Master and Man (Tolstoy)
Short summary
Russia, 1870s. On the day after St. Nicholas's Day, a wealthy merchant prepared for an urgent business trip to buy a grove from a neighboring landowner.
The landowner asked ten thousand rubles, but Vasíli offered only seven thousand, though the grove was worth three times that. He took three thousand rubles and decided to leave immediately, fearing competition from town timber dealers. His wife urged him to take along his sober laborer for safety.
They set off with the bay stallion Mukhórty pulling the sledge. The weather quickly worsened, with strong wind and heavy snow. They lost their way and wandered until reaching Gríshkino village, six miles off course. The villagers urged them to stay overnight, but Vasíli refused, obsessed with his business deal. They got lost again after leaving the village. When they became stuck in the snow, Vasíli decided to mount the horse and escape alone, abandoning Nikíta.
Vasíli rode in circles, terrified, and the horse fell into a snowdrift. He found himself back at the sledge where Nikíta lay freezing. Suddenly, Vasíli made an unexpected decision. He lay on top of Nikíta, covering him with his fur coats and his own body warmth. As he warmed his servant, Vasíli experienced a profound transformation.
He remembered that Nikíta was lying under him and that he had got warm and was alive, and it seemed to him that he was Nikíta and Nikíta was he, and that his life was not in himself but in Nikíta.
Detailed summary by chapters
Chapter titles are editorial.
Chapter 1. Vasili Andreevichs business plans and preparation for the journey
On a winter day in the 1870s, the day after St. Nicholas's Day, a church festival had just concluded in the parish. The local innkeeper and Second Guild merchant had fulfilled his duties as church elder, attending services and entertaining relatives and friends at home. As soon as his last guest departed, he immediately began preparing for an urgent business trip to negotiate the purchase of a grove from a neighboring landowner.
The young landowner was asking ten thousand rubles for the grove, while Vasíli Andréevich offered only seven thousand - though this was merely a third of its real value. He might have negotiated the price down further, as he had agreements with other village dealers not to bid against each other in their respective districts. However, he had learned that timber dealers from town intended to bid for the Goryáchkin grove, forcing him to act quickly to secure this profitable deal.
Vasíli Andréevich took seven hundred rubles from his strongbox and added two thousand three hundred rubles of church money in his keeping, making up three thousand rubles total. After carefully counting the notes and placing them in his pocketbook, he prepared to depart. Only one of his laborers remained sober that day and was available to harness the horse.
Chapter 2. The journey begins and first signs of danger
The sober laborer was a peasant of about fifty from a neighboring village.
Though usually a habitual drunkard, Nikíta had sworn off drink two months earlier after losing his coat and boots to alcohol. He was valued for his industry, dexterity, strength, and especially his pleasant temperament, though he never settled anywhere long due to periodic drinking bouts. Vasíli Andréevich paid him only forty rubles annually instead of the eighty he was worth, often in goods from his shop at inflated prices rather than cash.
Nikíta went cheerfully to harness the horse, speaking kindly to the good-tempered bay stallion.
As they prepared to leave, Vasíli Andréevich's seven-year-old son ran out begging to come along.
Nikíta picked up the delighted child and drove to the house. The weather was harsh - past two o'clock, windy, dull, and cold with more than twenty degrees of frost. Vasíli Andréevich emerged from the porch smoking, wearing his cloth-covered sheepskin coat. His pregnant wife stood behind him, wrapped in a shawl, urging him to take Nikíta along for safety since he carried money and the weather might worsen.
Chapter 3. Lost in the storm: arrival at Grishkino
Initially reluctant, Vasíli Andréevich eventually agreed to take Nikíta, joking about his worn sheepskin coat. They set off with Mukhórty pulling the sledge at a brisk pace through the village. Once past the blacksmith's hut, they realized the wind was much stronger than expected. Snow swirled over the fields, making the road barely visible and obscuring the usually clear Telyátin forest.
Vasíli Andréevich boasted about his horse's speed while they discussed route options. He chose the straight road through the forest rather than the longer but better-marked route through Karamýshevo. After traveling about half a verst, they turned left at an oak stake, facing directly into the wind as snow began falling more heavily.
After ten minutes of silent travel, Vasíli Andréevich realized they had lost the road - no stakes were visible. Nikíta jumped down to search for the path, walking through knee-deep snow and probing with his whip, but found nothing. They had wandered onto the Zakhárov lands, recognizable by potato vines showing through the snow. Realizing they were completely lost, they decided to continue straight ahead, hoping to reach either Zakhárova or the proprietor's farm.
