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In what year was the work Dead Souls written? Dead souls. comparison of Sobakevich’s face with a Moldavian pumpkin suddenly turns into a scene with the participation of our balalaika player

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

Original language: Date of first publication: Text of the work in Wikisource

"Dead Souls"- a work by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, the genre of which the author himself designated as a poem. It was originally conceived as a three-volume work. The first volume was published in 1842. The almost finished second volume was destroyed by the writer, but several chapters were preserved in drafts. The third volume was conceived and not started, only some information about it remained.

  • 1 History of creation
  • 2 Literary analysis
  • 3 Plot and characters
    • 3.1 Volume one
      • 3.1.1 Chichikov and his servants
      • 3.1.2 Residents of city N and surrounding areas
      • 3.1.3 Image of Russia
    • 3.2 Volume two
    • 3.3 Volume three
  • 4 Translations
  • 5 Film adaptations
  • 6 Theater productions
  • 7 Opera
  • 8 Illustrations
  • 9 Notes
  • 10 Footnotes
  • 11 Literature
  • 12 See also
  • 13 Links

History of creation

The plot of the poem was suggested to Gogol by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, presumably in September 1831. Information about this goes back to the "Author's Confession", written in 1847 and published posthumously in 1855, and is confirmed by reliable, although indirect, evidence.

It is known that Gogol took the idea of ​​“The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls” from him, but it is less known that Pushkin was not entirely willing to cede his property to him.

P. V. Annenkov.

The idea of ​​“Dead Souls” was suggested by A.S. Pushkin, who himself recognized it during his exile in Chisinau. Pushkin was allegedly told, as Colonel Liprandi testified, that in the town of Bendery (where Pushkin was twice) no one dies. The point is that in early XIX century, quite a lot of peasants from the central provinces fled to Bessarabia Russian Empire. The police were obliged to identify fugitives, but often without success - they took the names of the dead. As a result, not a single death was registered in Bendery for several years. It started official investigation, which revealed that the names of the dead were given to fugitive peasants who did not have documents. Many years later, Pushkin, creatively transforming it, told Gogol.

The documented history of the creation of the work begins on October 7, 1835. In a letter to Pushkin dated this day, Gogol first mentions “Dead Souls”:

I started writing Dead Souls. The plot stretches out into a long novel and, it seems, will be very funny.

Gogol read the first chapters to Pushkin before leaving abroad. Work continued in the fall of 1836 in Switzerland, then in Paris and later in Italy. By this time, the author had developed an attitude towards his work as a “sacred testament of the poet” and a literary feat, which at the same time had patriotic significance, which should reveal the fate of Russia and the world. In Baden-Baden in August 1837, Gogol read an unfinished poem in the presence of the maid of honor of the imperial court, Alexandra Smirnova (née Rosset) and Nikolai Karamzin’s son Andrei Karamzin, and in October 1838 he read part of the manuscript to Alexander Turgenev. Work on the first volume took place in Rome at the end of 1837 - beginning of 1839.

Upon returning to Russia, Gogol read chapters from Dead Souls in the Aksakov house in Moscow in September 1839, then in St. Petersburg with Vasily Zhukovsky, Nikolai Prokopovich and other close acquaintances. The writer worked on the final finishing of the first volume in Rome from the end of September 1840 to August 1841.

Returning to Russia, Gogol read chapters of the poem in the Aksakov house and prepared the manuscript for publication. At a meeting of the Moscow Censorship Committee on December 12, 1841, obstacles to the publication of the manuscript were revealed, submitted for consideration to the censor Ivan Snegirev, who, in all likelihood, informed the author of the complications that could arise. Fearing a censorship ban, in January 1842 Gogol sent the manuscript to St. Petersburg through Belinsky and asked his friends A. O. Smirnova, Vladimir Odoevsky, Pyotr Pletnev, Mikhail Vielgorsky to help with passing censorship.

On March 9, 1842, the book was approved by censor Alexander Nikitenko, but with a changed title and without “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin.” Even before receiving the censored copy, the manuscript began to be typed at the printing house of Moscow University. Gogol himself undertook to design the cover of the novel, writing in small letters “The Adventures of Chichikov, or” and in large letters “Dead Souls.” In May 1842, the book was published under the title “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls, a poem by N. Gogol.” USSR and modern Russia the title “The Adventures of Chichikov” is not used.

Gogol, like Dante Alighieri, intended to make the poem three volumes, and wrote the second volume, which contained positive images and an attempt was made to depict Chichikov’s moral degeneration. Gogol supposedly began work on the second volume in 1840. Work on it continued in Germany, France and mainly in Italy. By November 1843, Gogol completed the first version of the continuation of Dead Souls. At the end of July 1845, the writer burned the second version of the second volume. When working on the second volume, the meaning of the work in the writer’s mind grew beyond the boundaries of the literary texts themselves, which made the plan practically impossible to implement. There are several versions about the fate of the second volume:

  • Literary legend: Gogol, in the early morning of February 12, 1852, deliberately burned a work with which he was dissatisfied.
  • Reconstruction: Gogol, returning from the all-night vigil in a state of complete decline, mistakenly burned the white paper instead of the drafts intended for burning.
  • Hypothetical version. By the end of 1851, Gogol completed the second volume of Dead Souls, which, in the opinion of the author and his listeners, is a masterpiece. In February 1852, feeling his death approaching, Gogol burned unnecessary drafts and papers. After his death, the manuscript of the second volume of “Dead Souls” came to Count A. Tolstoy and to this day remains somewhere safe and sound.

Draft manuscripts of four chapters of the second volume (in incomplete form) were discovered during the opening of the writer’s papers, sealed after his death. The autopsy was performed on April 28, 1852 by S.P. Shevyrev, Count A.P. Tolstoy and Moscow civil governor Ivan Kapnist (son of the poet and playwright V.V. Kapnist). The whitewashing of the manuscripts was carried out by Shevyrev, who also took care of their publication. Lists of the second volume were distributed even before its publication. For the first time, the surviving chapters of the second volume of Dead Souls were published as part of the Complete Works of Gogol in the summer of 1855. Now printed together with the first four chapters of the second volume, one of last chapters belongs to an earlier edition than the other chapters.

In April 2009, the manuscript of the surviving first five chapters of the second volume of Dead Souls was presented. It belongs to an American businessman Russian origin Timur Abdullaev and is a list (copy) mid-19th century, written in four or five different handwritings. This book, according to some experts, is the most complete manuscript of the first chapters of the second part of the poem burned by Gogol. The authenticity of the rarity belonging to Abdullaev was confirmed by experts from the Russian national library named after Saltykov-Shchedrin in St. Petersburg. This manuscript was examined twice in Russia: in 1998 and 2001. In addition, in 2003, its historical value was confirmed by specialists from the Christie's auction house. The found editions of the chapters were to be included in the academic edition of the collected works of the writer, prepared by IMLI for publication in 2010. It is known, however, that the publication was transferred to the publishing house of the Moscow Patriarchate, and was published in its entirety in 17 volumes, but does not include any or materials from the manuscript of the second volume of Dead Souls, which belonged to Timur Abdullaev..

Literary analysis

In Soviet literary criticism, the three-part structure of “Dead Souls” is identified with Dante Alighieri’s poem “The Divine Comedy” - the first volume of “Dead Souls” is supposedly ideologically correlated with “Hell”, the second with “Purgatory”, the third with “Paradise”. However, some philologists consider this concept unconvincing, since Gogol never directly indicated this.

Writer Dmitry Bykov believes that “Dead Souls” is a poem about wanderings like Homer’s “Odyssey,” which Zhukovsky was working on translating at that time. Bykov notes that national literature is usually based on two epic motifs: journey and war. in Greek literature these are “The Odyssey” and “Iliad”, in Russian they are “Dead Souls” by Gogol and “War and Peace” by Tolstoy. Chichikov's wanderings are similar to the wanderings of Odysseus. (Chichikov: “My life is like a ship among the waves”). There is also an analogy between the following characters: Manilov - siren, Sobakevich - Polyphemus, Korobochka - Circe, Nozdryov - Aeolus.

Plot and characters

First volume

The book tells about the adventures of Chichikov Pavel Ivanovich, the main character of the poem, a former collegiate adviser posing as a landowner. Chichikov arrives in a specifically unnamed town, a certain provincial “city N”, and immediately tries to gain the trust of all any important inhabitants of the city, which he successfully succeeds in doing. The hero becomes an extremely welcome guest at balls and dinners. The townspeople of the unnamed city have no idea about Chichikov's true goals. And its goal is to buy up or acquire free of charge dead peasants who, according to the census, were still listed as living among local landowners, and then register them in their own name as living. The character, past life of Chichikov and his future intentions regarding “dead souls” are described in the last, eleventh chapter.

Chichikov is trying by any means to get rich and achieve a high social status. In the past, Chichikov served in customs, in exchange for bribes he allowed smugglers to freely transport goods across the border. However, he quarreled with an accomplice, who wrote a denunciation against him, after which the scam was revealed, and both found themselves under investigation. The accomplice went to prison, and Chichikov managed to hide some of the money. Using all the twists of his mind, all his former connections and giving bribes to the right people, handled the case in such a way that he was not dismissed with such dishonor as his comrade, and dodged a criminal trial.

Chichikov only smiled, flying slightly on his leather cushion, for he loved driving fast. And what Russian doesn’t like driving fast? Is it possible for his soul, striving to get dizzy, to go on a spree, to sometimes say: “damn it all!” - Shouldn’t his soul love her?

