The Portrait

Akaky Akakievich, a poor copying clerk in St. Petersburg, saves for months to buy a new overcoat, and losing it changes everything. Constance Garnett's classic translation, opened by a short note on Gogol and the story's place in Russian literature.

Nikolai Gogol

A St. Petersburg official wakes up without his nose and then spots it riding around the city in the uniform of a higher rank. Gogol's funniest and most absurd tale, complete in a short, easy-to-read edition.

Nikolai Gogol

A lowly clerk in love with his director's daughter writes a diary that slides from office gossip to talking dogs and the conviction that he is the King of Spain. A short, darkly comic portrait of a mind coming apart.

Nikolai Gogol

A seminary student is forced to read prayers for three nights over the coffin of a young witch, while the dead rise around him. Gogol's famous horror tale from Ukrainian folklore in Claud Field's translation, with the author's note on the Viy.

Nikolai Gogol

On Christmas Eve a witch and the devil steal the moon, and the blacksmith Vakula rides the devil all the way to St. Petersburg to win the slippers his sweetheart demands. A merry Ukrainian folk tale from Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka.

Nikolai Gogol