Dead Souls

fiction by Nikolai Gógol

Blurb

Since its publication in 1842, Dead Souls has been celebrated as a supremely realistic portrait of provincial Russian life and as a splendidly exaggerated tale; as a paean to the Russian spirit and as a remorseless satire of imperial Russian venality, vulgarity, and pomp. As Gogol's wily antihero, Chichikov, combs the back country wheeling and dealing for "dead souls"--deceased serfs who still represent money to anyone sharp enough to trade in them--we are introduced to a Dickensian cast of peasants, landowners, and conniving petty officials, few of whom can resist the seductive illogic of Chichikov's proposition. This lively, idiomatic English version by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel's lyricism, sulphurous humor, and delight in human oddity and error.

First Published

1842

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KlauDa

Klauda

Der Roman wurde auf zwei Teile angelegt. Als der erste erschien, sprach Puschkin vom wichtigsten Roman eines russsichen Autors. Beim Lesen habe er gleichzeitig geweint und gelacht. Gogol geriet am Ende seines jungen Lebens in Rom in eine religiöse Krise. Er warf den gerade fertiggestellten zweiten Teil in Feuer und bereute es fast sogleich. Wenig später starb er.

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