How the Two Ivans Quarrelled: and Other Russian Comic Stories

The first story in this volume is an amusing portrayal of two exceptionally close friends, the mortal insult that drives them apart, and the ensuing chaos that occurs. Ivan Krylov's 'Panegyric' has an ingenuous narrator praise the nobility and modesty of a landowner whose actions prove him to be otherwise. Two tales by Mikhail Saltykov are satirical attacks on civil servants and Russia's autocracy. The final piece, Tolstoy's 'Ivan the Fool,' is a playful allegorical critique of contemporary Russian society. Together, they represent some of Russia's finest comic writing before the twentieth century.