The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories

Some call him a Russian Mark Twain. And with his special blend of comedy, social commentary, and fantasy, Nikolai Gogol paved the way for his countrymen Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. This sampling of Gogol’s works includes the increasingly fantastic entries of “The Diary of a Madman,” followed by the wonderfully surrealistic “The Nose,” in which the title character embarks on some unlikely activities when separated from its owner’s face. In “The Carriage,” a pompous landowner gets his comeuppanc...