The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol
by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol
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This two-volume edition at last brings all of Gogol's fiction (except his novel Dead Souls) together in paperback.Tags
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Even if he had published nothing but Dead Souls, Gogol would still have a claim to be one of Ukraine's all-time greatest novelists. Luckily for us, he kept writing, and these excellent short stories show that his transition to becoming a more "Russian" writer did not dampen his humor or invention one bit. This collection shows off both sides of Gogol's output: first, the strange, magical Ukrainian stories full of drunken peasants, quarreling landowners, hilarious religious bigotry, and fantastical adventures that he wrote to exoticize his homeland to his new Russian friends. Second, there's the more conceptual St. Petersburg stories, which have more realist settings but no less surreal plots, with maddening bureaucracies, inexplicable show more transformations, and copious humiliations for the unfortunate denizens of the Russian capital. The second half has the more famous stories like The Nose and The Overcoat, which show Gogol's gift for presenting absurd situations in a straightforward, even poignant way, but even the earlier stories have their touches of genius, often coming across as minor theatrical masterpieces or as undiscovered fairytales. Almost no one was better at taking a mundane scene, adding an outlandish twist, and then following that wherever it led to emerge on the other side as a savage social critique. show less
While none of these stories quite match "The Overcoat" there are a number of delightful tails in this volume. I look forward to the thicker volume 2 soon.
The most enjoyable thing was how Gogol did the pre-story monologue. Loved those short sections.
The most enjoyable thing was how Gogol did the pre-story monologue. Loved those short sections.
I think I liked Vol 2 more. From this volume I enoyed A Terrible Vengeance and the first third of Nevsky Prospekt.
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Author Information
584+ Works 28,892 Members
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 he worked as a government clerk. He soon began show more 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
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Work Relationships
Contains
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1964
- People/Characters
- Rudy Panko; Solopy Cherevik; Paraska Cherevik; Khavronya "Khivrya" Nikiforovna Cherevik; Afanasy Ivanovich; Grytsko (show all 21); Tsibulya; Foma Grigorievich; Basavriuk; Petro the Kinless; Terenty Korzh; Pidorka Korzh; Ivas Korzh; Galina "Ganna" Petrychenkova; Levko Makogonenko; Yevtukh Makogonenko; Kalenik; The distiller; The clerk; The sister-in-law; The drowned maiden
- Important places
- Ukraine
- Dedication
- For VALERIE
- First words
- PREFACE
When The Collected Tales and Plays of Nikolai Gogol was published by Pantheon in 1964, and then by Modern Library in 1969, I included in those editions some prefatory remarks about the world needing a co... (show all)llected Gogol, some forty years having elapsed since Constance Garnett's five-volume translation - long out of print and extremely difficult to find - had appeared.
INTRODUCTION
All of Gogol's tales are in these two volumes.
EVENINGS ON A FARM NEAR DIKANKA, I
Preface
"What oddity is this: Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka?
THE FAIR AT SOROCHINTSY
I
How intoxicating, how magnificent is a summer day in Little Rissia.! - Blurbers
- Wellek, René
- Original language
- Russian
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 891.733 — Literature & rhetoric Asian Literature East Indo-European and Celtic literatures Russian and East Slavic languages Russian fiction 1800–1917
- LCC
- PG3333 .A15 — Language and Literature Slavic languages and literatures. Baltic languages. Albanian language Slavic. Baltic. Albanian Russian literature Individual authors and works 1800-1870 Gogol'
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 387
- Popularity
- 80,444
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.18)
- Languages
- English, Russian
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
