Dead Souls (1842)
by Nikolai Gogol
Part I
Chapter I
- The gentleman lolling back in the chaise was neither dashingly handsome nor yet unbearably ugly, neither too stout nor yet too thin; it could not be claimed he was old but he was no stripling, either. His arrival in the town created no stir and was not marked by anything out of the ordinary.
Chapter V
- "Why are you being so stingy?", Sobakievich demanded. "It's cheap at the price. A rogue would cheat you, sell you some worthless rubbish instead of souls, but mine are as juicy as ripe nuts, all picked -- they are all either craftsmen or sturdy peasants."
Chapter VI
- The reason why Proshka wore such large boots can be explained at once: Plyushkin kept only one pair of boots for all of his servants, however numerous they were, and they always stood in the hall.
Chapter VIII
- They insist that an author should write in the strictest, purest and noblest language: in short, they expect the Russian language to drop from the clouds, already refined, and that it should come naturally to the lips, so that all they have to do is to open their mouth and stick out their tongue. It goes without saying of course that the feminie half of the human species is very wise; but it must be confessed that our respected readers are even wiser.
- Apparently that does sometimes happen. Apparently even men like Chichikov are transformed into poets for a few moments in their life: though the word "poet" would be an exaggeration here.
Chapter X
- Among a number of intelligent suggestions there was finally this one too, strange as it may seem, that Chichikov might be Napoleon in disguise...
Chapter XI
- However, nothing turned out as Chichikov had intended.
- Russia! Russia! I see you now, from my wondrous, beautiful past I behold you! How wretched, dispersed and uncomfortable everything is about you...
- Russia, are you not speeding along like a fiery and matchless troika?
