Tag Archives: Nikolai Gogol

To Understand Trump, Read Gogol

By Robin Bates | Published: October 2, 2023

To understand Trump’s con, read Gogol’s “Dead Souls.”

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Selling Dead Souls in an American Prison

By Robin Bates | Published: May 16, 2023

While lit mostly helped Daniel Genis handle a 10-year prison term, novels by Gogol and Thomas Mann got him into special trouble.

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Which Poets Should Ukraine Honor?

By Robin Bates | Published: May 23, 2022

Ukraine is currently taking down monuments to Russian-speaking poets and authors.

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Did Russian Officials Recruit Dead Souls?

By Robin Bates | Published: March 13, 2022

Did Russian officials claim to pay money to corrupt Ukrainian officials while actually pocketing the money? Cue Gogol’s “Dead Souls.”

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Which Shakespeare Character Is Trump?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 2, 2019

Wednesday It’s satisfying to see national pundits take a page out of Better Living through Beowulf and turn to the classics to understand Donald Trump. Okay, so NeverTrumper conservative Bret Stephens has probably never read this blog, but we both recognize how literature deepens our understanding of the world, including American politics. I particularly appreciate […]

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What Kind of Con Man Do You Want?

By Robin Bates | Published: August 23, 2017

Gogol’s “Dead Souls” shows us two conmen, one who is a lot like our president, the other like various politicians (including Ryan, McConnell and Hillary Clinton). The boisterous and ineffective conman comes off better that the carefully calculating one.

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Gogol’s Guide to Traveling

By Robin Bates | Published: August 18, 2017

Friday I’m driving back to Maryland from Tennessee today and so have chosen a passage on traveling from Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls, which I’m listening to at the moment. I myself won’t have the same experience as Gogol’s traveler since I can’t lean back and fall asleep. Nevertheless, the passages reminds me of traveling by […]

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Gogol Would Understand Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: August 10, 2017

I may just have discovered the ultimate literary parallel for Donald Trump: Gogol’s Nozdrev from “Dead Souls.” Reading about Nozdrev helps us understanding our fascination with Trump.

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Lit, an RX for Fanaticism?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 14, 2011

Israeli author Amos Oz believes that literature can provide “a partial and limited immunity to fanaticism.”

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