Gogol

[Stingo]

Earlier this week I was skiing in Park City when I happened to ride a lift with a Ukranian man. We got into a conversation on the relative absence of any mention of a separate Ukranian identity in the traditionally recognized corpus of Russian literature. Gogol entered the conversation and he mentioned how "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka" was full of Ukrainian folk stories. I have been looking everywhere but I cannot find an electronic copy of the book. Unfortunately, when I get it in my head to get a book it drives me crazy to not be able to find it. Can any of you help?

[Patricia]

Try Feedbooks, here:
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/538

the description says:
"Nikolai Gogol was an artist who, like Rabelais, Cervantes, Swift, and Sterne, "knew how to walk upside down in our valley of sorrows so as to make it to a merry place." This two-volume edition at last brings all of Gogol's fiction (except his novel Dead Souls) together in paperback. Volume 1 includes Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, the early Ukrainian folktales that first brought Gogol fame, as well as "Nevsky Prospekt" and "Diary of a Madman."

[Stingo]

Patricia,

Thanks for the response. Your link takes me to an e-book for the Cloak by Gogol. I searched the feedbook site for Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka but nothing.

[Patricia]

Ah. Sorry about that. The Feedbooks description must be inaccurate.

[Sparrow]

It's in the Internet Archive - but probably only the Flip Book and PDF versions are readable.

[Patricia]

Ok. It doesn't seem to be very long, so I'll have a go at converting it this weekend. Expect an upload on Monday or Tuesday.

[Stingo]

First of all thanks for finding it and second thanks for the offer to convert it. I would love a converted copy. Thank you both very much for your help.

That said, for anyone else who reads this and might be interested in the book, this version seems to be a small subset of the actual work. The book that is in the Internet Archive is a translation of only part of the original work and it seems to have been renamed in the translation as Evenings in Little Russia. It only includes three stories. The original Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka is a collection of horror fantasy stories by Gogol that was originally published in two parts and which included 8 stories:

Part One

1. Сорочинская ярмарка [Sorochinskaya yarmarka], Sorochintsï Fair
2. Вечер накануне Ивана Купала [Vecher nakanune Ivana Kupala], St. John's Eve
3. Майская ночь, или Утопленница [Mayskaya noch', ili Utoplenitsa], May Night, or The Drowned Maiden
4. Пропавшая грамота [Propavshaya gramota], The Lost Letter

Part Two

1. Ночь перед Рождеством [Noch' pyered Rozhdestvom], Christmas Eve
2. Страшная месть [Strashnaya myest'], A Terrible Vengeance
3. Иван Федорович Шпонька и его тетушка [Ivan Fyodorovich Shpon'ka i yevo tyotushka], Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt
4. Заколдованное место [Zakoldovannoye myesto], A Bewitched Place

[Patricia]

I've now converted and uploaded The Internet Archive version. If anyone finds a better public domain one then please tell me, so that I can convert it

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Patricia

I've now converted ans uploaded The Internet Archive version. If anyone finds a better public domain one then please tell me, so that I can convert it

Wow! That was fast work Patricia.

How did you get a workable text from the choices available on the Internet Archive?
The text version looks awful, did you work from the PDF?

[Patricia]

I downloaded both the text and the PDF. I tried making another text version from the PDF, but it wasn't any better.
So I pasted the text into a doc and edited away, using a lot of find+replace and Stingo's macro. I've done quite a few from the Internet Archive and know the sorts of errors that creep in, which helps to speed things up.
Finally, I opened the doc on one half of the computer screen, and the PDF on the other, and made a final edit, before dropping the file into Book Designer.
RWood has mentioned that it may be faster to work using Acrobat Pro, and I'm considering investing in it.

[Sparrow]

Thanks for the clarification Patricia.

One other aspect that puzzles me is that the PDF link from the Internet Archive takes me to Google Book Search. But the texts there don't seem accessible - do you need to create an account before you can view them?

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Thanks for the clarification Patricia.

One other aspect that puzzles me is that the PDF link from the Internet Archive takes me to Google Book Search. But the texts there don't seem accessible - do you need to create an account before you can view them?

Some are only accessible to people in the US, and we are in the UK. (This one is actually downloadable from anywhere.)

However, there is a workaround for the Google uploads for those not in the USA. In the Internet Archive, click on "All files: HTTP" and then right-click and download the file with the PDF extension.