Don’t be fooled by the morbid-sounding title: Dead Souls is
actually one of the wittiest books of the 19th Century and first published in
1842. It was written by Nikolai Gogol - not particularly famous outside Russia,
but actually a major influence on both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and as widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian Literature.
Dead Souls is his only novel, and tells the story of an
enterprising young man who travels around Russia buying up "dead
souls" – that is, peasant workers who have died, but who are still
registered as living in the census records. He purchases them from landowners,
hoping that it will create the illusion that he owns many workers himself, and
so allow him to extract huge loans from the government.
A broad and brilliant satire on society – Gogol caricatures
and parodies nearly everyone, from gossiping housewives to cruel landowners to
pompous officials - Dead Souls is also considered the first-ever Russian novel.
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