"Gogol: The Greatcoat," in The Voice of a Giant: Essays on Seven Russian Prose Classics, edited by Roger Cockrell and David Richards, University of Exeter, 1985, pp. 27-40.

In this essay Peace examines the role of word play in "The Overcoat," which, he argues, elucidates Gogol's central device of having the external world act as a metaphor for the internal world of the main character.

"The Greatcoat" is the story of an impoverished civil service clerk, in St Petersburg, who by dint of great sacrifices manages to buy himself a new coat, but is robbed of it the very first evening he wears it. He tries to get it back by going to see a highly-placed official who gives him such a reprimand that the poor clerk falls ill and dies. Later his ghost haunts St Petersburg, stealing coats; it is only laid to rest when it has taken...