The Nose is a three part short story written by Nikolai Gogol in 1836. In the first part, a St. Petersburg barber named Ivan Yakovlevitch and his wife are eating breakfast. The baker is shocked to find, baked into one of his wife's bread rolls, a nose. His wife, who is extremely crabby, angrily accuses him of being drunk and cutting the nose off one of his customers while he was shaving them. Ivan recognizes the nose as belonging to one of his customers: Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov. His wife tells him that she doesn't want a nose hanging about her house and demands that he get rid of it, and threatens to tell the police about it. Ivan is bewildered as to how his customer's nose got into his wife's bread, and is deathly afraid of the police showing up to question him about it. He wraps the nose in a cloth and leaves the house, hoping to find somewhere to get rid of it. Unfortunately, every time he attempts to drop it on the street, he meets up with someone he knows; when he does finally manage to "lose" the wrapped object, a police officer sees it and demands he pick up his trash. Ivan eventually makes his way to St. Isaac's Bridge and, leaning over pretending to look at the fish, drops the package into the water. As he leaves the bridge, Ivan runs into another policeman who suspiciously asks him what he was up to. He attempts to convince the officer that he was checking the strength of the current but the officer doesn't believe him. Part I ends without telling us how this is resolved. Part II starts out at the home of Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov. He wakes up in the morning and when he looks in the mirror he is alarmed to discover that his nose has disappeared from his face. This is especially traumatic for Kovalyov because he is extremely vain and self-important (he styles himself as Major Kovalyov, though he doesn't actually have a military rank). The loss of his nose, in addition to any other concerns, makes him look- and feel- ridiculous. He hurriedly gets dressed and goes to see the Head of Police. He attempts to keep his face hidden as he travels along the street. Suddenly Kovalyov is shocked to see his nose coming out of a house dressed in a military uniform and plumed hat. His nose jumps into a carriage and rides away, with Kovalyov in hot pursuit. He follows the carriage to Kazan Cathedral and enters the church in search of his nose and sees the uniformed figure standing near a wall, apparently praying. Kovalyov is uncertain how he should approach his nose, as it now appears to be a high ranking officer- perhaps a state councilor. He gathers his courage and hesitantly interrupts the nose, who turns and asks him what he wants. Kovalyov tells the uniformed nose that he is an important person with high connections and that it's simply not done for people of his social position to go about nose-less. The nose appears not to understand what he's talking about, so Kovalyov is forced to be more blunt and claim ownership of his nose. His nose says that Kovalyov is mistaken; he is a person in his own right and in any case, he has nothing in common with Kovalyov whom he can see from his uniform is in a different government department. The nose then turns away and goes back to his prayers. Kovalyov doesn't know what to do, and is suddenly distracted by the sight of a pretty girl, accompanied by an elderly lady and a footman, passing by him. Kovalyov, who fancies himself a ladies' man, prepares to turn on the charm and flirt with the girl, then suddenly recoils, remembering that he has no nose on his face. Humiliated and angry, he turns back to denounce his nose as a fraud and scoundrel only to find that the nose has slipped out. Kovalyov hurries out of the cathedral, craning his neck to try to see his nose, but there are so many carriages and people on the avenue, he can't catch a glimpse of it. Who he does see are several important officials with whom he's acquainted. Not wanting them to see him nose-less, Kovalyov hails a cab and orders the driver to take him to the Chief of Police. Entering the Hall, he asks to see the Police Commissionaire but is told the Commissionaire left a few minutes before. Frustrated, Kovalyov climbs back into the cab and ponders what to do. He begins to fear that his nose may try to leave the city, making it almost impossible to find. He decides to place an ad in the newspaper, containing a description of his nose and requesting anyone seeing it to turn it in. He orders the driver to take him to the newspaper office as quickly as possible. Once there, he tries to order his ad with the newspaper's clerk while keeping his face covered with his handkerchief and declining to give his name. He angrily explains to the clerk that his nose is travelling about town, calling itself a state councilor. He wants it caught and brought back where it belongs. The clerk tells Kovalyov that he can't print an ad like that in the paper; too many false stories already escape editorial and end up causing libel suits. The clerk refuses to take Kovalyov seriously until he, in exasperation, shows him his face. Finally believing him, the clerk still says that he can't help him and advises seeing a doctor. Kovalyov angrily leaves the newspaper office and goes in search of the Inspector of Police. (To Be Continued...)
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