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5 must-read books by Nikolai Gogol to understand Russia

A young swindler arrives in the provincial town of N and pretends to be an important official from the capital. A seminarian performs a requiem for a deceased maiden, who rises from the grave. Major Kovalev wakes up one morning to discover that his nose has run away.

These are just three plots from Nikolai Gogol, the most comical, the most satirical, and (one of) the most profound Russian writers. 210 years have flowed under the bridge since his birth, yet his works are as fresh, relevant, and funny as ever. Moreover, he traced many of the features of the Russian character that would be developed by later better-known writers, and identified and poked fun at many problems in Russian society.

Put simply, reading Gogol is pure delight. And if you want to understand Russia more deeply, we highly recommend the following works.

1. Dead Souls

Great actor Alexander Kalyagin starring Chichikov

Most of this book was written in Italy, giving rise to the belief ever since that a Russian writer needs to view the country from the outside in order to peel away all the layers on the inside (and write a good book in the process).

Like many of Gogol’s plots, the storyline is quite intricate. The middle-class official Chichikov arrives in a nameless provincial town and visits the local landowners asking them to sell their “dead souls.” The “souls” in question are serfs that have died (and hence of no use to the landowners), but are still listed in the most recent census as alive. Chichikov’s get-rich-quick scheme is to purchase as many as possible to acquire social status. What could possibly go wrong?

Incidentally, the author himself described the work as a poem, apparently for its numerous lyrical digressions and reflections on the fate of Russia: “And you, Russia of mine –  are not you also speeding like a troika which nought can overtake?”

Gogol initially conceived the book as three volumes to echo Dante’s Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. “Hell” (i.e. the first volume bequeathed to us) flowed off the pen and, as its proposed title suggests, probes the darkest aspects of the Russian character (embezzlement, bribery, hypocrisy, not to mention bad roads) in a lively and humorous manner. However, when it came to “Purgatory,” Gogol realized that his aptitude for portraying good characters was not so sharp, and, according to legend, he burned it (only a fragment survived). Over time, the burning of the second volume by the impulsive Gogol has acquired meme-like status in the Russian literary consciousness.

2. The Government Inspector

Yevgeny Mironov as Khlestakov

Number 2 in the list is a play, once again set in a small provincial town. The main protagonist, a minor official by the name of Khlestakov, pays a visit. He has absolutely no money, not even for lunch. But he soon learns that the entire municipal elite is anxiously awaiting the arrival of an inspector from St. Petersburg, who will conduct his checks incognito. Khlestakov promptly assumes the role of said inspector.

His life is transformed. The local landowners start falling over themselves to toady up to him, offering money and whatever services he desires, while the mayor is determined to marry off his only daughter to the imposter.

No more spoilers. You have to read it for yourself, because it really is very funny, even in translation. By the way, director Sergei Gazarov made a great movie version of the comedy with Yevgeny Mironov in the role of Khlestakov and Nikita Mikhalkov in the role of the mayor. The Government Inspector is a regular at just about every theater in Russia.

3. Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka

The Night Before Christmas movie

Gogol was born in the village of Sorochintsy near the city of Mirgorod in what used to be called Malorossiya or “Little Russia” (now Ukraine). He was deeply fond of the “Little Russian” way of life, with its traditions and rural setup. Two of his collections of short stories –  Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka and Mirgorod –  are dedicated to his native land. However, in “Little Russia” itself, Gogol was criticized for being too Russian.

The collection contains some scary tales, almost horror-esque (“May Night, or the Drowned Maiden,” “A Terrible Vengeance”), as well as some amusing romps (“The Night Before Christmas”), but all are connected with evil spirits.

Contemporaries highly praised the collection as a breath of fresh air in Russian literature. However, Gogol’s obsession with evil spirits and mysticism (evident in other works too) contributed to some enduring posthumous legends. The writer was buried at Danilov Monastery, but when his remains were exhumed in Soviet times and transferred to Novodevichy Cemetery, it was rumored that the skull was missing. According to other hearsay, the body was found in an unnatural position, suggesting that the writer had been buried alive during a lethargic stupor –  allegedly his very worst fear.

4. Mirgorod

A screenshot from "Taras Bulba" movie

This collection is considered a continuation of Evenings , but far more profound and serious. All four stories are standalone works, and not all readers are aware that they were originally part of one collection. The most famous of them is “Viy” (remember the seminarian who performed burial rites over a deceased girl?), which was made into several horror movies. Another piece definitely worth reading is “Taras Bulba” about a Cossack father and his two sons, who go to war together. A Walter Scott-type tale of love, betrayal, and filicide. “I gave you life, it is on me to take it away from you,” says Yul Bryner to Tony Curtis in the 1962 Hollywood movie. In Russia, Gogol’s original words have become a (hopefully ironic) catchphrase.

“Old World Landowners” tells about the quiet, sedate life of an elderly and childless husband and wife, a touching story of their love for each other. Meanwhile, “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” is self-explanatory. Two “friends” fall out over a petty dispute, hurl ridiculous insults at each other, and ending up taking the other to court. At once very funny and deeply depressing, it is one of the finest examples of the “laughter through tears” genre, which Gogol practically invented.

5. Petersburg Tales

"The Overcoat" movie

By now, you’ve probably noticed that Gogol’s range is wide; no two works are ever alike. This collection is also unique. After the Ukrainian folklore of Evenings and Mirgorod , and the provincial escapades of Chichikov and Khlestakov, we plunge into the capital of the Russian Empire.

This collection shows the life of the “little man” in the soulless St. Petersburg. The first tale is “Nevsky Prospekt,” where well-groomed mustaches and sideburns matter more than personality, and where new frock-coats and top hats are flaunted ostentatiously.

Meanwhile, the magic powers of the eponymous portrait in “The Portrait” would have been the envy of Dorian Gray. A young artist buys a cursed portrait of an unknown moneylender and goes crazy. As for the nose of Major Kovalev from the phantasmagoric “The Nose,” it ended up with its own monument in St Petersburg.

But perhaps the most famous story depicting the “little man” in Russian literature—one who suffers in silence and never complains – is “The Overcoat.” Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin (whose name in Russian sounds like a type of shoe) is a minor official who devotes himself entirely to the important service of... transcribing documents. His coat needs repairing, so he takes it to a tailor who declares it to be beyond salvation. A new one must be purchased, with terrible consequences!

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FAMOUS AUTHORS

Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian writer. He contributed to Russian literature through his magnificently crafted dramas, novels and short stories. He was one of the major proponents of the natural school of Russian literary realism. His notable works include Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, The Government Inspector and “The Portrait”.

Born on March 31, 1809 in Sorochyntsi, Poltava Governorate, Ukraine, Gogol was raised by a Polish mother and an amateur Ukrainian playwright and poet father. His family spoke both Russian and Ukrainian. From a very young age Gogol developed a keen interest in Ukrainian-language plays and helped his uncle stage them. His father died when he was fifteen.  During 1820’s, Gogol received education from higher art school in Nizhyn. It is here that he learned the art of writing and practiced his skills. He became an outcast in his class and his fellow students called him a “mysterious dwarf”. Such incidents engendered a situation for him to embrace his dark side secretly.

Upon completion of his studies, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg to join civil service. His lack of wealth and social connections made him realize that in order to attain a respectable job he would have to work hard. He had already penned a Romantic poem on German idyllic life, titled Hans Küchelgarten . He published it at his own expense, under the pseudonym V. Alov. As he met rejection and ridicule of the publishing magazine he destroyed all the copies of his poem in utter dejection. Later, he embezzled his mother’s money on a trip to Germany but eventually returned and became an underpaid government employee.

However, he became a preeminent figure in short story writing as he occasionally wrote for a periodical. The young storyteller achieved overnight success. He was endowed with great respect by twentieth century literary giants like Alexander Pushkin  and Vasily Zhukovsky for his contributions. In 1834, he was offered position of a senior professor of medieval history at St. Petersburg University. Feeling ill-equipped for the job, he left after teaching a year long.

Gogol’s first collection of Ukrainian stories, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka , was published in 1931. It was followed by a number of volumes, one of them entitled Mirgorod . The subject matter of his stories varies sometimes from devils and witches to idyllic village life. His miscellaneous prose was published in a volume, titled Arabesques . The critics applauded his work for having a distinct Ukrainian voice. Gogol’s literary work highlighted the supposed difference between Ukrainian and Russian social aspects. His early prose was inspired by contemporary writers, such as Vasily Narezhny and Hryhory Kvitka-Osnovyanenko. Still his work had a distinctive quality that is his use of unconventional and sophisticated satire. Moreover, the colloquial nature of the prose became a breath of fresh air in Russian literature.

The second volume , Arabesques brings out the realism as it shows a romantic’s struggle to expose the evil and duplicity of the world that he can neither embrace nor evade. Gogol’s highly acclaimed satirical play, The Government Inspector, is a comedy of errors. It draws attention to politically corrupt Imperial Russia by underlining human attributes, like greed and foolishness. Gogol is held in esteemed regard for constructing original work that avoids clichéd sympathetic characters and love interest. Another of one of his play, Dead Souls, lampoonsthe double-standards of Imperial Russia. Afterwards, his creative genius took a sudden nosedive and eventually deserted him. He died on 4 th of March, 1852 after burning up some of his manuscript and refusing to eat food.

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An Incandescent Inanity

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The Nose and Other Stories

Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852), Russia’s greatest comic writer, thoroughly baffled his contemporaries. Strange , peculiar , wacky , weird , bizarre , and other words indicating enigmatic oddity recur in descriptions of him. “What an intelligent, queer, and sick creature!” remarked Turgenev; another major prose writer, Sergey Aksakov, referred to the “unintelligible strangeness of his spirit.” When Gogol died, the poet Pyotr Vyazemsky sighed, “Your life was an enigma, so is today your death.”

Gogol has remained, in the words of another contemporary, among the world’s most “undeciphered [ nerazgadannykh ] people.” “To say that Nikolai Gogol is one of the most controversial figures in Russian literature,” Victor Erlich began his classic study of the writer, “is to offer one of the few noncontroversial statements that can legitimately be made about this remarkable writer.” “I am considered a riddle by everyone,” Gogol observed, and he was no less enigmatic to himself. He hoped that his last work, the second part of his masterpiece Dead Souls would solve “the riddle of my existence,” but he recognized that it hadn’t, and so just before he died he burned most of it in a literary auto-da-fé.

Gogol was born, believe it or not, on April 1 (March 20 on the calendar then in use), 1809, in the little Ukrainian town of Sorochintsy. Appropriately enough, the name “Gogol” was a hoax. When his grandfather, Afanasy Yanovsky, married a wealthy Cossack girl possessing some three hundred serfs, Catherine the Great had just decreed that only nobles could own serfs, so Yanovsky sifted through Ukrainian history until he “discovered” his descent from a seventeenth-century warrior, Ostop Hohol (or Gogol in Russian). His grandson was born Nikolai Gogol-Yanovsky and later chose to keep only the fictitious part of his name.

Gogol’s father, a small landowner who wrote bad comedies and worked as a sort of court jester for a wealthy dignitary, died when Gogol was sixteen. Biographers love to dwell on Gogol’s overprotective mother, who not only falsely attributed countless literary works to him (including, to his dismay, very bad ones) but also remained convinced that he had invented the steamboat, the railroad, and every other major technological innovation of the day. The religion she imparted to him centered not on God but on the devil, and throughout Gogol’s masterpieces the devil hides in the most unlikely places.

At boarding school, where he was known as the “mysterious dwarf” and was, in his own words, “suspicious of everyone,” he began his first work, a derivative romantic poem, Hans Küchelgarten . Upon graduation, burning with desire to “serve the state,” he set out for St. Petersburg, where his connections proved worthless and he could find no better employment than as a low-level clerk. When he published Hans Küchelgarten at his own expense, it received only two reviews, both scathing. His reaction set the pattern for future disappointments: having destroyed every copy of his poem that he could find, he fled abroad to Germany.

To pay for his trip, he appropriated the money his mother had sent to pay the mortgage on their estate in Ukraine. Justifying himself, he composed a letter inventing a failed romance with an inaccessible “goddess lightly clothed in human passion,” an ethereal being “whose shattering splendor impresses itself upon the heart.” But why go abroad? In a second letter, in which he apparently forgot what he had said in the first, he explained that he sought treatment for a terrible rash. Putting two and two together, his mother concluded that he had contracted a venereal disease from a courtesan, a conclusion all the more odd because for his whole life Gogol was repulsed by sexuality.