They traveled through various terrain - bare fields, winter-rye fields, and deep snow - until Mukhórty stumbled into a ditch. After helping the exhausted horse climb out, they discovered what appeared to be a forest ahead. It turned out to be a row of willows around a threshing floor, and beyond it lay a village street with a barn and houses. They had reached Gríshkino, having traveled six miles in the wrong direction but still toward their general destination.
Chapter 4. Hospitality refused: the decision to continue
In the village, they encountered a tall man who turned out to be Isáy, known as the principal horse-thief in the district.
Isáy, reeking of vodka, recognized Vasíli Andréevich and gave them directions to Goryáchkin via the winter route. Despite his suggestion to stay the night, Vasíli Andréevich insisted on continuing, confident that four miles of good road through the forest would be manageable.
They drove to a large brick house where they were warmly welcomed by an elderly host and his family.
Inside the warm, bright room, the family offered vodka and tea. Nikíta, despite his painful craving for alcohol, declined the vodka, remembering his oath and his promise to buy his son a horse by spring. The hosts shared their family troubles - the old man was distressed about his sons wanting to divide the prosperous household. They strongly urged their guests to stay the night, but Vasíli Andréevich refused, obsessed with his business deal. A young peasant named Petrúshka offered to guide them partway.
Chapter 5. Lost again: Vasilis desperate attempt to continue alone
Petrúshka led them through the village, quoting poetry about storms from his primer. The snowstorm had intensified, and after about ten minutes, he turned them toward the forest path and departed with cheerful verses. They continued alone, with Nikíta trusting the horse's instincts to follow the road marked by stakes.
Soon they encountered another sledge with three men and a woman returning from a feast, their little horse exhausted from the drunken peasants' harsh treatment. This encounter initially cheered Vasíli Andréevich, but soon after, they lost the road again. When Nikíta took the reins, the intelligent horse began turning and searching, eventually leading them back to Gríshkino - they had traveled in a circle.
Vasíli Andréevich stopped at the same brick house, and the hosts again offered shelter and warmth. The samovar was ready, and they were welcomed with the same hospitality. Despite the worsening storm and the obvious danger, Vasíli Andréevich remained determined to continue, driven by his obsession with the business deal and fear of losing the profitable grove to competitors.
Listen to such fools as you! Am I to die like this for nothing?
After warming themselves briefly, they set out again into the terrible storm. The wind was fierce, and they soon lost their way once more. Vasíli Andréevich became increasingly anxious as they wandered through snowdrifts and ravines. When they became completely stuck, he made a desperate decision - he would mount Mukhórty and continue alone, abandoning Nikíta with the sledge.
Chapter 6. Forced to stop: preparing to spend the night in the storm
Vasíli Andréevich felt warm in his two fur coats, but the realization that they must spend the night in the open sent a cold shiver down his back. To calm himself, he sat in the sledge and tried to light cigarettes, though the wind made this nearly impossible. Meanwhile, Nikíta unharnessed Mukhórty, talking encouragingly to the horse and covering him with the drugget for warmth.
Nikíta set up a signal by tying the shafts together and standing them upright, explaining that when snow covered them, people would see the shafts and dig them out - knowledge passed down from the old folk. Vasíli Andréevich managed to light a cigarette briefly and tied his kerchief to the shaft as a flag, which immediately began fluttering wildly in the wind.
Nikíta made himself a shelter behind the sledge, digging a hole in the snow, spreading straw, and covering himself with sackcloth. Vasíli Andréevich settled in the sledge itself, his mind consumed with thoughts of money and business deals. He calculated the potential profit from the Goryáchkin grove - perhaps ten thousand rubles - and mentally reckoned the value of the timber, planning to bribe the surveyor to reduce the official acreage.
As the night wore on, Vasíli Andréevich's thoughts turned to his wealth and achievements. He reflected proudly on how he had built his fortune from his father's simple peasant house to his current empire of shops, taverns, mills, and farms. The thought that he might become a millionaire like the Mirónovs excited him so much that he felt the need to talk to someone, but there was no one to share his dreams with.
He tried to sleep but kept waking, disturbed by fear and regret about not staying in Gríshkino. When he checked his watch, he was horrified to discover it was only ten minutes past twelve - almost the whole night still lay ahead. The sound of a wolf howling nearby filled him with terror, and he could no longer calm himself or fall asleep.
