Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852)
Author of Dead Souls
About the Author
Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol was born in 1809 in the Ukraine. His father was an amateur playwright who had a small estate with a number of serfs. From the ages of 12 to 19, young Gogol attended a boarding school where he became known for his sharp wit and ability to amuse his classmates. After school show more he worked as a government clerk. He soon began writing memories of his childhood. His quaint depictions of the Ukrainian countryside marked his style and helped to make him famous. Gogol quickly gained fame and formed a friendship with the influential poet, Aleksandr Pushkin. Gogol is largely remembered for his realistic characterizations, his rich imagination, and his humorous style. His works include Mirgorod, a collection of short stories including Taras Bulba. Gogol's wit is evident in his short story, The Nose, where a man's nose wanders off around town in a carriage. Gogol's masterpiece is the novel Dead Souls. In this work, a swindler plots to buy from landowners their dead serfs. Towards the end of Gogol's life, his creative powers faded and he fled to Moscow. Here, he came under the power of a fanatical priest. Ten days before his death he burned some manuscripts of the second part of Dead Souls. He died of starvation in 1852, on the cusp of madness. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: from Wikipedia
Series
Works by Nikolai Gogol
The Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector, and Selected Stories (Penguin Classics) (2005) 669 copies, 7 reviews
Diary of a Madman, The Overcoat, The Nose, St Petersburg Tales and The Carriage (2014) 46 copies, 2 reviews
The Overcoat, The Nose, Nevsky Prospect, Carriage, The Portrait, Diary of a Madman, Rome (Russian language) (Russian Edition) (1994) 18 copies
A Cidade do Sossego e o Capote 14 copies
Christmas Eve: Stories from Village evenings near Dikanka and Mirgorod (Russian classics) (1991) 12 copies
The Carriage 11 copies
Works of Nikolai Gogol. Dead Souls, Taras Bulba, The Inspector General, The Nose, Viy & more (mobi) (2009) 7 copies
Hanz Kuechelgarten, Leaving the Theater & Other Works: Early Writings, Essays, Book Reviews & Letters (1990) 6 copies
Повести; Ревизор 6 copies
Twee opstandigen 5 copies
Short Fiction 5 copies
Verzamelde werken 5 copies
Gogol művei 5 copies
Jutustused 4 copies
De revisor en ander proza 4 copies
Kappen : noveller 4 copies
St. John's Eve and Other Stories 3 copies
Les nouvelles Ukrainiennes 3 copies
Werke 3 copies
Kappan och andra berättelser 3 copies
El vií y otros relatos 3 copies
האדרת : וסיפורים אחרים 3 copies
Phantasien und Geschichten IV 3 copies
Jutustusi: Vana maailma mõisnikud ; Lugu sellest, kuidas Ivan Ivanovitš läks tülli Ivan Nikiforovitšiga ; Sinel 3 copies, 1 review
De revisor en novellen 3 copies
Der Mantel. Erzählungen 3 copies
Phantastische Geschichten 3 copies
Gogol Short Stories 2 copies
Tales from Gogol 2 copies
Üç Öykü 2 copies
Cuentos ucranianos 2 copies
Избранные сочинения 2 copies
Избранные сочинения. том 1. Вечера на хуторе близ Диканьки. Миргород. "петербургского" цикла. 2 copies
El capote y otros cuentos 2 copies
EL RETRATO Y OTROS CUENTOS 2 copies
Povesti 2 copies
Izbrannye proizvedeniia 2 copies
Taras Bulba I (Cumhuriyet) 2 copies
Collected tales and plays 2 copies
Eski zaman beyleri ve diger öyküler 2 copies
Russische Novellen 2 copies
Novelle ukraine 2 copies
Valitud jutustusi 2 copies
Brenin yr ellyllon 2 copies
Wybór utworów 2 copies
________: __________ 2 copies
Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector, & Selected Stories (Penguin Classics) by Nikolay Gogol (1-Dec-2005) Paperback 2 copies, 1 review
Mrtve duše i odabrane priče 2 copies
suflete moarte 1 copy
Собрание сочинений том 3. Мертвые души; Выбранные места из переписки с друзьями; О "Современнике";… 1 copy
Šinjel i druge pripovetke 1 copy
Авторская исповедь 1 copy
