"Dead Souls": How Gogol's "Funny Joke" Turned into a Gloomy "Encyclopedia of Russian Life"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Pushkin motivated Gogol to create the poem "Dead Souls". He presented his idea of the plot and persuaded him to take on a worthwhile thing. After some time, Gogol introduced the poet to his book. Pushkin was amazed. Nikolai Vasilievich undertook to describe Russian reality, modeled on the work of Dante. But only one part of "The Divine Comedy in Russian" was released. Dead Souls comes out - the hell of Russian reality. And Gogol's genius was manifested in the ability to clothe all the worst in a shell of subtle and sad humor.

The idea of the poem, as you know, belonged to Pushkin. He had long suggested that Nikolai Vasilyevich write something significant. He cited Cervantes as an example. The argument is weighty. After all, if Cervantes had not created his novel "The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote La Manchinsky", he would not have taken an honorable place among the most famous world authors. And yet, Pushkin hinted at Gogol's poor health and rushed with, as they say now, self-realization. Ultimately, Alexander Sergeevich presented Gogol with his own plot. Pushkin said that he would not give this idea to anyone but Gogol. We managed to motivate. Gogol took up the most important text of his life.

The creative collaboration continued. Gogol read to Pushkin the first chapters of his poem. At first, Alexander Sergeevich laughed a lot. But gradually he became more and more sullen. And when we got to the description of Plyushkin, Pushkin became “completely gloomy”.

- uttered amazed A. S. Pushkin.

Did Gogol immediately come up with the idea of writing three volumes? Or did the global idea come later? - On these issues, the opinion of literary scholars differs.

Pushkin had his own genre - a novel in verse. And Gogol decides to write a prose poem. This step is quite bold, because contemporaries expected to read something light and romantic under such a title. Many believe that Gogol immediately decided that it would be a comedy modeled on the best, "divine" one. In the first volume - the circles of hell, the depiction of the worst. The second volume is the battlefield between good and evil. And in the third volume, apparently, Gogol was going to cleanse and revive the souls of Chichikov and Plyushkin. It is these heroes that have depth. Gogol, telling their story and immersing the reader in the past of the characters, provides them with a chance for a new life.

Gogol creates a gallery of types of people. And the oxymoron in the name refers, of course, to these characters. All these Korobochkas, Manilovs and Sobakevichs no longer have souls. When describing their portraits, the author compares faces with vegetables, objects and animals. Chichikov's eyes look like two mice peeking out of burrows, while the other's face is indistinguishable from a samovar. It is very difficult to portray these characters in paintings. The portrait of Chichikov is especially difficult to paint, because he is a man “without properties”. Illustrations by Pyotr Boklevsky are considered successful (some were added by another artist - Panov). The portraits were published in 1875 in the Bee magazine.

There is also other evidence of the origin of the book. Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov, a Russian writer, literary and theater critic, an official and a public figure, and also a close friend of the author of Dead Souls, has combined precious memories in the book The Story of My Acquaintance with Gogol. Literary critics consider this book one of the most important sources for studying the life and work of Gogol.

And this is what Aksakov writes about the poem:

But does Gogol begin his story as a curious anecdote? A chaise arrives in the provincial town of NN. And this does not mean anything for the townspeople. The person in the chaise does not attract attention at all. He is neither thin nor fat, neither poor nor rich, and at first glance he is not at all interesting. So why does Gogol begin the poem with such an insignificant event? When Gogol read aloud the first chapter, Aksakov's guests laughed to tears. Contemporaries in a different way than we perceived the details of this story.

- says art critic and culturologist Mikhail Kazinik.

Nikolai Gogol has been writing Dead Souls for 9 years. And in May 1851 he completed it in Odessa. He promised himself that he would no longer burn, rewrite, correct and, as it is, would give it to the press. Gogol in those days was cheerful and resolute. He visited his relatives, took up the household. But when he was in Moscow, before meeting with the publisher, he glanced at the book again. And again he was dissatisfied with something. What exactly confused the author is a mystery. Gogol again began to rewrite the poem.

- wrote Gogol to his mother.

In the first volume of Dead Souls, Gogol inserted everything he wanted to ridicule. In the second he put everything that he loved, anticipating that he would not get to the third. Gogol died 10 days after he burned the second volume. All these days he hardly ate - he fasted. Friends asked the priests to remove this unauthorized torturing post from him, but Gogol answered: The plans to repeat Dante's comedy in Russian scenery were not destined to come true.

It is worth saying that Gogol's characters are remembered. A self-taught sculptor lives in an abandoned village in the Poltava region, who made Gogol's Vakula and many more interesting characters.