Gogol's story "The Diary of a Madman" ("Zapriski sumassehdshago"), published in 1835, also utilizes the motif of a garment as a status symbol. The narrative is presented as a diary chronicling the mental decline of its author. At one point, the writer, another impoverished government clerk, convinces himself that he is King Ferdinand VIII of Spain. When he decides to announce his royal identity publicly, he reasons, "If only I could get hold of a royal mantle of some sort. I thought of having one made but tailors are so stupid ... I decided to make a mantle out of my best coat which I had worn only twice ... I had to cut my coat to ribbons with the scissors since a mantle has a completely different style."

"The Nose" ("Nos"), another of Gogol's short stories, first appeared in his 1842 Collected Works. Also a satire of bureaucratic life in St. Petersburg, "The Nose" adopts a more absurdist or surreal approach than "The Overcoat." It tells the tale of a minor bureaucrat who desperately tries to recover his nose after it seemingly deserts him and assumes the role of a higher-ranking bureaucrat.

The Government Inspector (Revizor) is Gogol's renowned stage comedy, first performed in 1836. The plot revolves around a drifter mistaken for a government inspector by the residents of a small provincial town, who shower him with bribes until the real official arrives. Despite its clear satire of Russian bureaucracy, Czar Nicholas I adored the play and mandated that all his ministers watch it. It has since been one of the most celebrated Russian plays.

Notes from Underground is a novella penned by the illustrious Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1864. Bearing resemblance to Gogol's work—particularly "The Diary of a Madman"—Notes from Underground is a darkly humorous first-person account of a bureaucrat whose sanity is questionable.

"The Metamorphosis," a story written by Franz Kafka in 1915, exhibits significant Gogol influence. It presents a disturbingly surreal and satirical portrayal of Gregor Samsa, a destitute office worker who awakens one day to find himself transformed into an insect.

"Gogol's Wife," a short story published in 1961 by Italian avant-garde writer Tommaso Landolfi, is well-known for its critique and translation of Russian literature. Landolfi crafts a fictional narrative to unravel the mystery surrounding Gogol's love life. The real Gogol never married, and there is scant evidence that he ever experienced romantic attraction. In "Gogol's Wife," Landolfi fabricates some evidence—in the form of an account from a fictional acquaintance/biographer of Gogol's—suggesting that Gogol had an exceedingly bizarre love life.