The Overcoat and Other Stories

Gogol's stories are admired for their skillful mingling of fantasy and reality, quiet good humor and use of mundane details ? as Gogol put it ? "e;to extract the extraordinary from the ordinary."e; Imaginative and timeless, they remain as fresh and significant today as they were to readers generations ago.This rich selection of four short stories by the great 19th-century Russian author of Dead Souls includes "e;The Nose,"e; a savage satire of incompetent bureaucrats and the snobbery and complacency of the Russian upper classes; "e;Old-Fashioned Farmers,"e; a sketch depicting an elderly couple who live a happy but simple life in rustic seclusion; "e;The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich,"e; and of Gogol's most famous comic stories; and "e;The Overcoat,"e; an exceptionally moving tale ? considered a masterpiece of the form ? about a poor and much-ridiculed St. Petersburg official. Includes a selection from the Common Core State Standards Initiative: "e;The Nose."e;