Old-time landowners
Old-time landowners ( Russian Старосветские помещики , Staroswetskije pomeschtschiki ) is a short story by the Russian writer Nikolai Wassiljewitsch Gogol . It appeared in 1835 as part of the anthology Mirgorod .
content
Afanasij Iwanowitsch Towstogub and Pulcherija Iwanowna are an old couple from the "last century", they are very fond of each other and look after each other. They are childless, live alone in a distant village, which in Lesser Russia is called "ancient villages". They are hospitable, apart from the occasional visitors who come to the house, their lives are peaceful and undisturbed. They take care of their servants, refill all the supplies in the house again and again, but do not notice that they are being robbed by their landlord and the lackeys. Since they have no children, all their affection and tenderness revolves around the other. You read every wish from your eyes. The elderly love the good food, which they like to share with their guests. Day after day goes by in an unusually quiet and calm harmony between two loving hearts.
But one day the woman's favorite cat disappears in the forest. After three days of tireless searching, Pulcheriya Ivanovna finds the cat in the vegetable garden. She feeds the feral and emaciated cat, which can no longer be petted, jumps out of the window and disappears forever. Since that day the old woman has been pensive and has thoughts of death. The only thing she worries about is her husband, whom no one would care about after her death. She asks her housekeeper to take care of her husband and threatens her with God's punishment if she does not listen to her mistress. Her husband tries in vain to distract her from these black thoughts. When Pulcheriya Ivanovna dies, her husband is in bad shape. After the funeral, he returns to the empty house and bursts into tears.
Five years have passed, the house is falling into disrepair, the servants surrender to drunkenness, Afanasij Ivanovich is getting weaker and weaker, he is neglected. His grief has not diminished over time, everything around him reminds him of the deceased. One day as he was walking through the garden, he suddenly heard his name called and he believed that his late wife was calling him to her. Shortly before his end, he expresses his last will, that he would be buried next to his wife. His house is falling into disrepair, the household effects are divided among the people of the village. His property falls to a distant relative who leaves him to himself.
reception
A play based on Gogol's story was developed for the New Stage of the Moscow Art Theater AP Chekhov and staged by the Lithuanian director Pjotr Fomenko Mindaugas Karbauskis.
Text output
- An old landowner In: Nikolaj Gogol: Stories . Transl. And ed. by Eberhard Reissner. Reclam, Stuttgart. ISBN 978-3-15-020248-7