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Abstract:

This article examines and compares three portraits of the late Gogol made by Turgenev in his literary memoirs, which were first published in 1869. Particular attention is devoted to a little-studied aspect of these recollections — their own literary side, i. e., their deep psychological poetics that allow the author to bring across Gogol’s outer and inner nature during the last months of his life. It is shown that the individuality of each of these portraits along with their contradictory unity reveal the complexity of Gogol’s spiritual world.