Who wrote in a beautiful and furious world. In a beautiful and furious world (Machinist Maltsev)

The story "In a beautiful and furious world", a brief retelling of which is presented in the article, is a poignant, sad and touching work of the Soviet prose writer Andrei Platonov. It was first published in 1937.

about the author

Before proceeding to a brief retelling of the story "In a Beautiful and Furious World", it is worth devoting a few words to its creator. Andrey Platonov was born in 1989. His father was a machinist. Many heroes of the writer's works are railroad workers. The character of the work “In a Beautiful and Furious World” also works as a machinist.

A brief retelling of Platonov's book does not give an idea of ​​​​the extraordinary talent of this prose writer. His gift was not so much in the ability to find the right word, but in the ability to show the suffering of a person using the example of some everyday, seemingly insignificant situations. Perhaps the whole point is that he knew firsthand about suffering.

During the Civil War, the aspiring writer worked as a front-line correspondent. In 1922 he published his first book. 10 years later, Platonov wrote the story "For the future", which angered Stalin. The repressions began. In 1938, the writer's son was arrested, two years later he was released, but he lived, sick with tuberculosis, for only a few months.

Andrei Platonov also went through the Second World War. In the rank of captain, he again worked as a correspondent, but risked his life on the front line along with ordinary soldiers. After the end of the war, he published The Return Home, after which he was subjected to new, more fierce attacks. Until the end of his days, a talented prose writer was deprived of the right to earn money by writing.

"In a beautiful and furious world": retelling

Platonov created works that, according to critics, have no analogues in literature. It's all in a unique original style. It is impossible to evaluate it by reading the retelling. “In a Beautiful and Furious World” is still a work based on an amazing story. The author told about events that can hardly happen in real life. Therefore, even a superficial acquaintance with the plot will be interesting.

Below is a summary outline. "In a beautiful and furious world" is easier to state as follows:

• Maltsev.
• Konstantin.
• Sudden flash.
• Arrest.
• Tesla installation.
• Experiment.
• Life in darkness.

Alexander Maltsev

What is the story "In a Beautiful and Furious World" about? The summary must begin with the characteristics of the main character.

Alexander Vasilyevich Maltsev works at the Tolubeevsky depot. And here he is the best machinist. He is about thirty. He leads the train with high skill, with some detachment. And at these moments it seems that he does not see anything else around.

Alexander Vasilievich is laconic. He only in extreme cases turns to his assistant - Konstantin, on whose behalf the story is told in the story "In a beautiful and furious world."

A brief description of Maltsev is given at the beginning of the work. Diligence, passionate love for one's work, even a certain sense of superiority over colleagues - these are the features and qualities of the protagonist. “In a beautiful and furious world” is the work of the author, from whose pen such images were often born. A person who lives by work, unable to exist without it, is a typical hero of Platonov.

Konstantin

The story is told from a young man who admires the talent of a machinist. No matter how much he tried to understand what the secret of Maltsev's extraordinary gift was, he did not succeed. Konstantin worked as his assistant for about six months. And then an event occurred that can be called the climax in the work "In a Beautiful and Furious World." A brief retelling of the story, witnessed and participated in by Maltsev's assistant, is presented below.

sudden flash

It happened on the way. Everything went on as usual. No signs of trouble. But suddenly thunder roared and bright lightning flashed. So bright that Konstantin was a little scared, and then asked the stoker about what it was.

It was a sharp blue light that flashed for a moment. It is not surprising that Constantine did not recognize a completely ordinary natural phenomenon. At the same time, Maltsev led the train calmly, imperturbably. When he heard the word "lightning" from the stoker, he said that he had not seen anything. But how could one not notice the piercing, instantaneous flash?

After some time, Konstantin began to notice that the driver was driving worse. But this could be explained by fatigue. When they passed the yellow and then the red traffic lights, Maltsev's assistant got scared and suspected something was wrong. And then the engineer stopped the train and said: “Kostya, you will drive further. I'm blind."

Arrest

Vision returned to Maltsev the next day. But on that ill-fated night, he committed several serious violations. The driver was put on trial, and no one believed Konstantin when he talked about temporary blindness. But even if the investigator had believed, the driver would not have been released. After all, he, having lost his sight, continued to drive the train, thereby risking the lives of passengers.