When Gogol returned to St. Petersburg, he obtained a minor civil service position and, more importantly, made the acquaintance of Russia’s leading writers, including Pushkin, who (or so Gogol claimed) suggested to him the plots of Dead Souls and his play—considered by many Russia’s greatest— The Inspector General . Exploiting the fad for stories with local color, he published some well-crafted Ukrainian tales featuring witches, demons, and dashing Cossacks. His finest works—stories, plays, and his novel—soon followed. I know of no stories funnier than “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich,” “Nevsky Avenue,” “The Diary of a Madman,” and his two best, “The Nose” and “The Overcoat.” According to an (implausible) anecdote, when The Inspector General was staged with Nicholas I in attendance, the usually humorless tsar remarked appreciatively, “Everybody got his come-uppance, and I most of all.”

The play was successful, but Gogol, apparently shocked by some criticisms, again fled abroad, where, except for two visits to Russia, he stayed for twelve years. It was as if he were fleeing from existence, or at least Russian existence, as he had described it. Life, he feared, was nothing but unremitting poshlost , a word that, as Nabokov explained in his delightful book Nikolai Gogol , means something like extreme vulgarity, unrelieved shabbiness, and sheer grossness, all combined with the pretense of taste and culture. According to Gogol, Pushkin

would always tell me that no other writer has had the ability to portray so vividly the poshlost’ of life, to sketch in so forcefully the poshlost’ of a “poshlyj” man so that trifles which could easily escape one loom so large that no one would miss them.

Dead Souls , which he completed abroad, depicts a world so replete with poshlost and a hero so filled with vacuity that, as its narrator famously remarks, laughter shades into tears.

After these amazing successes, something strange enough to form the plot of one of his stories happened. In 1842–1843 Gogol experienced a religious crisis, wrote letters combining self-exaltation with masochistic self-loathing, and concluded that he was called to be a great moral teacher. In this mood, he published the scandalous Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends (1847), in which he preached that social conditions, including serfdom, are God-given, that the Russian Orthodox clergy “alone is in a position to solve all our problems,” and that no one can be saved without loving Russia. Convinced of the profundity of these banal ideas and of his stature as a Christian teacher, he urged people to refrain from erecting a statue to him after his death and to read over his instructive letters many times: “Woe to those who do not heed my word! Leave all things for a while, leave all such pleasures that tickle your fancy at idle moments. Obey me.” Conservatives and Slavophiles were as irritated as radicals and Westernizers. As readers have observed ever since, Gogol seemed to have turned into one of his grotesque characters.

Russia’s most influential critic, Vissarion Belinsky, was especially disappointed to discover that the author he had hailed as the hope of Russian literature, and who he had assumed was a radical, turned out to be a reactionary. His open “Letter to Gogol” called his erstwhile hero a “preacher of the knout, apostle of ignorance, defender of obscurantism.” When Dostoevsky was arrested in 1849, one of the charges against him was circulating Belinsky’s letter.

To redeem his frivolous comic works, Gogol tried to draft a second volume of Dead Souls , in which its hero, Chichikov, was to suffer and, coming under the influence of wholly positive characters, begin to reform. If volume one was an inferno, volume two would be a purgatorio, and perhaps there would even be a paradiso. Needless to say, Gogol couldn’t force his genius in this direction. Mikhail Bakhtin called this failed attempt to take satire where it could not go “the tragedy of a genre.”

Gogol’s religious mania kept getting worse. A trip to the Holy Land did not alleviate his moral hypochondria. Eventually, he fell under the influence of the fanatic Father Matvey, who urged him to abandon literature as sinful. For weeks Gogol did not eat—Nabokov recounts that you could feel his spine through his stomach—and he died with doctors torturing him with leeches hanging from his gigantic nose. This ending is all the more grotesque since Gogol was obsessed with noses, snorts, sneezes, mustaches, whiskers, smells of all kinds, and countless Russian idioms involving the olfactory (Nabokov devotes a page to listing them). His last words—“A ladder! A ladder!”—apparently expressed his lifelong wish to rise above what the narrator of Dead Souls calls “the slimy mass of minutiae that has bogged down our life.”

Since much of Gogol’s humor depends on linguistic play, he has proven resistant to adequate translation. Most renditions of Dead Souls aren’t funny, and what is the point of reading a comic novel that isn’t funny? The one exception is the brilliant version done more than seventy-five years ago by Bernard Guilbert Guerney, which has been available in Susanne Fusso’s judicious revision since 1996. At the beginning of the novel, the hero’s servant,

Petrushka the flunky…began settling himself in the tiny anteroom…whither he had already brought…a certain odor all his own, which had been also imparted to the bag he brought in next, containing sundry flunkyish effects.

“Sundry flunkyish effects” is what Gogol often sounds like, but George Reavey’s version makes it “the sack in which he kept his toilet accessories and which he brought in later,” which is not at all funny.

Now Fusso has done an excellent job with some of Gogol’s stories. In his funniest tale, “The Nose,” Major Kovalyov wakes up to discover that his nose is missing—there is nothing but a flat space where it used to be—and goes off in quest of it. He ascertains that the nose has somehow turned into a full-grown, high-ranking official, who evidently has enjoyed a long career, which means that the past, too, has been altered. A mere major, Kovalyov can’t decide how to address the distinguished nose whom he finds praying “with the greatest piety” in the Kazan Cathedral. When Kovalyov finally manages to say that the nose ought to know his place, his former appendage replies that what Kovalyov says makes no sense, which is the most sensible line in the story.

Only at the tale’s conclusion does Gogol’s narrator reflect that these events are “indeed strange” ( tochno stranno )—as if he isn’t too sure and wants to preclude doubt. Andrew MacAndrew’s translation dampens the joke by referring simply to the event’s “strangeness.” In Fusso’s version the narrator identifies something still stranger: “How did Kovalyov not realize that you cannot go to a newspaper office to place an advertisement about a nose?” Like any good humorist, Gogol ends the sentence with the funniest word— nose —but other translators—MacAndrew, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, and Constance Garnett—all end it with the newspaper office. Fusso’s ear for humor makes all the difference.

Everywhere Gogol describes a world of incandescent inanity. Things may look fascinating, variegated, and endlessly interesting, as the narrators of his stories sometimes suggest at their beginnings, but by the end the world’s metaphysical boredom shines through. As the narrator of “Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich” leaves the town where the eponymous heroes have been quarreling for years about utter triviality, he reflects,

The damp pierced me through and through…. Again the same fields,…the drenched cows and crows, the monotonous rain, the tearful sky without one gleam of light in it: It’s boring in this world, gentlemen!

Gogol creates conversations so insipid as to achieve a kind of negative sublimity. The hero of one early story, “Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Auntie,” is proud to utter such profundities as: “I had occasion to observe what distant lands there are in the world!” and “There are a great many flies in summer, Madam!” When Shponka reads, it is always the same book, much as

a government clerk will read a directory of addresses with immense satisfaction several times a day with no ulterior object; he is simply entertained by the printed list of names. “Ah, Ivan Gavrilovich So-and-so!” he mutters mutely to himself…and next time he reads it over again with exactly the same exclamations.

A character in Dead Souls reads anything thrust into his hands because understanding is beside the point: what he loves is “the very process of reading—look and behold ye, some word or other inevitably emerged from out of the welter of letters, even though, at times, the Devil alone knew what that word meant.”

Motion that takes one nowhere, energy expended on nothing, and activity divorced from its purpose create a semblance of biographies lived by a simulacrum of people. In Dead Souls , one character, Nozdryov, lies preposterously for the sake of lying, even against his own interests, and another, Plyushkin, takes stinginess so far that it actually impoverishes him. “And is it to such insignificance, such pettiness, such vileness that a man could sink?” asks the narrator. Many critics have remarked that Gogol’s people are homunculi or pre-individuals hovering “on the very edge of nonentity,” as the nineteenth-century critic Apollon Grigoriev described the hero of “The Overcoat.”

Do these characters have souls? When the public prosecutor in Dead Souls dies, only then do the townspeople discover that he had had a soul at all, “although out of modesty he had never flaunted it.” Even their animal appetites are confined to eating. Gogol’s version of an idyllic married couple, his Baucis and Philemon, in “Old World Landowners” do nothing but feed each other little treats, and his narrators describe endless dishes with such enthusiasm that, Solzhenitsyn reports, the hungry prisoners of Stalin’s Gulag banned the very name Gogol. Some characters are so plant-like that their behavior consists of tropisms: in “Nevsky Avenue,” “a young lady…turns her head toward the glittering shop windows as the sunflower turns to the sun.”

Without a soul to hold a person together, a body part—especially a nose—may entirely detach itself. The insane hero of “The Diary of a Madman” reasons that people cannot see their own noses because noses have all decamped to the moon. Sometimes a facial feature seems to have taken over a life. On Nevsky Avenue, “you meet marvelous mustaches…to which the better part of a life has been devoted.” There is even “a mustache that reduces one to stupefaction.”

Gogol’s best-known tale, “The Overcoat,” is a study in subtraction. How much can you take from a person while leaving him, if just barely, human? The hero, Akaky Akakievich— kakat in Russian baby-talk means “to shit”—has, literally and figuratively, almost no words of his own. He uses filler after meaningless filler— er , you know , well , like —and sometimes never gets any further. He is not only a copying clerk—a sort of human Xerox machine—he also finds in copying “a vision of his own multifarious and pleasant world…. Some of the letters were his favorites, and when he got to them he was beside himself.” At home, he makes copies for his own pleasure.

Though utterly neglectful of his clothes, Akaky Akakievich is at last forced by the Russian winter to replace his impossibly worn overcoat. To save enough for a new one, he eats less and walks “almost on tiptoe” to spare shoe leather. But he has his dream. Though hungry, “he was nourished spiritually, bearing in his thoughts the eternal idea of the future overcoat.” His life becomes fuller,

as if he had gotten married…as if…a pleasant female life companion had agreed to follow life’s path along with him—and that companion was none other than the thickly padded overcoat with a strong lining showing no trace of wear.

No sooner is the coat completed—“the most extremely solemn day in the life of Akaky Akakievich”—than it is stolen. For the first time he breaks protocol to appeal directly to a “significant personage” (who until recently “had been an insignificant personage”), but he is one of those Gogol characters who have no self outside their rank. He loves to nonplus subordinates by demanding, “How dare you! Do you know who you’re talking to?” When he rebukes Akaky Akakievich, the poor clerk goes home and dies.

But that is not the end of the story. Reports circulate that a corpse, which someone recognizes as Akaky Akakievich, has been haunting the streets, muttering unintelligibly, and demanding people’s overcoats. The police issue an order “to catch the corpse at all costs, dead or alive, and to punish him in the cruelest fashion, as an example to others.” In Gogol, even the supernatural is often banal, and no less terrifying for that.

Gogol’s world is populated by impersonators, counterfeits, and confidence men, voids made flesh. The title Dead Souls refers literally to a palpable nothing. A Russian landowner’s wealth and tax liability were determined by the number of “souls”—adult male serfs—that he owned. Between censuses, landowners were obliged to pay taxes on serfs who died—that is, on “dead souls.” Chichikov, the novel’s hero, arrives in a provincial town, charms the local officials with his extravagant flattery and chameleon-like ability to share their obsessions, and then visits landowners in the surrounding countryside. After making himself the perfect listener, he offers to buy a landowner’s dead souls—that is, to execute an official deed of purchase listing the souls as if they were living. The landowner would benefit in two ways: from whatever payment he received and from eliminating his tax liability. Only at the novel’s end do we learn that Chichikov plans to use this legally attested property as collateral for a mortgage.

Sometimes Chichikov has trouble making a landowner understand his proposition. Korobochka, the narrator explains, is one of those people who, no matter what arguments you use, cannot shift their way of thinking. She worries that she “might take a loss somehow.” To no avail does Chichikov ask, How can you take a loss on nothing, and how can you need something that exists only on paper? Another landowner, Sobakevich, drives a hard bargain: “You hold a human soul at the same value as a boiled turnip. Give me three rubles at least.” When Sobakevich claims to be “taking a loss,” Chichikov points out that what he is selling is nothing, a fiction, an insubstantial shadow, a puff of air, of no good to anyone. Perhaps so, Sobakevich replies, but then, of what good are the living? “They are so many flies, not people!”

