Aiyiyi, I have no good reason for this, because all that I’ve done is flip through the next story, to see if it would be as long as Tolstoy’s “Master and Man”—whether I should expect to read fifty pages for this month’s “short” story.

It’s not—it’s half the length—but something about the ratio of exposition to dialogue is giving off Turgenev vibes. I worry that I’m going to feel like I felt in “The Singers”, having to read sections aloud so that I’ll pay attention. /bitesnails

I’m also nervous because I see there are two full names on the first page of the story (and I learned from the last story that I can remember precisely one name…on a good day).

AND there is a placename. (Which I’m sure either Bill or Brona will look up, so I will try to NOT remember that, and focus on the multi-syllabic patronyms. Phew, there’s a word I dredged up from my decades-ago experience of reading a translator’s note in Anna Karenina.)

Bron and ChatGPT made this badge

Did I read something by Gogol before? I remember borrowing a slim, illustrated volume from the Forest Hill branch in Toronto a few years ago, which someone had put on display, in a holder at the end of a shelf. (I always give those particular attention, convinced that someone on staff must really love it, to present it face-forward: do you?)

But what could it have been? In my reading log…nothing. Thinking there might have been a spelling variant, I searched for a title. It might even have been “The Nose”, I thought. This month’s story! Then, I thought, “The Overcoat”…that sounded familiar. Nothing in my reading log under those titles either.

So I looked up “The Nose” in the library catalogue instead, but those covers weren’t what I remembered. (I’m not sure I’d even have picked one of them up for a second look, even with the idea it might have been a librarian’s choice: they’re very plain!)

There are nearly two hundred Gogol possibilities in the Toronto library system, and scrolling through them was a risky endeavour because you KNOW that I’m going to want to read a few of those (even though I didn’t know they existed until JUST now). Even some of the ones that I didn’t want to read (especially the rare items, housed in the stacks, available for in-library use only) looked fascinating. (And they are the OPPOSITE of “on display.)

Anyway, I’ve read no Gogol at all. It turns out that book was “The Night before Christmas” which really made me laugh. A title that surely should have already been lodged in my memory! But it’s not in my log and the description is new-to-me.

So my first Gogol will be “The Nose”, and Bill and Bron and I will be reading it in the first half of June, then discussing it sometime in the middle of the month.

Feel free to join, if you want. You can’t be any more nervous than I am. And bonus points if you’re good with character names. And if you get all extra admire-y over library displays. Here’s the project page for links to our previous discussions.

Anton Chekhov “In the Cart” 1897 (February) Trans. Avrahm Yarmolinsky
Ivan Turgenev “The Singers” 1852 (March) Trans. David Magarshack
Anton Chekhov “The Darling” 1899 (April) Trans. Avrahm Yarmolinsky
Leo Tolstoy “Master and Man” 1895 (May) Trans. Louise Mude and Aylmer Maude
Nikolai Gogol “The Nose” 1836 (June) Trans. Mary Struve
Anton Chekhov “Gooseberries” 1898 (July) Trans. Avrahm Yarmolinsky
Leo Tolstoy “Alyosha the Pot” 1905 (August) Trans. Clarence Brown