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The Story of the Nose
Kovalyov wakes one morning to discover that his nose has disappeared! It has mysteriously found its way into a loaf of bread on the barber Yokovlevich's breakfast table.
The barber tries to get rid of it, but when Kovalyov steps out onto the St Petersburg streets, he finds his nose, now the size of a human, wearing a gold-embroidered uniform and travelling around in a carriage...
The barber tries to get rid of it, but when Kovalyov steps out onto the St Petersburg streets, he finds his nose, now the size of a human, wearing a gold-embroidered uniform and travelling around in a carriage...
104 pages, Hardcover
First published October 31, 2013
3 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Andrea Camilleri
436 books2,475 followersAndrea Camilleri was an Italian writer. He is considered one of the greatest Italian writers of both 20th and 21st centuries.
Originally from Porto Empedocle, Sicily, Camilleri began studies at the Faculty of Literature in 1944, without concluding them, meanwhile publishing poems and short stories. Around this time he joined the Italian Communist Party.
From 1948 to 1950 Camilleri studied stage and film direction at the Silvio D'Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts, and began to take on work as a director and screenwriter, directing especially plays by Pirandello and Beckett. As a matter of fact, his parents knew Pirandello and were even distant friends, as he tells in his essay on Pirandello "Biography of the changed son". His most famous works, the Montalbano series show many pirandellian elements: for example, the wild olive tree that helps Montalbano think, is on stage in his late work "The giants of the mountain"
With RAI, Camilleri worked on several TV productions, such as Inspector Maigret with Gino Cervi. In 1977 he returned to the Academy of Dramatic Arts, holding the chair of Movie Direction, and occupying it for 20 years.
In 1978 Camilleri wrote his first novel Il Corso Delle Cose ("The Way Things Go"). This was followed by Un Filo di Fumo ("A Thread of Smoke") in 1980. Neither of these works enjoyed any significant amount of popularity.
In 1992, after a long pause of 12 years, Camilleri once more took up novel-writing. A new book, La Stagione della Caccia ("The Hunting Season") turned out to be a best-seller.
In 1994 Camilleri published the first in a long series of novels: La forma dell'Acqua (The Shape of Water) featured the character of Inspector Montalbano, a fractious Sicilian detective in the police force of Vigàta, an imaginary Sicilian town. The series is written in Italian but with a substantial sprinkling of Sicilian phrases and grammar. The name Montalbano is an homage to the Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán; the similarities between Montalban's Pepe Carvalho and Camilleri's fictional detective are remarkable. Both writers make great play of their protagonists' gastronomic preferences.
This feature provides an interesting quirk which has become something of a fad among his readership even in mainland Italy. The TV adaptation of Montalbano's adventures, starring the perfectly-cast Luca Zingaretti, further increased Camilleri's popularity to such a point that in 2003 Camilleri's home town, Porto Empedocle - on which Vigàta is modelled - took the extraordinary step of changing its official denomination to that of Porto Empedocle Vigàta, no doubt with an eye to capitalising on the tourism possibilities thrown up by the author's work.
In 1998 Camilleri won the Nino Martoglio International Book Award.
Camilleri lived in Rome where he worked as a TV and theatre director. About 10 million copies of his novels have been sold to date, and are becoming increasingly popular in the UK and North America.
In addition to the degree of popularity brought him by the novels, in recent months Andrea Camilleri has become even more of a media icon thanks to the parodies aired on an RAI radio show, where popular comedian, TV-host and impression artist Fiorello presents him as a raspy voiced, caustic character, madly in love with cigarettes and smoking (Camilleri is well-known for his love of tobacco).
He received an honorary degree from University of Pisa in 2005.
Originally from Porto Empedocle, Sicily, Camilleri began studies at the Faculty of Literature in 1944, without concluding them, meanwhile publishing poems and short stories. Around this time he joined the Italian Communist Party.
From 1948 to 1950 Camilleri studied stage and film direction at the Silvio D'Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts, and began to take on work as a director and screenwriter, directing especially plays by Pirandello and Beckett. As a matter of fact, his parents knew Pirandello and were even distant friends, as he tells in his essay on Pirandello "Biography of the changed son". His most famous works, the Montalbano series show many pirandellian elements: for example, the wild olive tree that helps Montalbano think, is on stage in his late work "The giants of the mountain"
With RAI, Camilleri worked on several TV productions, such as Inspector Maigret with Gino Cervi. In 1977 he returned to the Academy of Dramatic Arts, holding the chair of Movie Direction, and occupying it for 20 years.
