The Mantle and Other Stories - Tapa blanda

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“Gogol, Nikolai Vassilievitch. Born in the government of Pultowa, March 31 (N.S.), 1809, died at Moscow, March 4 (N.S.), 1852. A Russian novelist and dramatist. He was educated in a public gymnasium at Pultowa, and subsequently in the lyceum, then newly established, at Niejinsk. In 1831 he was appointed teacher of history at the Patriotic Institution, a place which he exchanged in 1834 for the professorship of history in the University of St Petersburg. This he resigned at the end of a year and devoted himself entirely to literature. In 1836 Gogol left Russia. He lived most of the time in Rome. In 1837 he wrote ‘Dead Souls.’ In 1840 he went to Russia for a short period in order to superintend the publication of the first volume of ‘Dead Souls,’ and then returned to Italy. In 1846 he returned to Russia and fell into a state of fanatical mysticism. One of his last acts was to burn the manuscript of the concluding portion of ‘Dead Souls,’ which he considered harmful. He also wrote ‘The Mantle,’ ‘Evenings at the Farm,’ ‘St Petersburg Stories,’ ‘Taras Bulba,’ a tale of the Cossacks, ‘The Revizor,’ a comedy, etc.” —From The Century Cyclopædia of Names.