I liked The Nose more than The Overcoat because it dealt with a lighter and funnier topic than The Overcoat.

The story of Akaki was sad, he has a crappy job with no respect from his co-workers and is content with it. Then he finds something that gives his life a meaning only to have it immediately taken from him, and the system he worked for for all his life doesn't care and doesn't help him, and he dies as a result of it. That's really tragic. I think that it (at least partially) works as a criticism of how a bureaucratic system can be indifferent towards the problems of common people.

I found The Nose very funny. A vain, narcissistic even, character loses his nose, which hurts his vanity and makes him feel that his lifestyle is endangered. He then sets on a frantic quest to retrieve what he is missing, and after some setbacks and some introspection he finally reclaims it. And despite this ordeal he remains the same vain person that he used to be without any change for the better.

I loved the fantastical part of the stories, I really like these type of stories when the author is mixing reality with fantastical elements. It reminded me of Magical Realism, though it wasn't the harsh reality like in García Márquez books. It was more humorous and satirical, though the destruction of the main character in The Overcoat approached at least to some extent that harshness.

As a side remark, as I started reading The Nose I found out that I had already read it some time ago and completely forgot about it. We must have read it in a literature class in highschool because I don't remember it being a part of home reading for that class.