Returning to town, Chichikov, like the devil, peruses with delight the list of souls he has acquired. When he is asked if he has sufficient land for so many serfs, he replies, “As much as will suffice for the peasants I bought.” Someone worries about an uprising among these uprooted people, but Chichikov explains that they “were extraordinarily docile in character.”

When it comes out that he has been buying dead souls, the townspeople labor to understand why anyone would want them. Perhaps, they reflect, the very phrase “dead souls” has a hidden meaning, which each person discovers to be his own worst transgression. For that matter, they ask, who is Chichikov? Perhaps he is a government inspector in disguise? The fact that he doesn’t act as if he is in disguise only proves how good a disguise it is. Farfetched theories generate still more farfetched theories. Could Chichikov be Napoleon, who has somehow escaped from Elba and sneaked into Russia to corner the market on dead souls? Maybe he is really…the antichrist? If readers object that all this is quite improbable, the narrator remarks, they should watch how scholars develop their favorite theories.

The human inclination to treat lack of evidence as evidence—an inescapable feature of conspiracy logic—shapes the plot of The Inspector General . As the play opens, the mayor of a remote town summons all the town’s officials, who are incompetent and corrupt even by Russian standards, in order to reveal startling secret information: the imminent visit of an incognito inspector general. Quickly, they must make things look presentable. Can’t you do something about that clerk of yours who always stinks of vodka? the mayor demands. No, the official replies, it’s his “natural smell”: “his nurse dropped him as a baby and he has smelled a little of vodka ever since.” The official in charge of hospitals insists they cure patients “like flies.”

Two local busybodies rush in to declare that the inspector in disguise is already at the inn. It can be no one else because he refuses to pay his bill and won’t leave. In fact, the visitor is a frivolous young man, Khlestakov, who has lost all his money at cards. As the mayor and officials flatter, regale, and bribe him, he at first can’t make out what is going on. Careless critics have described Khlestakov as a con man, but that is to miss the point: the town officials con themselves—as people do more often than they realize. When Khlestakov at last catches on, he can’t restrain himself. He romances the mayor’s daughter: “We’ll flee to some happy dale beneath the shade of brooks!” Inflating his importance, he claims to employ “35,000 messengers,” serve watermelons worth seven hundred rubles, and hobnob with Pushkin: “‘Well, old Push, how are things going?’—‘As usual, my dear fellow,’ he says…. Quite a character!” As Gogol explained, the inspired Khlestakov is so carried away that he forgets he is lying: “This is in general the best and most poetic moment of his life.”

When Khlestakov, at his servant’s urging, finally leaves town before the truth comes out, he can’t resist writing a friend a letter filled with unflattering portraits of his hosts. The postmaster, of course, opens the letter and reveals Khlestakov’s identity to the assembled officials. They have all been fools and wasted their bribes, but the worst of it, the mayor complains, is that when the story gets out some scribbler—“the damn liberals!”—will put them in a comedy. As the audience laughs, the mayor suddenly turns on them—on us—with the most quoted line in Russian comedy: “What are you laughing at? You’re laughing at yourselves!”

At just this point a gendarme enters to announce the arrival of the real inspector general, who is not at all in disguise. The play closes with everyone standing in shock, frozen in grotesque postures and attitudes, a “dumb scene” that lasts “almost a minute and a half.” It doesn’t take much effort to detect an allegory of the Last Judgment, or of our own conscience, or, in some way, of the horrible truth catching up with us.

November 19, 2020

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Biography of Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Gogol is one of Russia’s most famous writers, renowned for his short stories, novels, and plays. Vladimir Nabokov called him “the strangest prose-poet Russia ever produced.” Scholars Dmytro Chyzhevsky and Danylo Husar Struk say of his writing, “Gogol's works display different variations of the Romantic style and a masterly use of metaphor, hyperbole, and ironic grotesque. His language is exceptionally rhythmic and euphonic. He was the first writer of the so-called Ukrainian school in Russian literature to employ a host of lexical and syntactic Ukrainianisms, primarily to play with various stylistic levels from the vulgar to the pathetic.”

Gogol was born on March 31, 1809 in the Poltava province in Ukraine. While his family name was Ianovskii, his grandfather took “Gogol” to connect him to his Cossack ancestry. His father was a minor Ukrainian noble who also wrote, and his mother was a religious woman who passed such spiritual concerns down to her son.

An unpopular child who was nicknamed “the mysterious dwarf,” Nikolai attended a boarding school and Nezhin secondary school. After he graduated, he went to St. Petersburg hoping to make it as a writer and actor. He took a few low-level government jobs to support himself and eventually realized he would not be able to make acting his career. His first poem, "Hans Kuechelgarten," was eviscerated by critics. During this time, he also wrote for a few periodicals about his memories of Ukraine, but he did not achieve fame.

In 1831, Gogol met Aleksandr Pushkin, perhaps Russia’s most famous novelist. Pushkin later helped get him a position teaching at the Patriotic Institute and then the University of St. Petersburg. Pushkin also urged Gogol to look to Ukrainian folktales for inspiration for his short stories, which led to the successful Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka (1831).

By 1835, Gogol had published two more collections of stories and essays, including the famous story “ Diary of a Madman .” The following year, he published “ The Carriage ” and “ The Nose ." Gogol published his only play, The Inspector General (or The Government Inspector ) in 1835, but he was so distressed by its staging and the way the audience and critics received it that he left Russia. He traveled around Europe for twelve years, spending most of it in Rome.

While he was in Rome, he wrote the novel Dead Souls , or what he intended to be its first part. Published in 1842, it was received well by critics and the public. Unfortunately, Gogol struggled with the second part of the novel and did not receive approbation for his nonfiction work, Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends (1847), which was deemed to be too reactionary.

Gogol most likely suffered from depression, which he tried to alleviate by embarking on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Ivan Turgenev thought Gogol was suffering from “some secret sorrow, preoccupation, or morbid anxiety.” When Gogol returned to Moscow, he fell under the sway of a fanatical priest, Father Konstantinovski. Because of the priest's view that all fiction was a lie, Gogol burned what he had of the second part of Dead Souls. He also apparently starved himself and may have gone insane. Doctors tried numerous awful remedies to help him, but none worked. Gogol died on March 4, 1852, at the age of 42. He left no family and no estate.

The tsarist government forbade the mention of Gogol’s death in national publications. In 1931, his body was exhumed, and since the corpse was facedown, rumors abounded that he was buried alive.

Study Guides on Works by Nikolai Gogol

The carriage nikolai gogol.

At the beginning of 1843 was published (with a note - 1842), the third volume of the Gogol’s works, which contained placed seven novels, one of which was the story "Carriage", that has been written in 1835. Thus, Gogol himself brought together...

• Study Guide

Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol

Dead Souls is a novel by celebrated Russian author Nikolai Gogol. First published in 1842, it details the quest of a bureaucrat named Chichikov to purchase the names of deceased serfs in a scheming effort to acquire land and wealth. Gogol claimed...

• Lesson Plan

Diary of a Madman Nikolai Gogol

Diary of a Madman is a short story written by Nikolai Gogol in 1834. The novel was published for the first time in the collected stories Arabesques with the title Shreds of Notes of a Madman in 1835. Later, it was included in the St. Petersburg...

The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol

The Government Inspector is one of the most famous Russian plays, renowned for its satirical portrayal of government officials and laced with apocalyptic, absurd overtones. Vladimir Nabokov praised the play, stating “The play begins with a...

Marriage Nikolai Gogol

"Marriage" is a play by Nikolai Gogol was written in 1833-1835 years, and published in 1842.

Gogol began work on the comedy, originally named "Grooms" in 1833. In May 1835 he gave Pogodin excerpts from the play "Provincial bride" (the action took...

Nevsky Prospekt Nikolai Gogol

"Nevsky Prospect" is the story of Nikolai Gogol, written in 1833-1834. "Nevsky Prospect" was first published in the collection "Arabesque" (1835), and was highly praised by critics. Gogol began working on the story during the creation of "Evenings...

The Nose Nikolai Gogol

"The Nose" is a satirical, absurdist short story written by Nikolai Gogol between 1832 and 1833.

In "The Nose," Gogol seeks to show the image of an empty and bombastic man, Kovalev, who loves appearances, high social status, and favor from his...

The Overcoat Nikolai Gogol

“The Overcoat”, published in 1842, is a short story by Nikolai Gogol, a Ukrainian-born Russian writer of plays, short stories and novels. Though Gogol is sometimes described as a realist writer, “The Overcoat” contains surreal, exaggerated and...

The Portrait Nikolai Gogol

“The Portrait” is a short story by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. This narrative was initially published in 1835 by the author in Part I of his collection Arabesques . After significant revising, it was republished in 1842 in a magazine called The...

The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich Nikolai Gogol

"The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich" is a short story of Nikolai Gogol. It was Included in the stories collection "Mirgorod".

First it was published in the anthology of Smirdin "The Housewarming" (the 2nd part, 1834)....

Taras Bulba Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Gogol was born in Poltava province. He spent his young years there, and later moved to St. Petersburg. But he was interested in the history and customs of his native land during all his life. In the narrative Taras Bulba the history of...

Viy Nikolai Gogol

Viy is a mystical novel written by Nikolai Gogol, first published in his stories collection "Mirgorod" in 1835. The name of the story is the name of the Slavic demonic male creature with which the plot is associated.

In a footnote to the book,...

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, born on March 19 March 31, New Style, 1809, in Sorochintsy, near Poltava, Ukraine, Russian Empire now in Ukraine[[?]], was a Ukrainian-born humorist, dramatist, and novelist [1†] [2†] . His works, written in Russian, significantly influenced the direction of Russian literature [1†] [2†] [3†] . Gogol was one of the first to use the technique of the grotesque [1†] [2†] , and his stories have also been noted for their proto-surrealist qualities [1†] [2†] . His novel “Myortvye dushi” (1842; Dead Souls) and his short story “Shinel” (1842; “The Overcoat”) are considered the foundations of the great 19th-century tradition of Russian realism [1†] [2†] [3†] .

Early Years and Education

Nikolai Gogol was born on March 20, 1809, in the small Ukrainian town of Sorochintsy [1†] [2†] [5†] . His family belonged to the ‘petty gentry’ and spoke both Russian and Ukrainian [1†] [2†] [6†] . From a very young age, Gogol developed a keen interest in Ukrainian-language plays and helped his uncle stage them [1†] [6†] . His father, who died when Gogol was 15 years old, was an amateur playwright and wrote poetry in Ukrainian as well as Russian [1†] [2†] .

Gogol’s childhood was marked by his dreamy and withdrawn nature, and he was deeply affected by the death of a younger brother [1†] [5†] . At the age of 12, he was sent to the high school at Nezhin [1†] . There, he distinguished himself with his biting tongue, his contributions of prose and poetry to a school magazine, and his portrayal of comic old men and women in school theatricals [1†] . However, he was a mediocre student but well behaved [1†] [5†] .

In the 1820s, Gogol received education from a higher art school in Nizhyn [1†] [6†] . It was here that he learned the art of writing and practiced his skills [1†] [6†] . This period of his life played a significant role in shaping his literary career.

Career Development and Achievements

After completing his education, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg in 1828, hoping to enter the civil service [1†] [2†] . However, he soon discovered that without money and connections, he would have to fight hard for a living [1†] . He even tried to become an actor, but his audition was unsuccessful [1†] . In this predicament, he remembered a mediocre sentimental-idyllic poem he had written in high school [1†] . Anxious to achieve fame as a poet, he published it at his own expense, but its failure was so disastrous that he burned all the copies and thought of emigrating to the United States [1†] .

Despite these early setbacks, Gogol managed to get a poorly paid civil service post in the Ministry of the Interior [1†] [7†] . During this time, he started writing lively pieces for magazines about his memories of Ukraine, combining realistic accounts of life there with fantastic stories about demons, witches, and other creatures of Ukrainian folklore [1†] [7†] .

In the early 1830s, Gogol developed a passion for Ukrainian Cossack history [1†] [4†] . He eventually obtained a position as a Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg [1†] [4†] . However, he was ill-qualified for the job and resigned in 1835 [1†] [4†] .

