Dead Souls

By Nikolai Gogol, Erika a Garcia, Vasilievich G. Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, et al.

Book Overview

Gogol's 1842 novel Dead Souls, a comic masterpiece about a mysterious con man and his grotesque victims, is one of the major works of Russian literature. It was translated into English in 1942 by Bernard Guilbert Guerney; the translation was hailed by Vladimir Nabokov as "an extraordinarily fine piece of work" and is still considered the best translation of Dead Souls ever published. Long out of print, the Guerney translation of Dead Souls is now reissued. The text has been made more faithful to Gogol's original by removing passages that Guerney inserted from earlier drafts of Dead Souls. The text is accompanied by Susanne Fusso's introduction and by appendices that present excerpts from Guerney's translations of other drafts of Gogol's work and letters Gogol wrote around the time of the writing and publication of Deal Souls.

"I am delighted that Guerney's translation of Dead Souls is] available again. It is head and shoulders above all the others, for Guerney understands that to 'translate' Gogol is necessarily to undertake a poetic recreation, and he does so brilliantly."--Robert A. Maguire, Columbia University

"The Guerney translation of Dead Souls is the only translation I know of that makes any serious attempt to approximate the qualities of Gogol's style--exuberant, erratic, 'Baroque, ' bizarre."--Hugh McLean, University of California, Berkeley

"A splendidly revised and edited edition of Bernard Guerney's classic English translation of Gogol's Dead Souls. The distinguished Gogol scholar Susanne Fusso may have brought us as close as the English reader may ever expect to come to Gogol's masterpiece. No student, scholar, or general reader will want to miss this updated, refined version of one of the most delightful and sublime works of Russian literature."--Robert Jackson, Yale University

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300060998
• ISBN13: 9780300060997
• Release Date: February 1996
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

sublime, witty and entertaining

Gogol is the master of imagery; in _Dead Souls_ he also shows his skills at hyperbole and satire, showing the vanity and ridiculousness of the Russian gentry in the middle of the 19th century. The plot of the story revolves around a newcomer to an unnamed Russian village (immeadiately under susupicion being an "outsider"), who manages to charm his way into the local scene as a "harmless fellow." Yet soon his plans are revealed: he wishes to purchase the "souls" of dead serfs, the better to establish himself as a member of the landed gentry. Gogol's masterpiece is almost Dickensian in its character development (and in the personalities of some of the characters), but on a deeper level comments on the superfulousness of appearance. It is a wonderful, witty and thoroughly enjoyable read. Highly recommended.

Hilarious social humor, with dark undercurrents

While I was reading this, I couldn't help but compare it to Laurence Sterne's "Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy." I later found out that Gogol was a fan of that book, so perhaps the parallels are intentional.The protagonist, Chichikov, is a shaggy dog of sorts an average guy from a below-average background, who manages to use his schmoozing skills to get ahead in life, but is ultimately a bit of an insecure charlatan. (Lots of parallels to Jay Gatsby as well.) But, as in Sterne's book, we don't find out much about Chichikov until the very end of the novel -- otherwise, we only see small glimpses of Chichikov in action, and hear the mostly untrue things said about him by those he encounters. (Are these falsehoods of his own making, or of his observers' making? Or of ours, the readers' own making? Not an easy question.) The novel takes us through various parts of Russian society, with many bits of the author's mockery obviously being things Gogol had wanted to get off his chest for quite a while. There are some excellent observations about "the Russian character," human nature, personality types, what different languages are good for, and many, many other bits of Gogolian brilliance. By the way, the financial scheme Chichikov is running is very clever, even by today's standards of financial wizardry.The narrator does a lot of Sterne-like "stepping out of character"; in one of the more hilarious passages, he complains that his pen has suddenly become too heavy to write anything more about a certain character, and that he will take a rest. There are many comments to the effect of "So what kind of a novel were you expecting this to be, dear reader?" perhaps playing upon the shock with which the book was initially received. Also lots of teasing the reader, with back-and-forth to the effect of "should I reveal any more to you, or shouldn't I?"Ultimately, the big question in the book becomes exactly who the "dead souls" are -- and the astute reader will realize that paradoxically, the dead serfs that are being bought and sold are the least dead of all the souls in the book.This book is hilariously funny, and is rewarding even if read for humor alone. However, the literary and narrative experiments it undertakes, as well as its subtle social criticisms, make it even more worthwhile.