Surprisingly light hearted for Russian lit - I struggle to think of other 19th century Russian novels that actually attempt comedy. There's a sort of charm to it. It's a novel about the Russian people cross-sectionally: I think of The Canterbury Tales as an english equivalent to this.

Gogol, in Dead Souls comes across as chronically insecure - he is constantly appealing to the reader to judge or not to judge, to disregard this or that character (often women), and to move on from scenes without too much thought. It's an unfinished novel, so it must be said that the last third is pretty chaotic tonally as well as in terms of narrative. In truth, the novel does not resolve itself.

I was much amused by the incredibly backhanded description of a woman as 'not wholly of an unpleasing exterior'.