The Mantle and Other Stories by Nikolai Gogol - Celebrated Ukranian-born author Nikolai Gogol brings us this collection of masterfully grotesque and fantastical stories. These tales are filled with death, madness, ghosts, rampant bureaucracy, the tragedy of human existence, and a mean streak of dark absurdist humor.
1 - Preface by Prosper Merimée
2 - The Mantle
3 - The Nose
4 - Memoirs of a Madman
5 - A May Night
6 - The Viy
Nikolai Gogol
People consider that Russian writer Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol founded realism in Russian literature. His works include The Overcoat (1842) and Dead Souls (1842).
Ukrainian birth, heritage, and upbringing of Gogol influenced many of his written works among the most beloved in the tradition of Russian-language literature. Most critics see Gogol as the first Russian realist. His biting satire, comic realism, and descriptions of Russian provincials and petty bureaucrats influenced later Russian masters Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, and especially Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Gogol wittily said many later Russian maxims.
Gogol first used the techniques of surrealism and the grotesque in his works The Nose , Viy , The Overcoat , and Nevsky Prospekt . Ukrainian upbringing, culture, and folklore influenced his early works, such as Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka .
His later writing satirized political corruption in the Russian empire in Dead Souls.
