October Wrap-up and November Reading Plans
"We all came out from under Gogol's Overcoat"
October was my White Guard read-along month and I had a great time with it. I read it for the first time in September without taking notes, to get the story and characters in my head. Then, in October, I read it slowly and deeply in four instalments. I’m pleased with how it went and how much I learned from it. It has certainly deepened my understanding of Ukraine and its role in the civil war that followed the October 1917 Revolution in Russia. I’m also pleased at how I managed to keep it going, given my neurodiversity and persistent low mood that can sometimes thwart any creative projects, and having spent a week away at a family funeral in the south of England. An achievement to celebrate!
Will I do it again? That’s a resounding yes! Watch this space for an announcement of my read-along plans for the new year.
Books mentioned:
City of Dragons — Robin Hobb
Diary of a Madman and Other Stories — Nikolai Gogol
The White Guard — Mikhail Bulgakov
A Short History of Russia — Mark Galeotti
📖 City of Dragons, Robin Hobb, 2011
Fiction, Audiobook (Narr. Saskia Butler)
I’ve been a fan of Robin Hobb’s writing since I first read The Farseer Trilogy in 1999. I set a goal this year to complete the Realm of the Elderlings series, which itself comprises five sub-series. City of Dragons is the third book in The Rain Wild Chronicles, which is the fourth sub-series of the Elderlings. The dragon keepers and their dragons have reached the ancient mythical city of Kelsingra, and we follow their growth as the city comes back to life. I’d classify the series as young-adult romantasy, which is typically not a sub-genre in which I usually find myself. I was close to quitting after the first in the series, but I persevered as I want to learn the lore and, for better or worse, I’m a completist. Once my expectations were aligned following the first book, I actually started to enjoy it. They serve as good palate cleansers for some of the heavier historical non-fiction I’ve been reading, and they’re enjoyable audiobooks to listen to while driving. As I write this, I’m two hours away from finishing the final book, and I keep refreshing my Spotify account to check whether my audiobook minutes have been refreshed so I can get back to it—a sign that I’m actually quite enjoying it!
📖 Diary of a Madman and Other Stories, Nikolai Gogol, 1972
Fiction, Short Stories, Physical Book (Translator: Ronald Wilks)
I studied Gogol in depth during my honours years at the University of St Andrews thirty years ago and haven’t read him since. I’d forgotten just how much I enjoy his writing. This particular edition of his short stories is my wife’s, and there were a couple of stories in it that I hadn’t read before.
The first three stories are part of what’s known as The Petersburg Tales, which comprise five stories. These tales, written in the 1830s and 1840s and all set in Petersburg, share common themes of alienation, petty bureaucracy, status and the absurd. The two stories missing from this collection are The Portrait (Портрет, first version 1835, revised 1842) and Nevsky Prospect (Невский проспект, 1835). Given how much I’ve enjoyed reading this collection, I just ordered another collection that includes these two stories and many others (Gogol Collected Tales: Nikolai Gogol (Everyman’s Library CLASSICS)). While I’d like to read these in Russian, it’s a considerable challenge after letting my language skills decline over the last fifteen years. Maybe my Blackwell’s reader of The Overcoat that I read in first year at St Andrews would be a nice way into Gogol’s Russian language. These editions are designed for language students and include notes and a glossary.
Diary of a Madman (Записки сумасшедшего, 1835)
This story follows a low-ranking civil servant’s descent into madness. It’s written in the form of diary entries, a stream of consciousness, and is a satire of the civil service in Imperial Russia. It ends with this character’s being incarcerated in an asylum, where he believes himself to be the King of Spain.
The Nose (Нос, 1836)
This is one of Gogol’s most well-known and surreal stories. It begins when a barber finds a human nose in a loaf of bread. Meanwhile, a high-ranking civil servant wakes up to discover that his nose is missing. He later sees his nose walking around St Petersburg, dressed in a civil service uniform of a higher rank than his own. He tries to have the nose arrested and even places a missing-persons notice, but his demands are met with ridicule. The story concludes with the nose’s return to its rightful place, without explanation. The narrator even goes so far as to tell us that the story is “beyond my comprehension.”
And, come to think of it, how did the nose manage to turn up in a loaf of bread, and how did Ivan Yakovlevich..? No, I don’t understand it, not one bit! But the strangest, most incredible thing of all is that authors should write about such things. That, I confess, is beyond my comprehension. It’s just ... no, no, I don’t understand it at all!
Isn’t it delightful?
