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No writer has captured the absurdity of the human condition as
acutely as Nikolai Gogol. In a lively new translation by Oliver
Ready, this collection contains his great classic stories - 'The
Overcoat', 'The Nose' and 'Diary of a Madman' - alongside lesser
known gems depicting life in the Russian and Ukrainian countryside.
Together, they reveal Gogol's marvelously skewed perspective,
moving between the urban and the rural with painfully sharp humour
and scorching satire. Strikingly modern in his depictions of
society's shambolic structures, Gogol plunders the depths of
bureaucratic and domestic banalities to unearth moments of dark
comedy and outrageous corruption. Defying categorisation, the
stories in this collection range from the surreal to the satirical
to the grotesque, united in their exquisite psychological acuteness
and tender insights into the bizarre irrationalities of the human
soul.
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Dead Souls (Paperback)
Nikolai Gogol; Translated by Isabel F. Hapgood; Introduction by Anthony Briggs; Series edited by Keith Carabine
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R144
R110
Discovery Miles 1 100
Save R34 (24%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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With an Introduction by Anthony Briggs. Translated by Isabel F.
Hapgood. Russia in the 1840s. There is a stranger in town, and he
is behaving oddly. The unctuous Pavel Chichikov goes around the
local estates buying up 'dead souls'. These are the papers relating
to serfs who have died since the last census, but who remain on the
record and still attract a tax demand. Chichikov is willing to
relieve their owners of the tax burden by buying the titles for a
song. What he does not say is that he then proposes to take out a
huge mortgage against these fictitious citizens and buy himself a
nice estate in Eastern Russia. Will he get away with it? Who will
rumble him? Does this narrative contain a deeper message about
Russia itself or the spiritual health of humanity? There is much
interest and some suspense in considering these issues, but the
real pleasure of this story lies elsewhere. It is an enjoyable
comic romp through a retarded part of a backward country, a
picaresque series of grotesque portraits, situations and
conversations described with Gogolian humour based mainly on
hyperbole. This is, quite simply, the funniest book in the Russian
language before the twentieth century.
Part of the Norton Library series “As Kate Holland notes in her
fine introduction to these new translations, Nikolai Gogol is a
hybrid: Ukrainian-Russian, Romantic-Realist, equal parts nightmare
and satire. Michael Katz hears this hybrid tension. We sense the
terror and fantasy of Ukrainian folklore flooding Petersburg space,
revealing a Gogol for our haunted times.†—Caryl Emerson
(Princeton University) The Norton Library edition of Selected Tales
features a collection of Nikolai Gogol’s most regarded short
fiction: “Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Auntie,†“Nevsky
Prospect,†“Notes of a Madman,†“The Nose,†“The
Carriage,†“The Portrait,†and “The Overcoat†newly
translated by Michael R. Katz. An introduction by Kate Holland
situates the stories in the historical context of imperial St.
Petersburg, inviting readers to appreciate Gogol’s incisive
social critique and the transformative vision of his writing. The
Norton Library is a growing collection of high-quality texts and
translations—influential works of literature and
philosophy—introduced and edited by leading scholars. Norton
Library editions prepare readers for their first encounter with the
works that they’ll re-read over a lifetime. Inviting
introductions highlight the work’s significance and influence,
providing the historical and literary context students need to dive
in with confidence. Endnotes and an easy-to-read design deliver an
uninterrupted reading experience, encouraging students to read the
text first and refer to endnotes for more information as needed. An
affordable price (most $10 or less) encourages students to buy the
book and to come to class with the assigned edition. About the
Authors: Michael R. Katz is C. V. Starr Professor Emeritus of
Russian and East European Studies at Middlebury College. He has
published translations of more than fifteen Russian novels,
including Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground, and
The Brothers Karamazov. Kate Holland is Associate Professor of
Russian Literature in the Department of Slavic Languages and
Literatures at the University of Toronto. She is the author of The
Novel in the Age of Disintegration: Dostoevsky and the Problem of
Genre in the 1870s. She is President of the North American
Dostoevsky Society.