Gogol’s works, such as “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka”, were influenced by his Ukrainian upbringing, Ukrainian culture, and folklore [1†] [2†] . His later writing satirised political corruption in contemporary Russia [1†] [2†] . Despite this, Gogol enjoyed the patronage of Tsar Nicholas I who liked his work [1†] [2†] . The novel “Taras Bulba” (1835), the play “Marriage” (1842), and the short stories “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”, “The Portrait” and “The Carriage”, are also among his best-known works [1†] [2†] .

Many writers and critics have recognized Gogol’s huge influence on Russian, Ukrainian, and world literature [1†] [2†] . His unique style of writing, which combines surrealism, dark humor, and the use of the grotesque, has left a lasting legacy in the literary world [1†] [6†] .

First Publication of His Main Works

Nikolai Gogol’s literary career was marked by a series of significant works that had a profound impact on Russian literature. Here are some of his main works:

• “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka” (1831–1832) [2†] : This collection of short stories was one of Gogol’s earliest works. Influenced by his Ukrainian upbringing, the stories are rich in Ukrainian culture and folklore [2†] [1†] .
• “Mirgorod” (1835) [2†] : This collection of stories, including the famous “Taras Bulba”, further established Gogol’s reputation as a major figure in Russian literature [2†] .
• “Arabesques” (1835) [2†] [5†] : This work consists of essays, art criticism, fragments of novels, and three short fictional masterworks: “The Portrait”, “Nevsky Prospect”, and "The Diary of a Madman" [2†] [5†] .
• “The Government Inspector” (1836) [2†] [1†] : This play is a satirical examination of political corruption in contemporary Russia [2†] [1†] .
• “Dead Souls” (1842) [2†] [1†] [8†] : Considered one of the foundations of the 19th-century tradition of Russian realism, this novel is a critical exploration of Russian society [2†] [1†] [8†] .
• “The Overcoat” (1842) [2†] [1†] [8†] : This short story, along with “The Nose”, “Viy”, and “Nevsky Prospekt”, showcases Gogol’s use of the grotesque and has been noted for its proto-surrealist qualities [2†] [1†] .

Each of these works not only represents a milestone in Gogol’s career but also made a significant contribution to Russian literature as a whole. They showcase Gogol’s unique style, his ability to combine the real with the surreal, and his sharp critique of contemporary society [2†] [1†] .

Analysis and Evaluation

Nikolai Gogol’s work has had a profound influence on both Russian and world literature. His unique style, which combines elements of the real and the surreal, has been the subject of much analysis and debate [9†] .

Gogol’s work is characterized by his innovative use of style and subject matter. He created a unique art form that depicted the manners of petty officials, small landowners, and the fantastic and all-too-real people who inhabit the three worlds he describes: the Ukraine, St. Petersburg, and the Russian heartland [9†] . His influence can be detected most noticeably in Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, which centers on a conceit not unlike Nikolai Gogol’s hapless titular councillor in Gogol’s "The Nose" [9†] .

Inside Russia, Fyodor Dostoevski is reputed to have begun the saying that “we all came from under Gogol’s ‘Overcoat,’” meaning that Gogol’s stories originated the themes, social and spiritual anguish, and other literary preoccupations of the rest of Russian literature [9†] .

Gogol’s artistic vision was rooted in the classical and romantic traditions, which furnished him with patterns for his earliest literary experiments. However, an initial lack of success led him to search for inspiration elsewhere. He found it ultimately in the everyday realities of contemporary Russian life, an inexhaustible fund of material that his unique perception reworked to produce some of the best-loved classics of Russian literature [9†] .

Gogol’s work, particularly his novel “Dead Souls” and his play “The Government Inspector”, laid the foundations of the school of realism in Russian literature [9†] [10†] [11†] . His critical examination of political corruption in contemporary Russia, as depicted in “The Government Inspector”, remains one of his most enduring contributions [9†] [10†] .

In conclusion, Gogol’s work represents a significant milestone in the development of Russian literature. His unique style and innovative use of subject matter have left a lasting impact on both Russian and world literature [9†] .

Personal Life

Nikolai Gogol was born into a family of minor gentry in the Ukrainian Cossack town of Sorochyntsi [2†] [12†] . His father, Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, was a Ukrainian writer living on his old family estate [2†] [12†] . He had five other children and died when Gogol was 15 years old [2†] [12†] .

Gogol grew up in the Ukrainian countryside, rich with Cossack traditions and folklore [2†] [7†] . His childhood was idyllic, but he used to hear the uncanny voices of the dead at night in the darkness [2†] [7†] .

In terms of relationships, Gogol met and fell in love with Joseph Vielhorsky in 1838 [2†] [13†] . However, their relationship was short-lived as she died in 1839 [2†] [13†] . This tragic event inspired one of his best works of the times, "Nights at the Villa" [2†] [13†] .

Gogol passed away on February 21 March 4[[?]], 1852, in Moscow, Russia [2†] [1†] [2†] .

Conclusion and Legacy

Nikolai Gogol’s legacy is profound and far-reaching. His unique style of writing, which often employed the technique of the grotesque [2†] , has influenced many writers and critics [2†] [4†] . His works have been recognized for their proto-surrealist qualities [2†] . Gogol’s influence was acknowledged by many notable authors, including Fyodor Dostoevsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Franz Kafka, Mikhail Bulgakov, Vladimir Nabokov, Flannery O’Connor, and others [2†] .

Gogol’s impact on Russian literature is particularly significant. He is often attributed as the originator of the Natural School, a literary movement that arose in Russia in the 1840s [2†] [4†] . His works, such as “Dead Souls” and “The Overcoat”, are considered the foundations of the great 19th-century tradition of Russian realism [2†] [1†] .

Gogol’s legacy also extends beyond literature. He has been featured many times on Russian and Soviet postage stamps and is well represented on stamps worldwide [2†] . Several commemorative coins have been issued in his honor in the USSR and Russia [2†] . In 2009, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a commemorative coin dedicated to Gogol [2†] .

Gogol’s work continues to be celebrated and studied for its depth, complexity, and influence. His contribution to literature and his impact on later generations of writers affirm his place as a key figure in the literary world [2†] [1†] [4†] [14†] [15†] .

Key Information

• Also Known As : Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogol [1†] [2†]
• Born : March 19 March 31, New Style[[?]], 1809, Sorochintsy, near Poltava, Ukraine, Russian Empire now in Ukraine[[?]] [1†] [2†]
• Died : February 21 March 4[[?]], 1852, Moscow, Russia [1†] [2†]
• Nationality : Russian [1†] [2†]
• Occupation : Playwright, short story writer, novelist [1†] [2†]
• Notable Works : “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka”, “Mirgorod”, “The Government Inspector”, “Petersburg Tales”, “Dead Souls”, “The Nose”, "The Overcoat" [1†] [2†]
• Notable Achievements : Founder of realism in Russian literature [1†] [12†] , considered a father of Surrealism [1†] [12†] , created the nation’s most famous literary icon: Russia as a rushing carriage, full of elemental energy and limitless potential [1†] [14†] .

References and Citations:

• Britannica - Nikolay Gogol: Ukrainian-born writer [website] - link
• Wikipedia (English) - Nikolai Gogol [website] - link
• Book Summary - Nikolai Gogol [website] - link
• Sevenov - Nikolai Gogol [website] - link
• Encyclopedia.com - Nikolai Gogol [website] - link
• Famous Authors - Nikolai Gogol [website] - link
• History Today - The Birth of Nikolai Gogol [website] - link
• Goodreads - Book: Complete Works of Nikolai Gogol [website] - link
• eNotes - Nikolai Gogol Analysis [website] - link
• eNotes - The Government Inspector Analysis [website] - link
• eNotes - Dead Souls Analysis [website] - link
• IMDb - Nikolay Gogol - Biography [website] - link
• SunSigns - Nikolai Gogol Biography, Life, Interesting Facts [website] - link
• Harvard University Press - Nikolai Gogol [website] - link
• Bookstr - Nikolai Gogol: A Profound Legacy in Grotesque Absurdism - Bookstr [website] - link

• Non-fiction
• Literary Haven

Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Gogol 

Born: 20 March 1809

Died: 21 February 1852

Notable Works: The Government Inspector (1836), Petersburg Tales (1833-1842)

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was a Russian writer of Ukrainian origin. His short stories and plays have been noted for their surrealism, dark humor, and use of the grotesque. A key concept in his work is poshlost , a Russian word that means “triviality, inferiority, and banality.” Poshlost is embodied by his caricatures of everyday people who face moral and spiritual emptiness in their lives. 

Nikolai Gogol’s influence has been acknowledged by Mikhail Bulgakov , Fyodor Dostoevsky , Ryūnosuke Akutagawa , Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin , Flannery O’Connor , and Franz Kafka , among other writers. 

1. Biography

1.1. early life.

Nikolai Gogol was born on 20 March 1809 in the Ukrainian Cossack town of Sorochyntsi, in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire. Gogol’s family hailed from the lower ranks of the gentry and his father, Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, was a poet and amateur playwright who staged plays in his theater. His mother was of Polish origin and a descendant of Leonty Kosyarovsky, an officer of the Lubny Regiment . 

As was typical of families of the Ukrainian gentry, they spoke both Ukrainian and Russian. The Ukrainian countryside, folklore, and traditions Gogol was exposed to in his boyhood inspired his short story collections, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka and Mirgorod . 

In 1820, Gogol was enrolled in the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in Nezhin. There, he contributed to a literary magazine and acted in school plays. He was not popular among his schoolmates but managed to make a few good friends. This school is now known as the Nizhyn Gogol State University. 

After graduating in 1828, Gogol left for St. Petersburg to pursue his literary ambitions. He wrote a Romantic poem, Hans Küchelgarten , and published it at his own expense. However, the magazines he sent it to criticize the poem harshly. As a result, Gogol bought all the copies of his poem and destroyed them, vowing never to write poetry again. 

1.2. Literary Career 

After swearing off poetry, Nikolai Gogol turned to prose. His first collection of short stories, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, was published in two volumes in 1831 and 1832. The stories in this collection were filled with references to Ukrainian culture and folklore, causing Gogol to be viewed as a regional writer by some contemporary critics. Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka was an immediate success and established Gogol’s unique style of blending humor and horror. Gogol entered Russia’s literary circle, meeting and establishing a friendship with Alexander Pushkin, considered by many to be the founder of modern Russian literature. 

In the early 1830s, Gogol developed a passion for Ukrainian Cossack history. He eventually obtained a position as a Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg. However, he was ill-qualified for the job and resigned in 1835. 

That same year, Gogol published his second short story collection, Mirgorod . Like Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka , Mirgorod is also inspired by life in the Ukrainian countryside. He started writing the short stories in Mirgorod in 1832 and completed them during his tenure as a professor.

Nikolai Gogol’s third collection, Arabesques , was published in 1835. In Arabesques , he moved away from his Ukrainian origins and wrote stories about life in St. Petersburg. In addition, the collection contained articles on chronicles, geography, and art. Some of Gogol’s most famous works, Nevsky Prospect , Diary of a Madman, and The Portrait, are from this collection. 

In 1836, Gogol published his famous play, The Government Inspector , a satire of political corruption in the Russian Empire. The play caused moral outrage in the reactionary press, and it took the intervention of Tsar Nicholas I to have it staged. Despite the play being seen as an attack on the Tsarist system, Gogol was actually a conservative monarchist. 

From 1836 to 1848, Gogol traveled across Europe, spending the winter of 1836 – 1837 in Paris and later settling in Rome. Gogol spent most of his twelve years abroad in Italy, a country he grew to love, developing an interest in Italian opera, art, and literature. 

The first part of his only novel, Dead Souls , was completed in 1841 and published in 1842. Unlike his short stories, Dead Souls was meant to offer solutions rather than just point out social ills. However, Gogol did not complete the second part, where the protagonist Chichikov undergoes spiritual purification. Gogol burnt most of the novel’s second part shortly before his death, having come to believe that writing fiction was the work of the Devil. 

In 1842, Gogol also published his iconic short story, The Overcoat , which had a massive impact on Russian literature. 

1.3. Final years and death

Nikolai Gogol’s final years were marked by increased religiosity and fear of damnation. In 1846, he left for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and returned to Russia in 1848. Gogol fell under the influence of a spiritual elder, Matvey Konstantinovsky, who convinced him that writing fiction was the work of the Devil. Extreme asceticism damaged Gogol’s health, and he sank into depression. 

