Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Preface vii
3. Acknowledgments xiii
4. Contents xv
5. PART I. Approaches
6. 1. The Gogol Problem: Perspectives from Absence 3
7. 2. The Sense of Absence: Immediate Contexts 24
8. PART II. Improvising a Vocation
9. 3. Beginnings: Miscellaneous Writings 47
10. 4. Beginnings: Fiction 85
11. 5. Confronting a Public, I 125
12. PART III. Embracing a Calling
13. 6. Epic Intentions 145
14. 7. Dead Souls: The Mirror and the Road 164
15. 8. Confronting a Public, II 192
16. PART IV. The Surviving Presence
17. 9. The Gogolian Universe: Notes Toward a Theory 229
18. 10. Sense, Shape, End 257
19. NOTES / INDEX
20. Notes 267
21. Index 297