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
Rating: 
Summary: Chichikov: Neither too fat nor too thin.
Review: I apologize for the two spots in this review where I have replaced the original text with ###. The first part contained a reference to a web site and the other part contained excerpts from the book. The first is not allowed by amazon and the latter made the review too long to post here. You can see the full review over at my web place if you can figure out its address (again, I am not allowed to say it here).
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First things first: Was your mouth watering every time you read they were having "cabbage soup"? Not that cabbage soup is something to lust over but because Gogol can make it so. (Why, Gogol can make a vegetarian crave for a "sucking pig".) In any case, here is one of the recipes I found on the net (I liked this one the best because of the literary references):
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Now, Dead Souls: What an incredible satire on Russian character and tradition!
When I read Gogol's stories, The Madman's Diary, The Coat etc. I called him "a crazy person". I meant it as a compliment. I was referring to his creativity, his choice of odd subject matters and characters, his unique ability to reveal problems in bureaucracy with hilarious satire. I did not know that he eventually really went mad, in the more common sense that we use the term.
Dead Souls has two parts. First part is complete (and published in Gogol's time) and as good as a satiric novel can get. Second part is interrupted with many notes by the editor such as: "Part of the manuscript is missing here". What a shame!
According to an explanation on the cover of the book, the first part of Dead Souls had taken Gogol eight years to write. While writing the second part of the book, Gogol expands his vision and the goal of the book. He imagines a great book consisting of three parts in which he will get to tell the story of Russians from all walks of life.
It is interesting to note that Balzac, who was Gogol's contemporary (Balzac: 1799-1850, Gogol: 1809-1852), also envisioned a similar massive work. From Herbert J. Hunt's introduction to Balzac's "Lost Illusions":
"By about 1830 he had already conceived the idea of presenting the social and moral history of his own times in a complex series of novels and short stories: he also intended it to be an interpretation of life and society as he saw it, ..."
The only difference between Balzac's and Gogol's ambitious grand projects was that Gogol's was going to have one character (Chichikov) that would connect all the sub-stories and essentially consist of one book (of three volumes), whereas Balzac's was going to contain many independent pieces combined under the title "The Human Comedy" but could be read as individual books.
It killed them both. Balzac literally worked himself to death. Gogol, obsessed with his to-be masterpiece, `a palace of colossal dimensions', he imagined to solve Russia's problems and with his work losing its boundaries, he lost his mind, burnt most of what he had written after the publication of part one, and committed suicide.
The idea of Dead Souls was initially Pushkin's. According to what Gogol has written in his "Author's Confession", Alexander Pushkin had given his own subject to Gogol and had said that he would not have given it to anyone else. I am sure all literature lovers are grateful to Pushkin for this. Nobody else could have done justice to Chichikov and nobody else could have given us such a magnificent black humour book filled with hilarious dialogues and observations of the absurd.
I can open the book up at random, and read a hilarious scene or a dialogue, and what I read will be ridiculous but true. Gogol was a very intelligent observer. He only needed to exaggerate just slightly to get the comic effect. Take for instance the episode where Chichikov's three-horse carriage gets tangled up with a six-horse carriage. Can't you just visualize the racket that followed? Uncle Mityay and Uncle Minyay trying to untangle the harnesses with an entire village shouting and giving advise? Ridiculously funny and ridiculously real.
Towards the end of the book, Gogol leans towards solving Russia's problems by choosing villages over towns, a simple existence over an educated one, and religion over everything else. This doesn't work of course, but doesn't take away from the brilliance of the book. In the character Kostanjoglo, we see Gogol idolizing the perfect landowner and the solution to all of Russia's problems. Here, it is hard to say if Gogol is pulling the reader's leg or if he is being serious. We know that Gogol was not against serfdom, which, one can easily argue, was the root of many of Russia's problems, but if Gogol is seriously offering us Kostanjoglo's philosophies as solutions, then why does he make him as comic a character as anyone else? Does he want us to take Kostanjoglo seriously, a man who doesn't believe in any advancement, any education, any new technology, any progress?
After Kostanjoglo, comes the religious solution in the shape of Murazov. In these fragmented parts of the book, we clearly see the religious obsession that took hold over Gogol and eventually caused him to burn the rest of his manuscript. Had Gogol finished his book (or had he not burnt the manuscript), then maybe Dead Souls was not going to be as immortal (pun intended) as we accept it to be today. Gogol was capable of ruining this masterpiece with pro-serfdom, anti-progress and religious "solutions".
However, regardless of Gogol's declining sanity that is being reflected in the last bits and pieces of the book, Dead Souls remains a masterpiece and Gogol a genius. I think if he had continue to do what he does best, observe acutely and narrate hilariously, he might have indeed be capable of solving all of Russia's problems.
