Dead Souls chronicles the exploits of the mysterious Chichikov, a middle-class gentleman who arrives at a small town and visits some landowners, coming to them with a curious offer: he wanted to purchase the names of their “dead souls” – serfs who are dead but still on the census. They are useless to the landowners, but Chichikov wants them for another purpose which he does not reveal. The novel follows Chichikov as he carries out his unique task and struggles to convince the suspicious landowners to give up their dead souls.
Nikolai Gogol was a 19th-century Russian novelist and playwright whose works had a massive influence on both Russian and world literature, inspiring people as varied as Fyodor Dostoyevsky Franz Kafka, and Flannery O’Connor. He was notable for employing elements of surrealism and the fantastical in his writing. His most well-known works include Dead Souls, The Overcoat, and The Government Inspector.