The Overcoat

Since its publication in 1835, The Overcoat has been celebrated as a remorseless satire of imperial Russian venality, vulgarity, and corruption. A short story about a government clerk who has his precious new overcoat stolen, Gogol introduces us to a Dickensian cast of deceitful petty officials, not one of which seems willing to help him retrieve his prized possession, a fact that continues to distress him even when he is beyond the grave.


NIKOLAI GOGOL (1809-1852) was a Ukrainian novelist, short story writer and dramatist, considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of Russian literary realism and a master of the grotesque. His plots are bizarre and intriguing, his humor unique and unmistakable. Among his masterworks are Diary of a Madman, The Overcoat, Taras Bulba, and The Government Inspector.