"Dead Souls, Volume One"

Chichikov and his servants

  • Chichikov Pavel Ivanovich is a former official (retired collegiate adviser), and now a schemer: he is engaged in buying up so-called “dead souls” (written information about dead peasants) to pawn them as living ones in order to take out a loan from a bank and gain weight in society. Dresses smartly, takes care of himself even after a long and dusty Russian road manages to look like it only came from a tailor and barber.
  • Selifan is Chichikov's coachman, short in stature, loves round dances with purebred and slender girls. Expert in horse characters. Dresses like a man.
  • Petrushka - Chichikov's footman, 30 years old (in the first volume), big-nosed and big-lipped, a lover of taverns and bread wines. Loves to brag about his travels. Because of the dislike for baths, wherever it is found, the unique amber of Parsley appears. He dresses in shabby clothes that are a little too big for him, from his master's shoulder.
  • Chubary, Bay and Brown Assessor are Chichikov’s three horses, respectively the right side, the root and the left side. Bay and the Assessor are honest hard workers, but Chubary, in Selifan’s opinion, is a cunning one and only pretends to pull the shaft.

Residents of the city N and surrounding areas

  • Governor
  • Governor's wife
  • Governor's Daughter
  • Lieutenant Governor
  • Chairman of the Chamber
  • Chief of Police
  • Postmaster
  • Prosecutor
  • Manilov, landowner (the name Manilov became a household word for an inactive dreamer, and a dreamy and inactive attitude towards everything around him began to be called Manilovism)
  • Lizonka Manilova, landowner
  • Manilov Themistoclus - seven-year-old son of Manilov
  • Manilov Alkid - six-year-old son of Manilov
  • Korobochka Nastasya Petrovna, landowner
  • Nozdryov, landowner
  • Mizhuev, Nozdryov’s “son-in-law”
  • Sobakevich Mikhail Semenovich
  • Sobakevich Feodulia Ivanovna, Sobakevich’s wife
  • Plyushkin Stepan, landowner
  • Uncle Mityai
  • Uncle Minyai
  • “Pleasant lady in every way”
  • "Just a nice lady"

Image of Russia

The poem gives an image of Russia in the form of a swift troika of horses, which “are given way by other peoples and states”:

Is it not so for you, Rus', that you are rushing along like a brisk, unstoppable troika?
... where are you going? give me the answer. Doesn't give an answer. The bell rings with a wonderful ringing; The air, torn into pieces, thunders and becomes the wind; everything that is on earth flies past, and, looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give way to it.

- “Dead Souls” - volume 1, chapter 11 - end of the chapter.

There is an opinion that the image of the “Troika Bird” has long served to justify the exclusivity and moral superiority of Russia over other nations:

Gogol describes Russia as a country deeply affected by vices and corruption, but it is this poverty and sinfulness that determines its mystical rebirth. The troika is driven by the swindler Chichikov, and driven by a drunken coachman, but this image is transformed into a symbol of God’s chosen country, brilliantly ahead of other countries.

Original text (English)

The quote has long been used to justify Russian exceptionalism and moral superiority. Gogol describes Russia as a deeply flawed and corrupt country, but it is precisely its misery and sinfulness that entitles it to mystical regeneration. His troika carries a swindler, Chichikov, and his drunken coachman, but it is transformed into the symbol of a God-inspired country that gloriously surpasses all others.

Second volume

The chapters of this volume are working or draft versions and some characters appear in it with different names and ages.

  • Chichikov Pavel Ivanovich is, according to Tentetnikov, the first person in his life with whom he can live a century and not quarrel. Since the time of the first volume, he has aged a little, but, nevertheless, he has become even more dexterous, lighter, more courteous and more pleasant. He again leads a gypsy life, tries to buy up dead peasants, but manages to acquire little: it has become a fashion among landowners to pawn souls in pawn shops. He buys a small estate from one of the landowners, and towards the end of the poem he gets caught in a scam with someone else's inheritance. Not leaving the city in time, he almost perished in prisons and hard labor. He will do a favorable thing: he will reconcile Betrishchev and Tentetnikov, thereby ensuring the latter’s wedding with the general’s daughter Ulinka.
  • Tentetnikov (Derpennikov) Andrey Ivanovich, landowner, 32 years old. Oblomov's literary harbinger: he wakes up for a long time, wears a robe, receives guests and rarely leaves the house. His character is complex, he has the ability, from an excess of a sense of justice, to be at enmity with almost everyone. He was educated, ambitious, lived for some time in the capital and served as an official. He was a member of a philanthropic circle, where he ruled and collected membership fees, as it turned out, the prototype of Ostap Bender of that time. He left the circle, then quarreled with his superior at work, abandoned his boring career and returned to the estate. He tried to change the lives of his peasants for the better, but, encountering mutual misunderstanding and opposition on their part, he gave up this business too. Tries to write scientific work, can draw.
... Tentetnikov belonged to the family of those people who are not translated in Rus', whose names used to be: lumps, lazybones, boibaks, and whom now, really, I don’t know what to call. Are such characters already born, or are they formed later as a product of sad circumstances that harshly surround a person? ... Where is the one who, in the native language of our Russian soul, would be able to tell us this almighty word: forward! who, knowing all the powers, and properties, and all the depth of our nature, with one magical wave could direct us to a high life? With what tears, with what love would a grateful Russian man pay him? But centuries pass after centuries, half a million Sidneys, bumpkins and boibaks sleep soundly, and rarely is a husband born in Rus' who knows how to pronounce this almighty word.

Unlike Goncharov’s hero, Tentetnikov did not completely plunge into Oblomovism. He will join an anti-government organization and end up on trial for a political case. The author had a role planned for him in the unwritten third volume.

  • Alexander Petrovich is the first director of the school that Tentetnikov attended.
... Alexander Petrovich was gifted with a sense of hearing human nature... He usually said: “I demand intelligence, and not anything else. “Whoever thinks of being smart has no time to play pranks: the pranks should disappear by themselves.” He did not restrain many frolics, seeing in them the beginning of the development of mental properties and saying that he needed them like a rash to a doctor - in order to find out reliably what exactly lies inside a person. He did not have many teachers: he read most of the sciences himself. Without pedantic terms, pompous views and opinions, he was able to convey the very soul of science, so that even a minor could see what he needed it for... But it was necessary that at the very time when he (Tentetnikov) was transferred to this select course, ... an extraordinary mentor died suddenly... Everything changed at the school. Some Fyodor Ivanovich took the place of Alexander Petrovich...

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, volume two (later edition), chapter one

  • Fyodor Ivanovich is accordingly the new director.
... the free playfulness of first-year children seemed to him to be something unbridled. He began to establish some kind of external order between them, demanding that the young people remain in some kind of silent silence, so that in no case would they all walk around except in pairs. He even began to measure the distance from pair to pair with a yardstick. At the table, for a better view, I seated everyone according to height...

... And as if to spite his predecessor, he announced from the first day that intelligence and success meant nothing to him, that he would look only at good behavior... It’s strange: Fyodor Ivanovich did not achieve good behavior. Hidden pranks started. Everything was in order during the day and went in pairs, but at night there was revelry... Respect for superiors and authorities was lost: they began to mock both mentors and teachers.

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, volume two (later edition), chapter one

... to the point of blasphemy and ridicule of religion itself, simply because the director demanded frequent going to church and he got a bad priest.

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, volume two (early edition), chapter one

... The director began to be called Fedka, Bulka and other different names. The debauchery that has started is not at all childish... night orgies of comrades who acquired some lady right in front of the windows of the director’s apartment...
Something strange happened to science too. New teachers were appointed, with new views and points of view...

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, volume two (later edition), chapter one

...They read learnedly and bombarded their listeners with many new terms and words. There was a logical connection and a follow-up to new discoveries, but alas! There was only no life in science itself. All this began to seem dead in the eyes of the listeners who had already begun to understand... He (Tentetnikov) listened to the professors getting excited in the department, and remembered his former mentor, who, without getting excited, knew how to speak clearly. He listened to chemistry, and the philosophy of rights, and professors' delving into all the intricacies of political science, and the general history of mankind in such a huge form that the professor, at three years old, only managed to read the introduction and the development of communities of some German cities; but all this remained in his head as some ugly scraps. Thanks to his natural intelligence, he only felt that this was not how it should be taught... Ambition was strongly aroused in him, but he had no activity or field. It would be better not to excite him!..

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, volume two (early edition), chapter one

  • General Betrishchev, landowner, neighbor of Tentetnikov. He has the appearance of a proud Roman patrician, large, mustachioed and stately. He is kind-hearted, but loves to dominate and make fun of others. What's on the mind is on the tongue. The character is contradictory to the point of tyranny and, like Tentetnikov’s, proud.
  • Ulinka is Betrishchev’s daughter, Tentetnikov’s fiancée. A beautiful, natural, very lively, noble-looking girl from those on whom any thing fits well. Chichikov, impressed by its beauty, nevertheless noted a lack of thickness in it (in the early edition). Little is known about her character (half of the second chapter was lost in the drafts), but the author sympathizes with her and chose her as the heroine of the third volume.
...If in dark room suddenly a transparent picture flashed, illuminated from behind by a lamp; it would not have struck as much as this figure shining with life, which seemed to appear then to illuminate the room. It seemed as if a ray of sunlight had flown into the room with her, suddenly illuminating the ceiling, the cornice and its dark corners... It was difficult to say what land she was born in. Such a pure, noble outline of a face could not be found anywhere, except perhaps on some ancient cameos. Straight and light as an arrow, she seemed to tower above everyone with her height. But it was a seduction. She was not tall at all. This happened due to the extraordinary harmony and harmonious relationship between all parts of the body, from head to toes...

