Selected Stories of Nikolai Gogol: Ukrainian and St. Petersburg Tales

by Nikolai Gogol, Patrick Maxwell (Contributor)

As enigmatic as he was influential, Nikolai Gogol is commonly referred to as the father Russian realism. Selected Stories of Nikolai Gogol draws from stories set in Ukraine and St. Petersburg. Included are “The Fair at Sorochintsï,” first published in Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, the short story collection that launched Gogol’s career and made him famous overnight; “The Viy,” a horror novella; “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich,” one of Gogol’s most humorous stories; and his most well-known tales: “The Diary of a Madman,” “The Nose,” and “The Overcoat,” which Nabokov called “the greatest Russian short story ever written.” This unique Warbler Press edition includes an illuminating afterword by Patrick Maxwell and a biographical timeline.

182 pages, Paperback

Published April 20, 2022

About the author

People consider that Russian writer Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (Николай Васильевич Гоголь) 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 .