title: The Nose by: Gogol, Nikolai published: 1836 read: 2021-10 preview

I quickly got “The Nose” (“Nos”) by Gogol.  Read it in an hour or so, it’s a short story from the 1830s. I might have read it before, but understood less back then.  Now a bit more, but still… what is this story, of a man losing his nose and him hunting after it, really about?  Literary experts couldn’t figure it out in the last 200 years, so I certainly won’t try.  Either way, probably a MustRead.

The plot: Major Kovalyov wakes up one morning, finding that his nose is gone. In fact, it started becoming independent, and does not want to come back.

Well, short story shorter: it comes back later, at the end of the story. All’s well that ends well.

Shostakovich made it into an opera, which is about as disturbing as the story. Read the story, watch the opera. You may, like be, none the wiser, but at least have had something to ponder upon.