Maltsev confessed to Konstantin that, even when he was blind, he saw the line, the signals, and the wheat in the steppe. But he saw it in his imagination. He did not immediately believe in his blindness. I believed only when I heard firecrackers.

Tesla installation

Maltsev was sent to prison. Konstantin continued to work, but already as an assistant to another driver. He missed Maltsev. And one day he heard about the Tesla installation, the use of which, as he hoped, could prove the innocence of the driver.

With this setup, it was possible to test a person's susceptibility to the action of electrical discharges. Konstantin wrote a letter to the investigator in charge of Maltsev's case, asking him to test him. In addition, he indicated where the installation was located and how the experiment should be carried out. For several weeks, the driver's assistant waited for a response.

Expertise

No wonder Konstantin wrote a letter to the investigator. After some time, he called him to him. An examination using the Tesla installation was carried out. Maltsev again lost the ability to see. His innocence has been proven. He went free. However, the investigator still felt guilty for a long time for heeding Konstantin's advice. After all, this time the driver is blind forever.

Life in darkness

There was no hope for recovery. Maltsev, in fact, was easily exposed to electrical discharges. And if for the first time, when he led the team, his vision returned, then during the experiment, the eyes that had already been injured had suffered. Maltsev was destined to spend his whole life in darkness. See no lines, no traffic lights, no fields. Not to see everything without which he had not previously imagined his existence.

Such is the sad story of the hero of the story "In a beautiful and furious world." A summary is provided. But Platonov did not put an end to this.

Konstantin passed the exams, became a machinist. Now he drove the train on his own. Maltsev, however, every day came to the platform, sat down on a painted bench and looked with an unseeing gaze in the direction of the departing train. His face was sensitive, passionate. He inhaled greedily the smell of lubricating oil and burning. There was nothing Konstantin could do to help him. He was leaving. Maltsev remained.

But one day Konstantin took Maltsev with him. He put Alexander Vasilyevich in his place, put his hand on the reverse. On quiet sections, Konstantin sat in the assistant's seat and watched how the former driver was leading the train, forgetting his grief. And on the way to Tolubeev, sight returned to Maltsev. He saw a yellow traffic light, ordered Konstantin to turn off the steam, and then turned to face him, looked with a sighted eye and began to cry.

After work, they went to Maltsev's house and talked until the morning. Konstantin was afraid to leave Alexander Vasilyevich alone with the hostile force of this beautiful, but furious world.

Retelling a work of art saves time. In order to find out the content of the story or story, it is enough to spend only 2-3 minutes. But still, books by such masters of the word as Andrey Platonov should be read in the original.

In the Tolubeevsky depot, Alexander Vasilyevich Maltsev was considered the best locomotive driver.

He was about thirty years old, but he already had the qualifications of a first class driver and had long driven fast trains. When the first powerful passenger steam locomotive of the IS series arrived at our depot, Maltsev was assigned to work on this machine, which was quite reasonable and correct. An elderly man from the depot locksmiths named Fyodor Petrovich Drabanov worked as an assistant to Maltsev, but he soon passed the exam for a driver and went to work on another machine, and I, instead of Drabanov, was assigned to work in Maltsev's brigade as an assistant; before that, I also worked as a mechanic's assistant, but only on an old, low-powered machine.

I was pleased with my appointment. The IS machine, the only one in our traction section at that time, by its very appearance evoked a feeling of inspiration in me; I could look at her for a long time, and a special touched joy awakened in me - as beautiful as in childhood when I read Pushkin's poems for the first time. In addition, I wanted to work in the crew of a first-class mechanic in order to learn from him the art of driving heavy high-speed trains.

Alexander Vasilievich accepted my appointment to his brigade calmly and indifferently; he apparently did not care who he would have as assistants.

Before the trip, as usual, I checked all the components of the car, tested all its service and auxiliary mechanisms, and calmed down, considering the car ready for the trip. Alexander Vasilievich saw my work, he followed it, but after me, he checked the condition of the machine again with his own hands, as if he did not trust me.