Konstantinovsky heightened his fear of damnation, which led him to burn his manuscripts, including most of the second part of Dead Souls, on 24 February 1852. Soon after, he refused all food and took to bed, dying nine days later in agony. He was buried in the Danilov Monastery, with a large stone and a cross marking his grave. 

2. Influence and Legacy of Nikolai Gogol

2.1. literature.

Nikolai Gogol has had a massive impact on later generations of Russian writers. He has been recognized by the famed literary critic Belinsky as the originator of the Natural School, a literary movement that arose in Russia in the 1840s. Writers of the Natural School aimed to imitate real life in their work, borrowing ideas from the French Enlightenment. Nekrasov, Turgenev, Grebenka, Dostoyevsky, and Saltykov-Shchedrin, among other writers, were part of this movement. 

Belinsky, N.G. Chernyshevsky, and other literary critics interpreted Gogol’s work as social criticism. However, Gogol was not the social critic his liberal admirers imagined, holding a conservative viewpoint throughout his life. Nevertheless, he was able to criticize the corruption of his society by disguising his critique with fantastical elements at a time when authors were bound by heavy censorship. In the 20th century, Soviet writers such as Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov would borrow this technique to circumvent censors. 

In the 1920s, a group of Russian writers called the Serapion Brothers took inspiration from Gogol and wrote many short stories that were critical of government policy, but the group later became more mainstream. 

Novelist Vladimir Nabokov greatly admired Gogol’s Dead Souls , The Government Inspector , and The Overcoat . He has called The Overcoat “The greatest short story in the Russian language.” 

Outside of Russia, Gogol’s influence can be seen in the works of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Flannery O’Connor, Franz Kafka, and others.

Some writers have highlighted the anti-semitism in Gogol’s stories. Felix Dreizin and David Guaspari, in their book, The Russian Soul and the Jew: Essays in Literary Ethnocentrism , shed light on “the significance of the Jewish characters and the negative image of the Ukrainian Jewish community in Gogol’s novel Taras Bulba .” In Léon Poliakov ‘s The History of Antisemitism , the author mentions that the character of Yankel in Taras Bulba incorporates many antisemitic stereotypes, being portrayed as exploitative, greedy, and cowardly. 

The Jewish author and playwright Sholem Aleichem borrowed elements from Gogol’s work but removed the antisemitism. Amelia Glaser noted that Aleichem “chose to model much of his writing, and even his appearance, on Gogol… What Sholem Aleichem was borrowing from Gogol was a rural East European landscape that may have been dangerous, but could unite readers through the power of collective memory. He also learned from Gogol to soften this danger through laughter, and he often rewrites Gogol’s Jewish characters, correcting anti-Semitic stereotypes and narrating history from a Jewish perspective.”

2.2. Film and other media

Nikolai Gogol’s stories have been adapted into numerous films, operas, radio serials, and other media. The renowned composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his first opera based on Gogol’s short story The Nose , for which he also wrote the libretto. The Government Inspector and The Overcoat, in particular, have received many film adaptations in Russian, German, Polish, English, Indonesian, Hindi, Italian, Greek, and Dutch. 

The 1956 British short film The Bespoke Overcoat, directed by Jack Clayton, was based on Gogol’s The Overcoat . The film won an Oscar at the 29th Academy Awards in 1957 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel).

The latest film adaptation of Gogol’s work is The Girl in the White Coat , a 2011 Canadian film based on The Overcoat and directed by Darell Wasyk. In this film, a poor factory worker tormented by her colleagues becomes determined to buy a new lab coat. 

2.3. Sculpture 

Along Arbatskaya Boulevard, Moscow, there is a sculpture of Nikolai Gogol made by the Soviet Sculptor Nikolai Tomsky. The statue was cast in 1909 to mark the 100th anniversary of Gogol’s birth. Tomsky was given instructions to make Gogol look cheerful despite the pessimism in the writer’s work. 

Gogol is closely associated with St. Petersburg as many of his famous works, including The Overcoat, Diary of a Madman, Nevsky Prospect, and The Nose, are set there. Along St. Petersburg’s Malaya Konyushennaya street, there is another Gogol statue made by the sculptor Mikhail Belov. 

In Kyiv, Ukraine, a sculpture of Gogol’s nose hangs from a building wall on Andriyivsky Uzviz, a historic tourist street. The sculpture is a tribute to Gogol’s short story, The Nose . According to legend, Gogol was walking along the Andriyivsky Uzviz when he caught a cold, which inspired him to write the story. 

2.4. Nizhyn Gogol State University 

The Nizhyn Gogol State University in Ukraine is named after its most famous alumni, Nikolai Gogol, who studied there from 1821 – 1828. It is one of the oldest tertiary institutions in Ukraine, dating back to 1805 when Count Bezborodko received permission from the Tsar to set up a Gymnasium of Higher Learning in Nizhyn. The university houses the Gogol Museum and the Gogol Research Centre. 

3. Bibliography

Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka – short story collection (1831-1832)

Mirgorod – short story collection (1835)

Arabesques – short story collection (1835)

The Nose – short story (1835)

Taras Bulba – novella (1835)

The Carriage – short story (1836)

Rome – fragment  (1842)

The Overcoat – short story (1842)

Dead Souls – novel (1842)

Petersburg Tales – short story collection (1843)

Decoration of Vladimir of the Third Class , unfinished comedy (1832).

Marriage (1842)

The Gamblers (1842)

The Government Inspector , also translated as The Inspector General (1836)

Leaving the Theater , ( After the Staging of a New Comedy ) (1836)

4. Quotes from Nikolai Gogol

“It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is awry.” from The Government Inspector

“But nothing is lasting in this world. Even joy begins to fade after only one minute. Two minutes later, and it is weaker still, until finally it is swallowed up in our everyday, prosaic state of mind, just as a ripple made by a pebble gradually merges with the smooth surface of the water.” from The Nose

“The longer and more carefully we look at a funny story, the sadder it becomes.” Nikolai Gogol

“Countless as the sands of sea are human passions, and not all of them are alike, and all of them, base and noble alike, are at first obedient to man and only later on become his terrible masters.” from Dead Souls

“Everything resembles the truth, everything can happen to a man.” from Dead Souls

5. Frequently Asked Questions about Nikolai Gogol

What was nikolai gogol known for.

Gogol was a Russian writer of Ukrainian heritage known for being one of the founders of modern Russian literature. His unique style blends dark humor, realism, and surrealism; he shows verbal skill in unusual metaphors, puns, and expressions. 

What was Nikolai Gogol influenced by?

In his early stories, Gogol was inspired by Ukrainian folklore, traditions, and his Ukrainian upbringing. His later stories satirized the political corruption in Imperial Russia. Many are steeped in the cold, urban atmosphere of St. Petersburg and feature landmarks from the city. 

Why did Gogol burn Dead Souls?

It is unclear why Gogol burned Dead Souls , but some have speculated that it was either he was dissatisfied with the novel’s second part or due to his religious convictions. In “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” he wrote,  “The publication of the second volume the way it is would do more harm than good……Creating a few beautiful characters who reveal the generosity of spirit of our breed will lead nowhere. It will only arouse hollow pride and boasting….”

Towards the end of his life, Gogol became influenced by a religious leader known as Matvey Konstantinovsky, who convinced him that writing fiction was the work of the devil. This conviction caused him to fall into depression, which may have had something to do with burning the second part of the Dead Souls’ manuscript .

6. Books about Nikolai Gogol for further reading

Nabokov, Vladimir. (1961). Nikolai Gogol. New Directions Publishing Corporation. 

Bojanowska, Edyta M. (2007). “Introduction.” Nikolai Gogol: Between Ukrainian and Russian Nationalism . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

Fanger, Donald (2009). The Creation of Nikolai Gogol . Harvard University Press.

Nechiporenko, Yuri, Korablev, Alexander, Tikos, Laszlo. (2017) Gogol’s Art: A Search for Identity. 

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Nikolai Gogol Paperback – January 17, 1961

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Nikolai Gogol was the most idiosyncratic of the great Russian novelists of the 19th century and lived a tragically short life which was as chaotic as the lives of the characters he created.

• Print length 172 pages
• Language English
• Publisher New Directions
• Publication date January 17, 1961
• Dimensions 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• ISBN-10 9780811201209
• ISBN-13 978-0811201209
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0811201201
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Directions; Later Printing edition (January 17, 1961)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 172 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780811201209
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0811201209
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.3 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• #280 in History & Criticism of Russian & Soviet Literature
• #5,455 in Author Biographies

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Tarou aoyama.

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Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born on April 23, 1899, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Nabokov household was trilingual, and as a young man, he studied Slavic and romance languages at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking his honors degree in 1922. For the next eighteen years he lived in Berlin and Paris, writing prolifically in Russian under the pseudonym Sirin and supporting himself through translations, lessons in English and tennis, and by composing the first crossword puzzles in Russian. In 1925 he married Vera Slonim, with whom he had one child, a son, Dmitri. Having already fled Russia and Germany, Nabokov became a refugee once more in 1940, when he was forced to leave France for the United States. There he taught at Wellesley, Harvard, and Cornell. He also gave up writing in Russian and began composing ficticvbn ral books of criticism. Vladimir Nabokov died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977.

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Translation Tech Is Amazing, Except When It’s Not

Today’s language translation apps are like self-driving cars : incredibly useful, promising, nearing maturity, and almost entirely powered by machines. It's astonishing that the technology even exists.

Even so, machine translation is still clunky at times, if not awkward.

Consider a recent conversation I had with my neighbor, Andre, who immigrated from Russia last year. Speaking little to no English, Andre is navigating the American Dream almost entirely through Google Translate , the most popular speech-to-speech translation app, first launched 10 years ago.

Through his phone, Andrew and I can hold surprisingly deep conversations about where he’s from, how he thinks, how we can help each other, and what he hopes for. But on more than one occasion, Google Translate failed to communicate what Andre was trying to express, which forced us both to shrug and smile through the breakdown.

As computers get smarter, however, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and others hope to fully remove the language barrier Andre and I shared that day. But it’ll take faster neural machine learning for that to happen, which “might be a few years out,” one developer I spoke to admitted.

Not that the wait matters. In fact, many consumers are surprised to learn just how good today’s translation apps already are. For example, this video shows three Microsoft Researchers using the company's live translation software to hold a conversation across multiple languages. The video is seven years old. But when I showed it to some friends, they reacted as if they'd seen the future.

“The technology surrounding translation has come a long way in a very short time,” says Erica Richter, a spokesperson for DeepL , an award-winning machine-translation service that licenses its technology to Zendesk, Coursera, Hitachi, and other businesses. “But this hasn’t happened in parallel with consumer awareness.”

I am a case in point. Although I’ve written about technology for nearly 20 years, I had no idea how deft Google Translate, Apple Translate , Microsoft Translator , and Amazon Alexa were until I started researching this story after my fateful encounter with Andre. The technology still isn’t capable of instant translation like you expect from a live human translator. But the turn-based speech-to-speech, text-to-speech, or photo-to-text translation is incredibly powerful.

And it’s getting better by the year. “Translate is one of the products we built that’s entirely using artificial intelligence,” a Google spokesperson says. “Since launching Google’s Neural Machine in 2016 , we’ve seen the largest improvements in accuracy to translate entire sentences rather than just phrases.”

At the same time, half of the six apps I tried for this story sometimes botch even basic greetings. For instance, when I asked Siri and Microsoft Translator to convert “Olá, tudo bem?” from Portuguese to English, both correctly replied, “Hi, how are you?” Google Translate and Amazon Alexa, on the other hand, returned a more literal and awkward, “Hi, everything is fine?” or “Hi, is everything OK?” Not a total fail. But enough nuance to cause hesitancy or confusion on the part of the listener.

Reece Rogers

Adrienne So

Julian Chokkattu

In other words, translation technology is similar to the impressive but often clumsy writing that ChatGPT churns out. It works. It’s encouraging. It’s a sign of the times. But the result often feels inhuman, if not disorienting.

It’s still good enough to change the world, though. “We process over a billion translations every day on Translate,” says the same Google rep. “And we’ve recently launched more AI-powered features to provide contextual awareness, including the ability to translate images with Lens, which enables you to search what you see with your camera app.”

