Bezhin Meadow (Turgenev)
Short summary
Russian countryside, mid-19th century. While hunting grouse, a man got lost in unfamiliar territory. After wandering for hours, he found himself atop a precipice overlooking Bezhin Prairie, where he spotted campfires below.
He descended to find five peasant boys tending horses overnight. The boys welcomed him to their campfire, where they cooked potatoes and shared ghost stories. One boy told of hearing a goblin in a paper mill, another recounted a tale of a carpenter bewitched by a water nymph, and a third described a drowned man's haunting.
During their storytelling, the dogs suddenly ran off barking. Pavel quickly mounted a horse to investigate, returning to report it was nothing serious. The boys continued sharing tales of wood spirits and omens until dawn.
As morning approached, the narrator observed the boys falling asleep around the dying fire. At dawn, he quietly departed, walking alongside the misty river as the countryside awakened around him.
Sad to say, I must add that in that year Pavel met his end. He was not drowned; he was killed by a fall from his horse. Pity! he was a splendid fellow!
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
A glorious July day in the Russian countryside
The story began on a magnificent July day in the Russian countryside. The sky was clear from early morning, with the sunrise displaying a soft roseate flush rather than a fiery glow. The sun rose peacefully behind a narrow cloud, shining brightly before plunging back into lilac mist. By midday, golden-grey rounded clouds with soft white edges dotted the sky, barely moving in the deep blue expanse. The horizon maintained a faint pale lilac color throughout the day, with no storms gathering. In the evening, the clouds disappeared, leaving only a crimson glow where the sun had set, and the evening star flickered in the sky.
Lost while hunting in unfamiliar territory
On such a day, the narrator was out grouse-shooting in the Tchern district of Tula province. After a successful hunt, with his game bag cutting into his shoulder, he decided to head home as evening approached. Walking swiftly through underwoods and climbing a hill, he discovered he was in unfamiliar territory. Instead of the expected plain with an oakwood and white church, he faced a narrow valley with a dense aspen wood. Realizing his mistake, he descended the hill into a clinging mist, where the dew-drenched grass was white like a tablecloth.
The narrator walked alongside the aspen wood as bats hovered over the tree-tops and a belated hawk flew upward. He reached the end of the wood but found no road, only low bushes extending into the distance. After trying to recall his day's route, he concluded he was near Sindyev wood and needed to bear right. He walked through bushes onto an untrodden path, then along a field by a hedge. As darkness fell, he could barely make out distant objects. The sky grew blue with night, and tiny stars appeared. Disoriented, he asked his dog Dianka for guidance, but she offered no help. Feeling disgraced, he pushed forward randomly, guided only by stars.
Discovering boys around a campfire on Bezhin Prairie
After walking for about half an hour, the narrator suddenly found himself at the edge of a precipice. Below him stretched a vast plain with a long river curving around it. Directly beneath, in the corner formed by the precipice and the plain near the river, two fires were smoking with people moving around them. The narrator realized he had reached Bezhin Prairie, a well-known area in those parts. Unable to return home at night due to exhaustion, he decided to descend to the fires and wait for dawn with the people there, whom he assumed were drovers.
As he approached, two large shaggy white dogs rushed at him, barking angrily. Boyish voices called out, and several boys quickly got up from the ground. When the narrator responded to their shouts, they ran to him and called off the dogs, which were particularly interested in Dianka. Upon reaching them, he discovered they were not drovers but peasant boys from a neighboring village who were watching over horses at night. In summer, the peasants drove horses out to graze at night to avoid the flies and gnats that would torment them during the day.
I lay under the bush at one side and looked at the boys. It was a marvellous picture; about the fire a red ring of light quivered and seemed to swoon away in the embrace of a background of darkness; the flame flaring up from time to time cast swift flashes of light beyond the boundary of this circle.
The narrator told the boys he had lost his way and sat down with them. They asked where he came from, then fell silent and turned away. He lay down under a bush and observed the scene around him. The fire created a mesmerizing play of light and shadow against the darkness. Occasionally, a horse's head would appear from the darkness, stare at them with blank eyes, nip at the grass, and vanish again. Beyond their circle of light, hills and forests were dimly visible on the horizon. The night sky stood immense above them, and the air was filled with the fresh fragrance of a Russian summer night.
Tales of the domovoy in the old paper-mill
There were five boys gathered around the fires: Fedya, Pavlusha, Ilyusha, Kostya, and Vanya. The narrator learned their names from their conversation and observed them carefully.
