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How the Two Ivans Quarrelled: And Other Russian Comic Stories
The first story in this volume, How the Two Ivans Quarrelled, is an amusing portrayal of two exceptionally close friends, the mortal insult that drives them apart, and the ensuing chaos that occurs. This is Gogol's humour at its best, where the most irrelevant-seeming details and turns of phrase suddenly take on a bizarre life of their own. The second story, Ivan Krylov's Panegyric in Memory of My Grandfather, has an ingenuous narrator praise the nobility and modesty of a landowner whose actions prove him to be otherwise. The final two stories, by the Russian satirist Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, are satirical attacks on the inability of civil servants to cope with real life, and on Russia's autocracy. Together, they represent some of Russia's finest comic writing before the twentieth century.
160 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2011
6 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Nikolai Gogol
2,120 books5,720 followersPeople consider that Russian writer Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (Николай Васильевич Гоголь) founded realism in Russian literature. His works include
The Overcoat
(1842) and
Dead Souls
(1842).
Ukrainian birth, heritage, and upbringing of Gogol influenced many of his written works among the most beloved in the tradition of Russian-language literature. Most critics see Gogol as the first Russian realist. His biting satire, comic realism, and descriptions of Russian provincials and petty bureaucrats influenced later Russian masters Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, and especially Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Gogol wittily said many later Russian maxims.
Gogol first used the techniques of surrealism and the grotesque in his works The Nose , Viy , The Overcoat , and Nevsky Prospekt . Ukrainian upbringing, culture, and folklore influenced his early works, such as Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka .
His later writing satirized political corruption in the Russian empire in Dead Souls .
Ukrainian birth, heritage, and upbringing of Gogol influenced many of his written works among the most beloved in the tradition of Russian-language literature. Most critics see Gogol as the first Russian realist. His biting satire, comic realism, and descriptions of Russian provincials and petty bureaucrats influenced later Russian masters Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, and especially Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Gogol wittily said many later Russian maxims.
Gogol first used the techniques of surrealism and the grotesque in his works The Nose , Viy , The Overcoat , and Nevsky Prospekt . Ukrainian upbringing, culture, and folklore influenced his early works, such as Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka .
His later writing satirized political corruption in the Russian empire in Dead Souls .
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 26, 2024
While the Two Ivan's Quarrelled story was decently entertaining, the spotlight was stolen by Tolstoy's Ivan the Fool. It read like a folk tale, but a humorous one I quite enjoyed regardless.
July 14, 2025
How The Two Ivans Quarreled aka The Squabble by Nikolai Gogol http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/01/s...
10 out of 10
It dawn on me earlier that if I thought Gogol – and for that matter, the other giants of literature, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, Goncearov – is one key to understand the ‘Russian soul’ this is both misleading and at the same time, paradoxically accurate, for there are absurdities that will throw a light on what happens now in Russia and in the neighbor they have invaded, occupying about twenty percent of the territory, then it is also a source of illumination for universal values.
Andrei Plesu http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/11/5... is the greatest Magister Ludi we have here, and he jokes when he says that he referred to important issues as the ‘Russian questions’, because – we can presume – the writers, thinkers, intelligentsia from that blessed (or otherwise) land have a penchant for thinking about the absolute, redemption, eternity, damnation, and this may be why they are less concerned with terminating the monster they have at the head of their would be empire…
How the Two Ivans Quarreled has a light tone, indeed, many passages are pure mirth – let us just mention the scene where Ivan Ivanovich looks at the yard of his neighbor and friend, Ivan Nikiforovich, and sees that the servant is hanging out clothes to take ‘air’, and along with them, there is a…Turkish rifle
The two had been close friends – ‘tied at the hip’ – and the town is so baffled when that connection appears to be broken, as to be in disbelief – the judge is asking Nikiforovich if he is there truly, when he wants to register a ‘plaint’, if there is nobody behind to voice the request that a complaint be filed against the man who was such an intimate – and they had very many things in common, when they would go to church, Ivanovich (I think it was him, and not the other) would notice a hole and tell his friend to watch out.
