The Overcoat
Complete textAkaky Akakievich, a poorly paid copying clerk, lives within a narrow routine until his worn coat can no longer be repaired. Saving for a replacement gives his life an unfamiliar purpose and brings him briefly into the notice of colleagues who usually disregard him.
Continue readingAbout The Overcoat
Gogol's narrator alternates sympathy with comic detours, making bureaucracy appear both absurd and painfully consequential. An item of clothing becomes a measure of social existence: warmth, dignity, and recognition seem to converge in it. The shifts in tone prevent the story from settling into either a simple joke or an uncomplicated appeal for pity.
Reading focus
Read a clerk's struggle for an adequate coat as a sharply comic and unsettling account of bureaucracy, visibility, and human dignity.
This reading edition contains 11,059 words in 1 original section. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.
Author: Nikolai Gogol. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.
Opening excerpt
In a certain Russian ministerial department——
Contents
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Is this the complete The Overcoat?
This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 1 section and 11,059 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.
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