The Cloak

Written by Nikolai Gogol

Narrated by LibriVox Community

The Cloak is a short story by Ukrainian-born Russian author Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The story and its author have had great influence on Russian literature, as expressed in a quote attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky: "We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'." The story has been adapted into a variety of stage and film interpretations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LibriVox
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014

Nikolai Gogol

NIKOLAI Vasilyevich GOGOL (1809-1852) was a Ukrainian-born humorist, dramatist, and novelist whose works, written in Russian, significantly influenced the direction of Russian literature. As enigmatic as he was influential, Gogol's novel Dead Souls and his short story "The Overcoat" provided the literary foundations of nineteenth-century Russian realism. His shorter works are gathered in Selected Stories of Nikolai Gogol: Ukrainian and St. Petersburg Tales, available from Warbler Press.

Reviews for The Cloak

[Lynne · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story of "The Cloak" is definitely interesting...I can see how it was influential to later writers. The narrator of the story really helps it along, and does a good job with voicing the characters without too much exaggeration.