| Dead Souls: Introduction by Richard Pevear Contributor(s): Gogol, Nikolai (Author), Pevear, Richard (Translator), Volokhonsky, Larissa (Translator) |
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ISBN: 1400043190 ISBN-13: 9781400043194 Publisher: Everyman's Library OUR PRICE: $22.50 Product Type: Hardcover Published: September 2004 Annotation: Since its publication in 1842, Dead Souls has been celebrated as a supremely realistic portrait of provincial Russian life and as a splendidly exaggerated tale; as a paean to the Russian spirit and as a remorseless satire of imperial Russian venality, vulgarity, and pomp. As Gogol's wily antihero, Chichikov, combs the back country wheeling and dealing for "dead souls"--deceased serfs who still represent money to anyone sharp enough to trade in them--we are introduced to a Dickensian cast of peasants, landowners, and conniving petty officials, few of whom can resist the seductive illogic of Chichikov's proposition. This lively, idiomatic English version by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel's lyricism, sulphurous humor, and delight in human oddity and error. "From the Trade Paperback edition. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Classics - Fiction | Historical - General - Fiction | Satire |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2004050615 |
| Lexile Measure: 1080 |
| Series: Everyman's Library Classics |
| Physical Information: 1.25" H x 5.3" W x 8.18" (1.32 lbs) 488 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Russia |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls is the great comic masterpiece of Russian literature-a satirical and splendidly exaggerated epic of life in the benighted provinces. Gogol hoped to show the world "the untold riches of the Russian soul" in this 1842 novel, which he populated with a Dickensian swarm of characters: rogues and scoundrels, landowners and serfs, conniving petty officials-all of them both utterly lifelike and alarmingly larger than life. Setting everything in motion is the wily antihero, Chichikov, the trafficker in "dead souls"-deceased serfs who still represent profit to those clever enough to trade in them. This lively, idiomatic English version by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel's lyricism, sulphurous humor, and delight in human oddity and error. |