Nezhin, a town near Kiev. There he remained from 1821 to 1828. He was
an unpromising student, having no enthusiasm for his lessons, and
showing no distinction either in scholarship or deportment.
Fortunately, however, the school had a little theatre of its own, and
Gogol, who hated mathematics, and cared little for the study of modern
languages, here found an outlet for all his mental energy. He soon
became the acknowledged leader of the school in matters dramatic, and
unconsciously prepared himself for his future career. Like Schiller,
he wrote a tragedy, and called it "The Robbers."

I think it is probable that Gogol's hatred for the school curriculum
inspired a passage in "Taras Bulba," though here he ostensibly
described the pedagogy of the fifteenth century.

"The style of education in that age differed widely from the manner of
life. These scholastic, grammatical, rhetorical, and logical
subtleties were decidedly out of consonance with the times, never had
any connection with and never were encountered in actual life. Those
who studied them could not apply their knowledge to anything whatever,
not even the least scholastic of them. The learned men of those days
were even more incapable than the rest, because farther removed from
all experience."*

*Translated by Isabel Hapgood.

In December, 1828, Gogol took up his residence in St. Petersburg,
bringing with him some manuscripts that he had written while at
school. He had the temerity to publish one, which was so brutally
ridiculed by the critics, that the young genius, in despair, burned
all the unsold copies--an unwitting prophecy of a later and more