Dead Souls (Annotated)

Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls is a satirical prose epic of imperial Russia, following the insinuating Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov as he travels through the provinces buying the names of deceased serfs still listed on census rolls. Combining picaresque plot, grotesque comedy, lyrical digression, and moral allegory, the novel exposes a society governed by bureaucracy, vanity, and spiritual inertia. Its s...