Tarantas. Stories and Tales

Vladimir Alexandrovich Sollogub entered the history of Russian literature as a talented prose writer, critically depicting various aspects of the life of the secular society. Belinsky mentioned Sollogub's name among the heirs of the tradition of Pushkin and Gogol, noting... that "simplicity and a true sense of reality are an inseparable attribute" of his stories. The book contains the most famous works of the author: "Tarantas", "Seryozha", "The Story of Two Galoshes", "The Snowstorm" and "The Little Dog". Sollogub had a deep understanding of Russian society - the aristocrats and peasants, landowners and merchants, officials and actors, students and musicians, their everyday lives and customs are depicted without a single note of falseness. With the precision of a born documentarian, Sollogub describes the life of the Russian countryside in the 1830s-40s in "Tarantas", tells about the wandering life of provincial actors and their clashes with bureaucracy in "The Little Dog". The main character of the story "Seryozha" stands at a crossroads in his life. "The Story of Two Galoshes" compassionately narrates the tragic fate of the orphan Henrietta and her beloved - the talented musician Shultz, while the tale "The Snowstorm" paints a delicate and poetic picture of a fleeting encounter between two young people suffering from loneliness.