This was repeated later, and I was already used to the fact that Alexander Vasilyevich constantly interfered in my duties, although he was silently upset. But usually, as soon as we were on the move, I forgot about my chagrin. Distracting my attention from the instruments monitoring the state of the running engine, from observing the operation of the left engine and the path ahead, I looked at Maltsev. He led the cast with the courageous confidence of a great master, with the concentration of an inspired artist who absorbed the entire external world into his inner experience and therefore dominated it. Alexander Vasilyevich's eyes looked ahead abstractly, as if empty, but I knew that he saw with them the whole road ahead and all nature rushing towards us - even a sparrow swept away from the ballast slope by the wind of a car piercing into space, even this sparrow attracted the eyes of Maltsev, and for a moment he turned his head after the sparrow: what will happen to him after us, where he flew.

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The protagonist of the story - Alexander Vasilyevich Maltsev - was considered the best locomotive driver in the depot. He was quite young - about thirty years old - but already had the status of a first-class machinist. And no one was surprised when he was assigned to a brand new and very powerful

Passenger locomotive "IS". It was "reasonable and correct". The narrator became Maltsev's assistant. He was extremely pleased that he got on this IS car - the only one in the depot.

Maltsev showed practically no feelings towards the new assistant, although he closely watched his work. The narrator was always amazed by the fact that after checking the machine and its lubrication, Maltsev himself double-checked everything and lubricated it again. The narrator was often annoyed at this oddity in the behavior of the driver, he believed that they simply did not trust him, but then he got used to it. Under the noise of the wheels, he forgot about his offense, carried away by the instruments. Often

He looked at how enthusiastically Maltsev drives the car. It was like acting. Maltsev attentively followed not only the road, but managed to rejoice at the beauty of nature, and even a small sparrow caught in the air stream from a steam locomotive did not escape his gaze.

Work has always been done in silence. And only sometimes Maltsev tapped the boiler with a key, "wishing that I would turn my attention to some kind of disorder in the operation of the machine ...". The narrator says that he worked very hard, but the attitude of the machinist towards him was exactly the same as towards the oiler-fireman, and he still carefully checked all the details after his assistant. Once, unable to resist, the narrator asked Maltsev why he double-checked everything for him. “But I myself want to,” Maltsev answered with a smile, and in his smile there was sadness that struck me. Later, the reason for this sadness became clear: "he felt his superiority over us, because he understood the car more precisely than we did, and he did not believe that I or anyone else could learn the secret of his talent, the secret of seeing both a passing sparrow and a signal ahead, feeling at the same moment the path, the weight of the train and the force of the car. So, he was just bored alone with his talent.

Once the narrator asked Maltsev to let him drive the car a little, but his car was thrown into corners, the climbs were overcome slowly, and very soon there was a delay of four minutes. As soon as control passed into the hands of the driver himself, the delay was caught up.

The narrator worked for Maltsev for about a year, when a tragic story happened ... Maltsev's car took a train of eighty passenger axles, which were already three hours late. Maltsev's task was to reduce this time as much as possible, at least by an hour.

We set off on our way. The machine worked almost to the limit, and the speed was at least ninety kilometers per hour.

The train was driving towards a huge cloud, inside which everything was bubbling and lightning flashed. Soon the driver's cab was captured by a whirlwind of dust, almost nothing was visible. Lightning suddenly struck: "an instantaneous blue light flashed at my eyelashes and penetrated me to the very shuddering heart; I grabbed the injector tap, but the pain in my heart had already departed from me." The narrator looked at Maltsev: he did not even change his face. As it turned out, he did not even see lightning.

Soon the train passed the downpour, which began after the lightning, and left for the steppe. The narrator noticed that Maltsev began to drive the car worse: the train was throwing around corners, the speed either decreased or increased sharply. Apparently, the driver was just tired.

Busy with electrical troubles, the narrator did not notice that the train was speeding under red warning signals. Already the wheels were banging on the firecrackers. "We crush firecrackers!" the narrator shouted and reached for the controls. "Away!" Maltsev exclaimed and slammed on the brakes.

