This literary guide leads students with advanced knowledge of Russian as well as experienced scholars through the text of Nikolai Gogolâ s absurdist masterpiece â The Nose.â Part I focuses on numerous instances of the writerâ s wordplay, which is meant to surprise and delight the reader, but which often is lost in English translations. It traces Gogolâ s descriptions of everyday life in St. Petersburg, familiar to the writerâ s contemporaries and fellow citizens but hidden from the modern Western reader. Part II presents an overview of major critical interpretations of the story in Gogol scholarship from the time of its publication to the present, as well as its connections to the works of Shostakovich, Kafka, Dalí, and Kharms.