I am used to thinking of Tolstoy as the creator of major, epoch-making works. After all, this writer is known throughout the world as the author of “War and Peace,” “Anna Karenina,” and “Resurrection.” However, towards the end of his life, Tolstoy turned to writing stories. The work “After the Ball” is one of the writer’s most famous stories.

It is known that the writer learned about the incident that formed the basis of “After the Ball” in his youth. While a student at Kazan University, Tolstoy heard from his friends about the cruel punishment that took place during Lent. The impression of this terrible story sank into the writer’s soul so much that he remembered it for many years.

I can't say that I liked this story. He makes a very painful impression. Its main part, describing the punishment of a fugitive Tatar, leaves a feeling of horror. The same melancholy horror that the narrator experienced after everything he had seen: “Meanwhile, there was an almost physical melancholy in my heart, reaching the point of nausea, such that I stopped several times, and it seemed to me that I was about to vomit with all that horror, which entered me from this sight.”

Reading the first part of the story, which describes the ball, you are filled with a light and bright feeling. You experience a feeling of peace and happiness that only Tolstoy could create in his works. On the pages of his best works, which describe family comfort and home holidays, this warm, wonderful mood is always present. In “After the Ball,” the narrator at the ball is as happy as a young man in love who knows no troubles in life can be. Ivan Vasilyevich enjoyed his youth, his beauty, his love.

Tolstoy psychologically subtly describes the state of the narrator: “Just as it happens that after one drop poured out of a bottle, its contents pour out in large streams, so in my soul, love for Varenka freed all the ability of love hidden in my soul. At that time I embraced the whole world with my love. I loved the hostess in the feronniere, with her Elizabethan bust, and her husband, and her guests, and her lackeys, and even the engineer Anisimov, who was sulking at me. At that time I felt a kind of enthusiastic and tender feeling towards her father, with his home boots and a gentle smile similar to hers.”

How beautiful is the description of Varenka’s dance with her father! The father, already overweight, but still handsome and fit, cannot get enough of his beautiful daughter. Their dance speaks of the love of father and daughter, a strong family, and the warmth of emotional relationships. All this was so clearly visible that at the end of the dance the guests applauded the colonel and Varenka. The narrator felt that he, too, loved Pyotr Vladislavich. How could it be otherwise: after all, he is the father of his beloved Varenka!

The description of the ball leaves a warm and bright impression. You are happy for the hero, you feel good and light at heart. And what a contrast the second part of the story, which is the main part of the work, sounds like! The feeling of fear and horror approaches gradually. Its first sign is music, “harsh and bad,” as well as something large, black, approaching the narrator.

A passing blacksmith also witnesses the Tatar's punishment. His reaction confirms the inhumanity and nightmarishness of what is happening. On the field, through two rows of soldiers, a Tatar, naked to the waist, was driven away. He was tied to the guns of two soldiers who led him through the line. Each of the soldiers had to hit the fugitive. The Tatar's back turned into a bloody piece of meat. The fugitive begged to end his torment: “At each blow, the punished, as if in surprise, turned his face, wrinkled with suffering, in the direction from which the blow fell, and, baring his white teeth, repeated some of the same words. Only when he was very close did I hear these words. He did not speak, but sobbed: “Brothers, have mercy. Brothers, have mercy." But the soldiers knew no mercy.

The colonel watched everything that happened, strictly following the Tatar. The narrator recognized this colonel as Varenka's father, who pretended not to know Ivan Vasilyevich. The colonel not only observed what was happening, but made sure that the soldiers did not “smear” and hit with full force.

And this happened on the first day of Lent! Without a doubt, all these soldiers, not to mention the colonel, considered themselves true Christians. I’m not saying that such mockery of a person is not Christian at all. But do this during Lent, when all people remember the torment of Christ! Or do the soldiers believe that a Tatar is not a person because he is of a different faith?

The first feeling that the narrator experienced was universal shame for everyone: for these people, for himself. How can this happen in the world, and what needs to be done to prevent this from happening again? These questions remain in your head after reading the story. But, in my opinion, these are eternal questions that have tormented people for many centuries and will always torment.

The narrator decided them about himself: he simply withdrew. Ivan Vasilyevich decided never to serve, so as not to be involved in such crimes against his soul. Or rather, it was an unconscious decision. This was the dictate of Ivan Vasilyevich’s soul, the most correct in his conditions, in my opinion.

