«БОТАНИЧЕСКИЙ РОМАН». КОММЕНТАРИЙ К ПЕРЕПИСКЕ ГОГОЛЯ И СЕСТЕР ВИЕЛЬГОРСКИХ

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We take a look at Gogol’s correspondence with Vielgorsky sisters that concerns his aid in their botanical endeavors. We specify the character of the writer’s relationship with Anna Vielgorskaya, as his marriage proposal to her became a point of controversy among Gogol’s biographers. We point that for Anna, botanical studies were a means of studying Russia as she strived to “to become Russian in soul and not merely in name”. We trace the connection of Gogol’s botanical texts of 1840s–1850s to his work on the second volume of “Dead Souls” and a Russian Geography for the youth.