Nikolai Gogol was one of the great geniuses of nineteenth century Russian literature, with a command of the irrational unmatched by any writer before or since.
His strange tales, though often read as forceful demands for social change, were displays of the fantasies of the human spirit.
In this ideal marriage of subject and critic, Nabokov analyses his endlessly inventive compatriot, focusing on the masterpieces Dead Souls, The Overcoat and The Government Inspector.
Misunderstood by his contem.
