SOURCE: Obolensky, Alexander P. “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka.” In Food-Notes on Gogol, pp. 11-31. Winnipeg: Trident Press, 1972.

In the following essay, Obolensky discusses Gogol's descriptions of food and its association with love and affection in his collection of short stories Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka.

Gogol's life and works are so much of a piece that it is almost impossible to separate them. This is particularly true in the case of his first successful literary venture, Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, a collection of stories based on the folklore of his native Ukraine. According to the title page the stories were “edited by Beekeeper Rudi Panko,” but the disguise was too thin, the identity of the true author was plainly evident and Gogol, at the age of twenty-two, and after less than three years in the capital, found himself welcomed into an elite circle...