My first random card draw brought me:
| ♦︎ Jack | The Overcoat | Nicolai Gogol | The Overcoat and Other Short Stories |
Whilst I do remember watching an old black and white adaptation of this short story and being quite puzzled by it, this was my first experience of reading Gogol.
It was both delightful and perplexing. He certainly seems to have been a writer that could tell a story with a twinkle in his eye. Not necessarily a laugh-out-loud story, but certainly making fatalistic points in an entertaining manner.
The Overcoat, written in 1842, was just like this. The story is basically a witty character sketch making fun of several characters, while saying
“How little humane feeling after all was to be found in men’s hearts; how much coarseness and cruelty was to be found even in the educated and those who were everywhere regarded as good and honorable men.”
And while even a powerless outcast may get a chance at happiness, it will be snatched away by someone at some time. It’s a vicious circle and you can’t win.
Weird story, but I liked it.
Broken Tune's Blog 
I am glad you liked this. By the time I’d gotten to it, I’d burnt out on his russian peasants fighting Old Scratch thing he also seemed to enjoy writing about. So I couldn’t see that “twinkle” you talk about and just read it as hostile, teeny angsty seriousness, ie totally self-absorbed selfishness.
I think reading 1 thing, whether novel, short story, etc, by Gogol is the way to go. While I doubt I’ll ever re-read his stuff, if I do, I’m going to try to remember that formula 🙂
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I’m really looking forward to reading the other stories I picked. I can’t judge an author on one short story alone.
But I hear you on the angst seriousness. If this is what you got from it, then this would become grating quite quickly.
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I always take Russian literature very seriously, I just don’t know how else to take it. Because most of the time they are in Deathly Earnest 🙂
Reminds me of that Literature Meme:
English Literature I will die for honor.
French lit I will die for love
American Lit I will die for freedom
Russian Literature I will die.
I still laugh my head off whenever I read that 😀
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