Cournos, John

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (Russian: 1 March [O.S. 19 March] 1809 - 4 March [O.S. 21 February] 1852) was a Russian dramatist, novelist and short story writer.

Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism and the grotesque ("The Nose," "Viy," "The Overcoat," "Nevsky Prospekt"). His early works, such as Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, were influenced by his Ukrainian upbringing, Ukrainian culture and folklore. His l...