# Pythagoras Pythagoravitch Tchertokoutski — Short Fiction character guide

> Pythagoras Pythagoravitch Tchertokoutski in Short Fiction by Nikolai Gogol.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Tchertokoutski

**First appearance:** 0045-the-calash

## Snapshot

A country landowner with a taste for fine carriages and borrowed calashes, whose vanity lands him in a comic rural predicament.

## Who they are

Pythagoras Pythagoravitch is a gentleman of modest estate and immoderate self-regard, forever angling to appear grander than his means allow. His scheme to borrow a neighbor's calash to impress a gathering goes predictably awry, exposing the gap between his pretensions and his circumstances. His misadventure is a small, sharp portrait of provincial vanity and the absurd lengths men go to keep up appearances.

## In the story

### [The Calash](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/the-calash)

A former cavalry officer and local aristocrat who hosts the general's visit but hides in his calash out of embarrassment.

## Links

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