Customer Reviews

The Overcoat and Other Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)

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The four stories in this collection contrast a precise realism - whether it is the evocation of place and atmosphere, or a description of civil service procedure - with narratives of absurdity, fantasy and pure comedy. If the classic 19th century novel, as epitomised by the likes of Tolstoy, mirrored a world-view that society, people or history could be known and adequately represented in fiction, than Gogol reveals the impossibility of applying that model to Russia - his is an unstable, constantly metamorphosing, fluctuating and seemingly random universe. Whereas the apparatus of order, such as bureaucracy or the justice system only weave chaos, or, at best, a parody of order; Gogol's primary device for destabilising the familiar world is narration. If the 19th century novel was related by a third-person, voice-of-God narrator, who knew everything about the generalities of empires and the most intimate thoughts of chambermaids, than Gogol's narrators dance constantly on the brink of madness, inopportunely professing ignorance, amnesia and prejudice, their prose styles febrile, staccato and grotesque.

The 'straightest' story in this collection is 'Old-Fashioned Farmers', a tragicomic story of old age, marriage and superstition, which, in its nostalgic and detailed evocation of a vanished period in Russian provinical life, looks ahead to Nabokov's ravishing memoir 'Speak Memory', albeit laced with a comic and satiric irony the later book lacks. The long 'How The Two Ivans Quarrelled' pinpoints the pettiness of the lower gentry's notions of pride and honour, as two lifelong friends become bitter enemies when one calls the other a 'goose'. This hilarious tale of small-town pretensions and inept local government includes the priceless scene of a fat brown sow breaking into the courthouse and stealing the petition of its owner's antagonist.

The famous 'Overcoat' is often considered one of the greatest stories ever written, and the way Gogol manages to avoid sentimentality in the story of an insignificant middle-aged clerk whose routine and despised life is briefly illumined by the purchase of a specially made new overcoat he can ill afford, and which is soon stolen, is admirable. The lunge into nightmare and the savage satire of the Russian civil service remain shocking. The standout story for me, though, is 'The Nose', which plays like Kafka rewritten by Mark Twain, in which a barber finds a nose in his breakfast, and its owner wakes up with a smooth face. With the most glorious deadpan comedy, Gogol describes the loss and the procedures to find it as if it were a wallet: at another point, the Nose is found disguised as a councillor attempting to flee the city by horse.

The translations ('The Nose' by Gleb Struve, an early translator of Nabokov, and his wife Mary; the others by Isabel F. Hapgood) are readable, retrieving Gogol's brisk comic pace and some of his incongruities of language. There is a use of cliches in Hapgood's 1886 transations, however, that can't always be credited to Gogol's deflating method, and which make certain passages feel flat.

If you haven't read anything by Nikolai Gogol, the keyword should be "funny." Unlike most of the Russian Literature in translation (at least that which I have read: Turgenev, Tolstoi, Dostoevski mainly), Gogol's prose is intentionally humorous. "The Nose" is a story about a man's nose which is chopped off while he's being shaved by his barber. It then takes off on a hike around town, dressed in clothing, after having grown to the size of a man! "The Overcoat" is probably the best known short story in Russian Literature, at least to American readers. Dostoevsky said that they all (later Russian writers) came from underneath Gogol's overcoat. "The Overcoat" is not as wacky as "The Nose," but there is a subtle undercurrent of oddness which is hard to pinpoint. It's been anthologized as a fantasy story, but it surely has little in common with your wizards-and-dragons type of fantasy. "The Overcoat" inhabits a middle ground between Russian realist literature and fantastic literature, without the blatantly absurd elements of "The Nose." A government clerk works and works to get an overcoat, to which he clings dearly, only to have it stolen from him. The realistic stories by Gogol are not drably realistic like much of Russian Literature, but are infused with an irony that underlies the text, twisting it ever so slightly. Often the reader doesn't know when Gogol is being serious and when he's taking a slightly wry angle on his own characters. These stories are very satisfying, and probably a good place to start, rather than reading one of Gogol's novels or his play _The Inspector General_. ken32

