Year of publication of the story: 1964
The story "The thirteenth feat of Hercules" was written in 1964. The work is included in the story "School Waltz, or the Energy of Shame" and is largely autobiographical. The story, along with the whole story, occupies a worthy place among readers and is deservedly included in the school curriculum.
The story "The thirteenth feat of Hercules" summary
At the beginning of the story “The Thirteenth Feat of Hercules”, we can read that all the mathematics teachers with whom the narrator was familiar did not have special accuracy and, despite all their genius, were rather weak-willed people. But then one day a new teacher appeared at the school. His name was Kharlampy Diogenovich and by origin he, like Pythagoras, was a Greek. From the very first days of work, he was able to gain authority among his students. There was such silence in his lessons in the classroom that sometimes the director came to check if the children had run away from the lesson to the stadium.
And the students often ran to the stadium. The reason was the watchman Uncle Vasya, whom the children liked to anger with their appearance. The school management even wrote a complaint to the director of the stadium to be moved to some other place so as not to interfere learning process. But the complaint was not heard. The only thing that the stadium management did was to replace the wooden fence with a stone one.
Often students went to the stadium skipping singing lessons. But no caretaker Uncle Vasya could force the children to run away from the math lesson. The respect for the teacher was so strong that as soon as Kharlampy Diogenovich entered the classroom, silence reigned there, which lasted until the end of the lesson. Sometimes the teacher diluted the atmosphere in the lesson with some witty joke.
For example, if a student was late for a lesson by a few seconds and ran into Kharlampy Diogenovich at the door, the teacher did not shout or get angry. With a respectful gesture, he invited the latecomer to enter the class, as if hinting that he was letting some important person go ahead. And when a student awkwardly enters the office, the teacher, announcing what kind of important person this was, said something witty. For example:
— The Prince of Wales!
All the children started laughing. They had no idea who this Prince of Wales was, but they knew for sure that the latecomer was not.
Kharlampy Diogenovich was small in stature, always neatly dressed and calm enough. Even during control works he did not walk around the class, but calmly sat at his desk and read something. And, despite the lack of control, the students rarely cheated. They knew that the teacher would immediately notice such work and ridicule it in front of the whole class.
The main feature of Kharlampy Diogenovich was the ability to make the student look ridiculous in front of everyone. He did not shout, did not call his parents to school, did not get angry at those who had bad grades or bad behavior in the classroom. He made them look funny in front of his classmates. And when everyone started laughing at such a student, he felt ashamed without unnecessary cries and moralizing.
Once the main character of the story had such a fate - to become ridiculous in front of his own friends. The boy did not do his homework. More precisely, he tried to solve the problem about an artillery shell, but the resulting answer did not agree with the one in the problem book itself. When a student came to school, he asked a football classmate if he had succeeded in solving this problem. And, having heard that his answer also did not agree with the one in the book, they decided that the mistake was in the textbook and went to play football. Before the lesson itself, the boy asked the excellent student Sakharov if he had done his homework, and he gave an affirmative answer.
Then the bell rang and Kharlampy Diogenovich entered the classroom. The main character was very afraid that the teacher would feel his excitement and call him to the blackboard. He sat down in his seat. His desk neighbor was Adolf Komarov, who, because of the war, was ashamed of his name and asked everyone to call him Alik. But the kids still sometimes teased him about Hitler.
Further, Iskander's story "The Thirteenth Feat of Hercules" tells how Kharlampy Diogenovich begins the lesson. There was no student on duty in the class and the teacher was waiting for the headman to wipe the blackboard and was about to start the lesson when the nurse entered the class. She asked if 5-A was in this room. Kharlampy Diogenovich sharply answered them that 5-B was sitting here. He understood that the nurse wanted to get vaccinated, but he really did not want the lesson to be disrupted. The nurse and doctor left. Insofar as main character sitting not far from the door, he asked the teacher if he could quickly go out and show the doctor where the 5-A class was. He released the student.
