Product Description

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls is the great comic masterpiece of Russian literature–a satirical and splendidly exaggerated epic of life in the benighted provinces.

Gogol hoped to show the world “the untold riches of the Russian soul” in this 1842 novel, which he populated with a Dickensian swarm of characters: rogues and scoundrels, landowners and serfs, conniving petty officials–all of them both utterly lifelike and alarmingly larger than life. Setting everything in motion is the wily antihero, Chichikov, the trafficker in “dead souls”–deceased serfs who still represent profit to those clever enough to trade in them.

This lively, idiomatic English version by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel’s lyricism, sulphurous humor, and delight in human oddity and error.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #102700 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-21
• Released on: 2004-09-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 488 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781400043194
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Praise for previous translations by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, winners of the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize


The Brothers Karamazov
“One finally gets the musical whole of Dostoevsky’s original.” –New York Times Book Review

“It may well be that Dostoevsky’s [world], with all its resourceful energies of life and language, is only now–and through the medium of [this] new translation–beginning to come home to the English-speaking reader.” –New York Review of Books


Crime and Punishment
“The best [translation] currently available…An especially faithful re-creation…with a coiled-spring kinetic energy… Don’t miss it.” –Washington Post Book World

“Reaches as close to Dostoevsky’s Russian as is possible in English…The original’s force and frightening immediacy is captured…The Pevear and Volokhonsky translation will become the standard version.” –Chicago Tribune


Demons

“The merit in this edition of Demons resides in the technical virtuosity of the translators…They capture the feverishly intense, personal explosions of activity and emotion that manifest themselves in Russian life.” –New York Times Book Review

“[Pevear and Volokhonsky] have managed to capture and differentiate the characters’ many voices…They come into their own when faced with Dostoevsky’s wonderfully quirky use of varied speech patterns…A capital job of restoration.” –Los Angeles Times

With an Introduction by Richard Pevear

From the Inside Flap
Since its publication in 1842, Dead Souls has been celebrated as a supremely realistic portrait of provincial Russian life and as a splendidly exaggerated tale; as a paean to the Russian spirit and as a remorseless satire of imperial Russian venality, vulgarity, and pomp. As Gogol's wily antihero, Chichikov, combs the back country wheeling and dealing for "dead souls"--deceased serfs who still represent money to anyone sharp enough to trade in them--we are introduced to a Dickensian cast of peasants, landowners, and conniving petty officials, few of whom can resist the seductive illogic of Chichikov's proposition. This lively, idiomatic English version by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel's lyricism, sulphurous humor, and delight in human oddity and error.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

About the Author
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky are known for their highly-acclaimed translations of Dostoevsky (Demons, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment and The Idiot have been published by Everyman). Their translation of The Brothers Karamazov won America's prestigious PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize.

Customer Reviews

Gogol's "Dead Souls" - The Pevear - Volokhonsky translation.
This new translation of N Gogol's "Dead Souls", and a book of his short stories, are a major step forward in getting to the heart of Gogol's own writing of that great book. No other translation has been able bring out the humuor which so pervades the whole, in the original; it really is a laughing matter at last. It is also well worth reading the excellent Introduction to this Everyman edition.

Golgol
This must be Russian satire, as satire was unheard of during this time. This man made this book amusing and made fun of the so called "rich as determned" by how many souls (serfs) they had. He bought up dead serfs and gained some popularity and status for a while.
Usually 18th and 19 Century Russian literature is serious and did in a suttle way exposed the suppression of the Russian lower class people.
Mr. Golgol approached the matter in a lighter way and some what morbid way. The book was great and have read it twice and have suggested it at our book club which we will discuss in December. Members not aquained with Russian literature and the title is a bit mis leading, turned an eye brow when they heard the title.
Karl Olson

complete or incomplete?
This is a good effort in translation and presenting Gogol as an overall easy read.

This a story of Chichikov who thought that buying the certificates of ownership for deceased serfs might help his ultimate goal of being part of the aristocrats. during the book he goes through difficulties,tragedies,funny moments and geed.

After reading this novel,you ask your self if this was a real complete work? many consider the part One to be a novel by self! that might be the case! since there are many fragments missing in part Two. you could figure out the events in part two but you will be curious to know what happened to Chichikov in part three,if that made it to light.

The after-Napoleone Russia is beautifully depicted in this work. Gogol is definitely a master of narration...

The amazing part of all; Gogol lived in the same era of Dickens, Hugo and Stendhal.
dead souls is the Russian version of the French Les Misérables or the English Oliver Twist . they all telling the tragic life of the poor and guilty but in different tongues. they end up in same destiny.

Dead Souls is a magical novel that won't bore you but ignite you imagination to the utmost. highly recommended.