The Dead Souls

*Dead Souls* is a satirical novel by Nikolai Gogol that critiques corruption and societal flaws in 19th-century Russia. The story follows Chichikov, who travels through the countryside buying "dead souls"—the names of landowners' deceased serfs still registered on official lists. By doing so, he aims to exploit the system for personal gain, symbolizing greed and moral decay. Gogol uses satire to expose hypocrisy and the moral emptiness of the era's social classes, offering a vivid, often humorous critique of Russian society and human nature.