Katerina Lvovna, “a very pleasant woman in appearance,” lives in the wealthy house of the merchant Izmailov with her widowed father-in-law Boris Timofeevich and her elderly husband Zinovy ​​Borisovich. Katerina Lvovna has no children, and "with all the contentment" her life "for an unkind husband" is the most boring. In the sixth year of marriage

Zinovy ​​Borisovich leaves for the mill dam, leaving Katerina Lvovna "all alone." In the courtyard of her house, she measures strength with the impudent worker Sergei, and from the cook Aksinya she learns that this fellow has been serving with the Izmailovs for a month, and was expelled from the former house for "love" with the mistress. In the evening, Sergei comes to Katerina Lvovna, complains of boredom, says that he loves, and stays until morning. But one night, Boris Timofeevich notices how Sergei's red shirt descends from his daughter-in-law's window. The father-in-law threatens that he will tell Katerina Lvovna's husband everything, and send Sergei to prison. That very night, Katerina Lvovna poisons her father-in-law with a white powder reserved for rats, and continues her "aligoria" with Sergei.

Meanwhile, Sergei becomes dry with Katerina Lvovna, is jealous of her husband and talks about his insignificant state, confessing that he would like to be her husband “before the holy pre-eternal temple”. In response, Katerina Lvovna promises to make him a merchant. Zinovy ​​Borisovich returns home and accuses Katerina Lvovna of "cupids". Katerina Lvovna takes Sergei out and boldly kisses him in front of her husband. Lovers kill Zinovy ​​Borisovich, and the corpse is buried in the cellar. Zinovy ​​Borisovich is searched uselessly, and Katerina Lvovna "does well with Sergei, as a widow at liberty."

Soon Zinovy ​​Borisovich's young nephew Fyodor Lyapin comes to live with Izmailova, whose money the late merchant had in circulation. Urged on by Sergei, Katerina Lvovna plans to kill the God-fearing boy On the night of Vespers on the feast of the Entry, the boy remains in the house alone with his lovers and reads the Life of St. Theodore Stratilates. Sergei grabs Fedya, and Katerina Lvovna strangles him -

Down pillow. But as soon as the boy dies, the house begins to shake from the blows, Sergei panics, sees the deceased Zinovy ​​​​Borisovich, and only Katerina Lvovna understands that it is the people who see through the crack that is being done in the “sinful house”.

Sergei is taken to the unit, and at the first words of the priest about the Last Judgment, he confesses to the murder of Zinovy ​​Borisovich and calls Katerina Lvovna an accomplice. Katerina Lvovna denies everything, but at the confrontation she admits that she killed "for Sergei." Murderers are punished with whips and sentenced to hard labor. Sergei arouses sympathy, but Katerina Lvovna behaves steadfastly and refuses to even look at her newborn child. He, the only heir of the merchant, is given up for education. Katerina Lvovna thinks only of how to get to the stage as soon as possible and see Sergei. But at the stage, Sergei is unkind and secret dates do not please him. At Nizhny Novgorod the Moscow party joins the prisoners, with which go the soldier Fiona of a free temper and the seventeen-year-old Sonetka, about whom they say: “it curls around the hands, but is not given in the hands.”

Katerina Lvovna arranges another date with her lover, but finds the trouble-free Fiona in his arms and quarrels with Sergei. Having never reconciled with Katerina Lvovna, Sergei begins to “cheap” and flirt with Sonetka, who seems to be “handling”. Katerina Lvovna decides to leave her pride and put up with Sergei, and during the meeting, Sergei complains of pain in his legs, and Katerina Lvovna gives him thick woolen stockings. The next day, she notices these stockings on Sonetka and spits in Sergei's eyes. At night, Sergei, together with a friend, beats Katerina Lvovna to the giggle of Sonetka. Katerina Lvovna cries out grief on Fiona's chest, the whole party, led by Sergei, mocks her, but Katerina Lvovna behaves with "wooden calmness." And when the party is transported by ferry to the other side of the river, Katerina Lvovna grabs Sonetka by the legs, throws herself overboard with her, and both drown.