For its part, Microsoft, which includes a helpful split screen for people facing each other on its highly rated translation app, boasts similar numbers. “We now have thousands of businesses using our technology to do batch, real-time, and document translation across 141 languages, as well as millions of active users taking advantage of live conversation through Microsoft Translator,” says Marco Casalaina, VP of product for Microsoft’s Azure AI.

When it comes to machine translation, there are basically two toolkits for converting tongues: small language models, like the open-source kind Microsoft uses “to be nimble, iterate faster, and scale effectively on important user devices,” and large language models , like the proprietary kind DeepL sells to 100,000 customers.

Some say the latter approach is more accurate and faster, but there are trade-offs: fewer supported languages (only a quarter of the 140 total for small language models) and no offline access, chief among them. But as DeepL’s Richter spins it, “We don’t offer offline translation, since end devices don’t provide the quality we want when working in the cloud.”

What’s next, then, for translation apps? Big Tech is mum for now.

"We don't speculate,” says a tight-lipped publicist from Apple, which first introduced its Siri-powered Translation app in 2020. “Soon, we will expand our web service to give users more options for translating image-based content, regardless of how you search for it,” says Google’s rep. For its part, DeepL is developing significant speech improvements “launching later this year.”

But none of this would even be possible without artificial intelligence, according to every developer I spoke to. “As AI continues to unlock new translation possibilities, we will remove the remaining language barriers,” says Microsoft’s Casalaina. “The tech just needs a few years to evolve,” adds DeepL’s Richter.

As my sometimes clumsy exchanges with Andre prove, today’s translation technology is mostly awesome but still confusing at times. Given that machines have been “speaking” for only 10 to 20 years, however, it’s hard to believe how good they’ve become at understanding and translating what our species has been doing for 200,000 years.

It might not be miraculous, but it’s pretty close.

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10 Best AAPI Movies of All Time to Watch Right Now

These empowering stories highlight the beauty of Asian experiences and culture.

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"Everything Everywhere All At Once"

A combination of science fiction and action comedy, “Everything Everywhere All At Once" (directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) explores complex themes of identity, existentialism, and the nature of reality. It also offers heartfelt moments of human connection. This movie revolves around a Chinese American woman named Evelyn Wang, who finds herself trapped in a mundane and unfulfilling existence. Her life takes a surreal turn when she discovers that she is connected to multiple parallel universes. Her estranged husband helps her embark on a mind-bending journey across different dimensions to save herself and her loved ones from a looming existential threat.

This mesmerizing film stars Michelle Yeoh in the lead role alongside Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, and Jamie Lee Curtis, among others. After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022, critics and audiences alike have praised this extraordinary film for its dazzling visuals, imaginative premise, and standout performances.

"The Joy Luck Club"

Directed by Wayne Wang and based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Amy Tan , "The Joy Luck Club," was both a critical and commercial success upon its release, which was not common for Asian-American movies at the time. The 1993 American drama had an ensemble cast that included Ming-Na Wen, Tamlyn Tomita, Lauren Tom, Rosalind Chao, and Kieu Chinh.

The movie follows the lives of four Chinese American immigrant families living in San Francisco who gather regularly to play mahjong and share their stories. Gut-wrenching at times, viewers will see a series of interwoven flashbacks and present-day scenes that explore the complex relationships between Asian mothers and daughters. Themes of assimilation, cultural identity, and the immigrant experience are also explored.

The four present-day daughters reveal their individual struggles, triumphs, and personal growth while their mothers, who immigrated to the United States from China, grapple with their daughters' desires to embrace American culture while still honoring their Chinese heritage.

"Minari" is a 2020 American drama film written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, and based on his own childhood experiences growing up. Set in the 1980s, the film tells the story of a Korean American family who moves to a farm in rural Arkansas to pursue the American dream.

In the movie, you’ll meet Jacob and Monica Yi (played by Steven Yeun, who went on to win an Academy Award for this portrayal, making him the first Asian American actor to be nominated in that category, and Han Ye-ri), who relocate with their two children to start a new life and farm Korean produce. Monica's mother arrives, bringing humor and wisdom to their household and enriching their family dynamic.

Exploring themes of identity, family, immigration, and the pursuit of happiness, this film also celebrates the resilience and strength of the human spirit.

"Crazy Rich Asians"

The 2018 gem "Crazy Rich Asians" brings both laughter and heart to the screen while celebrating Asian Americans. Directed by Jon M. Chu, the movie follows Rachel Chu as she navigates the glitz and glamour of her boyfriend’s Singapore high society life. With a stellar ensemble cast — including Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Awkwafina, and Michelle Yeoh — this fun flick offers a fresh take on the rom-com genre. The film also explores themes of family, tradition, and wealth while challenging stereotypes and breaking barriers in Hollywood.

You’ll love the opulent settings, glamorous fashion, and witty humor of this delightful celebration of love, family, and cultural identity. Don't miss out on the fun and charm of this groundbreaking film.

"Life of Pi"

"Life of Pi," directed by Ang Lee and based on Yann Martel's novel of the same name, follows Pi Patel, a young Indian boy who survives a shipwreck and finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

In this 2012 adventure drama, you'll witness Pi struggle to survive in the vast ocean while he forms an unexpected bond with the tiger, leading to a remarkable journey of self-discovery and spiritual enlightenment. Themes of of survival, faith, and the power of storytelling are woven together in this extraordinary film. While reality and imagination get blurred at times, this movie's visuals transport viewers to a mesmerizing world of wonder and awe.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"

Directed by Ang Lee and based on the novel of the same name by Wang Dulu, the critically acclaimed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" follows the destinies of several Qing dynasty characters as they become embroiled in a quest for a stolen sword known. The 2000 martial arts film features characters Yu Shu Lien, a skilled warrior played by Michelle Yeoh, and Li Mu Bai, a legendary swordsman portrayed by Chow Yun-fat . Their paths intersect with a rebellious aristocrat and a desert bandit.

You’ll appreciate this cultural phenomenon’s stunning cinematography, intricate fight choreography, and emotional storytelling. Blending romance, drama, and adventure, you’ll also get a strong sense of the characters’ love, honor, duty, and their pursuit of freedom.

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Garnering critical acclaim since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023, it received multiple award nominations from the Golden Globes and Oscars, among others.

"The Karate Kid"

If you've never seen the movie, "The Karate Kid,” you are missing out on the '80s goodness in the classic martial arts drama directed by John G. Avildsen. The movie follows Daniel LaRusso (played by Ralph Macchio ), a teenage boy who moves to a new city and becomes the target of bullying by a group of karate students. With the help of his apartment complex's maintenance man, Mr. Miyagi, Daniel learns karate and enters a martial arts tournament to confront his bullies.

Throughout, themes like perseverance, friendship, and the importance of mentorship are strong. Through Daniel's training with Mr. Miyagi, he learns valuable life lessons about discipline, respect, and self-confidence. Their bond deepens as Mr. Miyagi imparts wisdom through unconventional methods, such as painting fences and (the infamous and often referenced in pop culture) waxing cars.

"Better Luck Tomorrow"

Drama "Better Luck Tomorrow" came out in 2002 and follows a group of overachieving Asian American high school students who become involved in a world of crime and deception. Directed by Justin Lin, the movie centers around Ben Manibag, portrayed by Parry Shen. The straight-A student becomes disillusioned with the monotony of his suburban life and the pressures of academic success, so he gets involved in petty crime, like stealing, cheating, and drug dealing.

As he and his friend group’s criminal activities escalate, they find themselves entangled in a web of lies and betrayal that threatens to unravel their carefully constructed lives. The film explores themes of identity, morality, and the consequences of unchecked ambition.

You’ll love this film’s bold storytelling, sharp dialogue, and powerful performances, particularly from its ensemble cast of emerging Asian American actors. The film has since been praised for its authentic portrayal of Asian American youth culture during its time and paved the way for future generations of Asian American filmmakers and actors to tell their stories on the big screen.

"The Namesake"

Based on the novel of the same name by Jhumpa Lahiri, "The Namesake" follows the story of a young Indian American man navigating his identity, family, and cultural heritage. The 2006 drama directed by Mira Nair revolves around the character Gogol Ganguli (played by Kal Penn), who was born to Indian immigrant parents in the United States. Named after Russian author Nikolai Gogol, the movie follows Gogol navigate life from college to career and the relationships he encounters in throughout.

The film — celebrated for its storytelling, character development, and evocative portrayal of the immigrant experience — explores themes of generational differences, the search for belonging, and pressures of assimilation.

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Rare Editions of Pushkin Are Vanishing From Libraries Around Europe

Dozens of books have disappeared from Warsaw to Paris. The police are looking into who is taking them, and why — a tale of money, geopolitics, crafty forgers and lackluster library security.

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By Rachel Donadio

Rachel Donadio reported from Paris

In April 2022, soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, two men arrived at the library of the University of Tartu, Estonia’s second-largest city. They told the librarians they were Ukrainians fleeing war and asked to consult 19th-century first editions of works by Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s national poet, and Nikolai Gogol. Speaking Russian, they said they were an uncle and nephew researching censorship in czarist Russia so the nephew could apply for a scholarship to the United States. Eager to help, the librarians obliged. The men spent 10 days studying the books.

Four months later, during a routine annual inventory, the library discovered that eight books the men had consulted had disappeared, replaced with facsimiles of such high quality that only expert eyes could detect them. “It was terrible,” Krista Aru, the director of the library, said. “They had a very good story.”

At first, it seemed like a one-off — bad luck at a provincial library. It wasn’t. Police are now investigating what they believe is a vast, coordinated series of thefts of rare 19th-century Russian books — primarily first and early editions of Pushkin — from libraries across Europe.

Since 2022, more than 170 books valued at more than $2.6 million, according to Europol, have vanished from the National Library of Latvia in Riga, Vilnius University Library , the State Library of Berlin , the Bavarian State Library in Munich, the National Library of Finland in Helsinki, the National Library of France, university libraries in Paris, Lyon and Geneva, and from the Czech Republic. The University of Warsaw library was hardest hit, with 78 books gone.

The books are worth tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each. In most cases, the originals were replaced with high-quality copies that mimicked even their foxing — a sign of a sophisticated operation. The disappearance of so many books of the same ilk from so many countries in a relatively short period is unprecedented, experts said. The thefts have led libraries to boost security and put dealers on high alert about the provenance of Russian books.

How Russian rare books came to be at the center of a possible multinational criminal conspiracy is a story of money and geopolitics as much as of crafty forgers and lackluster library security. Authorities, librarians and experts in Russian rare books believe the thieves are smaller fish operating on behalf of bigger fish. But who is behind the thefts, and what motivates them, remain open questions.

First editions of Russian Golden Era writers have sold for five and six figures in recent years at Western auctions . Experts say there is a thriving market for them today in Russia, where they have tremendous cultural and patriotic value. French authorities have not ruled out a state-sanctioned drive to bring Russian treasures home to Russia.

According to Europol, the authorities have arrested nine people in connection to the thefts. Four were detained in Georgia in late April, along with more than 150 books. In November, French police placed three suspects into custody. Another man has been convicted in Estonia and a fifth suspect is in jail in Lithuania.

A special French police unit dedicated to fighting cultural theft is overseeing the investigation in France and coordinating across Europe. Authorities paint a picture of a network of associates, some blood relatives, traveling across Europe by bus with library cards sometimes under assumed names to scout rare Russian books, make high-quality copies, then swap them for the originals, case files reviewed by The New York Times reveal.

The investigation, dubbed “Operation Pushkin,” was reported in depth by Le Parisien , a Paris daily. The director of France’s culture police unit, Colonel Hubert Percie du Sert, declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.

In Russia, Pushkin is a national icon with the status of Shakespeare but the familiarity of a friend. A Romantic poet, novelist and playwright, aristocrat, libertine, writer on freedom and empire, he brought Russian literature, and the Russian language itself, into modernity before dying in a duel at age 37, in 1837.

“In Russia for the past 200 years, there were not four elements in nature but five, and the fifth is Pushkin,” André Markovicz , the pre-eminent translator of Pushkin into French, said.

Every leader of Russia has embraced Pushkin in line with his own political vision, from the czars who expanded the Russian empire in the 19th century, to Stalin — who held public celebrations across the Soviet Union on the 100th anniversary of Pushkin’s death in 1937 even while purging intellectuals — to President Vladimir V. Putin, who has cited Pushkin in speeches and unveiled monuments to him around the world.

