Reviews

The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol

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cherryobscura's review

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

beomiz's review

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5.0

This is a story about a lowly government official that saves up for a new coat. Once he gets the new coat he suffers a couple of unfortunate events which have a knock on effect on his health.

It sounds pretty dull doesn’t it? It’s not. Or at least the richness of the writing seems to be able celebrate the ordinariness of the characters and the everyday nature of the story. The vivid descriptions of historic St. Petersberg are oddly satisfying and make this very short book a pleasure to read.

There were two things that really struck me about the difference between the time of the novel’s setting and the present time. Firstly, it takes the main character many months to scrape together the money for a cheap new coat. It’s quite possible to buy one for the equivalent of a few hours work even in a poorly paid job, whereas it took the protagonist many month’s wages. Secondly his job was to copy out letters, which is has been replaced several times over by technological advances.

I’ve not read anything by Gogol before this book but I can see comparisons in his work with Dostoevsky, Chekhov and, to a lesser extent, Tolstoy. It’s not exactly hilarious but there were quite a few observations or asides which made me smile, and I think that a dark humour runs through the story.

It’s hard to give such a short story five stars because there’s not a great deal that happens but it was an enjoyable read and I’m glad I read it.