Worth a fortune - perhaps 150,000 roubles by now - Ippolit Matveyevich sees in this hidden treasure an enormous opportunity. The premise is a simple one: on her deathbed Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov's mother-in-law reveals to him that she managed to hide her jewels in a set of chairs before the Revolution came. The Twelve Chairs is set in 1927, in the still pre-Stalinist Soviet Union.Ĭommunism had won the day by the then, but its success in establishing itself still showed huge gaps and it is through these that Ilf and Petrov gleefully leap in this broad comedy. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers.

'It is a genuinely amusing story, spiced with a pretty turn of satire and more than a trace of malice the humour, in fact, innocent on the surface, if often of an extraordinarily biting kind, and the grotesque situations frequently verge on tragi-comedy.' - R.D.Charques, Times Literary Supplement.

'(A) 'comedy of errors,' a light and merry bouffonade of adventure - a type of literature very rare in the gloomy land of soviets - and a rather good one.' - Alexander Nazaroff, The New York Times Book Review.

'Ilf und Petrow verstehen es, das Poetische und das Groteske unauflöslich zu verschränken (.) Das heißt aber nicht, daß die Erzähler überall die glücklichste Hand beweisen, besonders nicht am Ende' - Peter Demetz, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Many film versions of The Twelve Chairs have been made, including Mel Brooks' 1970 version (with Frank Langella and Dom DeLuise), Nicolas Gessner and Luciano Lucignani's 1969 version, titled 12 + 1 (starring Sharon Tate, Vittorio Gassman, Orson Welles, and Vittorio De Sica), and Richard Wallace's 1945 version, It's in the Bag ! (with Fred Allen, Jack Benny, and Don Ameche).

Previously translated by Elizabeth Hill and Doris Mudie as Diamonds to Sit On (1930).

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The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf