Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

By Loyal Books

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Episodes: 54

Description

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer, was first published in 1842, and is one of the most prominent works of 19th-century Russian literature. Gogol himself saw it as an “epic poem in prose”, and within the book 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 usually regarded as complete in the extant form. In Russia before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, landowners were entitled to own serfs to farm their land. Serfs were for most purposes considered the property of the landowner, and could be bought, sold, or mortgaged against, as any other chattel. To count serfs (and people in general), the measure word “soul” was used: e.g., “six souls of serfs”. The plot of the novel relies on “dead souls” (i.e., “dead serfs”) which are still accounted for in property registers. On another level, the title refers to the “dead souls” of Gogol’s characters, all of which visualise different aspects of poshlost (an untranslatable Russian word which is perhaps best rendered as “self-satisfied inferiority”, moral and spiritual, with overtones of middle-class pretentiousness, fake significance, and philistinism).

Episode Date
00 – Introduction by John Cournos, and Author’s Preface
Jan 02, 2026
01 – Part I, Chapter I
Jan 01, 2026
02 – Part I, Chapter II – Section 1
Dec 31, 2025
03 – Part I, Chapter II – Section 2
Dec 30, 2025
04 – Part 1, Chapter III – Section 1
Dec 29, 2025
05 – Part 1, Chapter III – Section 2
Dec 28, 2025
06 – Part I, Chapter IV – Section 1
Dec 27, 2025
07 – Part I, Chapter IV – Section 2
Dec 26, 2025
08 – Part I, Chapter V – Section 1
Dec 25, 2025
09 – Part I, Chapter V – Section 2
Dec 24, 2025
10 – Part I, Chapter VI
Dec 23, 2025
11 – Part I, Chapter VII – Section 1
Dec 22, 2025
12 – Part I, Chapter VII – Section 2
Dec 21, 2025
13 – Part I, Chapter VIII
Dec 20, 2025
14 – Part I, Chapter IX
Dec 19, 2025
15 – Part I, Chapter X
Dec 18, 2025
16 – Part I, Chapter XI – Section 1
Dec 17, 2025
17 – Part I, Chapter XI – Section 2
Dec 16, 2025
18 – Part II, Chapter I – Section 1
Dec 15, 2025
19 – Part II, Chapter I – Section 2
Dec 14, 2025
20 – Part II, Chapter II
Dec 13, 2025
21 – Part II, Chapter III – Section 1
Dec 12, 2025
22 – Part II, Chapter III – Section 2
Dec 11, 2025
23 – Part II, Chapter IV – Section 1
Dec 10, 2025
24 – Part II, Chapter IV – Section 2
Dec 09, 2025
25 – Part II, Chapter IV – Section 3
Dec 08, 2025
26 – Part II, Chapter IV – Section 4
Dec 07, 2025