SOME THOUGHTS ON THE NOSE BY N. V. GOGOL

Abstract

The three versions of The Nose by Nikolai Gogol refl ect the evolution of the author’s concept and its realization, from a «dream» to an unmotivated incident. The preservation of the elements of the dream from the original version in the 1836 and 1842 publications suggests the presence of the motif in the storylines of both characters, but in an encrypted form. For encoding, the 12 days’ difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars (March 25 — April 7 in the 1842 edition) was used, which accommodated the events of one night in the original version.