"We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'."

- Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé (French writer and critic

For a 33 page story about a St. Petersburg bureaucrat, that is a strong statement.

What is 'The Overcoat'?

It is a short story by Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842.

It tells a humorous, yet poignant, story about a 'man of no consequence'.

The story urges us to see humanity and value in every single person, no matter who they are.

Coming out of Russia, where serfdom (a social structure where peasants were bound to labor on land owned by lords) was not abolished until 1861, these were revolutionary concepts, and is one of the reasons Gogol is so celebrated. His abundance of wit is another.

Regardless, the story tugs on the same exact heart strings today as it did over 150 years ago, and the lesson still rings true.

Why I enjoyed 'The Overcoat' so much

Never have I read something so short (probably just 1 hour) that made me feel such a powerful mixture of mirth, compassion, and melancholy.

The story pokes fun at our self-image of importance and points out our easy moral failings. But it also offers acceptance and forgiveness.

What it really reminded me of was to have compassion for every single person you may encounter, no matter their 'consequence'.

One of my favorite excerpts (no spoilers!)

And there was something strange in the words and the voice in which they were uttered. There was in it something which moved to pity; so much that one young man, a new-comer, who, taking pattern by the others, had permitted himself to make sport of Akakiy, suddenly stopped short, as though all about him had undergone a transformation, and presented itself in a different aspect.

Some unseen force repelled him from the comrades whose acquaintance he had made, on the supposition that they were well-bred and polite men. Long afterwards, in his gayest moments, there recurred to his mind the little official with the bald forehead, with his heart-rending words, "Leave me alone! Why do you insult me?"