Dead Souls

By: Nikolai Gogol, Constance Garnett - translator

Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton

Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Gogol's great Russian classic is the Pickwick Papers of Russian literature. It takes a sharp but humorous look at life in all its strata but especially the devious complexities in Russia, with its landowners and serfs. We are introduced to Chichikov, a businessman who, in order to trick the tax authorities, buys up dead 'souls', or serfs, whose names still appear on the government census. Despite being a dealer in phantom crimes and paper ghosts, he is the most beguiling of Gogol's characters. Gogol's obsession with attempting to display 'the untold riches of the Russian soul' eventually led him to madness, religious mania, and death. Dismissed by him as merely 'a pale introduction to the great epic poem which is taking shape in my mind', Dead Souls is the culmination of Gogol's genius. Translator: Constance Garnett.

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Public Domain (P)2017 Naxos AudioBooks

Classics can be entertaining even with dead souls

I enjoyed the book which I find oddly amusing. I was a bit disappointed by the sermon at the end. I can empathize with the author indignation with a corrupt bureocracy but his stand against it, in my opinion, weights down the novel. Mercyfully the moral of the story is at the end and not too long so it is bearable.

funniest and most fun

loved it, every moment was so much pleasure, would highly recommend. Gogol has a perfect imagination

Marvelous

Gogol painted a marvelous picture of rural Russia, post the 1812 invasion. He has mastered satire and leaves the reader wanting

Hilarious and well done, but massive sections of the manuscript are missing?

The book is well performed by the reader, and the text itself is perfectly wonderful. I didn’t expect it to be so clever and comical. It’s fantastically funny.

Sometimes, audio books from Audible (elsewhere too?) contain glitches which seem to sometimes result in missing phrases/passages, or duplicated phrases/passages. The character of the glitches vary, but a glitch is a glitch. In this book, there are several instances when the reader says something like (paraphrasing) “an extension section of the manuscript is missing here.” It’s a difficulty of the audiobook format that we cannot easily know, I’m the moment, whether the author has written these words directly and means to imply somehow that he has been conveying a story whose true source is some unnamed 3rd person, which is how I took it, or whether there is some other problem with the book itself. And there’s a question as to how such problems might have arisen. Who knows! It’s not explained. At first, these missing sections, for me, added to the comedy, and added mystery and I wondered whether Gogol might later explain to us (he often speaks as the author directly to his audience) why the sections are missing. It seems, however, that sections of the actual manuscript are simply missing. After finishing the audio novel and researching my question online, I see that it’s common knowledge that the book simply ends mid-sentence. I haven’t seen, however, any explanation of the several other noted missing sections. There is one break in the story that is quite unsatisfying, unfortunately, a break after which our putative hero (or antihero) is suddenly apparently wealthy, and seemingly no longer traveling at all but is quite established. This is altogether confusing. Some greater warning, I think, is warranted.

Even so, this novel is truly excellent and excellently performed. I do not at all regret having bought it or listened and plan to listen again before long. A true joy and delight.

incredible writing, ok plot

The quality of descriptions and narration are unbeatable, but the plot itself seems lacking. the characters are interesting and the social commentary on 19th century, bribe culture in Russian politics is solid, though deterministic at times. however, the plot itself doesn't satisfy like the narration as the story just kind of ends. the characters are developed thorough, but not to a real point. great read, nonetheless.

Well done, pacing problems between books I and II

Very well done. The pacing in the middle dragged a bit for me, Chichikov's backstory is great, but there's a lot of impromptu poetry and descriptions of nature that slow things down.

Nostriov is entertaining and Boulton's performance alone to put a big smile on my face.

Absolutely great!

An incredibly funny and endearing book. It is sad though that it will forever remain unfinished.

Excellent

I only wish we had the missing pages of the manuscript. Such a great story and such great style....
May Dead Souls live on!

Irritated

The loathsome tone of the narrator fits the author’s antipathy for the middle class and bureaucrats. No wonder Russia became a communist-socialist tyrannical state.

A fine story

The only regrettable part is the missing pages and the missing ending to the character's story.