A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

“The Nose” is a story by Nikolai Gogol, written in 1836. It opens with a Petersburg barber named Ivan Yakovlevich, discovering a nose in his breakfast bread one morning. He “recognizes” the nose as belonging to one of his clients, a petty official named Kovalyov” (314). He gets into an argument of his wife, who accuses him of being careless with his barbering and demands that he dispose of the nose immediately. Ivan Yakovlevich attempts this several times, but always runs into acquaintances or suspicious officials. He finally drops the nose into the Neva river, and is apprehended by a policeman: “But here the whole episode becomes shrouded in mist, and of what happened subsequently nothing is known” (317).

The story then shifts to Kovalyov’s point of view. He awakens one morning to discover that his nose is missing. He confirms this in the mirror of a coffeehouse, and then goes into a church where he discovers his nose disguised as a high-ranking official: “He was wearing a gold-embroidered uniform with a big stand-up collar and doeskin breeches [...] From his plumed hat one could infer that he held the rank of a state councilor” (320).