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370 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2020
My God, what is our life! An eternal discord between dreams and substance! (from "Nevsky Avenue")and his unexpected humorous twists as if taken from the best pages of surrealist writings:
I also read in the newspapers about two cows who came into a shop and asked for a pound of tea. (from "Diary of a Madman")And I can't resist quoting this extended one too:
What exactly the post of the significant personage was and in what it consisted is still unknown to this day. The reader must know that a certain significant personage had only recently been made a significant personage, and before that he had been an insignificant personage. By the way, even now his position is not considered significant in comparison to other, even more significant positions. But there will always be a circle of people for whom something that other people consider insignificant is significant. (from "The Overcoat")If translation is difficult in poetry, it is even more so and paramount for Gogol. If we don't choose his translator wisely, we would miss the full splendor of "Gogolian" language and story-writing. I think this collection did an admirable service to this literary giant and the most remarkable wordsman.