Nikolai Gogol: Selected Stories

Of course I had to read "The Nose", a story about a man who wakes up to realize that his nose is missing from his face, and goes on to discover that his nose is masquerading around town as a state counsellor. The absurdity in some of these stories is often hilarious, as in "Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and his Aunt," which ends abruptly after a nightmare about wives with the faces of geese, and never resolves the story. Also hilarious is the...(how should I put this?)...comical sadomasochistic story of "The Overcoat", with the ridiculously named Akaky Akakievich, who becomes more ridiculous and comical with the continued accumulation of misfortunes.
I enjoyed these stories.