They are different ‘Ivan Ivanovich is tall, thin, and well-spoken, for example, while Ivan Nikiforovich is short, fat, and cuts to the point with a biting honesty’ but that seems to work well, albeit a mischievous thought comes to mind – Constantin Noica http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/01/b... was celebrated as the most illustrious philosopher of our land, and he has something to say here…
In one of his books, Stories About Man, Noica takes the proverbs to task, and finds them lacking in wisdom, and I would say that The Squabble seems to be yet another evidence to support his case, because we are told ‘opposites attract’, and if we could say that the start of the story appears to confirm the saying, then the result annihilates it
When Ivan Ivanovich looks at the rifle, it is after he had just wondered if he is missing anything, he has it all, wealth, health and then appears to miss on ‘Happiness Activity No 3: Avoid Over thinking and Social Comparison- using strategies such as distraction to cut down on how often you dwell on your problems and compare yourself with others’ and the neighbor is envious of the rifle of his friend and wants it…this Happiness activity is explained in the brilliant The How of Happiness http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/t... by Sonja Lyubomirsky, scholar and glorious author
Ivan ivanovich walks into the house of his friend (they are about to quarrel, and there is no need for a spoiler alert, since it is there, in the title) and asks what Ivan Nikiforovich will do with the weapon, since he never shoots, but the host replies that he may go hunting, and besides, what if an enemy comes to the house, he knows about two or three kings that have declared their enmity to Russia, if they do not embrace their religion, but still, Ivanovich wants him to give him the coveted rifle, because he wants it.
When this desire is not enough to convince, Ivanovich offers an exchange, his brown sow, which will give a great litter next year, in exchange for the gun, and when this is not welcomed, he adds to sacks of oats (if that was the offer, anyway, something the animal could eat) but this is still dismissed as an offer that lacks substance, the rifle was expensive, and this means ‘he is not giving away his coat’, and somehow, the negotiation, or better said, the attempts to get a desired rifle, becomes tense and then conflictual.
The host calls the guest a ‘goose’ and that is the beginning of a Quarrel (as opposed to the ‘beginning of a beautiful friendship’ which is the memorable quote http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/c... from Casablanca) that will escalate, the host asks his servants to take his new enemy out of the house, and the latter threatens that he will hit them and ‘ravens will not be able to find your bones’ and then words to the same effect are exchanged
To make matters worse, Nikiforovich builds a coop for geese, right on the edge of the property, presumably trespassing (or that is what the enemy, ex-friend thinks) and this is to emphasize the insult ‘you goose’, and it is all downhill, for the insulted party (depending on where you look, it is a subjective perspective) decides to venture into the night, relying on the fact that the dogs of his neighbor are not yet aware of the change in status, and are still familiar and will not attack of alert the owner, takes to cut the support at the border, to crumble the offensive construction, and then they both go to the judge.
People are shocked by this turn of events, and do not believe it is happening, a humorous turn has the sow eat the complaint of the enemy, would be owner, if the transaction would have gone smoothly, which it did not…
Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
10 out of 10
It dawn on me earlier that if I thought Gogol – and for that matter, the other giants of literature, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, Goncearov – is one key to understand the ‘Russian soul’ this is both misleading and at the same time, paradoxically accurate, for there are absurdities that will throw a light on what happens now in Russia and in the neighbor they have invaded, occupying about twenty percent of the territory, then it is also a source of illumination for universal values.
Andrei Plesu http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/11/5... is the greatest Magister Ludi we have here, and he jokes when he says that he referred to important issues as the ‘Russian questions’, because – we can presume – the writers, thinkers, intelligentsia from that blessed (or otherwise) land have a penchant for thinking about the absolute, redemption, eternity, damnation, and this may be why they are less concerned with terminating the monster they have at the head of their would be empire…
How the Two Ivans Quarreled has a light tone, indeed, many passages are pure mirth – let us just mention the scene where Ivan Ivanovich looks at the yard of his neighbor and friend, Ivan Nikiforovich, and sees that the servant is hanging out clothes to take ‘air’, and along with them, there is a…Turkish rifle
The two had been close friends – ‘tied at the hip’ – and the town is so baffled when that connection appears to be broken, as to be in disbelief – the judge is asking Nikiforovich if he is there truly, when he wants to register a ‘plaint’, if there is nobody behind to voice the request that a complaint be filed against the man who was such an intimate – and they had very many things in common, when they would go to church, Ivanovich (I think it was him, and not the other) would notice a hole and tell his friend to watch out.
