We all came out from under Gogol's 'Overcoat'.

Attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky

Not found in their works No source has been found in Fyodor Dostoevsky's works.Draft entry, not yet reviewed

Where it really comes from

Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé, in his essays on the Russian novel (Revue des Deux Mondes, 1885; collected as Le Roman russe, 1886). In the chapter on Gogol he writes that the more he reads the Russians, the more he sees the truth of 'the remark made to me by one of them, a man much involved in the literary history of the last forty years: "Nous sommes tous sortis du Manteau de Gogol."' He then argues that the descent is plainest in Dostoevsky's Poor Folk. Vogüé met Dostoevsky in Petersburg in 1880–81 but does not name his source. Later retellings filled in Dostoevsky's name. The phrase came back into Russian from Vogüé as «Все мы вышли из гоголевской „Шинели“». Dostoevsky's own response to the story is in Poor Folk (letter of 8 July), where the clerk Devushkin reads The Overcoat and is hurt by it, as if it were a lampoon of himself.

Where it circulates

The standard one-line history of Russian realism, usually credited to Dostoevsky and sometimes to Turgenev. It cannot be found in Dostoevsky's writings. It was first printed by a French diplomat and critic, who attributed it to an unnamed Russian writer.

What it says

The great Russian novelists of the nineteenth century all descend from Gogol's story of a poor copying clerk and his stolen overcoat, with its compassion for the 'little man'.

Forms in circulation

retranslationВсе мы вышли из гоголевской «Шинели». The proverbial Russian form, translated back from Vogüé's French.seen
translationNous sommes tous sortis du Manteau de Gogol. Vogüé's French, the earliest printed form (1885–1886). (E.-M. de Vogüé, Le Roman russe (Paris: Plon, 1886), chapter on Gogol; http://bibliotheque-russe-et-slave.com/Livres/Vogue%20-%20Le%20Roman%20russe.htm)

What it is made of

Art & ideasRussia & the peopleCompassion

ObservationGeneralisation

MetaphorAllusion & quotation

WeReported

SincereLeft open

HumbleSolemn

One lineStands alone

Teaching & discussionEpigraph

Nearby

Checked against

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