Gogol's stories are admired for their skillful mingling of fantasy and reality, quiet good humor and use of mundane details -- as Gogol put it -- "to extract the extraordinary from the ordinary. " Imaginative and timeless, they remain as fresh and significant today as they were to readers generations ago. This rich selection of four short stories by the great 19th-century Russian author of Dead Souls includes "The Nose, " a savage satire of incompetent bureaucrats and the snobbery and complacency of the Russian upper classes; "Old-Fashioned Farmers, " a sketch depicting an elderly couple who live a happy but simple life in rustic seclusion; "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich, " and of Gogol's most famous comic stories; and "The Overcoat, " an exceptionally moving tale -- considered a masterpiece of the form -- about a poor and much-ridiculed St. Petersburg official. Includes a selection from the Common Core State Standards Initiative: "The Nose. "