Nikolai Gogol
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol is a satirical novel that follows Chichikov, a cunning and ambitious man who travels through rural Russia buying the legal ownership of 'dead souls' - deceased serfs who are still counted as alive on official records. His plan is to use these names as collateral to gain wealth and status.As he visits different landowners, Gogol uses their eccentric personalities to expose the greed, corruption, and moral decay of Russian society. Though Chichikov’s scheme eventually unravels, the novel remains a powerful critique of human vanity and the emptiness of material ambition.
