Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends

“...This is still my only sensible book,” Gogol himself claimed.

«Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends» is his spiritual bequest and a message to his fellow countrymen. A book of revelations containing the great writer’s reflections on the role of women in society and family, on Russian landowners and rural justice, on the theater and the power of the word, on helping the poor and on a person’s life lot. In his letters and articles, Gogol speaks of his love for Russia, of her fears and misfortunes, and of the need to know his country not from hearsay.

«What a strange fashion has come to Rus! The man himself lies there doing nothing, lazy about the real task, and he hurries on another person—just as if it were certain that the other must, with all his strength, pull in joy because his friend is lying on his side. You can hardly notice that at least one person has taken up seriously some real business—then they hurry him from all sides, and later they will scold him if he does something foolish. They’ll say, “Why did you rush it?”»

Gogol Nikolai — Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends