The villagers are beginning to celebrate, none more so than the devout blacksmith Vakula, and the beautiful Oksana, with whom he (and half the village!) are in love. The Night Before Christmas comes from Gogol’s early period, being set in the village of Dikanka, and opens on a crisp, snowy Christmas eve. Gogol was also a dramatist, The Government Inspector being his best known play however, it was not until he went into exile, living mainly in Rome, that he produced his great work Dead Souls, which satirised Imperial Russia and was, alas, never completed. Petersburg, including tales such as The Overcoat and Nevsky Prospect.
However, his later stories take place most notably in St.
Born in the Ukraine in 1809, his earlier works were influenced by that region and were set there, drawing on its culture and folklore. Nikolai Gogol is often referred to as the “father of Russian literature” and his tales form an important part of that country’s cultural history. Nevertheless, Penguin Classics have just released a beautiful little hardback volume by the writer as part of their series of Christmas Classics, entitled The Night Before Christmas. Russian author Nikolai Gogol, best known for satirical works like The Nose and Dead Souls, is not a name you would automatically connect with a Yuletide story.
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