Dead Souls

By: Nikolai Gogol

Narrated by: Gordon Griffin

Gogol's great comic masterpiece paints an hilariously satirical picture of provincial life in 19th century Russia. Its publication in 1847 not only provided inspiration for succeeding generations of Russian writers, but fanned the already flickering flames of social discontent which were eventually to flare up and consume Russia in the revolution of 1917.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2003 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.

Critic reviews

"Some contend that this novel, one of Gogol's defining works, was a precursor to Joseph Heller's great satirical novel Catch 22. The irony in both runs deep, wide, and circularly; in Gogol's case, we find an early example of the antihero, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, who purchases the souls of dead Russian peasants to further his soulless career. This criminally minded social climber has left the world of corrupt bureaucracy to fleece the self-same bureaucracy in a hilarious fable of small minds in nineteenth-century rural Russia. Gordon Griffin does a marvelous, plummy job of bringing Dead Souls through a glass, darkly." (AudioFile)

Dead Souls is a very funny book

Would you listen to Dead Souls again? Why?

This book is a classic study in the dark comedic aspects of human behavior. The story is about a scam and the responses of the characters when presented with the scam. Everybody wants their piece of the pie.

What did you like best about this story?

The understanding of human nature.

Which scene was your favorite?

The chess game.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Several. The characters that refused to participate were moving.

Any additional comments?

A good book to listen to.

Abridged but side-splittingly funny

Hilarious descriptions of Russian personalities which have many equivalents in contemporary society. very well abridged and beautifully read

dead souls

Didn't care for the abridged version of this book. There was too much missing that was important to the story.