The Nose

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 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 show more 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

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 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 show more 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 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 show more 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

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 (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 show more 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

🥸 Absurdist fiction
👃🏼 What if one day your nose was gone, & when you next saw it, had a higher rank than you?
🪆Satire of stratification in Russian society
🇺🇦 Classic by Ukrainian author

I really had no idea what to expect walking into this one. I forgot how FANTASTICALLY WEIRD so much classic Russian fiction is!

This is a book you are going to have to be able to just run with. If you are the kind of person who is going to get hung up on something like "wait, how does a nose wear a uniform?" then this book is going to frustrate you! (I did. I did struggle a bit. And then I let go.)

This book also had a little meta fourth-wall breaking at the end, which was both charming and helps to remind the reader what kind of political show more climate this was written in. (Hopefully not bearing too much resemblance to the direction we are moving in soon.)

Short, silly, near-slapstick. But with a message! show less

Short story about a St. Petersburg official, Kovalyov, who's nose leaves his face and becomes separate entity with it's own life. This is an absurd story with humor and is a commentary on social ranking.A rather humorous short story about a man who lost his nose for awhile. A tale of cutting your nose off to spite your face or perhaps the ultimate tale of a brownnoser. The official seemed quite concerned about his personal image and how that was going to affect him. It is a short (about 50 pages) of a classic Russian author. It is considered a precursor to magical realism.

A delightful short story about a man that wakes and finds out his nose has gone and it is walking in town disguised as a State Counselor!...