Customer Reviews

The Overcoat and Other Tales of Good and Evil

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The opening story, "The Terrible Vengeance," was somewhat unfortunately placed by the editor, being a long melodrama about a woman pursued by her father's incestuous desire for her. The rest of the stories, however, prove Gogol to be a great writer. "The Overcoat," about a very poor man who saves up for a new and badly needed overcoat, is based on an anecdote someone told at a party; everyone laughed but Gogol, who found the loss of the man in the story pathetic, not laughable. His version is indeed pathetic, except for the end, which is completely different in tone. "The Nose" has one of the greatest beginnings of any story ever written: a barber comes down to breakfast, and, slicing through a loaf of bread, sees something hard and white in it. He pulls it out and --it's a nose! Gogol's gift for comedy comes out most strongly in "Ivan Fyodorovitch Shponka and His Aunt," which contains such priceless and absolutely true statements as: "He was nearly fifteen when he passed into the second form where instead of the abridged catechism and the four rules of arithmetic, he began to study the unabridged catechism, the book dealing with the duties of man, and fractions. Realising, however, that the further he progressed in his studies the more difficult they became" he quit school at the first opportunity and joined the army. The story is full of such gems. Another good one is "The Portrait," which, like Gogol himself, is not held in nearly high enough esteem; in this story, an artist named Chartkov buys a portrait of a man whose eyes seem to be living. That night, as Chartkov lays in bed, the man in the portrait steps out. From here, the level of tension steps up. The rest of the story traces both the nature of the portrait and the change in Chartkov, as well as offering Gogol's take on how to be an artist; more than talent and practise is involved. These, and all the other stories, are related in Gogol's best style, excellently translated by David Magarshack. Gogol writes easily, in a colloquial, slangy style, with an good eye for people's mannerisms and foibles; in these respects, he is like Dickens, with whom he is often compared. Gogol is not nearly as much of an optimist, however. None of these stories is heartwarming or ends happily; Gogol depicts the less charming parts of life, and in depicting them, makes them sometimes charming, sometimes amusing, and always interesting.

Gogol's _Petersburg Tales_, the title under which these stories were ultimately collected by the author, are a perfect example of the brilliance use by the author of narration, absurdity and the fantastic. Note: the reviewer who thought Gogol's narration was "childish" is really missing the boat on Gogol's style!

Very often, great short stories are a little too dense for the first-time reader to feel sucked in, but with Gogol, I only felt that I couldn't read fast enough. His sense of humor is endearing and hits the mark. His narration is unlike anything else in world literature; I can't describe it - just try it out. And his worldview is fascinating, better than Vonnegut!

This story, one of Gogol's most famous is skillfully narrated to reflect the author's frustration with civil service and the plight of the poor, and will evoke an emotional response among listeners. Akakii Akakievich is a lowly government clerk. When winter begins he notices that his old overcoat is beyod repairing. He manages to save money for a new, luxurious coat. His colleagues at the office arrange a party for his acquisition. But his happiness proves to be short-lived. On the way home he is attaced by thieves and robbed of his coat. To recover his lost possession, Akakievich asks help from an Important Person, a director of a department with the rank of general. He treats Akakievich harshly and Akakievich dies of fright within three days. One night when the Important Person is rerutning home, he is attacked by a ghost, late Akakii Akakievich, who steals his overcoat. The stealing of outer garments continue, even though now the ghost is a big man with a moustache and enormous fists. A simpler, if perhaps more prosaic, way of restating the general thrust of the storyline would be to say that 'The Overcoat' is like a good poem. It can be endlessly annotated, interpreted, dissected, but still emerges whole and fresh, like a new morning...

Oh, my dear--you really should have heard the conversation between me and myself.

"You've never read Gogol?"

"No, I've never had the time. Is he good?"

"Excellent. You really should read Gogol."

"How would you know? You've never read Gogol."

"I've heard marvelous things!"