“Pushkin is the mirror of all the epochs of Russia,” Markovicz said. In Ukraine today, Pushkin has become a reviled symbol of Russian imperialism since the brutal Russian invasion and people have toppled statues to him.

Prices of books published during the lifetimes of the holy trinity of Russian Romantic writers — Pushkin, Gogol and Mikhail Lermontov — have risen dramatically in the past 20 years, in line with the rise in wealth of Russian collectors. It’s a small market with relatively few books and collectors who often have a checklist of the books they want, dealers say.

Pushkin died young and so “lifetime” Pushkins are scarce. He published “Eugene Onegin,” a novel in verse, as a serial; a first edition with some chapters in their original wrappers sold for more than 467,000 British pounds ($581,000) at auction at Christie’s in 2019 .

Western sanctions put in place after Russia invaded Ukraine prohibit dealers in the West from selling to residents of Russia, fueling an existing shadow market for rare books. In this market, sales are often brokered privately through middlemen, with cash transactions that are difficult to trace, dealers say. Libraries are easy targets for thieves because they are intended to serve the public; they are often underfunded, without the same security as museums and other institutions with valuable works.

“It’s easy to get the books, it’s easy to know which books you should get and it’s easy to know the value,” Pierre-Yves Guillemet, a dealer in London specializing in Russian rare books, said.

Guillemet and other dealers said it would be unlikely for the Russian books stolen from European libraries to turn up at official auctions in the West. The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers , a trade organization, has listed many of the recent library thefts on its Missing Books Register.

Angus O’Neill, the group’s vice president and security chair, said the organization had been in regular contact with Europol to inform its members about the thefts. “Booksellers are advised to be cautious!” the State Library of Berlin wrote on the Missing Books Register, listing the five Russian books it had lost, with a total value in the low six figures.

Absorbing so many stolen books into the relatively small market for Russian books could be difficult. But these are the most famous books in Russia, Guillemet said, potentially attractive not only to seasoned collectors, but also to “rich people wanting trophy items.”

Europol said some of the stolen books had already been sold by auction houses in Moscow and St. Petersburg, “effectively making them irrecoverable.” The agency did not reveal which books, citing the ongoing investigation.

Dealers say it is not uncommon for Russian books with library stamps to be for sale. The Soviets plundered private family collections and nationalized libraries. During the Second World War, libraries burned, the Soviets took books from Germany and the Nazis took books from Russia. When the Soviet Union was collapsing, impoverished librarians sometimes sold library books on the sly to support themselves.

In the 20th century, Russian books flowed westward as émigrés sold their collections. In the 21st century, they flowed eastward as new generations of Russians bought them back. In 2018, Christie’s auctioned one of the largest private collections of Russian books in the West, amassed by R. Eden Martin, a lawyer in Chicago, a sale that totaled more than $2.2 million.

The recent thefts have led to heightened vigilance. “It’s deeply upsetting whenever thefts like these occur,” Susan Benne, the executive director of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, said. “Libraries are in the business of providing access to scholars and the public, and when a breach of trust like this occurs, necessary changes in security can curtail that access.”

The thefts seem to have caused the most public outrage in Poland, which is acutely sensitive to actual and perceived Russian aggression. Last October, the library of Warsaw University, a former Russian imperial university with a large collection of 19th-century Russian books , discovered 78 Russian rare books missing, including first editions of Pushkin. The thefts may have begun in the fall of 2022 and continued until they were discovered 10 months later, a spokeswoman for the university said.

As authorities across Europe begin to arrest suspects, so far all of them Georgian nationals, a picture is emerging of a possible network. One of the men implicated in thefts at Vilnius University Library , which lost 17 books valued at 440,000 euros ($470,000), is in jail in Lithuania. He is also suspected to be involved in library heists elsewhere, according to case files reviewed by The Times. In Estonia, one man was convicted on charges related to the Tartu heist. He had been extradited there from Latvia, where he served time for facilitating the theft of three books from the National Library of Latvia in Riga — one by Pushkin and two by the Russian Futurist poet Aleksei Kruchyonykh , who, as it happens, renounced Pushkin and sought a new poetic language.

Last November, French police placed three people into custody on charges of criminal conspiracy for stealing 12 Russian books at a university library in Paris, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. It said authorities had linked the alleged culprits to another theft last July at the library of a prestigious public university in Lyon. The same men had also been identified at the National Library of France in Paris, according to case files seen by The Times.

These days, requesting a 19th-century early edition of Pushkin in the rare books room of the National Library of France will draw nervous looks from librarians and swift requests for further information about a reader’s motives. Last year, thieves lifted eight books by Pushkin and one by Lermontov, with a total estimated value of €650,000 ($696,500), one of the largest thefts from the library in the modern era.

The pattern was the same. A man showed up over a period of months to consult rare Russian books. When librarians asked the nature of his research, he claimed not to speak French or English. The librarians were doubtful, but ultimately gave him access. The man allegedly stole the books, possibly hiding them in the sling of a bandaged arm. He replaced them with such high-quality copies that librarians didn’t discover the thefts for months.

The library now keeps its Russian Golden Era books in its holy of holies, along with its rarest books, including a Gutenberg Bible.

Rachel Donadio was Rome bureau chief from 2008 to 2013. More about Rachel Donadio

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Here's why you need to be careful when eating reheated leftover rice

A  nationwide survey  of 2,000 Americans reveals that some 72% of us enjoy eating leftovers - though certain reheated foods are preferred over others. 79% of respondents said that soup was their favorite food to reheat, while pizza came in second at 63%, meat came in third at 62%, and pasta came in fourth at 60%. Rice rounded out the top five at 55%. 

As tasty as all of these and other reheated foods can be coming out of a microwave or toaster oven, some foods require extra caution in order to avoid exposure to foodborne illnesses caused by salmonella, norovirus or staphylococcus aureus. Rice is one such food because it comes with some conditions that make reheating it a bit riskier and trickier than other foods. 

Why are there concerns over reheating rice?

There are a few reasons why you need to be extra careful when reheating rice. The first couple are that rice has neutral pH levels and it holds more moisture than other foods - both of which are conducive to bacterial growth. Rice also contains spores of bacteria known as  Bacillus cereus , which can survive cooking and multiply when at room temperature for extended periods of time. 

"This Bacillus cereus can cause vomiting and diarrhea," says Shelley Rael, a registered dietitian and nutritionist based in Albuquerque New Mexico. She explains that this bacterial growth usually occurs when one doesn't get rice refrigerated fast enough after preparing, when rice is kept in the fridge for too long (3-4 days should be your max, according to the  The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services ' Food Safety app), or when one fails to reheat rice properly. 

Norovirus cases are on the rise: Here's what you should know about symptoms

"Reheating rice doesn't usually pose any outright danger, but there are risks associated with doing it incorrectly," says Jen Messer, a nutrition consultant and registered dietitian at  Jen Messer Nutrition . 

How long should rice be left out before putting in the fridge?

In addition to avoiding leaving rice in the fridge longer than 3-4 days before eating, it's also important not to let rice sit out too long after preparing before eating or refrigerating it.

Rael says the maximum amount of time rice should be left out after preparing and before eating or refrigeration is 2 hours, but this should be cut in half if serving rice outdoors. During a warm summer picnic , for instance, outside temps can reach the mid 80s or 90s, which would make bacteria growth more likely if rice is sitting out on a serving table alongside other foods. In such conditions, it's best to keep your rice cooled down or to toss it in the garbage if it's been sitting out for longer than an hour. 

How to reheat rice

There are a couple of things to consider when it comes to reheating rice. One is about doing so safely while the other is about doing so in a way that helps it retain its original taste and fluffy texture. 

Messer says the best way to ensure that rice stays tasty and fluffy is to add a little bit of water or broth before reheating. Some people accomplish this by placing a single ice cube and a damp paper towel over a plate or bowl of rice before microwaving it for a minute or two. Some reheat their rice in the microwave alongside a mug of water so that the steam created by the boiling water moistens the rice. Rice can also be reheated in the oven by mixing in 2 tablespoons of water for every cup of rice, per one  cooking website , then spreading it out across an oven-safe pan. The container can then be covered with tin foil and heated for 15-20 minutes. Following the same water-to-rice ratio and heating the rice over a stovetop can also work. 

No matter which method you follow, Rael says you need to ensure the rice reaches an internal temperature of at least 165°F (74°C) before eating it. "I like to use an instant-read thermometer to check for this temp," she says. 

Messer agrees that 165° is the temperature necessary "to kill any bacteria and to make the rice safe to eat." She also says it's important to stir the rice frequently while heating to ensure that there are no remaining cold spots.

"Once the rice has reached the desired temperature, remove it from the microwave, oven or stovetop and let it stand for a minute or two before serving," she advises. "And be sure to avoid reheating any rice more than once." 

110 Best "Happy Anniversary" Wishes to Write in a Card

Whether you're celebrating your own big day or another couple you love.

For husbands

For partner, for parents.

Anniversaries aren’t just exciting for the couples celebrating them. It’s just as exciting for their kids, parents, friends and other family members to revel in the joyous occasion of a couple celebrating another year of love, laughter and commitment. Relationships aren’t easy, and whether a couple is celebrating one year together or 20, expressing heartfelt sentiments to the happy couple (or to your partner or spouse if you’re one half of said happy couple) can go a long way in continuing that strong bond that we all hope continues for years to come.

Regardless of your relationship to the recipient(s), your thoughtful acknowledgment will show them how much you care, but if you’re the one writing inside an anniversary card for your partner, include love quotes for her or heartwarming messages for him — or get personal and add inside jokes and references that only the two of you would know. Including personal tidbits makes the message even more impactful. For a friend or family member who loves a good laugh, be playful and have some fun — but always be respectful. The key is to celebrate another year of their marriage and unbreakable bond in a charming way that’s sincere and meaningful.

For couples

• There’s nothing better than watching your love for each other flourish and grow each year. Happy anniversary to a wonderful couple.
• You two are made for each other and it shows! Happy anniversary to one of my favorite couples.
• Wishing you both all the love and happiness today and forever. Happy anniversary!
• No other couple complements each other the way that you do. Happy anniversary to the beautiful pair who makes marriage look so easy!
• The way you look at each other shows everyone around you just how much you respect and love each other. Keep being a shining example of what real love looks like. Happy anniversary.
• May God continue to cover and bless you in your union.
• Who said that marriage was hard? Not you guys because you make it seem absolutely effortless. Happy anniversary
• What a beautiful and loving couple. Wishing you a lifetime of love. Happy anniversary!
• No marriage is perfect, but you guys come really close. Happy anniversary!
• Wow, another year in the books! You guys are the perfect match. Happy anniversary!
• Happy anniversary to the couple who demonstrates unconditional love.
• It’s a privilege and honor to watch your love continue to blossom. Happy anniversary!
• May you be blessed with many more! Happy anniversary.
• You two are the most adorable love birds I’ve ever known. Wishing you a lifetime of love.
• Your love is so inspiring. You’re the perfect example of real love. Happy anniversary.
• Happy anniversary to the couple whose love lights up every room.
• Family gatherings wouldn’t be the same without you guys. Happy anniversary to one of my favorite couples.
• I marvel at the wonderful life you’ve built together. You guys could teach a class on how to do marriage right. Congratulations!
• You two are a true inspiration! Cheers to making marriage look easy.
• A marriage anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, and partnership. You exemplify all of those qualities beautifully.
• Wishing you an eternity of holy matrimony. Happy anniversary.
• May your love continue to burn. Happy anniversary to one of my favorite couples.
• Spending time with you guys is one of my favorite pastimes. You make life more enjoyable. Happy anniversary!
• Another year married, another year to celebrate! Happy anniversary.
• Congratulations on another year together as a healthy and happy couple.

