Since its publication in 1842 Dead Souls has been celebrated as a supremely realistic portrait of provincial Russian life & as a splendidly exaggerated tale; as a paean to the Russian spirit & as a remorseless satire of imperial Russian venality vulgarity & pomp As Gogol&s wily antihero Chichikov combs the back country wheeling & dealing for "dead souls"--deceased serfs who still represent money to anyone sharp enough to trade in them--we are introduced to a Dickensian cast of peasants landowners & conniving petty officials few of whom can resist the seductive illogic of Chichikov&s proposition This lively idiomatic English version by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel&s lyricism sulphurous humour & delight in human oddity & error