Read Tolstoy's Anna Karinina online
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The Overcoat
Nikolai Gogol
In Over coat, Gogol, beautifully illustrates the minute details of an everyday life of a middle class clerk, Akaky Akakyevich, who is an introvert by nature and his hardship to stitch a new overcoat with his mere savings and how much it affects him when it is lost all of a sudden. The shock was unbearable to him and he dies thinking about his loss. And the story never ends there, the clerk became a Ghost, hunting for other's overcoats especially, his superior officer's (whom he was refused justice by not properly listening about the loss of the overcoat and refused to help him write a letter to the Commissioner of Police.).
The pain inside the clerk who was afraid to see nice dreams but just cling to one dream, of possessing a nice overcoat, will haunt us till the end. Gogol writes it in such a detail. At the time of his death, the clerk sees dreams about his overcoat, like the old overcoat is still hanging in his room and wonders about what happens to his new one. The pain in him for his small loss is the same as our big pains from great losses.
[form the book- Gogol's story was a social protest, a protest against the situation of poor clerks, and a symbol of the millions of underprivileged. It is also an outcry against the inefficient machinery and built-in inertia of the Russian bureaucracy. Gogol has an extraordinary gift of
creating characters and a convincing atmosphere through his descriptive use of realistic details]
This is also a story of a low income govt servant. He acts as if he is a poor man as he has to send all his saved money to his far away poor sister- in - law and he tries to live a poor life excluding him form high social gatherings and such pleasures of life and he is being insulted by many for his peculiar introvert nature.
His land lady felt pity for him and gives him free food. Even though he knew that he is a laughing stock of many, he continues his own style of living not imitating any new trends of showoff .
But one, day he open up his mind and talked back to every inmates of the lodge where he was staying and all others who opposed his views of life and, in the end, he gives up fighting and became calm, for he was so seriously ill then due to his wandering in the street the previous days and also because feeling bad thinking about peoples remarks about him and his own futile attempts to see the other side of reality. He gives up his hold on life and accepts death.
The surprise in the end was, when after his death, the inmates opened his trunk, it was empty beside some old rags and two socks, but when someone examined inside the bed he was lying, they saw bundles and bundles of money which was more than enough to make him the richest man. They all surprise about the contradictions of living his life as a poor man, hiding all his wealth. His sister-in-law issue was also a myth. This story makes us think about how to live your life, choose our life wisely, live our life wisely.
[Prokharchin's avarice, which is generated by his internal insecurity and a fear of the future, leads to the fear of losing what is supposed to form from the foundation of his future security
and ultimately to his self-destructive isolation. The lowly civil servant's predicament is a vicious cycle: the money, which is supposed to give him security, creates new fears and insecurity and self-destructive guilt feelings, which in turn, eventually lead to his ruin.
The protagonist is unable to come to terms with himself and succumbs to the internal contractions and weaknesses of this personality, failing to adapt to the needs of the social environment. He is a victim of irrational self-destructive instincts over which he exercises no control and of which he is not aware.]
I like this story of Pushkin's more than the other. There is reality, truth, acceptance of the truth
all in it.
This is the story of a Postmaster, his daughter Dunia and a man who admired his daughter. The Post Master's daughter was very pretty and most young men had an eye on her including the narrator himself. But on his second visit, he saw Dunia's disappearance and a brooding postmaster and a messy house, quiet contrary to a loving father, a neat house and loving,loyal daughter. After some persuasion, the post master discloses the story of his lovely daughter and a Hussur who came and seduced and forced her to elope with him. The father went in search of the girl and succeeded in finding her after many futile attempts and the girl faints seeing her father, and the father was forcefully overthrown outside by the Hussur's men. But she was living like a queen but the father fears that after some years, the Hussur will abandon her to the street as the Hussur is so rich. And seeing such nightmares about his daughter, the Post master drank himself to death thinking about his dear daughter
After some years, the traveler again comes to the post office and sees an emptied postmaster's station. He wanted to know about them. So he search everywhere and came to know about the story from a small boy who came to direct him to the post masters grave, which was in a poor place, without trees or flower. But the boy tells that one day , a pretty lady came in a six- horse carriage (which means she is quite rich) with three sons and a nurse and a pug dog; went to the graveyard alone and spent a lot of time praying before that grave and then gave the priest some money to do some rituals and also gave the boy also some money before she left.
