Dead Souls

Name: Dead Souls
Brand: Naxos
Availability: InStock
Author: Nicolai Gogol
ISBN: 9789629545345

Author: Nicolai Gogol

Narrator: Gordon Griffin

Abridged: 5 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Naxos

Published: 04/01/2003

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Synopsis

Gogol’s great Russian classic is the Pickwick Papers of Russian Literature. It takes a sharp but humorous look at life in all its strata, but especially the devious complexities in the country with its landowners and serfs. We are introduced to Chichikov, a businessman who, in order to trick the tax authorities, buys up dead ‘souls’ or serfs whose names still appear on the government census. Despite being a dealer in phantom crimes and paper ghosts, he is the most beguiling of Gogol’s characters. Gogol’s obsession with attempting to display ‘the untold riches of the Russian soul’ eventually led him to madness, religious mania and death. Dismissed by him as merely ‘a pale introduction to the great epic poem which is taking shape in my mind’, Dead Souls is the culmination of Gogol’s genius.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Vit on August 10, 2024

Dead Souls is a pied vernissage of grotesque and colourful characters… Unlike the dead souls of the novel they are quite quick and kicking… A new praiseworthy persona came to town… In the britzka sat a gentleman, not handsome, but also not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin; you could not have......more

Goodreads review by Jim on June 15, 2019

The book goes way back to 1842, before Russian serfs were emancipated in 1861. It’s considered a picaresque novel; Don Quixote-ish – a journey with a lot of satire and absurd situations with a rascal as a main character, a man who always has a get-rich-quick scheme going. He’s kind of happy-go-lucky......more

Goodreads review by Jon on November 01, 2022

Another 'classic bucket list' book. As he buys dead souls in an attempt to help increase his social standing Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov represents the all too common association that is made between power, ethics and the law. The dead on the list are treated (by the law) better than they ever were wh......more