The steam locomotive stopped. Another locomotive is standing about ten meters away from him, its driver was waving a red-hot poker with all his might, giving a signal. This meant that while the narrator turned away, Maltsev drove first under the yellow, then under the red semaphore, and you never know under what other signals. Why didn't he stop? “Kostya!” Alexander Vasilyevich called me.

I approached him. - Kostya! What's ahead of us? “I explained to him.

The narrator brought the dejected Maltsev home. Near the house itself, he asked to be left alone. To the narrator's objections, he replied: "Now I see, go home ..." And indeed, he saw his wife come out to meet him. Kostya decided to check him out and asked if his wife's head was covered with a scarf or not. And having received the correct answer, he left the driver.

Maltsev was put on trial. The narrator tried his best to justify his superior. But the fact that Maltsev endangered not only his own life, but the lives of thousands of people, could not forgive him. Why didn't the blind Maltsev transfer control to another? Why did he take such risks?

The narrator will ask the same questions to Maltsev.

“I was used to seeing light, and I thought I saw it, but then I saw it only in my mind, in my imagination. In fact, I was blind, but I didn’t know that. I didn’t believe in firecrackers, although I heard them: I thought I misheard. And when you gave the stop beeps and shouted at me, I saw a green signal ahead, I didn’t guess right away. The narrator was sympathetic to Maltsev's words.

The next year, the narrator takes the driver's exam. Every time he goes on the road, checking the car, he sees Maltsev sitting on a painted bench. He leaned on his cane and turned his face with empty blind eyes towards the locomotive. "Away!" - all he said to any attempts of the narrator to console him. But once Kostya invited Maltsev to go with him: "Tomorrow at ten thirty I will lead the train. If you sit quietly, I will take you to the car." Maltsev agreed.

The next day, the narrator invited Maltsev to the car. The blind man was ready to obey, so he humbly promised not to touch anything, but only to obey. His driver put one hand on the reverse, and the other on the brake lever, and put his hands on top to help. On the way back it was the same. Already on the way to the destination, the narrator saw a yellow traffic light, but decided to check on his teacher and went to the yellow at full speed.

"I see a yellow light," said Maltsev. "Maybe you're just imagining seeing the light again!" the narrator replied. Then Maltsev turned his face towards him and wept.

He brought the car to the end without help. And in the evening, the narrator went with Maltsev to his house and for a long time could not leave him alone, "like his own son, without protection against the sudden and hostile forces of our beautiful and furious world."

The original title of the story is "Machinist Maltsev". Under this heading, it was published in an abridged form in the second issue of the magazine "30 Days" for 1941, and in the third issue of the magazine "Friendly Guys" for 1941 under the title "Imaginary Light". The story was written in 1938.

The work reflects the experience of the writer, who in 1915-1917. worked as an assistant driver in the vicinity of Voronezh, and his father was a mechanic and assistant driver.

Literary direction and genre

In some editions, "In a Beautiful and Furious World" is printed with the subtitle "Fantastic Tale". Indeed, double blindness by lightning, double vision restoration have no scientific evidence. And it is completely unknown how lightning and the electromagnetic wave that precedes it affect the vision of individuals. It doesn't even matter to the reader whether this electromagnetic wave even exists.

All these physical and biological explanations for the blindness of the machinist Maltsev and his miraculous healing are indeed fantastic, but on the whole the story is realistic. The main thing in it is not fantastic elements, but the characters of the narrator and machinist Maltsev, shown in development.

Topics and issues

The theme of the story is the loneliness of the master. The main idea is that talent often leads to pride, which makes a person blind. To see the world, you need to open your heart to meet it.

The work raises the problem of exaltation and sympathy, loneliness, the problem of justice in punishing a person by a person, the problem of guilt and responsibility.

Plot and composition

The short story consists of 5 parts. The narrative is dynamic, spanning two years. The narrator becomes an assistant to the machinist Maltsev on a new locomotive and works with him for about a year. The second chapter is devoted to the very trip, during which the driver went blind and almost ran into the tail of a freight train. The third chapter describes the trial of Maltsev and his accusation.

The fourth part tells about the events taking place six months later, in winter. The narrator finds a way to prove Maltsev's innocence, but artificial lightning causes the prisoner to become permanently blind. The narrator is looking for ways to help the blind man.

