The Old Fashioned Farmers

Mirgorod. This 1835 collection of short stories was originally intended to be a sequel to Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. The four tales are similarly based on Ukrainian folklore and feature characters generally believed to be portrayals of people Gogol knew while living in Ukraine, including his grandparents.

Though grouped together, the stories are entirely separate from each other in terms of narrative. The collection was first published in two volumes, with two stories in each part. The first and third stories represent Gogol’s Shponka tradition, where realistic settings become unreal due to their intense depiction of reality, with the use of Gothic elements at other times too. The other two tales adhere to a more Romantic and nostalgic tradition of storytelling.

This story is featured on this site in its complete form, containing a total of 8,742 words.