![]() ![]() We next plan to read The Tale of the Genji (the short version). I read this book in a long-distance classics book club with my friend Sudha, who lives in St. You just continue reading, hoping for another character to get skewered. So that you don't even mind that the story ends abruptly, or that Part II is comprised only of bits and fragments that do not fit together. And those are what make the book so funny, so fascinating to read. ![]() It is there only as a vehicle to get across Gogol's other points. The plot is not in any way central to the story. His narrator goes off on asides describing the scenery, obscene amounts of food, and making commentary on the state of Russia and the world. However, Gogol rarely sticks to the general plot, taking off on hilarious tangents of describing coachmen, ornery old women, tight-fisted landowners, self-important government workers and all sorts of people in between. This is the general plot of the story, if it can be called that. By purchasing large numbers of people that he does not actually have to transport or care for, Chichikov hopes to cheat the census system and qualify as a landowner. It centers on a man named Chichikov, who comes into a town, makes friends with the officials, and then visits the surrounding landowners, asking them somewhat incongruously if he can buy "souls" (serfs) from them- but only the dead ones. Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol is one of the first Russian novels. ![]()
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