Summary of the most tragic work, one of the best of the 19th century, Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district.
Lives in a merchant's settlement with an elderly but well-to-do husband and an old widower-in-law, Katerina Lvovna Izmailova. To call her a beauty would not turn her tongue, but a pleasant appearance. She is in the most fertile female age and her unprepossessing husband, the annoying father-in-law, weighs on her. She has no children, she has nothing to do, and boredom overcomes her. What can you do out of boredom?
So Katerina Lvovna decided to measure her strength with the broken and impudent young worker Sergei, whose red shirt aroused strange feelings in her.
From the cook Anisya, she learns that the former owner kicked out this broken fellow for tricks with the hostess. This story stirs up the interest of a young merchant's wife in a new worker, and therefore she lets him in in the evening.
Every evening, Sergei secretly comes to Katerina until her father-in-law convicts her of treason. He threatens to tell everything to his son, and send his young lover to jail.
On the same night, Katerina poisons her father-in-law with rat powder and continues to meet with Sergei. Meanwhile, the cordial friend becomes dry and not kind, thoughtful. After being questioned by Katerina, she complains about her bondage, expresses jealousy for her husband and a desire to legitimize relations with her in the face of the Lord God. She promises that he will become both a lawful husband and a merchant.
The husband, who returned home from a long trip, turned out to be unwanted in his own house, and even began to accuse Katerina Lvovna of treason. Not only did she not deny it, but in front of her husband's eyes, she passionately kissed her lover, which caused her husband's terrible fury. The lovers jointly kill the hated husband, the body is hidden in the cellar and Zinovy ​​Borisovich is declared missing.
While the lost husband is being searched for, Katerina Lvovna, without hiding, lives for herself and is doing well with her young lover.
Zinovy ​​Borisovich's nephew, the little boy Fyodor, comes to Izmailova, whose money the late merchant used in his trade. Sergei persuades Katerina to get rid of the boy, who has the right to the inheritance. Villainy is committed on the eve of the holy feast of the Entry into the Temple. Sergei holds the child, and Katerina suffocates him with a feather pillow.
Criminals are caught at the crime scene and sent for interrogation. Sergei immediately confesses to the crime he committed and to the death of Zinovy ​​Borisovich. He calls Katerina an accomplice, although she denies everything. Later, she confesses that she killed for Sergei.
After being punished with whips, they are sent to hard labor. Everyone sympathizes with Sergei and blames Izmailova for everything, who holds herself arrogantly, does not want to obey, and does not even want to look at the born child. She doesn't need anyone but Sergei.
She dreams of getting to the stage as soon as possible in order to be with him. Only Sergei changed completely towards her, became unkind. Along the way they are joined by prisoners from other places. Sergei begins to openly court the young soldier Fiona, at night Katerina Lvovna finds them together and makes a scandal for her lover.
He begins to walk like a gogol in front of her, courts and flirts with the young girl Sonetka.
Having reconciled her feelings, Katerina makes peace with Sergei and, feeling sorry for him, gives him warm woolen socks. In the morning she sees her gift on Sonetka and in a rage spits in Sergei's eyes.
At night, Sergei beats his former mistress, and Sonetka cheers him up with laughter and jokes. Katerina laments her grief to her sympathetic Fiona, though everyone else taunts her. Katerina Lvovna stops sobbing and becomes like a tree.
During the crossing to the other side of the river, she clings to Sonetka with a death grip, rolls over the side with her and disappears into the water like a stone.
And so ended her life a woman who, because of love, was not afraid of either God's judgment or human punishment.

Nikolay Semyonovich Leskov

LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSKY DISTRICT

"The first song blushing to sing."

Proverb

Chapter first

Sometimes in our places such characters are set that, no matter how many years have passed since meeting with them, some of them will never be remembered without spiritual trepidation. Among these characters is the merchant's wife Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, who played out a once terrible drama, after which our nobles, from someone else's easy word began to call her Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district.