While Dostoevsky said, "We have all come from under 'The Overcoat'," western literature, especially because of the Cold War sentiment has put Gogol and his fantastic tales hidden under an overcoat. It is a shame that Gogol, especially "The Overcoat" and "The Nose," has been hidden or underpresented (nice word, eh?) for so long, especially since he seems to be Poe with a deep social commentary. Or maybe Poe is Gogol with a lyric bent for the macabre.

The Overcoat is a beautifully told story that will not allow you to look at people the same way, especially those who might be ostracized. While Akaky is a figure from 19th century Russia, he is very much a character that can be found in the 21st century. Moreover, when Gogol tells about the druken tailor with his witchy wife and the smell of onions, the reader at once pictures the dreadful wench and the overpowering smell of fried onions. And when the commissioner berates Akaky, it is hard not to almost faint in fear, or be outraged. Gogol is a master of stirring the human emotions and mixing them with vivid descriptions making for stories that a reader cannot forget.

The Nose is a very funny story, much of which gets lost in translation and in time. But the idea of a vain official losing his nose only to have it turn up as a mid-level bureaucrat is still relevant in this world of middle management. What a tremendous story tale of human vanity and what a surreal tale that seemed to spawn the likes of Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog," and "Master and Margarita."

Although I feel this small collection of stories by Gogol is well worthy of 5 stars, I have to say that after finishing it and laying it aside, I feel a strong sense of relief similar to awakening from a vivid and disturbing dream. These four stories go well together for they elaborate on different aspects of the Tsarist world of the early 1800's, and in their sequence provide a progressively more cutting view of the society of that time. Not that the situations depicted should be construed as being peculiar only to that time and place. The human capacity for cruelty, pettiness, delusions of grandeur, bigotry, and indifference to the plight of your fellow man are certainly not confined to Tsarist Russia; but this was the world of Gogol and the medium in which he wrote, so in reading him we get to sample an assortment of these human failings served up with the flavor of that time and place. "Old-fashioned Farmers", the first piece, describes the pleasant coexistence of a middle-aged man and wife, owners of a simple country estate with a village of serfs to serve them. They while away their time pleasing each other with the simple pastimes of good food and a settled pattern of domesticity. Then something seemingly trivial opens the door to the specter of death and dissolution, and shatters their illusions of permanence. The second story, about two petty rustic noblemen named Ivan who fall into a years-long quarrel, is a satiric and quite funny look at the extravagant lengths these self-important small-town tyrants go to to defend their "honor". Next,"The Nose" is an absurdist piece about a petty government official who loses his nose. That is, his nose simply jumps ship and launches out on its own because it believes it has better prospects going solo. The official is indignant at the pretensions of the nose in giving itself such airs, which is ironic because he is himself pretentious and gives himself airs. "The Overcoat" is liable to brutalize your sensibilties because it is, in my opinion, one of the most effective exposures of the meanness and viciousness directed toward the powerless and lowly by the hierarchy of society that has ever been written. A poor low-grade government clerk who is subjected to the abuse of both his fellows and his superiors has his new, barely affordable overcoat stolen. This seemingly minor event has tragic consequences for the unfortunate clerk, as the overcoat is a lifeline against the brutal Russian winter. Gogol allows the clerk to avenge himself, in a way, on his tormentors, but the story is likely to leave you with a sense of outrage and regret that such things can and do happen in the real world, not only in stories. Well, you may say, Gogol was certainly looking on the dark side; but I think he was only looking at what he saw in his world. Gogol expresses satirically the same frustration and outrage with bureaucracy and conformity as many of his later countrymen such as Bulgakov and Solzhenitsyn. Unlike these later writers Gogol has no hero to champion the cause of the individual(at least not in these stories), but the stories themselves; while no doubt primarily an expression of Gogol's artistic abilities, they are also a plea for a more intelligent and humane humanity. I would certainly be remiss if I didn't mention that these tales are fleshed out with a great deal of detail that conveys the sense of real life rather than a caricature. Each story connects with the senses in many ways to provide the reader with a strong inner impression of the surroundings in which the action takes place. For me, this richness of description of a strange and bygone time was the element which decided me on a five-star rating.