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, Volume Two, Chapter Two

  • Rooster Pyotr Petrovich, landowner. An extremely fat, very kind, cheerful and active person, a great hospitable person. He gets angry only if someone visiting him eats poorly. Observing and directing the work of men, he likes to good-naturedly scold them for the sake of a “spicy” word. A good owner of his natural estate, but, according to Chichikov, a poor accountant of money. He can spend hours dining, treating guests and having delicious conversations about food and methods of preparing it; in his head he has a whole tome about tasty and healthy food. For the sake of food, he is capable of feats: he himself, as if in battle, rushes into the middle of the pond to help his people pull out a huge sturgeon. Unlike the evil glutton of the first volume, Sobakevich’s nature is not without romanticism: he loves to ride with guests on the evening lake on a large rowing boat and sing a daring song. He mortgaged his estate (“like everyone else”) so that with the money he received he and his family could go out into the world, to Moscow or St. Petersburg.
“Fool, fool! - thought Chichikov. - He will squander everything and turn the children into swindles. A decent name. You'll see - both the men feel good and they don't feel bad either. And when they get enlightened there at the restaurants and in the theaters, everything will go to hell. I wish I could live in a village... Well, how can such a person go to St. Petersburg or Moscow? With such hospitality, he will live there for three years to the nines!” That is, he did not know that now it has been improved: and without hospitality, everything can be released not in three years, but in three months.

“But I know what you’re thinking,” said the Rooster.
- What? - Chichikov asked, embarrassed.
- You think: “This Rooster is a fool, he called for dinner, but there is still no dinner.” He will be ready, most respected, before the bobbed girl has time to braid her hair, he will be ready...

  • Aleksha and Nikolasha are the sons of Pyotr Petrovich Rooster, high school students.
...who slammed glass after glass; it was clear in advance what part of human knowledge they would pay attention to upon arrival in the capital.

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, volume two (later edition), chapter three

  • Platonov Platon Mikhailovich is a rich gentleman, a very handsome young man of tall stature, but throughout his life he is overcome by the blues and has not found any interest in himself. According to brother Vasily, he is indiscriminate in making acquaintances. He agrees to accompany Chichikov on his travels in order to finally dispel this boredom with travel. Chichikov was very glad to have such a companion: he could put all his travel expenses on him and, on occasion, borrow a large sum of money.
  • Voronoi-Dryannoy is a landowner, a leader of some kind of underground.
  • Skudrozhoglo (Kostanzhoglo, Poponzhoglo, Gobrozhoglo, Berdanzhoglo) Konstantin Fedorovich, landowner about forty years old. Southern appearance, dark and energetic man with very lively eyes, although somewhat bilious and feverish; strongly criticizes the foreign orders and fashions that have become fashionable in Rus'. An ideal business executive, a landowner not by birth, but by nature. He bought a ruined farm inexpensively and increased his income several times over several years. He buys up the lands of surrounding landowners and, as the economy develops, becomes a manufacturing capitalist. He lives ascetically and simply, has no interests that do not bring an honest income.
... about Konstantin Fedorovich - what can we say! This is Napoleon of sorts...

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, volume two (later edition), chapter four

There is an assumption that the prototype of this hero was the famous industrialist Dmitry Benardaki

  • Skudrozhoglo's wife, the Platonovs' sister, looks like Plato. A very economical woman to match her husband.
  • Colonel Koshkarev is a landowner. He looks very stern, his dry face is extremely serious. He failed the farm and went bankrupt, but he created an “ideal” system for managing the estate in the form of all sorts of government offices in a disorderly manner built around the village, commissions, subcommittees and paperwork between them, the officials being former peasants: a parody of a developed bureaucratic system in an undeveloped country. In response to Chichikov’s question about the purchase of dead souls, in order to show how smoothly his management apparatus works, he entrusts this matter in writing to his departments. The long written answer that arrived in the evening, firstly, scolds Chichikov for not having the appropriate education, since he calls revision souls dead, the dead are not acquired, and in general, educated people know for certain that the soul is immortal; secondly, all the audit souls have long been pawned and re-pledged to the pawnshop.
- So why didn’t you tell me this before? Why did they keep it for nothing? - Chichikov said with heart.

But how could I have known about this in the first place? This is the benefit of paper production, that now everything is clear in full view. . .
“You are a fool, you stupid brute! - Chichikov thought to himself. “I was digging through books, but what did I learn?” Bypassing all politeness and decency, he grabbed the hat - from home. The coachman stood, the carriage was ready and did not put the horses aside: there would have been a written request for food, and the resolution - to give oats to the horses - would have come out only the next day.

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, volume two (early edition), chapter three

  • Khlobuev Semyon Semyonovich (Pyotr Petrovich), impoverished landowner, 40-45 years old. A spendthrift and a projector, who has long been mired in debt and at the same time manages to stay afloat. He is capable of throwing a social party with his last money, treating everyone to champagne (real French), and the next day he will again be poor until better times. He sold his estate to Chichikov for 30 thousand rubles. Then he became dependent on Murazov (see below).
His speeches contained so much knowledge of people and light! He saw many things so well and correctly, so aptly and deftly outlined the neighbors of the landowners in a few words, so clearly saw the shortcomings and mistakes of everyone... he was so original and aptly able to convey their slightest habits that both of them were completely enchanted by his speeches and were ready to admit him for the smartest person.

Listen,” said Platonov, “with such intelligence, experience and worldly knowledge, how can you not find a way to get out of your difficult situation?”
“There are funds,” said Khlobuev, and after that he laid out a whole bunch of projects for them. All of them were so absurd, so strange, so little stemming from knowledge of people and the world that one could only shrug one’s shoulders: “Lord God, what an immense distance between the knowledge of the world and the ability to use this knowledge!” Almost all projects were based on the need to suddenly get a hundred or two hundred thousand from somewhere...
“What to do with him,” thought Platonov. He did not yet know that in Rus', in Moscow and other cities, there are such sages whose lives are an inexplicable mystery. It seems that he has lived through everything, he is in debt all around, there are no funds from anywhere, and the dinner that is given seems to be the last; and the diners think that tomorrow the owner will be dragged to prison. Ten years pass after that - the sage is still hanging on in the world, he is even more in debt than before and still sets dinner, and everyone is sure that tomorrow they will drag the owner to prison. Khlobuev was such a sage. Only in Rus' alone could it be possible to exist in this way. Having nothing, he treated and provided hospitality, and even provided patronage, encouraged all sorts of artists who came to the city, gave them shelter and an apartment... Sometimes for whole days there was not a crumb in the house, sometimes they set such a dinner in it that would satisfy the taste of the most sophisticated gastronome. The owner appeared festive, cheerful, with the bearing of a rich gentleman, with the gait of a man whose life is spent in abundance and contentment. But at times there were such difficult moments (times) that someone else in his place would have hanged himself or shot himself. But he was saved by his religious mood, which in a strange way combined in him with his dissolute life... And - a strange thing! - almost always came to him... unexpected help...

  • Platonov Vasily Mikhailovich - landowner. He is not like his brother either in appearance or in character, he is a cheerful and kind-hearted person. The owner is no worse than Skudrozhoglo and, like a neighbor, is not delighted with German influences.
  • Lenitsyn Alexey Ivanovich - landowner, his excellency. Due to not very serious circumstances, he sold dead souls to Chichikov, which he later regretted very much when a case was opened against Pavel Ivanovich.
  • Chegranov is a landowner.
  • Murazov Afanasy Vasilyevich, tax farmer, successful and smart financier and a kind of oligarch of the nineteenth century. Having saved 40 million rubles, he decided to save Russia with his own money, although his methods strongly resemble the creation of a sect. He likes to get involved “with his hands and feet” in someone else’s life and set him on the right path (in his opinion).
- Do you know, Pyotr Petrovich (Khlobuev)? give it to me - the children, the affairs; leave your family (spouse) too... After all, your circumstances are such that you are in my hands... Put on a simple Siberian shirt... yes, with a book in your hands, on a simple cart and go to cities and villages... (ask for money for the church and collect information about everyone) .

He has a great gift of persuasion. Chichikov, like a lost sheep, also tried to persuade him to implement his great idea, and he, under the influence of circumstances, almost agreed. He persuaded the prince to release Chichikov from prison.

  • Vishnepokromov Varvar Nikolaevich
  • Khanasarova Alexandra Ivanovna is a very rich old townswoman.
“I have, perhaps, a three-million-dollar aunt,” said Khlobuev, “a religious old woman: she gives to churches and monasteries, but she is too lazy to help her neighbor.” An old-time aunt who would be worth a look. She has only about four hundred canaries, pugs, hangers-on and servants, all of whom are no longer there. The youngest of the servants will be about sixty years old, although she calls him: “Hey, little one!” If a guest somehow behaves inappropriately, she will order a dish to surround him at dinner. And they will enclose it. That's what it is!

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, volume two (early edition), chapter four

She died, leaving a confusion with wills, which Chichikov took advantage of.

  • The legal consultant-philosopher is a very experienced and resourceful businessman and philanderer with extremely changeable behavior depending on the reward. Shabby appearance creates a contrast to the chic decor of his home.
  • Samosvistov, official. A “sleazy beast”, a reveler, a fighter and a great actor: he can pull off or, on the contrary, screw up any business not so much for a bribe, but for the sake of daring recklessness and ridicule of his superiors. At the same time, he does not disdain forgeries and disguises. For thirty thousand, he agreed to help out Chichikov, who had ended up in prison.