Katerina Lvovna was not born a beauty, but she was a very pleasant woman in appearance. She was only twenty-four years of age; She was short, but slender, with a neck as if carved from marble, round shoulders, a strong chest, a straight, thin nose, black, lively eyes, a high white forehead and black, almost blue-black hair. They gave her in marriage to our merchant Izmailov with Tuskari from the Kursk province, not out of love or any attraction, but because Izmailov was courting her, and she was a poor girl, and she did not have to sort out suitors. The Izmailovs' house was not the last in our city: they traded grain, kept a large mill in the district for rent, had a profitable garden near the city and a good house in the city. In general, the merchants were wealthy. Their family, moreover, was quite small: father-in-law Boris Timofeevich Izmailov, a man already in his eighties, had long been a widow; his son Zinovy ​​Borisych, Katerina Lvovna's husband, a man also in his fifties, and Katerina Lvovna herself, and nothing more. Katerina Lvovna had no children for the fifth year since she married Zinovy ​​Borisych. Zinovy ​​Borisych had no children even from his first wife, with whom he lived for twenty years before he was widowed and married Katerina Lvovna. He thought and hoped that God would give him, even from his second marriage, an heir to the merchant's name and capital; but again he had no luck in this and with Katerina Lvovna.

This childlessness distressed Zinovy ​​Borisych very much, and not only Zinovy ​​Borisych alone, but old Boris Timofeyitch, and even Katerina Lvovna herself, it was very sad. Since the unreasonable boredom in the locked merchant’s chamber with a high fence and lowered chain dogs more than once made the young merchant’s wife feel melancholy, reaching the point of stupor, and she would be glad, God knows how glad she would be to babysit the little girl; and she was tired of the other reproaches: “What was she going for and why was she getting married; why did she bind a man’s fate, non-native,” as if she really committed a crime against her husband, and before her father-in-law, and before all their honest merchant family.

With all the contentment and kindness, Katerina Lvovna's life in her mother-in-law's house was the most boring. She did not go to visit much, and even then, if she and her husband go along with her merchant class, it will not be a joy either. The people are all strict: they watch how she sits down, but how she passes, how she gets up; and Katerina Lvovna had an ardent character, and, living as a girl in poverty, she got used to simplicity and freedom: she would run with buckets to the river and swim in a shirt under the pier, or sprinkle sunflower husks through the gate of a passer-by; but here everything is different. The father-in-law and her husband would get up early, drink tea at six o'clock in the morning, and go about their business, and she alone wanders the elephants from room to room. Everywhere is clean, everywhere is quiet and empty, the lamps are shining in front of the images, and nowhere in the house is there a living sound, not a human voice.

Like, like, Katerina Lvovna walks through the empty rooms, begins to yawn out of boredom and climbs the stairs to her matrimonial bedchamber, arranged on a high small mezzanine. Here, too, she will sit, stare, how they hang hemp or pour grains at the barns, - she will yawn again, she is glad: she will take a nap for an hour or two, and wake up - again the same Russian boredom, the boredom of a merchant's house, from which it is fun, they say, even hang yourself . Katerina Lvovna was not a huntress to read, and besides, there were no books in the house besides the Kyiv Patericon.

Katerina Lvovna lived a boring life in a rich mother-in-law's house for five whole years of her life with an unkind husband; but no one, as usual, paid her the slightest attention to this boredom.

Chapter Two

On the sixth spring of Katerina Lvovna's marriage, the mill dam broke through at the Izmailovs. At that time, as if on purpose, a lot of work was brought to the mill, and a huge gap arose: the water went under the lower bed of the idle cover, and it was not possible to capture it with an ambulance. Zinovy ​​Borisych drove the people to the mill from the whole district, and he himself sat there incessantly; the affairs of the city were already managed by one old man, and Katerina Lvovna toiled at home for whole days all alone. At first it was even more boring for her without her husband, but then it seemed to be even better: she became freer alone. Her heart for him had never been especially laid, and without him at least one commander over her was less.

Once Katerina Lvovna was sitting on the tower under her little window, yawning and yawning, thinking of nothing in particular, and, at last, she was ashamed to yawn. And the weather outside is so wonderful: warm, light, cheerful, and through the green wooden lattice of the garden you can see how different birds fly from knot to knot through the trees.

“What am I really yawning? thought Katerina Lvovna. “Sam-well, at least I’ll get up in the yard and take a walk or go into the garden.”

Katerina Lvovna threw on an old damask coat and went out.

