showing through, responded.

“Fyodor,” whispered the one-armed man.

The rest of the men limited themselves to inarticulate grumbling. It was clear that the appearance of a representative of the authorities caused them slight annoyance. But that's all. They were not going to give up their plans.

- Why aren’t we working?

“We have business,” Fyodor answered briefly. - Important.

- The prosecutor has business, and you have work. – Stepan sighed. - It’s hard.

- You, boss, first learn to be an agronomist, and then point.

“There will be no lynching,” Fyodor smiled calmly.

“God’s judgment, boss, is stronger than your justice,” another man interjected.

“I won’t allow lynching,” the captain repeated.

“I don’t think you should protect a witch, policeman.”

The preacher pronounced the phrase very quietly, but the silence that quickly settled in the square showed the respect with which the locals treated the monk. Stepan remembered how he came here with the assistant to the governor, with a candidate for State Duma deputy, with the head of the district administration. Then, too, there were meetings on this very square, but there were always those who chatted in the back rows or husked sunflower seeds, coming to the gathering “for company.” The locals listened to the preacher very carefully, like no one else, and that was bad. The policeman realized that he had already lost the first round.

-Are you a local priest?

“You know who I am,” the monk answered dispassionately. Gregory lowered his eyes. - There is no parish in the village.

- What is your name?

- Father Ivan.

-Are you a priest?

Tall, about sixty years old in appearance, the preacher amazed with the fire burning in his large eyes. On a dry, wrinkled face, they looked lively and young, captivating, attracting attention.

– Why do you call Pelageya a witch?

“That’s what the people said,” the preacher shrugged. – They are good Christians, Orthodox, and I see no reason not to believe them.

-What are you accusing her of?

“The Lord did not give me the right to accuse,” the monk explained patiently, like a foolish child. – I can only preach, carry His word... and help.

- How to help? Why did you even decide that there was even a drop of truth in their words? Those poor cows...

“Stepan Vasilyevich,” the preacher took a small step towards the policeman and lowered his voice even further. Now, despite all efforts, the residents gathered in the square did not hear a single word from the monk. He spoke only for the captain. - Stepan Vasilyevich, don’t bother me. Sooner or later you will realize that I am saving this woman. I save from them, I save from her herself. Do not bother me.

“I won’t allow lynching,” the policeman wheezed.

“If I wanted, Stepan Vasilyevich, you could only get to the village in the evening, but I am confident in your restraint and prudence.” You will come with us and see that I am right. Perhaps this will strengthen your faith.

Father Ivan looked around the square imperiously.

- We will go to Pelageya now!

The policeman frowned. The men around were not rowdy, they were sober, but he saw that they were stubborn. There's no stopping them now. One could go on principle, strike a pose, threaten, but each of them is a hunter, each house has a gun, or even more than one, and even a rifled one. The policeman did not believe that the men would take up arms, but he was not going to check. Grigory said that Fedor enjoyed great authority in the village. He was an assistant forester and knew the taiga like “Our Father.” And the men understood that Fyodor, not out of spite, but out of knowledge, showed them the dates and places of hunting, controlled logging and fishing. So that the taiga remains for their children and grandchildren. So that the beast does not leave and the wealth does not disappear. The policeman knew that Fedor had already “dealt” with both the Chinese and the poachers, and he guessed how these showdowns would end. The taiga is big, but the men didn’t want to let anyone in here. They were the masters here and were not going to tolerate anything from anyone: neither from strangers, nor from their own witch.

In vain, in vain, Pelageya contacted the foresters.

- They're coming! – Tanya looked at the old woman, and tears flashed in her eyes. - Grandma, they are coming!!

- Everything is alright, my dear. – Pelageya found the strength to smile and stroke her granddaughter’s blond hair. Her hand didn't shake. - Everything is fine. You go through the garden into the forest. Go, stay there, and then come back.

- I don't want! – The girl shook her head. - I'm with you.

“I’ll talk to them myself, my dear,” the old woman said calmly. “They won’t do anything to me.”

“Then why should I leave?”

- That's how it should be. – Pelageya became more serious. - I want it that way. Go.

Tanya nodded obediently and slowly walked towards the door.

“Go quickly,” the old woman ordered.

And only after making sure that she was left alone, Pelageya went out to the fence and leaned heavily on the post.

“Well, Fedor, one lesson wasn’t enough for you? It will still be". The old woman was confident in her abilities, and even the news about some monk that Tanya brought did not make her doubt. She was much more worried about the policeman.

“I hope he has the sense to remain silent about what he sees.”

There were two hundred steps left to the old woman's house.

To the great relief of the captain, the men behaved quietly. They walked towards Pelageya in silence, with concentration, there was no rage or malice on their faces. The men walked as if they were going to work, as if they were going hunting, as if they were in the field: calmly, measuredly, but inevitably. They frowned, of course, but they didn’t allow themselves too much. Either they were really afraid of the witch, or the presence of the preacher held them back. The monk walked first, his back straight as a stick, his head raised proudly, an open Bible in his hands.

“Exorcist,” the policeman smiled wryly. “Well, okay, preacher, let’s see what you do, and then, don’t blame me, you won’t be able to get away from the questions.”

What does the Curia need? Who is behind it? Why fool men, hiding behind the name of the church? The road to the city is long, willy-nilly you will start talking...

It was drizzling again. There were a hundred steps left to the witch's house.

“If you don’t talk, we’ll go to the department.” Let's call someone from the diocese and figure out who needs a witch hunt these days. Who needs to touch harmless old women..."

The captain stumbled and stopped, shocked by the simplicity of the thought that struck him.

“Why wait? They completely fooled me with their stories! Am I the power here or not?! I will not allow arbitrariness!!”