As the boys sat around the fire, where potatoes were cooking in a small pot, they began to talk. Fedya asked Ilyusha if he had seen the domovoy (goblin). Ilyusha replied that no one could see the domovoy, but he had heard it in the old paper-mill where he and his brother worked as paper-glazers. He recounted how one night, he and several other boys were kept at the mill by the overseer. As they were lying down, someone began walking overhead where the wheel was located. The boards creaked under the invisible walker's weight, then water began to drip over the wheel, which started turning despite the sluices being closed.
The mysterious entity then came down the stairs, approached their door, and suddenly the door flew open, though nothing was visible. A net on one of the vats began moving on its own, a hook came off its nail and then returned, and finally, someone at the door coughed and choked loudly like a sheep. The frightened boys huddled together in terror. When Pavel asked why the domovoy had coughed, Ilyusha suggested it might have been due to the damp.
Kostyas story of Gavrila and the russalka
After a brief silence, Pavel checked if the potatoes were done. Then Kostya offered to tell a story his father had shared with him. He asked if the others knew Gavrila, the carpenter from the big village, and why he was always sorrowful and never spoke.
Kostya explained that one day Gavrila went nutting in the forest and lost his way. As night fell, he sat under a tree to wait until morning. While falling asleep, he heard someone call him. Looking up, he saw a russalka (water nymph) sitting on a branch, swinging herself, calling to him, and laughing. In the bright moonlight, she appeared as white and silvery as a fish. Though Gavrila was nearly entranced, he managed to cross himself, despite his hand feeling like stone. At this, the russalka stopped laughing and began to cry, wiping her eyes with her green hair.
When Gavrila asked why she was weeping, the russalka replied that had he not crossed himself, he would have lived with her in gladness to the end of his days. Now, she said, not only would she grieve, but he too would be sorrowful for the rest of his life. After she vanished, Gavrila suddenly knew how to find his way out of the forest, but from that day forward, he remained perpetually sad. Fedya wondered how such an evil forest creature could ruin a Christian soul who had not listened to her. Kostya added that Gavrila had described her voice as shrill and plaintive like a toad's. Ilyusha explained that the russalka had wanted to tickle Gavrila to death, as that was what russalkas did.
Discussions of death omens and departed souls
The boys wondered if there might be russalkas in their area too. Kostya thought not, as they were in a holy open place, though he noted the river was nearby. Suddenly, a strange, prolonged, wailing sound broke the silence, followed by harsh laughter in the forest and a faint hissing over the river. The boys looked around, shivering in fear, until Pavel reassured them and announced the potatoes were ready. They all gathered to eat, except for Vanya who remained under his rug.
Suddenly from out of the distance came a prolonged, resonant, almost wailing sound, one of those inexplicable sounds of the night, which break upon a profound stillness, rise upon the air, linger, and slowly die away at last. The boys looked round about shivering...
After they finished eating, Ilyusha began telling another story about a haunted place near the broken-down dam at Varnavitsi, where a drowned man was buried. He recounted how the huntsman Yermil, returning from town slightly tipsy one night, saw a white lamb on the drowned man's grave. When Yermil picked up the lamb and placed it in front of him on his horse, the lamb looked him in the face strangely. As Yermil stroked it and said "Chucky! chucky!" the lamb suddenly showed its teeth and repeated "Chucky! chucky!" back to him.
Strange sounds in the night and Pavels courage
Just as Ilyusha finished his story, both dogs suddenly jumped up, barking convulsively, and rushed away into the darkness. All the boys were alarmed, with Vanya jumping up from under his rug and Pavel running after the dogs, shouting. The barking grew fainter in the distance, accompanied by the noise of frightened horses. Soon Pavel's voice could be heard calling out to the dogs. After a few minutes, the sound of a galloping horse approached, and Pavel sprang off it, followed by the two dogs who sat down with their tongues hanging out.
I could not help admiring Pavel. He was very fine at that moment. His ugly face, animated by his swift ride, glowed with hardihood and determination. Without even a switch in his hand, he had, without the slightest hesitation, rushed out into the night alone to face a wolf...
Stories of the wood-spirit and its victims
When the boys asked what had happened, Pavel calmly replied it was nothing, though he had thought it might be a wolf. He explained that wolves were common in the area but only troublesome in winter. The narrator admired Pavel's courage, as he had rushed into the night without hesitation to face a potential wolf. Vanya returned to his place under the rug, and Fedya commented on how frightening Ilyusha's stories were, especially since they had caused the dogs to bark. He mentioned that Varnavitsi was indeed known to be haunted.
Ilyusha confirmed this, saying that the old master (the late landowner) had been seen there multiple times, wearing a long-skirted coat and groaning while searching for something on the ground. He recounted how the grandfather Trofimitch had once encountered the ghost and boldly asked what he was looking for. The ghost replied that he sought "the herb that cleaves all things" because "the tomb weighs on me; it weighs on me, Trofimitch: I want to get away—away." Kostya was surprised, saying he thought the departed could only be seen on All Hallows' day, but Ilyusha corrected him, explaining that the departed could be seen anytime, while on All Hallows' day one could see the living who were destined to die that year.
