Showing results by author "Nikolái Gógol" in All Categories

Christmas Eve is the first story in the second volume of the collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol. The story opens with a description of the winter scenery of Dikanka, Ukraine, a witch flying across the night sky and the devil stealing the moon and hiding it in his pocket, first playing with it in the sky, which no one in the village notices. Since it is the night before Christmas, the devil is free to roam around and torment people as he pleases, so he decides to find a way to get back at the village blacksmith, Vakula, because he paints religious art in the church.

The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol includes the works of the famous writer Nikolai Gogol: The Viy, A May Night, Memoirs of a Madman, The Nose, The Cloak, Christmas Eve.

Memoirs of a Madman or Diary of a Madman is a farcical short story by Nikolai Gogol. Along with The Overcoat and The Nose, Diary of a Madman is considered to be one of Gogol's greatest short stories. The tale centers on the life of a minor civil servant during the repressive era of Nicholas I. Following the format of a diary, the story shows the descent of the protagonist, Poprishchin, into insanity. Diary of a Madman, the only one of Gogol's works written in first person, follows diary-entry format.