My Summer with Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Gogol postage stamp, Russia, 2009.

Summer of 2011 was particularly sad and tough time for me. On June 24th (Midsummer's Eve), my beloved mother suddenly got a seizure, and she was knocked unconscious. A brain aneurysm had ruptured in her head! I was there and I saw my mother's seizure, and it was the worst and most traumatic thing I have ever experienced. I'd like to forget it!

An ambulance took my mother quickly to the hospital. After an intense brain surgery, she laid for two weeks in the hospital, and for most of the time, was unconscious. She never talked to us anymore (her last word, before the seizure, was "Petroskoi"; it is a city in Russia)... My mother passed away on July 9th, 2011. She was only 67 years old.

In addition to this tragedy, I will always remember how I read Nikolai Gogol the entire summer 2011. In three months, I read all his works: novels, plays, and short stories. I had found a new favorite writer; and more. Mr. Gogol's humorous and imaginative stories gave me something else to think about during that serious time of sickness and death.

I remember one night that I spent in the hospital beside my mother. I had to stay awake, and I brought Gogol's book with me. I heard the heavy, painful breathing of my poor mother while I was reading Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka (a short story which I was reading at that moment was St John's Eve or May Night). My dear Russian friend Nika had recommended this short story collection to me, it's her personal favorite from Gogol. And I read... and I stayed up with my mother (that was her next to last night on earth)... I was in two worlds at the same time!

Daguerreotype of Gogol taken in 1845.

A Brief Introduction to Mr. Gogol

Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist, novelist and short story writer. He was an Orthodox Christian. Many of his stories are funny and humorous, but he also wrote some really scary ghost stories. Quoting the Wikipedia: "Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism and the grotesque."

My favorites from Gogol (besides Dikanka) are his great novel and magnum opus Dead Souls, his satirical play The Government Inspector, and his short stories  Viy, Nevsky Prospekt, Diary of a Madman, The Nose, and The Overcoat. After my mother's death, I bought all Gogol's books. Actually, collecting Russian classics has been one of my hobbies since summer 2011.

Altogether, I love Russian literature especially much: Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and other great authors. Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (1940) is the best novel I have ever read. For me, reading is the dearest "hiding place". More than ever I needed that happy place in 2011. During those days, Nikolai Gogol led me to another world. I will remember that as long as I live.

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A later addition: The main purpose of this article was to tell about Gogol and how I  found the Russian literature, once and for all. I didn't tell everything (all important things) about the summer 2011 and my mother's death, and how I got comfort from many of my friends, and from many things. All means were used! But please note the limited context. Above all, this time I wanted to write article about my new favorite author.

On those tough times, I had actually more than just one "angel". Those angels were my few best friends (you know who are are), who prayed for my mother and encouraged me. I haven't forgotten any of you. I thank you for your good words and prayers, they will be always remembered by God as well as in my heart. Thank you! m(_ _)m

Russian literature section at my home library. On the shelf, you can also see matryoshka dolls and one of my icon, both bought from Russia.