BookTalk.org

OK - I'm ordering it from the library now - hope I can get it in time for this discussion.

Russian short stories. You have to love them, you can't help yourself. But, you always feel like you are missing the most important parts.

"The Diary of a Madman" looks like a diary. The diarist seems to grow madder (crazier) with each entry. Even the dates grow more and more insane. Have to love that inverted "February. "There is little doubt that he is in an asylum by the end of the story. There is much more I haven't figured out yet. I wonder if that wart under the nose (last word in the story in the Russian version) is a clue?

I look forward to other reader's insights.

--Gary

Something about noses in Russia is an indication of fooling someone or making someone out to be a fool. That's what Penguin suggested.

I thought we were going with the Signet version? No matter. That's what I bought.

The Signet edition has:

Diary of a Madman
The Nose
The Carriage
The Overcoat
Taras Bulba

I assume we are reading Diary of a Madman first?

I've found a Penguin version in a musty old book store for $4. Quite a deal.

geo wrote:I thought we were going with the Signet version? No matter. That's what I bought.

This is the book I bought too. When I set up the story threads, I did not have my copy yet, so I posted two stories that are not in the Signet version. When I "opened" the Signet version on Amazon, the table of contents were written in Russian. So, there are two stories included in the "Diary of a Madman" discussion forum, that are not included in the Signet version. The table of contents in the Penguin version were written in English. I took those two missing stories from there believing that both versions would contain the same stories. Whew! Did you get all that? Bottom line, I screwed up, sorry.

Gave us Penguins an opportunity to post about the stories that aren't in the Signet. =)

President Camacho wrote:Gave us Penguins an opportunity to post about the stories that aren't in the Signet. =)

Penguins? Cygnets? You have a bird avatar? I have a bird avatar? Something weird is going on here.

Suzanne wrote: I took those two missing stories from there believing that both versions would contain the same stories. Whew! Did you get all that? Bottom line, I screwed up, sorry.

No biggie. I like that the Signet is so short because I'm seriously overextended at this point. Reading two books concurrently, not including Gogol!