So the narrator also got relief thinking that at least the girl is not being abandoned by the Hussur and indeed is living on riches. But the unlucky father-daughter relationship and its tragic ending gives us pain.
[from the book - Pushkin shows the humble 'little man' at the mercy of the nobility.
The Postmaster, with its mediocre, ignorant and contemptible hero, is forerunner of the whole
of Russian literature to come: the stories of Gogol, peopled by drab little civil servants, the anguished novels of Dostoevsky, the disenchanted idylls of Turgenev and the rest
In the Postmaster, Pushkin reaches the climax of the irony. This story is the exact reverse of the Parables of the Prodigal Son in almost every aspect. Readers will do well to compare it with the parable. ]
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7. Mumu
Ivan Turgenev
This is the story I like most in this collection of short stories. Mumu is a pet dog of Gerasin a deaf and dumb servant of a Rich Lady. He does all the house work. His body is very strong, tall and huge also. So it is hard for him to get girlfriend. But he loved a servant of the lady and the servant girl also find comfort in him. He cherishes her as if she is his own. But the cruel landlady, without his consent or acknowledge (fearing about his anger), forces the servant girl to marry another. It gives Gerasin a great blow, for in his silent world, she was everything for him. But before long, he got an abandoned puppy in the street. He feel pity for it and took it home, feed it with milk and the puppy began to grow into his favorite pet. He forget about his loss of the girl and loves the Dog instead. But when the cruel lady came to know about the Pet Dog of Gerasim, she wanted to snatch it away from him. When the dog refuse to co-operate, the lady asked to throw it away, stating that, it's barking is a nuisance to her. Somebody took the dog away from Gerasim, but the dog came back itself to the depressed Gerasim. Gerasim fed her food and lived with her some more days and one day, he went to the deep sea in a boat and tied the Dog in a rope with a hard stone at the other end. And he threw the dog into the water at an unexpected time when the dog was so comfortable with him. (We can feel the pain going through his heart by his hard hearted behaviour) After coming back, he tread back to his village secretily. The land lady, who was get used to ill treating the poor and gaining pleasure from that in her lonely life refuse to accept his retreat, tried her best to make him come back but he refuses. In the end, she givs up her attempt thinking that she doesn't need an unfaithful servant.
Long before, the lady died and the servants were all dispersed
Gerasim lived a lonely life in his village dared to love another girl or to love a puppy either but worked harder than before, without letting him give time to think about his losses.
[There is realism in this story too. This is what happening everywhere. Poeple are only concentrating on theirown selfpleasures refusing to accept others
[from the book- is a fine short story dealing with the peasant theme and is a poignant exposure of the tyranny of serfdom. ]
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8. The Bet
Anton Chekhor
A man bet that capital punishment is better than life sentence. He bets that he can live 15 years on seclusion to prove it and in the end, he became wise and he loves his privacy and lonliness
with books and wisdom. He found about many things and rise above human. He was broad minded and wise enough to let his friend (a banker) win in the bet. So he dissappears from seclusion, just before the completion of his bet period leaving a letter to his freind about the truths he has attained and the folly of getting millions just for nothing and there by declining the amount of millions and riches for he did not see beauty in worldly pleasures anymore. The friend felt relieved , for he could not pay the bet amount now because of his debts.
So he locked the letter in his fireproof safe.
There is another ending to this story as well. That is, the banker again bets that he can show a man who gave up his millions for nothing but peace. He went to take the friend's letter from the safe, and at that time the friend who gave up the millions appears there and beg for atleast a few
thousand dollars, for he cannot live without money in this world.
Again the banker fails. When he bet that nobody can live in seclution for 15 years, his friend proved that he can live by living in a lonely cell for 15 years ( but gave up his bet amount) and when he bet that he can show a man who gave up worldly pleasure for peace, friend again makes him fail by coming back and stating that without money, nobody can survive. So, actualy, in both bets, he loses.
[from the book- about the book by the person who compiled the book, "The Bet is an example of Chekov's parables and moralities laid out in a conventional un-Russaian surrounding.
The story is partly didactic, showing the vanity of earthly goods, thus resurrecting another
familiar Tolstoyan theme and does fairly well in its lightweight fable style.]
