Dead Souls

Author: Nikolai Gogol
Language ‏ : ‎ English

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679776443
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679776444
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1080L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.14 x 0.89 x 8 inches

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.