Publisher Description

A New York Review Books Original, in a new, vigiorous translation from the Russian by Donald Rayfield, Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at the University of London. This translation aspires to be the fullest, most accurate and readable so far of this undisputed masterpiece of world literature.An NYRB Classics OriginalThe first of the great Russian novels and one of the indisputable masterpieces of world literature, Dead Souls is the tale of Chichikov, an affably cunning con man who causes consternation in a small Russian town when he shows up out of nowhere proposing to buy title to serfs who, though dead as doornails, are still property on paper. What can he have up his sleeve, the local landowners wonder, even as some rush to unload what isn't of any use to them anyway, while others seek to negotiate the best deal possible, and others yet hold on to their dead for dear life, since if somebody wants what you have then no matter what don't give it away. Chichikov's scheme soon encounters obstacles, but he is never without resource, and as he stumbles forward as best he can, Gogol paints a wonderfully comic picture of Russian life that also serves as a biting satire of a society as corrupt as it is cynical and silly. At once a wild phantasmagoria and a work of exacting realism, Dead Souls is a supremely living work of art that spills over with humor and passion and absurdity.Donald Rayfield's vigorous new translation corrects the mistakes and omissions of earlier versions while capturing the vivid speech rhythms of the original. It also offers a fuller text of the unfinished second part of the book by combining material from Gogol's two surviving drafts into a single compelling narrative. This is a tour de force of art and scholarship-and the most authoritative, accurate, and readable edition of Dead Souls available in English.

Notes

The tale of Chichikov, a con artist who finds a thriving trade in dead souls.

Author Biography

Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852), the son of a gentleman farmer who was the author of Ukrainian folk comedies, was born in the Ukraine and grew up on his mother's family estate. He attended a variety of boarding schools, where he proved an indifferent student and made few friends but was admired for his gifts as a comic actor. In 1828 he moved to St. Petersburg and began to publish stories, and by the mid-1830s he had established himself in the literary world and been warmly praised by Pushkin. In 1836, his play The Inspector-General was attacked as immoral, and Gogol went abroad, where he remained for most of the next twelve years. During this time he wrote two of his best-known stories, "The Nose" and "The Overcoat," and in 1842 he published the first part of his masterpiece Dead Souls. Gogol became ever more religious as the years passed, and in 1847 he fell under the sway of an Orthodox priest on whose advice he burned much of the second part of Dead Souls and soon gave up writing altogether. After undertaking a fast to purify his soul, he died at the age of forty-two.Donald Rayfield is emeritus professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary, University of London.

Review

...its precision and self-awareness seems so much more modern than anything else published at the same time in the mid-19th cetury Sunday Herald

Review Quote

"Gogol'sDead Souls, has achieved a magnificent re-birth. . . . Rayfield's translation is one that Vladimir Nabokov would unreservedly admire. . . . A big, beautiful book and a mould-breaking classic reinvigorated." -William Boyd,The Guardian(praise for the U.K. edition)

Description for Sales People

* A New York Review Books Original, in a new, vigorous translation from the Russian by Donald Rayfield. * Gogol was thirty-three when the first edition of Dead Souls was published. The second edition was published in 1846, and Gogol planned a continuation of the story in "two big parts to come," which never came. Gogol destroyed the second half of Dead Souls nine days before he died. It finishes in mid-sentence. * This translation aspires to be the fullest, most accurate and readable so far of this undisputed masterpiece of world literature. It provides English readers with a version of this great novel that does justice to the wonderful richness of the original. In addition, Part 2 has been expanded by incorporating passages from Gogol's earliest version. * Pushkin saw great talent in Gogol and published his writings in his magazine The Contemporary. It was he that gave Gogol the idea to write Dead Souls. It is a realistic and satirical portrait of provincial Russian life by "the father of Russian realism." * Flannery O'Connor declared Gogol "necessary along with the light". * "Arguably Russian literature's best-loved novel, whose characters are still considered emblematic." -Gillian Slovo, The Independent on Sunday * "A terrifying, absurdist adventure-unfinished, which seems fitting"-Shirley Abbott * "The most original novel of 1842, Nicolai Gogol's Dead Souls, has achieved a magnificent rebirth in 2008 through Donald Rayfield's superb new translation. Rayfield's translation is one that Vladimir Nabokov would unreservedly admire and is accompanied by dozens of superb, hitherto unseen illustrations by Marc Chagall. A big, beautiful book and a mould-breaking classic reinvigorated." -William Boyd, Guardian * "New English words for Gogol's masterpiece have now been found by Donald Rayfield, whose fresh translation is notable..." --Oliver Ready, Times Literary Supplement "Gogol's Dead Souls, has achieved a magnificent re-birth.. . . Rayfield's translation is one that Vladimir Nabokov would unreservedly admire. . . . A big, beautiful book and a mould-breaking classic reinvigorated." - William Boyd, The Guardian (praise for the U.K. edition)

Details