Diary of a Madman, and Other Russian Sketches

Centering on the picaresque realism of Nikolai Gogol's (1809-1852) mid-nineteenth-century visions of the extraordinary in everyday life, this collection mines the ambiance and mind of pre-Revolutionary Russia. These seven stories take us from the Miracle Mile of St. Petersburg's Nevsky Prospekt, and a summer night in a Ukrainian village, to the fantastical psychological geographies of fathers, sons, and madmen. Augmenting Gogol's visions are two disturbing tales by the foremost storyteller of Russia's "e;Silver Age"e; Leonid Andreyev (1871-1919), and a coda from one of Anton Chekhov's (1860-1904) stable of memorable characters.Contents include:Nevsky Prospekt - Nikolai GogolThe Diary of a Madman - Nikolai Gogol Silence - Leonid AndreyevMay Night or The Drowned Girl - Nikolai Gogol Laughter - Leonid AndreyevThe Portrait - Nikolai Gogol On the Harmfulness of Smoking Tobacco - Anton Chekhov