Nikolai Gogol's short story is a sublime work of tragi-comedy.
In it, he brilliantly ridicules the Ukrainian passion for
litigation and reveals life as something really rather absurd. Ivan
Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are the greatest of friends-until
the day they begin a foolish quarrel that culminates in that very
worst of insults: "And you, Ivan Ivanovich, are a goose." From that
moment on, not another word is spoken between them as they choose
instead to fight out their differences in the courts. But it seems
theirs is a lawsuit that is set to run for years and years.