The Nose is the second best known story of Gogol, after The Overcoat. A military major discovers his nose is missing and works to recover it. He finds the nose but it pretends to have a life of its own, as a fellow human. It in fact has a higher rank than the Major himself. The Major is perplexed, goes back to his apartment, and has the nose returned to him. With great joy he recovers his nose, only to find it won't reattach to his face. After much going on, he finds the nose reattached to his face. The fun of the story are the goings on, which have made this a favorite of all readers of Russian literature.