I'm reading this in Literature class, and it's really interesting. I'd suggest though to find the translation by Burgin and O'Connor because it contains notes on "key words" for each chapter to put some context in the situations.

It was funny, to talk about with others in the class, so I hope others might enjoy it here too. It might not be available on an ebook though.

It's a wonderful book indeed, and those of you who loved Gogol should really read this one. Have you ever read "Petersburg" from Biely ?

Oh my oh my...you compare :huh: Gogol :knife: and Bulgakov.

Oh my oh my...you compare :huh: Gogol :knife: and Bulgakov.

Yes, this book is very similar to some of Gogol's short stories.

On Wikipedia:

One of the pioneering works of Russian formalism was Eichenbaum's reappraisal of The Overcoat. In the 1920s, a group of Russian short story writers, known as the Serapion Brothers, placed Gogol among their precursors and consciously sought to imitate his techniques. The leading novelists of the period — notably Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov — also admired Gogol and followed in his footsteps. In 1926, Vsevolod Meyerhold staged The Government Inspector as a "comedy of the absurd situation", revealing to his fascinated spectators a corrupt world of endless self-deception. In 1934, Andrei Bely published the most meticulous study of Gogol's literary techniques up to that date, in which he analyzed the colours prevalent in Gogol's work depending on the period, his impressionistic use of verbs, expressive discontinuity of his syntax, complicated rhythmical patterns of his sentences, and many other secrets of his craft. Based on this work, Vladimir Nabokov published a summary account of Gogol's masterpieces in 1944.

For those of you who read in french, here's a list: http://www.feedbooks.com/list/view/12

My boyfriend handed me a copy of this book after we'd been dating a few weeks, it's now about 5 and a half years later and I still haven't read it. Maybe I should! Is there anyplace that sells an electronic version?

Lib.ru has two translations. I'm not sure of their copyright status though.
http://lib.ru/BULGAKOW/

Lib.ru has two translations. I'm not sure of their copyright status though.
http://lib.ru/BULGAKOW/

Those two translations aren't as good as the recent one

ISBN number 0-679-76080-6

I don't think that any translation for this book is available in the public domain yet.

Most likely you are correct on that. Since the book was not published in Russia until the 60's. Because most countries follow the Berne convention, international copyrights are just as valid as local ones.