DEAD SOULS by NIKOLAY GOGOL

"Pavel Ivanovich! Pavel Ivanovich! The pity is not that you stand guilty before others; the pity is that you stand guilty before yourself, before the wealth of powers and gifts that have fallen to your lot. You were destined to be a great man, but you have brought about your own destruction and ruin."

- Murazov to Chichikov, Concluding Chapters, Dead Souls.

Personal rating: 8/10

I am unworthy to even rate it but I have to, and please be sure that I rate it 8 only and only because its an incomplete novel. Gogol burnt a very good amount of the second part and whatever there is, are just pieces conjoined by others. But apart from that the beautiful poetic Part 1 will sweep you right off of your feet.

So what is it about? Whats Dead Souls?

No its not a ghost story, neither a dark one. Rather its a picaresque novel with slight humour.

The story takes place when Russia still had to go through serfdom and people were allowed to have serfs as much as they could afford.

Now, for each serf, the master has to pay off taxes each time and if by chance some of them die due to unforseen circumstances, their name would still appear on the census until its time to submit a new fresh one.

Now our hero Chichikov, a brilliant and hilarious fraud, takes it upon himself to buy these 'dead people' off of the masters from their boards. These dead serfs are referred to as "Dead Souls".

The plan is to buy the Dead Souls from masters on very low price because after all what good is a dead person in the census list? - and it would be beneficial for the master too because he won't have to pay tax for the dead serf anymore, until the time of submission comes.

Now what does Chichikov transpires to do with these Dead Souls will be something the reader has to find out.

All I can say now is that everything has a limit. Allow me to quote Gogol -

"Even Platinum, the hardest of metals, the one most resistant to fire, will melt: when the fire intensifies in the furnace, the bellows pump and the unbearable heat of the fire rises, the stubborn metal glows white and also burns to liquid. Even the strongest of men yields in the furnace of misfortune, when, growing ever more intense, they burn his hardened nature with their unbearable fire."

All I can say is, I am just unworthy to even fathom the unparalleled beauty of this epic poem. It has comedy, it is poetic and a beautiful picturesque novel. Anything that can be said will never suffice for this brilliant piece of work.

I hope you liked my review.

Thank you❤️