Out in the yard one breathes so brightly and strongly, and in the gallery by the barns there is such cheerful laughter.

- What are you so happy about? Katerina Lvovna asked her father-in-law clerks.

“But, mother Katerina Ilvovna, they hanged a live pig,” the old clerk answered her.

- What pig?

“But the pig Aksinya, who gave birth to a son, Vasily, didn’t invite us to the christening,” the young man said boldly and cheerfully with a bold, beautiful face framed by jet-black curls and a barely breaking beard.

At that moment, the fat mug of Aksinya, a ruddy-faced cook, peeped out of the flour caddy, which was hung on a weighted yoke.

“Damn, smooth devils,” the cook cursed, trying to grab hold of the iron yoke and get out of the swinging cady.

- Eight pounds before dinner, and the fir will eat hay, and the weights will be missing, - again the handsome fellow explained and, turning the cad, threw the cook onto the sack folded in the corner.

Baba, jokingly cursing, began to recover.

- Well, how much will I have? - Katerina Lvovna joked and, holding the ropes, stood on the board.

“Three poods, seven pounds,” answered the same handsome fellow Sergei, throwing a weight on the weight bench. - Curiosity!

– Why are you surprised?

- Yes, three pounds in you pulled, Katerina Ilvovna. You, I argue, must be carried all day in your arms - and then you won’t get tired, but only for pleasure you will feel it for yourself.

- Well, I'm not a man, or what? I suppose you’ll get tired too, ”said Katerina Lvovna, blushing slightly, weaned from such speeches, feeling a sudden surge of desire to talk and talk a lot of cheerful and playful words.

- Oh my God! I would bring it to Arabia happy, ”Sergey answered her to her remark.

“That’s not how you, well done, argue,” said the man who was sleeping. - What is this heaviness in us? Does our body pull? our body, dear man, means nothing in weight: our strength, strength pulls - not the body!

“Yes, I had a strong passion in girls,” said Katerina Lvovna, again unable to bear it. - Even a man did not overcome me.

“Come on, let me have a pen, if it’s true,” asked the handsome fellow.

Katerina Lvovna was embarrassed, but held out her hand.

- Oh, let the ring go: it hurts! cried Katerina Lvovna, when Sergei squeezed her hand in his hand, and with her free hand pushed him in the chest.

The good fellow released his mistress's hand and from her push flew off two steps to the side.

Katerina Lvovna, a young girl from a poor family, married a wealthy, much older widowed merchant Zinovy ​​Borisych Izmailov. The Izmailovs traded grains, kept a large mill in the district. Their city house was very good. Katerina Lvovna and her husband had no children. The three of them lived with their old father-in-law, Boris Timofeich. With all her contentment and kindness, Katerina Lvovna's life in the closed merchant's house with a high fence was the most boring. Husband and father-in-law went out in the morning to do business, and the young white-bodied beauty walked alone around the house, among icons and lamps - and could not even babysit a child due to childlessness.

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 2 - summary

Once in the spring, the mill dam belonging to the Izmailovs broke through. Zinovy ​​Borisych was incessantly at the repair of the mill, and Katerina Lvovna, in her mezzanine, yawned alone. Walking out of boredom around the yard, she heard merry laughter at the barns and saw how young clerks were making fun of the unmarried, ruddy cook Aksinya. Recently hired by the Izmailovs, a handsome fellow Sergei called Katerina Lvovna to weigh herself on the scales. With playful sayings, he invited her to fight, and when the hostess, having amused herself, raised her elbows, he grabbed her and pressed her tightly to him for a moment.

Katerina Lvovna came out of the barn, flushed. Aksinya told her: this Sergei served with neighboring merchants and there, they say, he was in love with the owner's wife herself.

Leskov. Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district. audiobook

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 3 - summary

Katerina Lvovna's husband still did not return from the mill, and his father-in-law, Boris Timofeyich, went one evening to an old friend's name day. In the warm twilight, the young beauty was sitting on the mezzanine by the window, and Sergei came out of the courtyard kitchen. He bowed, and then suddenly asked permission to go to her: "I have one business for you."