Gogol, who lived from 1809-1852, was decades if not a whole century ahead of his time. His clever, sardonic, cynical stories satirize the world of self-important bureaucrats in ways that still seem eerily relevant.
In "The Overcoat," a humble clerk who spends his days copying documents, is shaken out of his routine when he suddenly acquires a splendid new coat. Suddenly, all his repressed desires come to the surface. I won't reveal the end of the story except to say that it is both funny and sad.
In "The Nose" Gogol reveals himself as an unequalled satirist with a weird, surrealistic imagination -- and this was way before the invention of surrealism. Again, he's able to put himself inside the heads of government busybodies and low-level officials with uncanny realism.
Great, though-provoking reading.

I agree with those fans of this story who proclaim it to be the greatest short story ever. First, "The Overcoat," at 35 pages or so, has more thematic density than most novels. Second, it's funny. Third, it takes unpredictable twists and turns that suggest a madman or a genius at work. The premise is that a poor nebbish office worker saves all his money to buy a stylish overcoat, which affords him increased social status and personal self-esteem and as such the overcoat is like someone buying a BMW to impress everyone. Of course, pursuing a self-image through materialism is a chimera and will result in a Faustian Bargain. Indeed, the Devil appears in this story and indeed there is disenchantment in a story that is prescient in its ability to capture the advertising age and the promises of rabid consumerism as a false form of self-transcendence. Then there's the story's mysterious ending, which no critic can agree upon. Is the ending a ghost story, a metaphor, something else entirely? I would couple this "chimera" story with F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece"Winter Dreams," which is a microcosm of his novel The Great Gatsby, also about a man who, like the antihero in "The Overcoat," relies on image more than substance.

If you like Dostoyevsky you should read The Overcoat. Its the best russian novel I have ever read. Well ... or Crime and Punishment. Its short, but still it contain so much.

Gogol no doubt took the position of the short-story master after the death of Pushkin. Best known for his flowing prose with a nice zest of folklore, Gogol's foundation of realism was to remain and influence latter greats such as Dostoyevsky and Turgenev. In this delightful collection, Gogol demonstrates his versatility as a mature writer through famous tales such as The Overcoat and The Nose. The Overcoat tells the story of a sincere young clerk who makes great sacrifices to attain an overcoat of untold value and power. Representing the mighty bureaucracy, Akaky Akakievich dies of a broken heart when his beloved smart coat is stolen. Gogol then goes on to showcase his forte as a whimsical and humorous writer, when Akaky returns for his coat of significance from a personage. This process certainly symbolizes the reprisal of lower class against the dominance of the ruling class. Nose on the other hand, is a brilliant depiction of bad story telling: jamming paradoxes as well as antithesis into one giant blob of nonsense. Yet it is just through this technique to recreate a fresh narrative that helps Gogol to unarm the ossified minds of readers who have been pampered by the way "story should be told".

Two Russian short stories captured my heart. I am talking about THE OVERCOAT and WARD No6. The overriding thing about this book is that it stirs the humanity in the read so that one starts having a different outlook to the unfortunate people in society. Gogol is very descriptive in the story and weaved a simple plot ,pitiful hero and other rich characters. Also, the story is poetic and flows smoothly. I also enjoyed reading Union Moujik, The Russian Master, Cherry Orchard. These are stories that once you start reading them, you won't want to stop until you finish them.

It was a fun read I just love his books especially when am not reading them as a literature requirement for school.