The boy joyfully left the classroom and ran for the doctors. Catching up with the women, he asked if his class would give injections. He was told that paramedics would come to 5-B during the next lesson. But the student lied, saying that just in the next lesson, their entire class is heading to the library. Then the doctor and the nurse decided to come back and vaccinate the 5-A students. The boy was delighted. He suffered from malaria since childhood, suffered many injections and was no longer afraid of them. 
They returned to class. Shurik Avdeenko stood near the board and tried to solve the problem about an artillery shell. The doctor announced that she and the nurse were now going to give the whole class vaccinations against typhus. They decided to call the children to the doctors according to the list from the magazine. The first to go was Avdeenko, who had just sat down at his desk. At that time, Alik Komarov waited in horror for his turn. The main character tried to calm him down, but the boy was terrified of injections.
When the time came to give an injection to Komarov, he went to the doctor, as if he were going to hard labor. As soon as the injection was given, the boy suddenly turned white and lost consciousness. Everyone in the class was scared. The doctor seated Alik on a chair, slipped a vial under the boy's nose, and he came to his senses. The boy returned to his place already confidently and businesslike, as if he had not died a few minutes ago.
When the main character was given an injection, he did not even feel it. The doctor praised the boy for his courage and sent him to his place. Still later, injections were given to all the students, the doctors said goodbye and left the office.
Further in the work “13 feat of Hercules” we can read that Kharlampy Diogenovich asked to open the window in order to get rid of the smell of medicines in the classroom. He sat down at the table, took out a rosary and began to sort out one after another the beads from them. The disciples knew that at such moments he was telling something very interesting and instructive.
He began his story with what, according to ancient Greek mythology, was perfect. But now a man appeared who decided to perform the thirteenth feat of the hero. Only in Hercules did all the feats out of courage, and this young man out of cowardice. In Iskander's story, the feat of Hercules, of course, had a metaphorical meaning, since everyone knows that the ancient Greek hero performed only twelve feats.
Further in the short story "The Thirteenth Feat of Hercules" you will learn that the main character suspected something was wrong. Kharlampy Diogenovich called the boy to the blackboard and asked him to solve a home problem. For a long time the main character thought about how to get out of this situation, and at the same time the boy became terribly ashamed. He stood at the blackboard and could not say anything except the phrase "artillery shell." The teacher asked if he had swallowed for an hour this projectile, which he had been talking about for so long. The boy was confused and said that he had swallowed it.
a5bfc9e07964f8dddeb95fc584cd965d
The mathematician Kharlampy Diogenovich was noticeably different from his slovenly colleagues. With his appearance in the class, strict discipline was established. The lessons were so quiet that the headmaster could not believe that the students were in their places and not in the stadium. Silence reigned as soon as the teacher entered the classroom, and lasted until the end of the lesson. Sometimes there was laughter. Kharlampy Diogenovich allowed himself to joke, and the guys laughed merrily. For example, he could show the greatest respect to a late student by giving him the way to class and calling him after him the Prince of Wales. The teacher never cursed, never called parents to school. The guys did not write off the control ones, because they knew that Kharlampy Diogenovich would immediately recognize such a work and ridicule a negligent student. The narrator did not escape the fate of being funny in front of the whole class.
One day he could not solve the problem. Without doing his homework, he came to school. After making sure that the other guys did not agree with the answer either, the boy ran to play football. Just before the start of the lesson, he learned that the excellent student Sakharov had coped with the task. And at the desk neighbor Adolf Komarov, the problem was also solved. The narrator froze in anticipation of what would be asked of him. A doctor and a nurse entered the classroom. They were looking for a fifth "A" class to vaccinate. Out of fear, the boy volunteered to show where the class was and the teacher gave him permission. On the way, he learns that their class is scheduled to be vaccinated in the next lesson and informs the medics that the class will go to the museum. Running into the classroom in front of the doctor, the narrator saw that Shurik Avdeenko was solving the problem at the blackboard, but he could not explain the solution. The teacher sent him to his place, and praised Adolf for the solved problem.
