The Collected Tales Of Nikolai Gogol

perfect

I think that Gogol tends to get overlooked by many readers these days in favour of later writers like Dostoevsky, to whom Gogol was an inspiration.Despite the fact that he was writing almost two hundred years ago, there is something about Gogol’s style that is very modern, and he is usually very easy to read. This collection contains the best of his short stories, which range from his earlier Ukrainian ‘weird tales’ (‘Viy’ being a particularly good example) to his later, superb ‘Petersburg’ stories, which include ‘The Overcoat’ and ‘Diary of a Madman’.In addition to being easy to read, Gogol has a brilliant, zany, sense of humour, and he occasionally descends into pure slapstick. If he was alive today, he would probably be writing scripts for TV shows like ‘Father Ted’ or ‘Still Game’. A very special author.

Of all the stories, the one enjoyed most was THE DIARY OF A MAD MAN. It is an insightful story by Gogol that is full of humor, sadness, tragedy and hope. The literary style is first class and fully exposes the inner turmoil of a man with a conflict in his soul. The House of the Dead The Union Moujik, Poor Folk, explore that depth of human suffering that leads to depravity for individuals or groups of people. The other short stories are equally masterpieces that we can read repeatedly without becoming bored.

Gogol had the ability to skewer his fellow Russians by mocking their superficiality and shallowness. He might be called the Socrates of Tsarist Russia; he employed similar irony and sarcasm to point out the vanity of his compatriots.He saw past the mere surface to penetrate to the core of the person. Beyond the humor, there is a concern to awaken readers to care about the deepest concerns of the human heart.It must also be pointed out that rarely are the classics so funny. Gogol’s prose sparkles, even in translation. His humor carries through almost two hundred years after these stories were written. He really should be essential reading in any course covering the history of Western literature.

I had no idea Gogol is this engrossing until Collected Tales happened to me!

Thought I'd give it a try after seeing a film based on one of his stories - not an 'easy' read - but interesting and I learned a lot about the older culture and how things have been adapted since...

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