In wartime, this man would have done miracles: he would have been sent somewhere to get through impassable, dangerous places, to steal a cannon right in front of the enemy’s nose... And in the absence of a military field... he did dirty tricks and shit. An incomprehensible thing! He was good with his comrades, did not sell anyone out, and, having made his word, kept it; but he considered the higher authorities above him to be something like an enemy battery, through which he had to break through, using all sorts of weak point, breach or omission.

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, volume two (early edition), one of the last chapters

  • Governor-General, Prince: the last character in this volume, another owner of rather controversial merits: an extremely decent and tremblingly angry person, who is disgusted and does not tolerate wicked people and lawbreakers; capable of extreme and evil measures for the sake of the victory of good. I wanted to judge Chichikov to the fullest extent, but when a stream of all sorts of absurdities began, caused by the legal adviser, Samosvistov and others, and most importantly under the influence of Murazov’s persuasion, I was forced to retreat and let the main character go; the latter in turn, leaving prison and quickly, as bad dream, forgetting Murazov’s exhortations, made a new tailcoat and left the city the next day. Tentetnikov also fell into the hands of the prince’s justice.
    At the end of the surviving manuscript, the prince gathers all the officials and reports that an abyss of lawlessness has opened up to him, is going to ask the emperor to grant him special powers and promises everyone great proceedings, a quick military trial and repression, and at the same time appeals to the conscience of those present.

… It goes without saying that many innocents will suffer among them. What to do? The matter is too dishonest and cries out for justice... I must now turn to only one insensitive instrument of justice, an ax that should fall on our heads... The fact is that it has come to us to save our land; that our land is perishing not from the invasion of twenty foreign languages, but from ourselves; that already past the legal government, another government was formed, much stronger than any legal one. The conditions were established, everything was assessed, and the prices were even made publicly known...

N.V. Gogol, Dead Souls, volume two (late edition), one of the last chapters

At this angry, righteous speech before a decorous assembly, the manuscript ends.

Third volume

The third volume of “Dead Souls” was not written at all, but there was information that in it two heroes from the second volume (Tentetnikov and Ulinka) are exiled to Siberia (Gogol collected materials about Siberia and the Simbirsk region), where the action should take place; Chichikov also ends up there. Probably in this volume previous characters or their analogues, having gone through the “purgatory” of the second volume, should have presented the reader with certain ideals to follow. For example, Plyushkin from the stingy and suspicious senile man of the first volume was supposed to turn into a beneficent wanderer, helping the poor and getting to the scene of events on his own. The author conceived a wonderful monologue on behalf of this hero. The other characters and details of the third volume are unknown today.

Translations

The poem “Dead Souls” began to gain international fame during the writer’s lifetime. In a number of cases, translations of fragments or individual chapters of the novel were first published. In 1846, a German translation of F. Lobenstein's Die toten Seelen was published in Leipzig (reprinted in 1871, 1881, 1920), in 1913 another translation was published under the title Paul Tschitchikow's Irrfahrten oder Die toten Seelen. Three years after the first German translation, a Czech translation appeared K. Havlichka-Borovsky (1849). An anonymous translation of Home life in Russia. By a Russian noble was published in London in 1854. The poem was first published in the United States of America in 1886 under the title Tchitchikoff. journeys, or Dead souls (reprinted in London in 1887). Subsequently, under the title Dead souls, various translations were published in London (1887, 1893, 1915, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1943) and New York (1916, 1936, 1937); sometimes the novel was published with the title Chichikov's journeys; or, Home life in Russia (New York, 1942) or Dead souls. Chichikov's journey or Home life in Russia (New York, 1944). An excerpt in Bulgarian was published in 1858. The first translation in French was published in 1859.

The first Polish translation of the two chapters appeared in 1844 in Józef Kraszewski's journal Atheneum. The translation by Z. Velgosky, published in 1867, suffered from a number of shortcomings. A complete literary translation of the novel by Vladislav Bronevsky was published in 1927.

The first translation of the first volume of the poem into Ukrainian carried out by Ivan Franko in 1882. 1934. it was translated by Grigory Kosynka (edited by V. Podmogilny), in 1935 a translation was published edited by A. Khutoryan, F. Gavrish, M. Shcherbak (two volumes of the poem). In 1948 a translation was published under the editorship of K. Shmygovsky, in 1952 - under the editorship of I. Senchenko (two volumes of the poem).

An excerpt from “Nozdryov” translated into Lithuanian by Vincas Petaris was published in 1904. Motējus Miskinis prepared a translation of the first volume in 1922-1923, but it was not published then; his translation was published in Kaunas in 1938 and went through several editions.

The first transfer to Albanian a fragment about the Russian troika appeared, published in 1952. In Bulgarian, an excerpt about two writers from Chapter VII was first published (1858), then a translation of the first four chapters (1891); The entire novel was first published in 1911.

The first Belarusian translation was carried out in 1952 by Mikhas Mashara. Also in 1990, “Dead Souls” was translated into Belarusian by Pavel Misko.

The complete translation of “Dead Souls” into Esperanto was carried out by Vladimir Vychegzhanin and published by Sezonoj in 2001.

Film adaptations

The poem has been filmed several times.

  • In 1909, the film “Dead Souls” was shot in Khanzhonkov’s studio (directed by Pyotr Chardynin)
  • In 1960, the film-play “Dead Souls” was shot (directed by Leonid Trauberg, in the role of Chichikov - Vladimir Belokurov)
  • In 1969, the film-play “Dead Souls” was shot (directed by Alexander Belinsky, in the role of Chichikov - Igor Gorbachev).
  • In 1974, at the Soyuzmultfilm studio, two films were filmed based on the plot of Dead Souls. animated films: “The Adventures of Chichikov. Manilov" and "The Adventures of Chichikov. Nozdryov." Directed by Boris Stepantsev.
  • In 1984, the film “Dead Souls” was shot (directed by Mikhail Schweitzer, in the role of Chichikov - Alexander Kalyagin).
  • Based on the work, the series “The Case of Dead Souls” was filmed in 2005 (the role of Chichikov was played by Konstantin Khabensky).

Theater productions

The poem has been staged many times in Russia. Directors often turn to M. Bulgakov’s stage play based on work of the same name Gogol (1932).

  • 1933 - Moscow Art Theater, “Dead Souls” (based on the play by M. Bulgakov). Director: V. Nemirovich-Danchenko
  • 1978 - Moscow Taganka Drama and Comedy Theater, “Revision Tale”. Production: Y. Lyubimova
  • 1979 - Moscow Drama Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, “The Road”. Staged by A. Efros
  • 1988 - Moscow Drama Theater named after. Stanislavsky, Solo performance “Dead Souls”. Director: M. Rozovsky Cast: Alexander Filippenko
  • 1993 - Theater "Russian Entreprise" named after. A. Mironov, “Dead Souls” (based on the works of M. Bulgakov and N. Gogol). Director: Vlad Furman. Cast: Sergey Russkin, Nikolay Dick, Alexey Fedkin
  • 1999 - Moscow state theater“Lenkom”, “Mystification” (based on the play “Brother Chichikov” by N. Sadur; fantasy based on N. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”). Staged by M. Zakharov. Cast: Dmitry Pevtsov, Tatyana Kravchenko, Viktor Rakov
  • 2000 - “Contemporary”, “Dead Souls”. Director: Dmitry Zhamoida. Cast: Ilya Drenov, Kirill Mazharov, Yana Romanchenko, Tatyana Koretskaya, Rashid Nezametdinov
  • 2005 - Theater named after. Mayakovsky, “Dead Souls”. Director: Sergey Artsibashev. Cast: Daniil Spivakovsky, Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Alexander Lazarev, Igor Kostolevsky
  • 2006 - Moscow Theater-Studio directed by Oleg Tabakov, “Adventure based on N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls.” Director: Mindaugas Karbauskis. Cast: Sergei Bezrukov, Oleg Tabakov, Boris Plotnikov, Dmitry Kulichkov.
  • 2006 - State Academic Central Puppet Theater named after S. V. Obraztsov, “Concert for Chichikov with orchestra.” Director: Andrey Dennikov. Cast: Andrey Dennikov, Maxim Mishaev, Elena Povarova, Irina Yakovleva, Irina Osintsova, Olga Alisova, Yana Mikhailova, Alexey Pevzner, Alexander Anosov.
  • 2009 - Sverdlovsk State academic theater musical comedy, "Dead Souls". Libretto by Konstantin Rubinsky, composer Alexander Pantykin.
  • 2010 - Omsk State Musical Theatre, “Dead Souls”. Libretto by Olga Ivanova and Alexander Butvilovsky, poems by Sergei Plotov, composer Alexander Zhurbin.
  • Since 2005 - National Academic Theater named after Yanka Kupala (Minsk, Republic of Belarus), “Chichikov”. Director: Valery Raevsky, costumes and set design: Boris Gerlovan, composer: Viktor Kopytko. People's and Honored Artists of Belarus, as well as young actors, are involved in the performance. The role of the police chief's wife is played by Svetlana Zelenkovskaya.
  • 2013 - Omsk Theater for Children and Youth (Omsk, Russia), “My dear Plyushkin.” Director: Boris Gurevich.

