The Shine

“Shinel” of Nikolai Gogol is one of the greatest stories in the history of Russian literature, becoming a manifesto of the protection of “the little man.” It is about this work that Fedor Dostoevsky said: “We all came out of the Gogol “Shinel”. This is an intriguing, profound and philosophically written story about social inequality, human loneliness, and how a crap thing can become the meaning of life and the cause of the death of the human soul. In the center of the story is Akaki Akakiovich Bashmachkin, a small Petersburg official, a quiet and irresponsible transcriber of papers, over whom the colleagues are divinely betrayed. His life is gray and uniform until the severe St. Petersburg freezes do not force him to take a rocky decision: to wash a new shinel, since the old has finally turned into a "capp". For this purchase Akaki Akakiovich sits on the most cruel diet, refuses to dinner tea and saves on every candle. The expectation of a new thing becomes a spiritual service for him, and the shinel itself becomes the desired friend of life. But in the first evening, when the happy Bashmachkin returns from the guests, on the dark square, the thieves attack him and remove the update. Facing with the full indifference of the authorities and the cruelty of the “important person” to whom he asks for help, Akaki Akakiovich is sick of anger and dies, after which through St. Petersburg begin to spread joke rumors about the ghost of a official breaking the shelves from the passengers. Gogol managed to create a unique text, where domestic realism jewelryly blends with the grotesque and mystical fantasy. Behind the comic and ridiculous way of Bashmachkin is hidden the massive tragedy of a man whose scream for help: "Let me, why do you offend me?" - addressed to all mankind. This is a strong, gorgeous and untemporary work forcing to compassion and to think about mercy to those who have remained invisible to society. **About what the book in three words:** Unity, Things, Rock. **Who to read:** All lovers of deep Russian classics, lovers of subtle Gogol's humor and mysticism, as well as those who want to read the reference story of compassion and humanity.