Dead Souls Paperback - 2004
by Nikolai Gogol; Robert A. Maguire (Translator); Introduction by Robert A. Maguire
Dead Souls is one of the most unusual works of nineteenth-century fiction and a devastating satire on social hypocrisy. Chichikov, a mysterious stranger, arrives in a provincial town and visits a succession of landowners to make 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 reinvent 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.
Summary
Dead Souls is one of the most unusual works of nineteenth-century fiction and a devastating satire on social hypocrisy. Chichikov, a mysterious stranger, arrives in a provincial town and visits a succession of landowners to make 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 reinvent 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.
- In his introduction, translator and Gogol scholar Robert Maguire discusses the protracted and troubled story of the novel's composition, Gogol's narrative technique, and his place in the Russian and European literary traditions
- Includes a chronology, suggestions for further reading, appendices, glossary, map, and notes
From the jacket flap
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 translator Robert A Maguire makes accessible the full extent of the novel's lyricism, sulphurous humor, and delight in human oddity and error.
"From the Trade Paperback edition.
Details
- Title Dead Souls
- Author Nikolai Gogol; Robert A. Maguire (Translator); Introduction by Robert A. Maguire
- Binding Paperback
- Edition Reprint
- Pages 512
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Penguin Group, E Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.
- Date 2004-12-28
- Illustrated Yes
- Features Bibliography, Glossary, Illustrated, Maps
- ISBN 9780140448078 / 0140448071
- Weight 0.76 lbs (0.34 kg)
- Dimensions 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.8 in (19.56 x 12.95 x 2.03 cm)
- Ages 18 to UP years
- Grade levels 13 - UP
- Reading level 1080
-
Themes
- Cultural Region: Russian
- Library of Congress subjects Russia - Social life and customs - 1533-1917, Swindlers and swindling - Russia
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 2004275517
- Dewey Decimal Code FIC
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