Customer Reviews

Dead Souls (Modern Library)

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While I was reading this, I couldn't help but compare it to Laurence Sterne's "Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy." I later found out that Gogol was a fan of that book, so perhaps the parallels are intentional.

The protagonist, Chichikov, is a shaggy dog of sorts an average guy from a below-average background, who manages to use his schmoozing skills to get ahead in life, but is ultimately a bit of an insecure charlatan. (Lots of parallels to Jay Gatsby as well.) But, as in Sterne's book, we don't find out much about Chichikov until the very end of the novel -- otherwise, we only see small glimpses of Chichikov in action, and hear the mostly untrue things said about him by those he encounters. (Are these falsehoods of his own making, or of his observers' making? Or of ours, the readers' own making? Not an easy question.)

The novel takes us through various parts of Russian society, with many bits of the author's mockery obviously being things Gogol had wanted to get off his chest for quite a while. There are some excellent observations about "the Russian character," human nature, personality types, what different languages are good for, and many, many other bits of Gogolian brilliance. By the way, the financial scheme Chichikov is running is very clever, even by today's standards of financial wizardry.

The narrator does a lot of Sterne-like "stepping out of character"; in one of the more hilarious passages, he complains that his pen has suddenly become too heavy to write anything more about a certain character, and that he will take a rest. There are many comments to the effect of "So what kind of a novel were you expecting this to be, dear reader?" perhaps playing upon the shock with which the book was initially received. Also lots of teasing the reader, with back-and-forth to the effect of "should I reveal any more to you, or shouldn't I?"

Ultimately, the big question in the book becomes exactly who the "dead souls" are -- and the astute reader will realize that paradoxically, the dead serfs that are being bought and sold are the least dead of all the souls in the book.

This book is hilariously funny, and is rewarding even if read for humor alone. However, the literary and narrative experiments it undertakes, as well as its subtle social criticisms, make it even more worthwhile.

First of all, Guerney's is the only translation worth getting.

It was hailed as the finest in 1942. It is still the finest in 2002.

(Kudos to Yale University Press for printing it.)

Second, if you love the madcap humor of The Brothers Karamazov, in particular the lunacy of the father Fyodor Pavlovich, you will love Dead Souls.

Dead Souls.

Doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs does it? Doesn't sound a comic masterpiece, does it?

It is.

11 chapters full of cheats, liers, swindlers, fawners, rogues, sycophants, and above all (or below all) -- human beings.

Part One is the amusing story of Chichikov's shifty scheme to make money by obtaining legal ownership of recently dead serfs whose names are still on the census, in order to somehow mortgage this property at a profit. To understand the scheme you would have to understand the relevant laws.

To accomplish this purpose, Chichikov travels around Russia mixing with the best society and makes propositions to rich landowners. He is very good at flattery. Even so, things don't go smoothly for the scam artist.

Part Two, written many years later, brings back Chichikov as he meets a miser who allows his estate to go to pot, and a model landowner who works very hard. The question we are left with is whether Chichikov will continue to be a shifty character or will clean up his act like the model landowner. I'm sure it was meant as a question for the reader as well.

Nikolai Gogol's Dead Soul launches the 'great Russian novel form' with a satire, so apt and so funny, that the novel remains as one of the most popular Russian text ever. Gogol's own personal life may have been a dire disaster, but as a novelist he stands next to only Tolstoy and Dostovesky, as short story writer only Chekov comes close to his fame, and mind you, he preceded them and their writing. He was, alongside Pushkin, one of the major early forces in Russian literary scene. Since all other major novelists from Russia have delved into tragedies and melodramas, going down to philosophical and religious questions, Dead Souls comes as a relief fun read, rather one of the funniest reads.

In Dead Souls, he provides a cast of unforgettable and hilarious characters in episodes that leave you reeling with laughter. The hero or the anti-hero Chichikov or Tchichikov drives from town to town, buying "dead souls" i.e. dead peasants, assuring landowners that this will benefit them as they would pay less tax on their workforce. The tax was based on census numbers, and since many peasants died between two census years, landowners ended up paying taxes on people who didn't exist. Chichikov's brilliant idea was to collect a long list of (dead) peasants he had bought, and use that for getting a estate for himself. The novel tells us a story after story of his meeting his landowners and getting his purchase by a mix of tact, sweet talk, and so on, each purchase is full of absurd and funny details.

Beyond the obvious laughters, the novel provides a very detailed description of Russia in early nineteenth century. The sketches of nature bring alive similes and metaphors that Gogol (who was a failed poet) uses remarkably well. While the observations related to people, customs, bureaucracy and Russia are full of brilliant wit, they in fact recreate a lively and throbbing world to us. The world as it was. The bureaucracy has not changed much since then. Nor have the quacks and hacks and cheats who make fortunes by buying and selling dubious things. Hence Dead Souls has this undying and translatable humor that will keep this book in publication forever.