I had met this Akulina more than once. Covered with rags, fearfully thin, with face as black as a coal, blear-eyed and for ever grinning, she would stay whole hours in one place in the road, stamping with her feet, pressing her fleshless hands to her breast...
Contemplating the stars in the night sky
Pavel threw a handful of dry twigs on the fire, which crackled and sent broken flashes of light in all directions. Suddenly, a white dove flew into the bright light, fluttered around in terror, and disappeared with a whirr of its wings. Pavel remarked that it had lost its home and would fly until it found somewhere to rest until dawn. Kostya wondered if it might be a just soul flying to heaven, to which Pavel thoughtfully replied, "Perhaps."
Fedya then asked Pavel about what was seen in his village during the "heavenly portent" (an eclipse). Pavel described how everyone was frightened, including their master despite his prior explanations about the event. In the house-serfs' cottage, an old woman broke all the dishes in the oven with a poker, saying "Who will eat now? The last day has come." Throughout the village, rumors spread that white wolves would run over the earth eating men, a bird of prey would attack, and they might even see Trishka, a legendary trickster figure in Russian folklore who could not be captured or contained.
The eyes of all the boys were raised to the sky, and they were not lowered quickly... "Well, Vanya," began Fedya caressingly, "is your sister Anyutka well?" "Yes, she is very well," replied Vanya with a slight lisp. "You ask her, why doesn't she come to see us?"
Pavels disturbing encounter at the river
Pavel continued his story about the eclipse, explaining how a man from the big village was mistaken for Trishka, causing panic among the villagers. The elder crawled into a ditch, his wife screamed and frightened the yard-dog, and Kuzka's father hid in the oats, crying like a quail and hoping the "Enemy, the Destroyer of Souls" might spare the birds. The supposed Trishka turned out to be the cooper Vavila, who had simply put an empty pitcher over his head. All the boys laughed at this conclusion.
After a moment of silence, a strange, harsh cry sounded twice over the river and was repeated further down. When Kostya shuddered and asked what it was, Pavel calmly identified it as a heron's cry. Kostya then asked about another sound he had heard the previous evening near a water-pit overgrown with reeds, where someone seemed to be groaning piteously. Pavel explained that the thieves had drowned the forester Akim in that pit the previous summer, so perhaps it was his soul lamenting, though he added that there were also tiny frogs that cried piteously in a similar way.
Dawn breaks over the prairie
The conversation turned to the wood-spirit, which Ilyusha described as dumb but capable of clapping its hands and making rattling sounds. When Fedya asked if he had seen it, Ilyusha admitted he had not but knew of a peasant who had been misled by one, being led in circles through the woods until daylight. The peasant described it as a large, dark creature wrapped up like a tree, hiding from the moon while staring and winking with its great eyes. Pavel wondered how such "unclean brood" came to exist in the world, but Ilyusha cautioned him not to speak ill of it, lest it hear him.
The boys' talk died down when the fires did. The dogs even were dozing; the horses, so far as I could make out, in the hardly-perceptible, faintly shining light of the stars, were asleep with downcast heads.... I fell into a state of weary unconsciousness, which passed into sleep.
Before I had walked two miles, already all around me... flowed fresh streams of burning light, first pink, then red and golden.... All things began to stir, to awaken, to sing, to flutter, to speak. On all sides thick drops of dew sparkled in glittering diamonds...
Tragic epilogue: Pavels fate
After more than three hours with the boys, the narrator fell into a weary sleep. He was awakened by a fresh breeze passing over his face. Dawn was breaking, though the sky was not yet flushed. Everything was becoming visible, though dimly. The pale grey sky was growing light, the stars were dimming, and dew covered the earth and leaves. Sounds of life and voices came from the distance as a light morning breeze fluttered over the earth.
"Well, never mind, don't bother about it," Pavel declared stoutly, and he sat down again; "no one can escape his fate." The boys were still. It was clear that Pavel's words had produced a strong impression on them. They began to lie down before the fire as though preparing to go to sleep.
The narrator got up and approached the boys, who were all sleeping except for Pavel, who gazed at him intently. After nodding to Pavel, the narrator walked homewards beside the misty river. Before he had walked two miles, the landscape was transformed by the morning light. Sadly, the narrator later learned that Pavel met his end that same year, not by drowning but from a fall from his horse. The narrator concluded with regret, noting what a splendid fellow Pavel had been.