"Who Stole Whose Overcoat and Whose Text Is It?" in South Atlantic Review, Vol. 55, No. 1, January, 1990, pp. 63-80.

In the following essay, Peppard compares "The Overcoat" to stories in the supernatural genre with which Gogol was most likely familiar, in order to determine whether the conclusion is intended by Gogol to be supernatural or mundane.

The conclusion of "The Overcoat" is usually regarded as absolutely crucial to the story's whole meaning, yet there is no consensus among critics about what actually takes place at the end of the story. Indeed, one of the most fundamental questions that the conclusion poses, namely, who stole whose overcoat, remains very much in a state of doubt and dispute. There are a number of reasons for this anomalous situation. First of all, ambiguity was not only a special forte of Gogol, but an especially important feature of the romantic literature of the...