They are different ‘Ivan Ivanovich is tall, thin, and well-spoken, for example, while Ivan Nikiforovich is short, fat, and cuts to the point with a biting honesty’ but that seems to work well, albeit a mischievous thought comes to mind – Constantin Noica http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/01/b... was celebrated as the most illustrious philosopher of our land, and he has something to say here…
In one of his books, Stories About Man, Noica takes the proverbs to task, and finds them lacking in wisdom, and I would say that The Squabble seems to be yet another evidence to support his case, because we are told ‘opposites attract’, and if we could say that the start of the story appears to confirm the saying, then the result annihilates it
When Ivan Ivanovich looks at the rifle, it is after he had just wondered if he is missing anything, he has it all, wealth, health and then appears to miss on ‘Happiness Activity No 3: Avoid Over thinking and Social Comparison- using strategies such as distraction to cut down on how often you dwell on your problems and compare yourself with others’ and the neighbor is envious of the rifle of his friend and wants it…this Happiness activity is explained in the brilliant The How of Happiness http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/t... by Sonja Lyubomirsky, scholar and glorious author
Ivan ivanovich walks into the house of his friend (they are about to quarrel, and there is no need for a spoiler alert, since it is there, in the title) and asks what Ivan Nikiforovich will do with the weapon, since he never shoots, but the host replies that he may go hunting, and besides, what if an enemy comes to the house, he knows about two or three kings that have declared their enmity to Russia, if they do not embrace their religion, but still, Ivanovich wants him to give him the coveted rifle, because he wants it.
When this desire is not enough to convince, Ivanovich offers an exchange, his brown sow, which will give a great litter next year, in exchange for the gun, and when this is not welcomed, he adds to sacks of oats (if that was the offer, anyway, something the animal could eat) but this is still dismissed as an offer that lacks substance, the rifle was expensive, and this means ‘he is not giving away his coat’, and somehow, the negotiation, or better said, the attempts to get a desired rifle, becomes tense and then conflictual.
The host calls the guest a ‘goose’ and that is the beginning of a Quarrel (as opposed to the ‘beginning of a beautiful friendship’ which is the memorable quote http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/c... from Casablanca) that will escalate, the host asks his servants to take his new enemy out of the house, and the latter threatens that he will hit them and ‘ravens will not be able to find your bones’ and then words to the same effect are exchanged
To make matters worse, Nikiforovich builds a coop for geese, right on the edge of the property, presumably trespassing (or that is what the enemy, ex-friend thinks) and this is to emphasize the insult ‘you goose’, and it is all downhill, for the insulted party (depending on where you look, it is a subjective perspective) decides to venture into the night, relying on the fact that the dogs of his neighbor are not yet aware of the change in status, and are still familiar and will not attack of alert the owner, takes to cut the support at the border, to crumble the offensive construction, and then they both go to the judge.
People are shocked by this turn of events, and do not believe it is happening, a humorous turn has the sow eat the complaint of the enemy, would be owner, if the transaction would have gone smoothly, which it did not…
Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
July 14, 2024
yet another silly goofy book
August 27, 2023
چیزی که باعث شد برگردم و برای این کتاب ریویو بنویسم خوندن دختر سروان پوشکین بود.
آرکی تایپ پیرمردی که زوال عقل داره و توی همه چیز دخالت میکنه تاجایی که من میدونم از ابداعات بدیع پوشکین بود که توی این کتاب هم به خوبی دیده میشه. حقیقتا همیشه هم محتوای کامیکال خودش رو حفظ میکنه و جذابه.
دایی جان ناپلئون پزشکزاد هم که نمونه ی خیلی پرورده و بالغ همین کتابه انگار یک سرمشق حرفه ای از این سنگ بنای پوشکین بوده.
آرکی تایپ پیرمردی که زوال عقل داره و توی همه چیز دخالت میکنه تاجایی که من میدونم از ابداعات بدیع پوشکین بود که توی این کتاب هم به خوبی دیده میشه. حقیقتا همیشه هم محتوای کامیکال خودش رو حفظ میکنه و جذابه.
دایی جان ناپلئون پزشکزاد هم که نمونه ی خیلی پرورده و بالغ همین کتابه انگار یک سرمشق حرفه ای از این سنگ بنای پوشکین بوده.
January 10, 2026
Too much antisemitism. The man was obsessed.
October 24, 2016
And so to tear apart the very fabric of Goodreads and morality itself by writing a review for a book I've yet to finish. WHAT! What affront is this, I might as well have tweaked the nose of St George Patron Saint of Books and called him a goose, even. I have my reasons... "...he says he has his reasons but clearly the man is a liar, a cheat and possibly has no clean underwear..." Bear with me, I have no intention to cause offence. I really enjoyed the first tale, Gogol's 'Two Ivans'. It's a slyly comic thing which shows how stupid and how easy it is to escalate an argument, with a poignant ending that teache it's not always wise without heavy preaching. Then I stopped. Stopped to write this. Look at that cover. What does it say to you? It suggests that it's a book of short stories by Gogol. It's not. It's one longish short story by Gogol and then other short stories by other writers. One of them is Tolstoy... I will continue to read, then. I may even come back to this and rewrite my review. But this is a review of the first story, as it takes up a fair chunk of the book and Gogol's what I thought I was getting. They knew what they were doing at Oneworld Classics, the 'Two Ivans' is semi-rural, it's about two cockerills at loggerheads and they knew Gogol was what they wanted to sell. I really like the cover. The cover sums up that first story. Who knows where the other ones will take me... Pssst, I've read them now, they're really quite fun. Tolstoy is Tolstoy and this Saltykov geezer? A couple of real nice lessons in remembering that nothing changes when it comes to power structures.
