Nikolai Gogol has attempted an acting career,…

Nikolai Gogol has attempted an acting career, worked in a government office while studying painting, and taught in a girls' boarding school since his return to St. Petersburg,

Drawing from the rich folklore of the Ukraine, its Cossack traditions, and the parochial life-style of its people, he had won his first literary success with the two-volume story collection Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, published in 1831 and 1832.

Having spent 1834 teaching medieval history at the University of Saint Petersburg, Gogol publishes additional Ukrainian tales in 1835 under the title Mirgorod.

The same year, he publishes Arabesques, featuring the stories "The Portrait" and "Nevsky Prospect".