Комедии и арабески 1 copy
[Rasskazy] 1 copy
Nikolai Gogol: The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories [Nicholas Boulton] [Naxos Audiobooks: NA0318] (2018) 1 copy
Spillere Frieriet 1 copy
Reverent komöödia 1 copy
Dead Souls and Other Novels 1 copy
“A Bewitched Place” 1 copy
Драматиче?кие произведени? 1 copy
Üc Öykü 1 copy
Üç Hikaye 1 copy
Opere vol. IV 1 copy
The overcoat and other stories (Collected works / of Nikolay Gogol ; translated by Constance Garnett) (1923) 1 copy
OBRA COMPLETA 1 copy
Ukrainische Geschichten 1 copy
Zes Russische Klassieken 1 copy
Letters of Nikolai Gogol 1 copy
Collected Short Stories, The 1 copy
Cuadros maestros 1 copy
死せる魂 下 1 copy
Meistererzählungen 1 copy
死せる魂 上 1 copy
Мертвые души. Ревизор 1 copy
проза - статьи 1 copy
ペテルブルグ物語―ネフスキイ大通り・鼻・外套 1 copy
Fayton - Burun - Palto 1 copy
Mŕtve duše 1 copy
Malířské povídky 1 copy
Gogols Werke 1 copy
Ревизор : комедия в 5 д 1 copy
Тарас Бульба 1 copy
[Повести] [Невский проспект; Нос; Портрет; Шинель; Коляска; Записки сумасшедшего; Рим. Отрывок].… 1 copy
Собрание сочинений в 7 томах 1 copy
Вечера на хуторе близ Диканьки Миргород; Повести; Драматические произведения; Мертвые души /… 1 copy
Сочинения. Том 1. 1 copy
Записки сумасшедшего 1 copy
Сочинения. Том 2. 1 copy
Письма Т. 9 1 copy
Юношеские опыты Т. 7 1 copy
Исторические наброски; Заметки о русском быте; Словари, записные книжки; Выписки из творений… 1 copy
Повести Комедии Т. 3 1 copy
Taras Bulba an Tales 1 copy
Petrogradske priče 1 copy
Plašč in druge povesti 1 copy
Tutti i racconti di Gogol 1 copy
Ivan Ivanovitsj 1 copy
Sochinenija. Tom II 1 copy
RACCONTI - GOGOL' 1 copy
Petrogradske pripovetke 1 copy
Kappan / Shinel 1 copy
Iz prepiske s prijateljima 1 copy
Taras Bulba, and other tales. The Inspector General. Introduction by Nikolay Andreyev (Everyman's Library. no. 740.) (1962) 1 copy
Russian Classics in Russian and English: Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (Dual-Language Book) (Russian Edition) (2011) 1 copy
Théâtre. (Le Revizor - Hyménée - Les joueurs). Texte français et préface d'André Barsacq. 1955. Broché. 287 pages.… (1955) 1 copy
Contes & nouvelles 1 copy
DIARIO DE N LOCO 1 copy
Tvory 1 copy
The Collected Works of NICHOLAS GOGOL: The Complete Works PergamonMedia (Highlights of World Literature) (2015) 1 copy
Short stories 1 copy
מבחר סיפורי גוגול 1 copy
Tarass Bulba il cosacco (Classici della letteratura e narrativa senza tempo) (Italian Edition) 1 copy
The Gamblers and Marriage 1 copy
Избранное 1 copy
Ο Επιθεωρητής : κωμωδία σε πέντε πράξεις , Τα παντρολογήματα : ένα εντελώς απίθανο συμβάν σε δύο… 1 copy
Revizor ; Ženidba 1 copy
Phantastische Erzählungen II 1 copy
Phantastische Erzählungen I 1 copy
VÝBOR Z DÍLA I. 1 copy
Podobizna / Něvský prospekt 1 copy
contos 1 copy
Tarasz Bulba regény 1 copy
Az orr elbeszélések 1 copy
Valitut teokset. 2 1 copy
Ölü Canlar 1 copy
Izbrannoe 1 copy
Collected Stories 1 copy
Ispovest 1 copy
Maksymy i inwokacje 1 copy
Valitut teokset I-II 1 copy
Komedii 1 copy
Contos Universais 1 copy
LibriVox Short Ghost and Horror Collection 040 — Author — 1 copy
ההאדרת וסיפורים אחרים 1 copy
O Casamento e Outras Peças 1 copy
Novele 1 copy
Nouvelles Russes, Traduction Française: Tarass Boulba Les Mémoires d'Un Fou La Calèche (Litterature) (French Edition) (2016) 1 copy
Мртве душе : поема 1 copy
Taras Bulba e altri racconti 1 copy
Novelle 1 copy
Racconti 1 copy
Palto 1 copy
Associated Works
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life (2021) — Contributor — 1,954 copies, 56 reviews
The Portable Nineteenth-Century Russian Reader (1993) — Author, some editions — 223 copies, 1 review
Lapham's Quarterly - Lines of Work: Volume IV, Number 2, Spring 2011 (2011) — Contributor — 32 copies, 2 reviews
47 Great Short Stories: Stories by Poe, Chekhov, Maupassant, Gogol, O. Henry and Twain [Dover Thrift] (1990) — Contributor — 17 copies
Oogst Der Tijden. keur uit de werken van schrijvers en dichters aller volken en eeuwen (1940) — Contributor — 12 copies
