"podkoleosin" [a character in gogol’s comedy, the wedding.] was perhaps an exaggeration, but he was by no means a non-existent character; on the contrary, how many intelligent people, after hearing of this podkoleosin from gogol, immediately began to find that scores of their friends were exactly like him! they knew, perhaps, before gogol told them, that their friends were like podkoleosin, but they did not know what name to give them. in real life, young fellows seldom jump out of the window just before their weddings, because such a feat, not to speak of its other aspects, must be a decidedly unpleasant mode of escape; and yet there are plenty of bridegrooms, intelligent fellows too, who would be ready to confess themselves podkoleosins in the depths of their consciousness, just before marriage. nor does every husband feel bound to repeat at every step, "tu l’as voulu, georges dandin!" like another typical personage; and yet how many millions and billions of georges dandins there are in real life who feel inclined to utter this soul-drawn cry after their honeymoon, if not the day after the wedding! therefore, without entering into any more serious examination of the question, i will content myself with remarking that in real life typical characters are "watered down," so to speak; and all these dandins and podkoleosins actually exist among us every day, but in a diluted form. i will just add, however, that georges dandin might have existed exactly as molière presented him, and probably does exist now and then, though rarely; and so i will end this scientific examination, which is beginning to look like a newspaper criticism. but for all this, the question remains, what are the novelists to do with commonplace people, and how are they to be presented to the reader in such a form as to be in the least degree interesting? they cannot be left out altogether, for commonplace people meet one at every turn of life, and to leave them out would be to destroy the whole reality and probability of the story. to fill a novel with typical characters only, or with merely strange and uncommon people, would render the book unreal and improbable, and would very likely destroy the interest. in my opinion, the duty of the novelist is to seek out points of interest and instruction even in the characters of commonplace people.