Dead Souls

Chichikov departs Manilovka in good spirits, but Selifan the coachman — warmed by the hospitality of Manilov's servants — has quietly drunk himself into confusion about the road. After missing several turnings and meandering through darkness, the britchka capsizes in the mud. Chichikov tumbles out and lands on his hands and knees. Selifan, unrepentant, stands contemplating the overturned vehicle with philosophical calm. Eventually barking dogs lead them to a small estate. A woman's voice shouts at them from the gate; they identify themselves as travellers; she lets them in. The mistress of the house — Nastasia Petrovna Korobotchka, widow of a Collegiate Secretary — receives them in a nightcap and flannel neck wrap. She belongs, Gogol tells us, to that class of landowners who are for ever bewailing bad harvests and losses while stuffing roubles into striped purses kept in locked cupboards. Morning reveals a well-managed place: healthy poultry, a kitchen garden, solid peasant huts with new planking. "This lady owns by no means a poor village," Chichikov notes, and resolves to do business. Gogol pauses to deliver an extended observation on Russian social gradation — the precise adjustments of tone a Russian makes for each rank of landowner, from two hundred souls to five hundred to a million, while a Frenchman or German would see no difference at all. Then the negotiation begins. Chichikov explains what he wants. Korobotchka grasps that the souls are dead; she cannot grasp why anyone would want to buy them. She offers hemp. She offers meal. She worries she is being cheated. She wonders whether other buyers might come and offer more. Chichikov explains from six different angles; she returns each time to the problem that they are dead. He sweats, he blots his handkerchief, he loses his temper and invokes the devil — which terrifies her into crossing herself. What finally moves her is a casual mention of Government contracts. At the word "government" she immediately agrees to the fifteen roubles per soul. She then attempts to interest him in rye-meal, buckwheat, groats, and dead meat. Chichikov writes the paperwork and departs with a young peasant girl as his road guide. Korobotchka sends him off with pancakes and pie — and the private intention to visit town soon, to check whether she has perhaps sold her dead souls too cheaply.