Regarded as the first great masterpiece of Russian literature, Dead Souls mixes realism and symbolism for a vivid and highly original portrait of Russian life. Chichikov, a mysterious stranger, arrives in a provincial town with a bizarre but seductive proposition for local landowners. He proposes to buy the names of their serfs who have died but are still registered on the census, saving their owners from paying tax on them. But what collateral will Chichikov receive for these "souls"? Full of larger-than-life Dickensian characters-rogues and scoundrels, landowners and serfs, conniving petty officials, and the wily antihero Chichikov-Dead Souls is a devastating comic satire on social hypocrisy.