• Marrying you was the best decision I’ve ever made. Happy anniversary, baby. I love you with all my heart.
• Thank you for being my husband, protector, and best friend. Happy anniversary!
• There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t thank God that you’re my person. Thank you for loving me unconditionally. Happy anniversary, babe!
• Spending my life with you is the greatest blessing I could’ve ever received. Cheers to another year together in love. Happy anniversary.
• Happy anniversary to the man who will always have my heart. I love you!
• You light up my life in ways that you can’t even begin to imagine. Saying “I do” have been the two most important words I’ve ever uttered.
• Cheers to us! We’ve made it another year as one. I love you! Happy anniversary.
• Wishing us a lifetime together. Happy anniversary, honey.
• I’m the luckiest person on earth to have a husband as loving and kind as you! Happy anniversary.
• Every day my love for you grows deeper. I can’t imagine my life without you. Happy anniversary.
• Here’s to another year around the sun being great together!
• You’re the cherry on top of life. You make everything better. Happy anniversary!
• I’ve loved you since the first day our eyes locked. Nothing has changed. Happy anniversary to my better half.
• I love doing life with you! You’re the greatest and I’m forever grateful. Happy anniversary.
• Loving you is so easy. You’re truly the best husband any person could ever hope for! Happy anniversary.
• I’m so proud to call you my husband. Cheers to another year in love. Happy anniversary.
• I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone else. Happy anniversary to the person who brightens every day.
• I can’t believe I get to call you mine. Happy anniversary to my forever knight in shining armor.
• Some things are just meant to be. We’re one of them. Thank you for loving me another year. Happy anniversary!
• As long as I have breath in my body, you’ll always be the love of my life. Happy anniversary!
• Cheers to another fantastic year together. I look forward to many more. Happy anniversary, babe!
• When I saw you walk down the aisle all those years ago, I knew that we’d be together forever. Your beauty is unmatched. Happy anniversary, my love.
• I’m the luckiest person on the planet because I get to wake up to you every day. Here’s to another year of seeing beauty up close and personal. Happy anniversary.
• I’ll never stop loving you. Here’s to a lifetime together. Happy anniversary.
• So many years ago you made me the happiest person on earth. That feeling hasn’t changed. Happy anniversary!
• Your smile could light the darkest room. I plan to keep you smiling! Happy anniversary, sunshine.
• You make me better. Thank you for loving me after all these years. Happy anniversary!
• Wishing us the happiest anniversary. Our marriage is one of the things I’m most proud of.
• Having you as my life partner is the best thing that could’ve ever happened to me. Wishing us a lifetime of happiness. Happy anniversary!
• Our love grows stronger every year and for that I’m forever grateful. Happy anniversary, my love.
• Doing life with you is one of my greatest joys. I’m blessed beyond measure. Happy anniversary.
• Happy anniversary to the woman responsible for making me the happiest person to ever walk the earth.
• 365 down, a lifetime to go! Happy anniversary.
• I look forward to growing old with you. You are my favorite person and I’m the luckiest. Happy anniversary.
• I couldn’t have dreamed of a more perfect wife. You are everything and then some. Happy anniversary to the love of my life.
• Happy anniversary! I’m so glad I got to marry my best friend.
• Like anything, marriage has its ups and downs. Thank you for always sticking by my side through the good times and bad. I love you to infinity and beyond. Happy anniversary!
• You are my soulmate and I can’t imagine a second without you in my life. Happy anniversary.
• My love for you deepens with each breath. You are my favorite human.

• I can’t believe we’ve been together for so long, but I guess time flies when you’re having fun! Happy anniversary.
• You make me smile every day of the year and today is no exception. Happy anniversary to the love of my life.
• I love you more with each passing day. I love watching you blossom in all areas of your life. Happy anniversary!
• Through thick and thin, I will always love you. Happy anniversary!
• You’ll always be my rock! Thanks for rocking with me another year. Happy anniversary, my love.
• It’s such an amazing feeling to be loved by you. Happy anniversary, sweetheart.
• You bring so much joy to my life! I can’t imagine a day without you. Happy anniversary, honey.
• You are the yin to my yang. Happy anniversary to my lover and best friend.
• Thank you for loving me unconditionally. Happy anniversary, my love.
• Happy anniversary to the strongest, most thoughtful and caring person I know. Happy anniversary, baby.
• Life with you is like heaven on earth. I love you so much! Happy anniversary.
• You guys, I literally wouldn’t be here without you! So thank you for being the most amazing parents on the planet. Happy anniversary!
• I’ve grown up watching what it meant to be a loving and caring couple. Thank you for being the blueprint for a healthy marriage. Happy anniversary!
• Wishing my favorite couple a happy anniversary!
• Happy anniversary to you two crazy kids!
• I’ve learned from the best when it comes to what a happy marriage should be. Thank you for setting such a wonderful example. Happy anniversary!
• You two were made for each other and meant to be. I’m living proof! Happy anniversary.
• Happy anniversary to the most loving love birds I’ve even known.
• Your love for one another is so admirable. I’m lucky to have witnessed it on a daily basis. Happy anniversary to my all-time favorite couple.
• Happy anniversary to the best parents anyone could ever have! Wishing you a day filled with food, love, and laughter!
• Watching you look into each other’s eyes is something that will never get old. Happy anniversary, love birds!
• After so many years together, you’re starting to look alike! Just kidding. Happy anniversary.
• Happy anniversary, mom and dad! I’m so grateful to have the both of you as parents. Keep being the wonderful couple that I’ll always look up to.
• I know that you’ll keep enjoying each other’s company for years to come. Here’s to a lifetime of bliss.
• You two make marriage look easy. I hope that one day I can find someone who I can live happily ever after with — just like you guys! Happy anniversary.
• It’s hard to believe that you two have been together for half a century. But hey, who’s counting? Happy anniversary!
• You’ve both set a high standard on what it means to be happily committed. Thank you for being the best parents. Happy anniversary!
• Happy anniversary, mom and dad. I’m so glad you guys found each other because if you didn’t, where would I be?
• You two have a love that seems to get stronger each year. I love and respect you for always putting our family first. Happy anniversary!
• I hope you both continue to love and cherish each other for the rest of your lives. Happy anniversary!
• No other couple could ever compare to you two. Happy anniversary to the best to ever say “I do!”
• If marriage is anything like you’ve demonstrated, I can’t wait for my wedding day. Thank you for being a shining example in so many ways. Happy anniversary!
• I don’t know where I’d be without the two of you! Thank you for coming together to create such a magnificent human being: me! Happy anniversary.
• Happy anniversary! I’m so honored that I get the chance to celebrate your love.
• Decades of love, support and kindness. Your relationship is what I aspire to have one day. Happy anniversary.
• Best wishes and blessings as you continue walking life’s path united in love. Happy anniversary!
• Congratulations on another year of love and togetherness. Wishing you a fantastic anniversary!
• Here’s to another year of creating beautiful memories together. Happy anniversary!
• Celebrating your love today and always. Happy anniversary to a fantastic couple!
• Congratulations on another year of love and companionship. May your bond continue to strengthen with each passing year. Happy anniversary!
• Everyday we see how happy you make each other. That’s what they call true love!
• Wishing you both a lifetime of love, laughter, and unforgettable memories. Happy anniversary!
• Here’s to the love that grows stronger with each passing year. Happy anniversary and cheers to many more years of happiness together.
• Happy anniversary to two incredible people who deserve all the happiness in the world. Cheers to your love!
• Congratulations on [insert number] years together — here’s to many more.
• Enjoy your anniversary and the many more to come!

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These are the best homeowners insurance companies in Florida

While homeowners insurance can be more expensive in florida, these companies could help you save..

Homeowners insurance in Florida has become more expensive and sometimes harder to get. Several major insurers like Farmers Insurance have stopped writing new homeowners policies in the Sunshine State altogether due to rising losses from hurricanes and other natural disasters. However, several companies still stand out for their coverage in Florida.

To make your search easier, CNBC Select reviewed the top picks for Florida homeowners insurance based on cost, coverage and service. (See our methodology for more information on how we chose the best Florida homeowners insurance companies).

Best homeowners insurance in Florida

• Best for customer satisfaction: State Farm   
• Best for affordability: Tower Hill
• Best for discounts: Liberty Mutual

Compare homeowners insurance companies

Best for customer satisfaction  , state farm homeowners insurance.

The best way to estimate your costs is to request a quote

Maximum coverage

Not disclosed

App available

Policy highlights.

State Farm's homeowners insurance offers coverage that's easy to bundle with other types of insurance and covers things like fire, theft or vandalism. It offers several discounts for home security systems and wind mitigation.

Does not cover

Business or professional services, damage from flooding or underground water, earthquakes or mudslides, settling or deterioration, and animals, birds or insects.

• Lots of optional coverages available
• Ability to bundle policies and save with auto or term life insurance policies
• Online quotes not available in all states
• Does not offer new homeowners insurance policies in California

Who's this for?  For those wanting homeowners insurance with the ability to bundle their policies, State Farm offers coverage for Florida homes.

Standout benefits: State Farm has high ratings for customer service in J.D. Power's home insurance study and has a relatively low complaint index according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) database. It also offers many optional add-on coverages, making State Farm policies highly customizable.

[ Jump to more details ]  

Best for affordability  

Tower hill homeowners insurance.

Tower Hill offers homeowners insurance for those in Florida with affordable prices. It offers the ability to pay bills file claims, and get quotes online.

• Offers affordable rates for homeowners in Florida
• Doesn't offer auto insurance to bundle coverage and save

Who's this for?  Florida homeowners prioritizing value can find affordable coverage with Tower Hill Exchange .

Standout benefits:  Tower Hill offers several discounts for having an auto insurance policy with Safeco, as well as discounts for those living in gated communities or senior communities and those who have installed wind mitigation features.

Best for discounts 

Liberty mutual homeowners insurance.

Liberty Mutual homeowners insurance offers customizable policies with optional features like hurricane damage, water backup and inflation protection coverage. Discounts for newly purchased homes and bundling home and auto insurance can help owners save.

• Policies are available in all 50 U.S. states
• Online quotes can be limited in some states

Who's this for?  Liberty Mutual offers numerous discounts, including a 10% discount for purchasing your policy online and a discount for remaining claim-free for at least three years.

Standout benefits: The company also offers auto insurance which could be a plus for those wanting to keep their auto and home insurance policies under one company. Liberty Mutual also offers flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

More on our top Florida homeowners insurance companies

State farm  .

State Farm  is a trusted name in the insurance space. With decades of experience, it has become one of the largest homeowners insurance companies in the U.S. Just note that quotes are not available online in Florida so you must go through a local State Farm agent.

Average cost in Miami-Dade County

Average cost in Orange County

Average cost in Palm Beach County

Average cost in Hillsborough County

Average cost in Broward County $4,114

NAIC Complaint Index

0.68, below average

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Tower Hill is headquartered in Gainesville, Florida and has been offering homeowners coverage in the Sunshine State for over 50 years. The company has expanded into over a dozen other states including Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina.

Average cost in Broward County $3,089

1.66, above average

Liberty Mutual

Liberty Mutual has been helping cover Americans for the past 100 years and has become a trusted name for homeowners insurance, including in Florida.

Average cost in Broward County $2,828

1.6, above average

What is the average cost of homeowners insurance in Florida?

The average Florida homeowner with $300,000 of dwelling coverage pays about $5,770 per year according to Bankrate data.

Do I need flood insurance in Florida?

If you want to be covered in the event of a flood, you'll need to buy a separate flood insurance policy, as a standard homeowners insurance policy most likely won't cover flooding .

What if I cannot get homeowners insurance?

If you're having trouble getting homeowners insurance through private companies, you might want to try a Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan. Most states, including Florida, have FAIR plans . However, you'll want to try all your options first as FAIR coverage may be more expensive than other homeowners insurance options.

Is it mandatory to have homeowners insurance in Florida?

Florida doesn't require homeowners insurance by law, but if you have a mortgage, your lender will likely require you to have a policy.

Bottom line  

Homeowners insurance in Florida might be more expensive than in other states, but comparing quotes from shopping with several top companies can help you save.

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Why trust CNBC Select? 

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every insurance review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of insurance products. To research the best insurance companies, we compiled over 50 data points on more than a dozen insurance companies. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best Florida homeowners insurance companies. 

Our methodology  

To determine the best homeowners insurance companies in Florida, CNBC Select analyzed dozens of insurance companies and compared them based on various factors.

While narrowing down the best insurance companies, we focused on a sample premium for $150,000 of coverage for a home built before 2001 with wind mitigation features in five of the most populated Florida counties. Average annual premium data was gathered from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation's Homeowners Rate Comparison Tool .

We also considered the companies' availability of online quotes, financial strength ratings from A.M. Best and complaint index scores from the NAIC .

Note that the premiums and policy structures advertised for homeowners insurance companies are subject to fluctuate per the company's policies.  

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