Nikolai Gogol by Vladimir Nabokov

The cover illustration depicts several of the characters that Gogol created: The 'bearlike' Sobakevich and the stupid widow from 'Dead Souls', the coat-stealing ghost, the tailor and the officer from 'The Overcoat', the 'Nose', the madman from 'Diary of a Madman'. The ladder leaning against the title square, suggests that each one of them climbed out of that square, or metaphorically, out of Gogol himself. Inspired by the theatrical quality of his writing, the book jacket suggests a theatre stage, where all the actors are taking their positions next to each other at the end of the play for the final applause.