The Collected Tales Of Nikolai Gogol (1999) - Plot & Excerpts
Split into two sets of stories - those that take place in Ukraine and those in Russia, this is a collection that takes pride of place on my bookshelf. The theme of each story tends to deal with the darker aspects of human nature – depravity, poverty, the squandering of talent and opportunity, groupthink and malice. However, the narrative never dips into over-sincerity or narcissistic exposition. There is a sharp, honest, knowing quality to the writing that is evident from the surface level aesthetics down to the very core of each story.There are some writers who are good storytellers and some who are known because of their penmanship skills. Even translated, Gogol is clearly both. The 13 stories in this collection, while undeniably Gogol’s, play with a range of styles and rhythms. He describes states of being and situations from the disintegration of one’s mind to the excitement a young girl can feel for her booties; From the combat of a warrior to a human nose on legs with prose that is completely fitting to each situation. He is not scared of playing with a reader’s expectations in this arena. Yet somehow the writing is never inconsistent, either. Pathos and menace are nearly always present, but somehow you feel comfortable in his hands. He plays and teases with you, drawing you in one direction before shoving you into another. Gogol paints his pictures with deep colours and complex textures, yet communicates all of this with a simple stroke, a glance in one direction that is fleeting but piercing, unapologetic, maybe dangerous in its unwavering loyalty to honesty. One scene (this does not spoil any of the stories), briefly shows a wizard flying past the moon in a magic saucepan. Written here this is sugar and twee. From the pen of Gogol it is delightful and energetic, entirely suited to the scene and, rather than squeezed in like a square peg into a pre-thought squarish hole, is in fact inevitable. It was reading this moment for the first time that I felt that rising excitement in my chest that tells me I’m reading genius. For me it’s a standout moment and one I return to again and again.But as I said, it’s not just the writing (and of course this is translated! Gogol is famous for the sophistication of his literary techniques but I shall never read his poetry as he intended me to) but the content of the stories, too. In the grand Russian tradition they tackle the very worst of humanity in a way that is rescued from cynicism with a tinge of optimism for the future, but Gogol’s inimitable - slightly mad, and obviously completely at odds with the world around him - mind doesn’t just twist some old formulas around but instead smashes them into each other and creates something brand new and rude in their originality. In each story you can see the germination of ideas explored by Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Kafka… and these ideas are spat out and dispensed with almost immediately. Most writers could spend a career delving into each one. The rate at which Gogol sprays them across the page is staggering and beautiful. It’s ‘The Mysterious Portrait’, however, that stands out as the true achievement. Anybody - anybody - who has ever had even an inclination towards art in the smallest bone in their body (in the ear, right?) needs to read it. Gogol lacerates through every affectation and whimsy in order to get to the truth in brutal fashion, executed with such style, with such sureness and swiftness and with such power that I find it difficult to type about right now without running downstairs to reread it.While dealing with lofty ideas and rich characters, the stories are also compelling and - importantly - fun. You want to see what happens. Not with dread or fear for the worst, but with excitement. It helps that even at his most morose, Gogol is funny. As with his writing style, he has it all - wit, sarcasm, slapstick and punch lines. He has his heroes and his villains, self-discovery, transcendence of thought and all-out action, the scenes of which put the imagination of Hollywood’s directors to shame. There is more packed into these 13 short stories than the entire careers of many giants of literature. If you read the stories in one sitting you’re left reeling, dizzy with ideas, unsure of which one to contemplate first.And the best thing about this collection is that this isn’t even Gogol’s best stuff. That would be Dead Souls Part I and II, which I’ll write about at some point in the near future.
