It's similar in many ways - not having a clear point, the setting in 19th century St. Petersburg, the surrealistic plot point, the regular interventions of the storyteller talking to the reader - but it's not quite as weird. Here too, some cutting descriptions of certain classes and kinds of people in what I assume was Gogol's own society, particularly that general. And interesting how much of a change that overcoat can create in the protagonist. I would be inclined to interpret it as an indication of what difference it can make for a man to have ambition or not: first he has his daily routine that he doesn't want to deviate from in the slightest, even shying away from more responsibilities when they are offered. But when the idea of the new overcoat grips him, the whole change comes over him, and he clearly makes progress socially, even if he's not really comfortable with it. Then the cloak is stolen, he can't handle it and dies. I'm not too sure what to make of the ghost part in that theory, though.

The theme of rank and social progress is also important in the scenes involving that general - interesting how Gogol describes him as treating his inferiors harshly not because he's a bad man, but because he thinks that's what he's expected to do. I guess in The Nose there were somewhat similar scenes, and the same theme of rank and how gaining a higher social status can change someone, and make someone act differently.