When the doctors returned, they said that the children needed to be vaccinated and the teacher allowed them to take a lesson. Avdeenko was the first to be vaccinated. He did it without fear, because the vaccine saved him from a possible deuce. Adolf Komarov was pale. The neighbor on the desk consoled him, but it did not work. The injection made Alik even paler, and the doctor had to give him ammonia. The narrator was proud of Alik that he did not feel the prick, although this was not true. The doctors are gone.
There was little time left before the end of the lesson. Kharlampy Diogenovich thoughtfully began a story about the twelve labors of Hercules and about a certain young man who decided to correct Greek mythology with his thirteenth labor. The teacher said that this feat was accomplished out of cowardice, and for the sake of what it was done, he asked the narrator to explain, calling him to the blackboard. Kharlampy Diogenovich asked the boy to tell how he solved his homework. The student tried to play for time, but he looked more and more ridiculous and ridiculous. Since then, the boy has become more serious about doing homework. Reasoning, he came to the conclusion that the worst thing is that a person ceases to be afraid of being funny. This may bring misfortune upon him. The arrogant Roman emperors did not see in time how ridiculous they really were, and that is why the great empire perished.
"All the mathematicians that I had to meet in school and after school were slovenly people, weak-willed and quite brilliant."
But one mathematician in our school was different from all the others. He was neither weak-willed nor slovenly.
“His name was Kharlampy Diogenovich. Like Pythagoras, he was of Greek origin. He appeared in our class since the new school year ...
He immediately established exemplary silence in our class. The silence was so terrible that sometimes the director frightenedly opened the door, because he could not understand whether we were still there or had fled to the stadium.
The stadium was next to the school yard ... "
Children often ran to the stadium, which irritated the headmaster very much. But not from math lessons!
The teacher knows how to subtly ridicule a delinquent student. No one wants to be the object of his wit.
He “imperiously and calmly held the class in his hands ... It was almost useless to copy from him, because he immediately recognized the copied work and began to ridicule it ...
A student who deviates from school rules is not a lazy person, not a lazybones, not a hooligan, but just a funny person. Or rather, not just funny, perhaps many would agree to this, but some kind of offensively funny. Funny, not realizing that he is funny, or the last to know about it ...
The whole class is laughing at you. Everyone laughs against one."
Once the object of ridicule is the hero-narrator. He failed to solve his homework. And he waved it off: probably the answer in the textbook is wrong!
“Next to me sat a quiet and modest student. His name was Adolf Komarov. Now he called himself Alik and even wrote Alik on his notebook, because the war had begun and he did not want to be teased by Hitler. All the same, everyone remembered his name before, and on occasion reminded him of this.
I liked to talk, and he liked to sit quietly. We were put together to influence each other, but, in my opinion, nothing came of it. Everyone stayed the way they were."
Adolf solved the problem. The hero becomes more and more uncomfortable. But suddenly a nurse comes into the classroom. The school is vaccinated against typhoid. It's better to be vaccinated than to be ridiculed with your unsolved problem!
“I was not afraid of injections, because they gave me a lot of injections for malaria, and these are the most disgusting of all injections in existence.”
But the white coats are looking for the fifth "A". The boy is studying in the fifth "B".
- Can I show them where the fifth "A" is? I said, emboldened with fear.
This class was in one of the outbuildings at the school yard, and the doctor's wife could really get confused ... "
The doctor says that class "B" will be given injections in the next lesson. The boy, hoping to avoid embarrassment in the math class, invents that class "B" in the next lesson is going to the museum in an organized manner.
The doctor and nurse decide to go to the fifth B. Many children are afraid of injections, especially Alik Komarov.
“With every minute he became stricter and paler. He kept looking at the doctor's needle...
His back was as hard as a board from the tension...”
Alik almost fainted during the injection. The narrator, nicknamed the "painter" by the doctors, behaves heroically.
