Мёртвые души
Dead Souls
C2 · Proficient · fiction · 348 scenes · Premium story
Gogol’s comic masterpiece, complete in its 1842 Part One: a smooth, unattached gentleman named Chichikov arrives in a provincial town, charms the officials and the ladies, and sets out across the countryside buying the names of serfs who have died but are still listed as living. One landowner after another — the dreaming Manilov, the suspicious Korobochka, the brawling Nozdrev, the bear-like Sobakevich, the ruined miser Plyushkin — lets him have his dead souls, until the town begins to talk. Behind the laughter stand Gogol’s digressions on Russia, its roads and its future.
Characters
- Chichikov (Чичиков) — The traveller
- Manilov (Манилов) — The dreamer
- Korobochka (Коробочка) — The widow
- Nozdrev (Ноздрёв) — The brawler
- Sobakevich (Собакевич) — The bear
- Plyushkin (Плюшкин) — The miser
- Selifan (Селифан) — The coachman
- Petrushka (Петрушка) — The servant
Vocabulary from this story
- помещик — landowner
- чиновник — official
- губерния — province
- мужик — peasant, muzhik
- имение — estate
- деревня — village
- оброк — quitrent
- крестьянин — peasant
- дворовый — house serf
- душа — soul; a registered serf
- барин — master, gentleman
- дворянин — nobleman