Four works by great 19th-century Russian author: "The Nose," a savage satire of Russia's incompetent bureaucrats and its snobbish and complacent upper classes; "Old-Fashioned Farmers," a pleasant depiction of an elderly couple living in rustic seclusion; "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich," one of Gogol's most famous comic stories; and "The Overcoat," widely considered a masterpiece of form.
Nikolai Gogol's novel Dead Souls and play The Government Inspector
revolutionized Russian literature and continue to entertain
generations of readers around the world. Yet Gogol's peculiar
genius comes through most powerfully in his short stories. By
turns-or at once-funny, terrifying, and profound, the tales
collected in The Nose and Other Stories are among the greatest
achievements of world literature. These stories showcase Gogol's
vivid, haunting imagination: an encounter with evil in a darkened
church, a downtrodden clerk who dreams only of a new overcoat, a
nose that falls off a face and reappears around town on its own,
outranking its former owner. Written between 1831 and 1842, they
span the colorful setting of rural Ukraine to the unforgiving urban
landscape of St. Petersburg to the ancient labyrinth of Rome. Yet
they share Gogol's characteristic obsessions-city crowds,
bureaucratic hierarchy and irrationality, the devil in disguise-and
a constant undercurrent of the absurd. Susanne Fusso's translations
pay careful attention to the strangeness and wonder of Gogol's
style, preserving the inimitable humor and oddity of his language.
The Nose and Other Stories reveals why Russian writers from
Dostoevsky to Nabokov have returned to Gogol as the cornerstone of
their unparalleled literary tradition.
It is the night before Christmas and devilry is afoot. The devil
steals the moon and hides it in his pocket. He is thus free to run
amok and inflicts all sorts of wicked mischief upon the village of
Dikanka by unleashing a snowstorm. But the one he d really like to
torment is the town blacksmith, Vakula, who creates paintings of
the devil being vanquished. Vakula is in love with Oksana, but she
will have nothing to do with him. Vakula, however, is determined to
win her over, even if it means battling the devil. Taken from
Nikolai Gogol s first successful work, the story collection
Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, The Night Before Christmas is
available here for the first time as a stand-alone novella and is a
perfect introduction to the great Russian satirist."
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Dead Souls (Paperback)
Donald Rayfield; Nikolai Gogol
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R259
R213
Discovery Miles 2 130
Save R46 (18%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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A mysterious stranger named Chichikov arrives in a small provincial
Russian town and proceeds to visit a succession of landowners,
making each of them an unusual and somewhat macabre proposition. He
offers to buy the rights to the dead serfs who are still registered
on the landowner's estate, thus reducing their liability for taxes.
It is not clear what Chichikov's intentions are with the dead serfs
he is purchasing, and despite his attempts to ingratiate himself,
his strange behaviour arouses the suspicions of everyone in the
town.A biting satire of social pretensions and pomposity, Dead
Souls has been revered since its original publication in 1842 as
one of the funniest and most brilliant novels of nineteenth-century
Russia. Its unflinching and remorseless depiction of venality in
Russian society is a lasting tribute to Gogol's comic genius.
Nikolai Gogol's novel Dead Souls and play The Government Inspector
revolutionized Russian literature and continue to entertain
generations of readers around the world. Yet Gogol's peculiar
genius comes through most powerfully in his short stories. By
turns-or at once-funny, terrifying, and profound, the tales
collected in The Nose and Other Stories are among the greatest
achievements of world literature. These stories showcase Gogol's
vivid, haunting imagination: an encounter with evil in a darkened
church, a downtrodden clerk who dreams only of a new overcoat, a
nose that falls off a face and reappears around town on its own,
outranking its former owner. Written between 1831 and 1842, they
span the colorful setting of rural Ukraine to the unforgiving urban
landscape of St. Petersburg to the ancient labyrinth of Rome. Yet
they share Gogol's characteristic obsessions-city crowds,
bureaucratic hierarchy and irrationality, the devil in disguise-and
a constant undercurrent of the absurd. Susanne Fusso's translations
pay careful attention to the strangeness and wonder of Gogol's
style, preserving the inimitable humor and oddity of his language.
The Nose and Other Stories reveals why Russian writers from
Dostoevsky to Nabokov have returned to Gogol as the cornerstone of
their unparalleled literary tradition.
