The Nose

This literary guide leads students with advanced knowledge of Russian as well as experienced scholars through the text of Nikolai Gogols absurdist masterpiece The Nose. Part I focuses on numerous instances of the writers wordplay, which is meant to surprise and delight the reader, but which often is lost in English translations. It traces Gogols descriptions of everyday life in St. Petersburg, familiar to the writers contemporaries and fellow citizens but hidden from the modern Western reader. Part II presents an overview of major critical interpretations of the story in Gogol scholarship from the time of its publication to the present, as well as its connections to the works of Shostakovich, Kafka, Dal, and Kharms.