The Mantle and Other Short Stories (Illustrated) - The Mantle, The Viy, A May Night, Memoirs of a Madman, The Nose, Christmas Eve

The Mantle and Other Short Stories by Nikolai Gogol: Strange Russian stories of demons, witches, and vampires, cossaks and crazy clerks. Vasilievich Gogol (18091852) is by far the most enigmatic, unexpected, contradictory, and mystical writer representing classic Russian literature. stories are unforgettably colored with Ukrainian romance and include uncanny dissections of the realities of St. Petersburg under Tsarist Russia. The ethnographic realities are described with almost scientific precision while incorporating those inexplicable, fantasy, elements that define his works as Magical Realism.