# Yakov Alexeyevitch Saranin — Short Fiction character guide

> Yakov Alexeyevitch Saranin in Short Fiction by Fyodor Sologub.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Yakov Alexeyevitch, Saranin, VIII And Saranin, Mr. Saranin

**First appearance:** 0001-short-fiction

## Snapshot

A respectable, self-satisfied man of the provinces whose orderly surface conceals appetites and resentments that make him dangerous precisely because no one suspects him.

## Who they are

Saranin occupies the role of father, employer, or respected neighbor — the kind of figure whose authority is assumed rather than argued. His flaw is a cold vanity that mistakes its own comfort for virtue, and his relationships are marked by a quiet need to dominate. He matters because Sologub uses him to expose how much violence can hide inside ordinary domesticity and civic respectability.

## In the story

### [Short Fiction](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/short-fiction)

Shrinks after taking Armenian medicine and is forced to sit in a shop window.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/i)

Protagonist; a small, lean official who is self-conscious about his size compared to his wife and ventures out at night seeking a secret remedy.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/ii)

Seeks a solution to his wife's size, buys drops from the Armenian.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/iii)

Saranin plots to give Aglaya the Armenian's medicine but is outwitted when she switches their glasses.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/iv)

Saranin desperately seeks the Armenian, becomes hopeful, then confused about his destination.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/v)

Continues to shrink from the Armenian's nostrum; mocked by acquaintances, wife, and servants; loses his wedding ring; visits a doctor.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/vi)

Saranin is humiliated by colleagues and the hall-porter, summoned by the manager, and forced to take leave due to his diminished stature.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/vii)

Shrunken and humiliated, he hides in his study and cries, then is confronted by Aglaya's parents.

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/viii)

Continues to shrink, now able to walk under the table; pins his hopes on food to grow but only decreases further.

### [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/ix)

Is forced by his wife to become a living advertisement in Strigal's window, and shrinks further.

### [X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/x)

Reduced to a mannikin in Strigal and Co.'s window, he writes futile petitions for his rights.

### [XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/chapters/xi)

Saranin shrinks to the size of a pin's head and is carried away by a draft, disappearing forever.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/characters/yakov_saranin
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_20_se/characters