DEAD SOULS
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE
FIRST PORTION OF THIS WORK
Second Edition published in 1846
From the Author to the Reader
Reader, whosoever or wheresoever you be, and whatsoever be your
station—whether that of a member of the higher ranks of
society or that of a member of the plainer walks of life—I
beg of you, if God shall have given you any skill in letters, and
my book shall fall into your hands, to extend to me your
assistance.
For in the book which lies before you, and which, probably, you
have read in its first edition, there is portrayed a man who is a
type taken from our Russian Empire. This man travels about the
Russian land and meets with folk of every condition—from the
nobly-born to the humble toiler. Him I have taken as a type to show
forth the vices and the failings, rather than the merits and the
virtues, of the commonplace Russian individual; and the characters
which revolve around him have also been selected for the purpose of
demonstrating our national weaknesses and shortcomings. As for men
and women of the better sort, I propose to portray them in
subsequent volumes. Probably much of what I have described is
improbable and does not happen as things customarily happen in
Russia; and the reason for that is that for me to learn all that I
have wished to do has been impossible, in that human life is not
sufficiently long to become acquainted with even a hundredth part
of what takes place within the borders of the Russian Empire. Also,
carelessness, inexperience, and lack of time have led to my
perpetrating numerous errors and inaccuracies of detail; with the
result that in every line of the book there is something which
calls for correction. For these reasons I beg of you, my reader, to
act also as my corrector. Do not despise the task, for, however
superior be your education, and however lofty your station, and
however insignificant, in your eyes, my book, and however trifling
the apparent labour of correcting and commenting upon that book, I
implore you to do as I have said. And you too, O reader of lowly
education and simple status, I beseech you not to look upon
yourself as too ignorant to be able in some fashion, however small,
to help me. Every man who has lived in the world and mixed with his
fellow men will have remarked something which has remained hidden
from the eyes of others; and therefore I beg of you not to deprive
me of your comments, seeing that it cannot be that, should you read
my book with attention, you will have NOTHING to say at some point
therein.
For example, how excellent it would be if some reader who is
sufficiently rich in experience and the knowledge of life to be
acquainted with the sort of characters which I have described
herein would annotate in detail the book, without missing a single
page, and undertake to read it precisely as though, laying pen and
paper before him, he were first to peruse a few pages of the work,
and then to recall his own life, and the lives of folk with whom he
has come in contact, and everything which he has seen with his own
eyes or has heard of from others, and to proceed to annotate, in so
far as may tally with his own experience or otherwise, what is set
forth in the book, and to jot down the whole exactly as it stands
pictured to his memory, and, lastly, to send me the jottings as
they may issue from his pen, and to continue doing so until he has
covered the entire work! Yes, he would indeed do me a vital
service! Of style or beauty of expression he would need to take no
account, for the value of a book lies in its truth and its
actuality rather than in its wording. Nor would he need to consider
my feelings if at any point he should feel minded to blame or to
upbraid me, or to demonstrate the harm rather than the good which
has been done through any lack of thought or verisimilitude of
which I have been guilty. In short, for anything and for everything
in the way of criticism I should be thankful.
Also, it would be an excellent thing if some reader in the
higher walks of life, some person who stands remote, both by life
and by education, from the circle of folk which I have pictured in
my book, but who knows the life of the circle in which he himself
revolves, would undertake to read my work in similar fashion, and
methodically to recall to his mind any members of superior social
classes whom he has met, and carefully to observe whether there
exists any resemblance between one such class and another, and
whether, at times, there may not be repeated in a higher sphere
what is done in a lower, and likewise to note any additional fact
in the same connection which may occur to him (that is to say, any
fact pertaining to the higher ranks of society which would seem to
confirm or to disprove his conclusions), and, lastly, to record
that fact as it may have occurred within his own experience, while
giving full details of persons (of individual manners, tendencies,
and customs) and also of inanimate surroundings (of dress,
furniture, fittings of houses, and so forth). For I need knowledge
of the classes in question, which are the flower of our people. In
fact, this very reason—the reason that I do not yet know
Russian life in all its aspects, and in the degree to which it is
necessary for me to know it in order to become a successful
author—is what has, until now, prevented me from publishing
any subsequent volumes of this story.
Again, it would be an excellent thing if some one who is endowed
with the faculty of imagining and vividly picturing to himself the
various situations wherein a character may be placed, and of
mentally following up a character’s career in one field and
another—by this I mean some one who possesses the power of
entering into and developing the ideas of the author whose work he
may be reading—would scan each character herein portrayed,
and tell me how each character ought to have acted at a given
juncture, and what, to judge from the beginnings of each character,
ought to have become of that character later, and what new
circumstances might be devised in connection therewith, and what
new details might advantageously be added to those already
described. Honestly can I say that to consider these points against
the time when a new edition of my book may be published in a
different and a better form would give me the greatest possible
pleasure.
One thing in particular would I ask of any reader who may be
willing to give me the benefit of his advice. That is to say, I
would beg of him to suppose, while recording his remarks, that it
is for the benefit of a man in no way his equal in education, or
similar to him in tastes and ideas, or capable of apprehending
criticisms without full explanation appended, that he is doing so.
Rather would I ask such a reader to suppose that before him there
stands a man of incomparably inferior enlightenment and
schooling—a rude country bumpkin whose life, throughout, has
been passed in retirement—a bumpkin to whom it is necessary
to explain each circumstance in detail, while never forgetting to
be as simple of speech as though he were a child, and at every step
there were a danger of employing terms beyond his understanding.
Should these precautions be kept constantly in view by any reader
undertaking to annotate my book, that reader’s remarks will
exceed in weight and interest even his own expectations, and will
bring me very real advantage.
Thus, provided that my earnest request be heeded by my readers,
and that among them there be found a few kind spirits to do as I
desire, the following is the manner in which I would request them
to transmit their notes for my consideration. Inscribing the
package with my name, let them then enclose that package in a
second one addressed either to the Rector of the University of St.
Petersburg or to Professor Shevirev of the University of Moscow,
according as the one or the other of those two cities may be the
nearer to the sender.
Lastly, while thanking all journalists and litterateurs for
their previously published criticisms of my book—criticisms
which, in spite of a spice of that intemperance and prejudice which
is common to all humanity, have proved of the greatest use both to
my head and to my heart—I beg of such writers again to favour
me with their reviews. For in all sincerity I can assure them that
whatsoever they may be pleased to say for my improvement and my
instruction will be received by me with naught but gratitude.