Opowieści niesamowite : groza i niesamowitość w prozie rosyjskiej XIX i początku XX w. (1990) — Contributor — 5 copies
The humour of Russia — Contributor — 4 copies
Great European short novels — Contributor — 4 copies
Piirakkasota; valikoima huumoria — Contributor — 3 copies
Der Zauberspiegel. Phantastische Erzählungen der Weltliteratur — Contributor — 2 copies
Ode to Boy: Vol. 2: An Anthology of Same-Sex Attraction in Literature from the 19th Century Through the First World War (2014) — Contributor — 2 copies
Black Sabbath + Black Sunday: The U.S. Release Versions [Kino Classics/The Mario Bava Collection] (2014) — Author — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Gogol, Nikolai
- Legal name
- Gogol, Nikolai Vasilyevich
- Other names
- Gogol', Nicolaj Vasil'evič
Gógol, Nikolai Vassílievitx - Birthdate
- 1809-04-01
- Date of death
- 1852-03-04
- Gender
- male
- Education
- University of St. Petersburg
- Occupations
- humorist
playwright
novelist
teacher - Organizations
- University of St. Petersburg
- Nationality
- Russian Empire
- Birthplace
- Sorochinsk, Ukrainian gubernorate, Russian Empire
- Places of residence
- Sorochyntsi, Ukraine (birth)
Nezhin
St. Petersburg, Russia
Germany
Switzerland
Paris, France (show all 8)
Rome, Italy
Moscow, Russia (death) - Place of death
- Moscow, Russian Empire
- Burial location
- Novodevichy Convent, Moscow, Russia
- Map Location
- Ukraine
Members
Discussions
Dead Souls in Fans of Russian authors (March 2019)
Reviews
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: Dead Souls is eloquent on some occasions, lyrical on others, and pious and reverent elsewhere. Nikolai Gogol was a master of the spoof. The American students of today are not the only readers who have been confused by him. Russian literary history records more divergent interpretations of Gogol than perhaps of any other classic.
In a new translation of the comic classic of Russian literature, Chichikov, an enigmatic stranger and schemer, buys deceased show more serfs' names from their landlords' poll tax lists hoping to mortgage them for profit and to reinvent himself as a gentleman.
My Review: No one seems to have pinned this work down as of yet. 172 years on, Gogol still eludes the butterfly net of scholarship. No one seems to argue that the book is not wryly amusing. That seems not to be enough, for some reason, to the literati.
Is it a satire? Hell, who cares!
Satire? Maybe. Funny and snarky and ironic? Oh yes. I've read that some scholars compare the, to be kind, circularity of the plot to [The Odyssey]. Ummm, okay. Some offer Christian subtexts to the idea of buying and selling souls as a commentary on the...yech, whatever, the book is a fun and funny way to wile away a few hours.
Gogol himself considered this a prose poem, and I suspect he called it that so he'd be free of the shackles of novelistic convention. Let him loose, don't lard in your expectations of what a text must or must not do, and smile:
Yes, lawd, you sing it Brother Nikolai!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less
The Publisher Says: Dead Souls is eloquent on some occasions, lyrical on others, and pious and reverent elsewhere. Nikolai Gogol was a master of the spoof. The American students of today are not the only readers who have been confused by him. Russian literary history records more divergent interpretations of Gogol than perhaps of any other classic.
In a new translation of the comic classic of Russian literature, Chichikov, an enigmatic stranger and schemer, buys deceased show more serfs' names from their landlords' poll tax lists hoping to mortgage them for profit and to reinvent himself as a gentleman.
My Review: No one seems to have pinned this work down as of yet. 172 years on, Gogol still eludes the butterfly net of scholarship. No one seems to argue that the book is not wryly amusing. That seems not to be enough, for some reason, to the literati.