She let him in. Sergei first asked if she had a book to read, and then he suddenly said: so I miss you, Katerina Lvovna, that I’m ready even to cut my heart out of my chest with a damask knife and throw it at your feet. Katerina Lvovna felt dizzy, and Sergei grabbed her, lifted her from the floor and carried her to the bed ...

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 4 - summary

Katerina Lvovna began to amuse herself with Sergey while her husband was gone, every night. And one day, father-in-law Boris Timofeich saw him descending the gallery pole from his daughter-in-law's window.

He grabbed Sergei by the legs. So that there would not be much noise, Sergei Boris Timofeevich allowed himself to be taken to the pantry. There the old man whipped him with a whip until he was exhausted, and then he locked him up and sent for his son.

However, the road to the mill was not close, and in the morning Katerina Lvovna found out what had happened to Sergei. She demanded from her father-in-law to release her lover. Boris Timofeich, in response, began to shame his daughter-in-law, promised to tear her out at the stable upon the arrival of her son, and threatened to send her seducer to prison the next day.

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 5 - summary

But that same evening, Boris Timofeevich ate fungi with slurry for the night - and he began to vomit terrible. By morning the old man had died, just as the rats died in his barns, for whom Katerina Lvovna was always poison. with my own hands cooked.

Zinovy ​​Borisych was sent to the mill, but he did not find him - he had already left for a hundred miles to buy wood. And his wife released Sergei from the lock and put him to rest on her husband's bed. Boris Timofeevich was buried hastily, without waiting for his son. All the workers were amazed: that Katerina Lvovna had gone so far, not hiding from anyone, she was playing a trump card and Sergey would not let go of herself.

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 6 - summary

Once, after dinner, Katerina Lvovna had a dream: as if a fat gray cat was rubbing between her and Sergei, his mustache was like that of a dues steward. He purrs a gentle song, as if he is talking about love. She wanted to kick him out, but the cat, like fog, passes by her fingers. The beauty woke up - there was no cat, only the beautiful Sergey with his hand presses her chest to his hot face.

Katerina Lvovna and Sergei went under the blossoming apple tree to drink tea. She asked if he had ever dreamed of her before. Sergei, with a sad look, began to say that he would not part with her all his life. But soon Zinovy ​​Borisych will return - and he will have to watch with longing as he leads Katerina Lvovna by white hands to his bedchamber.

Pressing Sergey's head to her chest, Katerina Lvovna said: "I already know how I will make you a merchant and live with you quite properly."

Illustration for N. Leskov's essay "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". Artist N. Kuzmin

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 7 - summary

They went to bed with Sergei at night, and again Katerina Lvovna dreamed of the same cat. Only his head now turned out to be Boris Timofeevich's father-in-law. He murmured that he had purposely come from the cemetery to see how she and Sergei were warming her husband's bed.

The young wife screamed with a good obscenity. I woke up and heard: as if someone had climbed into the yard through the gate. The dogs rushed about, and then fell silent. Katerina Lvovna guessed: it was Zinovy ​​Borisych who had returned.

She quickly woke up Sergei. He climbed out the window, but Katerina Lvovna ordered him not to go down the pillar, but to wait under the window, in the gallery.

Zinovy ​​Borisych quietly approached her door and at first waited, listening. Then he knocked. Katerina Lvovna let him in as if she had just woken up.

Zinovy ​​Borisych looked gloomily. He sat down and began to ask: how did you bury your tyatenko? And how did you spend your time?

“Auntie is dead,” answered Katerina Lvovna, and herself, as if running after a samovar, whispered softly to Sergei: don’t yawn! She entered the room again, and her husband was holding Sergey's belt in his hands, lying on the feather bed. He began to reprimand her that he had heard about all her amorous deeds. But Katerina Lvovna began to boldly answer him - and suddenly she led Sergei into the room by the sleeve, kissing him boldly. Zinovy ​​Borisych slapped her across the face.

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 8 - summary

Katerina Lvovna threw herself at her husband, with strong hands knocked him to the floor. Sergey pressed both hands of the owner to the floor with his knees. Zinovy ​​Borisych broke free and, like a beast, bit Sergei by the throat with his teeth, but groaned and dropped his head: his wife hit him on the temple with a heavy candlestick. Losing consciousness, Zinovy ​​Borisych asked the priest to confess, and Sergei, at the sign of his mistress, began to choke him.

