Dead Souls

[KEV67]

This is my seventh Russian classic, only Eugene Onegin to go and I've done Russia (if I ignore the likes of Solzhenitsyn). 

It is an odd sort of novel. It was written in the 1840s when Russian landowners still owned serfs. I think that situation changed not long after. It's about this man called Chichikov. He is buying the title deeds of dead serfs from landowners. Landowners had to pay tax on their serfs, even dead ones, until the next census confirmed they were dead. Therefore, the landowners are fairly willing to sell the souls, only they are not sure what Chichikov wants with them. Is it legal? How much is a dead serf worth. Chichikov has some scam in mind, but I am not clear how it is supposed to work. I suppose it is to appear richer than he is, so people will lend you money or invest in your schemes. The first volume is a satire on provincial rural life in Russia. The second volume is more a state of the nation story. I do not think the book comes to a proper end. I think it just breaks off. Just two chapters to go.

[itsmeagain]

Russian literature,  although Dostoyevsky is great, suffers from an aura of misery and poverty. 

[lunababymoonchild]

As I understand it Solzhenitsyn wrote mostly about the Gulag system in Russia that he actually lived through at the time. Doesn’t make him a bad writer but it strikes me as a pretty depressing subject. 
 

Gogol, I’ve never read but have Dostoyevsky. Read a small bit of Chekhov and a little Pushkin. Also read one Lermontov. But that’s all

[KEV67]

1 hour ago, lunababymoonchild said:

As I understand it Solzhenitsyn wrote mostly about the Gulag system in Russia that he actually lived through at the time. Doesn’t make him a bad writer but it strikes me as a pretty depressing subject. 
 

Gogol, I’ve never read but have Dostoyevsky. Read a small bit of Chekhov and a little Pushkin. Also read one Lermontov. But that’s all

I have not read any Chekhov either, but he was a playwright, wasn't he?

 

[KEV67]

6 hours ago, itsmeagain said:

Russian literature,  although Dostoyevsky is great, suffers from an aura of misery and poverty. 

Depends who you read. Leo Tolstoy does not write about poverty much. Most the characters in his books are royalty or aristocracy. 

[lunababymoonchild]

6 minutes ago, KEV67 said:

I have not read any Chekhov either, but he was a playwright, wasn't he?

 

Yes, but he did write some short stories

[KEV67]

Dear Souls is a bit jumpy, or at least the second volume is. Parts of the text are missing and the books stops unexpectedly. It is still quite good. You get a sense of life in 19th Century provincial Russia. 

[lunababymoonchild]

Just learned that Dead Souls was unfinished. Apparently Gogol himself burned parts of the manuscript