Nikolai Gogol, Revizor [The Government Inspector]

Ros Dixon (National University of Ireland)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.1.00: Slavic and Russian Writing and Culture: Old, Medieval and Tsarist, 700-1917.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1836

Places

Ukraine (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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The reputation as a dramatist of Nikolai Gogol (1809-52) rests almost entirely on one play, his five-act comedy

Revizor

[

The Government Inspector

The Inspector General

], which is widely acknowledged as a masterpiece and in which he succeeds in fusing disparate elements into a meticulously crafted whole. This is at once a hilarious comedy and a serious satire on corruption and greed; sparkling wit and knockabout farce are counter-pointed by a sense of despair at human folly. Its setting is at once familiar and disconcertingly surreal; moving at lightning pace, it casts us into an often nightmarish world, both eerie and fantastical, that nevertheless never entirely loses touch with reality. It is peopled by larger-than-life grotesques who are yet neither types, nor cartoon figures, but…

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2399 words

Citation: Dixon, Ros. "Revizor". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 September 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20799, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Nikolai Gogol, Revizor [The Government Inspector]

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