Nikolai Gogol

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      One of six beloved Christmas classics in collectible hardcover editions
       
      Written in 1831 by the father of Russian literature, this uproarious tale tells of the blacksmith Vakula’s battle with the devil, who has stolen the moon and hidden it in his pocket, allowing him to wreak havoc on the village of Dikanka. Both the devil and Vakula are in love with Oksana, the most beautiful girl in Dikanka. Vakula is determined to win her over; the devil, equally determined, unleashes a snowstorm to thwart Vakula’s efforts. Zany and mischievous, and drawing inspiration from the folk tales of Gogol’s far-flung village in Ukraine, The Night Before Christmas is the basis for many movie and opera adaptations, and is still read aloud to children on Christmas Eve in Ukraine and Russia.
       
      Penguin Christmas Classics
       
      Give the gift of literature this Christmas.
       
      Penguin Christmas Classics honor the power of literature to keep on giving through the ages. The six volumes in the series are not only our most beloved Christmas tales, they also have given us much of what we love about the holiday itself. A Christmas Carol revived in Victorian England such Christmas hallmarks as the Christmas tree, holiday cards, and caroling. The Yuletide yarns of Anthony Trollope popularized throughout the British Empire and around the world the trappings of Christmas in London. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus created the origin story for the presiding spirit of Christmas as we know it. The holiday tales of Louisa May Alcott shaped the ideal of an American Christmas. The Night Before Christmas brought forth some of our earliest Christmas traditions as passed down through folk tales. And The Nutcracker inspired the most famous ballet in history, one seen by millions in the twilight of every year.
       
      Beautifully designed hardcovers—with foil-stamped jackets, decorative endpapers, and nameplates for personalization—in a small trim size that makes them perfect stocking stuffers, Penguin Christmas Classics embody the spirit of giving that is at the heart of our most time-honored stories about the holiday.
       
      Collect all six Penguin Christmas Classics:
       
      A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
      Christmas at Thompson Hall: And Other Christmas Stories by Anthony Trollope
      The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum
      A Merry Christmas: And Other Christmas Stories by Louisa May Alcott
      The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol
      The Nutcracker by E. T. A. Hoffmann

      For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

        As Nikolai Gogol's wily antihero, Chichikov, combs the back country wheeling and dealing for "dead souls" - deceased serfs who still represent money to anyone sharp enough to trade them in - we are introduced to a Dickensian cast of peasants, landowners, and conniving petty officers, few of whom can resist the seductive illogic of Chichikov's proposition. This lively, idiomatic English version by the award winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel's lyricism, sulphurous humor, and delight in human oddity and error.

        Since its publication in 1842, Dead Souls has been celebrated as a supremely realistic portrait of provincial Russian life and as a splendidly exaggerated tale; as a paean to the Russian spirit and as a remorseless satire of imperial Russian venality, vulgarity, and pomp. As Gogol's wily antihero, Chichikov, combs the back country wheeling and dealing for "dead souls"--deceased serfs who still represent money to anyone sharp enough to trade in them--we are introduced to a Dickensian cast of peasants, landowners, and conniving petty officials, few of whom can resist the seductive illogic of Chichikov's proposition. This lively, idiomatic English version by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel's lyricism, sulphurous humor, and delight in human oddity and error.

        The classic satire of greed, corruption, and paranoia in czarist Russia
         
        In a small Russian town, the rich wield the power of the gods over their serfs, who remain enslaved even in death. Life is turned upside down with the arrival of Chichikov, a mysterious gentleman who wants to buy the rights to these useless "dead souls." What is this strange traveler up to? Is he mad, or does he know something the townspeople don’t?
         
        As Chichikov visits local landowners, rumors swirl; some even claim he might be Napoleon in disguise. But avarice is an even more powerful instinct than suspicion in this depraved society, and soon Chichikov owns more than four hundred deceased serfs—what he plans to do with them, no one can guess.
         
        A laugh-out-loud satire and an incisive indictment of the corruption at the heart of Russian society, Dead Souls is a masterpiece of nineteenth-century literature.
         
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        Five tragicomic tales from the visionary writer heralded by Vladimir Nabokov as "the greatest artist that Russia has yet produced"
         
        A midlevel bureaucrat in the czar’s administration, Poprishchin is hurrying to work when he sees a woman step out of a carriage. Her beauty astounds him, and as she passes by, he hears something impossible: Her dog opens its mouth, and begins to speak. It is Poprishchin’s first step on the road to insanity, a journey that will take him into the depths of hell—and raise him up to the heights of emperors and kings.
         
        "Memoirs of a Madman" is one of Nikolai Gogol’s definitive short works, a satire of the excesses of czarist bureaucracy told with wit, empathy, and his signature blend of the real and surreal. Other highlights in this indispensable volume include the haunting title story and "The Nose," an absurdist masterpiece.
         
        This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.