This is exactly the edition I have. More than 500 pages from short stories written by Ukranian (maybe Russian as well) writer and playwright NIcolai Gogol. I liked the most modern stories, like The Nose and the Portrait, which reminded me of Kafka. However, the last piece of work included, the play The Government Inspector is the one which has passed better the test of time. The short stories are too long, sometimes with stories within stories, sometimes with a single paragraph occupying a whole page. I didn't even read everything: the introduction, although excellent and informative - gives away too much; it is better left for reading after reading the stories. My least favourite were all those folklore-inspired takes at the beginning. I only read Fair at Sorotchintsky and Lost Letter. Witches, the devil, ghosts... the folklore is similar all over the world, aparently.

I am going to speak about The Government Inspector, which was my favourite one. As it doesn't have long narrative passages, it goes more to the point. It begins with the Mayor of a village, the judge, the person responsible for Charitable Work, the Post Office master, the hospital director, the school master etc... receiving a letter from a grandson in Saint Petersburg announcing him that a government inspector is going to travel incognito to the province to inspect all departments and officers. Immediately, they all get worried and go berserk, as nobody is a hard-working proactive honest man - they are all men, as at this time, the middle ages of the nineteenth century, no women would hold jobs outside home if they had husbands to support them. These men are all corrupt and good-for-nothings.

The Mayor asks the Post Master to read all letters that go in or out of town and to prevent all complaints from leaving town and inform him of any news about the official. Soon, the two town wealthiest farmers gossips - Pyotr Ivanovitch Bobchinsky and Pyotr Ivanovitch Dobchinsky - burst into the meeting saying that at the inn there is a demanding man with a servant who asks for all kind of services, the best food and accommodation but is not paying for anything, as he demands everything on credit. He has already been two weeks at the inn, which causes desperation to the Mayor. In two weeks, jail prisoners were not given their rations, he flogged the widow of a soldier who had gone to him with a fair demand, he let the street rubbish unpicked, etc...

Russian film with English subtitles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZFi9YnnK7M

A week ago.