Dead Souls.

GOGOL, Nikolai V.

$975.00

Item Number: 132581

London: Vizetelly & Co., n.d..

Finely bound example of Gogol’s masterwork, “the first novel from which the world began to form its ideas of 19th-century Russia” (Hornstein, 139). Octavo, bound in three quarters morocco over marbled boards, gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. In near fine condition.

First published in 1842 in Russian, Gogol’s Dead Souls is now widely regarded as the foundation of the Realist movement in Russia. A satirical story of bureaucracy and serfdom, the novel was extremely popular, as it was interpreted as an obvious condemnation of feudalism. In response to the success of Dead Souls, Gogol began work on a second volume, and “while working on this continuation he began to show signs of religious obsession. In 1848, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he felt confirmed in his belief that he was eternally damned. Convinced of the sinfulness of his creative work, he destroyed the manuscripts of the second part of Dead Souls. What remains is only a disjointed fragment” (Hornstein, 221). Tragically, Gogol burned the draft of the second volume only ten days before his death in 1852.