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Author

RUSSIAN NOVELIST Nikolai Gogol was born on March 31, 1809, in Sorochintsy, Ukraine. Gogol had a strong literary upbringing: he learned Ukrainian and Russian, his father wrote poetry and was an amateur playwright, and as a child Gogol helped stage his uncle's plays. He began writing while at a school of higher art in Nizhyn, where he earned the nickname "mysterious dwarf." He had a dark and secretive disposition, developed a talent for mimicry and satire, which eventually led to his exile from Russia. His satire was unconventional and much more sophisticated than his contemporaries.

Gogol studied Ukrainian history, failed to gain a professorship at Kiev University, but in 1834, he was made Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg. Completely unqualified for the post, Gogol missed his own lectures, and faked a toothache so he wouldn't have to interrogate his own students. He resigned in 1835 and began traveling through Germany, Switzerland, Paris, settling in Italy for twelve years where he studied art and opera, while mixing with Polish and Russian expatriates and exiles.

Gogol was considered a great satirist who exposed the unseemly sides of Imperial Russia. He intended to write a sequel to Dead Souls, as a modern-day take of The Divine Comedy, but in 1852 he burned some of his manuscripts by mistake, "a practical joke played on him by the Devil." Gogol, of questionable health already, took to bed, refused food, and died nine days later.