Nikolai Gogol, Mertvye dushi (I) [Dead Souls (Part 1)]

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Nikolai Gogol’s

Mertvye dushi

[

Dead Souls

] was published in June 1842, in St. Petersburg, Gogol having despaired of the Moscow censorship. He had been working on it since 1834. The title is a pun – one of many in the work – on the Russian word

dusha

, which can mean “soul” in the spiritual sense, but can also mean “male serf”. In this second sense it was the official term used to describe a landowner’s holding of serfs: s/he owned so many “souls”. The censor chose to concentrate on the first meaning of the word and, on the grounds that “the human soul is immortal”, insisted on the title

Pokhozhdeniia Chichikova ili Mertvye dushi

[

The Adventures of Chichikov or Dead Souls

]. Thus

Dead Souls

became in effect a subtitle, although Gogol managed to get it set in larger…

2426 words

Citation: Pursglove, Michael. "Mertvye dushi (I)". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 January 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20800, accessed 19 March 2024.]

20800 Mertvye dushi (I) 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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