But why continue? Having never read Gogol, I felt more qualms about drinking a soda than opening THE OVERCOAT AND OTHER TALES OF GOOD AND EVIL; I predicted the great Russian writer would be quickly written of as a charlatan, a wordsmith with only tricks to beguile dilettantes, but not I, not the great reviewer. First I read 'The Nose' and laughed not at the story's content, but at the storyteller. A silly little story, cute--but substance? Oh, no, no. Not much substance, 'The Nose.' Elated by my correct prediction, I then read 'The Terrible Vengeance.' A fun review, indeed, it was to be; the story, a horrible little story, was long and thus offered various passages I could ridicule. It was enjoyable, reaching for a pen first thing after completing the "tale" and writing the first sentence to my review: "To chew a few rotten banana peels, to bathe in orange juice: a few things I would rather do than read Nicolai V. Gogol." After delighting over my carefully chosen words, I read 'Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt' and was forced to write, for the second sentence of my review: "Really, though, he is not that bad."

Then I read 'Nevsky Avenue,' then 'The Portrait,' oh! 'The Portrait'! Well, by and by, I read 'The Overcoat.' What then? Dear me, what then?

"What interpretation should I side with? Should I simply skip any sort of interpretation? Should I be noncommittal?"

"No, no! You dunce, it is a story about redemption. Akaky Akakyecich is a hero. He represents the po--"

"Are you certain? Could this not be a quest for desire? All the objet petit a stuff we repeatedly see in great works of li--"

But why continue? I was at a disastrous moment in my life, a moment of great doubt and simultaneous awe. Please allow me to slither away merely saying the following: "Gogol's prose is highly stylized meaning unique meaning, typically, abstruse. There is nothing, though, in this book that cannot be read with ease. How refreshing it is to read literature so sweet, so enjoyable. The author is often humorous and is often wise with his pacing--the balance between plot, description, and character. A marvelous writer who proves that no, a great work of fiction does not have to be a puzzle and that, yes, all readers appreciate a writer who labors in order for the reader to enjoy, enjoy. If you are practicing the craft, you will feel smothered by the talent in each page of 'The Overcoat' and 'The Portrait.' If you are a reader, you will enjoy, enjoy."

Nicolai V. Gogol was born in 1809 and lived only until 1852. During that brief lifetime this author of genius produced the great novel "Dead Souls" and short stories which have won him literary fame. Nabokov the author of "Lolita" and a Russian literary professor considered Gogol to be the greatest author in Russian literature. While fans of Tolstoy, Dostoevski and Chekhov might contest that assumption this reviewer does concur with Nabokov's labelling of Gogol as a genius.
The W.W. Norton Company includes six of Gogol's best tales in a collection translated into English by the late scholar David Magarshack.
The stories are:
1.A Terrible Vengeance is set in a distant past when Cossacks fought Poles and their many enemies. The tale deals with a woman whose evil father is a sorcerer in league with the Devil. The story reads like a fairy tale conjured up out of the wispy smoke of a nightmare. Danilo and his wife Katerina are tortured by her father after he escapes from his captivity for the crime of being an evil sorcerer. Gogol was a native of the Ukraine with this tale being set in the area near Kiev.
2. Ivan Fyodorovish Shponka and His aunt is a short story left unfinished. It deals with a soldier who is discharged from the army who moves into the farm wherin resides his aunt. The mildly humorous story deals with the matchmaking for Ivan in a small village setting.
3. The Portrait is a fantastic story of a young artist who buys a portrat of an old man with fiery eyes. The portrait brings its owner very bad luck leading to his early death. The Portrait later brings trouble to all who own it. Gogol is a surreal writer who would have been at home in the library of a Kafka or Edgar Allen Poe. A spooky haunting story.
4. Nevsky Avenue is a story about two men and their love affairs. Nevsky Avenue is the chief street in St. Petersburg. Gogol is excellent at painting a word picture of the street during all the times of an ordinary day.
5. The Nose-This famous satire tells of a man who wakes up one day without a nose and the barber who cut off the nose during a routine shave! Gogol's story pokes fun at Russian society and the stiff formality of the various government officals who people this hilarious and disturbing short story.
6. The Overcoat is the simple story of a poor government clerk who is finally able to buy a new overcoat. The overcoat is stolen by thugs.
The desolate owner of the coat is the wretched Akaky. He dies when the coat is stolen but comes back as a ghost. Fantastic story which can be interpreted on many levels.
These are excellent stories by one of Russia's great authors. Highly recommended! Gogol had a great imagination seeing things that most of us do not or choose not to see or ponder. Read him and grow.

