"Epic Intentions," in The Creation of Nikolai Gogol, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 145-63.

In the following excerpt the critic outlines the techniques which he argues make the theme of "The Overcoat" elusive.

"The Overcoat" both draws on and transcends the best of Gogol's previous work. "In terms of plot," as one of his critics has observed, it is "the same sort of sentimental tale . . . as Old-World Landowners,' only with a more pronounced comic coloration" [Alexander Slonimsky, "The Technique of the Comic in Gogol," in Gogol from the Twentieth Century, edited by Robert A. Maguire, 1974]. (The title, however, already indicates a broader symbolic intention.) In terms of setting, theme and manner, "The Overcoat" clearly belongs to the world of the earlier Petersburg Tales. It extends the ironic tone of the overture to "Nevsky Prospect," and in the image of Akaky Akakievich who sees only...