Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin.
Portrait of Nikolai Gogol by Otto Friedrich Theodor von Möller (early 1840s)
Cover of the first edition of The Government Inspector (1836)
Commemorative plaque on his house in Rome
One of several portraits of Gogol by Fyodor Moller (1840)
The Nose (Gogol short story)
"The Nose" is a satirical short story by Nikolai Gogol written during his time living in St. Petersburg. During this time, Gogol's works were primarily focused on the grotesque and absurd, with a romantic twist. Written between 1835 and 1836, "The Nose" tells the story of a St. Petersburg official whose nose leaves his face and develops a life of its own. "The Nose" was originally published in The Contemporary, a literary journal owned by Alexander Pushkin. The use of a nose as the main source of conflict in the story could have been due to Gogol's own experience with an oddly shaped nose, which was often the subject of self-deprecating jokes in letters. The use of iconic landmarks in the story, as well as the sheer absurdity of the story, has made "The Nose" an important part of St. Petersburg's literary tradition.
Kazan Cathedral, where the nose was praying.