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Rating: 
Summary: Underrated and brilliant
Review: I don't remember how I came across Gogol. But I'm glad I did. The morbid absurdity of these short stories (along with the unfinished "Dead Souls") marks him as a talented writer.Gogol seems to be able to milk character from mundane situations, but at the same token craft words that have as much to do with Garcia Marquez' magic realism than traditional Russian literature. It is this aspect that at first caught me off guard, but in the end made me fall in love with Gogol's prose. My two favourites are these: "The Overcoat", the story of a poor, downtrodden man who saves and saves to buy a fancy new overcoat, but has the whole plan blow up in his face. It is tragedy, but often humourous; sad, but joyous. "The Nose", which is one of my all time favourite short stories. Gogol manages to turn the story of one man's search for his lost nose (where does he find it? In a cathedral, of course!) into a scathing indictment of Russian caste system. It is wonderfully written and wonderfully absurd, and in the end you just go along with the context Gogol has created, because you trust that this is a writer who knows what he is doing.
Rating: 
Summary: I did not read this particular edition
Review: I was just looking and found that a book of Gogol's stories were #3 on University of Southern California's list. I was proud to see this. I'm one of Gogol's biggest fans and I keep it a secret because his talent is special, serious and fun. The Overcoat, Diary of a Madman, Dead Souls and The Nose...what more can you say. The first time I read Overcoat it was in a book of Greatest Short Novels my father had given me. I still hold on to this collection because of Gogol. To me, the Faulkner and James Joyce works included are mere book ends. Overcoat, along with Conrad's Heart of Darkness, stand alone.
Rating:
Summary: I did not read this particular edition
Review: I was just looking and found that a book of Gogol's stories were #3 on University of Southern California's list. I was proud to see this. I'm one of Gogol's biggest fans and I keep it a secret because his talent is special, serious and fun. The Overcoat, Diary of a Madman, Dead Souls and The Nose...what more can you say. The first time I read Overcoat it was in a book of Greatest Short Novels my father had given me. I still hold on to this collection because of Gogol. To me, the Faulkner and James Joyce works included are mere book ends. Overcoat, along with Conrad's Heart of Darkness, stand alone.
Rating:
Summary: Stories by an under-rated, under-appreciated genius.
Review: The opening story, "The Terrible Vengeance," was somewhat unfortunately placed by the editor, being a long melodrama about a woman pursued by her father's incestuous desire for her. The rest of the stories, however, prove Gogol to be a great writer. "The Overcoat," about a very poor man who saves up for a new and badly needed overcoat, is based on an anecdote someone told at a party; everyone laughed but Gogol, who found the loss of the man in the story pathetic, not laughable. His version is indeed pathetic, except for the end, which is completely different in tone. "The Nose" has one of the greatest beginnings of any story ever written: a barber comes down to breakfast, and, slicing through a loaf of bread, sees something hard and white in it. He pulls it out and --it's a nose! Gogol's gift for comedy comes out most strongly in "Ivan Fyodorovitch Shponka and His Aunt," which contains such priceless and absolutely true statements as: "He was nearly fifteen when he passed into the second form where instead of the abridged catechism and the four rules of arithmetic, he began to study the unabridged catechism, the book dealing with the duties of man, and fractions. Realising, however, that the further he progressed in his studies the more difficult they became" he quit school at the first opportunity and joined the army. The story is full of such gems. Another good one is "The Portrait," which, like Gogol himself, is not held in nearly high enough esteem; in this story, an artist named Chartkov buys a portrait of a man whose eyes seem to be living. That night, as Chartkov lays in bed, the man in the portrait steps out. From here, the level of tension steps up. The rest of the story traces both the nature of the portrait and the change in Chartkov, as well as offering Gogol's take on how to be an artist; more than talent and practise is involved. These, and all the other stories, are related in Gogol's best style, excellently translated by David Magarshack. Gogol writes easily, in a colloquial, slangy style, with an good eye for people's mannerisms and foibles; in these respects, he is like Dickens, with whom he is often compared. Gogol is not nearly as much of an optimist, however. None of these stories is heartwarming or ends happily; Gogol depicts the less charming parts of life, and in depicting them, makes them sometimes charming, sometimes amusing, and always interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Department Head...
