Product Description

Collected here are Gogol's finest tales - from the demon-haunted St John's Eve to the strange surrealism of The Nose, from the heartrending trials of the copyist in The Overcoat to those of the delusional clerk in The Diary of a Madman - allowing readers to experience anew the unmistakable genius of a writer who paved the way for Dostoevsky and Kafka. To this superb new translation - the first in twenty five years and destined to become the definitive edition of Gogol's short fiction - Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky bring the same clarity and fidelity to the original that they brought to their brilliant translation of Dostoevsky's works.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61019 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-01
• Original language: Russian
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Guardian
'Gogol is strangely timeless’

Good Book Guide
‘This new translation is a testimony to Gogol’s gift for comedy, absurdity and fabulism’

About the Author
Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) was one of the masters of 19th Century Russian literature, and was the author of numerous stories and a novel, Dead Souls. Together, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have translated Dostoevsky's Dead Souls, Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov, for which they were awarded the PEN Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize. Their translation of Dostoevsky's The Idiot is also published by Granta Books.

Customer Reviews

Sorcerer!
The version I read is in two parts: Part I is composed of 8 short stories based on Ukrainian folktales. All of the stories are weird, sport something of the macabre, are funny and insensibly wonderful. The Story of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled With Ivan Nikiforovich and The Night Before Christmas are favourites. Viy can easily be the inspiration for a horror movie. Some of these tales reminded me of Bulgakov though he came later. Part II is 7 stories set in St Petersburg. They are not as engaging and magical as part one but they do have spine-chilling twists too. The Nose is reminiscent of Kafka but again Kafka came later.

This was my first introduction to Gogol and he impresses mightily. This is gather around the candlelight storytelling and you know you're going to have nightmares afterwards - sorcerers and witches and the devil himself. Timing is exquisite and Gogol knows how to lead the reader by the nose up until the point you really want to skip a few pages just to see if there's a happy ending. Don't!

Brilliant
Of all the stories, the one enjoyed most was DIARY OF A MAD MAN. It is an insightful story by Gogol that is full of humor, sadness, tragedy and hope. The literary style is first class and fully exposes the inner turmoil of a man with a conflict in his soul. HOUSE OF THE DEAD, UNION MOUJIK, POOR FOLKS, explore that depth of human suffering that leads to depravity for individuals or groups of people. The other short stories are equally masterpieces that we can read repeatedly without becoming bored.

Absolutely terrific author!
I would recommend it to everyone who values healthy sarcasm. Read it in Russian (if you know Russian). Unfortunately there's no such thing as a perfect translation. Good buy for a thinking individual.