Legenda o drewnem idole

Deystvie romana proiskhodit v Zapadnoy Belorussii, v pervoy polovine XIX veka, to est', eshche pri krepostnom prave. Geroi romana - zhiteli derevni Dlym' , vol'noy obshchiny. Dlymchane zhivut na panskoy zemle, no lichno svobodny. Im nezrimo pokrovitel'stvuet drevniy yazycheskiy idol, skrytyy v dremuchikh lesakh. Okrestnaya shlyakhta nenavidit dlymchan, a pushche vsekh - zhestokiy tiran pan Ostrovskiy, i nado skazat', u nego est' dlya etogo osnovaniya: ved' dlymchane to i delo ukryvayut ego beglykh dvorovykh. V tsentre povestvovaniya - istoriya molodogo dlymchanina, nedavno vernuvshegosya s soldatskoy sluzhby. Sovsem yunym on po zhrebiyu ushel v soldaty, a neskol'ko let spustya byl otpushchen v bessrochnyy otpusk po prichine tyazheloy bolezni. Vernuvshis' domoy, on uznaet o smerti materi i zamuzhestve lyubimoy, odnako u nego khvataet voli, chtoby ne past' dukhom. No vperedi ego zhdut ne menee tyazhelye ispytaniya. Panskie gayduki kradut u nego mal'chika-priemysha. Novaya vozlyublennaya, sovsem yunaya devushka, dolgo ne otvechaet emu vzaimnost'yu, poskol'ku sama vlyublena v molodogo shlyakhticha, s kotorym u nee net i ne mozhet byt' nikakogo budushchego. Krome togo, na puti geroya stoit rodstvennik devushki, kotoryy s detstva pitaet k nemu glubochayshuyu nepriyaz