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Summary “Nose”

The story “Nose” by NV Gogol was written in 1832 – 1833. For the first time the work was published in 1836 in the journal Sovremennik. The story is one of the brightest satirical absurdist works of Russian literature.

Main characters

Platon Kuzmich Kovalev – “maior”, collegiate assessor, who served in the Caucasus. I always made sure that his appearance was impeccable. In St. Petersburg, Kovalev came to get the vice-governor’s “or” exegetical “place, he wanted to marry a rich bride.

Ivan Yakovlevich – “Barber”, “terrible drunkard” and “great cynic”, always walked unshaven, untidy looked.

Summary

Chapter 1

“March 25 happened in St. Petersburg an unusually strange incident.” The barber Ivan Yakovlevich finds in the fresh bread the nose of the collegiate assessor Kovalev, whom he shaved on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Ivan Yakovlevich

tries to discard the find discreetly, but the man is constantly hindered. In desperation, the barber goes to Isakievsky Bridge and throws a rag with his nose into the Neva. Rejoicing at the solution of the problem, the barber suddenly notices at the end of the bridge of the quarter warder and the hero is detained.

Chapter 2

Having woken up in the morning, the collegiate assessor Kovalev, wanting to look at the pimple jumped out of his nose, finds an absolutely smooth place in place of his nose. Kovalev immediately goes to the chief policeman. On the way, near one of the houses the hero notices the carriage, from which the lord jumps out in uniform and runs up the stairs. In amazement, Kovalev realizes that it was his nose. Two minutes later, the nose went out in a “gold-embroidered uniform” with a sword on its side. “On a hat with a plume it was possible to conclude that he was considered a rank of state councilor.” Nos sat in the carriage and went to Kazan Cathedral. Following the nose, Kovalev also enters the cathedral and sees how his nose “prayed with the expression

of the greatest piety”. Kovalev delicately turned to the nose, trying to persuade him to return to his place, but his nose pretended not to understand what was being said,

In desperation, Kovalev decides to file an announcement about the loss of the nose in the newspaper, but he is denied, since from such an article “the newspaper can lose its reputation.” Wanting to somehow reassure the distressed Kovalev, the official working in the newspaper suggests that he sniff the “snuff.” Outraged, the hero went to the private bailiff. The private bailiff took Kovalev dryly enough, saying “that a decent person will not be torn off his nose and that there are a lot of maiors in the world who do not even have a decent in a decent condition and are dragged along to any obscene places.”

Kovalev decides that what happened was to blame the “staff officer Podtochina”, who wanted to marry the hero to her daughter. According to the assessor, she “hired for this some wizard-wives”. Kovalev writes Podtochina a threatening letter, but, having received the answer, realizes that she has nothing to do with the loss of her nose.

Suddenly, a police officer comes to Kovalyov, who at the beginning of the work stood at the end of Isakievsky Bridge, and says that the hero’s nose is found: “He was intercepted almost on the road.” He was already going to the diligence and wanted to leave for Riga. ” The official brought it with him. Kovalev is very happy to find, but all his attempts to “put his nose in his place” are unsuccessful. Do not help Kovalyov and the doctor, who thought it best to leave everything as is. According to St. Petersburg, rumors spread quickly that the Assessor’s nose was seen in different parts of the city.

Chapter 3

On April 7, Kovalev’s nose was in an unknown way again in its place. Now Ivan Yakovlevich shaves the man with extreme caution, trying not to touch his nose. “And after that, Maj. Kovalev was seen forever in good humor, smiling, pursuing absolutely all pretty ladies.”

“This is the story that happened in the northern capital of our vast state! Now we only see for reasons of everything that there is much implausible in it.” However, “whoever they say, and similar incidents happen in the world, rarely, but are.”

Conclusion

In the story “The Nose” Gogol sharply ridicules the shortcomings of his contemporary society, for which typical types were people such as collegiate assessor Kovalev. The fact that Kovalev, according to the plot of the story, loses just the nose, is not accidental – this author emphasizes the mental and mental poverty of the hero, for whom appearance was his only dignity.

A brief retelling of Gogol’s “Nose” will be of interest to schoolchildren, students and all connoisseurs of Russian literature.