But here is the procedure.
“Open the window,” said Kharlampy Diogenovich, taking his seat. He wanted the spirit of hospital freedom to leave the classroom with the smell of medicine.
- As you know, Hercules performed twelve labors ... - he said. — One young man wanted to correct Greek mythology.
And accomplished the thirteenth feat...
We immediately understood from his voice what a false and useless feat it was, because if Hercules had needed to perform thirteen labors, he would have performed them himself, and since he stopped at twelve, it means that it was necessary and there was nothing to climb with your amendments.
— Hercules performed his exploits like a brave man. And this young man did his feat out of cowardice ... "
The trickster is still called to the board. In the home task, we are talking about an artillery shell.
“An artillery shell…” the schoolboy mutters.
Kharlampy Diogenovich makes fun of him:
- Did you swallow the projectile? Then ask the military instructor to clear mines for you ...
The whole class laughed.
“Sakharov laughed, trying not to stop being an excellent student during laughter. Even Shurik Avdeenko, the gloomiest person in our class, whom I saved from the inevitable deuce, laughed.
Komarov laughed, who, although he is now called Alik, but as he was, he remained Adolf.
“Since then, I have become more serious about homework ... Later, I noticed that almost all people are afraid of seeming ridiculous. Women and poets are especially afraid of seeming ridiculous...
Of course, being too afraid of looking funny isn't very smart, but it's far worse not to be afraid of it at all."
Very short for a reader's diary
The work "The Thirteenth Feat of Hercules" by Fazil Iskander was published in 1964. From the very beginning of the work, a certain similarity with the stories of Ancient Greece is visible. The very title of the work tells the reader that the story will be connected with myths. Everyone knows about the twelve labors of Hercules, so it is interesting to read what the new labor of Hercules was. In the end, it turns out that this is not a feat at all.
For the main idea of the work, one can take the fact that in fact laughter makes it possible to look at a person from different angles, to see hidden features, helps to admit mistakes so as not to make them in the future.
Read the summary of Iskander The thirteenth feat of Hercules
Another academic year, and a new mathematics teacher Kharlampy Diogenovich comes to school. This man immediately stood out among his colleagues, was very serious and intelligent. An incredible silence and discipline reigned in his classroom. The director could not get used to the fact that the new teacher could calm the children in such a way, and that the children were in the classroom during the lesson.
The class calmed down only at the sight of the teacher at the door of the office, and the silence lasted until the end. From time to time laughter was heard from the class, it was Kharlampy Diogenovich who sometimes distracted the children with his jokes, laughed himself and amused the children. Once a student was late for his lesson, and Kharlampy paid him respect as the main one, gave him the way to the class, and after that he came up with the nickname "Prince of Wales". Another feature of the teacher was that he did not scold the students and did not call their parents to him.
When it came time to write the control, everyone wrote with their minds and did not copy off, because they knew that Kharlampy Diogenovich would immediately figure out the deceiver and, in addition, would laugh. So, once the narrator himself became a reason for ridicule. Before one of the next lessons of mathematics, he could not solve the problem. The narrator did not manage to cope with the task that was given home, he went to school. There he found out that other students also did not quite succeed in the task, and not all of them had the same solution as the answer. This calmed the narrator a little, and he, forgetting about the tasks, went to run and chase the ball.
Before the lesson, the narrator was sure that the smartest student in the class, Sakharov, of course, coped with the task. As it turned out, the boy with whom the narrator was sitting also had a solved problem. Then the lesson began and the narrator was determined that he would be called. But at the beginning of the lesson, when everyone was waiting for the survey to begin, a doctor and a nurse came into the classroom, they had to find the "A" class, since they were supposed to be vaccinated. The narrator, not at a loss, volunteered to help them find a class, to which the teacher agreed. While seeing off the doctors, he found out that they want to give injections to their class through the lesson, and therefore he tells the doctor that he and the class were just about to go to the museum. The narrator ran ahead of the doctor to the office, and found that Shurik Avdeenko was standing near the blackboard trying to solve the problem, but he failed to give an explanation. The teacher ordered Shurik to go to his place, and praised Adolf for the correct task.
