Dead Souls

Dead Souls (Russian: Мёртвые души Mjórtvyje dúshi) is a novel by Nikolai Gogol first published in 1842 and widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature. The novel chronicles the travels and adventures of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov (Russian: Павел Иванович Чичиков) and the people whom he encounters. These people typify the Russian middle-class of the time. Gogol himself saw his work as an epic poem in prose and within the book characterised it as a novel in verse. Despite supposedly completing the trilogy's second part Gogol destroyed it shortly before his death. Although the novel ends in mid-sentence (like Sterne's Sentimental Journey) it is regarded by some as complete in the extant form.