Read The Classics: The Collected Tales of Gogol October 19, 2008

The Multnomah County Library invites you to take part in a new book series, where you can read some of the best all-time classics and discuss them under the leadership of Lena M. Lencek, Professor of Russian and Humanities at Reed College. Participation is free, but registration is required. You can register online at http://www.multcolib.org/events/classics/russian.html
A limited number of books will be available free of charge for those who pre-register.

Our focus for the discussion will be on the short stories in The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol, specifically two from the St. Petersburg cycle ("The Nose" and "The Overcoat") and two from Mirgorod ("Old World Landowners" and "The Story of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich"). Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, the brilliant Romantic author of Dead Souls and the comedy The Inspector–General, was a master of irony and of grotesque and sublime effects, whose humor horrifies and whose horror amuses. D.S. Mirsky has famously described the world of Gogol's texts as "one of the most marvelous, unexpected — in the strictest sense, original — worlds ever created by an artist of words." Unpredictable and unclassifiable, his works admit wildly divergent interpretations. Contemporaries read him as providing bold critique of tsarist conditions; the 20th century appreciates him for his verbal virtuosity and insights into the crisis of identity.

Official Website: http://www.multcolib.org/events/classics/russian.html