Growing desperate, Vasíli Andréevich decided to mount the horse and escape alone. He reasoned that Nikíta's life was worthless compared to his own - he had something to live for. After struggling to mount Mukhórty from the sledge, he managed to get on the horse's back and rode away from the sledge, leaving Nikíta behind.
Chapter 7. Nikitas acceptance of death
From the moment Nikíta had covered himself with sackcloth behind the sledge, he had not stirred. Like all those who live close to nature and have known want, he was patient and could wait for hours without growing restless. Though he still felt some warmth from the tea and his earlier exertions, he knew this warmth would not last long, and he had no strength left to warm himself by moving about.
The thought that he might, and very probably would, die that night occurred to him, but did not seem particularly unpleasant or dreadful.
Death did not seem dreadful because his whole life had been not a continual holiday, but an unceasing round of toil of which he was growing weary.
He always felt himself dependent on the Chief Master, who had sent him into this life, and he knew that when dying he would still be in that Master's power.
Chapter 8. Vasilis failed escape and return to Nikita
Vasíli Andréevich rode for about five minutes, seeing nothing but the horse's head and white waste, hearing only the wind. When a dark patch appeared ahead, his heart beat with joy, but it was only wormwood stalks tossing in the wind. He rode in circles, twice passing the same boundary line, recognizing his own horse's tracks in the snow. Terror seized him as he realized he was lost and might perish in this snowy waste.
Mukhórty suddenly tumbled into a snowdrift and fell on his side. As Vasíli Andréevich jumped off, the horse struggled to his feet and disappeared, dragging the drugget and breechband, leaving his master alone. Vasíli Andréevich tried to follow but could only take twenty steps through the deep snow before stopping, breathless and terrified. He found himself back at the same ravine where Nikíta had fallen earlier, and discovered Mukhórty standing near the sledge - he had traveled in a circle and was no more than fifty paces from where he started.
Chapter 9. Vasilis sacrifice: saving Nikita with his own life
Returning to the sledge, Vasíli Andréevich found Nikíta nearly frozen, barely able to speak, asking that his wages be given to his son or wife. Realizing Nikíta was dying, Vasíli Andréevich suddenly made a decision that surprised even himself. With the same resolution he used when making profitable deals, he began raking snow off Nikíta and out of the sledge.
After pushing the skirts of his coat between Nikíta and the sides of the sledge... Vasíli Andréevich lay like that face down, with his head pressed against the front of the sledge.
He lay on top of Nikíta, covering him not only with his fur coat but with his whole body, which glowed with warmth. To his great surprise, tears came to his eyes and his jaw began to quiver.
But this weakness was not only unpleasant, but gave him a peculiar joy such as he had never felt before.
As Vasíli Andréevich lay there warming Nikíta, his consciousness began to fade. In his final moments, he experienced visions and understood that someone he had been waiting for had come for him. He felt that his life was not in himself but in Nikíta, and that by saving Nikíta, he too would live.
And he remembered his money, his shop, his house, the buying and selling... and it was hard for him to understand why that man, called Vasíli Brekhunóv, had troubled himself.
Well, it was because he did not know what the real thing was... He did not know, but now I know and know for sure. Now I know!
Chapter 10. Rescue and aftermath: the cost of the storm
Peasants found them at noon the next day, digging them out with shovels less than seventy yards from the road and half a mile from the village. The snow had hidden the sledge, but the shafts and kerchief remained visible. Mukhórty stood buried to his belly, dead from the cold, nothing but skin and bone after that terrible night.
Vasíli Andréevich was frozen stiff as a carcass, his legs apart and arms stretched out as they had been when covering Nikíta. His bulging eyes were frozen and his mouth was full of snow. But Nikíta, though chilled through, was still alive. When brought to consciousness, he was surprised that peasants in the next world should be shouting in the same old way, then realized he was still in this world and felt sorry rather than glad, especially when he discovered his toes were frozen.
Nikíta spent two months in hospital where they cut off three of his toes, but he recovered and continued working for another twenty years, first as a farm laborer, then as a watchman in his old age. He died at home as he had wished, under the icons with a lighted taper in his hands, having asked forgiveness from his wife and forgiven her relationship with the cooper. He died sincerely glad to relieve his family of the burden of caring for him, passing into that other life which had grown clearer and more desirable to him with each passing year.