As Chichikov travels from estate to estate, Gogol introduces us to a hilarious and terrifying lineup of Russian landowners. They are not flat stereotypes, but neurotically individual caricatures:
: The landowners get a tax break, and Chichikov plans to take his massive list of paper serfs to a bank, mortgage them as if they are living property, and buy himself a real estate empire. 🎭 A Gallery of Grotesques Dead Souls
: Enter our protagonist, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov . He travels the countryside offering to "buy" these dead souls on paper. As Chichikov travels from estate to estate, Gogol
The premise of the novel hinges on a loophole in the Imperial Russian tax and legal system: Dead Souls