Review: This story, one of Gogol's most famous is skillfully narrated to reflect the author's frustration with civil service and the plight of the poor, and will evoke an emotional response among listeners. Akakii Akakievich is a lowly government clerk. When winter begins he notices that his old overcoat is beyod repairing. He manages to save money for a new, luxurious coat. His colleagues at the office arrange a party for his acquisition. But his happiness proves to be short-lived. On the way home he is attaced by thieves and robbed of his coat. To recover his lost possession, Akakievich asks help from an Important Person, a director of a department with the rank of general. He treats Akakievich harshly and Akakievich dies of fright within three days. One night when the Important Person is rerutning home, he is attacked by a ghost, late Akakii Akakievich, who steals his overcoat. The stealing of outer garments continue, even though now the ghost is a big man with a moustache and enormous fists. A simpler, if perhaps more prosaic, way of restating the general thrust of the storyline would be to say that 'The Overcoat' is like a good poem. It can be endlessly annotated, interpreted, dissected, but still emerges whole and fresh, like a new morning...
Rating:
Summary: Department Head...
Review: This story, one of Gogol's most famous is skillfully narrated to reflect the author's frustration with civil service and the plight of the poor, and will evoke an emotional response among listeners. Akakii Akakievich is a lowly government clerk. When winter begins he notices that his old overcoat is beyod repairing. He manages to save money for a new, luxurious coat. His colleagues at the office arrange a party for his acquisition. But his happiness proves to be short-lived. On the way home he is attaced by thieves and robbed of his coat. To recover his lost possession, Akakievich asks help from an Important Person, a director of a department with the rank of general. He treats Akakievich harshly and Akakievich dies of fright within three days. One night when the Important Person is rerutning home, he is attacked by a ghost, late Akakii Akakievich, who steals his overcoat. The stealing of outer garments continue, even though now the ghost is a big man with a moustache and enormous fists. A simpler, if perhaps more prosaic, way of restating the general thrust of the storyline would be to say that 'The Overcoat' is like a good poem. It can be endlessly annotated, interpreted, dissected, but still emerges whole and fresh, like a new morning...
Rating: 
Summary: Six tales don't constitute author's best work
Review: This volume constitutes six stories by Gogol of which two are the most famous; "The Overcoat", a wonderful psychological story which was made into a film in the USSR many years ago, and "The Nose", a satire of Russian middle level officials of the early 19th century. Taken as a book, though, these tales full of dreams, asides, and great prolixity are not a major literary landmark on the world stage. Russian literature, as one of the world's greatest collections of works, offers a lot more in my opinion. Gogol, while perhaps a brilliant star for some national literatures, can only be considered a minor writer in Russia, especially if read in English as translated by David Magarshack, whose style can hardly be called 'contemporary'. While it's true that Gogol had a good sense of humor, if a little bizarre, it comes across in this translation as childish. (I must hasten to add that I don't know Russian.) "The Terrible Vengeance" is a rather tedious fairy tale with an incestuous theme, while "The Portrait" bears some likeness to a certain, later work by Oscar Wilde. Though the idea is interesting, Gogol, as in several other stories, just doesn't know when to let go. The story "Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt" contains lively humor and many colorful characters. I enjoyed it the most of all, but it was only the beginning of a larger work, which unfortunately seems never to have been completed. Some analysts (see the Introduction by the translator)have read into Gogol's work pre-revolutionary predictions of violent change or a rising up of the lower classes. I think such an idea is far-fetched. Similarly, while it is true that Gogol's tales and stories do contain struggles between good and evil, the same can be said of an enormous number of folk tales, religious works, and literary pieces by writers in every language. It is interesting to read Gogol's work to widen your knowledge of Russian and world literature. That is a source of satisfaction, but perhaps not enough. Several of the stories are good, but they don't measure up to his longer works---"Dead Souls" and "The Government Inspector". I would read them first, before this lesser book.
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