Taking Russian writer Nikolai Gogol's (1809-52) as a necessarily idiosyncratic example of Romantic metaphysics in action, Frazier (Slavic language and literature, Sarah Lawrence College) looks at the work and the genre from the perspectives of imaginary Germans, ordered chaos, pictures without words, the need for endings, Romantic claustrophobia, and death and decomposition. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)