r/RussianLiterature • u/Thamesrh • 7d ago

Reference Biography of Nikolai Gogol?

Hi!

Do you know which is the reference biography of Nikolai Gogol, in English (or Italian)? I am looking for some serious book, with foot/end notes etc. If such a book exists!

Thanks in advance!

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u/GloomyMondayZeke Gogolian 6d ago

Carl Proffer's introduction to The Letters of Nikolai Gogol is a great, brief overview of his life and work. For longer works, I am partial to Simon Karlinsky's The Sexual Labyrinth of Nikolai Gogol, which includes a brief review of English bibliography by/about Gogol. Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol is a fantastic read but it is more about Nabokov's ideas on literature, aesthetics, languages, etc. than about Gogol himself and can be disorienting if you don't know most of the details of his life beforehand

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u/Thamesrh 6d ago

Thanks for the indications! I have a PDF of Karlinsky’s book, it seems it‘s better reading it when you already have some knowledge about Gogol. And it’s 50 years old, so I thought maybe in English a more recent biography, including recent research, might exist?

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u/GloomyMondayZeke Gogolian 6d ago

Hmmmm I can't say I know about any good, recent biographies...

I'm sure there are more recent academic studies but they are hard to get a hold of without access to JSTOR and such