Nikolai Gogol's the Overcoat and Selected Stories
- ISBN-10
- 1934255874
- ISBN-13
- 9781934255872
- Category
- Russia
- Pages
- 298
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2011-03
- Publisher
- Special Edition Books
- Author
- Nikolai Gogol
Description
One of the most influential short stories ever written, Nikolai Gogol's ''The Overcoat'' first appeared in 1842 as part of a four-volume publication of its author's Collected Works. The story is considered not only an early masterpiece of Russian Naturalism-a movement that would dominate the country's literature for generations-but a progenitor of the modern short story form itself. "We all came out from under Gogol's 'Overcoat'" is a remark that has been variously attributed to Dostoevsky and Turgenev. That either or both might have said it is an indication of the far-reaching significance of Gogol's work. Gogol's writings have been seen as a bridge between the genres of romanticism and realism in Russian literature. Progressive critics of his day praised Gogol for grounding his prose fictions in the everyday lives of ordinary people, and they claimed him as a pioneer of a new "naturalist" aesthetic. Yet, Gogol viewed his work in a more conservative light, and his writing seems to incorporate as much fantasy and folklore as realistic detail. "The Overcoat," which was written sporadically over several years during a self-imposed exile in Geneva and Rome, is a particularly dazzling amalgam of these seemingly disparate tendencies in Gogol's writing. The story begins by taking its readers through the mundane and alienating world of a bureaucratic office in St. Petersburg where an awkward, impoverished clerk must scrimp and save in order to afford a badly needed new winter coat. As the story progresses, we enter a fairy-tale world of supernatural revenge, where the clerk's corpse is seen wandering city streets ripping coats off the backs of passersby. Gogol's story is both comic and horrific-at once a scathing social satire, moralistic fable, and psychological study. List of Contents: Introduction to Nikolai Gogol Book 1: The Overcoat Book 2: Taras Bulba Book 3: St. John's Eve Book 4: The Nose Book 5: The Mysterious Portrait Book 6: The Calash
Get the book
Similar books
-
The Overcoat and Other Short Stories
By Nikolai GogolFour outstanding works by great 19th-century Russian author: "The Nose," "Old-Fashioned Farmers," "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich," and "The Overcoat."
-
The Overcoat
By Nikolai GogolThis early work by Nikolai Gogol was originally published in 1835 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Overcoat' is a short story about a government clerk who has his precious new overcoat stolen.
-
The Mantle and Other Stories
By Nikolai Vasilievich GogolNikolai Vasilievich Gogol. THE MANTLE AND OTHER STORIES BY. NICHOLAS. GOGOL. AUTHOR OF “DEAD SOULS,” “TARAS BULBA,” ETC. TRANSLATED BY CLAUD FIELD AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION ON GOGOL BY PROSPER MERIMÉE “Gogol, Nikolai Vassilievitch.
-
The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol
By Nikolai GogolJohn's Eve ” to the heartrending humiliations and trials of a titular councilor in “The Overcoat,” Gogol's knack for turning literary conventions on their heads combined with his overt joy in the art of story telling shine through in ...
-
The Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol, Volume 1
By Николай Васильевич ГогольA collection of short stories portrays life in rural Russia and satirizes Russian society
-
The Cloak
By Nikolai Gogol"The Cloak" tells the story of the life and death of Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, an unremarkable and indeed pathetic middle-aged titular councillor and copying clerk serving in an unnamed department of the Russian civil service.
-
The Overcoat, and Other Tales of Good and Evil
By Николай Васильевич Гоголь, Nikolaĭ Vasilʹevich GogolʹSix short stories probe the mind of man to reveal his hidden motives
-
The Overcoat: Easyread Comfort Edition
By Nikolai Vasilevich GogolThe story takes an interesting turn when he returns for his coat from the buyer. This story symbolizes the reprisal of lower class against the dominance of the ruling class.
-
The Cloak by Nikolai Gogol (illustrated)
By Nikolai GogolThe story centers on the life and death of Akaky Akakievich, an impoverished government clerk and copyist in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg.
-
The Nose and Other Stories
By Nikolai GogolThese stories showcase Gogol’s vivid, haunting imagination: an encounter with evil in a darkened church, a downtrodden clerk who dreams only of a new overcoat, a nose that falls off a face and reappears around town on its own, outranking ...