Audiobooks by Nicolai Gogol

The Nose

In 1722 Peter the Great introduced a system of positions and ranks for the military, the government, and the Russian court which enabled commoners to gain a modicum of nobility through service to the state. He did so in order to diminish the power of the hereditary nobility with whom he was struggling. This led to large bureaucracies and an obsession with appearances and status, a situation ripe for the brilliant satire of “The Nose”. The story is an absurd, comic, surreal and sometimes grotesque send up of Major Kovalyov, who wakes up one morning to find his nose missing. The story has three parts. In part one, Kovalyov's barber finds his client's nose in his breakfast and is nabbed by the police when he tries to throw it off a bridge. In part two, Kovalyov awakes to find his nose gone. When he leaves to report the loss, runs into it on the street dressed in the uniform of an important official who outranks him. He chases it, but the nose eludes him until it is apprehended it is about to flee the city by coach. The nose is returned to Kovalyov, but it can't be re-attached, leading him to suspect that a curse has been placed on him. Meanwhile, the nose has become the talk of the town. In part three, the Major awakes with the nose fully intact. Things just drift back to normal. The story is a staple of Russian literature, has been staged and adapted numerous times, and has had a monument erected in its honor in St. Petersburg.

Nicolai Gogol (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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Anthologie de littérature russe

Ivan Tourgueniev est un écrivain russe né en 1818. Son roman « Fantômes » est resté une pièce rare de sa bibliographie. Fiodor Mikhaïlovitch Dostoïevski est un écrivain russe, né à Moscou le 11 novembre 1821 et mort à Saint-Pétersbourg le 9 février 1881. Il est généralement considéré comme l'un des plus grands romanciers russes, et a influencé de nombreux écrivains et philosophes. Anton Pavlovitch Tchekhov, né le 29 janvier 1860 à Taganrog (Russie) et mort le 15 juillet 1904 à Badenweiler (Allemagne), est un nouvelliste et dramaturge russe, médecin de profession. Les œuvres de Leonid Andreïev ont mis beaucoup de temps à nous parvenir, très longtemps cachées dans les archives de l'ex-Union soviétique. Mikhaïl Ievgrafovitch Saltykov, plus connu sous son pseudonyme de Saltykov-Chtchedrine, est un célèbre écrivain et satiriste russe, de tendance révolutionnaire. Gogol, à travers ses «petites histoires», nous donne à découvrir sa vision de la société russe du XIXe siècle, une «peinture au scalpel» pleine d'ironie et souvent drôle.

Andreiev, Dostoievski, Nicolai Gogol, Saltikov, Tchekov, Tourgueniev (Author), B. Guedj, J. Lancrenon, Patrick Blandin, Patrick Martinez Bournat (Narrator)

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Die Nacht vor Weihnachten

Was führt wohl, wundert sich die Hexe Solocha, der Teufel wieder im Schilde, der da klammheimlich den Mond vom Himmel stiehlt? Während im Dorf nach altem Brauch die Weihnachtssinger durch die Gassen ziehen, sinnt der Teufel auf einen ganz anderen Zeitvertreib ... Eine märchenhaft-phantastische Weihnachtsgeschichte, die den Hörer schmunzeln lässt!

Nicolai Gogol (Author), David Nathan (Narrator)

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Dead Souls

Gogol's great Russian classic is the Pickwick Papers of Russian Literature. It takes a sharp but humorous look at life in all its strata, but especially the devious complexities in the country with its landowners and serfs. We are introduced to Chichikov, a businessman who, in order to trick the tax authorities, buys up dead 'souls' or serfs whose names still appear on the government census. Despite being a dealer in phantom crimes and paper ghosts, he is the most beguiling of Gogol's characters. Gogol's obsession with attempting to display 'the untold riches of the Russian soul' eventually led him to madness, religious mania and death. Dismissed by him as merely 'a pale introduction to the great epic poem which is taking shape in my mind', Dead Souls is the culmination of Gogol's genius.

Nicolai Gogol (Author), Gordon Griffin (Narrator)

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