Description

Franklin Library leather edition of Nikolai Gogol's " Taras Bulba and Other Tales," Translated by Constance Garnett, revised, edited, and annotated by Leonard J. Kent, illustrated by Frances Jetter, Frontispiece portrait of Gogol, a Limited edition, one of the COLLECTED STORIES OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST WRITERS series, published in 1984. Bound in deep scarlet red leather, the book has red moire silk end leaves, hubbed spine, a satin book marker, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, gold gilding on three edge---in near FINE condition. Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, who lived from 1809-1852, was born in the Ukraine, the first boy in a family of twelve children. At age nine, Gogol went to boarding school where he remained for seven years. Gogol arrived in St. Petersburg in 1828. There in his weary working day he confronted in "The Overcoat," the story of Akaky Akakievich, a simple, unambitious government clerk who manages to escape his small world for one day, only to be beaten back that same evening. His superiors ignore him; his colleagues enjoy harassing him for no reason at all. He receives their good wishes only after he wears to work a new, tailored-to-order winter coat, purchased after considerable privations. But the overcoat is taken from him a couple of men, leaving him shattered to the point that he goes home, falls ill, and dies a few weeks later. Despite a growing reputation as a writer, Gogol earned little money; he later took a professorship in world history at the University of St. Petersburg. "Nevsky Prospekt" focuses on the strange characters who walk along St. Petersburg's main avenue. In "Taras Bulba" a Cossack chieftain leads his warriors into combat time after time. The story covers the 17th century wars between the Poles and the Ukrainian Cossacks. "Diary of a Madman" consists of nineteen diary entries and follows the civil servant Poprischin, an ambitious middle-aged fellow whose dreams of success are constantly thwarted by his superiors. Poprischin fantasizes about his director's daughter; he reads letters written by her dog; to win the girl's affection, he even makes himself into the King of Spain. Gogol confronts rank and social status in "The Nose"---an extravagant farce---and makes us laugh at the folly of class stratification. Gogol said: "Laughter is a great thing: it deprives you of neither life nor property, but before it the guilty are like a hare with its legs tied." This volume is a collection of ten stories, including selections from "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka." Dostoevsky said: "We all come from under Gogol's overcoat." Gogol enjoyed a close relationship with the great Russian poet, Alesandr Pushkin. Gogol was one of the first writers to criticize Russian society during a time of severe government censorship. 441 pages---a RARE title. I offer Combined shipping.