Dead Souls is a novel by celebrated Russian author Nikolai Gogol. First published in 1842, it details the quest of a bureaucrat named Chichikov to purchase the names of deceased serfs in a scheming effort to acquire land and wealth. Gogol claimed that the novel was modeled after poetic epics like Dante's Divine Comedy and Homer's Odyssey.
The novel begins with Chichikov's arrival in a small town. He meets several town officials and appears to be highly capable of charming people with conversation. Everything that he says is carefully designed to put him in the good graces of the people he is speaking to. He sets out on a strange mission to acquire "dead souls"—lists of dead serfs—and...
