Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

Born in 1809 in what is now Ukraine, he wrote in Russian and became one of the most distinctive voices of the 19th century. After moving to St. Petersburg as a young man, he began publishing stories that drew on Ukrainian settings and folklore, then turned to the city life, bureaucracy, and social absurdities that would make him famous.

His best-known works include Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, The Government Inspector, Dead Souls, The Nose, and The Overcoat. He had a gift for exposing vanity, corruption, and self-importance, but he did it with such invention and comic energy that his writing still feels lively and surprising.

The last years of his life were troubled, and he died in 1852, leaving the second part of Dead Souls unfinished. Even so, his influence was enormous: later writers saw in him a master of satire, the grotesque, and the unsettling details of everyday life.