Russian · 1809–1852
Nikolai Gogol came from Ukraine to St. Petersburg and transformed Russian literature with stories that veered between social satire and surreal nightmare. "The Overcoat" and "The Nose" created a tradition of the grotesque that runs through Dostoevsky to Bulgakov. Dead Souls, his unfinished masterpiece, was intended as a Russian Divine Comedy but reached only its satirical first part before Gogol, in religious mania, burned the second volume and starved himself to death. His comedy The Government Inspector mocks provincial corruption with such accuracy that Tsar Nicholas I reportedly said after attending, "Everyone got it, and I most of all." Dostoevsky said all Russian literature came out of Gogol's "Overcoat." His influence extends beyond Russia: Kafka, Borges, and the magical realists all descend from his strange vision.