The fifth part tells about the events that happened six months later, in the summer. The narrator himself becomes a machinist and takes a blind machinist with him on the road. The narrator operates the machine by placing his hands on the arms of the blind driver. At some point, the blind man was able to see the yellow signal, and then he became sighted.

Each part of the story captures some episode from the story of Maltsev: an ordinary trip - a fatal trip - a trial - an experiment with lightning and liberation - healing.

The title of the story is connected with the last words of the narrator, who wants to save Maltsev from the hostile forces of the beautiful and furious world.

Heroes and images

The image of a beautiful world hostile to man is the main one in the story. There are two main characters in the story: the machinist Alexander Vasilievich Maltsev and the narrator, whom Maltsev calls Kostya. The narrator and Maltsev are not particularly friendly. The story is the story of their relationship, rapprochement, finding a friend in trouble.

Machinist Maltsev is a real master of his craft. Already at the age of 30, he has the qualification of a first-class machinist, it is he who is appointed as the machinist of the new powerful IS machine. The narrator admires the work of his engineer, who drives the locomotive "with the confidence of a great master, with the concentration of an inspired artist." The main feature that the narrator notices in Maltsev is indifference to the people working with him, a certain alienation. One of the features of Maltsev upsets the narrator: the driver double-checks all the work of his assistant, as if he does not trust him. During work, Maltsev does not speak, but only knocks on the boiler with a key, giving silent instructions.

The narrator eventually realized that the reason for this behavior of Maltsev was a sense of superiority: the driver believed that he understood the locomotive better and loved it more. This pride, a mortal sin, may have been the reason for his trials. Although no one really could understand Maltsev's talent, how to surpass him in skill.

Maltsev did not see the lightning, but, having gone blind, did not understand it. His skill was so great that he blindly drove the car, seeing with his inner vision, imagining the entire usual path, but, of course, not being able to see the red signal, which seemed green to him.

After leaving prison, the blind Maltsev cannot get used to his new position, although he does not live in poverty, receiving a pension. He humbles himself before the narrator, who offers him a ride in his engine. Perhaps it was this humility that became the beginning of the recovery of Maltsev, who managed to trust the narrator. His inner world opened up to the outside, he cried and saw "the whole world." Not only material, but also the world of other people.

The narrator is a person who loves his work, like Maltsev. Even the contemplation of a good car inspires him, a joy comparable to reading Pushkin's poetry in childhood.

For the storyteller, a good attitude is important. He is an attentive and diligent person. It has an amazing and rare ability to empathize and protect. This trait of the storyteller, like his profession, is autobiographical.

For example, the narrator imagines that the locomotive is in a hurry to protect distant lands. So the concern for Maltsev encourages the narrator to seek justice at the trial, to meet with the investigator in order to acquit the innocent Maltsev.

The narrator is a direct and truthful person. He does not hide that he is offended by Maltsev, he directly tells him that prison cannot be avoided. Still, the narrator decides to help Maltsev, "to protect him from the grief of fate", from "fatal forces that accidentally and indifferently destroy a person."

The narrator does not consider himself to blame for Maltsev's secondary blindness, he is benevolent, despite the fact that Maltsev does not want to forgive him or talk to him. After the miraculous healing of Maltsev, the narrator wants to protect him as if he were his own son.

Another hero of the story is a fair investigator who conducted an experiment with artificial lightning and is tormented by remorse, because he proved "the innocence of a person through his misfortune."

Stylistic features

Since the story is written in the first person, and the narrator Kostya, although he loves Pushkin. a man of a technical warehouse, Platonov rarely uses his specific, strangely metaphorical language. This language breaks through only at moments that are especially important for the author, for example, when the author explains in the words of a machinist that the machinist Maltsev absorbed the entire external world into his inner experience, thus gaining power over it.

The story is replete with professional vocabulary related to the work of a steam locomotive. Obviously, in the time of Platonov, few people understood the details of the operation of a steam locomotive, but today, when there are no steam locomotives, these details are generally incomprehensible. But professionalism does not interfere with reading and understanding the story. Probably, each reader imagines something of his own when he reads that Maltsev gave "reverse to full cutoff." It is important that the Machinist did his difficult job well.

