Few literary works have been so variously interpreted as Nikolai Gogols enduring comic masterpiece, . This Norton Critical Edition reprints the text of the acclaimed George Reavey translation, which has been fully annotated for undergraduate readers.

"Backgrounds" contains not only Gogols correspondence relevant to the novel but also the four formal letters that set forth his views on the work.

The editor has also included a useful chronology of Gogols life and an invaluable table of ranks in czarist Russia.

A wide range of criticism includes Robert Maguires general overview of Gogols criticism; two nineteenth-century Russian appraisals; Donald Fangers brilliant essay; and a broad spectrum of twentieth-century Russian critical opinion.

It features, as well, essays by Vladimir Nabokov and Edmund Wilson.

The Russian essays have been translated specially for this Norton Critical Edition.

A Selected Bibliography directs readers to resources for further study.