Nozdreef's manor

Nozdrev’s estate is the setting where Chichikov’s visit turns from an ill-judged negotiation into a near-violent confrontation. Its rooms and courtyard frame a sequence of reversals: Chichikov lies awake regretting that he disclosed his scheme, leaves early to prepare his carriage, then finds himself facing Nozdrev’s attack until an unexpected visitor interrupts it. The estate matters less as a surveyed landscape than as a trap from which Chichikov must escape, with the journey away continuing the scene’s fear and humiliation.

Rooms, Courtyard, and Departure

After supper, Nozdrev conducts Chichikov to a side room where a bed has been made up. The host’s parting is pointedly inhospitable: he says he cannot very well wish his guest good-night. Alone in the room, Chichikov reproaches himself for having come and, more seriously, for having entrusted his scheme to a man he considers capable of lying, embellishing the story, and spreading scandal. The estate’s hospitality has thus become a source of exposure before the next day’s open conflict begins.

Chichikov’s night is uneasy, and small, vigorous insects keep him scratching until he falls asleep only as morning approaches. Once dressed in a dressing-gown and slippers, he crosses the courtyard to the stable to order Selifan to harness the britchka. On his return he meets Nozdrev, also in a dressing-gown and carrying a pipe. Their greeting is friendly on the surface, but Chichikov’s reply that he slept fairly well carries a dry edge. The ordinary details of a guest room, stable, and morning encounter establish the physical route toward departure while holding the danger just beneath polite conversation.

The Confrontation Inside the Estate

The estate’s domestic setting becomes a stage for violence when Nozdrev, angered by Chichikov’s refusal to play on, orders his men to thrash him and seizes the cherrywood shank of his pipe. Chichikov turns pale and cannot get words past his trembling lips. When Nozdrev rushes forward, the narrator enlarges the scene through an extended military comparison: the blustering host resembles an impetuous lieutenant charging a fortress, while Chichikov is the panicked stronghold. The comic scale of the comparison does not cancel the immediate threat; it makes Nozdrev’s reckless aggression and Chichikov’s terror visible at once.

Chichikov tries to defend himself with a chair, but Nozdrev’s serfs wrest it away. He is left blinking, scarcely alive, attempting to parry the pipe-stem. The danger breaks only when a collar-bell rings outside, followed by approaching wheels and the hard breathing of horses. The unexpected arrival interrupts the assault at the moment Chichikov is almost swooning with fear. The account does not present the estate as a place from which he can negotiate his way out: escape becomes possible because an arrival from beyond its rooms disrupts Nozdrev’s control of the encounter.

The Official’s Arrival and Chichikov’s Escape

A man in a semi-military greatcoat enters after making inquiries in the hall. He identifies himself as a government officer and challenges Nozdrev’s claim that he knows Landowner Maksimov, insisting that Nozdrev must not address him as he would his servants. Before Nozdrev can reply, Chichikov seizes his cap, slips behind the Superintendent, rushes onto the verandah, jumps into his britchka, and orders Selifan to drive like the wind. The verandah and carriage mark the sudden passage from threatened guest to fleeing traveler; the interruption supplies his chance, but he takes it without waiting to learn how the dispute will end.

Aftermath and Narrative Significance

The estate disappears behind hillocks and hedgerows, yet Chichikov continues looking nervously back as if expecting pursuit. His breath is labored, and he feels his heart fluttering like a quail caught in a net. He recognizes that, without the Superintendent’s arrival, he might have lost his life and everything that could survive him. The danger at the estate therefore follows him onto the road as bodily fear and an awareness of how narrowly the encounter ended.

The scene also gives the estate a sharp contrast between outward routine and sudden disorder. Supper, a prepared bed, dressing gowns, a stable errand, and a morning greeting are ordinary incidents of a visit; the pipe raised as a weapon and the serfs’ intervention expose how quickly that routine can collapse. Chichikov’s regret begins with his imprudence in revealing his scheme, but the estate’s decisive consequence is more immediate: Nozdrev’s threat makes flight urgent, while the Superintendent’s entrance turns a possible assault into a panicked departure.