Nikolai remained obsessed with the goal of owning land, and the ability to grow gooseberries on his estate became a kind of symbol of this dream for him.įinally, in his forties, Nikolai was able to buy an estate called Himalayskoe. He even married a widow for her money and proceeded to deprive her of basic necessities (like enough food to eat) until she passed away-something that Ivan says Nikolai never felt guilty about. Nevertheless, for over 20 years, Nikolai worked as a civil servant while living a miserly lifestyle to save up for an estate. He believes that one should freely experience all the world has to offer, which means experiencing the whole of nature.
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Ivan loves nature as well, but he never understood the desire to own a confined piece of land-to Ivan, leaving the city for a country estate is a sheltered, indulgent, and spiritually unfulfilling way to live. He and Nikolai were raised in the countryside, and Nikolai longed to return to this life throughout his adulthood. The three friends, now clean and dry, settle into Alekhin’s drawing room, and Ivan begins to tell Burkin and Alekhin a story about his younger brother Nikolai. He repeatedly dives to the bottom and swings his arms delightedly, only emerging when Burkin beckons him back to the house. Alekhin then invites his friends to clean up in his bathing house, but Ivan decides to swim in Alekhin’s pond in the rain instead.
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Alekhin ushers Ivan and Burkin to the main house, where Alekhin’s beautiful maid Pelageya greets them. The two decide to take cover at their mutual friend Alekhin’s sprawling estate, Sofyino, where they find the humble and modestly dressed Alekhin processing grain in one of his barns. Ivan and Burkin are enjoying a long walk in the vast fields outside their village when it begins to rain.