Opera

The opera Dead Souls, written by Rodion Shchedrin in 1976, was staged on June 7, 1977 at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater. Director: Boris Pokrovsky. Main roles: A. Voroshilo (Chichikov), L. Avdeeva (Korobochka), V. Piavko (Nozdrev), A. Maslennikov (Selifan). Conductor Yuri Temirkanov later transferred the opera to the Kirov (Mariinsky) Theater in Leningrad. Company "Melody" on vinyl records a recording was released, later reissued abroad by BMG.

Illustrations

Illustrations for the novel “Dead Souls” were created by outstanding Russian and foreign artists.

  • The classic works were the drawings of A. A. Agin, engraved by his permanent collaborator E. E. Bernardsky.

    Nozdryov A. A. Agina

    Sobakevich A. A. Agina

    Plyushkin A. A. Agina

    The lady is simply pleasant and the lady is pleasant in every way

“One Hundred Drawings for N.V. Gogol’s Poem “Dead Souls”” was published in 1848-1847 in notebooks containing four woodcuts in each. In addition to Bernardsky, his students F. Bronnikov and P. Kurenkov took part in engraving the illustrations. The entire series (104 drawings) was published in 1892 and phototypically repeated in 1893. In 1902, when the exclusive copyright for Gogol’s works, owned by the St. Petersburg publisher A. F. Marx, expired, two editions of “Dead Souls” with drawings by A. A. Agin (St. Petersburg Electric Printing House and the publishing house of F. F. Pavlenkov) were published. . In 1934 and 1935, a book with illustrations by Agina was published by the State Publishing House of Fiction. In 1937, “Dead Souls” with drawings by Agin, reengraved by M. G. Pridantsev and I. S. Neutolimov, was published by the Academia publishing house. Later, E. E. Bernardsky's engravings were reproduced photomechanically (Dagestan State Publishing House, Makhachkala, 1941; Children's State Publishing House, 1946, 1949; Goslitizdat, 1961; advertising and computer agency "Trud", 2001). Agin’s illustrations were also reproduced in foreign editions of Dead Souls: 25 of them in German translation, published in 1913 in Leipzig; 100 - in the edition published by the Zander publishing house in Berlin without indicating the year. Agin's drawings were reproduced in the publication of the Berlin publishing house Aufbau Verlag (1954).

  • Another recognized series of illustrations for the novel belongs to P. M. Boklevsky.

    Nozdryov P. M. Boklevsky

    Sobakevich P. M. Boklevsky

    Plyushkin P. M. Boklevsky

    Manilov P. M. Boklevsky

The artist began working on illustrations for “Dead Souls” in the 1860s. However, the first publication dates back to 1875, when 23 watercolor portraits of Gogol’s heroes, reproduced using woodcut techniques, were published by the Moscow magazine “Bee”. Then seven more drawings appeared in the magazine “Picturesque Review” in 1879, 1880, 1887. The first independent publication of Boklevsky’s illustrations was “Album of Gogol’s Types” (St. Petersburg, 1881), published by N. D. Tyapkin with a foreword by V. Ya. Stoyunin. The album consisted of 26 drawings previously published in magazines. It was repeatedly republished using the woodcut technique by St. Petersburg typographers S. Dobrodeev (1884, 1885), E. Hoppe (1889, 1890, 1894). In 1895, Moscow publisher V. G. Gautier published an album using the new phototype technique with a foreword by L. A. Belsky. The 1881 album with Boklevsky's drawings was facsimilely reproduced in Germany by the Berlin publishing house Rutten und Loning (1952). Boklevsky's drawings were rarely used as actual illustrations. They were most fully presented in the 5th volume of N.V. Gogol’s “Complete Works,” published by the Pechatnik publishing house (Moscow, 1912). Later, Boklevsky’s drawings illustrated the publication of “Dead Souls” (Goslitizdat, 1952) and the 5th volume of Gogol’s “Collected Works” (Goslitizdat, 1953). Seven oval bust images of Chichikov, Manilov, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin, Captain Kopeikin, Tentetnikov in the “Collected Works” were printed on coated paper on separate sheets using the autotype technique.

  • P. P. Sokolov, the son of the painter P. F. Sokolov, first completed a series of color watercolors (located in the State Russian Museum). A few years later, the artist returned to the themes of “Dead Souls” and in the 1890s he completed a series of black and white watercolors. His work was originally published as postcards in the early 1890s and was published as a 12-sheet album. In 1891, color watercolors by Pyotr Petrovich Sokolov, originally published in the form of postcards, were published in the form of an album. As book illustrations, Sokolov’s black and white watercolors were first used in Gogol’s “Illustrated Complete Works” by the Moscow publishing house “Pechatnik” in 1911-1912. In 1947, 25 of Sokolov’s drawings were reproduced on separate sheets in a publication published in the Goslitizdat “Russian Classical Literature” series.
  • The Itinerant painter V. E. Makovsky painted watercolors on the themes of “Dead Souls” in 1901-1902, without intending his works to serve as illustrations. Unlike Boklevsky, who preferred “portraits” of heroes, Makovsky is dominated by multi-figure compositions and landscapes; Great importance is attached to authentically recreated interiors. Makovsky’s works were published in 1902 in the publication “Narodnaya benefit”, then in 1948 (25 watercolors were reproduced) and in 1952 (four sheets of illustrations) in Goslitizdat publications.
  • In 1901, the St. Petersburg publisher A. F. Marx published an illustrated edition of “Dead Souls,” in the preparation of which a large group of artists was involved under the leadership of P. P. Gnedich and M. M. Dalkevich: landscapes were painted by N. N. Bazhin and N. N. Khokhryakhov, everyday scenes - V. A. Andreev, A. F. Afanasyev, V. I. Bystrenin, M. M. Dalkevich, F. S. Kozachinsky, I. K. Mankovsky, N. V. Pirogov, E . P. Samokish-Sudkovskaya, initials and vignettes - N. S. Samokish. In total, 365 illustrations were made for the 1901 edition, with endings and vignettes - 560, of which 10 illustrations were reproduced in heliogravure and printed on separate sheets, the rest were placed in the text and printed using the autotype technique. Marx spent a significant amount of money on acquiring the rights to use illustrative originals from artists - about 7,000 rubles. This publication was not repeated until 2010; only some drawings from it were used in the Bulgarian edition of 1950. In 2010, the Vita Nova publishing house published a book in which the complete set of illustrations (365 drawings) of the edition of A. F. Marx was reproduced. Appendix to the book is a historical and analytical essay on the illustration of Gogol’s poem in the 19th century, written by St. Petersburg art critic D. Ya. Severyukhin.
  • The 1909 edition, carried out by I. D. Sytin, is illustrated by Z. Pichugin and S. Yaguzhinsky, whose works did not make any significant contribution to the iconography of Gogol’s poem.
  • In 1923-1925, Marc Chagall created a series of etchings dedicated to “Dead Souls”. A French edition of the poem with Chagall's illustrations never appeared. 1927 artist donated works Tretyakov Gallery, where they were periodically exhibited. The text of the poem and illustrations were combined only in 2004 in the publication “N. V. Gogol „Dead souls. Illustrations by Marc Chagall.“” ISBN 5-9582-0009-7.
  • In 1953, the State Publishing House of Children's Literature of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR published a poem with 167 drawings by the artist A. M. Laptev. These illustrations were also used in subsequent reprints of this book.
  • In 1981, by the publishing house " Fiction“Dead Souls” was published (the text was printed according to the publication by N.V. Gogol. Collected Works in six volumes, vol. 5. M. Goslitizdat, 1959) with illustrations by V. Goryaev.
  • In 2013, the Vita Nova publishing house published the poem with illustrations by the Moscow graphic artist, famous animator S. A. Alimov

Chagall began working on illustrations for Dead Souls in 1923, fulfilling an order from the French marchand and publisher Ambroise Vollard. The entire edition was printed in 1927. The book is a translation of Gogol's text into French A. Mongo with Chagall's illustrations was published in Paris only in 1948, almost ten years after Vollard's death, thanks to the efforts of another outstanding French publisher, Eugene Teriade.

