The book Dead Souls is comedy (not in a funny sense, but as in a story of the outrageous and hyperbolic) that examines the Russian landscape through a character named Chichikov. Chichikov, attempting to build wealth and property, tries purchasing dead slaves (serfs) from local landowners. Though they are dead, it won't be official until the next census therefore he can amass a register of serfs cheaply. One of the themes has to do with the irony of the lifelessness of the actual living landowners and characters in the book compared to the dead serfs who are often described lively and talented. One critic described it as not dealing with life and death, but the death of life.
The book Dead Souls is comedy (not in a funny sense, but as in a story of the outrageous and hyperbolic) that examines the Russian landscape through a character named Chichikov. Chichikov, attempting to build wealth and property, tries purchasing dead slaves (serfs) from local landowners. Though they are dead, it won't be official until the next census therefore he can amass a register of serfs cheaply. One of the themes has to do with the irony of the lifelessness of the actual living landowners and characters in the book compared to the dead serfs who are often described lively and talented. One critic described it as not dealing with life and death, but the death of life.