I don’t know if I liked L.N.’s story. Tolstoy "After the Ball". I can only say with confidence that he did not leave me indifferent. And one more thing: I want my future children to read it.

Perhaps this story would not have been so magnificent if it had had such a tragic ending... Zheltkov loved endlessly, sincerely and breathtakingly, and could not even imagine his life without Vera. He breathed only thanks to her existence. Every cell was in awe. And high and tender feelings not only helped him live, but also lifted him somewhere much higher, they forced him to fight to the last.

When everything suddenly becomes monochromatic and indifferent, only love can save, which, like a bright ray of light, breaks through to the heart, revives it and completely takes possession of it. Love can be perceived as madness. But isn't this touching madness? It is hardly possible to find such love nowadays in the infinity of civilizations. And if it does exist, then people who have such a great gift are the happiest creatures in the entire Universe.

Perhaps happiness may only last for a moment, but it remains in the memory forever. How often do people, looking back, change their attitude towards past events, for some reason the beauty and charm of the minutes lived are lost. But it doesn't have to be that way. You need to be able to capture a moment of joy. After all, happiness lies within ourselves.

However, it is very difficult to capture and retain pure, sincere love. And life without love is a miserable, miserable existence, and love without tragedy is not love, because it is impossible to feel and understand sweetness without bitterness.

I’m thinking, we live and are in constant motion, and there is a whole whirlwind of events around us, endless everyday problems, and the bustle of each new day drowns out in the soul the ability to soar and rise above the abyss of simple and useless running from side to side. People do not see life, but simply exist meaninglessly. They just open their eyes, and they are already tired, because they do not see either love, or friendship, neither themselves nor others, they are blinded by some unthinkable worries that should have been turned to dust a long time ago. It's so easy, nothing could be simpler.

You just have to raise your eyes to the eternal sky, watch where the fluffy and simple clouds float and dissolve in the natural world, feel how a second of admiration for beauty returns the ability to experience life in its brightest colors. We simply have to change something in ourselves so as not to become the cause of our complete degradation and spiritual death. And although each person, to one degree or another, perceives the world and love, life and death, joy and pain in his own way, and it is not always possible to fix something, it is still worth trying, it is worth trying, it is worth listening to what is being said says the heart.

“French Lessons,” created by the writer in 1973, made a very strong impression on me. First of all, this work made me think about how sometimes cruel and unfair life can be, and how important it is that there are still kind people in it who are able to come to the aid of their neighbors at the right time.

Such a person in the work is the French school teacher Lidiya Mikhailovna. Realizing that one of her students is in a difficult situation, this young woman decides to help and support the boy.

The life of the main character of the story is indeed very difficult and joyless. The boy grows up in the harsh post-war era, when hunger and poverty reign in the country. At best, he eats only bread and potatoes, and at worst, he drinks only a glass of boiling water for dinner. Buying milk for the hero is a real holiday, since this drink allows him to finally experience the long-awaited “full sweetness”.

But in the boy’s life, in addition to constant hunger and poverty, there are many other unpleasant things. He early has to learn about human meanness, cruelty and betrayal. The yard boys severely beat the hero only because he was able to get ahead in his business and is now honestly beating them in a game of chance and does not want to put up with their cheating: “They beat me in turn, one and two... Someone third, a little one.” and angry, kicked me in the legs..."

At that moment, when the boy is already completely desperate and is thinking about quitting his studies in order to return to his native village, teacher Lidia Mikhailovna comes to his aid. This woman does a very noble deed with incredible ease, perseverance and grace.

Through several trials and errors, she finally finds an approach to her student and begins to play “wall” with him at home. The teacher does this only to allow the child to honestly win money from her and buy food for themselves with it.

It seems to me that this act, despite its outward immorality, is highly moral, since it was impossible to force the boy to accept help in any other way. He refused the dinner offered by the teacher and returned to the woman the food that she sent him.

Lidia Mikhailovna understood perfectly well that by playing a gambling game with a schoolboy, she was risking her job, but this did not stop her. The woman had to pay a high price for her nobility, because, upon learning about the incident, the school director fired the teacher. And this plot twist of the story also evokes a strong emotional response in me, since life can indeed be very cruel to the most noble, honest and pure people.

But nevertheless, the ending of the work makes me again experience bright and joyful feelings, since goodness and justice triumph in it. Lidia Mikhailovna, even after parting with her pupil, continues to help him: she sends the boy a parcel with real Kuban apples, which he had previously only seen in pictures.