Is it a satire? Hell, who cares!
“You can't imagine how stupid the whole world has grown nowadays. The things these scribblers write!"
--and--
“However stupid a fool's words may be, they are sometimes enough to confound an intelligent man.”
--and--
“But wise is the man who disdains no character, but with searching glance explores him to the root and cause of all.”
Satire? Maybe. Funny and snarky and ironic? Oh yes. I've read that some scholars compare the, to be kind, circularity of the plot to [The Odyssey]. Ummm, okay. Some offer Christian subtexts to the idea of buying and selling souls as a commentary on the...yech, whatever, the book is a fun and funny way to wile away a few hours.
Gogol himself considered this a prose poem, and I suspect he called it that so he'd be free of the shackles of novelistic convention. Let him loose, don't lard in your expectations of what a text must or must not do, and smile:
“The current generation now sees everything clearly, it marvels at the errors, it laughs at the folly of its ancestors, not seeing that this chronicle is all overscored by divine fire, that every letter of it cries out, that from everywhere the piercing finger is pointed at it, at this current generation; but the current generation laughs and presumptuously, proudly begins a series of new errors, at which their descendants will also laugh afterwards.”
Yes, lawd, you sing it Brother Nikolai!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less
Un homenaje a la mediocridad hecha funcionario público, un homenaje a la mediocridad burocrática con ínfulas de superioridad llamada "alguien de puesto superior", un homenaje a la simplicidad de la vida y la diferencia que marca en la vida de un ser minúsculo y pequeño, algo que ni esperaba ni soñaba con tener, entonces de la mano de la genialidad y sentido del humor de Gógol, nuestro pequeño funcionario público toma su revancha hacia quienes se burlaron, se embrutecieron de poder y show more se aprovecharon de él.
Nada, que es una joya coronada de diamantes y piedras preciosas. Tan pequeño como es este cuento en páginas es enorme en su calidad, en su mensaje y en la perfecta y profunda reflexión de las personas mediocres. show less
Nada, que es una joya coronada de diamantes y piedras preciosas. Tan pequeño como es este cuento en páginas es enorme en su calidad, en su mensaje y en la perfecta y profunda reflexión de las personas mediocres. show less
Taras Bulba is the epitome of a Cossack: brave, reckless, and passionate about upholding the dignity of the Russian Orthodox faith. His two sons have just returned from a seminary in Kiev, where a rudimentary education was beaten into them, and he is eager to initiate them into the violent comradeship that is the life of the Dnieper Cossacks. Leaving behind their weeping mother, they head for the Zaporozhian stronghold, where they join in a revolt against the Catholic Poles, who are trying show more to subjugate the Ukraine.
Written by Nikolai Gogol in the 1830s, Taras Bulba is the quintessential romance about the mythologized Ukrainian Cossacks. In it, Gogol attributes their violent emotions and selfless comradeship as the wellspring for the Russian soul. It is a classic war epic eulogizing the wildness of unfettered hatred for the Other.
As a piece of literature, it is exceptional writing, unlike anything else that Gogol wrote. Hemingway claimed it was one of the "ten greatest books of all time." I read it now, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, thinking to understand more about the region. Instead of a historical novel, however, I encountered an epic in prose glorifying the proto-Russian. I was startled by the vehement hatred of Muslims, Catholics, and, especially, Jews. Prior to this I had only read Gogol's short stories, full of magical realism and surreal absurdism.
The Modern Library Classics edition that I have includes an interesting introduction by Robert D. Kaplan. In it he writes that Americans have been too trusting in rationalism to move people toward individual rights and democracy. The reality is that humans have irrational romantic and heroic tendencies, but these are subverted by the "crude belief systems and symbolism that sustain what the national security analyst Ralph Peters has called 'euphorias of hatred.'" He quotes Elias Canetti as writing, "The crowd needs a direction... It's constant fear of disintegration means that it will accept any goal." Gogol's Cossacks capture both the violent hatred inherent in the crowd-pack and the heroism and romanticism of the individual. I found it an important, if disturbing, read.
Edited to correct "epic in verse" to "epic in prose." show less
Written by Nikolai Gogol in the 1830s, Taras Bulba is the quintessential romance about the mythologized Ukrainian Cossacks. In it, Gogol attributes their violent emotions and selfless comradeship as the wellspring for the Russian soul. It is a classic war epic eulogizing the wildness of unfettered hatred for the Other.
