# Afanasii Ivanovich Tovstogub — Short Fiction character guide

> Afanasii Ivanovich Tovstogub in Short Fiction by Nikolai Gogol.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Afanasii Ivanovich

**First appearance:** 0011-old-fashioned-farmers

## Snapshot

A gentle old landowner who once abducted his wife, now asks his guests endless childlike questions and listens to the rain with a pleased smile.

## Who they are

Afanasii Ivanovich lives in a small, stiflingly warm house with his wife Pulcheria Ivanovna, addressing her always as 'you' and never 'thou,' their affection concentrated entirely on each other since they have no children. He was once a brevet-major, once a young man in embroidered waistcoats who stole his bride from unwilling parents, but those days have dissolved into balcony reveries and polite curiosity about his visitors' lives. His kindness and his quiet, unremarkable contentment are the whole substance of the story's world — which is precisely what makes it fragile.

## In the story

### [Old-Fashioned Farmers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/old-fashioned-farmers)

The elderly husband, gentle and kind, deeply devoted to his wife; after her death, he is overcome with grief and dies soon after.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/characters/afanasii_ivanovich
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/characters