Petersburg novellas

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The Petersburg Novellas ( Russian Петербургские повести ) are the work of the Russian poet Nikolai Wassiljewitsch Gogol .

Gogol summarized his Petersburg novellas in 1835 in the "arabesques" (Арабески).

These were initially the stories " The Nevsky Prospect " (Невский проспект), " The Portrait " (Портрет) and " Notes of a Madman " (Записки сумасшедшего). Later the stories " The Nose " (Нос) [1836] and " The Coat " (Шинель) [1842] were added.

The Petersburg stories are the works of the more mature Gogol, who has turned away from the "exoticism of the Russian south" [Zelinsky]. But here, too, demonic forces are at work and fantastic things happen. Here, too, his credo applies that everything is actually just lies and deception and the world is nothing but appearance, just a mask and a facade. In them it becomes clear how Gogol saw the world. The devil plays a special role, who is to blame for the fact that things do not appear for what they really are. The devil, as Satan or demon, is the actual driver of the experienced game. Man cannot be responsible for all evils, because he is constantly deceived by things.

In contrast to the " Evenings in the Hamlet near Dikanka ", the devil no longer appears personalized in the Petersburg novellas. For Gogol, the devil is the uncanny , that harasses people, that which cannot be explained, but what causes fear and what puts people in danger.

literature