Тщеславие и жадность. Две повести

Nikolai Alexandrovich Leykin vividly and brightly depicts the vices, which are named after the two stories in this collection. In the first story, a merchant who considers himself above his "gray" brethren tries his best to impress high society, while in the second, a retired official resembling a miserly knight saves every penny even on the most essential things to make investments. However, the author does not stop there: although the colors are deliberately exaggerated for greater comedy, his characters are multifaceted and very human in all their manifestations. Written more than a hundred years ago, these texts are truly relevant at all times because human vanity and greed do not change. Only the details change, by the way, very subtly noted by the author, making the work interesting also from the perspective of domestic everyday history.