# Major Kovaloff — Short Fiction character guide

> Major Kovaloff in Short Fiction by Nikolai Gogol.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Kovaloff, Poor Kovaloff, the Major

**First appearance:** 0040-the-nose

## Snapshot

A vain civil servant whose morning shave ends with a blank where his nose should be, and whose dignity depends entirely on the face he can no longer show.

## Who they are

Kovaloff is a collegiate assessor who styles himself Major and measures his worth in rank, seals, and the admiring glances of ladies on the Nevsky Avenue. When his nose vanishes, his first instinct is not horror but social panic: he remembers he cannot flirt, cannot call on the Privy Councillor, cannot even walk the promenade without hiding behind a handkerchief. His frantic chase after the runaway nose — through police stations and droshky rides — sets the story's absurd machinery in motion.

## In the story

### [Short Fiction](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/short-fiction)

Central character in 'The Nose,' a social climber who loses his nose.

### [The Nose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/the-nose)

The protagonist who loses his nose and desperately tries to recover it.

### [The Nose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/i)

The owner of the nose, a member of the Municipal Committee.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/ii)

Wakes to find his nose missing, searches for it, and confronts the nose as a uniformed official.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/iii)

Wakes to find his nose restored, shaves, and goes about his day in high spirits.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/iv)

The subject of the narrator's reflections; his lost nose and the strange events surrounding it are discussed.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/characters/kovaloff
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/characters