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Dead Souls (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by Nikolai Gogol (Author), Robert A. Maguire (Translator) "Through the gate of a hostelry in a provincial capital that will remain nameless rolled a small, rather handsome britska on springs, of the kind..." (more)
3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 512 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (29 Jul 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140448071
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140448078
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 11,925 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > The Classics > Gogol, Nikolai

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Product Description

Review
Gogol was a strange creature, but then genius is always strange. (Vladimir Nabokov)

Product Description
Chichikov, a mysterious stranger, arrives in the provincial town of ‘N’, visiting a succession of landowners and making each a strange offer. He proposes to buy the names of dead serfs still registered on the census, saving their owners from paying tax on them, and to use these ‘souls’ as collateral to re-invent himself as a gentleman. In this ebullient masterpiece, Gogol created a grotesque gallery of human types, from the bear-like Sobakevich to the insubstantial fool Manilov, and, above all, the devilish con man Chichikov. Dead Souls, Russia’s first major novel, is one of the most unusual works of nineteenth-century fiction and a devastating satire on social hypocrisy.

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First Sentence
Through the gate of a hostelry in a provincial capital that will remain nameless rolled a small, rather handsome britska on springs, of the kind in which bachelors travel: retired lieutenant-colonels, staff-captains,1 landowners possessing a hundred or so peasant souls - in a word, all those who are known as gentlemen of the middling sort. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Russian lit that's funny and very readable, 24 Jun 2005
By Colin C "Colin C" (Glasgow) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
This is a deservedly famous book by a great but troubled author. 'Dead Souls' was in fact just the first novel in a planned trilogy, as Gogol went mad and died, having destroyed most of part two, before completing his grand plan.

What's left is a bizarre, unique and often amusing story about a man travelling through provincial Tsarist Russia, buying dead souls (ie serfs who had died but were still listed as alive), as part of a large scale con. The characters he encounters on his way are very memorable and brilliantly drawn, and the style teeters on the edge of absurdity without ever quite toppling over. Also included are tantalising fragments of the beginning of book two, but this novel stands on its own, and has the most wonderful, magical ending.

'Dead Souls' is well worth a read as it is an accessible classic of Russian literature without the heavy, doom laden psychology of Dostoyevsky or the vast panorama and cast of characters employed by Tolstoy. You will never read anything else like this one.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Tragically unfinished, 27 Jun 2008
By Ian Shine (England) - See all my reviews
  
Gogol toppled into madness and died before he could finish this novel, and only the first book of the three is fully completed. The second he purportedly completed, before destroying in a moment of religious fanaticism. Consequently there is only about a third of what he apparently composed here, and a tiny fraction of his proposed third part.
I've long been a fan of Russian literature, and have recently been plodding through Lermontov and Turgenev, who are made to seem pale beside Gogol, although they are undoubtedly brilliant authors. 'Dead Souls' is more comic than many a Russian novel, and sits more in line with Dostoevsky in his more existential themes (there are big parallels with Kafka thematically too). I won't cover the plot of the novel here (others have already done that), but simply recommend this as one of the essential works of Russian literature. Tragically, one can only imagine how phenomenal the completed version would have been.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A distinctively Russian classic, 19 Jul 2005
By James Rogers (Norfolk, NE USA) - See all my reviews
One of the finest works of Russian literature, Gogol's DEAD SOUL epitomizes Russian soul at its purest, funniest, finest, richest, dreaririest, most charming and most hopeless state. Gogol utterly ridicules the Russian gentry in the middle of the 19th century in this story, centering on some dreadfully banal people who are trying to pull off a fraud. Exemplified by Chichikov who may be dividedly considered a scoundrel and a hero, Gogol portrayed to what length people can go to secure interests or benefits against over fellow humans considered to be of a lesser class. It is unfortunate that Gogol never finished this story. Overall, this amazingly entertaining classical novel deserves the highest of respects. In addition to UNION MOUJIK, TARAS BULBA, I also recommend classic Russian Stories like DEMONS, FATHERS AND SONS, and THE CHERRY ORCHARD. Once you get into Russian literature, you get to appreciate its supremacy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Great Rusian Novel?
Please note: this book is in 2 parts and the rating is for Part I only.

DS recounts the escapades of the rogue Chichikov. Read more
Published 28 days ago by demola

4.0 out of 5 stars Pre emancipation novel
Over the past year I have read many books from Russian authors, but Dead Souls is the first I have read from before the emancipation of the serfs in 1860s. Read more
Published 3 months ago by I. M. Pryce

1.0 out of 5 stars Awfull!
I know this is a classic. And I appreciate that it is a good look into/critique of Russian society in Gogol's day... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Grand Dizer

4.0 out of 5 stars A daring con man, and a stratagem that involves buying and mortgaging "dead souls" !
"Dead souls" (1842) is a book written by an important Russian author, Nikolai Gogol, that criticizes the Russian society of his time by means of a well-told satire... Read more
Published on 21 Nov 2006 by Bel Alcat

4.0 out of 5 stars Has a few flaws but manages to scrape four stars
Dead Souls is a good read with a plot that kept me reading. I was always hoping that the main character would succeed and avoid danger, but Gogol’s constant direct writing... Read more
Published on 19 Feb 2006 by Chichikov

2.0 out of 5 stars Frustratingly incomplete
Gogol’s ‘DS’ is a classic of Russian literature, often cited as being the archetype for the great novels of the nineteenth century. Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2006 by Depressaholic

2.0 out of 5 stars Lost Souls
We all agree it was a difficult book to get into, appreciated best on a long journey or a time period when the book was your main entertainment. Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2005

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