In this blog “Gooseberries Summary“, we will delve into the captivating world of gooseberries. Whether you are a fan of these tart and juicy berries or simply curious about their origins and benefits, you’ve come to the right place. We will explore the various types of gooseberries, their nutritional value, and the many ways in which they can be incorporated into your diet. Read More Plus One English Summaries.
“Gooseberries” is a short story by Anton Chekhov about two brothers, Ivan and Nikolai, and their different approaches to life. Ivan is a veterinarian who is content with his simple life, while Nikolai is a government official who is obsessed with achieving his dream of owning a country estate with gooseberries.
Nikolai finally achieves his dream, but he is not happy. He is constantly worried about his health and his estate, and he treats his servants poorly. Ivan comes to realize that Nikolai’s pursuit of happiness has made him a selfish and unhappy person.
Ivan concludes the story by reflecting on the meaning of life and the importance of living in the present moment. He argues that we should not focus on achieving material possessions or social status, but rather on living a life that is true to ourselves and our values.
“Gooseberries” is a thought-provoking story that explores themes such as the pursuit of happiness, the meaning of life, and the importance of living in the present moment. It is a reminder that material possessions and social status do not guarantee happiness, and that true happiness comes from within.
Gooseberries Summary
Gooseberries in English
Page 132: From early morning the sky had been overcast with clouds. The day was still, cool and wearisome. It looked like it would rain but it never came. Ivan Ivanich, the veterinary surgeon, and Bourkin, the schoolmaster, were tired of walking. The fields seemed endless to them. Far ahead they could see the windmills of the village of Mirousky. Nature looked gentle and melancholic and the two men were filled with love for the fields and thought how nice the country was.
Bourkin reminded Ivan of the story he had promised to tell him. Ivan told him that he wanted to tell him about his brother. Ian took a deep breath and lit his pipe before he began his story. But soon the rain fell and showed no signs of stopping.
Page 133: Bourkin said they would take shelter in Aliokhin’s place. They took a short cut until they came to a road. Soon they came to a mill and a white bathing- shed. It was Sophino where Aliokhin lived.
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The mill was working, drowning the sound of rain. It was wet, muddy and unpleasant. Ivan and Bourkin felt wet and unpleasant. Their feet were tired with walking in the mud.
In one of the bams a winnowing machine was working. It was sending out clouds of dust. Aliokhin was standing at the threshold. He was about 40, tall and stout. He had long hair. He looked more like a professor or a painter than a farmer’ He was wearing a grimy white short and rope belt, and pants instead of trousers. His boots were covered with mud and straw. His nose and eyes were black with dust. He recognized Ivan and was pleased.
He asked Ivan and Bourkin to go into his house. He would soon follow. The house was large and two storied. Aliokhin lived downstairs. Ivan and Bourkin were received by a chambermaid.
Soon Aliokhin came showing his pleasure at seeing his friend and his companion. He said he never expected them. He asked the maid, Pelagueya, to give them a change of clothes. He also would change. Before changing he will have a bath. He hasn’t had one since the spring. He invited them to come to the bathing shed. Things will be got ready soon.
Aliokhin led his guests to the bathing-shed. He repeated that he did not have a bath for a long time. He had a good bathing shed, His father and he put it up, but he has no time to bathe. He sat down on the step and lathered his long hair and neck. The water round him became brown.
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Page 134: Ivan came out of the shed. He plunged into the water with a splash. He swam about in the rain, flapping his arms, and sending waves back. He swam out to the middle of the pool and dived, trying to reach the bottom. He shouted with glee and said how delicious it was. Bourkin and Aliokhin were already dressed and ready to go. But Ivan kept on swimming and diving.
He continued shouting ‘Delicious’. Bourkin told him it was enough. They went to the house. The lamp was lit in the large drawing-room upstairs. Bourkin and Ivan were dressed in silk dressing-gowns and wore warm slippers. They sat in chairs. Aliokhin was also washed and brushed. He wore a new frock-coat. He paced up and down. Ivan then began his story.
They were two brothers- Ivan and Nicholai. Nicholai was 2 years younger. Ivan went in for studies and became a veterinary surgeon. Nicholai was at the Exchequer Court when he was 19. Their father, Tchimsha- Himalaysky, was a cantonist (service obliged military person). He died with an officer’s rank and left them his title of nobility and a small estate. After his death, the estate went to pay his debts. They spent their childhood in the country. They were like peasants’ children. They spent their days and nights in the fields and the wood. They minded the horses, took the bark of the lime trees and fished.
Once a man has fished or watched the thrushes (small song birds) hovering in flocks over the village in the bright cool autumn days, he can never be a townsman. Ivan’s brother Nicholai was not happy at the Exchequer. For years he was sitting in the same place, writing the same documents. He was thinking of only one thing – how to get back to the country and buy a small farm near the bank of a river or lake.
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Page 135: He was a good fellow and Ivan loved him. But Ivan did not like his idea of shutting himself upon his farm. It is a common saying that a man needs only 6 feet of land. It is the corpse that wants it, not a man. To leave town, and the struggle and swim of life, and go and hide yourself in a farmhouse is not life – it is egoism, laziness.
Nicholai, sitting his office, would dream of eating in the open air, and of sleeping in the sun, sitting for hours together on a seat by the gate and looking at the fields and the forest. He enjoyed books on agriculture, the hints in almanacs (calendars) and reading the newspaper advertisements of land to be sold, with a farmhouse, river, garden, mill and mill-pond. He would dream of garden walls, flowers, fruits, nets, carp in the pond and such things. His fantasies used to vary according to the advertisements he found. However in every fantasy of his there was always a gooseberry bush. He could not imagine a house or a romantic spot without a gooseberry bush.
