bea_reads78 's review for:

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

4.0

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Basically a series of short stories where our main character stops at different estates and tries to swindle the landowners into giving or selling him “dead souls”— serfs that are technically dead but legally still on the books and able to be mortgaged to the state (he is trying to make a quick fortune & keeps getting caught and run out of town). Each place he stops the characters are extreme, and extremely funny— Gogol portrays the silliness and foolishness in human nature. The narrator talks directly to the reader in a way that is hilarious. Critiques of Russian society and corruption are interesting. Unfortunately it is unfinished, but you can read volume 1 which is complete and be satisfied. Also lots of lovely descriptions of the countryside