Page:Russian Literature - A Study Outline.djvu/23

RUSSIAN LITERATURE NIKOLAY VASILEVICH GOGOL, 1809-1852 The delineation of Gogol's character is constantly marked by a rare fidelity to human nature. . . . They are actual types of common life, sketched with a keen knowledge of the sphere in which they move, and in their every word and act we are made to feel that they are kin with ourselves. Most of them seem to be old acquaintances whom we have come across more than once. Charles Edward Turner. The truthfulness of Gogol to reality is almost ethnograph- ical, without ever ceasing to be poetical. All the superstitions of a village life on Christmas eve or during a midnight night, when the mischievous spirits and goblins get free till the cock crows, are brought before the reader, and at the same time we have all the wittiness which is inborn in the Little Russian. Prince Kropotkin. 1. Gogol the man and literary craftsman. a His education and life career. b Influence of his early surroundings on his work. c His friendship with Pushkin. d His career as a university lecturer. e His nature descriptions. / His style. g His place in Russian literature. 2. Gogol's writings. a "Evenings at the farm/' with reading : The Dnieper. In Dupuy. Great masters of Russian literature. p. 15-18. Wiener. Anthology of Russian literature, v. 2, p. 187-8. b "Tavas Bulba," with readings. c "Dead souls." d "The revizor" ("The inspector general"). e His other work. Recommended Reading The cloak. In Lippincott's Magazine. 92 : 249-62. Aug '13. His genius was essentially realistic and satiric. It expressed itself best in a short story, "The overcoat." G. R. Noyes.