The Old World Landowners
Encyclopedia
The Old World Landowners (Старосветские помещики, Starosvyetskiye pomeshchiki), a short story written in 1835, is the first tale in the Mirgorod
collection by Nikolai Gogol
. A bittersweet and ironic reworking of the Baucis and Philemon
legend, it is a simple story that represents the mature Gogol and hints at his later works.
tradition, comparing them strikingly against urban Russians, particularly in Saint Petersburg
, who are referred to as "paltry contemptible creatures."
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 Pulkheria’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 Pulkheria 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. Pulkheria 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 Pulkheria. 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
in price.
Mirgorod (Gogol)
Mirgorod is a collection of short stories by Nikolai Gogol meant to be a sequel of sorts to his two volumes of Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka...
collection by Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
. A bittersweet and ironic reworking of the Baucis and Philemon
Baucis and Philemon
In Ovid's moralizing fable , which stands on the periphery of Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Baucis and Philemon were an old married couple in the region of Tyana, which Ovid places in Phrygia, and the only ones in their town to welcome disguised gods Zeus and Hermes , thus embodying the...
legend, 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 and Pulkheria Ivanovna Tovstogub live peacefully together in a remote village. The descriptions of them fit into the SlavophileSlavophile
Slavophilia was an intellectual movement originating from 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed upon values and institutions derived from its early history. Slavophiles were especially opposed to the influences of Western Europe in Russia. There were also similar movements in...
tradition, comparing them strikingly against urban Russians, particularly in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, who are referred to as "paltry contemptible creatures."
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 Pulkheria’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 Pulkheria 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. Pulkheria 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 Pulkheria. 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
Ruble
The ruble or rouble is a unit of currency. Currently, the currency units of Belarus, Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, and, in the past, the currency units of several other countries, notably countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union, are named rubles, though they all are...
in price.