As a piece of literature, it is exceptional writing, unlike anything else that Gogol wrote. Hemingway claimed it was one of the "ten greatest books of all time." I read it now, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, thinking to understand more about the region. Instead of a historical novel, however, I encountered an epic in prose glorifying the proto-Russian. I was startled by the vehement hatred of Muslims, Catholics, and, especially, Jews. Prior to this I had only read Gogol's short stories, full of magical realism and surreal absurdism.
The Modern Library Classics edition that I have includes an interesting introduction by Robert D. Kaplan. In it he writes that Americans have been too trusting in rationalism to move people toward individual rights and democracy. The reality is that humans have irrational romantic and heroic tendencies, but these are subverted by the "crude belief systems and symbolism that sustain what the national security analyst Ralph Peters has called 'euphorias of hatred.'" He quotes Elias Canetti as writing, "The crowd needs a direction... It's constant fear of disintegration means that it will accept any goal." Gogol's Cossacks capture both the violent hatred inherent in the crowd-pack and the heroism and romanticism of the individual. I found it an important, if disturbing, read.
Edited to correct "epic in verse" to "epic in prose." show less
The barber Ivan Yakovlevich has a terrible shock one morning when, tearing open a breakfast roll, he finds a nose within. Even worse, he recognises it as the nose of Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov, one of his customers. Frantic with worry, Ivan decides to dispose of the nose, hoping that it can't be traced back to him, while, across town, Kovalyov is waking up to discover a shock of his own: his nose has vanished, to be replaced with a flat and featureless expanse of skin. Indignantly the show more aspirational Kovalyov sets off in the hope of recovering his nose which, it transpires is having a whale of a time without him and seems to have adopted an even higher social status than that of its erstwhile owner ('my nose,' exclaims the unfortunate Kovalyov, 'is driving at this very moment all over town, calling itself a state counsellor').
Written in 1836, Gogol's famous story is deliciously surreal. The nose changes size and costume several times, as if to escape detection: the police finally 'intercepted it just as it was boarding the stagecoach bound for Riga. Its passport was made out in the name of a civil servant. Strangely enough, I mistook it for a gentleman at first. Fortunately I had my spectacles with me so I could see it was really a nose.' There seem to be several learned theories about what this little piece of nonsense actually means: is it a castration allegory? A satire on social mobility and people with ideas above their station? Or simply the latest in a long line of Russian fables about errant body parts? Gogol's proboscidal classic sits here alongside another of his short stories, The Carriage. Even less happens here than in The Nose, but it seems once again to be a social satire on the pretensions of its hapless protagonist Chertokutsky, who manages to make a fool of himself in front of the very people he most wishes to impress.
I'd love to read some more of Gogol's short stories and I'm now rather curious about Shostakovich's operatic adaptation of The Nose, which might be amusing. (P.S. Fun fact: Gogol was apparently self-conscious about the size of his own nose.) show less
Written in 1836, Gogol's famous story is deliciously surreal. The nose changes size and costume several times, as if to escape detection: the police finally 'intercepted it just as it was boarding the stagecoach bound for Riga. Its passport was made out in the name of a civil servant. Strangely enough, I mistook it for a gentleman at first. Fortunately I had my spectacles with me so I could see it was really a nose.' There seem to be several learned theories about what this little piece of nonsense actually means: is it a castration allegory? A satire on social mobility and people with ideas above their station? Or simply the latest in a long line of Russian fables about errant body parts? Gogol's proboscidal classic sits here alongside another of his short stories, The Carriage. Even less happens here than in The Nose, but it seems once again to be a social satire on the pretensions of its hapless protagonist Chertokutsky, who manages to make a fool of himself in front of the very people he most wishes to impress.
I'd love to read some more of Gogol's short stories and I'm now rather curious about Shostakovich's operatic adaptation of The Nose, which might be amusing. (P.S. Fun fact: Gogol was apparently self-conscious about the size of his own nose.) show less
Lists
el (1)
. (1)
Folio Society (1)
Magic Realism (1)
The "A" List (1)
Unread books (1)
. (1)
horror (1)
100 knjiga (1)
19th Century (2)
A Reading List (2)
Read These Too (1)
My TBR (2)
Favourite Books (4)
Bureaucracies (1)
Five star books (1)
Plays I Like (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 579
- Also by
- 78
- Members
- 28,777
- Popularity
- #698
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 414
- ISBNs
- 1,846
- Languages
- 37
- Favorited
- 148
