A fresh biography of the nineteenth-century writer, who straddled Ukrainian and Russian cultures.

Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) was one of the most original and elusive writers of the nineteenth century: a comic genius, a master of the grotesque and a restless traveler, whose life crossed the cultural worlds of Ukraine, Russia, and Europe. In this first comprehensive account of Gogol’s life and work in a generation, Oliver Ready draws on the latest scholarship, as well as his own translations of Gogol’s fiction, to present a concise yet richly nuanced portrait. Moving beyond familiar myths and stereotypes, he portrays a figure shaped by competing loyalties, spiritual longings, creative ambition, and profound inner struggle. Attentive to Gogol’s enduring connections with Ukraine as well as his wider European horizons, Ready illuminates the sources of an extraordinary imagination and the complexities of identity, belonging, and artistic creation.