Dead Souls (Annotated)

Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls is a landmark of Russian prose: a satirical "poem" in novel form that follows the enigmatic Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov as he travels through provincial Russia purchasing the legal rights to deceased serfs still listed on census rolls. Through this grotesque scheme, Gogol exposes the absurdities of bureaucracy, landownership, social ambition, and moral emptiness. Its style...