GOGOL, agol, Nikolai Vassiljevitch, Russian novelist and dramatist, the father of modern Russian realisni: b. in the government of Poltava, 31 March 1809; d. Moscow, 3 March 1852. From an early period he evinced a lik ing for the drama, endeavored unsuccessfully to establish himself as an actor, and at 19 en tered the office of the domain of lands at Saint Petersburg as a copying clerk, becoming there after successively professor of history in the Patriotic Institute, a private tutor, and profes sor of history in the University of Saint Petersburg. In 1829 he published his first work 'Nights on a Farm near Dikinka,) and its remarkably vivid character drawing aroused widespread interest in its author. ‘Mingorod) a collection of tales mainly illustrative of life and customs in Little Russia, followed in 1834. In 1836 he produced his great comedy, 'The Revizor> (inspector-general), the mordant satire of which drew a cry of distress from the dishonest and incapable provincial bureaucrats at which it was aimed, and its representation would certainly have been banned but for the Emperor Nicholas I who appeared rather to enjoy the situation thus created. But the au thor was somewhat disconcerted by the feeling aroused by his comedy, and his health suffered in consequence. Between 1836 and 1848 he re sided principally in Rome. In 1842 he
his most famous work 'Dead Souls,' a novel without a plot, in which he again satirised pub lic abuses and the barbarism of provincial man ners. Laughter with tears in the background and a note of irony are the dominant notes of, this remarkable novel, in which he introduced succession of types of all classes in Russia. His health was now failing; he became a vic tim of melancholy and hypochondria; his sec ond volume of 'Dead Souls) was written, but in his alienation he consigned it to the flames. Fragments of a draft that have been recovered show how great was the eclipse that had clouded his intellect; for the characters are dull respectabilities. His last work 'Corre spondence with Friends) (1847) furnished fur ther proof of his ruined 'intellect: ascetic, mys tical and reactionary, it is a moving and de pressing recantation of his more virile work. He made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1848. By temperament, imagination and intellect a true son of the steppes, Gogol's earlier works are assured of a permanent place in the liter ature of Russia. His principal tales have been translated by Hapgood (New York 1886) ; and 'The Revizor> by Mandell (New York 1910). See DEAD SOULS.