Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Nose , one of Nikolai Gogol's most important and influential tales, is now available in this gorgeously produced volume, illustrated with photographs by British artist Rick Buckley. Taking on a life of its own, the nose of a St Petersburg official leaves its rightful place to cause havoc in the city. The novel ends with the author seemingly addressing the reader directly, refusing to resolve the story he has narrated. Written between 1835 and 1836, and a key precursor to absurdist and Magical Realist strains in 20th-century fiction, this fantastic tale is extended in Buckley's photographs, which document a Gogol-inspired street intervention for which he fixed plaster noses on to buildings all over London. This edition of The Nose is part of the Four Corners Familiars series, in which contemporary artists produce a new edition of a classic novel or short story.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

The bowed perspectives and exaggerated facial features that distinguish Hawkes's (Then the Troll Heard the Squeak) paintings lend a refreshing waggishness to Gogol's classic satire. The artist carves out his own brand of eccentric humor with his interpretation of Gogol's characters, among them an astonished, noseless Deputy Inspector of Reindeer; a baffled, bumbling Police Inspector; and, of course, the haughty, runaway Proboscis itself. Cowan's high-spirited retelling captures the understated absurdity of the tale: ``What was [the Deputy Inspector] to make of a nose, which only yesterday had known its place, now walking and driving about-and dressed in a uniform, too?'' Each block of text is bordered by a golden frame dotted with an abundance of noses in a variety of shapes and guises. Less elegant than Gennady Spirin's 1993 adaptation, this version is more accessible to children. Whether acquainted with the story or new to it, readers will delight in the small, comic details in the language and the art. Ages 5-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 1-4-A barber breaks open a loaf of bread and finds a nose baked into it. It's not just any nose, either. It belongs to the Deputy Inspector of Reindeer. When the Deputy Inspector awakens to find his nose missing, he searches everywhere until he finds it masquerading as a General and Glorious Governor of Games. When he requests that it resume its proper place, it refuses and hurries away. The man is in despair until a policeman returns the nose. It will not stick to his face at first, but after a few days it is properly restored. Cowan has made a brave attempt at paring Gogol's short story into a form accessible to children, but she is not entirely successful. While her writing captures the cadence of Russian literature, the transitions are abrupt and often confusing. There is a sense of something missing. Furthermore, Gogol's story is satire, which may be entirely lost on the young children. Hawkes's acrylic paintings are slightly skewed in perspective, as if seen through a glass, and reflect an off-beat humor. The artist has a good eye for detail: the Deputy Inspector's wallpaper is patterned with reindeer and most of the pages containing text are bordered with a frame decorated with appropriate motifs. The vivid illustrations carry the story where the text falters. A well-intentioned attempt that falls a little short of its goal.-Donna L. Scanlon, Lancaster County Library, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 4 and up. Gogol's satirical short story of an ambitious nose that asserts its independence receives another picture-book adaptation (see Gogol ). Cowan casts Gogol's petty bureaucrat as the Deputy Inspector of Reindeer who awakes one morning to find his nose riding about town as the Grand and Glorious Governor of Games. Her simplified text retains the essence of Gogol's absurdist plot twists and deadpan delivery while removing all direct references to the original setting. It is in Hawkes' paintings that allusions to Gogol's nineteenth-century Russia appear through architecture and costume. The tale's absurdist tone is reflected in Hawkes' exaggerated perspectives: walls bulge, furniture curves, and buildings bow out from the street as if reflected in a fun-house mirror. The text is bordered in gilded frames embellished with flying noses, miniatures of the Deputy Inspector, and even, in tribute to the Nose's new identity, marbles, chess pieces, and dice. Cowan and Hawkes succeed in sculpturing the tale's humor for a younger audience, though the subtle irony may be appreciated more fully by older readers. (Reviewed November 1, 1994)0688104649Linda Callaghan

Horn Book Review

A civil servant's nose detaches and leads an independent life of extravagance in this Russian social satire, adapted from an eighteenth-century short story. Demanding a level of sophistication not normally expected of the picture-book audience, the absurd tale is elegantly designed and illustrated, with page borders that comically inject the aristocratic schnozz into the St. Petersburg landscape. From HORN BOOK 1993, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Tucking into his morning loaf, Ivan the barber discovers the nose of the Deputy Inspector of Reindeer. Not wanting trouble, Ivan lets the offending item slip from his fingers and into the river while crossing a bridge on the way to his shop. Elsewhere, the Deputy Inspector of Reindeer awakes to a noseless mug. On his way to the police, the Deputy Inspector happens to notice his nose riding by in an open carriage, all done out in finery, clearly putting on airs. He confronts the nose, but the nose denies any connection. Later that night, a policeman retrieves the Deputy Inspector's nose, which, despite some hesitation, returns to its former lodging. It is too much to expect the punch of the original, but a bit more of the story's satirical edge could have been captured by Cowan. What emerges is a whimsical little number, humorous and entertaining, with all the subversive pungency gone. Hawkes's acrylics are nice and bright, often giving a fish-eyed loopiness to the scenes, and deftly summon the Russian townscape. Any book that inspires children to read Gogol (as this one does), and that doesn't butcher the original in the process (as this one doesn't), is well worth the asking price. (Picture book. 5+)