He used to say that countryside has its advantages. You sit on the veranda drinking tea and your ducklings swim in the pond and everything smells good … and there are gooseberries.
He used to live meagrely. He never had enough to eat or drink. He dressed almost like a beggar. He always saved the money and put it into the bank. He was terribly stingy. Ivan used to feel hurt seeing him like this and he used to give him money to go away for a holiday. But he would put that money also in the bank. Once a man gets a fixed idea, there is nothing to be done.
Years passed. Nicholai completed his 40th year and was still reading advertisements in papers and saving up his money. Then he was married. With the idea of buying a farmhouse with a gooseberry-bush he married an elderly, ugly widow, not out of any feeling for her but because she had money. With her he still lived stingily, kept her half-starved and put the money into the bank in his own name. Money, like vodka, can play strange tricks with a man.
Page 136: After the death of his wife, Nicholai began to look for an estate. Through an agent, Nicholai raised a mortgage and bought 300 acres with a farmhouse, a cottage, and a park. But it had no orchard, no gooseberry- bush and no duck-pond. There was a river but the water was coffee-coloured because the estate lay between a brickyard and a gelatine factory. Nicholai was not worried about that. He ordered 20 gooseberry-bushes and settled down to a country life.
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Last year Ivan visited him to find out how things were with him. In his letter he called his estate Tchimbarshov Corner or Himalayskoe. Ivan reached there in the afternoon. It was hot. There were ditches, fences, hedges, rows of young fir-trees, trees everywhere. There was no place to put the horse. Ivan went to the house and there he was met by a red-haired dog, as fat as a pig. He tried to bark and felt too lazy. From the kitchen the cook came. The cook was barefooted and looked like a pig. Ivan was told that Nicholai was having his afternoon rest. Ivan went into his brother who was sitting on his bed with his knees covered with a blanket. He looked old, stout and flabby. His cheeks, nose and lips were hanging loosely. Ivan said he half expected his brother to grunt like a pig.
They embraced and shed a tear of joy thinking that once they were young. Now they were going grey and nearing death. Nicholai dressed and took Ivan to see his estate.
Page 137: Ivan waited to know how Nicholai was getting on. He said he was doing very well. He was no longer a poor, tired official but a real landowner and a person of importance. Like a good landowner, he looked after his soul and did good works pompously. The good works included curing the peasants of all kinds of diseases with soda and castor-oil. On his birthday he would have a thanksgiving service held in the middle of the village. He would treat the peasants to half a bucket of vodka. He thought it was the right thing to do.
Ivan says a change took place in him when he was in his brother’s house. In the evening when they were having tea, the cook laid a plateful of gooseberries on the table. They were not bought but were Nicholai’s own, plucked for the first time since the bushes were planted. Nicholai laughed with joy and for a minute or two he looked at the gooseberries with tears in his eyes. He could not speak for excitement. He put one in his mouth and glanced at Ivan in triumph. He said they were good and asked him to try one.
The gooseberry was hard and sour but Ivan saw a happy man whose dearest dream had come true, who had attained his goal in life, who had got what he wanted, and was pleased with his destiny and with himself. In Ivan’s idea of human life there is always some alloy of sadness, but now at the sight of a happy man he was filled with something like despair. In the night the feeling got stronger. A bed was made for Ivan near his brother’s. He could not sleep and he heard Nicholai going again and again to the plate of gooseberries. Ivan thought about the many contented and happy people. Contentment is an overwhelming power. We want this state. A happy man feels so because the unhappy bear their burden in silence. Without that, happiness would be impossible.
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That night Ivan was able to understand how he too had been content and happy. He used to say that freedom was a boon as essential as the air one breathes, but one had to wait. But now he wanted to know why people had to wait.
Ivan looked angrily at Bourkin. He asked him why one has to wait. Why do people fast? People are told that they can’t have everything at once and that every idea is realized in time. Who says that and where is the proof for that? Why should people wait?
Ivan left his brother the next morning. From that time it was impossible for him to live in town. The peace and quiet of it oppresses him. He does not want to look in at the windows because nothing is dreadful to see than the sight of a happy family, sitting round a table having tea. He is an old man now and he is no good for struggle. He started late. He can only feel sorry within his soul and feel angry. At night his head buzzes with so many thoughts and he can’t sleep. He regrets that he is old.
Ivan suddenly shook the hands of Aliokhin and told him not to be satisfied. He should not let himself be lulled to sleep. While one is young, strong and wealthy he should not stop to do good. Happiness does not exist. If there is any meaning and purpose in life, they are not in our peddling little happiness, but in something reasonable and grand. Do good.
Page 139: Then all three sat in different corners of the drawing room and were silent. Ivan’s story had satisfied neither Bourkin nor Aliokhin. It is boring to hear the story of a miserable official who ate gooseberries. They had a desire to hear and to speak of charming people, and of women. Sitting in the drawing-room was much better than any story.
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Aliokhin wanted to go to bed. He had to get up for his work very early, about two in the morning. His eyes were closing. Bourkin said it was time to go to bed and wished them good night. Aliokhin said good night and went downstairs, and left his guests. Each had a large room with an old wooden bed and carved ornaments. Ivan undressed in silence and lay down. He asked forgiveness from God as he drew the clothes over his head. The rain beat against the windows all night long.
“Gooseberries” is a reminder that true happiness does not come from material possessions or social status. It comes from within, and it is found by living a life that is true to ourselves and our values. We should not focus on achieving our dreams at the expense of our relationships, our health, or our well-being. Instead, we should focus on living in the present moment and appreciating the good things that we have.