4 by Gogol: "Nevsky Prospect," "Diary of a Madman," "The Nose," "The Overcoat"

“Diary of a Madman,” “The Nose” and “The Overcoat.” This choice is our tribute to Olga. Olga chose these stories as the premier readings over two years ago. With so many new members having joined since then, we thought it would be appropriate to revisit four of the most famous, influential, and strangest stories ever written in Russian. Let’s plan to read all four stories for Monday, June 19th. We will be reading the Pevear and Volokhonsky translations available in their collection of Gogol’s tales. Each of these stories can be found in the “Petersburg Tales” half of that collection, and taken together it is about 113 pages of reading. If you can’t get your hands on the P&V version: there are several other translations available in the public domain that can be easily found online. Happy reading, and see you on the 19th!  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nikolai Gogol [masked]) was a Ukrainian-born dramatist, novelist and short story writer. While his initial works focused on Ukrainian culture and folklore, his later works satirized corruption and bureaucracy in the Russian empire. Gogol is best known for a series of short stories written after his arrival in St. Petersburg that are imbued with elements of the surreal ("The Nose," "The Overcoat," "Nevsky Prospect"); Dostoevsky famously said that all subsequent Russian writers "came out from Gogol's overcoat." Becoming deeply religious in his later life, Gogol adopted an ascetic lifestyle and died of self-imposed starvation at the age of 42.