The Diary of a Madman, the Government Inspector, and Selected Stories

Nikolai Gogol's short fiction, collected here as The Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector and Selected Stories, deeply influenced later Russian literature with powerful depictions of a society dominated by petty bureaucracy and base corruption.

This volume includes a selection of Gogol's most admired short fiction and his most famous drama. A hilarious and biting political satire, 'The Government Inspector' has been popular since its first performance. The stories gathered here range from comic to tragic and describe the isolated lives of low-ranking clerks, lunatics and swindlers. They include 'Diary of a Madman', an amusing but disturbing exploration of insanity; 'Nevsky Prospect', a depiction of an artist infatuated with a prostitute; and 'The Overcoat', a moving consideration of poverty.

Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) was born in Ukraine. His experience of St Petersburg life informed a savagely satirical play, The Government Inspector, and a series of brilliant short stories including Nevsky Prospect and Diary of a Madman. For over a decade, Gogol laboured on his comic epic Dead Souls before renouncing literature and burning parts of the manuscript shortly before he died.

Endorsements

'The greatest Russian play ever written.' — Nabokov

'Everything he started to imagine transformed itself and began to wriggle with life.' — A.S. Byatt, author of Possession