965 reviews for:

Dead Souls

Nikolai Gogol

3.79 AVERAGE


Quite funny!
funny reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

...this ends the manuscript of Dead Souls...say what? This has happened to me before...The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald and of course one that I knew beforehand Jane Austen but this took me by surprise. Upon checking it out, it was meant to be something on the scope of Dantes Divine Comedy but the end of book 1 the Inferno died mid sentence, the author burned manuscript for book 2 and then he died.
So what did I think of the book "Dead Souls"? It took me a few days to think about it. It was different and sort of odd, even the way the protagonist explained to people that questioned him on why he wanted to buy their dead souls, even down to bargaining if they were getting a good price for them. If the dead could laugh they probably would die laughing. Gogol is quite good at satire and goes into very descripted sentences so I give him kudos for that. All in all it just wasn't my cup of tea.
adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

In terms of Russian literature, this novel is a disappointment. It has all the groundwork to be a great classic--it's witty, timeless and darkly intriguing--but it falls so very flat.

Namely, the book is incomplete. Entire sections are missing from the manuscript, including the ending portion. By about 2/3 in, you basically lose all hope of understanding the plot or character motivations and have to read only to catch a glimpse of that wit that kept you there at the beginning. The book goes from a 4-star read to 2 (or even 1) stars, fast.

It's difficult to imagine the book's potential if it were complete, but I'm going to assume it would have been a pretty solid classic. I am torn, though, and I wish someone had told me not to read this one. I would gladly have read The Overcoat instead, which I still might do...
adventurous funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging dark funny reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes