Since its publication in 1842, Dead Souls has been celebrated as a supremely realistic portrait of provincial Russian life and as a splendidly exaggerated tale; as a paean to the Russian spirit and as a remorseless satire of imperial Russian venality, vulgarity, and pomp. As Gogol's wily antihero, Chichikov, combs the back country wheeling and dealing for "dead souls"--deceased serfs who still represent money to anyone sharp enough to trade in them--we are introduced to a Dickensian cast of peasants, landowners, and conniving petty officials, few of whom can resist the seductive illogic of Chichikov's proposition. This lively, idiomatic English version by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel's lyricism, sulphurous humour, and delight in human oddity and error.
| ISBN: | 9781857152807 |
| Publication date: | 2nd September 2004 |
| Author: | Nikolai Gogol |
| Publisher: | Everyman |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 480 pages |
| Series: | Everyman's Library CLASSICS |
| Genres: |
Classic fiction: general and literary Satirical fiction and parodies Narrative theme: Sense of place Fiction in translation |