Plays of Gogol

Mondo hot book receives killer rave review!

I thought this was going to be some old, pre-Lamaz class edition of Gogol. But it was quite crisp and new, and put out by the same wackadoodle anarchistos who released Kharms and other suppressed Soviets. Therefore it is great!



I bought it because I never read any Gogol plays other than The Govt Inspector. And the intro is right: Gogol was not really a master of the stage craft. There are some really funny moments and some damn well written conversations (the translator is good, not verbose), but also too much monologuing and Vaudevillian stuff. The appendices are really good here, full of Gogol Notes and a lengthy essay about this poor man. Burned a whole play because someone fell asleep during a reading! And burned his last book too! Damn you, Gogol, why!

However if you love Gogol as I do, then it doesn't feel like the decision is in your hands. Read all of his work.

I guess pretentious old Nabokov should have done a translation of Gogol. He said the text of Govt Inspector has "Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky thin-limbed but with large bellies like pregnant ladies" and that passage in this book simply said they were pot-bellied. But nowhere near Constance Garnett's saying they were "rather corpulent." Does that sound fun to read? Research your translator, always!



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