Soon the doctors came and said that the children needed to be vaccinated and asked the teacher to let them go from the lesson. Avdeenko was the first to undergo the procedure. Everything went well, the boy was not afraid, but rather rejoiced, because instead of a task, he went for an injection. Komarov Adolf turned pale, he was frightened, and despite the consolations of his desk mate, he could not calm down. After the injection, he became even worse, and the doctors were even forced to give the boy ammonia. The narrator at this time was proud of himself, and boasted that he did not feel pain at all, but this was only boasting. After the vaccinations, the doctors left.
There was still time before the end of the lesson and the teacher decided to tell the children about the exploits of Hercules, and another person who decided to add a feat to the thirteenth, thereby changing the mythology of Greece. The teacher only explained that the feat was due to cowardice, and for what purpose, he asked the main character to tell. And then the teacher calls the boy to the blackboard and asks for an explanation of how he solved his homework. The narrator kept trying to play for time, but this did not help, on the contrary, he looked ridiculous and funny.
This incident had a positive effect on the student, after which he became more accommodating and responsible for the performance of his work. Reasoning, the boy realized that it is bad when a person ceases to be afraid to seem ridiculous. After all, this may not affect him in the best way.
Picture or drawing The thirteenth feat of Hercules
Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary
- Summary of Nosov Varka
In Evgeny Nosov's story "Varka" we are talking about a schoolgirl named Varka. She spends all her summer holidays at the collective farm poultry house and helps in raising ducks.
- Summary of Shukshin Critics
Despite the small volume of the work of Vasily Shukshin-Criticism, the author successfully describes a moment in the life of his grandfather and little grandson, showing their character and conveying meaning to the reader. The story begins with a description of the main characters, there was a grandfather, he was 73 years old
- Summary of The Book Thief Zuzak
The main narrator in the work is Death. The character is terribly tired of his job as the Second World War and there is really a lot of work. Death is watching Liesel's life intently.
- Summary Skrebitsky Jack
In the life of every person there was once a long, or short time - a true friendship. And it is not even necessary that this friendship connects only people. After all, when children are still just children, small, funny and naive
- Summary of Burnett Little Lord Fontleroy
It all happened in New York on one of the poor streets. Here in one of the houses lived Cedric with his mother. They were poor, especially after his father, Serdik Erol, died. But once a lawyer came to them, who brought a message from Cedric's grandfather.
Fazil Abdulovich Iskander in his work often talks about philosophical issues that actually determine our lives and set a certain system of values for each person. In his story "The Thirteenth Feat of Hercules" (1964), under a seemingly quite ordinary story from school life hides a whole complex of meanings.
The story takes place during the Great patriotic war. The life of an ordinary school is drawn before the reader. The main character is a student of the 5th "B" class who could not complete his homework in the form of solving a math problem. The boy is afraid of his teacher and decides to influence in every possible way so that the lesson does not take place.
Just take a walk? No, Kharlampy Diogenovich's classes could not be missed. Therefore, the hero decides to persuade the school doctor and nurse to vaccinate their class, taking up most of the lesson. His idea is being successfully implemented, but now the teacher unravels the mercenary plans of his student and calls his tricks "the thirteenth feat of Hercules."
The plot composition is based on the technique of retrospection. The reader gets acquainted with the events of the work from the words of an already adult narrator, who is the main character and thus a boy who has not solved the notorious problem in mathematics. It turns out that the whole story is a memory that determined to some extent the real life of the former student.
Humor in the work
The episodes associated with laughter turn out to be important for understanding the author's artistic intention. There are a lot of them and most of them are created with the help of the image of Kharlampy Diogenovich and students. School teacher skillfully uses humor for educational purposes.
