Nikolai Gogol Birthday, Age & Famous Birthday Twins
Born: 19 March 1809 · Died: 21 February 1852 · Age: 42
Ukrainian-born Russian writer of Dead Souls, The Government Inspector and The Overcoat, master of grotesque satire
Did you know?During a spiritual crisis late in life, he burned many of his manuscripts, including the second part of his novel Dead Souls.
Quick facts
Date of birth19 March 1809
Date of death21 February 1852
Age at death42
NationalityRussian-Ukrainian
BirthplaceVelyki Sorochyntsi, Ukraine
Occupationplaywright, historian, literary critic
Editor's Take:
Gogol is the strangest of the great Russian writers. His stories mix comedy, horror and absurdity in ways that feel startlingly modern. A nose wanders off on its own, a clerk is obsessed with a new overcoat, a con man buys dead serfs. Dostoevsky is said to have remarked that Russian writers came out of Gogol's Overcoat. His blend of satire and fantasy influenced writers far beyond Russia.
Key Milestones
1831: Evenings on a Farm – Ukrainian tales
1836: The Government Inspector – satirical play
1836: The Nose – absurd story
1842: Dead Souls – novel
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1 April 1809 – 4 March 1852) was a Russian novelist, short-story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the grotesque in his writings, for example in his works "The Nose", "Viy", "The Overcoat", and "Nevsky Prospekt".