"We all came from Gogol's overcoat."Fyodor DostoevskyDuring my childhood, like many other kids, I was also in the habit of listening to bedtime stories. They were usually told by my father or my grandmother. My granny stuck to stories she knew already, either related to her life in her village or some anecdotes related to Hindu Mythology where there is no dearth of tales. My father however had to come up with a new story every time in an on-the-spot manner. These stories used to be sweet, simple, at times illogical but enjoyable nevertheless. The topics used to vary but the purpose was the same, to put me to sleep with sweet thoughts in my head to carry forward to the dream world. These are the luxuries one enjoys being a child but soon our dependence on such stories fades away and inadvertently we start finding solace in a more complicated network of words to excite us.Lately I’ve been reading some twisted literature and enjoy it too but thanks to Italo Calvino, I also became particularly inclined to short stories and started looking for some good collection by other writers and thereupon came across Nikolai Gogol. Initially his simple introduction that I encountered was: Russian writer who introduced realism to Russian literature (1809-1852).Later after reading few of his stories, I searched a little more and found this extended introduction: Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist, novelist and short story writer.Considered by his contemporaries’ one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism and the grotesque.But to be honest, I just don’t want to objectify him with any of that literary jargon. For me he is just a story-teller who knew his gift very well and wanted his readers to enjoy his beautifully crafted tales with that child-like excitement and curiosity. For most of the time, I felt like being present at this imaginary set up consisting of a full moon night, with bonfire burning in the middle of a beautiful meadow in a nice country place, and a wise old village patriarch is reciting stories that his old eyes had long witnessed in his wondrous life . The only difference is that those stories are not for children.This bizarre collection has generous use of outlandish and idiosyncratic elements conveying dark humor in its highest form making each single story worth reading and re-reading. Though of course there are some which are better than others namely The Nose, The Overcoat and The Diary of a Madman, which are mainly in the same league of brilliance covering themes such as alienation in society and status & class anxiety imbued with ruthless satire. These stories are heavily based on nonsensical musings and that’s the very thing that would strike a chord with its readers i.e enjoying the supposed nonsense and making out logical interpretations of the same. Some sources have revealed baffling implications of certain props Gogol applied to his works. He definitely had a fixation with human Nose which features in most of these stories. (view spoiler)[ As suggested by wiki “The critic Yermakov offers a Freudian interpretation of Gogol's fixation on noses as a form of castration anxiety. Yermakov contends that Kovalev's missing part in "The Nose" represents his fragile masculinity. In "The Diary of a Madman", Poprishchin discusses how noses live on the moon and says, "And when I pictured how the earth is a heavy substance and in sitting down may grind our noses into flour, I was overcome with such anxiety... I hurried to the state council chamber to order the police not to allow the earth to sit on the moon." Many of the nonsensical comments reveal his repressed castration anxiety as he constantly worries how forces outside of his control could emasculate him. Another notable example occurs while he is being tortured by the grand inquisitor, when he randomly interjects, "However, all this has been rewarded by my present discovery: I've learned that every rooster has his Spain, that it's located under his feathers." In this passage, he equates the country of Spain to a rooster's genitalia obscured by his feathers. This bizarre comment offers revealing insight into Poprishchin's Spanish fantasy as an attempt to protect his fading masculinity and sexual virility. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about The Collected Tales Of Nikolai Gogol (1999)?
It’s very interesting what good writing can evoke in the mind of the reader. (This probably stands out in my mind right now, as I’m preparing to speak on this topic very soon.) While reading the works of Gogol, this does bring about images of the Ukrainian countryside and various powerful emotions, as you may expect, but more distinct for me were images of myself sitting on a terrace on a warm Toronto evening, sipping my tart red wine, when I first read this collection. Interesting, perhaps, that I’m writing this review during another stay in Toronto, though a frigid stay this time.The skill that Gogol exhibits with his writing, and the joy I experience when reading it, is probably easy to understate. His flowery prose never ceases to bring a smile to my face, though I accept that it could be a little too much for some readers. Nonetheless, the imagery the author constantly peppered throughout the tales were equal parts elaborate and specific – the specificity most likely owed to the author’s correspondence with his mother, encouraging her to describe every little nuance of the homes, the dress, the festivities, and everything else from the old country. The Collected Tales also offers the stark contrast between his earlier stories and the later St. Petersburg tales, where you can see the growth of the author, the height of which, I believe, is the complex metaphor at the heart of The Overcoat. Despite this, Gogol’s range of writing is clearly demonstrated throughout the collection, from humor to frightening, from realistic to fantastic; there’s no real surprise to me that Gogol was so respected in his day.If you haven’t experienced the delight of reading The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol, I highly recommend it. If you’re not familiar with the culture or the time, it will take some adjustment to the names and terminology, but, once you do, you’ll easily find yourself immersed in Gogol’s meticulously crafted worlds. (And, you know, the notes from the translators help quite a bit.)
—Alexander Kosoris
Gogol's tales in this book are split into two distinct sections. The first is concerned mostly with life in Ukraine in the early 19th century and is filled with superstitious people and the demons and devils they interact with regularly. The stories are tremendously funny but also strange and dark, mysterious in the best, most inexplicable way. I was reminded at times of the short work of Hawthorne, in which dark creatures often seem to be lurking in the woods, but Gogol feels more modern somehow. The second part deals with Petersburg and is decidedly more surreal. In "The Nose," a man wakes one day to find that his nose is gone from his face. He later meets this nose in the street wearing the military uniform of a general. These stories clearly prefigure Dostoevsky's writing ("Diary of a Madman" especially) and seem to lay the narrative and formal groundwork for writers like Walser and Kafka. This was one of the best and most riveting collections of stories I have read and I highly recommend it.
—will
Gogol is a fun writer. Let's face it, most Russian novels and stories do not tend to make one crap one's pants with laughter, to use a common phrase. But Gogol writes with a certain lightness that makes his stories go down easy. I'd swear that some of the stories are satirical, but I don't know enough about Russia in the 1830s to be sure. The best known stories in this collection are The Overcoat, a heartbreaking story about a copyist who saves up to buy a new coat, and The Nose, a wonderfully idiotic tale about a guy who wakes up without his nose. Also included is Diary Of A Madman, which is based on an Ozzy Osbourne album. This collection also includes some of Gogol's lesser known works, such as Blizzard Of Ozz, Bark At The Moon, and The Ultimate Sin.
—Joseph Pinchback
