num_pages: 464
description: 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 Russian literature, Chichikov, an enigmatic stranger and conniving schemer, buys deceased serfs' names from their landlords' poll tax lists hoping to mortgage them for profit and to reinvent himself as a likeable gentleman.
language: English
title: Dead Souls
titlecomplete: Dead Souls
characters: Pavel Ivanovitch Tchitchikof
genres: Russia, Historical Fiction, Novels, Literature, Classic Literature, Russian Literature, Classics, Fiction, 19th Century, Humor
ratings_count: 81885
places: Russia
publisher: Penguin Classics