The Snowstorm (Tolstoy)
Short summary
Don Cossack district, Russia, 19th century. After drinking tea at a posting station, a gentleman traveler set out on a winter evening despite warnings about an approaching snowstorm.
Soon the blizzard intensified, and his driver lost the road. They encountered three mail sledges that had also become disoriented. The travelers decided to follow each other, hoping the horses would find their way. The narrator observed the deteriorating conditions with growing alarm.
It certainly was terrible to see the blizzard getting more and more violent, the horses growing weaker, and the road getting worse, while we hadn't a notion where we were.
Throughout the night, the sledges wandered in circles, passing the same wagon train multiple times. The drivers argued about directions while battling the relentless storm. The narrator dozed intermittently, experiencing vivid dreams and memories. He dreamed of drowning peasants, his childhood estate, and strange visions where his companions transformed into different people. In his fevered imagination, he saw himself trapped in snow corridors and pursued by mysterious figures. When dawn finally broke, revealing a white, frozen landscape, they discovered they had somehow arrived near the station. The narrator's driver handed him over to another sledge for the final stretch. As the sun rose, they reached the posting station safely, having survived the night-long ordeal in the blizzard.
Detailed summary by chapters
Chapter titles are editorial.
Chapter 1. Setting out into the snowstorm
After six o'clock in the evening, having finished tea at a posting-station in the Don Cossack district near Novotcherkask, a gentleman traveler prepared to continue his journey. The night was dark with no stars visible, and snow covered the plain ahead. As soon as they left the village, passing windmills with their great sails waving, the road became heavier with snow and the wind began to blow more keenly.
The narrator traveled with his servant in a sledge driven by a local peasant. The driver wore a big hat instead of a proper coachman's cap and sat incorrectly on his seat, holding the reins like a footman rather than a professional driver. This made the narrator feel uneasy about the man's competence.
Chapter 2. Encountering the mail sledges
The wind grew stronger and the snow thicker. When the narrator asked if they might get lost, the driver replied uncertainly that they must reach the next station but admitted he could barely see the road. After a quarter hour, the driver stopped the horses and walked off to look for the road, his boots crunching in the snow. He returned unsuccessful and increasingly irritated.
What are we to do? Go whither God leads us... We shall get back all right if we let the horses go as they please, they'll take us there.
They heard the bells of several sledges approaching from behind at a smart pace. The foremost sledge had particularly fine bells with clear, rich notes that rang distinctly through the wind. These were mail sledges carrying the post, and after they passed, the narrator's driver decided to follow their fresh tracks in the snow.
Chapter 3. The accident with the horses
Following the mail sledges' tracks, they could see the path clearly for two versts, but then it became increasingly difficult to distinguish. The narrator's eyes grew dazed watching the monotonous snow flying past. They lost the road completely and wandered in different directions, with the driver, narrator, and Alyoshka each believing they were going the wrong way.
I scarcely had I struggled six steps against the wind... when I lost sight of the sledge. I shouted 'Driver! Alyoshka!' but my voice was caught up by the wind.
When the narrator got out to investigate what he thought might be the road, he immediately lost sight of the sledge in the swirling snow. His desperate shouts were carried away by the wind until the driver's dark figure suddenly appeared just paces away. They decided to let the horses find their own way back, and soon the three mail sledges appeared again, returning from their delivery.
Without waiting for the hindmost sledge to pass, the narrator's driver turned awkwardly and collided with the horses tied behind it. One team broke free and galloped away into the storm. An old driver jumped out and ran after the horses, cursing the narrator's driver for his clumsiness, while a tall man mounted one of his remaining horses to help with the chase.
Chapter 4. The storm intensifies
The remaining sledges continued together, following the express sledge with its ringing bells. The storm became more violent with fine frozen snow falling from the sky. The narrator, having traveled six hundred versts without stopping, began to doze despite his interest in their wanderings. When he opened his eyes, the moon had risen and cast bright light through the falling snow.
The lead driver continued stopping to search for the road while a voice from the second sledge constantly shouted advice. The counsellor gave directions about going right or left, looking for verst posts, and suggested unloading the piebald horse to lead the way, though he never got out to help himself.
In the third sledge, a driver slept through most of the journey, occasionally muttering words of abuse when disturbed. The storyteller in the second sledge remained calm about their situation, suggesting they should drive on as long as the horses could go rather than constantly stopping to search for the road.
Chapter 5. Reuniting with the lost horses and drivers
Around midnight, the old man and another driver who had pursued the strayed horses caught up with the group. How they managed to find them in the dark, blinding blizzard across the bare steppe remained a mystery to the narrator. The old man rode up on the shaft-horse with the other two horses fastened to the yoke, immediately resuming his scolding of the narrator's driver.
The storyteller called out to the old man, asking if he was alive and inviting him into their sledge. After reuniting with his horses, the old man tumbled into the second sledge while Vassily silently took his place in the front sledge to help look for the road. They continued driving through the white wilderness in the cold, luminous twilight of the snowstorm.
Chapter 6. Dreams and memories during the journey
The narrator dozed fitfully as they continued through the endless white expanse. Everything remained the same: the driver's snow-covered back, the shaft-horse's head bobbing rhythmically, the trace-horse with its tied-up tail, and the persistent wind carrying snow in the same direction. The horizon seemed sometimes infinitely remote, sometimes closed in just paces away.
As memories and fancies followed one another rapidly in his imagination, the narrator began dreaming of his childhood home. He envisioned Fyodor Filippitch, their old butler, directing house-serfs as they moved a piano, running about officiously and shouting instructions while getting in everyone's way. The narrator wondered whether such people believed themselves necessary or simply enjoyed exercising their commanding voices.
