The Snowstorm (Pushkin)
Short summary
Russia, 1811. Maria Gavrilovna fell in love with a poor sub-lieutenant, but her parents forbade the match.
The lovers planned to elope and marry secretly. On the appointed night, Maria left her parents' house during a terrible snowstorm and reached the church. Vladimir set out to meet her but got lost in the storm.
By mistake, Vladimir stumbled into a different church where a wedding was taking place. Confused and impulsive, he went through with the ceremony, marrying an unknown woman. When the bride saw his face, she fainted, crying that he was not the right man. Vladimir fled and never discovered whom he had married. Maria waited in vain and fell gravely ill. Vladimir later died at the Battle of Borodino. Years passed, and Maria remained faithful to his memory. After the war, Colonel Bourmin appeared at her estate.
They fell in love, but Bourmin confessed he was already married to an unknown woman from a wedding night years ago during a snowstorm.
My God! my God!... seizing him by the hand: then it was you! And you do not recognize me? Bourmin turned pale—and threw himself at her feet.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
Forbidden love and the secret elopement plan
In late 1811, the hospitable landowner Gavril Gavrilovitch lived on his estate of Nenaradova with his wife and seventeen-year-old daughter.
Raised on French novels, she had fallen in love with a poor sub-lieutenant on leave in his village.
The young man returned her passion, but her parents forbade their relationship and received him coldly. The lovers met secretly in the pine wood and near the old chapel, exchanging vows and lamenting their fate. They arrived at a natural conclusion:
If we cannot exist without each other, and the will of hard-hearted parents stands in the way of our happiness, why cannot we do without them?
The fateful night: Marias preparations and departure
Vladimir implored Maria to elope and marry secretly, promising to throw themselves at their parents' feet afterward. After long hesitation, Maria consented. On the appointed day, she would retire early with a feigned headache, then escape through the garden where a sledge would take her to the church of Jadrino, five versts away, where Vladimir would be waiting. On the eve of the decisive day, Maria packed her belongings and wrote farewell letters to her parents and a friend. She barely slept, tormented by terrible dreams of her father dragging her through snow and Vladimir lying pale and bloodstained. The next evening arrived.
At supper, Maria's heart beat violently. She declared she wanted no food and took leave of her parents, barely restraining her tears. In her room, her maid urged her to be calm. Soon all was ready.
Out in the courtyard the snow was falling heavily; the wind howled, the shutters shook and rattled, and everything seemed to her to portend misfortune.
Vladimir lost in the snowstorm and a strange wedding
When everyone was asleep, Maria and her maid descended into the garden with difficulty, fighting the wind. A sledge awaited them in the road, and Vladimir's coachman helped them in. The horses dashed off into the storm. Meanwhile, Vladimir had spent the day making arrangements. He visited the priest of Jadrino and secured witnesses—a retired cornet and others who eagerly agreed to help. He dispatched his coachman with the sledge for Maria and set out alone for Jadrino in a small sledge. The journey should have taken only twenty minutes, but scarcely had he left the paddock when a terrible snowstorm arose.
In one minute the road was completely hidden; all surrounding objects disappeared in a thick yellow fog, through which fell the white flakes of snow; earth and sky became confounded.
Vladimir tried desperately to find the road, but his horse stumbled constantly into snowdrifts. More than an hour passed with no sign of Jadrino or the wood that should mark its location. He turned right, hoping to correct his course, but still found nothing but endless snowdrifts. At last he saw something dark—a wood. He drove along its edge and plunged into the darkness of the trees, but still Jadrino did not appear.
Vladimir discovered with horror that he had entered an unknown forest. Despair took possession of him.
He whipped his exhausted horse onward. Eventually he emerged from the forest, but Jadrino was nowhere to be seen. It must have been midnight. He drove on randomly until he saw a small village. At a cottage, an old man told him Jadrino was ten versts away. Vladimir stood motionless, like a man condemned to death. The old man's son agreed to guide him. When they finally reached Jadrino at daybreak, the church was closed. Vladimir's sledge was not there.
The mysterious aftermath and Marias illness
At Nenaradova, nothing seemed amiss. The old couple awoke and asked after their daughter. Maria appeared and greeted them normally, though she complained of a headache. The day passed quietly, but that night Maria fell seriously ill with a violent fever. For two weeks she hovered on the brink of death, delirious. Nobody in the house knew about the attempted elopement. The letters had been burned, and her maid kept silent, fearing her master's wrath. The witnesses to the planned wedding also remained discreet.
During her delirium, Maria revealed her secret love for Vladimir. Her mother understood that love was the cause of her illness. After consulting with neighbors, the parents decided to consent to the marriage. When Maria recovered, they sent word to Vladimir, but received a half-insane letter in reply. He informed them he would never set foot in their house again and begged them to forget him. Soon after, they learned he had rejoined the army. This was in 1812.
War, loss, and years of faithful mourning
Maria dared not mention Vladimir's name. Months later, she fainted upon reading that he had been severely wounded at Borodino. Another misfortune followed—her father died, leaving her sole heiress. She and her mother left Nenaradova for another estate. Suitors surrounded the young wealthy heiress, but she gave them no hope. Vladimir had died in Moscow on the eve of the French entry. Maria treasured everything that reminded her of him—books, drawings, verses he had copied. Neighbors awaited the hero who would triumph over her constancy. When the war ended gloriously and regiments returned from abroad, the general enthusiasm was intoxicating. Officers who had left as boys returned as men with martial bearing.
Colonel Bourmins arrival and courtship
During this period, Maria lived quietly in the provinces. A wounded Hussar colonel with the Order of St. George appeared at her estate.
Maria bestowed special attention upon him. In his presence, her pensiveness disappeared. He possessed a pleasing spirit and modest disposition. More than his tenderness or conversation, his silence excited her curiosity. She wondered why he had not yet declared himself. She resolved to encourage him, and her stratagem succeeded—Bourmin fell into reverie, and the decisive moment seemed near.
The confession and recognition
One day, Bourmin found Maria by the pond and declared his love. He confessed he had acted imprudently in accustoming himself to seeing her daily, but a grave duty remained—to reveal a terrible secret. Maria interrupted, saying a barrier had always existed between them. Bourmin replied calmly that he knew she had once loved, but three years of mourning had passed. Maria urged him not to torture her. Then Bourmin revealed his secret:
I am already married... I have been married four years, and I do not know who is my wife, or where she is, or whether I shall ever see her again!
Maria looked at him in astonishment and begged him to continue. Bourmin explained that in early 1812, he was hastening to Vilna when a terrible snowstorm arose. Despite warnings, he set out and became lost. He saw a light and reached a village where a wedding was taking place. People rushed him into the church, mistaking him for the expected bridegroom. Impelled by incomprehensible levity, he went through with the ceremony. When told to kiss his bride, she cried out that he was not the right man and fainted. Bourmin fled immediately, never learning his wife's name or the village location. Maria seized his hand and cried out that it was he, and did he not recognize her. Bourmin turned pale and threw himself at her feet.