Gogol S Ghost

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

A new twist on a Russian masterpiece In an unnamed city, in an unnamed country, sometime long ago, there lived a poor but talented scrivener named Gogol. Having only an old and patched topcoat, Gogol spends his life savings on a new warm coat for winter. Gogol’s coat is spectacular – everyone is impressed by it – and the poor boy relishes the first few glorious days in his fashionable coat. But late one night thieves steal the coat right off his back. Using his ingenuity, Gogol is able to track down the thief and recover what is rightfully his. Beautifully-illustrated in rich oils, this book is a delightful new take on Nikolai Gogol’s classic tale.

You are holding an unusual book in your hands. Perhaps after reading it, your consciousness will change so much that you will perceive yourself and the world around you in a completely different way. It will interest all seekers of truth who sincerely want to know the world and themselves in this world. A significant part of the book is occupied by dialogues. If you have a feeling that you are not from this world, this book is for you.

What really happened to Russia following the collapse of the USSR? This book tries to provide some answers by examining aspects of life in St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, in the early years of Russia's transformation from a Communist state to a democracy. Rather than offering an account of the political changes that occurred after December 1991, the author uniquely sketches the personal and social dimensions of the "lower depths" of a revolution that produced sweeping changes to the lives of average Russians. Written in an accessible style from the perspective of a historian who lived in St. Petersburg in 1991-92 and subsequent periods, the book brings to life a number of fascinating changes that took place to the state and society. Essays describe changes to the consumer culture and the new landscape of capitalism in St. Petersburg; cultural currents in the city; changing behaviour in public places and the strains placed on the average Petersburger; the lingering tension between old bureaucratic ways and new rules and regulations; and a snapshot of some faces of the younger generation and the ways in which they coped with their new lives.

These fourteen essays reflect the increasingly interdisciplinary character of Russian literature research in general and of the study of Gogol in particular, focusing on specific works, Gogol's own character, and the various approaches to aesthetic, religious, and philosophical issues raised by his writing.

Nikolai Gogol was the most idiosyncratic of the great Russian novelists of the 19th century and lived a tragically short life which was as chaotic as the lives of the characters he created. This biography begins with Gogol's death and ends with his birth, an inverted structure typical of both Gogol and Nabokov. The biographer proceeds to establish the relationship between Gogol and his novels, especially with regard to "nose-consciousness", a peculiar feature of Russian life and letters, which finds its apotheosis in Gogol's own life and prose. There are more expressions and proverbs concerning the nose in Russian than in any other language in the world. Nabokov's style in this biography is comic, but as always leads to serious issues—in this case, an appreciation of the distinctive "sense of the physical" inherent in Gogol's work. Nabokov describes how Gogol's life and literature mingled, and explains the structure and style of Gogol's prose in terms of the novelist's life.

The primal scene of all nineteenth-century western thought might involve an observer gazing at someone poor, most commonly on the streets of a great metropolis, and wondering what the spectacle meant in human, moral, political, and metaphysical terms. For Russia, most of whose people hovered near the poverty line throughout history, the scene is one of special significance, presenting a plethora of questions and possibilities for writers who wished to depict the spiritual and material reality of Russian life. How these writers responded, and what their portrayal of poverty reveals and articulates about core values of Russian culture, is the subject of this book, which offers a compelling look into the peculiar convergence in nineteenth-century Russian literature of ideas about the poor and about the processes of art.