i THE COLLECTED if n TALES OF NIKOLAI GOGOL Translated and Annotated by RICHARD PEVEAR and LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY VINTAGE CLASSICS Vintage Books / A Division of Random House, Inc. / New York CONTENTS FIRST VINTACi'E .CLA-SS‘IGS EDITION, JULY 1999 Copyright © i998,})y Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky PREFACE V|I Ali rights reserved .under International and Pan-American Qopyright Conventions. TRANSLATORS' NOTE XXI PdbHshed in the United States ^Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally pp'bhshed in hardcover in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1998. UKRAINIAN TALES Vintage Books,Vintage Classics, and colophon St.John’s Eve 3 'are trademarks of Random House, Inc. The Night Before Christmas 19 The Library of Congress has cataloged the Pantheon Books edition as foUoii^s: The Terrible Vengeance 6 4 Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt 10 6 Gogol’, Nikolai Vasil’evich, 1809-1852. [Short stories. Enghsh. Selections] Old World Landowners 13 2 Th^ Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol / Nikolai Gogol; Viy 15 5 ' translated and annotated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The Story of How Iv^n Ivanovich Quarreled p. cm. Contents: St.John’s Ev^The night before Christmas-The terrible vengeance-Ivan ivith Ii>an Nikiforovich 19.4 Fyodorovich Shpdnka and his aunKpid world landowners—Viy—The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich—Nevsky Prospect—The diary of a madman—The nose—The carriag^The portrait—The overcoat. ISBN 0-679-43023-7 1. Gogol’, NikolaiVasil’evich, 1809-1852—Tthnslations into Enghsh. I. Pevear, Richard, PETERSBURG TALES 1943- . II.Volokhonsky, Larissa. III.Title. PG3333A6 1998 Nevsky Prospect 2 45 89i.73'3—dc2i 97-37228 The Diary of a Madman 27 9 CIP The Nose 300 Vintage ISBhJ: 0-375-70615-1 The Carriage 32 7 The Portrait 340 www.vintagebooks.com The Overcoat 394 Printed in the United States of America 20 19 18 17 16 I5 14 ‘13 12 NOTES 425 Nevsky Prospect kERE IS NOTHING better than Nevsky Prospect, at least not Petersburg; for there it is everything. What does this street— he^ beauty of our capital—not shine wjith! I kno"w that not one of Its pale and clerical inhabitants would trade Nevsky Prospect for anything in the world. Not only the one who is twenty-five years kid, has an excellent mustache and a frock coat of an amazing cut, but even the one who has white h^r sprouting on his chin and a head as smooth as a silver dish, he, too, is enchanted yvdth Nevsky Prospect. And the ladies! Oh, the ladies find Nevsky Prospect still more pleasing. And who does not find it pleasing? The moment you enter Nevsky Prospect, it already smells of nothing but festiv­ ity. Though you may have some sort of necessary, indispensable business, once you enter it you are sure to forget all business. Here is the only place where people do not go out of necessity, where they are-not ckiven by the need and mercantile interest that enveloj) the whole of Petersburg. A man met on Nevsky Prospect seems less of an egoist than on Morskaya, Gorokhovaya, Lkeiny, Meshchanskaya, and other streets, where greed, self-interest, and necessity show on those walking or flying by in carriages and droshkies. Nevsky Prospect is the universal communication of Petersburg. Here the inhabitant of the Petersburg or Vyborg side who has not visited his 245 ,2 4 6 COLLECTED TALES Nevsky Prospect 2 4 7. friend in Peski or the Moscow Gate^ for several years can be ..exations, and do not.think about it at ail. The Russian muzhik absolutely certain of meeting him. No directory or inquiry ofrice talks about his ten coppers or seven groats, the old men and win provide such reHable information as Nevsky Prospect. All- women wave their arms and talk to themselves, sometimes with powerful Nevsky Prospect! The only entertainment for a poor man qhite expressive gestures, but no one Hstens to them or laughs at at the Petersburg feast! How clean-swept are its sidewalks, and, them, except perhaps some urchins in hempen blouses, with empty God, how many feet^have left thek traces on it! The clumsy, dirty bottles or repaired shoes in their hands, racing along Nevsky boot of the retired soldier, under the weight of which the very iProspect hke Hghtning. At that time, however you may be dressbd; granite seems to crack, and the miniature shoe, Hght as smoke, of a even if you have a peaked cap on your head instead of a hat, young lady, who turns her head to the gUttering shop windows as a even if your collar sticks out too far over your tie—no one wiU sunflower turns toward the sun, and the clanking sword of a hope- notice it. filled