Free eBooks The Collected Tales Of Nikolai Gogol Available To Downloads
When Pushkin first read some of the stories in this collection, he declared himself "amazed." "Here is real gaiety," he wrote, "honest, unconstrained, without mincing, without primness. And in places what poetry! . . . I still haven't recovered."More than a century and a half later, Nikolai Gogol's stories continue to delight readers the world over. Now a stunning new translation--from an award-winning team of translators--presents these stories in all their inventive, exuberant glory to English-speaking readers. For the first time, the best of Gogol's short fiction is brought together in a single volume: from the colorful Ukrainian tales that led some critics to call him "the Russian Dickens" to the Petersburg stories, with their black humor and wonderfully demented attitude toward the powers that be. All of Gogol's most memorable creations are here: the minor official who misplaces his nose, the downtrodden clerk whose life is changed by the acquisition of a splendid new overcoat, the wily madman who becomes convinced that a dog can tell him everything he needs to know.These fantastic, comic, utterly Russian characters have dazzled generations of readers and had a profound influence on writers such as Dostoevsky and Nabokov. Now they are brilliantly rendered in the first new translation in twenty-five years--one that is destined to become the definitive edition of Gogol's most important stories.
Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (June 29, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375706151
ISBN-13: 978-0375706158
Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.9 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #55,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #20 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Regional & Cultural > Russian #468 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories & Anthologies > Anthologies #886 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories & Anthologies > Short Stories
This collection brings together almost all of Gogol's notable short stories, from his first surviving piece, St. John's Eve, to his last and most acclaimed short piece, The Overcoat. The first seven stories come from Gogol's earlier period (1830-1835) during which he set his tales in the Ukraine, while the last six, written between 1835 and 1842, are all set in Petersburg. Critics still disagree to some extent over the quality of Gogol's Ukrainian tales and the extent to which they reflect the artistic vision found in his later, most famous pieces. I would acknowledge that there aren't any absolute masterpieces among these stories, but the world he creates through the lot of them, with the constant presence of the supernatural (probably best seen in "The Night Before Christmas" and "Viy") and a charming provincial sense of humor (at its height in "The Story of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich"), is really quite memorable. Also, it's very interesting to see how the simple country folk of the Ukrainian tales evolve into the often equally naive clerks found in the Petersburg tales, and how the demons and ghosts of Gogol's earlier pieces anticipate the haunted portraits and phantoms of departed eternal titular councillors that would later win Gogol lasting fame. It is, however, the Petersburg tales that are really the centerpiece of the collection. Though it would be a mistake (one that has tempted many a socially-minded critic over the years) to portray these stories as representing a profound sympathy on Gogol's part for plight of the little man, Gogol uses humble copying clerks, struggling artists, and their ilk to paint a wondrously alive picture of the bustling imperial capital.
Nikolai Gogol wrote the stories included in this volume between 1831 and 1842, yet many of them are so modern that one could readily believe that they had been written between 1931 and 1942. Given their 19th-Century vintage, some of these tales are indeed classics of literature.It might be useful to specify which tales are included in this volume and who the translators are. Despite the "collected" of the title, this volume does not gather together ALL of Gogol's tales. Instead, it offers seven "Ukrainian Tales" and six "Petersburg Tales", presented in the order of their composition.The seven Ukrainian Tales are:St. John's EveThe Night Before Christmas *The Terrible VengeanceIvan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt *Old World LandownersViyThe Story of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich *The six Petersburg Tales are:Nevsky Prospect *The Diary of a Madman *The NoseThe CarriageThe PortraitThe Overcoat *(The asterisks denote the stories that are classics in my personal pantheon.) The most conspicuous omission from this volume is "Taras Bulba".The translators are Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, who seem to have made it their mission to translate into English all of the major works of 19th-Century Russian Literature. Their "style" has been criticized by some, but I (though not at all literate in Russian) suspect it well-suited to the informal, irreverent, even madcap prose of Nikolai Gogol. Over the years I ended up with three other collections of Gogol's tales and I sense that the P&V translations are more appropriate for Gogol than those by Constance Garnett and pretty much on a par with those by David Magarshack.
The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol Collected Works of Nikolai Gogol The Collected Works of Nicolai Gogol (Unexpurgated Edition) (Halcyon Classics) The Collected Works of Sigurd F. Olson: The College Years, 1935-1944 (Olson, Sigurd F//Collected Works of Sigurd F Olson) Music to the Film "Alone" Op. 26: New Collected Works of Dmitri Shostakovich - Volume 123 (Dmitri Shostakovich New Collected Works, Volume 123) We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! And Other Works: The Collected Plays of Dario Fo, Volume One (Collected Plays of Dario Fo (Paperback)) Wriggle & Sparkle: The Collected Tales of a Kraken and a Unicorn The Bridesmaids: True Tales of Love, Envy, Loyalty . . . and Terrible Dresses (Picador True Tales) Fairy tales for adults.: Fantastic fairy tales for adults with an erotic bias. Twisted Tales: The Complete Collection (Nine Adult Fairy Tales Of Extreme And Taboo Punishment) The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1 (The Arabian Nights or Tales from 1001 Nights) Plain Tales from the Hills: Rudyard Kipling Collection - 40+ Short Stories (The Tales of Life in British India): In the Pride of His Youth, Tods' Amendment, ... the Night, The Gate of a Hundred Sorrows... The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 2 (The Arabian Nights or Tales from 1001 Nights) The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 3 (The Arabian Nights or Tales from 1001 Nights) Amazing Tales from the Boston Red Sox Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Red Sox Stories Ever Told (Tales from the Team) Tales from the Atlanta Braves Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Braves Stories Ever Told (Tales from the Team) Tales from the Sacramento Kings Locker Room: A Collection of the Greatest Kings Stories Ever Told (Tales from the Team) Hoop Tales: UConn Huskies Women's Basketball (Hoop Tales Series) Hoop Tales: Maryland Terrapins Men's Basketball (Hoop Tales Series) The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Vol 3
