Title: Chickikov's Journey
Product review: In 19th century Russia landowners estimated their wealth not only by the acres they owned, but also by the number of their surfs. Chichikov, a confidence-trickster, realises that serfs that die between official censuses are not legally dead until the next census, and so still count as property. He travels the length and breadth of Russia, buying "dead souls" from landowners, and becomes - on paper at least - one of the wealthiest men in the country. Gogol uses this simple story as the basis for a set of farcical character-studies: he saw the book as a portrait-gallery of contemporary Russia, and filled it with short, self-contained comic episodes. He also wrote, with ironical pointedness, that Chickikov's journey stands for the journey of every human being through life: we move on, never sure of what is coming next, relieved each time that whatever it was we did, we got away with it.
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