Classic
Dead Souls
by Nikolai Gogol
Summary
The smooth talking con man Chichikov travels the Russian provinces buying up the paper ownership of dead serfs, still legally counted as living until the next census, in a scheme to build a fortune out of nothing. Gogol uses Chichikov's absurd errand to satirize the corruption, vanity, and bureaucratic emptiness of provincial Russian society. The novel's mix of comic exaggeration and social critique made it a foundational text of Russian realism.
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Historical Context & Significance
Gogol published the first part in 1842 and intended it as the opening of a larger redemptive epic, but he burned much of the unfinished sequel before his death. What survives remains one of the most influential comic novels in Russian literature.