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Dead Souls

by Nikolai Gogol, Robert A. Maguire (Editor)

3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 · rating details · 20,365 ratings · 792 reviews

Dead Souls is eloquent on some occasions, lyrical on others, and pious and reverent elsewhere. Nicolai Gogol was a master of the spoof. The American students of today are not the only readers who have been confused by him. Russian literary history records more divergent interpretations of Gogol than perhaps of any other classic.

In a new translation of the comic classic of...more

Paperback, 464 pages

Published December 28th 2004 by Penguin Classics (first published 1842)

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Mar 23, 2011 Stephen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, easton-press, audiobook, literature, 1800s, classics-asian, humor-and-satire

2.0 stars. As much as I hate to say this about a book that is both a classic of Russian literature and considered one of the best satires ever written, THIS BOOK BORED ME TO DEATH!!! Okay, not quite "coffin ready" dead, but certainly bored to the point of suffering intermittent bouts of narcolepsy. I can certainly say without hyperbole that this is not a book I would recommend as an “enjoyable” experience, no matter how much Vodka you have standing by.

My assessment of the book arises DESPITE the...more 2.0 stars. As much as I hate to say this about a book that is both a classic of Russian literature and considered one of the best satires ever written, THIS BOOK BORED ME TO DEATH!!! Okay, not quite "coffin ready" dead, but certainly bored to the point of suffering intermittent bouts of narcolepsy. I can certainly say without hyperbole that this is not a book I would recommend as an “enjoyable” experience, no matter how much Vodka you have standing by.

My assessment of the book arises DESPITE the fact that the novel is very well written and gives an excellent description of “old” Russia (cold, dreary and depressing but otherwise a great place to visit). The historical detail is both precise and very broad as Gogol includes in the narrative detailed discussions of many aspects of Russian life from the economy to social life to politics to the very unique mindset of the Russian people. Thus, as a historical overview of a not very well known period of Russian history the novel is very good.

In addition, the basic plot itself (or at least the idea of the plot) was very interesting. The “dead souls” of the title refers to the measuring unit (i.e., souls) used by the Russian census takers to count the numbers of serfs that landowners owned. Serfs, while not exactly the same as slaves, are similar enough for purposes of this review as they were considered property and had very few rights. The taxes that Russian landowners paid during this time were based on the number of serfs they owned. Anyway, the main character of the novel, Pavel Ivanovitch Chichikov, devises a plan to “purchase” from various landowners those serfs who have died since the last census but are still listed as alive for purposes of the taxes paid (at least until the next census which is only done every 5 to 10 years). Why he wants to do this, I will not spoil but it is very clever and I thought an excellent basis for a good story.

So we have a book that is very well written, full of superb historical detail and an original and potentially interesting plot. So what was the problem? Well, first off...NO VODKA!! No, in all seriousness, I found the book to be simply way too dull and plodding. The satirical elements were UNDERWHELMING (and that is being kind) and the story was just incredibly slow to unfold. I kept trying to give this the benefit of the doubt, it is a classic after all, but it was just determined to remian not very interesting or enjoyable. The various characters Chichikov encounters were intended to portray various types of Russians and I guess I was not familiar enough with the period to understand the nuances (and thus the intended caricature) that Gogal was trying to highlight. Therefore, the various encounters just sort of bled into one another and left me anxious for the end.

In sum, this was a book that I could appreciate on many levels (the quality of the writing, the historical detail, the cleverness of the plot) and there were certainly moments of the story that I truly liked. However, at the end of the day, from the standpoint of my enjoyment of the novel as literature, I can not rate it higher than two stars. (less)

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Jan 28, 2009 Erik Simon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had long resisted reading this book because Gogol didn't finish it. But Virgil didn't finish the Aeneid, which I think ends perfectly, and Bolano didn't finish 2666, which is plenty complete for me, so I figured I'd give this thing a whirl. Besides, there's a translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky, and their translations are sublime, so it was all the more reason to read it.

My instincts were pretty right. For what is there, it is marvelous, but I sure miss what Gogol didn't have time to get to....more

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Sep 21, 2011 Venus rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel

مردگان زرخرید، زبان طنز دارد. گوگول نه فقط طبقه مالکان و یا دستگاه اداری روسیه، بلکه دهاتیها، رعایا، طبقات فرودست، نظامی ها و حتی معماری و شهرسازی روسی را هم از نیش و کنایه های خود بی نصیب نگذاشته است.
گوگول در این کتاب، از طرفی آلمان زدگی و فرانسه زدگی طبقه مالک و اشرافی روسیه عصر خود را هجو می کند (چیزی که بعدها در کتابهای داستایوسکی هم دیده می شود) و از طرف دیگر در چند موضع از کتاب می بینیم که خودش دچار آلمان زدگی و اروپازدگی است و به وضوح از فرهنگ روسی در برابر فرهنگ اروپایی شرمسار است.
نکته ا...more مردگان زرخرید، زبان طنز دارد. گوگول نه فقط طبقه مالکان و یا دستگاه اداری روسیه، بلکه دهاتیها، رعایا، طبقات فرودست، نظامی ها و حتی معماری و شهرسازی روسی را هم از نیش و کنایه های خود بی نصیب نگذاشته است.
گوگول در این کتاب، از طرفی آلمان زدگی و فرانسه زدگی طبقه مالک و اشرافی روسیه عصر خود را هجو می کند (چیزی که بعدها در کتابهای داستایوسکی هم دیده می شود) و از طرف دیگر در چند موضع از کتاب می بینیم که خودش دچار آلمان زدگی و اروپازدگی است و به وضوح از فرهنگ روسی در برابر فرهنگ اروپایی شرمسار است.
نکته ای که در این کتاب و همچنین بسیاری دیگر از شاهکارهای کلاسیک ادبیات داستانی دیده می شود این است که نویسنده در برخی صفحه های کتاب، به وضوح داستان را رها می کند و به سخنرانی و درد دل درباره موضوعی که در داستان روی داده یا هر موضوعی که دلخواهش است می پردازد. مثلا بخش ششم کتاب، با دو صفحه کامل درد دل گوگول در مورد اینکه دیگر حوصله و ذوق و شوق جوانی اش را از دست داده است و دیدن هیچ منظره ای او را هیجان زده نمی کند شروع می شود. درد دلی که با این جملات به پایان می رسد: «هیهات جوانی ام، هیهات شادابی ام!» (صفحه 159)
یا مثلا می توان به شروع فصل هفتم اشاره کرد که شامل سه صفحه درد دل نویسنده در مورد ادبیات داستانی معاصر روسیه است که تنها ادبیات تفننی و سطحی را برمی تابد و اینکه اگر نویسنده ای کجی ها و زشتی های جامعه را نمایش دهد هیچ شانسی برای شهرت ندارد و در انزوا به سر خواهد برد. گوگول ده سال بعد از نوشتن این درد دلها در سال 1852 در گذشت و متاسفانه روزگاری را که جزو بزرگان و مشاهیر ادبیات روسیه محسوب می شود ندید. جمله معروفی در مورد نویسندگان بزرگ روس وجود دارد که هم به داستایوسکی و هم به تورگنیف منسوب است: «ما همه از زیر «شنل» گوگول درآمده ایم.» (شنل نام یکی از داستانهای گوگول است.)
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Dec 09, 2012 Erik Graff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Russian lit fans

Recommended to Erik by: Ed Erickson

Shelves: literature

By the last two years of high school many of my friends were older fellows already in college. Most were poorer than the average Maine South student, so their colleges weren't far away. As a consequence, I was afforded opportunites to visit and sometimes stay at Roosevelt University, Loyola University, Kendall College, Oakton Community College, the University of Illinois (Chicago and Champaign), the University of Chicago, Oxford University etc.--a practice continued, reciprocally now, when I mat...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Jim Coughenour rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: russianliterature, darkandfunny

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's handsome edition of Gogol's "poem" Dead Souls has been setting on my shelves since it was published in 1996. I've long been a fan of Gogol's crazed stories, but had always assumed that his novel would be a bit boring. Again, I was wrong.

Everyone knows the premise. A seedy character, Chichikov, travels about Russia buying "dead souls" – the titles to serfs who have died. Some dark satire seems intended, but as anyone who's read "The Nose" or "The Overcoat"...more

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Jan 07, 2008 Vanja Antonijevic rated it 5 of 5 stars

Gogol's "Dead Souls" is a true masterpiece. It is the only Russian novel that I have read that brings me as much deep satisfaction as Dostoevsky’s great novels. The novel is satirical, intellectual, political, and also entertaining.

The intriguing plot is sketched as follows:

A somewhat mysterious middle class man, named Chichikov, comes to a town and attempts to build prestige by impressing minor officials of the place. The man spends beyond his means in order to impress, and tries to befriend t...more

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Oct 16, 2007 Simon A. Smith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels-before-1980

I didn't enjoy this novel nearly as much as I enjoyed Gogol's short stories. A couple of things...

1. Several times throughout, the text breaks off and a line is inserted that reads something like, "and here there are many pages missing..." and then the story picks back up in the middle of nowhere again. I didn't know that going in and it was a little confusing.

2. The first 100 pages are very funny and highly engrossing. Starting on about 150 there begins the most monotonous passages. All the bac...more

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Aug 31, 2012 TarasProkopyuk rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, russian

Не книга, а просто прелесть!

Искусство автора - редчайший шедевр! Прочитав его стало понятно почему Гоголь определил своё произведение не романом, а поэмой.

Сам сюжет настолько интересен и загадочный и забавен, что невозможно не оценить его по достоинству (кстати это благодаря Пушкину, который преподнёс идею данного сюжета Гоголю).

А неповторимое мастерство автора вдохновило этот сюжет жизнью, весельем, яркими эмоциями, задором и целым радом искусных приёмов. Не книга, а упоение. Жаль, что автору н...more Не книга, а просто прелесть!

