“The Overcoat,” “The Nose,” “Nevsky Prospect,” and other Gogol’s “Petersburg Tales” still astonish today with the richness of their meanings. In them, reality is inseparably intertwined with the fantastic; the tragic sits side by side with playful mockery—so these texts continue to be read with the same unflagging fascination. The collection also includes well-known summits of dramaturgy: the comedies “The Government Inspector” and “Marriage,” where the author makes the audience and readers laugh at what has become commonplace and, therefore, stopped catching the eye.