Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Gogol

Personal Info

  • Known for

    Writing

  • Gender

    Male

  • Birthday

    1809-04-01

  • Day of Death

    1852-03-04 (42 years old)

  • Place of Birth

    Sorochintsy, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire [now Velyki Sorochyntsi, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine]

Biography

Nikolai V. Gogol (1809–1852) was an Ukrainian and Russian novelist. Although Gogol was considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in his 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 later writing satirised political corruption in the Russian Empire (The Government Inspector, Dead Souls). The novel Taras Bulba (1835) and the play Marriage (1842), along with the short stories "Diary of a Madman", "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich", "The Portrait" and "The Carriage", round out the tally of his best-known works.

Known For

Crew