Talk:Dead Souls

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"Although the novel ends in mid-sentence (like Sterne's Sentimental Journey), it is usually regarded as complete in the extant form.[1]" — the citation for this is incredibly weak - it's someone else's citation of one argument, and i'm not convinced that proves it's 'usually regarded' —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.108.67.215 (talk) 02:11, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Characters section
I want to revise this, to make it more about the characters themselves, as it's obviously taken from some commentary on Gogol and, frankly, it's ridiculous. AllenHansen (talk) 22:32, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Dead Souls is not a Satire. Did the writer of this Wikipedia article ever actually even read the book? Seriously.............. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.119.27.19 (talk) 17:08, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * The previous poster needs to back up his assertion that the novel is not a satire (he also needs to sign his posts).  To me it is a great satire, with the double irony that Chichikov never realizes that his own soul is dead, or that his petty con game mirrors the great national evil of serfdom.CharlesTheBold (talk) 14:09, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Some of it is taken from Vladimir Nabokov's lecture on Dead Souls in "Lectures on Russian Literature" (i.e. a Gogolian leitmotiv being the "roundness" of poshlust). Once I finish Dead Souls I'll come back here and start putting together a more traditional character list, with some of Nabokov's more colorful characterizations quoted properly. Brancron (talk) 19:08, 25 September 2008 (UTC)Brancron

Please GOD someone make the sections presumably ripped off from Nabokov (which look indistinguishable from some grad student impersonating Nabokov?) more encyclopedic in tone. Right now it looks at first glance like it was written by some wikipedian of almost supernatural pomposity. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.208.36.138 (talk) 08:22, 19 May 2011 (UTC)
 * The preceding unsigned comment is currently my all-time-fave talk page comment. I'm going to be laughing at "almost supernatural pomposity" for the next week! CAVincent (talk) 04:32, 22 April 2022 (UTC)

Spelling of Chichikov
I noticed that throughout this article, the main character's name is spelled either Tchitchikoff or Chichikov. Speaking no Russian, I don't know which is correct (or more in keeping with Wikipedia's standards for Russian-to-English transliteration); perhaps someone who does speak the language can help out on this question. In the version of this novel that I read, it's spelled Chichikov. Isaiah (talk) 16:18, 16 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I went ahead and changed it to Chichikov, since that is what was used in all but two places. PerlKnitter (talk) 12:54, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Another radio play
There's another radio play, below links goes to its first episode:

http://www.archive.org/details/DeadSoulsEpisode1

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Dead Souls. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20130127154312/http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140448078,00.html to http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140448078,00.html

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 22:23, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Trilogy in two parts?
The article doesn't explain how a novel in two parts can be a trilogy and how the story of the second part is known if Gogol destroyed it. 2A07:A880:4601:1052:2D42:BF7F:4F48:5C5B (talk) 23:07, 17 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Yup, and I came to this talk page with the exact same question(s)! Turns out, Gogol intended to write a trilogy (or at least claimed this intent), of which Dead Souls would have been the first part. However, he burned the manuscript for part two and died shortly afterwards. It isn't entirely clear (at least to me) if that manuscript was complete, near-complete, or what, but (as I understand it) he discussed the manuscript as well as its destruction with others, and a few pieces of drafts survived the fire and still exist. I tried clarifying and adding a couple sources. Really, the subject of a possible trilogy should be in the body of the article (and probably in more detail) but I don't see an obvious spot for it without substantial reworking. Hopefully, editors who are both more industrious and more knowledgeable on the subject than I will eventually get around to this. CAVincent (talk) 04:25, 22 April 2022 (UTC)

"The government taxed landowners based on how many serfs (or "souls") they owned..."
Incorrect. The petrine poll tax (подушная подать) was levied on males of taxable estates - that is, the aforementioned serfs. They, and not their owners, were liable for current tax and any arrears. The owner became liable only when a census "soul" had died; instead of taxing the family of the deceased, the state charged the arrears to the owner. Retired electrician (talk) 06:25, 25 June 2024 (UTC)