Details matter in a story. One of them is the look and eyes of Maltsev. When he drives a car, his eyes look "abstractly, like empty ones." When Maltsev sticks his head out looking at the world around him, his eyes sparkle with enthusiasm. The driver's blind eyes become empty and calm again.

The hero of Andrey Platonov's story is a young and talented driver of a passenger steam locomotive, Maltsev. This young and ambitious young man, who is about thirty years old, already holds the position of a top-class machinist, on a brand new and powerful steam locomotive "IS", giving all his time and energy to his beloved work, he no longer imagines his life without his favorite business.

The narrator of the work becomes a young ward of Maltsev, a new machinist who is just starting his labor business, but he is frustrated by a couple that he shows obvious distrust in relation to his work done. Also, the young partner was upset by the fact that work with Maltsev usually took place in exceptional silence without stories and ordinary human communication, characteristic of two people working together.

However, all grievances and omissions were forgotten overnight at the moment when the passenger locomotive set off, Maltsev's partner was amazed at what he manages to understand this iron mechanism so subtly and sensitively, and also not to miss the beauty of the flying mime of the world.

The young assistant worked for an outstanding machinist for about one year and was surprised at his true talent to perform sometimes unthinkable things on a steam locomotive, but all this idyll was suddenly crossed out by a tragic event that completely crossed out the habitual foundation of Maltsev's life.

The story of Andrei Platonov is true proof that even talented and successful people sometimes vitally need support and understanding from the outside, and personal prejudices and hidden pride become absolutely unimportant.

Read the summary In the furious and beautiful world of Platonov

The usual way of life for Maltsev is destroyed by the ongoing tragic event that occurred in one of the summer months. Then in July, Maltsev's assistant went on his last flight with his senior mentor and they had to take with them a train that was four hours late. The station dispatcher asked the senior driver to make up for at least one hour of lost time.

Trying to follow the instructions of the dispatcher, the senior engineer squeezes out all the power of his train. But suddenly, an obstacle in their path, a summer thundercloud rises, which blinds Maltsev with its discharges. But despite his blurred vision, an experienced driver does not slow down and with all his confidence continues to drive a passenger locomotive. Very awkward and sometimes bad management notices his junior partner.

On the way of the passenger train, an oncoming steam locomotive appears, which goes to meet them. Then Maltsev has to confess to the loss of his sight and give control to his partner Konstantin. Thanks to the actions of the young driver, it is possible to warn of an emergency. And by the morning after arriving at Maltsev, his vision returns.

However, based on the fact that an experienced driver did not transfer control to his assistant in the event of a dangerous situation, a trial awaited him.

Trying to help his friend and mentor, Konstantin is looking for a way out of this situation. Then he turns to his friend from the institute for help. And he learns that with the help of the Tesla machine, which produces an artificial lightning discharge, it is possible to prove the innocence of his partner.

Konstantin turns to the investigative committee with a request to check Maltsev on this car. And during the experiment, the innocence of the senior engineer was fully proved, but unfortunately, there was a complete loss of Maltsev's vision.

The senior engineer completely loses hope that someday he will again have the opportunity to drive his beloved passenger steam locomotive again and catch the flying beauties of his native land with his eyes.

Dejected by his current situation, the saddened senior engineer with a cane constantly comes to the station, sits on a bench and simply listens to the trains passing by him.

Having once noticed a destitute partner with a cane, Konstantin decides to take Maltsev with him on a flight. Maltsev gladly agrees to this proposal and promises that he will not interfere, but will simply sit quietly next to him.

Incredibly, Maltsev's lost vision is restored during the trip and Konstantin decides that the path should be brought by his mentor on his own.

After the work done, both partners go together to Maltsev's house and talk to each other on various topics all night. Konstantin is afraid to leave Maltsev, feeling responsible for him before the cruel and furious world.

The work “In a Beautiful and Furious World” reflects and proves the existence of human compassion, support, friendship, love and devotion to loved ones, all this is the facets of the soul and cordiality in the human world.

Picture or drawing In a beautiful and furious world