In a story by this author, a character paints “beauties” for a Persian shopkeeper in exchange for opium to cure his insomnia. No one attends the funeral of an artist, who cuts his throat with a razor after a prostitute declines his marriage proposal, in a story by this author. A story by this author ends with a policeman following (10[1])a giant-fisted ghost until it confronts him. A “certain clerk” from a “certain department” (10[1])develops a delirious fever (10[1])after being berated by a “Person of Consequence” in a story by this author. The title object is wrapped in cloth and thrown off the St. Isaac’s Bridge in a story by this author before it is found in a loaf of bread by a barber. For 10 points, name this author, whose many stories set in St. Petersburg include “Nevsky Prospekt,” “The Nose,” and “The Overcoat.” ■END■