Notes

  1. In the Soviet school, the passage “Troika Bird” was required to be memorized.

Footnotes

  1. Mann Yu. V. Gogol. Brief literary encyclopedia. T. 2: Gavrilyuk - Zulfigar Shirvani. Stb. 210-218. Fundamental electronic library"Russian literature and folklore" (1964). Retrieved June 2, 2009. Archived from the original on February 19, 2012.
  2. Vadim Polonsky. Gogol. Around the world. Yandex. Retrieved June 2, 2009. Archived from the original on February 19, 2012.
  3. N.V. Gogol in Rome in the summer of 1841. - P.V. Annenkov. Literary Memoirs. Introductory article by V. I. Kuleshov; comments by A. M. Dolotova, G. G. Elizavetina, Yu. V. Mann, I. B. Pavlova. Moscow: Fiction, 1983 (Series of literary memoirs).
  4. Khudyakov V.V. The scam of Chichikov and Ostap Bender // the city of blooming acacias... Bendery: people, events, facts / ed. V.Valavin. - Bendery: Polygraphist, 1999. - pp. 83-85. - 464 s. - 3200 copies. - ISBN 5-88568-090-6.
  5. Mann Yu. V. searching for a living soul: “Dead Souls.” Writer - critic - reader. Moscow: Book, 1984 (The Fates of Books). P. 7.
  6. Khyetso G. What happened to the second volume of “Dead Souls”? // Questions of literature. - 1990. - No. 7. - P.128-139.
  7. Complete works and letters in 17 volumes, 2009-2010, Gogol N.V., Moscow Patriarchate Publishing House, ISBN 978-5-88017-089-0
  8. Dmitry Bykov. Lecture “Gogol. searching for the second volume"
  9. Gogol N.V. Dead souls.
  10. “Putin’s Russia: Sochi or bust”, The Economist Feb 1st 2014
  11. The mystery of the crypt under Oktyabrsky
  12. N.V. Gogol. Collected works in eight volumes. Volume 6. P. 316
  13. Yu. V. Mann. searching for a living soul: “Dead souls.” Writer - critic - reader. Moscow: Book, 1984 (The Fates of Books). P. 387; Bibliography of translations into foreign languages works of N.V. Gogol. Moscow: All-Union State Library foreign literature, 1953. pp. 51-57.
  14. V. Brio. The work of N.V. Gogol in Lithuania. - Interethnic literary connections in Russian literature lessons. Collection of articles. Kaunas: Shviesa, 1985. pp. 24, 26.
  15. Bibliography of translations into foreign languages ​​of the works of N. V. Gogol. Moscow: All-Union State Library of Foreign Literature, 1953. pp. 51-52.
  16. Belarusian writings: 1917-1990. Mensk: Mastatskaya Literature, 1994.
  17. Review in the British Esperantist magazine (Esp.)
  18. E. L. Nemirovsky. Illustrated editions of “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol. - “CompuArt” 2004, No. 1
  19. “Album of Gogol’s types based on drawings by the artist P. Boklevsky”
  20. E. L. Nemirovsky. Illustrated editions of “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol. - “CompuArt” 2004, No. 2
  21. The latest one was published today in 2008 (ISBN 978-5-280-03429-7) by the publishing house “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura” under the title “Dead Souls. A poem told by the artist A. Laptev (with the Appendix of text fragments in Russian and English. languages ​​and galleries of portraits of Gogol’s characters made by the artist P. Boklevsky) / Idea, compilation, preface and comments by V. Modestov.
  22. Edition “Illustrations by Marc Chagall for N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls””, L.V. Khmelnitskaya

Literature

  • Nabokov V.V. Nikolai Gogol. // Lectures on Russian literature. - M., 1996. - 440 pp. - pp. 31-136. ISBN 5-86712-025-2
  • Tertz A. (Sinyavsky A.D.) shadows of Gogol. // Collection op. in 2 vols., T. 2. - M., 1992. - 655 pp. - pp. 3-336.

See also

  • Yastrzhembsky, Nikolai Feliksovich
  • Association of Dead People

Links

Wikiquote has a page on the topic
  • Dead souls in the library of Maxim Moshkov

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Dead Souls Information About

"Dead Souls" is one of the most famous works created by N.V. Gogol. The first volume of the book was published in 1842, but he began work on it back in 1835. The author spent 17 years of hard work on the work. The author dreamed of creating a big epic work, which would be dedicated to Russia.

Pushkin gave Gogol the idea for Dead Souls. It is worth mentioning that the young writer idolized Alexander Sergeevich. He told a story about a landowner who sold dead souls, for which he received good money. This was originally an idea for satirical work, but throughout the creation of the plot, the characters of the characters became more complex. Thus, this work became a reflection of the most diverse characters that can be met on a trip to Russia. Nikolai Vasilyevich wrote about this in his diary. Russian broad soul with all the positive and negative traits was revealed in each of the heroes. The three volumes in the planned work were a reference to Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy. They had to repeat the concept of sealing sins - cleansing and resurrection.

Pushkin was a kind of teacher and assistant in writing for Gogol, so the author read the first chapters to the poet, expecting laughter from the second. But he had no time for fun at all: the problems of Russia led him into deep thought and even melancholy. The hopelessness was killing. “God, how sad our Russia is!” - Pushkin exclaimed.

During the entire period of writing, the work has undergone many edits and rewrites. The author often made concessions and deleted some scenes. For example, censorship could not allow “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” to be published, since it clearly exposed many of the vices of modern Russia: abuse of power, high prices. Gogol did not want to remove this part under any circumstances, so he practically removed the comic motives from it. It was easier to remake and leave the meaning than to completely remove it from the novel.

With the publication of the book, people turned against Gogol. He was accused of gossiping about Russia. But the famous literary critic Belinsky took the author’s side.

Gogol went abroad again and continued working on the work. However, work on the second volume proceeded as if under pressure. The author could not cope with internal conflict, the creation story is full of mental suffering. Gogol's Christian ideals did not coincide with the real world. Initially, the second volume was conceived as a kind of purification of the main character - Chichikov - among the positive landowners. It was the complete opposite of the first volume. As a result, the author concluded that there was absolutely no truth in it; the volume was burned in 1845 during an exacerbation of the disease.

Despite the entire history of the novel “Dead Souls,” it plays a significant role in the history of Russian literature.

You can use this text for a reader's diary

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The history of the creation of the poem Dead Souls. Picture for the story

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February 24, 1852 Nikolai Gogol burned the second, final edition of the second volume of “Dead Souls” - the main work in his life (he also destroyed the first edition seven years earlier). Walked Lent, the writer ate practically nothing, and the only person he gave to read his manuscript called the novel “harmful” and advised him to destroy a number of chapters from it. The author threw the entire manuscript into the fire at once. And the next morning, realizing what he had done, he regretted his impulse, but it was too late.

But the first few chapters of the second volume are still familiar to readers. A couple of months after Gogol’s death, his draft manuscripts were discovered, including four chapters for the second book of Dead Souls. AiF.ru tells the story of both volumes of one of the most famous Russian books.

The title page of the first edition of 1842 and the title page of the second edition of “Dead Souls” of 1846, based on a sketch by Nikolai Gogol. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Thanks to Alexander Sergeevich!

In fact, the plot of “Dead Souls” does not belong to Gogol at all: interesting idea suggested to my “colleague in writing” Alexander Pushkin. During his exile in Chisinau, the poet heard an “outlandish” story: it turned out that in one place on the Dniester, judging by official documents, no one had died for several years. There was no mysticism in this: the names of the dead were simply assigned to runaway peasants who, in search of better life ended up on the Dniester. So it turned out that the city received an influx of new labor force, the peasants had a chance to new life(and the police could not even identify the fugitives), and statistics showed no deaths.

Having slightly modified this plot, Pushkin told it to Gogol - this most likely happened in the fall of 1831. And four years later, on October 7, 1835, Nikolai Vasilyevich sent Alexander Sergeevich a letter with the following words: “I started writing Dead Souls.” The plot stretches out into a long novel and, it seems, will be very funny.” Gogol's main character is an adventurer who pretends to be a landowner and buys up dead peasants who are still listed as living in the census. And he pawns the resulting “souls” in a pawnshop, trying to get rich.

Three circles of Chichikov

Gogol decided to make his poem (and this is how the author designated the genre of “Dead Souls”) three-part - in this the work is reminiscent of “ Divine Comedy» Dante Alighieri. In Dante's medieval poem, the hero travels through the afterlife: he goes through all the circles of hell, passes through purgatory and, in the end, having become enlightened, ends up in heaven. Gogol's plot and structure are conceived in a similar way: main character, Chichikov, travels around Russia, observing the vices of the landowners, and gradually changes himself. If in the first volume Chichikov appears as a clever schemer who is able to gain the trust of any person, then in the second he is caught in a scam with someone else's inheritance and almost goes to prison. Most likely, the author assumed that in the final part his hero would end up in Siberia along with several other characters, and, having gone through a series of tests, they would all become honest people, role models.

But Gogol never began writing the third volume, and the contents of the second can only be guessed from the four surviving chapters. Moreover, these records are working and incomplete, and the characters have “different” names and ages.

"Sacred Testament" of Pushkin

In total, Gogol wrote the first volume of “Dead Souls” (the same one that we now know so well) for six years. The work began in his homeland, then continued abroad (the writer “went there” in the summer of 1836) - by the way, the writer read the first chapters to his “inspiration” Pushkin just before leaving. The author worked on the poem in Switzerland, France and Italy. Then he returned to Russia in short “forays,” read excerpts from the manuscript at social evenings in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and then went abroad again. In 1837, Gogol received news that shocked him: Pushkin was killed in a duel. The writer considered that it was now his duty to finish “Dead Souls”: thereby he would fulfill the “sacred will” of the poet, and he set to work even more diligently.

By the summer of 1841, the book was completed. The author came to Moscow planning to publish the work, but encountered serious difficulties. Moscow censorship did not want to let “Dead Souls” through and was going to ban the poem from publication. Apparently, the censor who “got” the manuscript helped Gogol and warned him about the problem, so that the writer managed to transport “Dead Souls” through Vissarion Belinsky (literary critic and publicist) from Moscow to the capital - St. Petersburg. At the same time, the author asked Belinsky and several of his influential friends from the capital to help pass censorship. And the plan was a success: the book was allowed. In 1842, the work was finally published - then it was called “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls, a poem by N. Gogol.”

Illustration by Pyotr Sokolov for Nikolai Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls.” "Chichikov's arrival to Plyushkin." 1952 Reproduction. Photo: RIA Novosti / Ozersky

First edition of the second volume

It is impossible to say for sure when exactly the author began writing the second volume - presumably, this happened in 1840, even before the first part was published. It is known that Gogol worked on the manuscript again in Europe, and in 1845, during a mental crisis, he threw all the sheets into the oven - this was the first time he destroyed the manuscript of the second volume. Then the author decided that his calling was to serve God in the literary field, and came to the conclusion that he had been chosen to create a great masterpiece. As Gogol wrote to his friends while working on Dead Souls: “... it is a sin, a strong sin, a grave sin to distract me! Only one who does not believe my words and is inaccessible to lofty thoughts is allowed to do this. My work is great, my feat is saving. I am now dead to everything petty.”