I would rank Dead Souls alongside Three Men in a Boat, Catch 22, A House for Mr Biswas and The Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy as the novels that made me laugh the most. It has shades of Tolstoy in details it provides about rural life and rich landowners, shades of both Tolstoy and Dostovesky in pointing to certain moral issues (but that is at most an undertone) and maybe he was the one who influenced the style of his more famous successors. If you haven't read Gogol, you definitely need to pick him next.

This is probably the best translation available. Guerney, who has Russian roots, is able to fully capture Gogol's masterwork. Guerney also provides valuable background information in helping to understand the nexus for Gogol's strange journey into the heartland of Russia.

Gogol was apparently given the idea of "Dead Souls" by Pushkin, so the story goes, because Pushkin felt Gogol could do a better job with this theme than he could. However, it was an uncle who had seemingly first concocted the scheme of using dead souls to boost the number of registered serfs on his estate so that he could get a license to distill vodka. This seems more likely the case, because Gogol appears to draw much from biographical sources in creating this quixotic set of characters, which the enigmatic Chichikov comes across on his pursuit of "Dead Souls."

The first book is filled with so much robust humour, that you are left dying for more. However, the second book is not as satisfying as the first, much like that quixotic knight errant, who apparently served as a literary inspiration for this "poema."

Gogol is part of the basis for any serious undertaking of Russian literature. He was of the same literary period as Pushkin and Lermontov, and in many ways is more satisfying than either of them. One should also read Gogol's short stories, such as "The Nose" and "The Overcoat," which tumble into the theatre of the absurd.

In 19th century Russia landowners estimated their wealth not only by the acres they owned, but also by the number of their surfs. Chichikov, a confidence-trickster, realises that serfs that die between official censuses are not legally dead until the next census, and so still count as property. He travels the length and breadth of Russia, buying "dead souls" from landowners, and becomes - on paper at least - one of the wealthiest men in the country. Gogol uses this simple story as the basis for a set of farcical character-studies: he saw the book as a portrait-gallery of contemporary Russia, and filled it with short, self-contained comic episodes. He also wrote, with ironical pointedness, that Chickikov's journey stands for the journey of every human being through life: we move on, never sure of what is coming next, relieved each time that whatever it was we did, we got away with it.

If you are a fellow bibliophile, then I'm sure your bookshelves contain many unread titles begging for attention. To pass over a new discovery for the comfort of an old friend is the greatest praise that I can bestow upon a book.

I have read "Dead Souls" at least six times in my forty years, and God willing I'll probably read it another six times before I toll my days. Each time I pick it up I laugh aloud again, and feel as if I'm I guest at a Gogol's party. This novel is inhabited by an unforgettable cast of eccentrics and scoundrels, and Gogol makes them all dance and glitter. They are so expertly drawn that each rereading rewards me with a greater revelation and insight into what it means to walk on this earth.

Even though every character is a rogue and an incorrigible sinner, Gogol's non-judgemental love for them is always there in the background. You laugh at these fools, and scorn them, yet you too will love them as your imperfect brothers. If ever the world were contained in one book, it lies within these pages. Enjoy!

The title has scard me away but we have a local russian prof who occasionallyi comes to our book club and he recommended this edition. It was funny with keen observations of the people of the time applicable to today's world. it is much shorted than War and Peace but gets its message across loud and clear. The translation with the explaining notes make it closer to the original in russian and more readable

Dead Souls is a classic 19th century Russian comic novel, considered a masterpiece so long that why it's considered a masterpiece has changed from generation to generation, so there's very little I could say about it that would move the needle. But I found it to be the best kind of comedy, a comedy written by someone who loves the subject, so the author isn't being mean. These are his people and he cares deeply for them.

The subject of the book, how we pursue money and why, is as relevant today as it was a hundred years ago. We struggle with the meaning of wealth, how we measure comfort and "enough", how we deserve it.

I've previously only read Russian novels translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky who I think are fabulous but this time I branched out to a different translator and enjoyed it, but missed the extensive footnotes that Pevear and Volokhonsky give you.

Gogol has created one of the best characters in all of literature. Is he a hero, or is he a rogue? Meanwhile Gogol gives us a glimpse of old Holy Russia in all its beauty, simplicity, sorrow, and of course, humor. The story is epic in form, but stylistically reminds me of Quixote. It is full of such brilliantly savage humor that you can't help embracing Gogol as a mad genius.