
The Overcoat and Other Russian Tales
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Narrated by:
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Stefan Rudnicki
About this listen
In this original compilation from Skyboat Media and Blackstone Publishing, Nikolai Gogol’s stories range from the whimsical and bizarre to the incisive and satiric, from the horrific and terrifying to the nonsensical and hilarious.
A lowly government clerk, Akay Akakiyevich, must scrimp and save to purchase a new coat for the cold Russian winter in “The Overcoat”. But after one night of basking in the warmth of his new coat and the respect of his colleagues, Akaky’s one-of-a-kind overcoat is stolen from him. In his pursuit of justice, Akaky receives no help and is consumed by the loss of his prized possession.
In “The Viy”, Gogol recounts a popular folk story in which a monstrous creature, known by the population of Little Russia as the king of gnomes, helps a witch get revenge on a young student who escaped from her trap years before.
“How the Two Ivans Quarrelled” begins as a merry farce, telling the story of the friendship-ending fight between Ivan Ivanovitch and Ivan Nikiforovitch. The two Ivans have been neighbors and best friends for years despite their numerous differences, but this fight infiltrates every facet of their lives, until they cannot stand the sight of one another.
Then finally in “The Nose”, we see the peak of Gogol’s humor and absurdity when a government official wakes to find his nose has disappeared.
The Russian critic D.S. Mirsky (1890-1939) described the story as “a piece of sheer play, almost sheer nonsense. In it more than anywhere else Gogol displays his extraordinary magic power of making great comic art out of nothing.” This extraordinary power is woven throughout all the stories in this compilation, and it firmly establishes Gogol as a master of the peculiar and the surreal.
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Overall
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Performance
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Using, or rather mimicking, traditional forms of storytelling, Gogol created stories that are complete within themselves and only tangentially connected to a meaning or moral. His work belongs to the school of invention, where each twist and turn of the narrative is a surprise unfettered by obligation to an overarching theme.
-
-
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-
Dead Souls
- By: Nikolai Gogol, Constance Garnett - translator
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gogol's great Russian classic is the Pickwick Papers of Russian literature. It takes a sharp but humorous look at life in all its strata but especially the devious complexities in Russia, with its landowners and serfs. We are introduced to Chichikov, a businessman who, in order to trick the tax authorities, buys up dead 'souls', or serfs, whose names still appear on the government census. Despite being a dealer in phantom crimes and paper ghosts, he is the most beguiling of Gogol's characters.
-
-
Hilarious and well done, but massive sections of the manuscript are missing?
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By: Nikolai Gogol, and others
-
Dead Souls
- By: Nikolai Gogol
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Dead Souls, Gogol's epic poem in prose, is widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature. We follow Chichikov, a dismissed civil servant turned conman, through the countryside in pursuit of his shady enterprise as he arrives in the provincial town of 'N' and begins visiting various landowners to make each a strange and ghostly offer.
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-
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- Narrated by: Ben Allen, Jonathan Keeble, Peter Noble, and others
- Length: 188 hrs and 26 mins
- Highlights
-
Overall
-
Performance
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Story
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By: Leo Tolstoy, and others
-
The Overcoat
- A Russian Ghost Story, with Original Foreword by Kate Shrewsday
- By: Nikolai Gogol
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-
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-
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Nicolai Gogol's classic ghost story set in the streets of St. Petersburg in the 19th century.
-
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What listeners say about The Overcoat and Other Russian Tales
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Fred
- 04-11-24
Stefan Rudnicki's Performance is Exceptional
Gogol's wonderful stories read wonderfully by Stefan Rudniki. I had never before recognized Gogol's affinity with Sterne.
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- 0
- 11-02-23
Gogol stories narrated by Stephan Rudnicki
This is an outstanding collection of stories read by one of the best narrators. It is one of the best audible books I have listened to. Gogol is always entertaining, and the narrator delivers with authority.
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- Toadocean
- 04-17-23
How can we review Gogol and Rudnicki?
One of the greats being read by one of the greats. This is an essential read. The subtlety of Gogol and the perfection of Rudnicki makes this an important collection to read if you are serious about Russian literature.
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- LookoutSF
- 07-13-22
not able to access options
unable to access options to choose individual stories in book. all or nothing. unable to stop and restart
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2 people found this helpful