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"The Fair at Sorochyntsi " is the first story in the collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol. Later in the 19th century the story was adapted as an opera of the same name by Modest Mussorgsky (left unfinished by the composer, and completed by other hands).
This story opens with the novice narrator described in Panko's introduction providing a literary description of the beauty of Ukraine (then known as Little Russia ) and sets the date in August 1800. The main characters of the story, Solopy Cherevik, his wife Khavronya Nikiforovna, and his daughter Paraska, are traveling to the fair to sell some items, including their old mare.
A young man, called the "young man in the white jacket" at first - later we learn his name is Grytsko - finds Paraska beautiful and starts to flirt with her. When her father becomes agitated, the young man makes it known that he is the son of Cherevik's friend and wants to marry Paraska. Cherevik first accepts but later declines because of his constantly enraged spouse and the young man decides to figure out a way to get her, agreeing to give up his oxen for 15 rubles in desperation to a gypsy, if he helps him. While Khavronya is having a tryst with Afanasy Ivanovich, a priest's son, they hear a group of people coming to her house, so she quickly has the young man hide up in the rafters. The group comes in and Tsibulya, a friend of Cherevik, begins to tell the tale of the "red jacket," a jacket worn by a demon that was kicked out of hell. The jacket was put into the hands of a Jew, to be returned later, but the Jew sold the jacket and the demon got angry and tormented him by having a number of pig heads appear at his windows. The group gets frightened because the boy in the rafters grunts for a moment, but the storyteller continues. The jacket was eventually found to be cursed, and anyone who possessed it would not be able to sell anything, so it is pawned off to different peasants.
Eventually, one determines he cannot sell his wares because of the jacket and chops it with an axe. It reforms, however, so he crosses himself and does it again, and the demon eventually had to come to collect the pieces of his jacket, and is down to the last fragment at the time the story is taking place.
At the end of the tale, a pig's head appears at the window and the group becomes so frightened that Cherevik, with a basket on his head, runs out of the house while someone is screaming "devil" behind him. His wife jumps on him and they’re found in this state to the amusement of everyone. In the morning, after recovering from the embarrassment, Cherevik takes their mare to be sold at market. When he gets there someone asks him what he's selling and he wonders why they're asking this. Pulling on the harness, which causes him to strike himself in the face, he finds the horse is gone and a bit of a red jacket is left in place. He is accused of stealing his own horse and is bound up in a shed with his friend Tsibulya. The young man in the white jacket finds him there and agrees to release him if he can marry his daughter, to which Cherevik agrees. The story concludes with their marriage and the completion of the scheme, the "demon" being none other than the gypsy.
Gogol wrote to his mother, requesting information about various aspects of Ukrainian life. The information he received about weddings was incorporated into The Fair at Sorochyntsi. [1]
Culhwch, in Welsh mythology, is the son of Cilydd son of Celyddon and Goleuddydd, a cousin of Arthur and the protagonist of the story Culhwch and Olwen. In this tale the etymology of Culhwch is explained as "sow run", but this is likely to be folk etymology. According to the narrative, Culhwch is born to his maddened mother Goleuddydd after she is frightened by a herd of swine. The swineherd finds Culhwch in the pigs' run, and takes him back to his father Cilydd. Culhwch is described as being "of gentle lineage".
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin.
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla is a dark fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King. It is the fifth book in his The Dark Tower series. The book continues the story of Roland Deschain, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, and Oy as they make their way toward the Dark Tower. The subtitle of this novel is Resistance. Prior to the novel's publication, two excerpts were published: "Calla Bryn Sturgis" was published in 2001 on Stephen King's official site, and "The Tale of Gray Dick" was published in 2003 in McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales. Both excerpts were incorporated in revised form into the full version of the 2003 novel. Wolves of the Calla was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2004.
Night on Bald Mountain, also known as Night on the Bare Mountain, is a series of compositions by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881). Inspired by Russian literary works and legend, Mussorgsky composed a "musical picture", St. John's Eve on Bald Mountain on the theme of a Witches' Sabbath occurring at Bald Mountain on St. John's Eve, which he completed on that very night, 23 June 1867. Together with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko (1867), it is one of the first tone poems by a Russian composer.
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The Fair at Sorochyntsi is a comic opera in three acts by Modest Mussorgsky, composed between 1874 and 1880 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The composer wrote the libretto, which is based on Nikolai Gogol's short story of the same name, from his early (1832) collection of Ukrainian stories Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. The opera remained unfinished and unperformed at Mussorgsky's death in 1881. Today, the completion by Vissarion Shebalin has become the standard.
"The Portrait" is a short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol, originally published in the short story collection Arabesques in 1835. It is one of Gogol's most demonic of tales, hinting at some of his earlier works such as "St. John's Eve" and "Viy".
"Viy", also translated as "The Viy", is a horror novella by the writer Nikolai Gogol, first published in volume 2 of his collection of tales entitled Mirgorod (1835).
The Legend of the White Snake is a Chinese legend centered around a romance between a man named Xu Xian and a female snake spirit named Bai Suzhen. It is counted as one of China's Four Great Folktales, the others being Lady Meng Jiang, Butterfly Lovers, and The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.
Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka is a collection of short stories by Nikolai Gogol, written in 1829–1832. They appeared in various magazines and were published in book form when Gogol was twenty-two. The collection's frame story takes place in Dykanka, a settlement in central Ukraine.
Velyki Sorochyntsi is a village in Myrhorod Raion, Poltava Oblast, central Ukraine. It formerly had town status. It hosts the administration of Velyki Sorochyntsi rural hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The village is famous as the birthplace of the writer Nikolai Gogol and the location of the Sorochyntsi Fair. In 1925–1931, the town was called Neronovychi after the Bolshevik activist Yevhen Neronovych, who was executed by Ukrainian military forces in the town in 1918.
"St. John's Eve", also known as "The Eve of Ivan Kupala", is the second short story in the collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol. It was first published in 1830 in the literary Russian periodical Otechestvennye Zapiski and in book form in 1831.
"May Night, or the Drowned Maiden" is the third tale in the collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol. It was made into the opera May Night by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1878–79 and also a Ukrainian setting by Mykola Lysenko.
"The Lost Letter" (1831) is the fourth Ukrainian tale in the 1832 collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol.
"Christmas Eve" is the first story in the second volume of the 1832 collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol.
"Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt" is part of the collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol.
Mirgorod is a collection of short stories written by Nikolai Gogol, composed between 1832 and 1834 and first published in 1835. It was significantly revised and expanded by Gogol for an 1842 edition of his complete works. The title Mirgorod is the Russian pronunciation of the name of the Ukrainian city Myrhorod and means "city of peace" in both languages. It is also the setting for the final story in the collection, “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”. The title reflects the stories’ portrayal of provincial Ukrainian life, similar to Gogol’s successful previous collection, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. To solidify this connection between the two works, he attached the subtitle: “Stories which are a continuation of the Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka.”
"The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich", also known in English as The Squabble, is the final tale in the Mirgorod collection by Nikolai Gogol. It is known as one of his most humorous stories.
This is a list of the works by Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852), followed by a list of adaptations of his works:
Gogol. The Beginning is a 2017 Russian fantasy-horror film directed by Yegor Baranov loosely based on works by Nikolai Gogol from the 1832 collection Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. The title role is played by Alexander Petrov.
