The works of Gogol are compiled here with a biography about his life and times. Works include: The Calash The Cloak Dead Souls The Inspector-General The Mantle A May Night Memoirs of a Madman The Mysterious Portrait The Nose St. John’s Eve The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich Taras Bulba The Viy

"The Nose" is a satirical short story by Nikolai Gogol. Written between 1835 and 1836, it tells of a St. Petersburg official whose nose leaves his face and develops a life of its own. Dmitri Shostakovich's opera The Nose, first performed in 1930, is based on this story. A short film based on the story was made by Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker in 1963 and used pinscreen animation.

The Government Inspector, also known as The Inspector General , is a satirical play by the Russophone Ukrainian playwright and novelist Nikolai Gogol. Originally published in 1836, the play was revised for an 1842 edition. Based upon an anecdote allegedly recounted to Gogol by Pushkin, the play is a comedy of errors, satirizing human greed, stupidity, and the extensive political corruption of Imperial Russia. According to D. S. Mirsky, the play "is not only supreme in character and dialogue in it is one of the few Russian plays constructed with unerring art from beginning to end. The great originality of its plan consisted in the absence of all love interest and of sympathetic characters. The latter feature was deeply resented by Gogol's enemies, and as a satire the play gained immensely from it. There is not a wrong word or intonation from beginning to end, and the comic tension is of a quality that even Gogol did not always have at his beck and call. The dream-like scenes of the play, often mirroring each other, whirl in the endless vertigo of self-deception around the main character, Khlestakov, who personifies irresponsibility, light-mindedness, absence of measure. "He is full of meaningless movement and meaningless fermentation incarnate, on a foundation of placidly ambitious inferiority" (D.S. Mirsky). The publication of the play led to a great outcry in the reactionary press. It took the personal intervention of Tsar Nicholas I to have the play staged, with Mikhail Shchepkin taking the role of the Mayor.

Taras Bulba is Gogol's longest short story. The work is non-fictional in nature with characters that are not exaggerated or grotesque as was common in Gogol's later work, though his characterizations of Cossacks are said by some scholars to be a bit exaggerated. This story can be understood in the context of the romantic nationalism movement in literature, which developed around a historical ethnic culture which meets the romantic ideal.

The works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky are collected in this huge anthology of novels, stories, and novella's. This anthology also includes a short biography about Dostoyevsky, and essays about each of his major works. Works include: Bobok The Brothers Karamazov The Christmas Tree and the Wedding Crime and Punishment The Crocodile The Double The Dream of the Ridiculous Man The Gambler A Gentle Spirit The Grand Inquisitor The Idiot The Little Orphan Notes from the Underground Poor Folk The Possessed The Thief

This story takes place in a bucolic small town of Mirgorod (Myrhorod in Ukrainian), written in the style featuring grotesque, realistic portrayals of the characters. The two Ivans are gentlemen landowners, neighbors and great friends, each one almost being the opposite image of the other. Ivan Ivanovich is tall, thin, and well-spoken, for example, while Ivan Nikiforovich is short, fat, and cuts to the point with a biting honesty. One day, Ivan Ivanovich notices his friend's servant hanging some clothes out to dry as well as some military implements, especially a Turkish rifle that interests him. He goes over to Nikiforovich's house and offers to trade it for a brown pig and two sacks of oats, but his friend is unwilling to part with it and calls Ivan Ivanovich a goose, which terribly offends him. After this, they begin to hate each other.

Russian culture and Slavic Studies maintain that Gogol is an incontrovertible Russian writer. To call him a Ukrainian is to encounter deep skepticism. Oddly, the grounds of his "Russianness" are rarely made explicit and even less often examined critically. This book address these problems. It shows, for example, how scholars assume that language and theme make Gogol Russian. How others call him Russian by denying Ukrainians status as a separate nation, while still others avoid explanations altogether by representing him as a typical Russian in a national culture and literature. This book challenges such paradigms, situating Gogol within an "imperial culture," where Russian and Ukrainian elites shared intellectual pursuits but clashed over rival national projects. It reveals Gogol as a Ukrainian Russian-language Imperial Writer, a person who embraced an emergent Ukrainian movement while remaining a loyal imperial subject. This book will appeal to Russianists and Ukrainianists, anyone interested in questions of identity, cultural politics, and colonialism. It provides ample context and background, making it suitable for students. Readers who enjoy Taras Bulba will be drawn to the chapter that dispels the myth of its "Russianness."

From Marilyn to Mussolini, people captivate people. A&E's Biography, best-selling autobiographies, and biographical novels testify to the popularity of the genre. But where does one begin? Collected here are descriptions and evaluations of over 10,000 biographical works, including books of fact and fiction, biographies for young readers, and documentaries and movies, all based on the lives of over 500 historical figures from scientists and writers, to political and military leaders, to artists and musicians. Each entry includes a brief profile, autobiographical and primary sources, and recommended works. Short reviews describe the pertinent biographical works and offer insight into the qualities and special features of each title, helping readers to find the best biographical material available on hundreds of fascinating individuals.

A Study Guide for Nikolai Vail'evitch Gogol's "The Nose," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.

This innovative study of one of the most important writers of Russian Golden Age literature argues that Gogol adopted a deliberate hybrid identity to mimic and mock the pretensions of the dominant culture.