"This is a wonderful book, the culmination of many years of reading and meditation, of intense engagement with the enigma of Gogol. . . . We have a believable, convincing picture of a real man, seen against a broad background of the ideas and artistic fashions afloat in his age."--Hugh McLean, University of California, Berkeley
"A thoughtful, clever, and imaginative analysis of Gogol's art, and one that breaks significant new ground. . . . Maguire has produced a distinctive and elegant contribution to Anglo-American Gogol criticism."--Journal of European Studies