It was all over in five minutes. Sergei carried the corpse of Zinovy ​​​​Borisych to the cellar. Katerina Lvovna wiped away the bloodstains from her husband's head, broken by a candlestick, with a washcloth. “Well, now you are a merchant,” she said, putting her white hands on the shoulders of Sergei, who was stricken with a fever.

Sergei buried the dead man in the cellar, so that it was impossible to find him.

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 9 - summary

Everyone wondered why Zinovy ​​Borisych did not return for so long. The coachman said that he was taking him to the city, but about three miles before him the merchant of tears and went further on foot. The searches launched turned up nothing.

Meanwhile, Katerina Lvovna was getting on with Sergei, having written down her husband's capital on herself. Soon it was revealed that she was pregnant.

But something else was also found out: most of the money from the circulation of Zinovy ​​Borisych belonged to his young nephew, Fyodor Lyamin. And soon an old woman arrived - Boris Timofeich's cousin with this nephew Fyodor.

Sergei, seeing the visitors, turned pale and began to say: “Now, Katerina Ilvovna, all our business with you is dust. Capital will go to the section. She reassured: something and we will not be enough? But Sergey urged: for my love for you, Katerina Ilvovna, I would like to see you as a real lady. And with a decrease in capital, this may not happen - and against human eyes, vile and envious, it will be terribly painful ...

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 10 - summary

Katerina Lvovna began to think: why should I really lose my capital through Fedya? “I took so much sin on my soul, and he came without any hassle and takes it away from me.”

In the meantime, she began to gain weight from pregnancy, and gossip in the city about her and Sergei intensified.

And the boy Fedya Lyamin, who did not even think that he had crossed the road for others, fell ill with chickenpox and fell ill. His grandmother once went to church for Vespers, ordering Katerina Lvovna to look after her grandson.

Fedya, lying on the bed, read the lives of the saints. Katerina Lvovna and Sergei met in another room. At first they were silent, and then Katerina, as if inadvertently, asked: should I go to Fedya? he is alone...

"One?" Sergei asked, glancing sideways. They exchanged glances. "Let's go to!" said Katerina Lvovna impulsively. Sergei took off his boots and followed her.

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 11 - summary

The sick boy shuddered and lowered his book when Katerina Lvovna entered. “Oh, auntie, I was scared,” he said, smiling anxiously. “It’s like someone was following you here.” A floorboard suddenly creaked behind the door, and Fedya cried out furiously when he saw the pale, barefoot Sergei enter. Katerina Lvovna covered the child’s mouth and shouted to Sergei: “Well, keep it steady so that it doesn’t beat!”

Sergei grabbed the boy's legs, and his mistress threw a feather pillow on Fedya's face and fell on her with her strong, elastic breasts.

“It’s over,” she said after four minutes of deathly silence. But as soon as she wanted to move away from the bed with a lifeless body, the house was shaken by thunderous blows on the windows and the door. Sergei trembled and rushed to run. It seemed to him that the dead Zinovy ​​​​Borisych had burst into the house.

Katerina Lvovna retained more self-control. Having laid Fedya's dead head in the most natural sleeping position on the pillows, she ran to open the door. A crowd of people burst into the house.

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 12 - summary

Here's what came out. People poured past the Izmailovs' house from a church service and chattered about a young widow-merchant and her cupids with the clerk Seryozhka. Seeing a light between the shutters, two young guys lifted a third - to see what was happening there. This third one suddenly yelled: someone is being strangled here, they are strangling! - and desperately pounded on the window with his hands.

The fleeing people began to beat on doors and shutters. Bursting into the house, everyone saw the dead Fedya.

Sergei and Katerina Lvovna were taken into custody. She calmly denied everything, but Sergei immediately burst into tears and confessed to two murders. On his instructions, they dug up the corpse of Zinovy ​​​​Borisych. Both criminals were sentenced to penal servitude, flogged with whips on the market square, and Sergei was also subjected to three hard labor marks on his face. In a prison hospital, Katerina Lvovna gave birth to a child, but she immediately turned away from him, saying indifferently: “Well, he’s completely.”

