Dead Souls Guide

: A compulsive liar, gambler, and bully who nearly ruins the entire scheme.

: The landowners get a tax break, and Chichikov plans to take his massive list of paper serfs to a bank, mortgage them as if they are living property, and buy himself a real estate empire. 🎭 A Gallery of Grotesques Dead Souls

: Because censuses were conducted years apart, landowners kept paying taxes on serfs who had died in the interim. : A compulsive liar, gambler, and bully who

As Chichikov travels from estate to estate, Gogol introduces us to a hilarious and terrifying lineup of Russian landowners. They are not flat stereotypes, but neurotically individual caricatures: As Chichikov travels from estate to estate, Gogol

: Enter our protagonist, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov . He travels the countryside offering to "buy" these dead souls on paper.