The Overcoat (Шинель, 1842)
“We all came out from under Gogol’s Overcoat” - Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé
This was the first Gogol story I read, right at the beginning of first year at St Andrews. It follows Akaky Akakievich—one of my favourite names in Russian literature—as he saves up to replace his old, threadbare overcoat with a new one. He endures months of frugality to save up, but he gets there, and his new coat is a triumph. His colleagues in the civil service now notice him for the first time and even throw a party in his honour. It’s short-lived, though, as Akaky Akakievich is robbed of his coat on his way home from the party. He then goes back to being humiliated or ignored, soon after which he falls ill and dies. His ghost then haunts St Petersburg, snatching overcoats from civil servants.
I don’t recall what I made of this story in first year at university. Might The Nose have been a better starting point? Possibly.
How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich (Как поссорился Иван Иванович с Иваном Никифоровичем, 1835)
This is another story that I hadn’t read before and I absolutely loved it! It’s part of Gogol’s Mirgorod collection (which also includes Taras Bulba, A Terrible Revenge, Old World Landowners, Viy and Shponka and His Aunt).
The story is set in a provincial Ukrainian town—Gogol himself was from the provinces of Ukraine—and follows the story of two neighbours. They start the story as great friends, but they soon fall out over an argument involving a Turkish rifle belonging to Ivan Nikiforovich. Ivan Ivanovich suggests a trade for said rifle, which offends Ivan Nikiforovich and leads to Ivan Ivanovich’s calling him an ‘old goose’. The quarrel soon escalates and their pride doesn’t allow them to back down. They both initiate legal proceedings against each other, and once again, Gogol is showing us his views on petty bureaucracy. The story is not without its absurd elements—at one point, a pig belonging to Ivan Ivanovich enters the city chambers and eats Ivan Ivanovich’s petition.
“Please, Ivan Ivanovich! An animal owned by you has stolen a very important government document and you can still say you don’t understand!”
“What animal?”
“If I may say so, your own brown sow!”
It’s a moment of Gogolian farce and satire of the best kind.
Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt (Иван Фёдорович Шпонька и его тётушка, 1835)
This was the weakest story in the collection. It’s another from the Mirgorod collection and follows a mild, timid and rather foolish ex-soldier who has retired to his small estate in the Ukrainian countryside. His aunt’s greatest wish is to see him married and she sets about making a match for him. The story remains unfinished, but it shows signs of Gogol’s experimentation in storytelling, writing about the mundane in a mocking style.
📖 The White Guard, Mikhail Bulgakov, 1925
Fiction, Physical Book (Translated by Roger Cockrell, 2016)
I already wrote about this book last month as I was preparing to lead a group through it in October. It was a very rewarding experience, and one that I plan to repeat with another book in the new year. Anyone up for The Master and Margarita?
📖 A Short History of Russia, Mark Galeotti, 2020
Non-fiction, Physical Book
This was an impulse buy from the European history section of the Sauchiehall Street branch of Waterstones in Glasgow, a section I could easily spend all day browsing.
A video I recorded in Waterstones with binaural mics to place you right in the store with me.
It’s a remarkable achievement on the author’s part to have covered centuries of history in under two hundred pages and to have done it in such an engaging and informative style. I can’t even begin to imagine how he and his editor decided what to leave out. My knowledge of the Soviet period and beyond is pretty extensive, but I still feel that I've learned new things. I did study the earlier period going back to the Kieven Rus’ when I was at university, but I’d forgotten most of it. Our textbook of the time was Riasonovsky’s book, A History of Russia.
A feature I particularly liked in Galeotti’s book was that he included a further reading section at the end of each chapter. It was especially nice when he recommended books that I’d already read, such as Montefiore’s book, Catherine the Great and Potemkin, and Robert Service’s biography of Lenin. I did, of course, find myself adding lots of his other recommendations to my TBR!
November Reading
Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume 1: From Grantham to the Falklands, Charles Moore
This is a long-term read that sits by my bed to be picked up during bouts of insomnia. It’s great to read a few pages in the wee hours. The edition I have is the US edition; the UK edition’s subtitle is Not for Turning, which I much prefer.
The Art of the Personal Essay, edited by Philip Lopate
A compendium of essays—another slow-read to dip into when the mood strikes
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (Translated by Rosamund Bartlett)
A slow-read hosted by Henry Eliot, read in monthly instalments as it was initially serialised in the Russian Messenger publication
Blood of Dragons, Robin Hobb
The Will of the Many, James Islington
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