Product Description

One of the greatest masterpieces of Russian literature, Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, published in 1842, is at one level a comic satire on the failings of bureaucracy and serfdom. The real meaning of the story, however, concerns the moral and spiritual ailments of a society which replaces the worship of God with the worship of gold. Chichikov, the story's leading character, conducts a paper trade in dead souls i.e., serfs who still remain on the register although they have died. Gogol's achievement is to turn this macabre activity and the gloomy underworld in which it takes place into occasions for biting comedy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69284 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 443 pages

About the Author
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky are known for their highly-acclaimed translations of Dostoevsky (Demons, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment and The Idiot have been published by Everyman). Their translation of The Brothers Karamazov won America's prestigious PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize.

Customer Reviews

Dead Souls
Volume 1 of Dead Souls was published in Russia to immediate acclaim in 1842 when Gogol was 33 years old. Volume 2 remained incomplete on his death in 1852. Therefore there is no final resolution, and what exists of Volume 2 (while enjoyable) is fragmentary.

The basic "plot" is summarised in the Amazon synopsis. It consists of the adventures of Chichikov as he tries to buy up his "dead souls". The humour lies in the widely different characters he encounters and their responses to him. We do not find out Chichikov'a own history and what he is up to until the last chapter of Volume 1.

Gogol casts a cynical eye over Russian society. Not one of his characters comes out well and it is hard to like any of them. The humour is essentially satire and how funny you find the novel will depend on your taste. It has a historic interest - although presumably the widescale corruption and deceit portrayed is a caricature rather than a portrait.

Translation is a difficult art. I have no means of judging how well it has been done. However I missed the strong sense of the author's humanity that runs through Gogol's short stories.

The Everyman edition is the usual beautufully (for the price) produced hardback, bound in cloth with an attractive paper jacket and printed in Bembo. It contains a helpful short introduction, a bibliography, a chronology to help place the novel aginst world events, a Translators' Note, Volumes 1 and 2 of the novel and Notes on the text. Reading the short Translators' Note before the novels is a must if you want to understand the relevance of key English words used.

It would have helped to have had a summary of the different grades of nobility and public service in Imperial Russia as an understanding of relative social rank is important at points of the story.