Akakii Akakievich is a lowly government clerk in 19th- century St. Petersburg. He survives on a meager salary, is without friends, and is treated with disrespect by his fellow office workers. As winter approaches, he finds that his threadbare, much-mended overcoat can neither protect him from the cold nor be further repaired. By extreme scrimping and saving he manages to save enough money for a new, warm coat. The first day he wears the new coat,...