The Viy

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 poor young painter buys an old portrait whose eyes seem alive, and finds a roll of gold hidden in its frame. Gogol's two-part tale about art, ambition and a bargain with evil, set in St. Petersburg.

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