Коляска

The Calash

C2 · Proficient · fiction · 15 scenes · Premium story

Gogol's 1836 story in the original Russian, unsimplified. A cavalry regiment brightens a dull district town; at the brigadier general's dinner the landowner Chertokutsky boasts of an extraordinary Viennese calash and invites the entire regiment to come and see it tomorrow — then plays whist until three in the morning and forgets he did either. The comedy is exact and merciless, and the last line is one of the great endings in Russian prose.

Read Коляска in Russian

Characters

Chertokutsky (Пифагор Пифагорович Чертокуцкий) — The landowner
The General (Генерал) — The brigadier general
The Colonel (Полковник) — The senior staff officer
The Mistress of the House (Хозяйка дома) — Chertokutsky's wife
Agrafena Ivanovna (Аграфена Ивановна) — The bay mare

Vocabulary from this story

городок — small town
уезд — district
помещик — landowner
городничий — town mayor
площадь — square
лавочка — little shop
плетень — wattle fence
мостовая — roadway
пыль — dust
тоска — dreariness
полк — regiment
офицер — officer