2. A character from the popular story "Bova Korolevich," often portrayed in Russian folk prints, or lubok, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
3. That is, from the outskirts of the city (see note 6 to "Nevsky Prospect").
4. Yeruslan Lazarevich is a Russian version of the Rustem of Persian tales; he and the other folk figures listed here were also popular images in lubok.
5. The streets on Vasilievsky Island (see note 1 to "Nevsky Prospect"), called "lines," were laid out in a grid and numbered.
6. Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520), who worked in Perugia, Florence, and Rome, was commonly considered the greatest of all painters by Russians of Gogol's time; Guido Reni (1575-1642) was known for the elegance of his brushwork, the correctness of his drawing, and the brilliance of his colors; Titian (1477-1576) was perhaps the greatest of the Venetian masters. For Russians, the Flemish school was represented by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and Antoine (or Sir Anthony) van Dyck (1599-1641), who collaborated with Rubens for some time and later became court painter for Charles I of England.
7. Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), painter and architect, a pupil of Michelangelo, is best known for his Lives of the Italian artists of the Renaissance. The portrait in question is Leonardo's Mona Lisa.
8. See note 1 to "Nevsky Prospect." Kolomna was a suburb to the west of Petersburg.
9. Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov, prince of Smolensk (1745-1813), Russian field marshal, led campaigns in Poland, Turkey, and the Crimea, was defeated by Napoleon at Austerlitz, and successfully commanded the Russian army during Napoleon's disastrous Russian expedition of 1812.
10. A hero of the narrative poem Twelve Sleeping Maidens, by V. A. Zhukovsky (1783-1852), Gromoboy sold his soul to the devil.
11. Either David Teniers the Elder (1582-1649), or his son, David Teniers the Younger (1610-90), Flemish painters known for their realistic scenes of popular life, interiors, and so on.
12. The lady uses the French form of the name of the Italian painter Antonio
Allegri da Correggio (1494-1534), known for his audacious use of aerial perspective and the sensuality of his mythological scenes.
13. The typical Byronic pose is a full profile with an open-collared shirt. Corinne is the heroine of a novel of the same name by the French writer Mme. de Stael (1766-1817); Ondine is the heroine of a poem of the same name by V. A. Zhukovsky, based on the tale by the German Romantic writer Friedrich de La Motte-Fouque (1777-1843); Aspasia (fifth century B.C.), an Athenian courtesan famous for her beauty and intelligence, belonged to Socrates' circle and was the lover of the general and statesman Pericles.
14. The basilisk is a legendary monster, hatched by a toad from a cock's egg, whose look is said to kill.
15. The reference is to the poem "The Demon" (1824), by Alexander Pushkin (see note 7 to "Nevsky Prospect").
16. The words "immersed in their zephyrs and cupids" are paraphrased from a line about a ruined landowner and lover of ballet in Griboedov's Woe from Wit (see note 9 to "Nevsky Prospect"); the name of Gaius Maecenas (c. 70-8 B.C.), Roman statesman and important patron of literature, has become proverbial.
17. A shopping place that still exists in Petersburg.
18. A special design of oil lamp with a double draft and a reservoir higher than the wick, named for its French inventor.
19. See note 4 to "The Night Before Christmas."
20. The Senate in Petersburg acted as a civil court as well as a legislative body.
21. The noble and virtuous hero of The History of Sir Charles Grandison (I753-54). by Samuel Richardson (1689-1761).
The Overcoat
1. See note 20 to "The Portrait."
2. That is, the church calendar, which lists saints' days and feast days, among other things; a child would be named for the saint (or one of the saints) on whose day it was born.
3. The famous equestrian statue of Peter the Great on the Senate square in Petersburg, by French sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-91).
4. That is, one whose neglect of Orthodox feast days made her comparable to an unbeliever and even a sober Lutheran.
Table of Contents
THE COLLECTED TALES OF NIKOLAI GOGOL
RICHARD PEVEAR
LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY
PREFACE
TRANSLATORS' NOTE
Chancellor
II
III
VI
VII
IX
XI
XIII
I
II
III
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
PETERSBURG TALES
II
III
PART II
NOTES
3. See note 7 to "Old World Landowners."
PETERSBURG TALES
1. See note 7 to "Nevsky Prospect."
3. See note 7 to "Nevsky Prospect."
1. See note 20 to "The Portrait."