In 1831 he wrote the novel "Terrible Revenge" by Gogol. The summary of the work is given in this article. This work of the famous author is included in the collection of his stories "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka". Reading this work, it can be noted that it has much in common with the plot of Gogol's mystical novel "Viy": the key figures of the stories are fairy-tale creatures from ancient folk legends.
N.V. Gogol. "Terrible revenge" (summary). Introduction
Esaul Horobets celebrated the wedding of his son in Kiev. She had many guests. Among the visitors was his brother Danil Burulbash with his beautiful wife Katerina, who was considered a round orphan. Her mother died, and her father disappeared. When miracle-working icons were taken out of the house to bless the young, it turned out that among the guests there is a sorcerer. He betrayed himself that he was afraid of holy images and disappeared.
N.V. Gogol. "Terrible revenge" (summary). Developments
After the wedding, Daniel returned with his young wife home. People said that his father Katerina - an evil sorcerer, who sold his soul to the devil. Recently he showed up in their family. He did not like his father-in-law well, quarrels often broke out between them. There were rumors circulating in the village that as soon as Katerina's father showed up, strange things began to happen here: the crosses in the cemetery are swaying, the dead rise from the graves that their moans are heard at midnight. Near the village stood the family sorcerer's castle, where he once lived. Curiosity took Danila, and he decided to go into this den of the devil, to see with his own eyes what is happening there. In the evening, climbing on a tall oak tree, he sees that it's light in the old castle that his father-in-law comes in and starts to revive. The sorcerer changes in appearance and evokes the soul of Katerina's daughter, persuading her to fall in love with him. Seeing all this, Daniel returns home and tells about everything to Catherine. She, in turn, renounces her father. In the morning, the son-in-law accuses his father-in-law of friendship with the Lyahs who attacked his homeland, but not in witchcraft. For this father, Katherine is imprisoned. He is waiting for the death penalty. He asks his daughter to forgive him and release him to freedom. Katerina. Grieving over his father, he opens the grate and lets the sorcerer free. Meanwhile, Danila goes to war with the Lyahs and dies there. The bullet of the sorcerer overtook him. Katerina is inconsolable when she learns of her husband's death. She is terribly worried about the life of a little son. But the wicked sorcerer also killed him, having sent evil spells. Waking up in the middle of the night, a woman finds a child in her bed dead. From grief, she goes insane. Since then, the inhabitants of the farm began to see the vision, as if a giant horseman riding a black horse jumps among the Carpathian mountains. The eyes of the hero are closed, in his hands he holds the baby. And poor Katerina is looking for her father to kill him for all the misfortunes that he caused her. Once she is a wanderer who persuades her to become his wife. In it, she recognizes the sorcerer and rushes at him with a knife. But the father manages to kill his daughter.
N.V. Gogol "Terrible revenge" (summary). Ending
The sorcerer flees from these places, where a vision with a rider appeared. He obviously knows who the giant is, and why he showed up here. The old man runs to the old schemer to beg for his sins. But he refuses to do this, and the sorcerer kills him. Now, wherever this son of the devil has gone, the road leads him to the Carpathians, where his rider with the baby awaits him. Nowhere to hide from this giant. The rider opened his eyes and laughed. The sorcerer died in that hour and fell into the abyss, where the dead pierced their teeth in him so that he would suffer. This ancient story ends with a song performed by the elderly bandurist in the town of Glukhov. It tells the story of the two brothers Petra and Ivan. Ivan once distinguished himself in the war, for which he was generously awarded. Despite the fact that he shared with his brother, Peter envied him and decided to kill him. He pushed Ivan with his young son into the abyss, and took his good to himself. When a good brother was in the Kingdom of Heaven, God allowed his soul to choose the punishment for his murderer. Ivan cursed all the descendants of a blood relative and predicted that the last of his kind would be a terrible villain. The soul of the deceased will come from the other world and cast a terrible sinner into the abyss, where all his dead ancestors will bite him. Peter wants to take revenge on his brother, but he can not rise from the ground. The Lord was surprised at such a terrible punishment, but ordered that it be so.
That's how the story wrapped Gogol. "Terrible revenge" (a brief summary of the story is given in this article) is one of the less popular works of the master. It is not studied at school in literature classes. But for us this story is of folklore interest. It is based on real ancient folk traditions. Not for nothing in the first edition of the work was provided with a subtitle "Ancient story". This is how N. characterized him in Gogol. "Terrible revenge" is a story written more than one and a half centuries ago. But even now we are reading with trembling and interest.