«Приезжий из столицы, или Суматоха в уездном городе» и «Ревизор»

Abstract

The Ukrainian writer and playwright Hryhory Kvitka-Osnovyanenko wrote his satirical drama The Visitor from the Capital or Turmoil in a District Town in 1827 but it was published only in 1840, while Nikolai Gogol’s play The Government Inspector was brought out in 1835. The topic of the incognito traveller, a false government inspector whom the threatened town officials attempt to suborn in different ways, circulated in the imperial Russian society at that time. The possible influence of Kvitka’s play on the famous The Government Inspector is a question which has excited the imagination of literary critics since the middle of 19th century although they have treated it quite differently. The range of opinions varies from the complete rejection of the possibility to suspect plagiarism, irrespective of the fact that Gogol himself denied he was familiar with his Ukrainian fellow writer’s play. An overview of opinions and articles devoted to the question is presented in the paper.