Dead Souls

Name: Dead Souls
Brand: Tantor Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Nikolai Gogol
ISBN: 9781452671222

Author: Nikolai Gogol

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Unabridged: 15 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/25/2011

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

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, Nikolai 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. Dead Souls, Russia's first major novel, is one of the most unusual works of nineteenth-century fiction and a devastating satire on social hypocrisy.

This version of Dead Souls is the translation by C. J. Hogarth.

About Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) was a Russian novelist, humorist, and dramatist. Considered the father of modern Russian realism, his best-known works are the novels Dead Souls and Taras Bul'ba, the play The Inspector-General, and the short stories "Diary of a Madman," "The Nose," and "The Overcoat." With their scrupulous and scathing realism, ethical criticism, and philosophical depth, they remain some of the most important works of world literature. However, because much of Gogol's writing satirized the corrupt bureaucracy of the Russian Empire, he was temporarily exiled from Russia.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim

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 Vit

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 Jeffrey

”What was the riddle, indeed, what was the riddle of the dead souls? There was no logic whatsoever in dead souls. Why buy dead souls? Where would such a fool be found? What worn-out money would one pay for them? To what end, to what business, could these dead souls be tacked? And why was the governo......more