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The novel "Dead Souls" was originally conceived as a poem in 3 parts, based on Dante's Divine Comedy divided into three parts: hell, purgatory and paradise, but he wrote only one, published in 1842, and 5 fragments of the second part.
The main character, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, comes up with the idea that he could buy a list of dead peasants from the ruler, on which they paid taxes, and thus he would buy dead souls, they start asking about him and suspecting him.
It can be seen as an unfinished novel, but it is the best depiction of Russian rule, so critics consider it completed.
One copy is available
- The cover is missing