In 1978 Camilleri wrote his first novel Il Corso Delle Cose ("The Way Things Go"). This was followed by Un Filo di Fumo ("A Thread of Smoke") in 1980. Neither of these works enjoyed any significant amount of popularity.
In 1992, after a long pause of 12 years, Camilleri once more took up novel-writing. A new book, La Stagione della Caccia ("The Hunting Season") turned out to be a best-seller.
In 1994 Camilleri published the first in a long series of novels: La forma dell'Acqua (The Shape of Water) featured the character of Inspector Montalbano, a fractious Sicilian detective in the police force of Vigàta, an imaginary Sicilian town. The series is written in Italian but with a substantial sprinkling of Sicilian phrases and grammar. The name Montalbano is an homage to the Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán; the similarities between Montalban's Pepe Carvalho and Camilleri's fictional detective are remarkable. Both writers make great play of their protagonists' gastronomic preferences.
This feature provides an interesting quirk which has become something of a fad among his readership even in mainland Italy. The TV adaptation of Montalbano's adventures, starring the perfectly-cast Luca Zingaretti, further increased Camilleri's popularity to such a point that in 2003 Camilleri's home town, Porto Empedocle - on which Vigàta is modelled - took the extraordinary step of changing its official denomination to that of Porto Empedocle Vigàta, no doubt with an eye to capitalising on the tourism possibilities thrown up by the author's work.
In 1998 Camilleri won the Nino Martoglio International Book Award.
Camilleri lived in Rome where he worked as a TV and theatre director. About 10 million copies of his novels have been sold to date, and are becoming increasingly popular in the UK and North America.
In addition to the degree of popularity brought him by the novels, in recent months Andrea Camilleri has become even more of a media icon thanks to the parodies aired on an RAI radio show, where popular comedian, TV-host and impression artist Fiorello presents him as a raspy voiced, caustic character, madly in love with cigarettes and smoking (Camilleri is well-known for his love of tobacco).
He received an honorary degree from University of Pisa in 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 10, 2025
I recently had a great time reading the short story "The Nose" to my nine year old. Then I noticed this children's version by Andrea Camilleri so thought I would get for us to maybe re-read. But then I read it myself (it was very short, for some who have asked how I read so many books is partly that I include ones like this). I wasn't entirely sure what the point was since it was about the same length and structure and style as the original. The pictures were sort of cool but also sort of took the mystery away. It was elevated a bit by the authorial interjections about some of the aspects of Gogol's writing of the story (e.g., how he handled interventions by the censors and changed the ending so it was not explicitly all a dream). But mostly still wasn't sure what the point was--since it was no more suitable for children than Gogol's version and I would rather that anyone read the original instead of this perfectly good version.
March 18, 2021
I didn't know it is a retelling, but it was good and funny.. I also liked the narrator's voice that suits the story..
hopefully I will read the original story soon
hopefully I will read the original story soon
January 20, 2018
Andrea Camilleri racconta, a modo suo e con molta ironia, la novella di Gogol intitolata "Il naso".
E' una storia strampalata di un naso che, improvvisamente, si stacca dalla faccia del suo proprietario, il maggiore Kovalev, e appare nei posti più bizzarri: dentro un panino, su una carrozza e dentro una chiesa travestito da militare. Inoltre parla, si muove e tenta la fuga :-D
Il maggiore, sconvolto da questa improvvisa sparizione, vaga per tutta la città affannandosi per ritrovarlo e si ritrova a vivere situazioni paradossali.
Poi...così come è scomparso, riappare e torna al suo posto.
E' una storia strampalata di un naso che, improvvisamente, si stacca dalla faccia del suo proprietario, il maggiore Kovalev, e appare nei posti più bizzarri: dentro un panino, su una carrozza e dentro una chiesa travestito da militare. Inoltre parla, si muove e tenta la fuga :-D
Il maggiore, sconvolto da questa improvvisa sparizione, vaga per tutta la città affannandosi per ritrovarlo e si ritrova a vivere situazioni paradossali.
Poi...così come è scomparso, riappare e torna al suo posto.
June 12, 2021
I don't really know how to rate this... it made a lot more sense when I researched it but I still have a lot of questions
July 11, 2020
Muy linda edición con logrados dibujos. El texto complejo desde el punto de vista latinoaméricamo. A medida que se lo leía a mí hijo le fui cambiando algunas palabras para hacerlo más entendible. La historia está bien lograda pero no vale la pena.
June 20, 2017
Bu seri için tatmin edici gelmedi bana ama gene de edebiyatla tanıştırmak açısından güzel. Oğlum beğendi.
March 26, 2023
Nikolai Gogol amcanın eserinin eskiden katedral yüzünden yayınlanamaması çok üzücü. Ama kitap süper!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews