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Sasha's Reviews > Dead Souls
Dead Souls
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Here's a Russian douchebag.
This is called poshlust, an untranslatable word referring to a kind of banal tackiness special to Russia. Here's another Russian douchebag:
The stereotype goes all the way back to 1842 and Gogol's great antihero dandy grifter Chichikov, with his Navarino smoke-and-flame silk frock coat and his violet-scented snuffbox, and according to Nabokov poshlust is the great theme of this book, a definition of an essential theme of Russian character.
Chichikov
That's not what Gogol thought Dead Souls was about. He thought he was recreating the Divine Comedy; a morality tale, with three books corresponding to Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. He only finished the first one: in one of the great tantrums of literature, he burned most of his draft for the rest and then starved himself to death. Lucky for us, Inferno is always the good part.
Gogol with his emo face on
The fragments that survive of the rest of Dead Souls, like the ending of Crime & Punishment, get a lot less fun in a hurry. This is the thing about tales of redemption: the redemption is definitely not the fun part. But it's the first great Russian novel, and you can see prototypes here for Raskolnikov and Tolstoy's great conflicted landowner Levin.
Book One of Dead Souls, which is about two thirds of what we have, is awesome. Vivid, surreal, funny, almost silly, as Gogol is. He's dead serious under that, of course, as they always are. Here's close enough to a mission statement:
This is called poshlust, an untranslatable word referring to a kind of banal tackiness special to Russia. Here's another Russian douchebag:
The stereotype goes all the way back to 1842 and Gogol's great antihero dandy grifter Chichikov, with his Navarino smoke-and-flame silk frock coat and his violet-scented snuffbox, and according to Nabokov poshlust is the great theme of this book, a definition of an essential theme of Russian character.
Chichikov
That's not what Gogol thought Dead Souls was about. He thought he was recreating the Divine Comedy; a morality tale, with three books corresponding to Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. He only finished the first one: in one of the great tantrums of literature, he burned most of his draft for the rest and then starved himself to death. Lucky for us, Inferno is always the good part.
Gogol with his emo face on
The fragments that survive of the rest of Dead Souls, like the ending of Crime & Punishment, get a lot less fun in a hurry. This is the thing about tales of redemption: the redemption is definitely not the fun part. But it's the first great Russian novel, and you can see prototypes here for Raskolnikov and Tolstoy's great conflicted landowner Levin.
Book One of Dead Souls, which is about two thirds of what we have, is awesome. Vivid, surreal, funny, almost silly, as Gogol is. He's dead serious under that, of course, as they always are. Here's close enough to a mission statement:
Some wondrous power has doomed me for a long time to walk hand in hand with my strange heroes, to survey in its entirety life that rushes along so massively, to survey it through laughter that is visible to the world and through tears which the world cannot see and does not know.Unfinished books are always frustrating, and I didn't enjoy the fragments after Book One. But that first bit is one of my favorite reading experiences this year. This is the great epic of Russian douchebaggery. Unbutton the top four buttons of your silk shirt and get psyched.
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Reading Progress
November 1, 2016
–
Started Reading
November 1, 2016
– Shelved
November 10, 2016
– Shelved as:
2016
November 10, 2016
–
Finished Reading
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Janice (JG)
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Nov 10, 2016 07:20PM
I was all set to read this with the group, but the first several pages put me off so badly I just set it aside and decided 'never mind.' I think the whole slapstick approach, like a Keystone cops comedy, just is not my cuppa. Glad you got something out of it, because I thought the premise sounded fascinating.
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Superb review of a superb book.
Too bad the parts he burned weren't the parts that corresponded with Inferno. That would've been [insert correct literary term here; I always mess up those words].
JG, have you read his short stories? I assume you wouldn't like those either. And I doubt you made the wrong decision: I think you have an accurate picture of what Gogol's like. Me personally, I think the Keystone Kops are hilarious.Thanks Fernando!
Great Review Alex! This work gets a shout-out in Dog Symphony which I just finished so I might give this one a try. It's been awhile since I've read Gogol.
Nice, Matthew! Thanks.
Excellent review! I didn't know of the Divine Comedy link, the three part plan, the burnings and the suicide. Love the douchebaggery terminology!
Thanks! Good review yourself!
upvoted just cause you shat on putin.
