Fantasy by Aleksey Tolstoy. Short summary

5 seconds

Six suitors apply to Lizanka, a ward of the old woman Agraphena. They woo the girl and the old woman. But Lizaveta gets a German, Adam Liebenthal, who finds the old woman’s lost dog, Fantasia.

1 minute

A joke-vaudeville written on behalf of Kozma Prutkov. A rich old woman, Agraphena Chupurlina, loves a dog named Fantasia, and has a pupil, Lizaveta Platonovna. Six suitors are engaged to the latter.

These are the Greek Themistocles Razorki, a self-interested young man, the Tatar merchant Kasyan Batog-Batyev, the German Adam Libenthal, the gruff Firs Milovidov, the shy Georgy Bespardonny and Martyn Kutilo-Zavaldovsky. They try to win over the maiden.

But it turns out that in order to get the hand and heart of Lizaveta Platonovna, it is necessary to court not her, but Agraphena Chupurlina’s dog, Fantasia.

When the old woman begins to choose between suitors, evaluating each one, suddenly the doggie disappears. Agraphena promises Lizaveta to whoever finds Fantasia. The other suitors, not wishing to be particularly strenuous, bring the old woman dogs that they think look like her moose. This includes a shaved poodle, captured mongrels, and even a
toy.

Only Adam Liebenthal brings the real Fantasia and gets Lizaveta.