His dreams shifted to a summer day when he lay as a young man in his favorite spot near the pond, between wild rose thickets and a birch avenue. He remembered the intense beauty around him and his naive self-satisfaction mixed with melancholy, his only vexation being that no one was there to admire him. The heat, flies, and buzzing bees made sleep impossible despite his attempts to find comfort.
Suddenly in his dream, he heard frightened voices of women crying that a peasant was drowning in their pond. He ran with others to the bank where a crowd had gathered. The washerwoman described seeing the man plunge in, come up screaming for mercy, then disappear with only bubbles rising to the surface. Everyone stood helplessly on the bank as Fyodor Filippitch arrived, took charge of the rescue effort, and dove into the water with his dog Trezorka.
The dream continued with the casting of nets and the eventual recovery of the drowned man's body. The narrator recalled his aunt's silk gown and lilac parasol, which seemed oddly incongruous with the scene of death. He remembered her disappointment that arnica could be of no use and her naive warning about swimming alone. The memory was filled with sensory details: the glaring sun, the struggling carp, the sounds of washing-bats echoing across the pond.
The narrator was awakened by their sledge galloping swiftly and voices talking beside him. His driver was negotiating with another driver named Ignat to take over the passenger, offering to pay for the transfer. After some bargaining over the price of vodka, they agreed to the exchange.
Chapter 7. Changing drivers in the blizzard
The narrator transferred to Ignat's sledge while his original driver, pleased with the arrangement, moved the baggage with unusual energy. The God-fearing peasant thanked everyone profusely, clearly relieved to be rid of the responsibility. Meanwhile, the narrator approached the second sledge where the storyteller continued his tale about a general, a king, and a woman named Mariya in prison, while the counsellor made conversation.
When asked about their location, the counsellor admitted they might have reached the Kalmucks altogether, showing his uncertainty about their position. The old man asked if the narrator was afraid of freezing, suggesting he should run alongside the sledge to keep warm. The blizzard was so terrific that the narrator could barely struggle through the whirling snow to reach Ignashka's sledge.
Ignashka proved to be a more energetic and confident driver than his predecessor. He sat up smartly, constantly jumping and swinging his whip, shouting to his horses and knocking his legs together. His neck was bare despite the cold, and he wore leather boots instead of felt ones. He seemed determined to keep up his spirits and energy as the conditions worsened.
Chapter 8. Visions of freezing to death
The narrator began to feel seriously drowsy and wondered if he was beginning to freeze. He knew that freezing always began with sleepiness, and though he was a little frightened, he found himself more attracted to the idea that something extraordinary and tragic might happen to them. His imagination filled with vivid dreams of being half-frozen when they reached some remote village.
Can I really be beginning to freeze?... Better be drowned than frozen... but never mind, I don't care whether it's drowning or freezing, if only I could forget everything.
In his fevered dreams, the horses stopped and snow drifted higher until only their ears were visible. Ignashka appeared on top of the snow and drove past them despite their entreaties. The old man tried to gallop away but couldn't move, while his original driver trampled him in the snow, calling him a sorcerer. The counsellor, now transformed into Fyodor Filippitch, suggested they sit in a circle and let the snow bury them for warmth.
Chapter 9. Struggling through the night
The narrator woke to find his knee uncovered and snow melting on his fur collar. They were driving over bare ice, and the bells rang more distinctly in the air. Instead of stacks, he saw a house with a balcony and turreted walls like a fortress, though he felt little interest in examining it, preferring to return to his dreams of the white corridor and church bells.
The snow whirled in front of us, buried the runners on one side, and the horses' legs up to the knees, and was piled up high on our collars and caps.
The night remained as light, dim, and white as ever. Ignashka continued his energetic driving, but the conditions were becoming increasingly difficult. His right foot was beginning to get frostbitten, and he frequently clapped his legs together and scraped snow from his boot-tops, admitting to Alyoshka that he couldn't warm his numb legs.
Chapter 10. Dawn breaks over the snowy landscape
When the narrator woke again, kicked by Alyoshka, it was morning. The sky showed heavy, dingy blue in the east with bright orange-red rays becoming more clearly marked. No snow fell from above, but the keen, dry wind still drove fine snow along the ground. The country lay under deep white snow thrown into sharp ridges as far as the eye could see.
Everywhere around, as far as the eye could see, the country lay under deep, white snow... Not a track of sledge, or man, or beast was visible.
Chapter 11. Safe arrival at the posting station
The narrator was amazed to discover they had been driving all night with the same horses for twelve hours without stopping or knowing their direction, yet had somehow arrived safely. Their bells chimed more gaily than ever as they encountered fresh sledge tracks and spots of blood in the snow, indicating another driver had reached the destination before them.
A little house with a signboard came into sight near the roadside, almost buried in snow up to the roof and windows. Filip's sledge with three grey horses stood nearby, their coats crisp with sweat. The big, red-faced driver emerged holding a glass of vodka, and Ignashka asked permission to stop. When the narrator saw Ignashka's face for the first time, he discovered it was merry and round with a pug nose and bright blue eyes, completely different from what he had expected.
The drivers gathered to drink vodka, but when they offered some to the old man Mitritch, his hands were so frozen he couldn't hold the glass and spilled it in the snow. Everyone laughed at his condition, but they poured him another glass and helped him drink it. After warming themselves, the drivers prepared for the final stretch to the posting station.
We've brought you safe after all, sir... Two minutes later the sledge was creaking over the swept boards of the approach to the posting-station.