Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin Classics (1973), Edition: reprint, Paperback, 192 pages
Description
Illuminates the Russian writer's thoughts on madness, bureaucracy, and illusion in these five tales.
User reviews
LibraryThing member john257hopper
A generally good collection of short stories:
Diary of a Madman - hilariously funny at first, but more tragic at the end as the narrator's insanity comes into full force.
The Nose - ridiculous, yet somehow charmingly funny. This is usually reckoned to be his short story masterpiece, but I prefer
The Overcoat - another funny story, but with a sad and pathetic end
How Ivan Ivanovich quarelled with Ivan Nikiforovich - some amusing dialogue between two friends who fall out, but otherwise rather tiresome and overlong.
Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and his Aunt - mildly amusing but inconsequential
Diary of a Madman - hilariously funny at first, but more tragic at the end as the narrator's insanity comes into full force.
The Nose - ridiculous, yet somehow charmingly funny. This is usually reckoned to be his short story masterpiece, but I prefer
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Diary and Overcoat.The Overcoat - another funny story, but with a sad and pathetic end
How Ivan Ivanovich quarelled with Ivan Nikiforovich - some amusing dialogue between two friends who fall out, but otherwise rather tiresome and overlong.
Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and his Aunt - mildly amusing but inconsequential
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LibraryThing member Big_Bang_Gorilla
The eponymous story in this collection, justly celebrated and turned into a successful stage piece, acts as a wonderful anchor to the book, with its intriguing description of the gradations between normality and lunacy . It is followed by "The nose", also frequently anthologized, which centers
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around the proto-Kafkaesque premise of a man's search for his runaway nose. After that the stories become pretty average; they concentrate on trenchant criticism of Russian society and bureaucracy of the day, and as such are reminiscent of the stories his contemporaries in France were producing at this time. They are mildly interesting, but rather academic two centuries later, and perhaps rather more to be appreciated than enjoyed. Show Less
Language
Original language
Russian
Physical description
192 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0140442731 / 9780140442731
Local notes
Nose. Carriage. Overcoat. How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich. Ivan Fyodorovich and His Aunt