One of the leading figures in nineteenth-century Russian literature, Nikolai Gogol (1809-52) is best known for his satirical masterpiece, Dead Souls, and humorous plays and short stories such as The Government Inspector and The Overcoat, written in a highly original and often experimental style.
Roger Cockrell's freer and livelier versions, of which there are many more examples, mean that any company planning a new production of the play would be well advised to use this fresh, highly actable (and, for good measure, attractively produced) translation of Gogol's timeless classic. * East-West Review *