Dead Souls
by Nikolai Gogol
Buy on AmazonChichikov, 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.
Recommended by
"I sneaked unnoticed into the Everyman Library edition recently and, burrowing deep, loved the rich complexity, the wise and barbed exploration of corruption and the absurd irrationality of the human condition."
By the Book: Jeff Vandermeer · nytimes.com
"I'd never read anything like it. It was hysterically funny and incredibly moving at the same time. It's like Gogol stuck a pen in his heart... It truly raised the bar of what I considered to be important writing. It was a life-changing gift, and I still read it once a year."
By the Book: Mel Brooks · nytimes.com
Favorite books · radicalreads.com