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 13 - summary

The party, which included Sergei and Katerina Lvovna, marched to the place of hard labor. Even before reaching Nizhny, Katerina Lvovna handed out all her meager money to the escort unders, so that they would allow her to walk with Sergei side by side and stand with him embracing him for an hour on a dark night in the cold escort corridor. Only Sergey became very unkind before her and often scolded: why did she give her quarters to the under, and not to him - even if there was no extra date. Katerina Lvovna sometimes bit her lips until they bled at such words.

In Nizhny, their party joined with another, where there were two women: lazy, pliable soldier Fiona and seventeen-year-old fresh blonde Sonetka. Fiona began to give her love to one or another prisoner along the way. Sonnetka, on the other hand, had a taste, did not scatter itself, in passion it made a choice.

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 14 - summary

Sergei began, without hiding, to seek the location of Fiona. Soon Katerina Lvovna found them lying next to each other in the corridor. Tearing the handkerchief from Fiona's face, she hit Sergei in the face with the ends of the men's cell to the friendly laughter from the men's cell and ran away. Until morning, she inspired herself: “I don’t love him,” but she felt that she loved even more passionately. On the next day, Sergei said to her on the road: “You, Katerina Ilvovna, are now a small merchant’s wife: so don’t puff up, do me a favor. Goat horns will not be traded with us.”

Soon he began to flirt with the little white Sonetka, and she accepted his game favorably. Katerina Lvovna could not find a place, but suddenly one day Sergei approached her with a guilty look and asked her to go out to see him at night.

She slipped the last 17 kopecks to the underr. Sergei began to hug her, as if of old, and then complained: my legs hurt to death, I want to ask to go to the infirmary in Kazan.

Katerina Lvovna's heart sank at the thought that she would go further from Kazan without him. But Sergei said: now, if I had woolen stockings, it would be better. Katerina Lvovna had stockings in her purse. Having escaped to the cell, she pulled them out and happily gave them to Sergei.

Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", chapter 15 - summary

Going out the next day, Katerina Lvovna suddenly saw Sonetka standing in her very stockings. Her eyes blurred. At the first halt, she approached Sergei and spat right in his eyes. The prisoners, and especially Sonetka, burst into laughter.

The next night, when Katerina Lvovna was sleeping on the bunk, two men entered the women's barracks. One jumped on her back and tightly grabbed her hands, and the other began to whip with all his might on the back with a thick rope. He counted out loud 50 strokes, and it was easy to recognize Sergey in his voice. Both men then quickly disappeared, and Sonnetka giggled not far away. The rest of the night Katerina Lvovna sobbed, but in the morning she went to roll call with stony calm.

The stage dragged through the cold mud under a grey, overcast sky. “What, merchant? Are all your degrees in good health?” Sergei asked Katerina Lvovna insolently, and in front of her he embraced and kissed Sonetka. Katerina Lvovna walked as if lifeless.

The wide Volga appeared. The prisoners were taken to the ferry. Someone knew that you can buy vodka on this ferry. “Merchant,” Sergey turned to Katerina Lvovna again, “well, out of old friendship, treat me with vodka. Remember our former love, how you and I, my joy, walked, sent your relatives without priests and without clerks to eternal peace.

Katerina Lvovna gazed at the waves with an unmoving gaze and moved her lips. Suddenly, from one shaft, the blue head of Boris Timofeyitch appeared to her; a husband peeped out of the other, embracing Fedya, who had bowed his head. Katerina Lvovna trembled, her eyes became wild. Rocking, she suddenly grabbed Sonetka by the legs and threw herself over the side of the ferry with her.

Everyone fussed and screamed. The two women initially hid in the waves. Then from the next shaft, throwing up her hands, Sonetka appeared. But Katerina Lvovna rose high from another wave, rushed at Sonetka like a strong pike at a raft, and neither of them showed up again.

