Tag: Nikolai Gogol

These last two in the Folio Society collection of Gogol’s stories, which I finished reading this afternoon, each exhibit his dark humour aimed at the military and government classes; each concerns an attempt to secure a desired object which backfires.

The author’s fluid descriptive skills show the environment and personnel involved in the escalation of a bid for an alleged magnificent horse to become  a desire for an even more magnificent carriage, neither of which lived up to their expectations. As we move up the hierarchy it is apparent that it is they who are being ridiculed. The circumstances of the exposure of the falsities was farcical. 

Deception, and promises of unprepared splendid meals has been employed to ensnare a military gentleman in The Carriage, a story in which the deceiver is exposed by accident.

“…many times afterwards in his life he shuddered, seeing how much savage brutality lies hidden under refined, cultured politeness, and, my God! Even in a man whom the world accepts as a gentleman and a man of honour” – so speaks Gogol of a man who has been the butt of cruel jokes as he struggles to work at a boring occupation throughout his life. It is his coveted overcoat that is the subject of the story of which I will say no more except to show 

Peter Sturt’s illustration. There is no picture attached to The Carriage.

This evening we dined on more of Jackie’s penne Bolognese with green and runner beans sautéed in garlic butter, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Fleurie.

These next two tales in the Folio Society’s collection of Gogol’s Stories belong together in my series of posts. Schiller, in “The Nevsky Prospect”  has already pleaded that “i don’t want a nose! Cut off my nose!”

In “A Madman’s Diary” and the following story our author presents a world where the boundaries of existence are redetermined by a maniac, perhaps Gogol as he sees himself, who in “The Nose” states that “What is utterly nonsensical happens in the world.

It seems that the terrors of his abusive childhood were at last catching up with him, and perhaps to stimulate his suicide at aged 41.

Peter Sturt has provided an illustration for each story.

The madman talks to dogs, and reads their private letters; claims to be the king of Spain; and is carried metaphorically in a straitjacket to be kept in hospital subjected to what he experiences as torture.

The owner of “The Nose” wakes up without it; conducts a search; finds it dressed up in splendid clothes.

Perhaps this is the author’s parody of the imbeciles who he believed could be promoted beyond their competence in his Russia, or anywhere else in the world.

Attempting to alleviate his position Kovalyov seeks to persuade a clerk to publish an advertisement for the discovery of his olfactory member; we see sick humour in the official offering him his snuff box when he had not the capacity to sniff. Was his desperate, lonely cry “My God, my God! Why has this misfortune befallen me?” a reference to Jesus on the cross?

Once again in this next tale in the Folio Society selection of the stories of Nikolai Gogol, the author has displayed his facility for evoking place and person in apparently effortlessly fluent descriptive prose.

We are immediately introduced to this famous Petersburg street and its populace in the first two paragraphs covering five closely packed pages of glorious language. This technique is repeated throughout the work in different settings.

Gogol takes us through a typical day from morning to night showing the nature and numbers of visitors at work and play at different times. He details types and condition of clothing and presentation bearing in mind the impression walkers wish to impact on others of either sex. As the day progresses it is the self-display that becomes the more important.

“Thousands of varieties of hats, dresses, and kerchiefs, flimsy and bright-coloured, for which their owners feel sometimes an adoration that lasts two whole days, dazzle everyone on the Nevsky Prospect. A whole sea of butterflies seem to have flown up from their flower-stalks and to be floating in a glittering cloud above the beetles of the male sex……….And the ladies’ sleeves that that you meet….are like two air balloons and the lady might suddenly float up in the air, were she not held down by the gentlemen accompanying her, for it would be as easy and agreeable for a lady to be lifted into the air as for a glass of champagne to be lifted to the lips.”

The above quotation, part of the second paragraph mentioned above,contains samples of the descriptions, including the writer’s prolific use of metaphor and simile.

Two different gentlemen of dissimilar backgrounds and occupation meet and exchange observations of different young ladies.

We follow their diverging dreams and experiences culminating in Gogol’s belief in the falseness of the Nevsky Prospect. Peter Sturt has illustrated one man’s dream.

This evening we all dined on pork spare ribs in barbecue sauce, Jackie’s savoury rice, and breaded halloumi sticks, with which she drank more of the sauvignon blanc and I drank more of The Guv’nor.

On another cold, drab, day I stayed inside and read some more.

Here we have the fifth and sixth stories in The Folio Society’s Gogol collection.

“Old-World Landowners” demonstrates how an apparently insignificant event, coupled with ancient beliefs, can destroy a lifetime’s idyllic existence.

The writer treats us to lovely bucolic descriptions of the life of an elderly devoted couple, dedicated to a traditional existence typical of their class, their generosity, and their lack of real involvement in the upkeep of their estate, delegated to their untrustworthy serfs more interesting in gaining as much for themselves as for their masters.

Quite suddenly this all changes in an instance. Nothing can be taken for granted as permanent.

The writer also explores how grief turning to melancholy can bring about a further unhappy demise.

There is no illustration by Peter Sturt to this story written in Gogol’s delightfully fluid prose. I have therefore paired it with “Viy” which, according to translator Constance Garnett is based on an age-old peasant belief of colossal imagination.

Again, it is the skilled description of place and persons which holds our attention as we learn the outcome of a student philosopher’s battle with a devilish gnome and his witchy daughter.

The student takes up the challenge of the father, setting his wits and determination, prayers and exorcisms against paralysing mystic powers evoked by the daughter capable of raising from death.

Conflict between students of various levels spills over into the streets of the town where they are subject to the temptation of female purveyors of cakes and goodies.

Later temptations of the more carnal kind overcome our philosopher, when his weakening contains more erotic images and he is carried off, to continue fleeing further nights, each more testing that the last.

The metaphor I choose to quote from this episode is “He crawled through the prickly bushes, paying a toll of rags from his coat on every thorn”. This story also uses sound, such as that of a creaking gate, distant howling of wolves and barking of dogs, wild shrieks, a whirlwind, and even silence between companions, to build the atmosphere towards the tumultuous denouement.

PS. Please note Dolly’s important information and film trailer in koolkosherkitchen comments below

This evening we all dined on Jackie’s chicken and vegetable stewp and fresh crusty bread, with which she drank more of her Spanish rosado and I finished the shiraz