"Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka" by Nikolai Gogol, summary

This book is the writer’s first major prose work, published in 1831 and 1832. The text has a distinctly folkloric narrative, retelling folk tales and legends. The author blends real rural life with mysticism. The tales in the series were successfully adapted for the screen by director Alexander Rou in 1961, which gained immense popularity.

The cycle contains eight works, divided into two independent volumes. The initial part consists of four stories. The next part continues the series with four more stories.

Initial Stories

Sorochintsy Fair

The action takes place in the village of Sorochintsy. Peasant Solopiy Cherevik is traveling to the fair to sell wheat and an old mare. His quarrelsome wife, Khivrya, and young daughter, Paraska, are traveling with him. The girl attracts the attention of a clever young man, Gritsko, who proposes to Paraska. Cherevik accepts, recognizing the youth as the son of an old friend. Khivrya rudely breaks off the engagement. The saddened Gritsko turns to a cunning gypsy for help. The gypsy acts as an archetypal trickster, a cunning deceiver. He creates panic using a local legend about a mythical "red scroll." It is believed that the exorcised devil is searching for pieces of his torn clothing. Rumors of evil spirits spread through the market stalls. The frightened Cherevik finds himself in a precarious situation. He is accused of stealing his own horse. The gypsy rescues the peasant. In exchange, he demands that Paraska be married to Gritsko. The wedding is celebrated successfully, ignoring Khivri’s displeasure.

The evening before Ivan Kupala

The poor farmhand Petrus loves the daughter of his master, Korzh. The girl’s name is Pidorka. The stern master rejects the farmhand. Korzh relies on social stratification, that is, the division of society into rich and poor. He plans to marry his daughter off to a wealthy Pole. Petrus makes a deal with the demonic figure Basavryuk. On the night of Ivan Kupala, the farmhand goes to Bear Ravine to pick blooming ferns. To gain wealth, Petrus commits a crime. He kills Pidorka’s younger brother. Petrus receives gold. Korzh agrees to the wedding. Blood money does not bring happiness. Petrus loses his memory and constantly wastes away. On the anniversary of the tragedy, the truth is revealed. Petrus disappears without a trace. He leaves behind only a handful of ashes, and the gold turns into broken shards. Pidorka goes to a monastery.

May Night, or The Drowned Woman

The young Cossack Levko wants to marry the beautiful Hanna. He plays the bandura under her window. The local mayor, the boy’s father, flatly refuses his son. The mayor himself has designs on the young girl. Outraged, Levko gathers a group of young men. They sing mocking songs under the mayor’s windows. The men cause a noisy disturbance. Fleeing pursuit, Levko spends the night by an abandoned pond. The plot describes sleep paralysis, a state of half-sleep with realistic visions. The spirit of a drowned young lady appears to the Cossack. She asks him to find her evil witch-stepmother. The witch cleverly hides among the other mermaids. Levko carefully watches the mermaids’ games. He successfully identifies the stepmother, seeing her evil gaze. In gratitude, the young lady gives him a note from the commissar. In the note, the authorities sternly order the mayor to marry Levko to Hanna immediately. The mayor obediently obeys the document.

The missing charter

The narrator’s grandfather is carrying an important letter to the tsarina. On the way, he meets a dissolute Zaporozhian Cossack. The Cossack confesses to having sold his soul to the devil. He asks the grandfather not to sleep that night. The grandfather falls asleep. In the morning, he discovers the Cossack is missing. His horses and hat have vanished along with him. The tsar’s letter was sewn into the hat. The grandfather sets off into the dense forest to search for evil spirits. He finds a forest gathering of witches and devils. The grandfather insistently demands the letter be returned. The evil spirits force him to play cards. The grandfather loses two games. He guesses to cross the deck. The cards lose their magical power. The grandfather wins the final game. His hat is returned and he is given a demonic horse. The horse swiftly carries the Cossack home. The grandfather safely delivers the letter to St. Petersburg.

Subsequent stories

Christmas Eve

The events unfold in snowy Dikanka. The blacksmith Vakula is in love with the capricious beauty Oksana. The girl publicly promises to marry him only if the blacksmith obtains the Tsar’s slippers. Vakula’s mother, the cunning witch Solokha, hides her suitors in sacks. The sacks contain the devil, the head, the clerk, and Oksana’s father. The devil has previously stolen the moon from the sky. Frustrated, Vakula carries the heavy sacks outside. He leaves one sack containing the devil. Vakula catches the devil by the tail. Under threat of making the sign of the cross, the blacksmith forces the devil to fly him to St. Petersburg. In the capital, Vakula boldly asks the Tsarina for slippers. The Empress gives him gold-embroidered shoes. Returning home, Vakula flogs the devil with rods. Oksana readily agrees to the marriage, this time without the slippers.

Terrible revenge

Cossack Danilo Burulbash lives with his wife Katerina and son. Katerina’s father arrives after twenty years of absence. The old man’s behavior seems very strange. He refuses regular food. Danilo secretly tracks his father-in-law. He discovers that the old man is a dark sorcerer. The sorcerer ominously summons the dead in an old castle. Danilo imprisons his father-in-law in a strong cellar. Katerina takes pity on him and releases her father. The sorcerer begins to take cruel revenge. He burns down Danilo’s farmstead and kills his son-in-law in a fair fight. Then a small child dies. Katerina goes mad with unbearable grief. The sorcerer mercilessly kills her own daughter. In the final scene, an old legend is revealed. The sorcerer’s ancestor treacherously betrayed his sworn brother, Peter. For this betrayal, the entire family is doomed to a terrible curse. A huge ghostly horseman in the mountains seizes the sorcerer. The dead from all around come running to gnaw on his body forever.

Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt

Retired lieutenant Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka returns to the Vytrebenki estate. His life is strictly regulated. His domineering aunt, Vasilisa Kashporovna, manages his estate. The aunt, with an authoritarian eye, decides to marry her nephew. She chooses the sister of the neighboring landowner, Storchenko. The timid Shponka is terrified of marriage. His meeting with his fiancée passes in awkward silence. Upon learning of his aunt’s plans, Ivan Fyodorovich is horrified. He dreams of absurd, surreal nightmares. In his dreams, his wife appears as a tall bell tower, a flock of geese, or a piece of cloth. The story ends abruptly without a logical resolution. The end of the manuscript was lost.

Enchanted place

The narrator’s grandfather plants a melon patch near the road. Some familiar chumaks (traders) come to visit. The grandfather begins to dance joyfully. Suddenly, his legs stop moving near the bed. The grandfather decides that an ancient treasure is buried there. At night, he notices a light on the grave. The grandfather begins to dig the earth. Evil spirits frighten the old man with strange sounds and eerie phantom animals. The grandfather finds a heavy cauldron in the ground. With great difficulty, he brings it home. The family opens the cauldron. Inside, they find ordinary rubbish and household dirt. The grandfather fences off the cursed spot with a wooden fence. No useful crops will grow on this land forever.