Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852)

What a strange little story The Nose by Nikolai Gogol turned out to be. This is a satirical short story about a St. Petersburg official called Kovalyov, whose nose leaves his face and develops a life of its own. Apparently Gogol himself had an oddly shaped nose and was often teased about this. The sheer absurdity of this story relies on humor and social commentary to draw the reader in.

Highlighting the desire for social ranking, in this story, the Nose actually surpasses the position of the show more owner causing him much embarrassment and although the nose apparently can change in size, it is always clearly identified as belonging to Kovalyov which spearheads that characters feelings of inferiority and jealousy.

It is never explained fully how the nose made it’s escape or how it came to be re-attached but instead leaves that up to the imagination of the reader. Using this type of magical realism highlights the surreal nature of the story but the author definitely included plenty of social references about Russia and human nature in general. Personally I found The Nose to be both hilarious and insightful. show less

Absurd tale of a disembodied nose running amok in St. Petersburg. A barber discovers a nose in a loaf of bread. He recognizes it as belonging to one of his clients. Major Kovalyov wakes up one morning with a flat space where his nose should be. He searches for the nose and tries to advertise for its return.

I really enjoyed this creative short story. The author breaks the fourth wall, pointing out such things as the farcical notion of an “owner” wanting to advertise the loss of his nose show more in the local paper. It is humorous and makes fun of the rank, class, and structure in Russia at the time, a brilliant way to avoid stating anything directly. The Nose achieves a higher rank than the person who “lost” it. It is only 60 pages, so I read two English translations from the Russian (one by Ronald Wilks, the other by Claude Field) to get a better feel for the story. show less

Having read Gogol's short stories before (e.g. Diary of a Madman, The Nose), I felt very familiar with the tone of the first couple pages of The Overcoat. Akaky Akakyevich is a quirky minor official with a funny name, and I was fully prepared to observe all the funny problems that would hound him. Then, as a young clerk was teasing him for being such a quirky man with a funny name, I read this:

And long afterward, at moments of the greatest gaiety, the figure of the humble little clerk with

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a bald patch on his head rose before him with his heartrending words: "Leave me alone! Why do you insult me?" and in those heartrending words he heard others: "I am your brother." And the poor young man hid his face in his hands, and many times afterwards in his life he shuddered, seeing how much inhumanity there is in man, how much savage brutality lies hidden under refined, cultured politeness, and my God! even in a man whom the world accepts as a gentleman and a man of honor...

Yowza. Not quite a story about a guy whose nose jumps off his face.

I've always felt most sympathetic towards characters that want nothing more than to be left to their own devices. I'm not talking about retired heroes who get called back into action when they just want to go fishing or whatever. I'm talking about losers, guys that aren't cool (I mean unkempt and uninteresting, not nerdy) and have never amounted to anything of any sort of social value but are self-sufficient and happy to forge on alone. Akaky Akakyevich isn't trying to climb the social ladder, start a family, or even interact with his coworkers. He's not asking for anything from anybody, and that's the real tragedy of his downfall.

This isn't Gogol's funniest work, but the juxtaposition of how Gogol views the St. Petersburg that he's created and how Akaky Akakyevich views the same city is amusing in its own way. Gogol makes it clear throughout almost all of his short stories that he cares very little for the "petty trivia," as he called it, of the contemporary Russian social order. The reader gets the sense that the rankings by which Russian society is arranged are arbitrary and useless, that bureaucracy is a hinderance to pretty much anything you'd want to accomplish, and that the letters that Akaky Akakyevich fervidly copies every day are largely superfluous.

But our hero doesn't see it that way. He respects his social superiors to the point where a browbeating at the hands of a "Person of Consequence" irreparably affects his health. He doesn't just value the work that he does; he makes it his entire life. Whether he values the content of the letters or just the simple repetition of the process (my guess is the latter), his whole world is dependent on the preservation of this system.

So can you hold the system responsible for Akaky Akakyevich's ruin? While it certainly isn't blameless, there are plenty of titular counsellors doing meaningless jobs that don't lose their minds over an overcoat.

Akaky Akakyevich is a fragile man whose fragility had yet to be exposed only because of his simple, solitary lifestyle. Like his previous overcoat, the "dressing jacket," he was surviving in a threadbare manner that could only be held together for so long. When he needs a new overcoat, he is able to purchase one, but when he needs a new Akaky Akakyevich, there isn't one available. The new overcoat allows him to display himself, but the loss of that overcoat leaves him exposed, and he is no longer able to patch over his shortcomings.

The Overcoat is great as a standalone work, but its influence is even greater. Dostoevsky said, "[Russian authors] all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'," and if you've read much of Russian lit before checking this out, you can feel it in every word. show less

Brilliant. What an idea! Someone’s nose is found in some bread. A man wakes up to find his nose gone and begins a desperate search. He discovers it living a life of its own, a life far more privileged in status than it’s owner. Then it returns but there’s a twist.

I loved Gogol’s short story because it contrasts so strongly with every other piece of Russian lit. that I’ve read… and I’ve read a ton. Usually, they’re painstakingly detailed (Tolstoy), deeply psychological show more (Dostoevsky), heavily political (Solzhenitsyn) or deeply emotional (Goncharov, Pushkin, Turgenev, Lermontov, etc. aka everything else). But this is satire to rival Swift or Cervantes… from the pen of a Russian! Wonderful.

Analyses of the short story that I’ve read online tend towards searching the text for underlying psychological motives, for a political edge, for something, well, Russian about it. But I think Gogol just wanted to send a message to the literary community and say, “Life isn’t all misery and deeply felt meaning, you know!” And I think he said it very well.

The story is bonkers and total fun. There isn’t a single character in it who isn’t farcical, and it doesn’t really have a point (no pun intended). And you, yes you, with that twitch in your right index finger. Step away from the mouse. I know you are dying to comment and tell me what the point is about The Nose. Gogol wrote this for you, to show you that you can just read a story to enjoy it for its own sake without worrying about what it means. If you’ve missed that, go and read it again… go on.

Brilliant. show less