The Old World Landowners
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"The Old World Landowners" (Старосветские помещики, ''Starosvyetskiye pomeshchiki''), a short story written in 1835, is the first tale in the
Mirgorod Myrhorod ( uk, Ми́ргород, ) is a city in the Poltava Oblast (province) of central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Myrhorod Raion (district), the city itself is administratively incorporated as a city of oblast s ...
collection by
Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
. A bittersweet and ironic reworking of the
Baucis and Philemon In Ovid's moralizing fables collected as ''Metamorphoses'' is his telling of the story of Baucis and Philemon, which stands on the periphery of Greek mythology and Roman mythology. Baucis and Philemon were an old married couple in the region ...
legend from
Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
's ''
Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the wo ...
'', it is a simple story that represents the mature Gogol and hints at his later works.


Plot

Gogol opens by providing a romantic description of landowners in the countryside, giving particular attention to minute details. The two landowners, Afanasy Ivanovich Tovstogub and Pulkheriya Ivanovna Tovstogubikha live peacefully together in a remote village. The descriptions of them fit into the
Slavophile Slavophilia (russian: Славянофильство) was an intellectual movement originating from the 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed on the basis of values and institutions derived from Russia's early history. Slavoph ...
tradition, comparing them strikingly against urban
Little Russians Little Russia (russian: Малороссия/Малая Россия, Malaya Rossiya/Malorossiya; uk, Малоросія/Мала Росія, Malorosiia/Mala Rosiia), also known in English as Malorussia, Little Rus' (russian: Малая Ру ...
(Ukrainians), particularly in
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, who are referred to as "paltry contemptible creatures" (because they acquire wealth dishonorably and conceal their descent by changing their last names to sound like
Great Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...
). The two old landowners live in peace, with a mutual love that brings a sense of sympathy. The bulk of the opening focuses on their day-to-day lives, eating jelly, making jokes and so forth. Eventually, Gogol introduces Pulkheriya’s grey cat, which Afanasy jokes about, wondering why anyone would waste time with such a creature. The cat is introduced with a sense of foreboding, with Gogol commenting that little things can affect the stability of the strongest realities ("a melancholy incident that transformed forever the life of that peaceful nook"). The cat gets away at one point, and Pulkheriya finds it shortly thereafter in a feral state. Though it comes back to her and goes inside the house to be fed, the cat seems strangely different and eventually flees the house to never return. Pulkheriya then sinks into thought, believing that death will soon come for her. She grows ill and weary and dies, leaving Afanasy alone. He progressively breaks down, disturbed by the smallest things for they remind him of Pulkheriya. The entire area he had control over slowly becomes more degraded as his condition worsens, and he himself dies after he believes he hears her calling to him outside. A distant kinsman from an unknown location, who was a lieutenant, takes over control of the estate, and soon everything falls into ruin. He puts the estate under the care of a board of trustees, bringing things like a fine English sickle to clear the area, and the huts on the property soon fall down, leaving some peasants drunken and hopeless and others to run away to find better lives. The new owner rarely visits the estate, and the story ends commenting on his visits to local markets to buy nothing over a
ruble The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union. , currencies named ''rub ...
in price.


Notes


External links

* Short stories by Nikolai Gogol 1835 short stories Landowners Short stories about Cossacks Short stories set in the Russian Empire Works based on Metamorphoses Cats in literature {{story-stub