Dead Souls

by Nikolai Gogol

Every man who has lived in the world and mixed with his fellow men will have remarked something which has remained hidden from the eyes of others;

the value of a book lies in its truth and its actuality rather than in its wording.

Their features were full and plump, some of them had beards, and in no case was their hair curled or waved or arranged in what the French call “the devil-may-care” style.

In passing, I may say that in business matters fat men always prove superior to their leaner brethren;

Certain persons in the world exist, not as personalities in themselves, but as spots or specks on the personalities of others.

The question is: what is a dead soul worth, and is it of any use to any one?”

“What is your outside price?” at length said Sobakevitch. “Two and a half roubles.” “Then you seem to rate a human soul at about the same value as a boiled turnip.

“Then you do not want any WOMEN souls?” queried Sobakevitch. “I thank you, no.” “I could let you have some cheap — say, as between friends, at a rouble a head?” “No, I should have no use for them.”

On a table stood a ragged chair, with, beside it, a clock minus a pendulum and covered all over with cobwebs. Against a wall leant a cupboard, full of old silver, glassware, and china. On a writing table, inlaid with mother-of-pearl which, in places, had broken away and left behind it a number of yellow grooves (stuffed with putty), lay a pile of finely written manuscript, an overturned marble press (turning green), an ancient book in a leather cover with red edges, a lemon dried and shrunken to the dimensions of a hazelnut, the broken arm of a chair, a tumbler containing the dregs of some liquid and three flies (the whole covered over with a sheet of notepaper), a pile of rags, two ink-encrusted pens, and a yellow toothpick with which the master of the house had picked his teeth (apparently) at least before the coming of the French to Moscow.

At the same time, it is never a very safe proceeding to peer deeply into the hearts of ladies;

“In my opinion, there is in this more than the dead souls which meet the eye.”

Nay, some good folk had even declared the letters of Napoleon’s name to constitute the Apocalyptic cipher!

Expounded upon in Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” if I’m not mistaken.

As I was saying, it does not lie in me to take a virtuous character for my hero: and I will tell you why. It is because it is high time that a rest were given to the “poor, but virtuous” individual; it is because the phrase “a man of worth” has grown into a by-word; it is because the “man of worth” has become converted into a horse, and there is not a writer but rides him and flogs him, in and out of season; it is because the “man of worth” has been starved until he has not a shred of his virtue left, and all that remains of his body is but the ribs and the hide; it is because the “man of worth” is for ever being smuggled upon the scene; it is because the “man of worth” has at length forfeited every one’s respect. For these reasons do I reaffirm that it is high time to yoke a rascal to the shafts. Let us yoke that rascal.

Always a friend or a comrade may fail you, and be the first to desert you in a time of adversity; but never will a KOPECK fail you, whatever may be your plight.

Yes, readers of this book, none of you really care to see humanity revealed in its nakedness. “Why should we do so?” you say. “What would be the use of it? Do we not know for ourselves that human life contains much that is gross and contemptible? Do we not with our own eyes have to look upon much that is anything but comforting? Far better would it be if you would put before us what is comely and attractive, so that we might forget ourselves a little.”

Yet which of you, when quiet, and alone, and engaged in solitary self-communion, would not do well to probe YOUR OWN souls, and to put to YOURSELVES the solemn question, “Is there not in ME an element of Chichikov?”

He who is born with thousands, and is brought up to thousands, will never acquire a single kopeck more, for he will have been set up with the amenities of life in advance, and so never come to stand in need of anything. It is necessary to begin from the beginning rather than from the middle; from a kopeck rather than from a rouble; from the bottom rather than from the top.

in another portion of the province certain Raskolniki were in a state of ferment, owing to the spreading of a report than an Antichrist had arisen who would not even let the dead rest, but was purchasing them wholesale