The combination of children's and adult views on life not only gives an amazing lightness to the narration, but also sets a greater objectivity to the issues raised. Combining the main character and the narrator into one person allows you to more accurately convey what happened and, most importantly, to give an assessment to all this. We feel a certain respect for the teacher, a grateful attitude towards him and his educational methods, designed to ridicule the wrong actions of schoolchildren.
For example, in the episode with the student being late, he compares him to the Prince of Wales, showing that coming to class later than the teacher is a manifestation of disrespect and his own promiscuity. When the cunning of the protagonist is revealed, the teacher kindly and naturally asks: “Did you swallow an artillery shell?” His next phrase is even more anecdotal: "Then ask the military instructor to clear mines for you."
Irony and laughter make it possible to expose negative aspects in the behavior of not only specific students, but also all other people. Peace artwork becomes a kind of projection on the whole society. After all, we all have acquaintances who love to be late, to hide cowardice with imaginary courage, to rely not on their own strength, but on someone else's help.
A simple plot, the irony of many events in the narrative and vivid images focus the reader's attention on the philosophical issues of the work. These are questions of honor, cowardice and courage, truth and lies. Another important point is to be able to look at yourself from the outside and after a while be able to evaluate yourself, other people and everything that happens. The narrator and the protagonist definitely succeeded.
Characteristics of the characters "The thirteenth feat of Hercules"
Already at the very beginning of the story, we understand that one of the main actors is a teacher of mathematics Kharlampy Diogenovich. There is something in his image from the hero of the era of romanticism. We don't know his past or his future. He is not like other teachers who "were slovenly, weak-willed people."
Kharlampy Diogenovich enjoyed great respect. He never raised his voice to his students, did not threaten them with calling their parents. However, in his lessons, the guys always behaved quietly and disciplined. The thing is that the teacher could easily use laughter, with which he showed how ridiculous or unworthy the behavior of the student.
Kharlampy Diogenovich not only gave excellent knowledge in his subject, but also constantly told his wards something instructive from mythology, expanding their horizons. The teacher was of Greek origin, although he bore a Russian name. In his middle name there is just a reference to Ancient Greece– Diogenovich recalls the philosopher Diogenes.
Do children take offense at their teacher for ridicule? No. First, they are always fair and quite tactful. Secondly, their goal is not to humiliate a person, but to show only the discrepancy between his capabilities, talent and the way he behaves now. Nobody wants to be funny, and Kharlampy Diogenovich was well aware of this. As the narrator himself notes, he thereby “tempered our crafty children's souls”, exposed serious problems – whether it was human cowardice or a tendency to live at someone else's expense.
Another main character of the work is the narrator himself. He appears in two ages. Firstly, this is the same boy whose slyness was brought to light by a mathematics teacher. Secondly, this is already an adult storyteller, taught by life experience and telling us this story.
The hero of the story is an ordinary schoolboy who is very observant, smart enough and even cunning. He easily and skillfully used the circumstances (the arrival of health workers) in order to avoid checking homework, which he himself did not complete. Could he really solve this problem about the projectile? Most likely, the hero was simply too lazy at home and did not even ask for help from his classmates, having gone to play football.
Thanks to a far-sighted and attentive teacher, he subsequently not only “became more serious about homework,” but also realized that an act committed for selfish purposes and because of cowardice could in no way deserve respect, much less be heroic. . This is just "the thirteenth feat of Hercules."
The main idea of the story
Every reader, regardless of age, can discover the meaning of this work. The author extremely briefly and at the same time interestingly tells a simple school story. He does not read morality to us, does not tell us how to act, does not set anyone as an example. However, from this work receives an even greater instructive context.
First, we understand that you need to take what you do seriously. If you are a student, it is important to approach the learning process in a timely and responsible manner. If you are already an adult, then it never hurts to remember everything that your parents, educators and teachers put into you. The narrator and the protagonist did not forget the efforts of Kharlampy Diogenovich, who, thanks to his genius and laughter, successfully instilled the foundations of morality in his wards.
We offer you to read one of the most famous works