The Inspector-General

Gogol, Nikolai Vasilevich, 1809-1852Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.5

Word count: 167K words
Chapters: 17

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Inspector-General by Nikolai Vasilevich GogolAuthor: Gogol, Nikolai Vasilevich, 1809-1852,Language: English, Class: PG: Language and Literatures: Slavic (including Russian), Languages and Literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2003

Editor's review

The Inspector-General is Gogol's representative five-act satirical comedy. Through the absurd misunderstanding in which the officials of a small provincial town mistake a down-and-out young man for the Inspector-General, it peels back layer after layer of corruption, sycophancy, and self-deception in officialdom. Rather than preaching, Gogol uses exaggerated dialogue, rapid reversals of character, and near-farcical scenes to let the satire land through laughter, and the play is widely regarded as an important founding work of Russian realist drama. This is Project Gutenberg's English electronic edition, in English translation; it is short and well suited as an entry text for approaching Russian satirical literature, and also for theatre enthusiasts studying comic structure and ensemble characterization. Watch the psychological shifts of the Town Governor and Khlestakov as you read, and you will see why the author's attack on the bureaucratic system transcends its era.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature lovers who want to understand nineteenth-century Russian satirical drama
Readers who need a short classic as English extensive reading material
University students studying comic structure and satirical technique
Theatre audiences interested in satires of officialdom

Not a good fit for

Readers who want a Chinese translation and are not comfortable reading in English
Readers who prefer serious drama and dislike exaggerated farce

Reading tips

Read through the whole play first to clarify the relationships among characters, then go back and closely read the Town Governor's several soliloquies of self-deception.
Compare with Gogol's own remarks on the play to understand his satirical intent and the controversy of the time.
Reading aloud act by act, or reading in a staged-performance style, better captures the rhythm of the dialogue and the comic effect.
After finishing, sort out each official's corrupt vulnerabilities and see how the author builds the ensemble portrait through details.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English?

This is the English electronic edition released by Project Gutenberg, in English; it is a free public-domain ebook, not a Chinese translation. If English reading is difficult, you may look for a Chinese translation to read alongside.

Can I understand it without experience reading drama?

Yes. The play is not long, the number of characters is limited, and the plot driven by the misunderstanding moves quickly. It is advisable to first get a sense of each act's setting and which characters appear, then follow how the misunderstanding escalates; the obstacles are not great.

What does this electronic edition include?

This version is the English electronic text of The Inspector-General released by Project Gutenberg and mainly provides the play's main text. Project Gutenberg editions usually do not include a long translator's introduction or scholarly annotations; for the specific arrangement, refer to the actual content of the file.

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About the author

Gogol, Nikolai Vasilevich, 1809-1852 Author

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809–1852) was a Russian writer, born in what is now Ukraine, known for his fiction and drama. The collection here holds 24 of his works, including the novel Dead Souls, the comedy The Inspector-General, and shorter works such as The Mantle, Viitta, and The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich. His writing often uses satire to portray bureaucratic habits and the fate of ordinary little people, shifting between the grotesque and the realistic. He is regarded as one of the founders of Russian realist literature and has had a lasting influence on later fiction and drama. Some details of his life are limited in public sources, so this note focuses on his themes and style.