- Hey, guys, maybe stop fooling around? – The policeman wiped his face, wet from the rain. “They’re adults, but you believe all sorts of fairy tales!”

The crowd stopped moving. Stepan saw that the men looked around in bewilderment, looked around and did not express any desire to go further. Even the determined Fedor stopped for some reason.

“The poor old woman doesn’t know where to hide out of fear. Are you not Orthodox, guys? Why are you stirring up such passions here? Fedor!

- What am I doing? – the ringleader shrugged. - It came over me.

There were no more than fifty steps left to the witch's house, but the captain knew that he would never pass them. This is not necessary, it is wrong. What kind of witches are these days? The cows themselves died from the life of their cows.

- Come on, guys, turn back! – the policeman ordered authoritatively.

The preacher looked at him mockingly, smiled slightly and turned back towards the house.

- Wait for me.

- Don't spoil! Stay where you are!

The captain’s shout turned out to be menacing, but meaningless: the monk calmly, not noticing the confusion of the crowd, crossed the invisible line and headed towards the fence. I would have stopped him, detained him, but Stepan could not follow Father Ivan, and his next two screams were drowned in the drizzling rain.

“It’s in vain that this newcomer has taken a liking to our Pelageya,” one of the men muttered.

“Wow,” the second one supported him. “The old woman has never done anything bad to anyone.”

And the confused Fedor, standing very close to the policeman, turned his head in bewilderment, as if remembering what kind of misfortune had brought him to this end of the village. Or trying to understand what kind of force stopped him fifty steps from the witch’s house.

“My soul rests only in God; From Him is my salvation.

He alone is my rock, my salvation, my refuge: I will not be shaken any more.

In God is my salvation and my glory; The strength of my strength and my trust are in God.

Ivan knew the psalm by heart, but the open Bible gave him a more meek, humble appearance and was supposed to show the witch that he was not looking for her blood. The monk had no doubt that Pelageya was a witch: he felt a wave of magical energy moving towards the crowd from the house. Just as he had no doubt that he would be able to cope with the old woman. Ivan knew his capabilities very well and understood that he could defeat even a dozen such Pelageya. At least immediately, at least one by one.

“God said once, and I heard it twice, that God has the power,

And with You, Lord, is mercy; for You reward each one according to his deeds.

The next step came with with great difficulty. The air on the preacher’s path became viscous, enveloping his feet like a quagmire, trying to prevent the monk from reaching the witch’s house.

- There is no way for you to come here, man!

“Aren’t you going to block my path?”

- What if I?

- Is your strength enough?

Pelageya couldn’t offer any serious resistance, but she could do a lot of damage, and so Ivan calmly and firmly let the old woman know who was in control of the situation. What could a simple village woman oppose to him? A powerful blow twisted her incomprehensible spells and carried her away, like an angry autumn wind carries away yellow leaves. The next blow sealed the magical energy inside the old woman, and then carefully, very carefully, dissipated it into smoke, depriving Pelageya of her strength.

Ivan turned his calm gaze to the open Bible:

- Stop being angry and leave rage; do not be jealous to the point of doing evil.

For those who do evil will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will inherit the earth. – He looked at the old woman. “You see, Pelageya, despite all the evil that you have caused these people, I strive to restrain my anger, because I believe in your repentance. You can still return to the path He showed.

The witch shuddered, looked away and grumbled gloomily:

“You hid your power well, monk.” I didn't smell it.

“But you shouldn’t have,” Ivan answered harshly.

- Why did you come? I've lived here all my life, I've known these guys since the days when they ran to the river as snotty boys. This is my land and my business.

“They called me,” the preacher explained. – They called because you forgot that you live on this land, and do not rule it. Because you forgot that we will put up with your power only until it is used for evil.

– Aren’t you afraid that someone will come to justice for you?

-Have you not repented?

“I’m just wondering,” the old woman answered with careful diplomacy. – You understand what I’m talking about, right?

“I understand,” Ivan nodded. - But you too, witch, understand: ONLY true faith works true miracles. What you are asking is not from God, and they should not fight with me.

- Inquisitor.

“Preacher,” the monk calmly corrected her. “I carry the word of God and strengthen people’s faith in Him. There is no sword in my hand, witch, but I have the right to His judgment.

- Merciful court? – The old woman looked hopefully at Father Ivan. With hope and with fear, desperately afraid to see the glow of cleansing fire in the preacher’s eyes.

- Fair.

The puzzled men pulled themselves up to the fence.

“This is...” Fyodor looked at the monk uncertainly. - I don’t know why we didn’t go...

– The walker remains in doubt, but one must find the strength in oneself to overcome them on the path to true faith. – Father Ivan looked at the men benevolently. – Open your soul, strengthen yourself in faith, and the power of His love will help you live righteously and not make mistakes.

The policeman was relieved that it would not come to murder. But a witch! The witch was clearly scared! What did the old monk do? The captain cleared his throat.

- In general, so...

“Pelageya admitted her guilt,” Father Ivan continued, not paying attention to the policeman. His piercing eyes fixed on the drooping witch. - And asks for leniency. She repents... Right?

The old woman nodded.

“She will pay Fedor a fine in the amount of three cows and donate another tenth of this amount to the needs of the regional children’s hospital. – The monk was silent. “And your penance, Pelageya, will be this: before the beginning of winter, you must go on a pilgrimage to Trinity and there atone for your sins before the Lord.” And work for another month, where the monks will show you.

The preacher turned around and moved back through the respectfully parted men, but stopped opposite Gregory.

– A tenth of what you earn this month will be given to charitable causes. And henceforth, do not put human judgment above God's judgment. Do not doubt His mercy and love.

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