The Overcoat

The author of Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky said, "We all come out from Gogol's 'The Overcoat.'" The story centers on an impoverished clerk who is dedicated to his job as a routine copyist though not recognized for his hard work. Younger clerks mock him for his dedication. His threadbare overcoat is mocked, as he is. He saves to get a new one and wears it for a glorious evening, only to have it stolen that night. He dies soon thereafter from his great loss. Thereafter his ghost is reported to haunt that part of St. Petersburg where the coat was stolen. The story of a lowly clerk, or Russian, come to nothing was a theme of Gogol and many other 19th century Russian writers.