I picked up this book, having had a positive experience the first time I read a work by Nikolai Gogol. Petersburg Tales having quite put me into stitches for its wittiness.
I was quite surprised that 'And the Earth will sit on the Moon' contained some of the short stories from Petersburg Tales. There are two new stories in this book: Oldworld Landowners and The Carriage.
Oldworld Landowners was quite puzzling for me. It was neither satire nor ironical in the way the short stories in Petersburg Tales were. I re-read it a second time, thinking I could have missed some plot device somewhere. Not finding any in my second read, I turned to Google and most reviews I read described Oldworld Landowners as a tender story describing the close relationship between an old landowning couple. Perhaps there is more to Oldworld Landowners, and Gogol wrote it in reflection of some circumstances he observed in that Zeitgeist which I am yet unable to comprehend.
The Carriage is quite a hoot to read especially with the ending, and it totally feels like something that can happen today as well, with people exaggerating their possessions or achievements in order to impress others.
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