Dead Souls

Gogol's novel revolves around the era of the Russian Empire, where landowners had the right to own serfs, and serfs were a form of slavery where the feudal lords bought land with agricultural workers who worked on it, and they were not entitled to leave those lands or marry except with the permission of the landowner. They were often mistreated, and were required to work not only in the landlord's fields but in the mines and forests and any other work assigned to them by the landlords.

Although serfs were not bought and sold like ordinary slaves in most of Europe, Russia allowed their sale,

Gogol wrote this novel to present to his readers a comprehensive picture of the poor social order in Russia after the successful French invasion, but in a sarcastic way.

The writer Nikolai Gogol Alexandrov (1809-1852) was a Russian writer of Ukrainian origin, who was the first to use ambiguity and surrealism in Russian literature.

Gogol wrote the novel Dead Souls and published it for the first time in 1842 AD, and it was considered one of the most expressive novels on the nature of Russian literature in the nineteenth century.

The story follows Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, a middle-aged man from the middle social class. Chichikov arrives at a small town that he and Jules N.

The government was taxing landowners based on the number of serfs owned by the landowner, which is determined by the census, and censuses in this period were infrequent, so landowners often paid taxes on serfs who were no longer alive, and thus found Shishikov had an opportunity to profit from these "dead souls" that exist only on paper, as he sought to buy them from the owners in the villages and thus relieve them of the burden of paying taxes for those souls.

In the first part of the novel, Chichikov arrives in the city with his servants, settles in an ordinary hotel.

During dinner, Chichikov inquires the tavern keeper about all that is happening in the Nin and finds out who the most powerful and famous officials among the landowners are.

The governor organizes a reception for him in which he invites the landowners and gets to know them himself, among them was Sobakevich and Manilovo, and they invited him to visit him with the deputy governor, a prosecutor and the tax official for several days, and he was able to establish a good reputation in the town.

Then he moves to Manilov's farm, and is surprised by the landlord's proposal to buy Chichikov's dead peasants' souls from him, and agrees with him to complete the deal in the city, but Manilov nevertheless thinks long about this proposal, since Chichikov was not revealing the reason only, he was telling them that they would benefit from the Deal.

Chichikov leaves for Sobakevich's estate, but due to the bad weather his light chariot derails, he decides to stay on the first country farm on his way and it turns out that the owner of the farm is a lady who is also a landowner named Korobochka, and he offers her to buy the dead souls, but she takes the proposal with astonishment, then She agreed, but was afraid that the price would be set too low and advised Chichikov to consider buying something else, but in the end he reached an agreement with her.

Chichikov then decided to leave quickly to escape from the difficult personality of the landowner, and on his return he decided to visit the tavern, and there he met another landowner named Nozdryov, and he was a cheating gambler, and he refused the proposal to sell the dead souls, but in the end he decided to play with Chichikov in exchange for the dead souls In the end, the game ended in a fight, causing Chichikov to leave quickly.

Chichikov visited Sobakevich at last, Sobakevich was a kind of strong and hard man, and he took the proposal to sell dead souls seriously and began to haggle, and finally they decided to make an agreement as soon as possible in the city.

The next point in Chichikov's journey became a village owned by Plyushkin, the property had a terrible appearance and there was ruins everywhere, the landowner himself was at the height of greed, and he gladly agreed to sell dead souls, thinking that Chichikov was a fool, Chichikov hurried to the hotel feeling quietly.

And the next day Chichikov concluded the agreement with Sobakevich and Plyushkin and made them swear secrecy and was in a wonderful mood, but news of him began to spread in the city and everyone began to wonder how rich he was, and what things he was buying until the gambler Nozdryov shouted the secret of dead souls in one of their rounds of gambling .

Rumors begin to circulate in the village about Chichikov, and news spreads that he intends to kidnap the governor's daughter, so the governor prevents him from entering his house, and silly talk spreads among the people of the city, such as that Chichikov is Napoleon, but he is in disguise, and with the residents doubting about Chichikov's personality, they meet with Police chief to study it.

As Chichikov turns into a notorious outcast, the author reveals who is actually a former mid-level civil servant who has been fired for corruption and considers the idea of ​​dead souls getting rich quick by taking out large sums of loans in exchange for those souls.

In the second part of the novel, Chichikov flees to another part of Russia and tries to continue his project.

He tries to help the unemployed landowner Tintenkov to marry Yolenka, the daughter of General Petryshev, and to do so he visits a number of Genzal relatives and again begins to move from one landlord to another, encountering absurd and strange characters throughout his journey. He tried to forge the will of Khloboyev's rich aunt, but his matter was exposed and arrested, but he was pardoned after the intervention of a nice man named Murazov, but he escapes, while the novel ends with the issuance of a warrant for Chichikov's arrest, and the prince who arrests Chichikov gives a long speech criticizing corruption in the Russian government .