lottie_d 's review for:

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

5.0

---

I'm putting down five stars for the first volume and lightly caution everyone who wants to read this before going in, as I was not aware that the second volume was sadly incomplete. That being said, this was a wonderful read. The prose style was comforting, the humor was sharp in a way that gets better with every passing year, and there were lots of poignant passages. You can tell that this was a book written during the times where writers were paid per word and I say that as a compliment, as it gives good space for the author's narrative to wander everywhere from sharp satire to fourth-wall breaking joking at the reader's expense to just plain old nice, relaxed, reflective writing. I liked it.