Rating: 
Summary: Finest Novel Ever Written
Review: If you are a fellow bibliophile, then I'm sure your bookshelves contain many unread titles begging for attention. To pass over a new discovery for the comfort of an old friend is the greatest praise that I can bestow upon a book.I have read "Dead Souls" at least six times in my forty years, and God willing I'll probably read it another six times before I toll my days. Each time I pick it up I laugh aloud again, and feel as if I'm I guest at a Gogol's party. This novel is inhabited by an unforgettable cast of eccentrics and scoundrels, and Gogol makes them all dance and glitter. They are so expertly drawn that each rereading rewards me with a greater revelation and insight into what it means to walk on this earth. Even though every character is a rogue and an incorrigible sinner, Gogol's non-judgemental love for them is always there in the background. You laugh at these fools, and scorn them, yet you too will love them as your imperfect brothers. If ever the world were contained in one book, it lies within these pages. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Two separate books - a comedy and a moral piece
Review: Part One is the amusing story of Chichikov's shifty scheme to make money by obtaining legal ownership of recently dead serfs whose names are still on the census, in order to somehow mortgage this property at a profit. To understand the scheme you would have to understand the relevant laws. To accomplish this purpose, Chichikov travels around Russia mixing with the best society and makes propositions to rich landowners. He is very good at flattery. Even so, things don't go smoothly for the scam artist. Part Two, written many years later, brings back Chichikov as he meets a miser who allows his estate to go to pot, and a model landowner who works very hard. The question we are left with is whether Chichikov will continue to be a shifty character or will clean up his act like the model landowner. I'm sure it was meant as a question for the reader as well.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: Dead Souls is the finest Russian novel I have read. Its characters are vividly detailed and intensely amusing, yet Gogol spends the novel tempting the reader to peer behind the slapstick humor of the story and see something far more significant and sinister. I've bought the book for several friends and am reading it for the second time myself. The Pevear-Volokhonsky translation is best - it contains helpful, well written notes and uses words like 'snookums' to bring home the endearing hilarity of the original.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific book
Review: How about those gossiping ladie folk. That killed me when Gogol eventually let their names slip out. Terrific book, too bad it has such a sloppy ending. Still, a must read for all lovers of Russian literature....4.5 stars
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Summary: An open mind to absorb pure genius....
Review: This booked queched my thirst for witty, ridiculous yet very insightful literature. Gogol was surely a mad genius to write such a pleasing novel about moral depravity. The only problem (but surely don't let this prevent you from reading it) is the fact the this epic poem was never completed. The second part was burnt after ill advise from a religious guide, and remnants of it are vaguely presented in draft form (perfectly excellent prose though). When I finished the first part I was very enthusiastic, and to my dismay I read through the scattered remnants of the second part realizing what a tremendous novel it would have been, had it ever been completed. It was devasting that Gogol burnt the second part and died before the third could be written. If it had ever been completed, it would be without a doubt the greatest novel mankind could ever produce. Gogol knew this. Please attempt to disagree.
Rating:
Summary: From Russia with wicked fun...
Review: Gogol has created one of the best characters in all of literature. Is he a hero, or is he a rogue? Meanwhile Gogol gives us a glimpse of old Holy Russia in all its beauty, simplicity, sorrow, and of course, humor. The story is epic in form, but stylistically reminds me of Quixote. It is full of such brilliantly savage humor that you can't help embracing Gogol as a mad genius.
Rating:
Summary: Just Wonderful
Review: Reading Gogol is like reading the genesis of Dostoevsky *who greatly admired Dead Souls*. A glorious round trip into pure creative writing and a powerful indictment of materialism, and corruption in Tsarist Russia. Also, fantastically funny!
Rating:
Summary: Worth it just for the laughs
Review: One of the drollest books imaginable.Drunkeness, absolute idiocy, and tender yet wildly misplaced poetry abound. It may be a bit macab, but the parables of manipulation and human foibles are so outrageously funny that one can skip much of the modernist movement and go straight for the fountainhead. What sets it apart is its originality, and what REALLY sets it apart is that Gogol, or the narrator, appears to be thoroughly unaware how droll the tone is, yet is still self-conscious and somewhat lyrical. Chichicov is the illegitimage grandson of Sancho. Kafka meets Beckett and gets runover by a tripping Marx. Nothing is sacred: A lying schemer is compared to a character in the Aeneid, and a group of men crowding around an pale faced demoiselle is compard to a bunch of flies flitting about sugar. Creative bliss to the maximum, and no need to wallow in meaning unless one is willing to write one's own parables as critiques. The outright antithesis of Hemingway.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: i very loved this book his funny and sad about russia slaves the word dead souls its not only about the slaves its about their masters as plushkin,sobakevich and the others i realy love gogol he have lote of humor revisor is a great play
Rating:
Summary: Social criticism with a great sense of humor
Review: The plot is simple: Pavel Chichikov arrives to a provincial capital of Russia, impresses everyone with his social skills, gets adopted by the "high society" of the town, and then sets out to business: trying to persuade landowners (who are also lifeowners) to give or sell to him all the peasants who have died since the last census. These people, although dead, still generate taxes for the owner, so in principle it is convenient for them. But, of course, everyone asks themselves: "Why would anyone want to buy dead people who cause taxes?". I won't spoil the plot by giving the answer. The important thing is that Gogol uses this plot to paint an exhilarating (but in fact sad) portrait of the Russian society of his time, and of human nature in any time and place, which gives this novel its status as a classic work of art. Corruption, stupidity, naiveté, extreme individualism instead of a spirit of community, and other social vices, present in any society, are represented here by the very funny characters created by the author. Every landowner is a particular form of strange person, procuring Chichikov with crazy adventures. Gogol's writing intersperses the narrative with social reflection and thoughts on human nature, never boring or pretentious, but always funny and satirical. In fact, Gogol's irony and cynicism are probably the most valuable assets of this novel. It belongs to that literary family of books which portray heroes or anti-heores, wandering around, pursuing a fixed, idealized goal. Sometimes this goal is foolish but noble (like Don Quixote), sometimes it is narrow or despicable. These characters illustrate the virtues and vices of us humans, and that makes them live through the centuries. "Dead souls" is undoubtedly a dignifed member of that family, a book which will make you laugh, think and laugh again. By the way, another valuable thing is the way in which Gogol depicts the Russian countryside.
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