Gogol Nikolai

"The Nose" is a satirical short story by Nikolai Gogol written during his time living in St. Petersburg. During this time, Gogol's works were primarily focused on surrealism and the grotesque, with a romantic twist. Written between 1835 and 1836, "The Nose" tells the story of a St. Petersburg official whose nose leaves his face and develops a life of its own.

The Nose

Since its publication in 1842, Dead Souls has been celebrated as a supremely realistic portrait of provincial Russian life and as a splendidly exaggerated tale; as a paean to the Russian spirit and as a remorseless satire of imperial Russian venality, vulgarity, and pomp. As Gogol's wily antihero, Chichikov, combs the back country wheeling and dealing for "dead souls"--deceased serfs who still represent money to anyone sharp enough to trade in them--we are introduced to a Dickensian cast of peasants, landowners, and conniving petty officials, few of whom can resist the seductive illogic of Chichikov's proposition.

Dead Souls

Die Geschichte folgt den Taten Pawel Iwanowitsch Tschitschikows, eines Herren mittleren Alters und mittlerer sozialer Schicht. Tschitschikow kommt in einem nicht namentlich genannten kleinen St�dtchen an und versucht, sich schnell einen guten Namen zu machen, indem er die vielen unbedeutenden Beamten der Stadt beeindruckt. Trotz seiner begrenzten Mittel lebt er ein extravagantes Leben, um so Verbindungen zu schaffen, die ihm ein Leben mit Reichtum und Macht erm�glichen.

Die Toten Seelen

The first part of the novel was intended to represent a modern-day Inferno of the Divine Comedy.[citation needed] Gogol reveals to his readers an encompassing picture of the ailing social system in Russia after the war of 1812. As in many of Gogol's short stories, the social criticism of Dead Souls is communicated primarily through absurd and hilarious satire. Unlike the short stories, however, Dead Souls was meant to offer solutions rather than simply point out problems. This grander scheme was largely unrealized at Gogol's death; the work was never completed, and it is primarily the earlier, darker part of the novel that is remembered.

The story centers on Arksenty Ivanovich Poprishchin, a low-ranking civil servant (titular counsellor), constantly belittled and criticized for underachieving. He yearns to be noticed by a beautiful woman, Sophie, the daughter of his boss, with whom he has fallen in love. As he said in his first sight of her, just after being a beast of a civil servant himself, "A footman opened the carriage door and out she fluttered, just like a little bird." Nothing comes of this love he feels for her; Sophie is effectively unaware of him.

Diary of a Madman

The Complete Novels

Nikolai Gogol

Diary of a Madman is a farcical short story by Nikolai Gogol. Along with The Overcoat and The Nose, Diary of a Madman is considered to be one of Gogol's greatest short stories. The tale centers on the life of a minor civil servant during the repressive era of Nicholas I. Following the format of a diary, the story shows the descent of the protagonist, Poprishchin, into insanity. Diary of a Madman, the only one of Gogol's works written in first person, follows diary-entry format.

Gogol Nikolai

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