Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: As New. Square and solid, mint condition book. Has evidently never been read. Book is clean and tightly bound. Cover shiny and uncreased. Spine is perfect--you'll pirouette enthusiastically on arrival of this book! ! ! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Classics / Penguin Books, England
Date Published: 1972
ISBN-13:9780140442731ISBN:0140442731
Description: Very Good. 188 pages. Translated with an introduction by Ronald Wilks. The cover shows a detail from a reproduction of a sketch by I. E. Repin. read more
Description: Good. Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Description: Good. Minimal damage to cover and binding. Pages show light use. With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, Best Prices. read more
Description: Good. Minimal damage to cover and binding. Pages show light use. With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, Best Prices. read more
Edition: Reprint. Later Printing
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books, New York, New York
Date Published: 1973
ISBN-13:9780140442731ISBN:0140442731
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. No creases to the spine. No marks to the text. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 192 p. Penguin Classics. Audience: General/trade. read more
"Surprising and refreshing given my experience with other Russian writers. Gogol's stories are contrastingly light and comic, and his intrusive narration sometimes hilarious. His close to "The Nose," a completely absurd tale about a man losing and then finding his nose (which in the meantime has been disguising itself as a government official), made me laugh out loud: . . . I cannot understand. It's absolutely beyond me. But strangest of all, the most incomprehensible thing, is that there are authors who can choose such subjects to write about. This, I confess, is completely inexplicable. It's like. . . no, no, I can't understand it at all. In the first place, there is absolutely no advantage in it for our mother country. Secondly. . . well, what advantage is there in it at all? I simply cannot understand what it is. . . However, when all is said and done, and although, of course, we conceive the possibility, one and the other, and maybe even. . . Well, but then what exists without consistencies? And still, if you give it a thought, there is something to it. Whatever you may say, such things do happen-- seldom, but they do. "The Diary of a Madman" was intersting in its description of the rise of a man's insanity, and it was much funnier and more readable than something like Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground. "The Overcoat" is justifiably famous, and Gogol displays a gift for creating an incredibly sympathetic main character, however pathetic.
In all of the shorter stories, you see the typical characterization of Russian bureacracy and society as some huge immovable force, with ridiculous stratification and labrynthine channels for gaining an audience of a Very Important Personage. It struck me as trite until I realized that Gogol was writing before any other famous Russian writer, about 50 years before Dostoyevsky if I'm not mistaken. Also, it gave me the idea that if Russian society was so bureacratized and regimented in the 1830s, it's no wonder that Leninist and then Stalinist communism failed so spectacularly. There was never a chance in a society that has historically awarded social status based on whether one was an 8th or 7th level government clerk.
Gogol's St. Petersburg stories aside, the inclusion of the novela "Taras Bulba" at the end of the collection is masterful. After reading the short, whimsical exercises, I was astounded at the epic scope of the historical fiction of the Ukrainian Cossacks. While still retaining some occasional satiric jabs (whether at the Church, the Motherland, the "barbarians" themselves, or the Poles), and despite his blatant anti-semitism, Gogol nevertheless proves here an incredible range, able to move seamlessly from broad comedy to epic adventure.
Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by this collection, my introduction to Gogol. I look forward to reading Dead Souls sooner rather than later."
""The Overcoat" was superb, quite equal to the short stories of Anton Chekhov, but "The Nose" and "The Carriage" felt unfinished rather than intriguing, and "Taras Bulba" most assuredly not succeed in its obvious aims. I am left with a patchy, uneven impression of Gogol's abilities as a writer."
"Diary of a Madman"- Not my favorite of the three stories, but definitely a fascinating read. Although, the characterization of the clerk didn't help me feel much for him. The clerk's diary turned out to be fairly dry.
"The Nevski Prospect"- This was initially a bit confusing for me. I wasn't sure where the narrative was going, and eventually it branched into two stories that had the same beginning, but decidedly different endings. I enjoyed the painter's story the most.
"The Portrait"- Now, this is the story that truly helped me see why Gogol is considered a master. I can see how he may have influenced other Russian writers. A truly harrowing thriller, altogether. Definitely reminded me of Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray," though."
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