Gogol: Life and Art

Books in the ‘Rereading the Classics’ series give a modern analysis of the works that form part of school literature curricula. This is the first attempt to provide a detailed insight into the spiritual, moral and religious aspects of the art of 19th and 20th century Russian writers. The series is offered as the basis of modern knowledge about Russian literature, which is necessary to high school students to pass school-leaving examinations and to gain admission to any institution of higher learning.

The book contains the analysis of Gogol’s main works – the comedy ‘The Inspector General’ and the poem ‘Dead Souls’. It considers in detail the fate of the second volume and reveals features of Gogol's poetics, covering those aspects of the writer's biography and creativity that were rarely addressed by pre-revolutionary and Soviet literary critique: his book ‘Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends’, ‘A Trip to Jerusalem, “Trips to Optina Pustyn”. The author recreates the spiritual and moral appearance of Gogol as a writer and a person.

The book is addressed to high school students, applicants, students, teachers of literature, philologists and all those who are interested in Russian literature.