Quotes from book
Dead Souls

Dead Souls
Nikolai Gogol Original title Мёртвые души (Russian, 1842)

Dead Souls is a novel by Nikolai Gogol, first published in 1842, and widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature. The novel chronicles the travels and adventures of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov and the people whom he encounters. These people are typical of the Russian middle-class of the time. Gogol himself saw it as an "epic poem in prose", and within the book as a "novel in verse". Despite supposedly completing the trilogy's second part, Gogol destroyed it shortly before his death. Although the novel ends in mid-sentence , it is usually regarded as complete in the extant form.


Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo

“However, nothing turned out as Tchitchikoff had intended.”

Dead Souls (1842)

Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo
Nikolai Gogol photo

“As it is so strangely ordained in this world, what is amusing will turn into being gloomy, if you stand too long before it, and then God knows what ideas may not stray into the mind”

Vol. I, ch. 3
Dead Souls (1842)
Context: As it is so strangely ordained in this world, what is amusing will turn into being gloomy, if you stand too long before it, and then God knows what ideas may not stray into the mind... Why is it that even in moments of unthinking, careless gaiety a different and strange mood comes upon one?

Nikolai Gogol photo

“Rus! Rus! I see you, from my lovely enchanted remoteness I see you”

Vol. II, ch. 2
Dead Souls (1842)
Context: Rus! Rus! I see you, from my lovely enchanted remoteness I see you: a country of dinginess, and bleakness and dispersal; no arrogant wonders of nature crowned by the arrogant wonders of art appear within you to delight or terrify the eyes... So what is the incomprehensible secret force driving me towards you? Why do I constantly hear the echo of your mournful song as it is carried from the sea through your entire expanse?... And since you are without end yourself, is it not within you that a boundless thought will be born?

Nikolai Gogol photo

“Why do I constantly hear the echo of your mournful song as it is carried from the sea through your entire expanse?… And since you are without end yourself, is it not within you that a boundless thought will be born?”

Vol. II, ch. 2
Dead Souls (1842)
Context: Rus! Rus! I see you, from my lovely enchanted remoteness I see you: a country of dinginess, and bleakness and dispersal; no arrogant wonders of nature crowned by the arrogant wonders of art appear within you to delight or terrify the eyes... So what is the incomprehensible secret force driving me towards you? Why do I constantly hear the echo of your mournful song as it is carried from the sea through your entire expanse?... And since you are without end yourself, is it not within you that a boundless thought will be born?

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