Коляска
The Calash
C2 · Proficient · fiction · 15 scenes · Premium story
Gogol's 1836 story, unadapted — the library's first authentic literary text rather than a story written to a level. A cavalry regiment brightens a dull district town; at the general's dinner the landowner Chertokutsky boasts of an extraordinary Viennese calash and invites everyone to come and see it tomorrow. He then plays whist until three in the morning. The comedy is exact and merciless, and the last line is one of the great endings in Russian prose.
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