{"product_id":"dead-souls-21","title":"Dead Souls","description":"\u003cp\u003eNikolai Gogol's 'epic poem in prose', \u003ci\u003eDead Souls \u003c\/i\u003eis a damning indictment of a corrupt society, translated from the Russian with an introduction and notes by Robert A. Maguire in Penguin Classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChichikov, a mysterious stranger, arrives in the provincial town of 'N', visiting a succession of landowners and making each a strange offer. He proposes to buy the names of dead serfs still registered on the census, saving their owners from paying tax on them, and to use these 'dead souls' as collateral to re-invent himself as a aristocrat. In this ebullient picaresque masterpiece, Gogol created a grotesque gallery of human types, from the bear-like Sobakevich to the insubstantial fool Manilov, and, above all, the devilish con man Chichikov. \u003ci\u003eDead Souls\u003c\/i\u003e (1842), Russia's first major novel, is one of the most unusual works of nineteenth-century fiction and a devastating satire on social hypocrisy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his introduction, Robert A. Maguire discusses Gogol's life and literary career, his depiction of Russian society, and the language and narrative techniques employed in \u003ci\u003eDead Souls\u003c\/i\u003e. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading, appendices, a glossary, map and notes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNikolai Gogol (1809-52) was born in the Ukraine. His experience of St Petersburg life informed a savagely satirical play, \u003ci\u003eThe Government Inspector\u003c\/i\u003e, and a series of brilliant short stories including \u003ci\u003eNevsky Prospekt\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDiary of a Madman\u003c\/i\u003e. For over a decade, Gogol laboured on his comic epic \u003ci\u003eDead Souls\u003c\/i\u003e- before renouncing literature and burning parts of the manuscript shortly before he died.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you enjoyed \u003ci\u003eDead Souls\u003c\/i\u003e, you might like Fyodor Dostoyevsksy's \u003ci\u003eThe Brothers Karamazov\u003c\/i\u003e, also available in Penguin Classics. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Gogol was a strange creature, but then genius is always strange'\u003cbr\u003eVladimir Nabokov\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I admire the way in which Maguire has kept his own brilliantly variegated vocabulary away from 20th-century phrases, without ever looking parodic or antiquarian'\u003cbr\u003eA.S. Byatt, author of \u003ci\u003ePossession\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54220824904024,"sku":"9780140448078","price":18.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780140448078.jpg?v=1778557541","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/dead-souls-21","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}