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.
- ISBN10 1627939172
- ISBN13 9781627939171
- Publish Date 1 December 2013 (first published 1 April 1971)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Start Classics
- Format eBook
- Pages 337
- Language English