Nikolai Vassilievitx Gogol (1809–1852)

This is a pretty wild Ukrainian Christmas story; it makes A Christmas Carol look positively neo-Realist. It’s incredible to me that this was published only eleven years earlier than Dickens’ classic, it feels more like centuries separate the two worlds, one still medieval while the other has become modern.

Here you have village witches, magical flying dumplings, and the devil up in the sky sticking the moon in his pocket before coming back down to the village and creating a blizzard, all to foil the plans of a villager he dislikes for painting disparaging scenes about him for the local church. Pretty sure that never happened in industrial England.

Interestingly Gogol has in fact portrayed the devil (not the usual star of Christmas stories in my experience) as rather pathetic, a figure of mockery rather than fear despite his seemingly fairly impressive powers. At one point it seems he’s convinced his village antagonist to sell his soul for what he most desires. Just as soon as that’s set up however the tables are fully turned. The villager grabs the devil by the tail, subdues him by making the sign of the cross, and literally rides him all the way to St. Petersburg to get what he’s after. Upon their return he casually slaps the devil three times and sends him on his way. I’ll be.

With the story being set on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, this showing of the devil to be powerless in comparison to a faithful Christian is what I’d say most makes it a Christmas story, as other than mentioning of carolers there aren’t many typical Christmas trappings to the story.… (more)

To be clear, Volume one of this book is a 5 star work, no question about it, and I would venture to guess it is solely upon this part of the book that Dead Souls reputation as a classic rests. So rare is it to find a work of art, even among the very best works, where you feel like the creator is right there with you, leading you along the winding path of their work, and you are able to completely relinquish yourself to the process of absorbing what they have made. Gogol achieves this effect in Vol. 1. This was clearly an artist that felt no pressure to make his story conform to any convention, and simply follows his interests towards wherever they might take them. Interspersed with extremely funny scenes (all the more impressive for having survived 200 years of interceding time as well as translation across culture and language) we get meditation on the psychology of humanity, reflections on the state of Russia, and beautifully vibrant descriptions of scenes and landscapes. The plot isn’t of great importance here as each new encounter Chichikov has with the sundry noblemen and landowners he meets along the way follow the same general pattern - what makes this a classic is the probably the same thing that raises every good story to the level of real art - the keen eye and capacious intellect of the artist.

I’m far from the first to think Vol. 2 is a big drop off - that’s general consensus it seems. Besides the fact that this part of the book seems only partially finished (so much so that my edition included more than a dozen footnotes denoting blank spaces in the manuscript or errors in continuity) it also loses the gleeful cynicism that makes Vol. 1 so funny and relatable, as people haven’t changed much in the intervening couple of centuries. Wikipedia tells me Gogol was a conservative, although like all the best satires, the political perspective of the creator isn’t important when it’s done right. Vol. 2 it’s easier to see where he was coming from, when Chichikov gets his comeuppance for all his slimy wheeling and dealing. Apparently Dead Souls was meant to be a kind of Divine Comedy, with Chichikov making his way from a good for nothing shister to a pious example of Russian morality. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not so interested in this transformation, nor do I think writing this kind of story is where Gogol’s talent lies. There are a few scenes where the inspiration of Vol. 1 shines through, but not enough to save it from dragging.… (more)