Katerina Lvovna in Leskov's story bears the nickname of the villainess

The young merchant Izmailova Katerina Lvovna yearns alone in a half-empty house, while her husband always spends time at work. She falls in love with the young and handsome clerk Sergei. Love grows into love. The two secretly sleep together, and now Katerina is ready to do anything for him. On the way to her happiness, she, along with Sergei, commits a series of murders: father-in-law, husband, nephew. The murders were proven in court and the lovers suffered their punishment in hard labor. Sergei's interest faded, because Catherine was no longer rich. Now he is interested in Sonnetka. At the end of the essay, Ekaterina grabs Sergei's new lover and drowns with her in the icy waters of the river.

Nikolai Leskov in his essay raises the theme of love. It is that love that has no boundaries, for the sake of which people can commit even the most horrific deeds.

Summary of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk County Leskov

A young woman, Katerina Lvovna, lives in a large, rich house with her husband, Zinovy ​​Borisovich, and her father-in-law, Boris Timofeevich. Her husband is barren, so Katerina Lvovna has no offspring. After six years of an unhappy marriage, Zinovy ​​Borisovich leaves on business, leaving his wife all alone.

Soon she meets a certain Sergei, and from the cook Aksinya she finds out that he has been working for them for a whole month, and was expelled from his former place of work because of a love affair with the owner. In the evening of the same day, Sergei finds Katerina Lvovna and confesses his love, after which he spends the night with her. This went on for some time, until one night their father-in-law notices them. He is furious and says he will tell his son everything. A little later, Katerina Lvovna decides to kill her father-in-law by poisoning him with white powder.

Meanwhile, Sergei sets himself the goal of becoming Katerina's husband and mastering a large fortune. He puts pressure on the woman, and she promises to make him a merchant. When the husband returns home, he discovers the death of his father and accuses his wife of treason. Katerina Lvovna, not shy, fooled by love, kisses Sergei in front of her husband. Soon the lovers kill Zinovy ​​Borisovich and hide him.

Soon, little Fedya, the nephew of Zinovy ​​Borisovich, comes to live with Izmailova. Sergei sees another heir to wealth and begins to put pressure on Katerina Lvovna, offering to kill Fedor as well. On the night of the Feast of the Introduction, the little boy, unfortunately, is left alone in the big house with his lovers. Fearing nothing on his way, Sergei grabs Fedya, and Katerina Lvovna begins to choke him with a pillow. As soon as death comes, they start knocking loudly and hard on the door. The house starts to shake. The lovers panic and realize that people are pounding on the door of the house, as he guesses about the dirty things that are happening in the house.

When Sergei is put on trial, he, without hesitation, repents and confesses to the murder, also attributing Katerina to the accomplices of the worst murders in the Izmailovs' house. While Katerina Lvovna denies every testimony given against her. But a little later she admits that she committed murders only for the sake of her lover, because she loved him madly. Repentant murderers were punished with whips and long hard labor. At first, Sergei sincerely sympathized, but Katerina Lvovna did not accept his words and even refused to look at the child she had born. Soon the baby, Izmailov's only heir, is taken away from his mother and given up for upbringing. Katerina's heart is slowly melting, and now she only thinks about meeting with Sergei. But at the meeting, the lover no longer pays attention to her, he has cooled down and does not want to see each other anymore.

Near Nizhny Novgorod, a new party is added to the prisoners, among whom was a young girl Sonetka. Everyone was interested in her appearance. Katerina Lvovna again asks for a meeting with Sergei, but she finds him with another woman and quarrels loudly. Having failed to achieve reconciliation with his former mistress, he shifts his attention and begins to flirt with the young Sonetka. The last point in their relationship puts when Katerina Lvovna decides, despite her pride, to make peace with Sergei. During their date, Sergei says that his legs hurt very badly, and, taking pity on him, Katerina Lvovna parted with woolen stockings. The next morning, she sees that those same stockings are on Sonetka's legs. Unable to control her emotions, she approaches Sergei and spits in his face. The next night, Sergei beats Katerina Lvovna in front of a jubilant Sonetka. The bullying continued for several days, but Katerina Lvovna kept herself proud and calm through her tears.

The story ends tragically when a party of criminals is ferried across the river. Katerina Lvovna, under a wave of feelings overwhelming her, flies on Sonetka and, not calculating her balance, falls overboard with her. The girls cannot escape and get out of the icy water and drown.