Gooseberries (Summary) Plus One

Gooseberries

Anton Chekhov

Detailed Summary 

          “Gooseberries” is a story which is written by Anton Chekhov. As the story begins, Ivan Ivanich, who is a veterinary surgeon, and Bourkin, who is a schoolmaster, are walking through a field. Both of them are enjoying walking in the countryside. It is about to rain. Soon it is started to rain. Both of them are trying to find a shelter. Finally, they reach Sophino where their friend, Aliokhin, lives. They see Aliokhin in one of his barns.

          Aliokhin is a farmer who is almost forty. He is a tall and stout man with long hair. By his appearance, one may think that he is a professor or a painter. He wears a “grimy white shirt”, “rope belt” and pants. When Aliokhin sees Ivan Ivanich and Bourkin, he welcomes both of them into his spacious house. Since all are wet, they go for a bath in the bathing-shed at first. Rather than bathing in the bathing-shed, Ivan Ivanich goes outside to enjoy the rain. He swims and dives in the pool.

After Aliokhin, Bourkin and Ivan Ivanich come back from the bath, they sit in the large drawing room. Ivan Ivanich begins to tell about his brother, Nicholai Ivanich who is two years younger than him. At the age of nineteen, Nicholai gets a job in the Exchequer Court. Tchimsha-Himalaysky was their father who was a cantonist died while he was serving in the military.

When Ivan Ivanich and Nicholai Ivanich were kids, they lived in the countryside where did various activities such as “. . . spent day and nights in the fields and the woods, minded the horses, barked the lime-trees, fished . . .”. Thus they merged with nature. These country experiences created a great in Nicholai Ivanich’s mind. He always yearns to go back to the country and settle down there. He wished to buy a small farm where a river or lake flows nearby. But Ivan Ivanich does not like to settle down in a countryside. As he says, it is like to “. . . hide yourself in a farmhouse is not like – it is egoism, laziness”.
On the other hand, Nicholai Ivanich dreamed to spend his with nature like “eating out in the open air”, “sleeping in the sun, “gazing at the fields”, etc. He loved to read agricultural books and almanacs. In the newspaper, he read advertisements, especially land for sale. He used to find a land where there is “a farmhouse, river, garden, mill and mill-pond”. He also imagined that there should be “garden-walls, flowers, fruits, nests, carp in the pond”, etc. on his farm. Sometimes there occurred changes in his dream based on the advertisement. But one thing was common in his dream which was that there would a gooseberry-bush every time when he thought about buying land.

In order to buy Nicholai Ivanich’s dream farmhouse with a gooseberry-bush, he used to save all his money in a bank. He lived like a beggar. When Ivan Ivanich saw his brother’s pathetic life, he sometimes gave him money to go for a holiday for getting refreshment. But Nicholai Ivanich saved that money too. He married “an elderly, ugly widow” at the age of forty to fulfill his dream because he needed her wealth which he deposited later in a bank under his name. He put her “half starved” and later she died.

Finally, Nicholai Ivanich accomplished his dream. He bought three hundred acres of land. It consisted of a farmhouse, a cottage, and a park. There was a river which contained “coffee-coloured” water.  Later he created a gooseberry-bush. Finally, he began to enjoy his country life.

Last year Ivan Ivanich visited Nicholai Ivanich’s estate which he called as “Tchimbarshov Corner or Himalayskoe”. When Ivan reached the estate, he saw “ditches, fences, hedges, rows of young fir-trees”, etc. in his yard. Ivan Ivanich was welcomed by a lazy “red-haired dog” and a cook to Nicholai Ivanich’s house to see him. Ivan Ivanich described Nicholai Ivanich as “old”, “stout” and “flabby”. After Ivan met Nicholai happily took him to see the estate called “Tchimbarshov Corner or Himalayskoe”.

While Ivan Ivanich and Nicholai Ivanich were roaming around the estate, Ivan realised that Nicholai was living like a landowner who was getting from the peasants who were living in the countryside. He treated peasants very well. When they were suffered from any disease, he cured them by using soda and castor oil. He used to celebrate his birthday with these peasants. There would be a “thanksgiving” service where he gave “half-bucket of vodka” to them for drinking.

While Ivan Ivanich was observing Nicholai Ivanich’s estate, he felt that nature was luring him. In the evening, they ate gooseberries, which were plucked for the first time, with the tea. Nicholai Ivanich was extremely happy. In the night Nicholai Ivanich again ate a plate of gooseberries. Seeing this Ivan Ivanich understood that one could lead a happy life.

After saying all these to Aliokhin and Bourkin, Ivan Ivanich tells, “. . . we cannot have everything at once, and that every idea is realised in time. But who says so?.. why should we wait ?” By saying these, Ivan tried to make his friends realise that one should not wait for getting old to achieve something. One can achieve anything at any time. The only thing which one needs is the will to never give up. Otherwise, in the end, as Ivan desperately says, “. . . Ah! If I were young!”

Ivan’s story is not well accepted by Aliokhin and Bourkin because they yearn to hear about “charming people” and “women”. They go to sleep by thinking that they waste their precious by listening to Ivan’s story. As the story ends, Ivan is in his bed and thinking that he has wasted his life by simply leading a monotonous town life like everyone else.