"Dead Souls" is an amusing caricature of human beings and their systems. Despite a pressing urgency to read the Greek classics alongside, the book held me strongly enough to see me finish it. Gogol shows all of human folly in a comic light. The style of writing is very digressing though. There are pages at stretch about things that are irrelevant to the story. One can see something similar in Dostoyevsky as well but to a lesser extent. However, there is a story that goes on steadily and which keeps you transfixed to discover where it will lead to. That in itself is genius. The second part is rather incomplete (though there is a feeble attempt by another to complete it) and leaves you a tad bit dissatisfied. But it prods your imagination all the more. Where does Chichikov go on from here? What happens to him? You can come up with a story of your own in case you crave closure.
We follow our protagonist, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, in a journey across the Russian provinces. He is a gentleman with refined skills at charming both the sexes. He is knowledgeable of ever subject. He is easy to befriend. And he needs dead souls. Chichikov states various reasons for wanting to take or purchase the dead souls that are still counted on census list from all the landed proprietors he comes in contact with. It is not till the end of the first part that one comes to know why he needs them. In his hunt he comes across various kind of people who treat him in various fashions, some hesitate, some bargain while some beat him up. Chichikov adapts and perseveres.
Gogol excels in oration. His stories are funnier if read aloud. No wonder his is the play (The Government Inspector) considered as Russia's greatest. He can make a story out of a plot. Apparently, the plot for "Dead Souls" was provided by Pushkin. I surely will read another Gogol (The Overcoat) before long.
I once began a bunch of short stories by Gogol years ago; I have never found him again. I have a feeling that I'll have to hunt him up to read him; he is one of those writers that you would want to hold in a hardbound copy full of yellowing moth-eaten pages full of the scent of old libraries.He is certainly more appealing to me than most other Russian authors, from what I remember. Feels good to hear about him.
ReplyDelete