According to the author himself, after burning the manuscript of the second volume, insight came to him. He realized what the content of the book should really be: more sublime and “enlightened.” And inspired Gogol began the second edition.

Character illustrations that have become classics
Works by Alexander Agin for the first volume
Nozdryov Sobakevich Plyushkin Ladies
Works by Peter Boklevsky for the first volume
Nozdryov Sobakevich Plyushkin Manilov
Works by Peter Boklevsky and I. Mankovsky for the second volume
Peter Rooster

Tentetnikov

General Betrishchev

Alexander Petrovich

"Now it's all gone." Second edition of the second volume

When the next, already second, manuscript of the second volume was ready, the writer persuaded his spiritual teacher, Rzhevsky Archpriest Matthew Konstantinovsky read it - the priest was just visiting Moscow at that time, in the house of a friend of Gogol. Matthew initially refused, but after reading the edition, he advised that several chapters be destroyed from the book and never published. A few days later, the archpriest left, and the writer practically stopped eating - and this happened 5 days before the start of Lent.

Portrait of Nikolai Gogol for his mother, painted by Fyodor Moller in 1841, in Rome.

According to legend, on the night of February 23-24, Gogol woke up his Semyon's servant, ordered him to open the stove valves and bring the briefcase in which the manuscripts were kept. To the pleas of the frightened servant, the writer replied: “It’s none of your business! Pray!” - and set fire to his notebooks in the fireplace. No one living today can know what motivated the author then: dissatisfaction with the second volume, disappointment or psychological stress. As the writer himself later explained, he destroyed the book by mistake: “I wanted to burn some things that had been prepared for a long time, but I burned everything. How strong the evil one is - that’s what he brought me to! And I understood and presented a lot of useful things there... I thought I would send out a notebook to my friends as a souvenir: let them do what they wanted. Now everything is gone."

After that fateful night, the classic lived for nine days. He died in a state of severe exhaustion and without strength, but until the last he refused to take food. While sorting through his archives, a couple of Gogol's friends, in the presence of the Moscow civil governor, found the draft chapters of the second volume a couple of months later. He didn’t even have time to start the third... Now, 162 years later, “Dead Souls” is still read, and the work is considered a classic not only of Russian, but of all world literature.

"Dead Souls" in ten quotes

“Rus, where are you going? Give me the answer. Doesn't give an answer."

“And what Russian doesn’t like driving fast?”

“There is only one decent person there: the prosecutor; and even that one, to tell the truth, is a pig.”

“Love us black, and everyone will love us white.”

“Oh, Russian people! He doesn’t like to die his own death!”

“There are people who have a passion to spoil their neighbors, sometimes for no reason at all.”

“Often, through the laughter visible to the world, tears flow invisible to the world.”

“Nozdryov was in some respects historical person. Not a single meeting where he attended was complete without a story.”

“It is very dangerous to look deeper into women’s hearts.”

“Fear is stickier than the plague.”

Illustration by Pyotr Sokolov for Nikolai Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls.” "Chichikov at Plyushkin's." 1952 Reproduction. Photo: RIA Novosti / Ozersky

How to understand what Nikolai Gogol really wanted to say

Text: Natalya Lebedeva/RG
Collage: Year of Literature.RF/

Photo portrait of N. V. Gogol from the group daguerreotype of S. L. Levitsky. Author K. A. Fisher/ ru.wikipedia.org

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is rightfully considered one of the most mysterious writers Russian literature. Many secrets of his life and work have not yet been revealed by researchers. One of these mysteries is the fate of the second volume of Dead Souls. Why did Gogol burn the second volume, and did he burn it at all? But literary scholars were still able to reveal some of the secrets of Dead Souls. Why are “Russian men” so remarkable, why did playing whist become a “smart activity” and what role does the fly that flew into Chichikov’s nose play in the novel? About this and more literary historian, translator, candidate of philological sciences Evgeniya Shraga told on Arzamas.

1. The secret of Russian men

In the first paragraph of Dead Souls, a chaise with Chichikov enters the provincial town of NN:

“His entry made absolutely no noise in the city and was not accompanied by anything special; only two Russian men standing at the door of the tavern opposite the hotel made some comments..."

This is clearly an unnecessary detail: from the first words it is clear that the action takes place in Russia. Why clarify that the men are Russian? Such a phrase would sound appropriate only in the mouth of a foreigner describing his impressions abroad. Literary historian Semyon Vengerov in an article entitled “Gogol did not know real Russian life at all” he explained it this way:

Gogol really learned late about the actual Russian (and not Ukrainian) life, not to mention the life of the Russian province,

Therefore, such an epithet was truly significant for him. Vengerov was sure: “If Gogol had thought about it for even one minute, he would certainly have crossed out this absurd epithet that says absolutely nothing to the Russian reader.”

But he didn’t cross out - and for good reason: in fact, this is a technique that is most characteristic of the poetics of “Dead Souls”, which the poet and philologist

called “a figure of fiction” - when something (and often a lot) is said, but nothing is actually said, definitions do not define, descriptions do not describe.

Another example of this poetics is the description of the main character. He “not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin; one cannot say that he is old, but not that he is too young”, “a middle-aged man with a rank neither too high nor too low”, “a gentleman of average rank”, whose face we never see, although he looks with pleasure in the mirror.

2. The mystery of the rainbow scarf

This is how we see Chichikov for the first time:

“The gentleman took off his cap and unwound from his neck a woolen scarf of rainbow colors, which the wife prepares for married people with her own hands, providing decent instructions on how to wrap themselves up, and for single people - I probably can’t say who makes it, God knows...”

“...I have never worn a headscarf like this,”- continues the narrator of “Dead Souls”. The description is constructed in a very characteristic Gogol image: the intonation of a know-it-all - “I know everything about such scarves”- changes abruptly to the opposite - “I’m single, I didn’t wear anything like that, I don’t know anything.” Behind this familiar technique and in such a familiar abundance of details, a rainbow scarf is well hidden.

“The next day he woke up quite late in the morning. The sun through the window shone straight into his eyes, and the flies that had slept peacefully yesterday on the walls and ceiling all turned to him: one sat on his lip, another on his ear, the third strove to settle on his very eye, the same one that had the imprudence to sit close to the nasal nostril, he pulled in his sleep right into his nose, which made him sneeze very hard - a circumstance that was the reason for his awakening.”

It is interesting that the narrative is filled with detailed descriptions of the universal dream, and only this awakening of Chichikov is an event that is described in detail.

Chichikov wakes up from a fly flying into his nose. His feelings are described almost in the same way as the shock of officials who heard about Chichikov’s scam:

“The position of them [the officials] at the first minute was similar to the position of a schoolboy, whose sleepy comrades, who had risen early, thrust a piece of paper filled with tobacco into the nose of a hussar. Having pulled all the tobacco towards himself in his sleep with all the zeal of a sleeper, he awakens, jumps up, looks like a fool, his eyes bulging in all directions, and cannot understand where he is, what he is, what happened to him ... "

Strange rumors alarmed the city, and this excitement is described as the awakening of those who had previously indulged in “dead dreams on their sides, on their backs and in all other positions, with snoring, nasal whistles and other accessories”, the entire “hitherto slumbering city " Before us is the resurrection of the dead, albeit a parody. But all this had such an effect on the city prosecutor that he completely died. His death is paradoxical, since in a sense it is a resurrection:

A. A. Agin. " Dead souls" Chichikov and Korobochka. 1846/ www.nasledie-rus.ru

“...They sent for a doctor to draw blood, but they saw that the prosecutor was already one soulless body. Only then did they learn with condolences that the deceased definitely had a soul, although out of his modesty he never showed it.”

The contrast between sleep and awakening is associated with the key motifs of the novel - death and revival. The impetus for awakening can be the most insignificant little thing - a fly, tobacco, a strange rumor. The “Resurrector,” played by Chichikov, does not need to have any special virtues - it is enough for him to be in the role of a fly in his nose: to break the usual course of life.

5. How to keep up with everything: Chichikov’s secret

Chichikov leaves Korobochka:

“Although the day was very good, the ground became so polluted that the wheels of the chaise, catching it, soon became covered with it like felt, which significantly burdened the crew; Moreover, the soil was clayey and unusually tenacious. Both were the reasons that they could not get out of the country roads before noon.”

So, in the afternoon, the hero struggles to get out onto the pillar. Before this, after lengthy bickering, he bought 18 revision souls from Korobochka and ate unleavened pie with eggs and pancakes. Meanwhile, he woke up at ten. How did Chichikov manage to do everything in just over two hours?

This is not the only example of Gogol's free use of time. Setting off from the city of NN to Manilovka, Chichikov gets into a chaise wearing an “overcoat on big bears,” and on the way he meets men in sheepskin coats - the weather is clearly not summer. Arriving at Manilov, he sees a house on the mountain, “clad with trimmed turf”, “bushes of lilacs and yellow acacias”, birch with “small-leafed thin peaks”, “a pond covered with greenery”, women are wandering knee-deep in a pond - no longer wearing any sheepskin coats. Waking up the next morning in Korobochka’s house, Chichikov looks out of the window at “spacious vegetable gardens with cabbage, onions, potatoes, beets and other household vegetables” and “ fruit trees covered with nets to protect them from magpies and sparrows"- The time of year has changed again. Returning to the city, Chichikov will again put on his "a bear covered with brown cloth." “Wearing bears covered with brown cloth and a warm cap with ears” Manilov will also come to the city. In general, as it is said in another Gogol text: “I don’t remember the numbers. It wasn’t a month either.”

Cover of the first edition of the poem “Dead Souls”, made according to a drawing by N. V. Gogol

In general, the world of “Dead Souls” is a world without time. The seasons do not follow each other in order, but accompany a place or character, becoming its additional characteristic. Time stops flowing in the expected way, freezing in an ugly eternity - "a state of continued immobility", according to the philologist Michael Weiskopf.

6. The mystery of the guy with the balalaika

Chichikov orders Selifan to leave at dawn, Selifan scratches his head in response, and the narrator discusses what this means:

“Is it annoyance that the meeting planned for the next day with my brother in an unsightly sheepskin coat, surrounded by a sash, somewhere in the Tsar’s tavern, somewhere in the Tsar’s tavern, did not work out, or some kind of sweetheart has already started in a new place and I have to leave the evening standing at the gate and political holding of white hands at that hour, as twilight falls on the city, a kid in a red shirt strums a balalaika in front of the courtyard servants and weaves quiet speeches of the common, well-served people?<…>God knows, you won't guess. Scratching the back of the head means many different things to the Russian people.”

Such passages are very typical of Gogol: to tell a lot of everything and come to the conclusion that nothing is clear, and there is nothing to talk about at all. But in this next passage that explains nothing, the guy with the balalaika attracts attention. We've already seen it somewhere:

“Approaching the porch, he noticed two faces looking out of the window almost at the same time: a woman’s in a cap, narrow, long, like a cucumber, and a man’s, round, wide, like the Moldavian pumpkins, called gourds, from which balalaikas, two-stringed, are made in Rus' , light balalaikas, the beauty and fun of an agile twenty-year-old guy, flashing and dandy, winking and whistling at the white-breasted and white-necked girls who had gathered to listen to his quiet-stringed strumming.”

You can never predict where Gogol’s comparison will lead:

the comparison of Sobakevich’s face with a Moldavian pumpkin suddenly turns into a scene with the participation of our balalaika player.

Such extended comparisons are one of the techniques with which Gogol further expands art world novel, introduces into the text something that did not fit even into such a capacious plot as travel, something that Chichikov did not have time or could not see, something that may not fit into the overall picture of life in the provincial city and its surroundings.

But Gogol does not stop there, but takes the dandy with the balalaika who appeared in the extended comparison - and again finds a place for him in the text, and now much closer to the plot reality. From a figure of speech, from a comparison grows real character, which earns its place in the novel and ultimately fits into the plot.

7. Corruption secret

Even before the events of Dead Souls began, Chichikov was a member of the commission “to build some kind of government-owned, very capital building”:

A.A. Agin. "Dead Souls". Manilov with his wife. 1846/ www.nasledie-rus.ru


“For six years [the commission] was busy around the building; but the climate somehow interfered, or the material was already like that, but the government building just couldn’t rise above the foundation. Meanwhile, in other parts of the city, each of the members found themselves beautiful home civil architecture: apparently the soil was better there.”

This mention of “civil architecture” generally fits into Gogol’s redundant style, where definitions do not define anything, and the opposition can easily lack a second element. But initially it was: “civil architecture” was opposed to church architecture. In the earlier edition of Dead Souls, the commission that Chichikov was a member of was designated as the “commission for the construction of the temple of God.”

This episode of Chichikov’s biography was based on the story of the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, well known to Gogol. The temple was founded October 12, 1817 years, in the early 1820s a commission was established, and already in 1827 abuses were discovered, the commission was abolished, and two of its members were put on trial. Sometimes these numbers serve as the basis for dating the events of Chichikov’s biography, but, firstly, as we have already seen, Gogol did not really commit himself to exact chronology; secondly, in the final version, the mention of the temple is removed, the action takes place in the provincial town, and this whole story is reduced to an element of style, to “civil architecture”, in Gogol’s style, no longer opposed to anything.

To work on " Dead souls» Gogol started in 1835. At this time, the writer dreamed of creating a large epic work dedicated to Russia. A.S. Pushkin, who was one of the first to appreciate the uniqueness of Nikolai Vasilyevich’s talent, advised him to take up a serious essay and suggested an interesting plot. He told Gogol about one clever swindler who tried to get rich by pawning the dead souls he bought as living souls on the board of guardians. At that time, many stories were known about real buyers of dead souls. One of Gogol’s relatives was also named among such buyers. The plot of the poem was prompted by reality.

“Pushkin found,” Gogol wrote, “that such a plot of “Dead Souls” is good for me because it gives me complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out many different characters.” Gogol himself believed that in order “to find out what Russia is today, you must certainly travel around it yourself.” In October 1835, Gogol reported to Pushkin: “I began to write Dead Souls.” The plot stretches out into a long novel and, it seems, will be very funny. But now I stopped it on the third chapter. I'm looking for a good sneaker with whom I can get along briefly. In this novel I want to show at least one side of all of Rus'.”

Gogol anxiously read the first chapters of his new work to Pushkin, expecting that they would make him laugh. But, having finished reading, Gogol discovered that the poet became gloomy and said: “God, how sad our Russia is!” This exclamation forced Gogol to take a different look at his plan and rework the material. In further work, he tried to soften the painful impression that “Dead Souls” could have made - he alternated funny phenomena with sad ones.

Most of the work was created abroad, mainly in Rome, where Gogol tried to get rid of the impression made by the attacks of critics after the production of The Inspector General. Being far from his homeland, the writer felt an inextricable connection with it, and only love for Russia was the source of his creativity.

At the beginning of his work, Gogol defined his novel as comic and humorous, but gradually his plan became more complex. In the fall of 1836, he wrote to Zhukovsky: “I redid everything I started again, thought over the whole plan and now I am writing it calmly, like a chronicle... If I complete this creation the way it needs to be done, then... what a huge, what an original plot!.. All Rus' will appear in it!” Thus, in the course of the work, the genre of the work was determined - the poem, and its hero - all of Rus'. At the center of the work was the “personality” of Russia in all the diversity of its life.

After the death of Pushkin, which was a heavy blow for Gogol, the writer considered the work on “Dead Souls” a spiritual covenant, the fulfillment of the will of the great poet: “I must continue the great work that I began, which Pushkin took from me to write, whose thought is his creation and which from now on turned into a sacred testament for me.”

In the fall of 1839, Gogol returned to Russia and read several chapters in Moscow from S.T. Aksakov, whose family he became friends with at that time. Friends liked what they heard, they gave the writer some advice, and he made the necessary amendments and changes to the manuscript. In 1840 in Italy, Gogol repeatedly rewrote the text of the poem, continuing to work hard on the composition and images of the characters, lyrical digressions. In the fall of 1841, the writer returned to Moscow again and read the remaining five chapters of the first book to his friends. This time they noticed that the poem only shows negative aspects Russian life. Having listened to their opinion, Gogol made important insertions into the already rewritten volume.

In the 30s, when an ideological turning point was outlined in Gogol’s consciousness, he came to the conclusion that real writer must not only put on public display everything that darkens and obscures the ideal, but also show this ideal. He decided to embody his idea in three volumes of Dead Souls. In the first volume, according to his plans, the shortcomings of Russian life were to be captured, and in the second and third the ways of resurrecting “dead souls” were shown. According to the writer himself, the first volume of “Dead Souls” is only “a porch to a vast building,” the second and third volumes are purgatory and rebirth. But, unfortunately, the writer managed to realize only the first part of his idea.

In December 1841, the manuscript was ready for publication, but censorship prohibited its release. Gogol was depressed and looked for a way out of this situation. Secretly from his Moscow friends, he turned for help to Belinsky, who arrived in Moscow at that time. The critic promised to help Gogol, and a few days later he left for St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg censors gave permission to publish “Dead Souls,” but demanded that the title of the work be changed to “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls.” In this way, they sought to divert the reader’s attention from social problems and switch it to the adventures of Chichikov.

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” which is plot-related to the poem and is of great importance for revealing the ideological and artistic meaning of the work, was categorically banned by censorship. And Gogol, who treasured it and did not regret giving it up, was forced to rework the plot. In the original version, he laid the blame for the disasters of Captain Kopeikin on the tsar’s minister, who was indifferent to fate ordinary people. After the alteration, all the blame was attributed to Kopeikin himself.

In May 1842, the book went on sale and, according to the recollections of contemporaries, was sold out in great demand. Readers immediately divided into two camps - supporters of the writer’s views and those who recognized themselves in the characters of the poem. The latter, mainly landowners and officials, immediately attacked the writer, and the poem itself found itself at the center of the journal-critical struggle of the 40s.

After the release of the first volume, Gogol devoted himself entirely to work on the second (begun in 1840). Each page was created tensely and painfully; everything written seemed to the writer to be far from perfect. In the summer of 1845, during a worsening illness, Gogol burned the manuscript of this volume. Later he explained his action by saying that “paths and roads” to the ideal, revival human spirit did not receive sufficiently truthful and convincing expression. Gogol dreamed of regenerating people through direct instruction, but he could not - he never saw the ideal “resurrected” people. However, his literary endeavor was later continued by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, who were able to show the rebirth of man, his resurrection from the reality that Gogol so vividly depicted.

All topics in the book “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol. Summary. Features of the poem. Essays":

Summary poem "Dead Souls": Volume one. Chapter One

Features of the poem “Dead Souls”