This volume constitutes six stories by Gogol of which two are the most famous; "The Overcoat", a wonderful psychological story which was made into a film in the USSR many years ago, and "The Nose", a satire of Russian middle level officials of the early 19th century. Taken as a book, though, these tales full of dreams, asides, and great prolixity are not a major literary landmark on the world stage. Russian literature, as one of the world's greatest collections of works, offers a lot more in my opinion. Gogol, while perhaps a brilliant star for some national literatures, can only be considered a minor writer in Russia, especially if read in English as translated by David Magarshack, whose style can hardly be called `contemporary'. While it's true that Gogol had a good sense of humor, if a little bizarre, it comes across in this translation as childish. (I must hasten to add that I don't know Russian.)

"The Terrible Vengeance" is a rather tedious fairy tale with an incestuous theme, while "The Portrait" bears some likeness to a certain, later work by Oscar Wilde. Though the idea is interesting, Gogol, as in several other stories, just doesn't know when to let go. The story "Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt" contains lively humor and many colorful characters. I enjoyed it the most of all, but it was only the beginning of a larger work, which unfortunately seems never to have been completed.

Some analysts (see the Introduction by the translator)have read into Gogol's work pre-revolutionary predictions of violent change or a rising up of the lower classes. I think such an idea is far-fetched. Similarly, while it is true that Gogol's tales and stories do contain struggles between good and evil, the same can be said of an enormous number of folk tales, religious works, and literary pieces by writers in every language. It is interesting to read Gogol's work to widen your knowledge of Russian and world literature. That is a source of satisfaction, but perhaps not enough. Several of the stories are good, but they don't measure up to his longer works---"Dead Souls" and "The Government Inspector". I would read them first, before this lesser book.

I don't remember how I came across Gogol. But I'm glad I did. The morbid absurdity of these short stories (along with the unfinished "Dead Souls") marks him as a talented writer.

Gogol seems to be able to milk character from mundane situations, but at the same token craft words that have as much to do with Garcia Marquez' magic realism than traditional Russian literature. It is this aspect that at first caught me off guard, but in the end made me fall in love with Gogol's prose.

My two favourites are these:

"The Overcoat", the story of a poor, downtrodden man who saves and saves to buy a fancy new overcoat, but has the whole plan blow up in his face. It is tragedy, but often humourous; sad, but joyous.

"The Nose", which is one of my all time favourite short stories. Gogol manages to turn the story of one man's search for his lost nose (where does he find it? In a cathedral, of course!) into a scathing indictment of Russian caste system. It is wonderfully written and wonderfully absurd, and in the end you just go along with the context Gogol has created, because you trust that this is a writer who knows what he is doing.

I was just looking and found that a book of Gogol's stories were #3 on University of Southern California's list. I was proud to see this. I'm one of Gogol's biggest fans and I keep it a secret because his talent is special, serious and fun. The Overcoat, Diary of a Madman, Dead Souls and The Nose...what more can you say. The first time I read Overcoat it was in a book of Greatest Short Novels my father had given me. I still hold on to this collection because of Gogol. To me, the Faulkner and James Joyce works included are mere book ends. Overcoat, along with Conrad's Heart of Darkness, stand alone.