Ehrlich, Victor. Gogol, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1969.

Excellent overview of Gogol's work and the development of the author's views throughout his life.

Fanger, Donald. The Creation of Nikolai Gogol, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1979.

Analyzes Gogol in the context of his times and cites interesting evidence from both published and unpublished writings by Gogol in discussing the author's creative genius.

Maguire, Robert, ed. Gogol from the Twentieth Century: Eleven Essays, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1974.

The essays in this book represent the most influential twentieth-century critical assessments of Gogol. Included in the volume are two essays by Russian scholars from the first half of the century which offer very close readings of "The Overcoat," emphasizing the formal aspects of Gogol's technique. The editor's introduction summarizes critical debate about Gogol from its beginnings in the nineteenth century through the 1960s.

Nabokov, Vladimir...