AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION ON GOGOL
BY
PROSPER MERIMEE
New York: FREDERICK A. STOKES Co.
London: T. WERNER LAURIE LIMITED
"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 Cyclopaedia of Names_.