Искусство автора - редчайший шедевр! Прочитав его стало понятно почему Гоголь определил своё произведение не романом, а поэмой.

Сам сюжет настолько интересен и загадочный и забавен, что невозможно не оценить его по достоинству (кстати это благодаря Пушкину, который преподнёс идею данного сюжета Гоголю).

А неповторимое мастерство автора вдохновило этот сюжет жизнью, весельем, яркими эмоциями, задором и целым радом искусных приёмов. Не книга, а упоение. Жаль, что автору не удалось полностью завершить задуманное (в планах было 4 тома).

Кстати первый том намного больше понравился. Возможно и поэтому Гоголь пытался полностью избавиться от второго тома поэмы. Также хорошо, что к нам всё же дошли некоторые части этого второго тома. Он далеко не такой изящен как первый, но очень хорош тем, что в нём автор хорошо описал несколько типов людей с их разным отношением к жизни и человеческому труду. Замечательно показал преимущества и недостатки каждого типа, как бы наставляя и предостерегая более юного читателя, а взрослому, может быть, дал возможность посмотреть на себя со стороны.

Книга ВЕЛИКОЛЕПНАЯ!!! Рекомендую всем!
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Feb 22, 2012 Michela rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Continua il mio viaggio alla scoperta della letteratura russa, sono arrivata a Gogol’ passando da Dostoevskij, ed è proprio il caso di dire meglio tardi che mai.
“Le Anime Morte” staziona nella mia libreria dal 2006 quando, mi decisi a comprarlo dietro ispirazione di un personaggio televisivo della serie ‘Gilmore Girls’.
Durante la lettura di “Delitto e Castigo” più di una volta si è fatto riferimento a Gogol’, cosi che non ho potuto far altro che pensare fosse un segno, un indizio, per la mia pr...more

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Mar 03, 2011 Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Gogol’s masterpiece was never finished. Volume 1 is complete but Volume 2 has missing pages and incomplete sentences and then doesn’t so much finish as just stops. (Gogol announced it as a trilogy, completed the second volume but destroyed the manuscript, and scholars rescued the existing second volume from his papers. Some insist it was never really meant to be more than one volume, though the existence of much of a second volume draft—over 130 printed pages—suggests a rather elaborate red herr...more Gogol’s masterpiece was never finished. Volume 1 is complete but Volume 2 has missing pages and incomplete sentences and then doesn’t so much finish as just stops. (Gogol announced it as a trilogy, completed the second volume but destroyed the manuscript, and scholars rescued the existing second volume from his papers. Some insist it was never really meant to be more than one volume, though the existence of much of a second volume draft—over 130 printed pages—suggests a rather elaborate red herring were that to be the truth.)

The novel’s protagonist is a low level member of the nobility named Chichikov. Educated and interested in being rich, but not necessarily becoming so in a strictly legal way, he develops a scheme where he will invest in the acquisition of serfs, or souls, as they are referred to when gauging a landowner’s wealth: he has 300 souls or he has an estate of 1000 souls. Souls are male serfs and they are counted during a census that occurs irregularly. Chichikov’s scheme involves acquiring dead souls, serfs who have passed on but whose departure is not yet granted official notice by the census. They are, in short, a tax burden and Chichikov assumes landowners will be glad to rid themselves of them, some for free and the more ignorantly canny for a few kopecks. The novel tells of his travels through Russia to acquire the serfs, accompanied by two servants, a coachman and a valet. They serve a role similar to the clowns in Shakespeare, foils for their supposed betters, and kinds of exemplars of the folly and sloth that seems to pervade tsarist society—not to mention attributes not reflected in the servant class, greed, self-importance and entitlement.

Gogol wrote with sly wit and great powers of characterization and description. The novel evokes Russia in all its raw beauty and the vast diversity of people and interests. Like Twain, he could evoke a landscape that puts a longing on the reader to see the places he wrote about. Like Dickens, he could do satire with heart. There is some debate, by the way, as to what level of satire Dead Souls pursues and whom it targets, with some even arguing that the satire is beside the point; but it seems to me a pretty strong indictment of the uselessly powerful and the selfishly short-sighted, not that that has any relevance in today’s world. It’s been a hundred and seventy or so years and the world has changed remarkably. Although it may no longer be relevant, Dead Souls remains an amusing artifact even if the world of today is far removed from one dominated by a small set of vain, self-indulgent egoists who think they are the world the sun rotates around and if they want to ruin lives, waste resources, and operate with no stronger compass than raw appetite that’s how it’s supposed to be. (less)

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Nov 25, 2012 [P] rated it 5 of 5 stars

'I don't want X, it is worthless to me, but if he wants it, I'll charge him a fortune for it.'

Ebay in a nutshell. And an attitude that also sums up my favourite passage from Gogol's satirical masterpiece.

Conman Chichikov attempts to purchase dead serfs from some local landowners, although not being of the Jeffrey Dahmer persuasion he doesn't want to possess them bodily, of course. No, his devilishly cunning and cynical plan is inspired by his understanding that landowners have to pay tax on the...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Moira Russell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nyrb-book-club, 2012-50-new-books-challenge

Was just as hilarious as I remembered, which is really saying something, since I last read Part I about twenty years ago maybe. I don't think I read Part II then; it's so sad, such a skeleton. "At once a wild phantasmagoria and a work of exacting realism" - well, I don't know how phantasmagoric it actually is, but that's about right. I do think Rayfield's translation is v questionable ("A pleasant feeling of calm invaded one's soul").

(Chichikov admiring himself in his "Navarino smoke-and-flame f...more

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Feb 05, 2008 Jeff Scott rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001books, classics

Some have compared this book to the Divine Comedy. The main characters journey through early 19th century Russia. Dead Souls refers to serfs (slaves) that have died. In Russia, landowners had slaves that were counted decennial for the cenus. The landowners were taxed for these slaves, also referred to as souls, every year, even if they were dead. Chichikov, our "hero", develops a scheme to purchase these dead souls as if they were living. Therefore, relieving the burden from the landowners who c...more

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Oct 06, 2007 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: favorites

Almost a decade has passed since I read Dead Souls and I still find occasion to tell the story and recommend the author. The hero of the story, Chichikov, is a poor man living in Empirial Russia. During the historical period in which the story occurs, wealth is measured in terms of a man's property, including the number of souls (or serfs) he owns. Our cunning hero travels the country relieving this landed gentry of the paperwork for their deceased and growing a notorious unreal- estate of his o...more

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May 26, 2013 Tam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Tam by: Trang Le

Shelves: old

Khi đọc xong phần 1 của cuốn sách, tôi cứ chắc mẩm quả này lại kiếm được sách 5 sao rồi. Thế nhưng khi đọc tới phần 2, dù có châm trước rằng đây chỉ là bản thảo, chắp vá, còn lại của Gogol, tôi cũng đành tặc lưỡi tiếc vì sự yêu thích đã giảm đi ít nhiều.

Văn phong của Gogol rất lôi cuốn. Thú thật là tôi không nghĩ rằng mình lại say mê đọc được một cuốn sách được xếp vào dạng "kinh điển" như thế khi đang chán nản ngồi một mình trên những chuyến tàu. Nhưng thú vị thay, những chuyến tàu thi thoảng c...more

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May 09, 2013 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I so wanted to give this a five star rating. But I also wanted to drop in a three star. The actual writing itself is great. The caricatures of the Russian landowners are fantastic and humorous. The antics of the hero and his servants are entertaining and enjoyable. The detail, the description of Russian life, the preposterous scheme, the corruption, the rumor mill, all done well and very entertaining. That’s the plus…that’s the five star quality of the book. The three star is the concept of a bo...more I so wanted to give this a five star rating. But I also wanted to drop in a three star. The actual writing itself is great. The caricatures of the Russian landowners are fantastic and humorous. The antics of the hero and his servants are entertaining and enjoyable. The detail, the description of Russian life, the preposterous scheme, the corruption, the rumor mill, all done well and very entertaining. That’s the plus…that’s the five star quality of the book. The three star is the concept of a book. The plot sort of fell flat. We go through 250 pages of Part I with the gathering of souls and interactions and rumours, only to have little to no conclusion. I felt all this was running up to something, but it just sort of ended, with a promise that more was to come. The arc of the story seemed incomplete.

I’ve read that Dead Souls was an attempt at a modern day version of the Divine Comedy – with Part I being the inferno and Part II and Part III to come. As a rule, I try not to read anything about a book or the author prior to reading. Knowing what happens kind of ruins it. Actually, even reading on the back cover about the purchase of dead souls sort of took this down a peg for me. I’d prefer not to know that in advance. So…going into this, I was unaware that Part II was incomplete (or complete, yet destroyed by the author). It was highly frustrating reading this section with fragments missing, attempting to piece together the narrative when page after page is just gone. Really took away from the book as a whole. Part I feels unfinished. Part II is unfinished. Part III doesn’t exist. Arg…irritating. Hence the 3 rating. Now this is a versioning issue. The B&N classics that I read includes the bits and pieces of Part II. Many editions will merely stop at the d of Part I. Perhaps this would have given me a better impression. Maybe worse. I don’t think I liked that unfinished nature.

What I read about Gogol indicated that this second part was pandered by most as being beneath his level of quality and almost better off being left out of most editions. The unedited nature of this section and the general quality were disturbing. I disagree. I really enjoyed Part II. Maybe more than Part I. The interactions were as good, the characters excellent, if perhaps more preposterous. Made it more of a shame that large chunks were just missing. But I’m no student of Lit and no critic. I’ll still take Part II as a good read, if chunky. The difference, Part II felt like it was formulating more of the plot. Instead of just gathering souls, we were moving through to the crux of the process for our hero. More fleshing out of his dreams and methods (low as they may be). It’s a shame this was unfinished. It’s a shame what was there was destroyed. It’s a real shame Part III never came to be. I think this could have been one of my favorites, if only…

My intention is to read at least two of Gogol’s short stories to get a better feel. Will update when/if I get to that. I really enjoyed his style and humor and would like to see more. I first came across his name in the movie “The Namesake,” although he apparently is referenced in Crime & Punishment, which I read long ago. I came across Dead Souls at a friend’s house and borrowed it along with Wuthering Heights. When I saw the author’s name I snagged it out of interest from the movie, but also because of good experiences with Russian lit. This continues that interest. Plus the cover art is awesome.

One side note. This was a frustrating read in many regards. For one…had a baby halfway through reading – paternity leave (no commute), screaming children, etc. – interrupted the read continuously. I should have finished this one in two weeks but it dragged on and on. Reading in short snippets definitely caused me some loss of the narrative. Curious if my reaction would have been better if I had just read it. Again, life sometimes dictates impressions.
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Apr 09, 2013 Maria rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: klassiekers

Niet echt mijn smaak, dit boek en al helemaal niet mijn tijd. Wat ben ik blij dat ik geen vroeg-negentiende eeuwse Russische vrouw op het platteland ben. Stomvervelend lijkt me dat.
Ik kan het niet eens zijn met de omschrijving op de cover: een absoluut hoogtepunt uit de Russische literatuur. Er wordt enorm uitgeweid over eten, drinkgelagen, vriendjespolitiek, geredetwist en gehandeld wat het nogal langdradig maakt. Gelukkig zit er af en toe wel humor in, het leukst vond ik het wanneer Gogol het...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Martin rated it 2 of 5 stars

I didn't get this book at all. I have seen a lot of smart-looking people carrying the Penguin classic around, so I wanted to see what it was about. I think maybe it helps to be Russian to understand it.

Can anyone explain what the dead sould were for? I kept waiting for it to be explained why he wanted all these dead peasants. An introduction to my edition of the book says he planned to use them as collateral to take out a bank loan to buy property. But if that's the case, it's never mentioned. I...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

An intriguing, unfinished book (there are two volumes, with the second unfinished, and unreleasedin Gogol's lifetime). A satirical novel which explores Russian society, and particularly the ruling and landownding classes, in the early 19th century. In general, they are depicted as being some combination of weak, venal, idiotic, criminal, mean, gluttonous, etc., etc. It's pretty scathing, but in an cheery, good-natured way.

The main character, Chichikov, has a huge amount of energy and ambition f...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Chuck LoPresti rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A classic of Russian literature - Gogol's Dead Souls isn't the most exciting read ever - but it is very engaging, well written and rewarding. Gogol's social intelligence and skills in building richly developed characters should engage any attentive reader. There are a few obvious flaws that may repel some readers. This is an unfinished and incomplete work and while that didn't stop me from appreciating what is being offered here - I can understand why some might find that frustrating. Also - Gog...more

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Dec 24, 2012 Seana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I finished this book today, Christmas Eve. It's been something of a slog, but not a boring one, which is somewhat paradoxical. It's one of those unfinished works that doesn't provide any real resolution in the end, but I don't really mind that. It's not really the kind of tale where you are constantly wondering what will happen. Instead, you are early on exposed to Chichikov's techniques and methods, and you see how they play out in the homes of various landowners, all highly individual, at a ce...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Tripp added it · review of another edition

Shelves: past-tense, omniscient

"Poema," Gogol named this book in the title page he created, maintaining that this journey through provincial Russia was not a novel, or was a hybrid of novel and epic that he called "minor epic." The loose spine of the narrative follows Gogol's anti-hero main character, Chichikov, in his get-rich-quick scheme to buy the souls of dead peasants from landowners eager to avoid paying the soul tax at the next census, "relocate" the peasants to a distant province, and sell the whole package to a gull...more

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May 17, 2012 Ensiform rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, russian

Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volohonsky. A likeable middle aged petty official, Chichikov, comes to the village of N. and starts buying up dead muzhiks from various landowners. The idea is to transfer ownership of the titular dead souls (in the sense of persons, not actual souls) to Chichikov while they’re still listed as living for tax purposes, until the end of the year. Then Chichikov will own these serfs, on paper, and presumably be able to use them as property to stake out a loa...more

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May 07, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 5 of 5 stars

My last experience with Gogol was a dance/drama production of his “The Overcoat” presented at the American Conservatory Theater. Delicious and unforgettable. A relative talked to me about Dead

Souls, and I realized it was one of those classics I’d known about forever but had never actually read. There are a lot of those around, I fear. Nevertheless, I’m glad and proud to have finally gotten to it.

It was my son-in-law who steered me here. I was telling him about Catherine the Great, and he told...more My last experience with Gogol was a dance/drama production of his “The Overcoat” presented at the American Conservatory Theater. Delicious and unforgettable. A relative talked to me about Dead

Souls, and I realized it was one of those classics I’d known about forever but had never actually read. There are a lot of those around, I fear. Nevertheless, I’m glad and proud to have finally gotten to it.

It was my son-in-law who steered me here. I was telling him about Catherine the Great, and he told me about the time he decided to self-educate himself in world lit and assigned himself three books each from a number of countries. Dead Souls was one of his assignments, so now it’s mine, and a good thing, too.

Both the title and premise of the novel are misleadingly grim, as is the cover picture of the Penguin edition. It’s actually a witty tale of a small-time schemer who has decided to enhance his social standing by acquiring as many peasants as possible--an essential status item for your 19th century Russian aristocrat. As a semi-corrupt and inept public servant, he can’t afford more than the two slaves he already has so he contrives the scheme of buying the names of dead ones from landowners who must taxes even on deceased Muzhiks until the next census. Seems like a win-win, since the landowners no longer have to pay the piper and Chichikov can present a list of official list of owned humans to whomever he wants to impress, among whom is a potential marriage partner we never meet.

However, complications ensue as he wanders from town to town and estate to estate trying to build his stash, and we get to meet a wonderful array of characters and get involved in myriad situations. Gogol is often compared to Dickens for his deft and amusing characters, and the comparison seems accurate to me:

It is well known that in this world there are many such faces, over whom nature has not taken any great pains when it comes to the finishing touches, has not employed any fine tools such as files, gimlets, and the like, but has simply hewn them out with full swings from the shoulder: one swing of the axe and there’s the nose,; another swing and there you have the lips; she gouges out the eyes with a huge auger, and without any fancy trimming, she pushes the end product out into the world, saying: ‘It lives.’

Like Dickens and other writers of the period, Gogol doesn’t hesitate to insert his personal voice and views into the narrative. I don’t recall a one I didn’t enjoy. In one passage, he comically exculpates himself from any blame for the shortcomings of his characters by claiming that he is only following his protagonist around and bears no guilt for the people that fool encounters. There’s a particularly fine little essay on the joys and perils of the writer’s life and work. It’s a wonderful change of pace from the modern mania for keeping the writer out of the narrative in any obvious way.

As for the joys and perils of Gogol’s life and work, it’s a rather sad tale that has left us much the poorer. Gogol pretty much always knew he wanted to be a writer. He was briefly a mentee of Pushkin’s, whom he much admired and who published some articles in a journal for him. However, the two never really hit it off, and Gogol went off to Europe--mostly Rome--to do the major part of his work. Dead Souls comes in two parts. The first was published with much success, but the story was not complete, and he set vigorously on part II. However, the writing did not go well, and he got sick and died at the age of 43 and joined the ranks of the dead-youth romantics such as Keats and Shelley. In fact, there’s a plaque to him near the Spanish steps. Part II of this work is odd, quite different from the first, but still comic and intriguing. Then it stops. If music can have an unfinished symphony or two, I suppose literature can have an unfinished novel. But it is strange. Like hearing only the first three of the four notes that start Beethoven’s Fifth. You keep waiting for the last note to complete the phrase.

It’s worth the read, though. It’s not just a classic you should read, but one you’ll enjoy.(less)

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Oct 30, 2011 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was a bit surprised by this. Old Russian novels usually are like long, black trains loaded with ponderous themes travelling the entire length and breadth of Russia and ending up in Siberia with all its passengers dead or dying. The title of this book itself, "Dead Souls," suggests a good halloween read. I made a grave mistake.

This is more like Huckleberry Finn, except that its principal protagonist (or "hero," as Nikolai Gogol calls him), named Chichikov, is not a young clever boy but a wily,...more I was a bit surprised by this. Old Russian novels usually are like long, black trains loaded with ponderous themes travelling the entire length and breadth of Russia and ending up in Siberia with all its passengers dead or dying. The title of this book itself, "Dead Souls," suggests a good halloween read. I made a grave mistake.

This is more like Huckleberry Finn, except that its principal protagonist (or "hero," as Nikolai Gogol calls him), named Chichikov, is not a young clever boy but a wily, selfish bachelor whose only aim in life is to amass wealth. This was written in the mid-19th century, still during the time of the Tsars, and apparently during those days those who work on vast landholdings, the peasants/serfs, are not treated as human beings but mere properties. Their owners pay taxes for them (like what we do now, say, for our cars) and they can be sold or encumbered. It often happens that when a peasant dies his owner would fail to report his death, even for years, so that on paper this peasant would still be alive. Chichikov buys these "dead souls" cheap (one landowner even gladly gave his "dead souls" to him for free) with the intention of mortgaging them later for profit.

Gogol mocked, ridiculed and exposed the flaws and foibles of these landowners--mostly rich, stupid and idle--the corrupt bureaucrats who connive with them, the petty royalties and the hypocrisy of high society, and placed them in one comic scene after another. But he was no social reformer. He gave no hint of disagreement with the prevailing feudal system, nor was there any perceivable effort to gain sympathy for the peasants where--

"the truth of the matter is that all sorts of foulnesses are practised amongst them. They are troubled by sectarians and all sorts of vagabonds, incited to rise against the authorities, against law and order, and if a man is oppressed he will easily be incited to rebellion....It will be bad when fists begin to fly: no good will ever come of that, only quick profit for thieves....(I)t will..be useful to comfort them with a word and still better to impress upon them that God bid us suffer without murmur and pray when we are unhappy, and not go wild and take the law into our own hands...."

Maybe this was Russian literature's last attempt at humor. About half a century after this was first published, the people will go wild, take the law into their own hands, and end up with gulags, Stalin and his twenty million murdered victims. (less)

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Sep 01, 2011 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars

When thinking of Russian literature, Dostoyevsky (Crime and Punishment) and Tolstoy (War and Peace) are usually the first, and often only, authors to come to mind. That was how it was for me anyway, before I discovered Nikolai Gogol over Summer break.
Gogol’s Dead Souls is as bizarre as it is vividly descriptive and downright hilarious. This novel’s hero (as Gogol affectionately refers to his character) is a man by the name of Chichikov, a visitor to a small town where the new and out of place...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Jan-Maat added it Recommends it for: For those who've enjoyed Gogol's short stories

Shelves: 19th-century, fiction, read-in-translation, russia-and-soviet-union

What is this book?

I can't remember any more if Gogol described it as a Poem or an Epic, maybe it doesn't matter what he called it since he had great chunks of the manuscript fed into the fire on the advice of his religious advisor.

So we are left with part one, some bits of part two and an outline of the three part whole of the work, the rest having gone up in smoke.

What there is of the first part is generally read as a comedy. It is funny, but bear in mind that the first part is about a young ma...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Matti rated it 3 of 5 stars

KUOLLEET SIELUT

Mielenkiintoinen idea, jonka merkitys paljastetaan lukijalle vasta aivan viime sivuilla. Kirjan kerrontatapa on miltei häiritsevä – tyyli, jossa tekijäksi kolmannessa persoonassa itseään kutsuva kirjailija puhuttelee lukijaa suoraan (kutsuen tätä lukijaksi) ja punnitsee kirjoittamisensa ratkaisuja. Tämä metateksti välillä vieraannuttaa tarinasta ja muistuttaa että se on nimenomaan tarinaa, juuri kun siihen alkoi eläytyä.
Omituinen ratkaisu oli myöskin täysin takavasemmalta tullut t...more

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Feb 01, 2011 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have to give the whole thing five stars just for chapter's 9 and 10 of the first part where the town becomes suspicious of Chichikov and institutes an inquiry. There, the narrative takes on the very funny and intense absurdism that you find in "The Cloak" or "Diary of Madman" or "The Nose." The whole Captain Kopeiken digression is fantastic as is the testimony of Nozdrev--the pathological liar. Both passages work a bit like Monty Python's Dead Parrot Sketch. The Postmaster suggests that Chichi...more I have to give the whole thing five stars just for chapter's 9 and 10 of the first part where the town becomes suspicious of Chichikov and institutes an inquiry. There, the narrative takes on the very funny and intense absurdism that you find in "The Cloak" or "Diary of Madman" or "The Nose." The whole Captain Kopeiken digression is fantastic as is the testimony of Nozdrev--the pathological liar. Both passages work a bit like Monty Python's Dead Parrot Sketch. The Postmaster suggests that Chichikov's true identity is Captain Kopeikin but in the very first paragraph he tells us that the Captain had lost an arm and a leg in the war (Chichikov has all his limbs). Nonetheless the story of Kopeiken goes on and on in great detail and with ever increasing irrelevance to the matter at hand. But the more pointless the narrative becomes, the funnier it is. Similarly, the entire town (and the reader) is fully aware that Nosdrev is a pathological liar (almost everything he has said in the narrative thus far has been a lie) and yet they question him anyway and listen to his increasingly elaborate and implausible response. It's almost like he's daring the reader to believe even a single word that he says only to pull the rug out from under him or her at every occasion. It's fantastic and what's more feels incredibly vital. That brings up a second source of interest, for me, in both parts of the work. In writing the second part at least, we know almost for sure that Gogol had fallen under the shadow of the mental illness that would later kill him. (He literally starved himself to death.) He had begun to have second thoughts about his whole life, even coming to consider the writing of fiction as immoral. With this spiritual crisis happening in the background, the text takes on a kind of horrific pathos. First off, the lacunae and odd repetitions of the unfinished second part--a book that he burned twice and re-wrote one and half times before he died--suggest a consciousness in the process of disintegration. The formerly urbane Chichikov begins, for example, to repeat whole paragraphs verbatim. Even more painfully, again and again the most vital characters in the work are consistently the liars and the gourmands. Gogol does create a paragon of virtue in the person of Constantine Thedorovitch Kostanzhogio but his righteous rants can't hold a candle to Nozdrev's ridiculous lies. Lastly, the work is sprinkled with images that at first seem intended as satire but cross decidedly into a realm of horror worthy of Dante. For example, his portrait of Plushkin, the miser, after Chichikov has given him a paltry sum of money in exchange for signing over his dead serfs:

“Over Plushkin’s wooden features there had gleamed a ray of warmth—a ray which expressed if not feeling, at all events feeling’s pale reflection. Just such a phenomenon may be witnessed when, for a brief moment, a drowning man makes a last re-appearance on the surface of a river, and there rises from the crowd lining the banks a ray of hope that even yet the exhausted hands may clutch the rope which has been thrown him—may clutch it before the surface of the unstable element shall have resumed for ever its calm, dread vacuity. But the hope is short-lived, and the hands disappear. Even so did Plushkin’s face, after its momentary manifestation of feeling, become meaner and more insensible than ever.”

A man drowning in himself.(less)

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Jun 11, 2009 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not sure how much I have to add to a discussion of this book. It's awesome, especially in the first half, where Chichikov is still working out his rather obscure program, and along the way is encountering all sorts of weird and wonderfully funny folks. The writing is great, lots of really amazing similes like people always talk about, but just generally, an incredible level of energy in the writing-- it's the kind of thing that could wear you out if it wasn't so generous. I'm not certain wha...more

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About Nikolai Gogol

Gogol (Николай Николай Гоголь) was born in the Ukrainian Cossack village of Sorochyntsi, in Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire, present-day Ukraine. His mother was a descendant of Polish nobility. His father Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, a descendant of Ukrainian Cossacks, belonged to the petty gentry, wrote poetry in Russian and Ukrainian, and was an amateur Ukrainian-language playwright who died...more Gogol (Николай Николай Гоголь) was born in the Ukrainian Cossack village of Sorochyntsi, in Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire, present-day Ukraine. His mother was a descendant of Polish nobility. His father Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, a descendant of Ukrainian Cossacks, belonged to the petty gentry, wrote poetry in Russian and Ukrainian, and was an amateur Ukrainian-language playwright who died when Gogol was 15 years old.

In 1820 Gogol went to a school of higher art in Nizhyn and remained there until 1828. It was there that he began writing. Very early he developed a dark and secretive disposition, marked by a painful self-consciousness and boundless ambition. Equally early he developed an extraordinary talent for mimicry which later on made him a matchless reader of his own works.

In 1828, on leaving school, Gogol came to Petersburg. He had hoped for literary fame and brought with him a Romantic poem of German idyllic life – Ganz Küchelgarten. He had it published, at his own expense, under the name of "V. Alov." The magazines he sent it to almost universally derided it. He bought all the copies and destroyed them, swearing never to write poetry again.

Gogol was one of the first masters of the short story, alongside Alexander Pushkin, Prosper Mérimée, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was in touch with the "literary aristocracy", and was taken up by Vasily Zhukovsky and Pyotr Pletnyov, and (in 1831) was introduced to Pushkin.

In 1831, he brought out the first volume of his Ukrainian stories (Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka), which met with immediate success. He followed it in 1832 with a second volume, and in 1835 by two volumes of stories entitled Mirgorod, as well as by two volumes of miscellaneous prose entitled Arabesques. At this time, Gogol developed a passion for Ukrainian history and tried to obtain an appointment to the history department at Kiev University. His fictional story Taras Bulba, based on the history of Ukrainian cossacks, was the result of this phase in his interests.

Between 1832 and 1836 Gogol worked with great energy, though almost all his work has in one way or another its sources in his four years of contact with Pushkin. Only after the presentation, on 19 April 1836, of his comedy The Government Inspector (Revizor) that he finally came to believe in his literary vocation.

From 1836 to 1848 he lived abroad, travelling throughout Germany and Switzerland, as well as spending the winter of 1836–1837 in Paris.

Pushkin's death produced a strong impression on Gogol. His principal work during years following Pushkin's death was the satirical epic Dead Souls. Concurrently, he worked at other tasks – recast Taras Bulba and The Portrait, completed his second comedy, Marriage (Zhenitba), wrote the fragment Rome and his most famous short story, The Overcoat.

After the triumph of Dead Souls, Gogol came to be regarded as a great satirist who lampooned the unseemly sides of Imperial Russia. However, Dead Souls was but the first part of a counterpart to The Divine Comedy. The first part represented the Inferno; the second part was to depict the gradual purification and transformation of the rogue Chichikov under the influence of virtuous publicans and governors – Purgatory.

His last years were spent in restless movement throughout the country. He intensified his relationship with a church elder, Matvey Konstantinovsky. He seems to have strengthened in Gogol the fear of perdition by insisting on the sinfulness of all his imaginative work. His health was undermined by exaggerated ascetic practices and he fell into a state of deep depression. On the night of 24 February 1852, he burned some of his manuscripts, which contained most of the second part of Dead Souls. He explained this as a mistake, a practical joke played on him by the Devil. Soon thereafter he(less)

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