Here are some of Gogol's character introductions. Just look at the variety of personalities. I picked the excerpts that are either very descriptive of the character or irresistibly funny. Or both:
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Don't let the fact that this is an incomplete book stop you from reading it. Just think of it as typical Gogol, because even before going mad and burning manuscripts, Gogol had the habit of leaving his stories in the middle. One of his short stories start with a warning: "This story is missing the end." And Gogol is not kidding. When you get to the end, you find out that the end is missing.
Rating:
Summary: Russia's best
Review: I need to say that I did't read English translation - I was reading the original. But those of you who do not know Russian, should read the translation - it is funny, dark and weird a little bit. What nice characters! Once you read you will never forget Chichikov, Karobochka, Pliushkin and others. My brother has read it seven times and it tells tha value of this "poema". Just wonderful...
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: 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: Chickikov's Journey
Review: In 19th century Russia landowners estimated their wealth not only by the acres they owned, but also by the number of their surfs. Chichikov, a confidence-trickster, realises that serfs that die between official censuses are not legally dead until the next census, and so still count as property. He travels the length and breadth of Russia, buying "dead souls" from landowners, and becomes - on paper at least - one of the wealthiest men in the country. Gogol uses this simple story as the basis for a set of farcical character-studies: he saw the book as a portrait-gallery of contemporary Russia, and filled it with short, self-contained comic episodes. He also wrote, with ironical pointedness, that Chickikov's journey stands for the journey of every human being through life: we move on, never sure of what is coming next, relieved each time that whatever it was we did, we got away with it.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible.
Review: It's just a cool book.The irony Gogol uses in it is just superb:Chichikov buys dead servants whose masters(as well as Chichikov himself)are dead souls.anyway,it's better to read such a funny and at the same time serious book than some dull and boring social realism.
Rating:
Summary: The best over-200 page novel in the history of literature
Review: Nikolai Gogol has a very creative mind as well as a unique style of writing. While reading Dead Souls, one is more likely to view the world from Gogol's point of view than his own. His writing contradicts everything Americans think they know about Russian literature. This book is a discussion of a world whose values are radically flexible. Though the concept can be frightening to those who do not take time to ask questions about their lives, Gogol has used crazy comic genius to exhibit an honest and impartial view on what is known today as "The Human Race." His book shows that humans' actions are motivated by greed and that the idea of money does not have any real significance because the value of everything that is sold is created by the human who is selling it. Gogol has also written the book in such a way that every single sentence is a universe of its own. Dead Souls takes place in the Russia of the late 1800s, where, unlike in America, one must be born into a prosperous family in order to have opportunities. The main character, Chichikov, is clever enough to develop a scheme in which he can rise from being a petty clerk to a respected landowner. In order to do this, Chichikov moves into a new town, pretending to already be a landowner, and begins a quest to buy the names of dead serfs who have not yet been officially reported dead. Each person that Chichkov presents this offer to has a different reaction, starting with the shy and introverted Manilov. Though he does not understand Chichikov's need for the names of these dead serfs, Manilov is a character that is so desperate for company that it does not take any effort to trick him into selling his dead souls cheaply. However, as Chichikov continues his journey, he starts to deal with more clever landowners who become suspicious of his scheme. Chichikov finds that the townsmen known as Sobakevich and Nozdrev are much harder to negotiate with. This is because they are more and attempt to trick Chichikov even though in truth, Chichikov is the one who is playing the trick on them. Nozdrev agrees to sell Chichikov his serfs under the condition that he can sell him something else along with the serfs, such as a horse or a pair of hunting dogs. Chichikov, of course, refuses the offer because he owns no land and has nowhere to keep any horses or dogs. Because of this, Nozdrev curses Chichikov and orders two of his guards to beat him up. However, by sheer luck, the police show up at that exact time to arrest Nozdrev because of crimes he committed in the past. Seeing this, Chichikov runs away and immediately sets off to visit Sobakevich. In his encounter with Sobakevich, Chichikov offers him less than one hundredth of what Sobakevich claims is the rightful price. However, the reason for Sobakevich's logic is that he claims the serfs have just as much value now that they are dead as they did when they were alive. In the end, however, Chichikov's stubbornness surmounts Sobakevich's absurd logic and Chichikov ends up buying the souls for the price he offered. Unfortunately, as they say, "there is no such thing as a perfect crime." In the end of Dead Souls, Chichikov is stabbed in the back by the people he does business with, and does not get away with his ingenious plan. The main thing that Gogol is proving in his novel is that the entire human race is very similar to Chichikov; their interest lies in money and in prosperity. So if human beings are constantly trying to outsmart each other, a perfect society will never be obtained.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless and hilarious
Review: Nobody captured black hearted greed better than N. Gogol in this book. The characters and the events resonate just as strongly in 21st century America. Remarkably fast read for a 19th century novel, and in light of the current corporate scandals, this is a good time to read this book. I read Dead Souls about 5 months ago and I still find myself going back to it in my mind and laughing. It would make a great movie.
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.
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