The charges directed against The Government Inspector by resentful people, who saw in it an insidious attack against Russian officialdom, had a disastrous effect upon Gogol. It may be said to have been the starting point of the persecution mania that in various forms afflicted him to the very end of his life. The position was very curious: fame, in its most sensational form, had come to him; the Court was applauding the play with almost vicious glee; the stuffed shirts of high officialdom were losing their stuffing as they moved uneasily in their orchestra seats; disreputable critics were discharging stale venom; such critics whose opinion was worth something were lauding Gogol to the stars for what they thought was a great satire; the popular playwright Kukolnic shrugged his shoulders and said the play was nothing but a silly farce; young people related with gusto its best jokes and discovered Khlestakovs and Skovsnik-Dmukhianovskys among their acquaintances. Another man would have revelled in this atmosphere of praise and scandal. Pushkin would have merely shown his gleaming Negro teeth in a good-natured laugh - and turned to the unfinished manuscript of his current masterpiece. Gogol did what he had done before: he fled, or rather slithered, to foreign lands.

From Gogol by Vladamir Nabakov