The smith and the beauty in N. Gogol’s story and V. Scott’s novel

Abstract

The article deals with the first identified cross talks of N. V. Gogol’s The Night Before Christmas (1832) with W. Scott’s historical novel The Beauty of Perth, or St. Valentine’s Day (1828, Rus. trans. 1829). These obvious parallels for educated contemporaries, as it were, “highlighted” the plot of Gogol’s story, the images of its heroes. And then Dikanka appeared as the center of Little Russia, like the county of Perth in Scotland, the young blacksmith and the beauty also became the main characters, and the Christian holiday was the time of their unity. At the same time, the image of single-­parent families (half-orphanhood) of these heroes was actually repeated. Against such a background, their family union simply had to become full-fledged, and therefore, in the finale of both the novel and the story, it is shown that after the wedding of the heroes, the birth of their child follows in due time as a religious and natural approval of this union.