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About The Cloak

A humble clerk. A treasured overcoat. A loss that follows him beyond the grave. Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin lives an invisible life in the freezing streets of St. Petersburg. Poorly paid, routinely mocked, and devoted to his monotonous work as a government copyist, he asks for little—until his threadbare coat can no longer protect him from the bitter Russian winter. Determined to replace it, Akaky sacrifices every small comfort he has. When his magnificent new cloak finally arrives, it transforms more than his appearance. For one brief evening, he is noticed, respected, and welcomed by those who once dismissed him. Then the cloak is stolen. Abandoned by the authorities and humiliated by a powerful official, Akaky falls into despair. But his story does not end with his death. Soon, a mysterious figure begins haunting the streets of St. Petersburg, tearing overcoats from the shoulders of the wealthy and powerful. Darkly comic, deeply compassionate, and chillingly supernatural, Nikolai Gogol’s celebrated classic explores poverty, bureaucracy, social cruelty, and the desperate human desire to be seen. Narrated by Jason Michael Mann.