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The Overcoat

Nikolai Gogol

Start date: June 1, 2024

Finish date: June 30, 2024

Discussion: Short Story/Novella Collection

Why we're reading this: June 2024 - Short Story/Novella Read
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Short Story/Novella Collection

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What Members Thought

May 17, 2022 Candace rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, short-stories, classics, russia

Unbelievably, this was my first time reading this short story. It’s a favorite now.

I immediately was reminded of another favorite author of mine, Kafka, so the story had a leg up soon after I began.

Next, add in a narrator who particularly enamors me with absurdist language and situations, and also deigns to smoothly slide in an explanation for me here and there without interrupting the flow of events; I’m in for the haul.
…circumstances were such that it would have been impossible for him to ha ...more

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Aug 16, 2023 RJ - Slayer of Trolls rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-short-story

“How little humane feeling after all was to be found in men's hearts; how much coarseness and cruelty was to be found even in the educated and those who were everywhere regarded as good and honorable men.”

Akakievich is a bureaucratic clerk who is needs a new cloak, becomes obsessed with a obtaining a new cloak, luxuriates in his new cloak, has his new cloak stolen, is unable to obtain sympathetic assistance from the powers-that-be in regaining his new cloak, dies without his cloak, and reven “How little humane feeling after all was to be found in men's hearts; how much coarseness and cruelty was to be found even in the educated and those who were everywhere regarded as good and honorable men.”

Akakievich is a bureaucratic clerk who is needs a new cloak, becomes obsessed with a obtaining a new cloak, luxuriates in his new cloak, has his new cloak stolen, is unable to obtain sympathetic assistance from the powers-that-be in regaining his new cloak, dies without his cloak, and revenges himself upon the neighborhood at large as a ghost who attempts to steal the capes of others. It's easy to see why this story has come to be considered as so influential by both Russian and non-Russian writers - there are so many things going on and so many themes to consider, not the least of which is the absurdist examination of the helpless individual in the face of overwhelming bureaucratic oppression and societal indifference.

It's interesting also that a mere overcoat, a garment that most of us wouldn't think twice about, gains so much importance over the course of the story. When Akakievich possesses the overcoat his life is briefly transformed, but when the overcoat is lost it begins a downward spiral that culminates in his death, and his rebirth as a vengeful spirit who whose governance is far beyond the scope of bureaucratic authority.

By the end of the story, Akakievich's ghost has become a bullying thief who resembled the bullying thief who stole the titular overcoat in the first place. Akakievich's ghost even forces the VIP to cower and retire to bed, an exact reversal of their first meeting. The thief reappears at the end of the story and is mistaken for Akakievich's ghost, so similar have they become.

The tonality of the story shifts abruptly several times, a trait for which Gogal is said to have been known. Even the ending is not merely satisfied with the tragic finality of the life of Akakievich but takes us instead beyond the grave with the no longer timid and repressed clerk to see the repercussions of his story. As Nabokov said with regards to Gogol's style (thank you to Kalliope for posting that link): "Imagine a trap-door that opens under your feet with absurd suddenness, and a lyrical gust that sweeps you up and then lets you fall into the next traphole."

I started by reading the Constance Garnett translation but then switched over to a translation by Andrew MacAndrew which as it turns out is a real person and not just a funny play on the protagonist of The Overcoat, "Akaky Akakievich." The MacAndrew translation seemed to flow much better, at least for my tastes. Read it for free here: https://cgismondicc.files.wordpress.c....

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Sep 02, 2020 Brenda rated it liked it

I'd just read The Nose, and this short story is also supposed to be a great work of his. I enjoyed the writing, and I got the themes, but I didn't find the story very engaging. As far as the themes go, it was a bit predictable. Had the story been longer I probably would have left it, but being a short story I stuck it out. ...more

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Mar 25, 2017 Melanti rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, classics, 2017, audible-channels, audiobook, short-story-novella

The first story I've read by Gogol and it certainly won't be my last!

I really enjoyed the absurdism. ...more

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Feb 23, 2021 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, russian-lit, read-in-2021

The Cloak also known by the title The Overcoat tells the story of Akaky Akakievich, a low-level government official. Right away the author gives us the insight we need about Akaky's life. He is content, but not happy, fed but not well-clothed. He is surviving, but not thriving. Akaky is often ridiculed, and is a quiet (shy?) man. Akaky has a seemingly simple dream: he wants to own a fancy overcoat. He believes that those who ridicule him will stop and show him deference if he wears it. He daydre ...more

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