Nikolai Gogol
Overview
 
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol ' onMouseout='HidePop("33682")' href="/topics/Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S.
Old Style and New Style dates
Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on 1 January even though documents written at the time use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian...

; 19 March 1809 – 21 February 1852 N.S.) was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.

Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...

, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

 sensibility, with strains of Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 and the grotesque
Grotesque
The word grotesque comes from the same Latin root as "Grotto", meaning a small cave or hollow. The original meaning was restricted to an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art rediscovered and then copied in Rome at the end of the 15th century...

 ("The Nose", "Viy
Viy (story)
"Viy" is a horror short story by the Ukrainian-born Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, first published in the first volume of his collection of tales entitled Mirgorod . The title refers to the name of a demonic entity central to the plot....

", "The Overcoat
The Overcoat
"The Overcoat" is the title of a short story by Ukrainian-born Russian author Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The story and its author have had great influence on Russian literature, thus spawning Fyodor Dostoyevsky's famous quote: "We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'." The story has been...

," "Nevsky Prospekt
Nevsky Prospekt (story)
Nevsky Prospect is a short story by Nikolai Gogol, written between 1831 and 1834, and published in 1835.- Summary :Influenced strongly by the Sentimental movement, the protagonist of "Nevsky Prospekt" is a pathetic and insignificant romantic, the narrator is chatty and unreliable, and realism...

").
Quotations

What a dreary world we live in, gentlemen.

How the Two Ivans Quarrelled|How the Two Ivans Quarrelled (1835)

In the course of reading he became more and more melancholy and finally became completely gloomy. When the reading was over he uttered in a voice full of sorrow: "Goodness, how sad is our Russia!"

On Alexander Pushkin in Four Letters Concerning Dead Souls (1843)

I shall laugh my bitter laugh.

Epitaph on Gogol's tombstone

It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is awry.

Epigraph

Of course, Alexander the Great was a hero, but why smash the chairs?

Epigraph; said of a history teacher who smashed a chair in his excitement when discussing the conqueror

The more destruction there is everywhere, the more it shows the activity of town authorities.

Act I, sc. i

I tell everyone very plainly that I take bribes, but what kind of bribes? Why, greyhound puppies. That's a totally different matter.

Act I, sc. i

The sergeant's widow told you a lie when she said I flogged her. I never flogged her. She flogged herself.

Act IV, sc. xv

What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourselves!

Act V, sc. viii

As it is so strangely ordained in this world, what is amusing will turn into being gloomy, if you stand too long before it, and then God knows what ideas may not stray into the mind... Why is it that even in moments of unthinking, careless gaiety a different and strange mood comes upon one?

Vol. I, ch. 3

 
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