Conrad, Chopin, and Gogol

The three authors we read over the Christmas break are distinctively different from one another.  Conrad, with Polish roots, has provided a journey into the depth of the human soul in his Heart of Darkness.  Chopin, a female author from the south, grew up in St. Louis and was of Irish and French dissent. Gogol, born in the Ukraine, was a great satirist.  All of these authors were born in the early to mid 19th centuries, wrote with specific styles, and had works that have become classics in the 21st century.  In this blog, take a journey with these authors as though you have become personal friends of each.  What is it specifically that you like or dislike about each?  What is it you have learned from them?