May 3, 2013
A fantastic read for the converted, but also a really useful sideways introduction to modern-day(ish) Russian parables.
Gogol's irreverent, nonsensical humour is perhaps less biting in the short story that opens this collection than it is in Dead Souls. This isn't to say How The Two Ivans Quarrelled is any less worth your time, in fact - unlike Dead Souls - you are actually provided with an end to the tale! Attacking middle class Russia and their faux-French polite society, as well as playful satires on army veterans and comfortable civil servant, it's a great start to the book.
I'd argue, however, that the other stories are more worthwhile reads for those uninitiated in internal attitudes towards Tsarism, social mobility (or lack thereof)and the role of the Russian state, pre-Stalin, in 19th century Russian literature. The star of the show here isn't Gogol at all, in my opinion, it's satirist Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin and his parables of the formation and upkeep of Tsarist Russian society. While the stories by Tolstoy, Gogol and Krylov are useful and interesting reads in themselves, for someone fairly well versed in major Russian works, it was Saltykov who really stole the show.
Gogol's irreverent, nonsensical humour is perhaps less biting in the short story that opens this collection than it is in Dead Souls. This isn't to say How The Two Ivans Quarrelled is any less worth your time, in fact - unlike Dead Souls - you are actually provided with an end to the tale! Attacking middle class Russia and their faux-French polite society, as well as playful satires on army veterans and comfortable civil servant, it's a great start to the book.
I'd argue, however, that the other stories are more worthwhile reads for those uninitiated in internal attitudes towards Tsarism, social mobility (or lack thereof)and the role of the Russian state, pre-Stalin, in 19th century Russian literature. The star of the show here isn't Gogol at all, in my opinion, it's satirist Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin and his parables of the formation and upkeep of Tsarist Russian society. While the stories by Tolstoy, Gogol and Krylov are useful and interesting reads in themselves, for someone fairly well versed in major Russian works, it was Saltykov who really stole the show.
March 13, 2013
For an avid reader few things are better than approaching an book from an author that you've never read before, having no expectations whatsoever, and being completely blown away by it.
I must say this lovely little collection of short stories made it an absolute pleasure traveling to and from work today. I think I even chuckled a couple of times - something that never, ever happens to me anymore since I've gotten more bitter and twisted as the years have gone by.
While there weren't any stinkers in this collection, the title story, How The Two Ivans Quarrelled, truly stands head and shoulders above the rest. With memorable characters, vivid imagery, witty dialogue and an very entertaining storyline it's worth the admission price alone.
Nice translation job by Guy Daniels, as well. Highly recommended for anyone who wants something a little bit different from their Russian literature.
I must say this lovely little collection of short stories made it an absolute pleasure traveling to and from work today. I think I even chuckled a couple of times - something that never, ever happens to me anymore since I've gotten more bitter and twisted as the years have gone by.
While there weren't any stinkers in this collection, the title story, How The Two Ivans Quarrelled, truly stands head and shoulders above the rest. With memorable characters, vivid imagery, witty dialogue and an very entertaining storyline it's worth the admission price alone.
Nice translation job by Guy Daniels, as well. Highly recommended for anyone who wants something a little bit different from their Russian literature.
March 3, 2017
When two friends fallout over something silly the entire village gets dragged in, but it's the tit for tat reactions which are the funniest. The two ivans is only one story in the collection from one of Russia's classic authors.
September 30, 2011
I could easily give 'How the two Ivans quarrelled' 5 stars but the other stories dont make it to that level.This story was a nice comedy with an equally sad end.
August 29, 2018
+ i love gogol
+ krylov? boss
+ saltykov is pretty good
+ tolstoy Don’t Do This To Me
+ krylov? boss
+ saltykov is pretty good
+ tolstoy Don’t Do This To Me
March 15, 2024
the title story was fine but the others were bangers. Tolstoy's "The Tale of Ivan the Fool" was my favorite
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews