Dead Souls

by Nikolai Gogol

“Hindsight is the Russian man’s forte,” was perfectly correct.

What are you going to do with man? He does not believe in God, yet he believes that if the bridge of his nose itches he is sure to die; he will pass by a poet’s work, clear as day, all pervaded with harmony and the lofty wisdom of simplicity, and throw himself precisely on one in which some brave fellow bemuddles, befuddles, distorts, and perverts nature, and he likes it,

declared that Chichikov had bought up several thousands’ worth of dead souls, and that he himself had sold him some, because he saw no reason not

to; to the question whether he was a spy and was trying to sniff something out, Nozdryov replied that he was a spy,

To the question whether he was a maker of forged bills, he replied that he was,

Nozdryov replied that he had helped, and that if it had not been for him, nothing would have come of it—here he tried to check himself, seeing that he had lied quite needlessly and could thereby invite trouble, but he was no longer able to hold his tongue.

And the officials were left in a still worse position than they were in before, and the upshot of it was that there was simply no way of finding out what Chichikov was.

And it became clear what sort of creature man is: wise, intelligent, and sensible in all that concerns others than himself;

what discreet, firm advice he provides in life’s difficult occasions! “What an efficient head!” cries the crowd. “What staunch character!” But let some trouble befall this efficient head, let him be put into one of l...

character, the staunch fellow is all at a loss, he turns into a pathetic little coward, a nonentity, a weak child, or si...

There have been many errors in the world which, it would seem, even a child would not make now. What crooked, blind, narrow, impassable, far-straying paths mankind has chosen, striving to attain eternal truth, while a whole straight road lay open before it, like the road leading to a magnificent dwelling meant for a king’s mansions!

The current generation now sees everything clearly, it marvels at the errors, it laughs at the folly of its ancestors, not seeing that this chronicle is all overscored by divine fire, that every letter of it cries out, that from everywhere the piercing finger is pointed at it, at this current generation; but the current generation laughs and presumptuously, proudly begins a series of new errors, at which their descendants will also laugh afterwards.

Ah, yes! I must tell you, the whole town’s against you; they think you make forged bills, they started pestering me, but I stood up for you like a rock, I told them a heap of things, that I went to school with you and knew your father; well, needless to say, I spun them a good yarn.”

“All the same, why did you frighten them so?” Nozdryov went on. “Devil knows, they’ve lost their minds from fear: they’ve got you dressed up as a robber and a spy … And the prosecutor died of fright, the funeral’s tomorrow.

You, though, it’s a risky business you’re undertaking, Chichikov.” “What risky business?” Chichikov asked uneasily. “Why, carrying off the governor’s daughter. I confess, I expected it, by God, I did!

“Well, if things have come to that,” he thought to himself, “there’s no point in lingering, I must get myself out of here.”

What prophecy is in this uncompassable expanse? Is it not here, in you, that the boundless thought is to be born, since you yourself are without end? Is it not here that the mighty man is to be, where there is room for him to show himself and walk about?

business. It is highly doubtful that readers will like the hero we have chosen. The ladies will not like him, that can be said positively, for the ladies demand that a hero be a decided perfection, and if there is any little spot on his soul or body, it means trouble!

The very plumpness and middle age of Chichikov will do him great harm: plumpness will in no way be forgiven a hero, and a great many ladies will turn away, saying: “Fie, ugly thing!”

Life, at its beginning, looked upon him somehow sourly, inhospitably, through some dim, snow-covered window: not one friend, not one childhood companion.

On parting, the parental eyes shed no tears; fifty kopecks in copper were given for expenses and treats, and, which was more important, a wise admonition: “Watch out, then, Pavlusha, study, don’t be a fool or a scapegrace, and above all try to please your teachers and superiors. If you please your superior, then even if you don’t succeed in your studies and God has given you no talent, you

will still do well and get ahead of everybody.

All the while he was at school, he was in excellent repute, and at graduation he received full honors in all subjects, a diploma, and an album with For Exemplary Diligence and Good Conduct stamped on it in

gold. On leaving school, he turned out to be already a young man of rather attractive appearance, with a chin calling for a razor. Just then his father died.

