"The Overcoat" is the title of a short story by Ukrainian-born Russian author Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The story and its author have had great influence on Russian literature, thus spawning Fyodor Dostoevsky's famous quote: "We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'." The story has been adapted into a variety of stage and film interpretations.
Here's the link to the full text of "The Overcoat".
http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a0857.pdf
An article in today's Wall Steert Journal about Nikolai Gogoal. Courtsey Wall Street Journal.
-------------------------------
The Rich Fabric of Invention
Gogol's 'The Overcoat' has weathered the test of time
By WILLIAM AMELIA
In his short, tormented life, the Russian novelist Nikolai Vassilyevich Gogol (1809-1852) managed to write for the ages. His oeuvre is huge. Among the familiar masterworks are "Dead Souls," the first great epic Russian novel; "The Inspector General," a dramatic success; and volumes of Ukrainian and Petersburg tales, rich in folklore and culture with a froth of the supernatural. He is regarded as one of the major influences in the development of realism in Russian literature.
But it is "The Overcoat," the last story that Gogol wrote—perhaps his finest and most famous—that particularly characterizes his legacy. It is a remarkable piece of literary art, displaying Gogol's gift of caricature and imaginative invention. With "The Overcoat," Gogol introduced the short story as a literary form in Russia, providing a new model for other writers of the time. No one said it better than Dostoevsky: "We all came out of Gogol's overcoat."
Gogol, a sickly and delicate infant, was born 200 years ago to parents who were among the countless members of the petty gentry in the Ukraine. Educated at boarding school, he was a poor student but a good mimic. At age 19, he set off for St. Petersburg to make his career and, once there, met Alexander Pushkin, Russia's greatest poet. Three years later, in 1830, he published his first collection of Ukrainian tales, "Evenings on a Farm in Dikanka," which Pushkin was the first to praise. Gogol told Pushkin how his publisher had gone to the shop where the collection was being printed and found the typesetters all laughing merrily as they set the book. Gogol had found an audience.
Through his stories, which contain multitudes, Gogol is principally perceived as a champion of the poor and downtrodden, a writer with an increasingly moralistic point of view. He gave literary life to the "little man," usually a minor official crushed by an insensitive administrative system. This is the theme of "The Overcoat," and Gogol's pathetic little man is Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, an insignificant copying clerk, wholly dedicated to his work though little appreciated.
The prevalent theme of alienation is closely tied to the story's rendering of the human condition. Akaky has no close friends and is so alienated that he is virtually unable to communicate. He merely wants to copy. He is the subject of derision from his fellow clerks, which he accepts without struggling against it. Akaky's only utterance is poignant: "Let me be. Why do you offend me?" (The translation I use throughout this essay is that of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky in the "Collected Tales" published by Everyman's Library.)
Akaky lives frugally on 400 rubles a year, his only dream to acquire an overcoat to replace the threadbare, irreparable garment he wears against the St. Petersburg winters. He needs a sum equal to one-fifth of that annual income to buy the new coat, and he scrimps and denies himself to obtain the funds. With the one-eyed, drunken tailor Petrovich—a marvelous character who provides the story with some semblance of humor—he selects fine cloth. But there are no perfect moments in Akaky's life, as he must settle for a collar of cat fur instead of marten.
On the day Petrovich delivers the completed coat, Akaky's fellow clerks arrange a party to celebrate the event. He is uncomfortable in the social gathering at his colleague's house and soon leaves in his new coat, which he finds on the floor. On the way home through an unfamiliar district he is attacked, brutally beaten and left unconscious. The longed-for coat—in his possession less than a day—is stolen. The police are ineffective and a fellow clerk advises that he must seek help from an "important personage." His appeal to such an eminence is met with cruel intimidation and summarily ignored. Without hope and vulnerable, he falls gravely ill and days later dies. It is a tale both simple and philosophical, though with a difference. The story has, in Gogol's words, a "fantastic ending"—one of spectral retribution and redemption.
Akaky returns as a phantom and has his revenge. He prowls the dark streets of St. Petersburg, terrifying people and stripping them of their coats. He delights in robbing the "important personage" of his overcoat. The once overbearing personage, now stricken with horror and remorse, redeems himself. The story ends as Akaky's ghost frightens a policeman away with "such a fist, as is not to be found even among the living," and, seemingly taller and more robust, disappears "completely into the darkness of the night."
Some of Gogol's contemporaries interpreted the robbery of the important personage's overcoat by Akaky's ghost as a fate awaiting the unrepentant Russian ruling class—a most prophetic speculation.
"The Overcoat" was begun in 1839, redrafted until 1841. A year later a four-volume edition of Gogol's collected writings was published and "The Overcoat" was included in the third volume. Although Gogol was to live another decade, his creative life—which lasted but 12 years—was virtually over.
The story persists in popular culture, having been adapted in a variety of stage and movie interpretations. Gogol's other works are present in more than 35 films, the most recent being "Taras Bulba," released this year.
Gogol was deeply sensitive, and criticism of his writing from peers drained his spirit. Turning to religion, he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1848. Upon his return, greatly depressed, he fell under the influence of the intolerant, fanatical priest Matthew Konstantinovsky. He subjected himself to purgings and bloodletting and a final, fatal fast. He died on May 4, 1852, at age 43, and was buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.
Vladimir Nabokov allowed that the real Gogol was found only in "The Overcoat." "When he tried to write in the Russian tradition," Nabokov said, "he lost all trace of talent. But in the immortal 'The Overcoat' he let himself go and became the greatest artist that Russia has yet produced."
No comments:
Post a Comment