The Undertaker

What it is

This is an English translation of 'The Undertaker', a short story by Alexander Pushkin. The catalogue lists its date as 1830, although the date field in the source record is unclear. It opens with the undertaker Adrian Prokhorov moving his goods by hearse, for the fourth time, to a new yellow house on Nikitskaya Street. He had kept his old shop for eighteen years and now finds that the new house does not lift his spirits.

Why it matters

Pushkin's prose stories were a major part of his literary work, and this one shows his ability to draw ordinary daily life in Russian towns with humour and detail. The story gives readers a picture of a tradesman's household and its routines, with its sacred image-case, dresser and daily order.

Look closer

• What details of the household show what the undertaker values?
• Why might a story about a funeral trade be told with so much domestic detail?
• Whose point of view does the story give, and whose voices are missing?