• ISBN13: 9781853994722
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: N/A
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Publisher Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Publication Date: January 1, 1998
• Pages: 128
• Original Price: GBP 22.99
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 91 grams
• BISAC Subject(s): Russian & Soviet, Russian, and Theater / Playwriting

Originally published in 1835, this is one of two works by Gogol dealing with the "little man" (the other is "The Overcoat"). Of over 150 examples of this genre, these two stories are often considered the most complex, both linguistically and psychologically. Poprischin is not at the bottom of the social ladder; he is a middle-aged, grade nine civil servant, with at least ten minions under him. Nevertheless he is painfully aware of the social gap between himself and his Director and, even more so, between himself and Sophie, the Director's daughter. Poprischin's frustrated love for Sophie drives him into madness, the stages of which are catalogued in diary form. These stages include imagined conversations between dogs and hallucinations set in a Spanish madhouse. This edition is based on the latest critical edition of the text to be published in Russia and follows the 1835 version of the text.

Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich: - Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) won fame as a short story writer, and in 1836, his satirical comedy The Government Inspector created such a furore that Gogol left Russia to settle in Rome, in self-imposed exile. Religious mania in his later years contributed to his early death in Moscow.