Access Today Il Cappotto Devised By Nikolai Gogol Compiled As EText

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absolutely love it Kamaszkin as a tragic character always moves me, . . My first contact with Gogol, and certainly not my last,
This little book tells the story of Akakiy Akakievitch, a certain official in a certain department where nobody showed him any sign of respect, being mocked by his coworkers.
I believe that must be one of the worst things that may happen to a human being: realising that high school did not end it doesn't bring back good memories to many people.
The bullying, the bad jokes, the embarrassing moments that make you gently ask the ground to eat you alive, the psychological and emotional harm, all of that now at your workplace You have to love the irony.


The Overcoat is, well, a story about an overcoat, It seems to have more importance than Akakiy himself, the responsible guy with the unfortunate name, That's another thing: mothers, what are you thinking about when you give your children ridiculous names Please, spare them a lot of trouble, save yourselves a lot of money in psychologists and start naming your kids properly.
I don't know why they don't change their own name into some fruit, weird magicians, comic superheroes, cars, cardinal points or anything else they seem to love.
Especially you, celebrity people who don't know I exist and won't read this in your entire life,
Rant officially over. If you search for "Akakiy Akakievitch", you'll understand, I had to do that because I wanted to know why the author spent several lines explaining how he got his name and, of course, I don't speak Russian.


As I was saying, this book is about a man who was constantly humiliated at work and his ruined overcoat, which he wanted to repair because of the cold, cold winter and the bad, bad jokes.
So he decided to buy a new one, and after living under a tight budget, he managed to do so.
And suddenly, he became a respectable man, That laughable poor devil who always endured those hideous jokes and never replied to anyone was now an important member in his department of society, even.
His brand new overcoat gave him confidence, some selfesteem, People organised a party in his honourto be fair, in the overcoat's honour but still, it was a big deal.
And then something happened, . .

I loved this short story it contains some beautiful and heartfelt lines, . .

and many a time afterwards, in the course of his life, shuddered at seeing how much inhumanity there is in man, how much savage coarseness is concealed beneath delicate, refined worldliness, and even, O God! in that man whom the world acknowledges as honorable and noble.

that reflect society, then and now, Everything seems to change but the most significant things don't change that much, That's one of the reasons I love literature, Books written hundreds of years ago talking about situations, attitudes, emotions, ways of thinking that we still see, experience and feel nowadays.
The responses of the general population towards routine, overbearing bureaucracy, discrimination, injustice, exploitation or alienation haven't changed so much throughout history.
Not all writers have what it takes to explore these universal emotions and write something you can immediately relate to.
But Gogol seems to be one of them, He had that keen eye meant to observe individuals and humanity as a whole and could write about it so vividly I could totally see my previous boss in some passages.


Gogol's influence on Russian literature is unquestionable, Dostoyevsky, Bulgakov, even Kafka, so my favourite authors are all connected here,
The Overcoat is a short story that speaks volumes, Do not miss it.



Sep,
Also on sitelinkmy blog,update: I'm bumping this up to allon reread, This Russian tale of an introverted man and his trials relating to an expensive for him overcoat really hit me on second read.
The characterization is so indepth for a shorter work, especially as it relates to Akaky, the main character, his tailor, and a smallminded bureaucrat.
There's also some really interesting symbolism relating to his overcoat and how it affects both Akaky and the people around him.
Recommended!

The English translation on Project Gutenberg linked at the end of this review from the original Russian is excellent, except that it still irks me that it's called "the cloak" rather than the overcoat.
It has sleeves it's an overcoat

Original review: In my preparation for reading sitelinkThe Metamorphosis, I did some background reading of critical analyses, including sitelinkthis one by Vladimir Nabokov thanks to Cecily for the link!, where he does a fantastic dissection heh of The Metamorphosis but also talks about Gogol's "The Carrick" aka "The Cloak" or "The Overcoat" and tosses off wonderful ideas like this:

"The beauty of Kafka's and Gogol's private nightmares is that their central human characters belong to the same private fantastic world as the inhuman characters around them, but the central one tries to get out of that world, to cast off the mask, to transcend the cloak or the carapace.
"

And then there's this haunting quote, attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky: "We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat', " ETA: Even months later, every time I think about this story, that quote comes to mind, So off I went to read Nicolai Gogol's short story,

Akaky Akakievich is an absurd, pathetic figure of a man, His name would translate as something very nondescript like "John Johnson," except you also have this deliberate allusion to "kaka" or caca feces in his name one review site suggested you think of him as Poopy McPooperson.
He is a "titular councillor" read: minor official who in fact does nothing except act as a human photocopier, all day, every day, for very low pay.
He even takes his copy work home with him in the evenings, His only joy in life is derived from his copy work, Even being asked to make the most minor changes to the original version throws him into a tizzy, His coworkers make fun of him, but other than a pitiful protest of "Leave me alone! Why do you insult me," he quietly carries on.


Until one day, when he realizes that his overcoat has become so threadbare that it won't keep off the cold St.
Petersburg winter. After a few skirmishes with his tailor about whether the old coat can be patched up or not, he caves and agrees to save up money for a new coat, which will cost likeof his annual wages.
Gradually Akaky gets more and more excited about his new coat, And when he finally gets the finished overcoat lined with cat fur because marten fur is too expensive sorry to my felineloving friends! it causes a sensation in his workplace.


Of course, this beingth century Russian literature, you know it's going to go south for poor Akaky.
Akaky's coat gets stolen the first day, when he goes out at night to a party his coworkers throw to celebrate his new coat.
He fruitlessly tries to get the police and some government guy to help him, gets totally shot down, walks home in the freezing cold, gets sick and dies.
But the surprise for me was the ending, The ghost of Akaky Akakievich starts haunting St.
Petersburg, pulling coats off of pedestrians, And is that a tougher, more masculine Akaky ghost at the very end, or a different ghost I'm not quite certain but I'm inclined to think it's Akaky.


I'm still a little bemused by the unexpected turn from

existentialist dark humor to gothic at the end.
It didn't quite feel integral to me, Nabokov's inspired praises notwithstanding, So, four from me, even though I actually though it was an amusing ending and I liked seeing a certain character get his comeuppance.


Free online several places, including sitelinkhere at Project Gutenberg in a collection of Russian short stories.
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