The inheritance was found to consist of four irretrievably worn-out jerkins, two old frock coats trimmed with lambskin, and...

However, despite his honors diploma, it was with great difficulty that he found himself a place in the treasury. Even in a remote backwoods one needs patronage!

The little post he got was a wretched one, the salary thirty or forty roubles a year. But he resolved to engage himself ardently in his service, to conquer and overcome all.

And indeed he displayed unheard-of self-denial, patience, and r...

And before anyone in the office had time to blink, things got so arranged that Chichikov moved into his house, became a necessary and indispensable man, purchased the flour and the sugar, treated the daughter as his fiancée, called the department chief papa, and kissed his hand; everyone in the office decided that at the end of February, before the Great Lent, there would be a wedding.57

The stern department chief even began soliciting the authorities, and in a short time Chichikov himself was installed as a department chief in a vacancy that had come open.

He became a man of note. There was everything in him needed for this world: agreeableness of manner and behavior, and briskness in the business of doing business.

The petitioner, of course, is right, but, on the other hand, now there are no more bribe takers: all the chief clerks are most honest and genteel people, only the secretaries and scriveners are crooks.

Only here and only now did Chichikov begin gradually to extricate himself from the stern law of temperance and his own implacable self-denial.

inexpensive soap for imparting smoothness to his skin, already … But suddenly, to replace the former old doormat, a new superior was sent, a military man, strict, the enemy of bribe takers and of everything known as falsehood.

Despite its agreeableness, the superior suddenly took a dislike to his face, God knows why exactly—sometimes it is even simply for no reason at all—and conceived a mortal hatred for him.

And so he decided to start his career over again, fortify himself again with patience, limit himself again in everything, however freely and fully he had expanded before. He had to move to another town, and still make himself known there.

Somehow nothing worked. In a very short period of time he had to change posts two or three times.

The posts were somehow dirty, mean. It should be known that Chichiko...

man who ever existed in ...

Although he did have to start by working himself through dirty society, in his soul he always maintained cleanliness, liked office desks to be of lacquered wood and everything to be genteel. He never allowed himself an indecent word in his speech and always became offended when he ...

But our hero endured it all, endured staunchly, patiently endured, and—at last went to work in customs.

In a short while he made life simply impossible for the smugglers. He was the terror and despair of all Polish Jewry. His honesty and incorruptibility were insurmountable, almost unnatural.

He was given more rank and promotion, after which he presented a plan for catching all the smugglers, asking only for the means of implementing it himself. He was straightaway given command and an unlimited authority to perform all searches. This was just what he wanted.

Here he could get in one year what he could not gain in twenty years of the most zealous service.

in short, he handled things so as to be retired with less dishonor than his colleague, and to dodge criminal proceedings.

But no capital, no foreign-made trinkets, nothing was left to him; other lovers of such things had come along. All that remained to him was some ten thousand stashed away for a rainy day, that and two dozen Holland shirts, and a small britzka such as bachelors drive around in, and two serfs—the coachman Selifan and the lackey Petrushka—and the customs officials, out of the kindness of their hearts, left him five or six pieces of soap for preserving the freshness of his cheeks—that was all. And so, this was the position our hero again found himself in!

This was the immense calamity that came crashing down on his head! This was what he called suffering ...

He was aggrieved, vexed, he murmured against the whole world, was angry at the injustice of fate, indignant at the injustice of men, and, nevertheless, could not renounce new attempts.

And, in expectation of better things, was even forced to occupy himself with the calling of solicitor, a calling which has not yet acquired citizenship among us, is pushed around on all sides, is little respected by petty clerkdom, or even by the clients themselves, which is condemned to groveling in hallways, to rudeness, and all the rest of it, but need made him resolve on it all.

No, if I were to buy up all the ones that have died before the new census lists are turned in, to acquire, say, a thousand of them, and get, say, two hundred roubles per soul—that’s already two hundred thousand in capital! And now is a good time, there were epidemics recently, thank God, quite a lot of folk died off.