sub-heutenant that leaves a sharp scratch on it—everything At twelve o’clock Nevsky Prospect is invaded by tutors of all wreaks upon it the power of strength or the power of weakness. rnktions with their charges in cambric collars'. EngUsh'Joneses and What a quick phantasmagoria is performed on it in the course of a : French Coques walk hand in hand with the charges entrusted to single day! How many changes it undergoes in the course of a sin­ their parental Care and, with-proper gravity, explain to them that gle day and night! the signs over the shops are made so that by means of them one Let us begin from earHest morning, when the whole of Pe­ may learn what is to be found inside the shop. Governesses, pale’ tersburg smells of hot, freshly baked bread atid is filled with misses and rosy Slavs, walk majestically behind their Hght, fidgety old> women in tattered dresses and coats carrying out their raids girls, teUing them to raise their shoulders a bit higher and straighten on churches and compassionate passers-by. At that time Nevsky their backs; in short, at this time Nevsky Prospect is a pedagogical Prospect is empty: the stout shop owners and their salesclerks are Nevsky Prospect. But the closer it comes to two o’clock, the fewer still asleep in their Holland nightshirts or are soaping their noble in number are the tutors; pedagogues, and children: they are finally cheeks, and drinking coflee; beggars gather near the pastry shops, supplanted by their loving progenitors, who hold on their arms where a sleepy Ganymede,^ who yesterday was flying -about with their bright, multicolored, weak--nerved companions. Gradually chocolate like a fly, crawls out, tieless, broom in hand, and tosses their company is joined by all those who have finished their rather them stale cikes and leftovers. Down the streets trudge useful folk: important domestic business, to wit: discussing the weather with Russian muzliiks pass by occasionally, hurrying to Work, their their doctor, as well as a Httle pimple that has popped out on the boots ctusted with Hme that even the Ekaterininsky Cafral, famous nose, informing themselves about the health of their horses and for its cleanness, would be unable to wash ofl*. At that time it -is children, who incidentally show great promise, reading an adver­ usually unfitting for ladies to ga about, becakse the Russian people tisement in the newspaper and an important article on arrivals and Hke to express themselves in such sharp terms as they wbuld prob­ departures, and, finally, drinking a cup of cdflee or tea; and these ably not hear even in the theater. An occasional sleepy clerk will are joined by those on whom an enviable fate has bestowed the plod by, briefcase under his arm, if he has to pass Nevsky Prospect blessed title of oflicial fof special missions. And these are joined by on his way to the ofl^ice. One may say decidedly that at that time, those who serve in the foreign oflice and are distinguished by the that is, until twelve o’clock, Nevsky Prospect does- not constitute nobility of their occupations and habits. G6d, how beautiful some anyone’s goal, it serves only as a'means: it gradually fills with peo­ posts and jobs are! how they elevate and dehght the soul! but, alas! ple who ,have their own occupations, their own cares, their own I am not in the civil service and am denied the pleasure of behold- 248 COLLECTED TALES •NeUsky Prospect 249 ing my superiors’ refined treatment of me. Whatever you meet sure, sometimes suddenly to see yourself, lowet than grass, and you on Nevsky Prospect is all filled with decency: men in long frock hang your head, sometimes to feel yoUrself higher than the Admi- coats, their hands in their pockets, ladies in pink, White, and pale .tralty spire,^ and you raise it. Here you will meet people discussing a blue satin redingotes and hats. Here you will meet singular side- concert or the weather with an extraordinary nobility and sense whiskers, tucked, with extraordinary and amazing art under the ' of their own digmty. You will meet thousands of inconceivable necktie, velvety whiskers, satiny whiskers, black as sable or coal, ? characters and phenomena. O Creator! what strange characters but, alas, belonging only to the foreign office'. Providence has pne meets on Nevsky Prospect! There is a?hPst of stich people as, denied black side-whiskers to those serving in other departments; when they meet you, unfaflingly look at your shoes, and, when they, however great the unpleasantness, must wear red ones. Here you pass by, turn tP look at youT coattailsv To this day I fail to you will meet wondrous mustaches, which no pen or brush is able understand why this happens.