Viy
4/5
()
About this ebook
Nikolái Gógol
Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) was a Russian writer and dramatist. He was born in the Ukraine in 1809 and trained as a painter before finding success as a writer. He soon became famous for his plays and short fiction, notably “The Diary of a Madman” (1834), “The Nose” (1836), and “The Overcoat” (1842). His novel, Dead Souls, was published in 1842.
Read more from Nikolái Gógol
The Gothic Novel Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/57 best short stories by Nikolai Gogol Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Gothic Classics: 60+ Books in One Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeditations on the Divine Liturgy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inspector Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Viy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Diary of a Madman Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Viy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taras Bulba Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/560 Gothic Classics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gamblers and Marriage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Souls: Bilingual Edition (English – Russian) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDead Souls Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5
Related to Viy
Titles in the series (100)
Stories of Leo Tolstoy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSentimental Education Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSchiller's Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Deluge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSentimental Education Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Beautiful and Damned Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems by Emily Dickinson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gentle Spirit: A Fantastic Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poems by Emily Dickinson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Search of the Unknown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Deluge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDon Quixote Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales From The Jazz Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems by Emily Dickinson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales of Dostoyevsky Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gold-Bug and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSentimental Education: The History of a Young Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlappers and Philosophers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSchiller's Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSchiller's Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crocodile Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Black Cat and Other Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ligeia and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThis Side of Paradise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSamuel the Seeker Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe King in Yellow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBobok Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Men in the Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related ebooks
London Voices, 1820–1840: Vocal Performers, Practices, Histories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Haunted Cotswolds: A survey of megaliths and mark stones past and present. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mystery of Francis Bacon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Coriolanus: "Nature teaches beasts to know their friends" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistory of the Pianoforte and Pianoforte Players Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Shakespearean Myth: William Shakespeare and Circumstantial Evidence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistoric London: An Explorer's Companion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Superstitions of Sailors Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Evolution of Music- From Classical to Hip-Hop Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOld Fogy His Musical Opinions and Grotesques Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSonnets And Other Verses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDante's "Paradise": A Discussion Guide Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Bagpipers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for John Galsworthy's "Japanese Quince" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWord Portraits of Famous Writers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNotes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Jumblies and Other Nonsense Verses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSir Thomas More by William Shakespeare - Apocryphal (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTudor school-boy life: the dialogues of Juan Luis Vives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great Musicians: Purcell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMademoiselle de Scuderi (Fantasy and Horror Classics) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Between Romanticism and Modernism: Four Studies in the Music of the Later Nineteenth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counterblasting Canada: Marshall McLuhan, Wyndham Lewis, Wilfred Watson, and Sheila Watson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlorence and Its Church in the Age of Dante Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMartyrs and Mystics Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Carlovingian Coins Or The Daughters of Charlemagne. A Tale of the Ninth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 01 Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Olive Fairy Book - Illustrated by H. J. Ford Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
A La Recherche du Temps Perdu Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood Meridian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Old Man and the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5La Peste (The Plague) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Complete Trilogy in Five Parts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Baron In The Trees Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On the shortness of life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas: A Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If On A Winter's Night A Traveler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses by James Joyce (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLearn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crackling Mountain and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Policeman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Corrections Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Karenina Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invisible Cities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Am A Cat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lathe Of Heaven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Orgueil et Préjugés (Edition bilingue: français-anglais) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5That Glimpse of Truth: The 100 Finest Short Stories Ever Written Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letter from an Unknown Woman and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moments of Being by Virginia Woolf - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related categories
Reviews for Viy
35 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Viy - Nikolái Gógol
CHAPTER I
AS soon as the clear seminary bell began sounding in Kiev in the morning, the pupils would come flocking from all parts of the town. The students of grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, and theology hastened with their books under their arms over the streets.
The grammarians
were still mere boys. On the way they pushed against each other and quarrelled with shrill voices. Nearly all of them wore torn or dirty clothes, and their pockets were always crammed with all kinds of things—push-bones, pipes made out of pens, remains of confectionery, and sometimes even young sparrows. The latter would sometimes begin to chirp in the midst of deep silence in the school, and bring down on their possessors severe canings and thrashings.
The rhetoricians
walked in a more orderly way. Their clothes were generally untorn, but on the other hand their faces were often strangely decorated; one had a black eye, and the lips of another resembled a single blister, etc. These spoke to each other in tenor voices.
The philosophers
talked in a tone an octave lower; in their pockets they only had fragments of tobacco, never whole cakes of it; for what they could get hold of, they used at once. They smelt so strongly of tobacco and brandy, that a workman passing by them would often remain standing and sniffing with his nose in the air, like a hound.
About this time of day the market-place was generally full of bustle, and the market women, selling rolls, cakes, and honey-tarts, plucked the sleeves of those who wore coats of fine cloth or cotton.
Young sir! Young sir! Here! Here!
they cried from all sides. Rolls and cakes and tasty tarts, very delicious! I have baked them myself!
Another drew something long and crooked out of her basket and cried, Here is a sausage, young sir! Buy a sausage!
Don›t buy anything from her!
cried a rival. See how greasy she is, and what a dirty nose and hands she has!
But the market women carefully avoided appealing to the philosophers and theologians, for these only took handfuls of eatables merely to taste them.
Arrived at the seminary, the whole crowd of students dispersed into the low, large class-rooms with small windows, broad doors, and blackened benches. Suddenly they were filled with a many-toned murmur. The teachers heard the pupils› lessons repeated, some in shrill and others in deep voices which sounded like a distant booming. While the lessons were being said, the teachers kept a sharp eye open to see whether pieces of cake or other dainties were protruding from their pupils› pockets; if so, they were promptly confiscated.
When this learned crowd arrived somewhat earlier than usual, or when it was known that the teachers would come somewhat late, a battle would ensue, as though planned by general agreement. In this battle all had to take part, even the monitors who were appointed to look after the order and morality of the whole school. Two theologians generally arranged the conditions of the battle: whether each class should split into two sides, or whether all the pupils should divide themselves into two halves.
In each case the grammarians began the battle, and after the rhetoricians had joined in, the former retired and stood on the benches, in order to watch the fortunes of the fray. Then came the philosophers with long black moustaches, and finally the thick-necked theologians. The battle generally ended in a victory for the latter, and the philosophers retired to the different class-rooms rubbing their aching limbs, and throwing themselves on the benches to take breath.
When the teacher, who in his own time had taken part in such contests, entered the class-room he saw by the heated faces of his pupils that the battle had been very severe, and while he caned the hands of the rhetoricians, in another room another teacher did the same for the philosophers.
On Sundays and Festival Days the seminarists took puppet-theatres to the citizens› houses. Sometimes they acted a comedy, and in that case it was always a theologian who took the part of the hero or heroine—Potiphar or Herodias, etc. As a reward for their exertions, they received a piece of linen, a sack of maize, half a roast goose, or something similar. All