Volume 2 of "The Complete Tales" includes Gogol's Mirgorod
stories--among them that masterpiece of grotesque comedy, "The Tale
of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich," the
wonderfully satiric "Old World Landowners," and the Cossak epic
"Taras Bulba." Here also is "The Nose," Gogol's final effort in the
realm of the fantastic, as well as "The Coach," "The Portrait" (in
its final version), and the most influential of his Petersburg
stories, "The Overcoat."
'Strangely enough, I mistook it for a gentleman at first.
Fortunately I had my spectacles with me so I could see it was
really a nose.' With this pair of absurd, comic stories Gogol
indulges his imagination and delights readers. Introducing Little
Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black
Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin
Classics, with books from around the world and across many
centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London
to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to
16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories
lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and
inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.
Nikolay Gogol (1809-1852). Gogol's works available in Penguin
Classics are Dead Souls, Diary of a Madman, The Government
Inspector & Selected Stories and The Night Before Christmas.
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Dead Souls (Hardcover, New Ed)
Nikolai Gogol; Introduction by Richard Pevear; Translated by Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear
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R546
R449
Discovery Miles 4 490
Save R97 (18%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Since its publication in 1842, Dead Souls has been celebrated as a
supremely realistic portrait of provincial Russian life and as a
splendidly exaggerated tale; as a paean to the Russian spirit and
as a remorseless satire of imperial Russian venality, vulgarity,
and pomp. As Gogol's wily antihero, Chichikov, combs the back
country wheeling and dealing for "dead souls"--deceased serfs who
still represent money to anyone sharp enough to trade in them--we
are introduced to a Dickensian cast of peasants, landowners, and
conniving petty officials, few of whom can resist the seductive
illogic of Chichikov's proposition. This lively, idiomatic English
version by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa
Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel's
lyricism, sulphurous humour, and delight in human oddity and error.
Author, dramatist and satirist, Nikolay Gogol (1809-1852) deeply
influenced later Russian literature with his powerful depictions of
a society dominated by petty bureaucracy and base corruption. This
volume includes both his most admired short fiction and his most
famous drama. A biting and frequently hilarious political satire,
"The Government Inspector" has been popular since its first
performance and was regarded by Nabokov as the greatest Russian
play every written. The stories gathered here, meanwhile, range
from comic to tragic and describe the isolated lives of low-ranking
clerks, lunatics and swindlers. They include "Diary of a Madman",
an amusing but disturbing exploration of insanity; "Nevsky
Prospect", a depiction of an artist besotted with a prostitute; and
"The Overcoat", a moving consideration of poverty that powerfully
influenced Dostoevsky and later Russian literature.
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Dead Souls
Nikolai Gogol
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R533
Discovery Miles 5 330
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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An NYRB Classics Original
The first of the great Russian novels and one of the indisputable
masterpieces of world literature, "Dead Souls" is the tale of
Chichikov, an affably cunning con man who causes consternation in a
small Russian town when he shows up out of nowhere proposing to buy
title to serfs who, though dead as doornails, are still property on
paper. What can he have up his sleeve, the local landowners wonder,
even as some rush to unload what isn't of any use to them anyway,
while others seek to negotiate the best deal possible, and others
yet hold on to their dead for dear life, since if somebody wants
what you have then no matter what don't give it away. Chichikov's
scheme soon encounters obstacles, but he is never without resource,
and as he stumbles forward as best he can, Gogol paints a
wonderfully comic picture of Russian life that also serves as a
biting satire of a society as corrupt as it is cynical and silly.
At once a wild phantasmagoria and a work of exacting realism, "Dead
Souls" is a supremely living work of art that spills over with
humor and passion and absurdity.
Donald Rayfield's vigorous new translation corrects the mistakes
and omissions of earlier versions while capturing the vivid speech
rhythms of the original. It also offers a fuller text of the
unfinished second part of the book by combining material from
Gogol's two surviving drafts into a single compelling narrative.
This is a tour de force of art and scholarship--and the most
authoritative, accurate, and readable edition of "Dead Souls"
available in English.
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