Volume 24, Number 5 · March 31, 1977
Was Gogol Gay?
By Helen Muchnic
The Sexual Labyrinth of Nikolai Gogol
by Simon Karlinsky
Harvard University Press, 333 pp., $14.00
Simon Karlinsky is convinced that Gogol's 'emotional orientation' was homosexual, and this is what his book is about. In his opinion the topic is of first importance, a 'neglected area in Gogol's life and work,' taboo even in universities. So much so that, as one is shocked to learn, some twenty years ago in Berlin Vsevolod Setchkarev, now of Harvard, was prevented from mentioning it in his study of Gogol by a senior colleague who threatened to ruin his academic career if he did so. Subsequently, several Freudian critics delved into other aspects of Gogol's sexuality but left this one untouched. So that in the name of scholarship and intellectual freedom alone, the question should be brought to light and examined. But Professor Karlinsky has other reasons as well. He considers the matter to be crucial for an understanding of Gogol's puzzling nature. 'It may provide,' he thinks, 'the missing key to the riddle of his personality'; it is 'the source and the cause of Gogol's personal and literary tragedy.'
Review, 4462 words
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