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Dead Souls by Николай Васильевич Гоголь | Winking Fig

Cover of Dead Souls by Николай Васильевич Гоголь

Dead Souls

Николай Васильевич Гоголь

1915·464 pages

Historical Fiction

classics satire satirical social commentary

Dead Souls is a socially critical black comedy. Set in Russia before the emancipation of serfs in 1861, the "dead souls" are dead serfs still being counted by landowners as property, as well as referring to the landowners' morality. Through surreal and often dark comedy, Gogol criticizes Russian society after the Napoleonic Wars. He intended to also offer solutions to the problems he satirized, but died before he ever completed the second part of what was intended to be a trilogy. The work famously ends mid-sentence.

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Cover of Dead Souls by Николай Васильевич Гоголь

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Dead Souls

Николай Васильевич Гоголь

Year

1915

Pages

464

Historical Fiction

Tags

classics satire satirical social commentary

Description

Dead Souls is a socially critical black comedy. Set in Russia before the emancipation of serfs in 1861, the "dead souls" are dead serfs still being counted by landowners as property, as well as referring to the landowners' morality. Through surreal and often dark comedy, Gogol criticizes Russian society after the Napoleonic Wars. He intended to also offer solutions to the problems he satirized, but died before he ever completed the second part of what was intended to be a trilogy. The work famously ends mid-sentence.

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