Nikolai Gogol

for the value of a book lies in its truth and its ac­tu­al­ity rather than in its word­ing.

Some­how or other he had landed on his feet, and every­where he figured as an ex­per­i­enced man of the world.

al­most every man has his hobby or his lean­ing; yet Manilov had none such, for at home he spoke little, and spent the greater part of his time in med­it­a­tion—though God only knows what that med­it­a­tion com­prised!

“Without a friend, what are all the treas­ures in the world? ‘Possess not money,’ a wise man has said, ‘but rather good friends to whom to turn in case of need.’ ”

what I de­sire to know is whether you are will­ing to hand over to me—to resign—these ac­tu­ally non­liv­ing, but leg­ally liv­ing, peas­ants; or whether you have any bet­ter pro­posal to make?”

Of the ‘dead’ souls? Oh dear no! Let us write them down as liv­ing ones, see­ing that that is how they fig­ure in the census re­turns. Never do I per­mit my­self to step out­side the civil law, great though has been the harm which that rule has wrought me in my ca­reer. In my eyes an ob­lig­a­tion is a sac­red thing. In the pres­ence of the law I am dumb.”

, no, barin. Drunk, in­deed? Why, I know my man­ners too well. A word or two with a friend—that is all that I have taken. Any one may talk with a de­cent man when he meets him. There is noth­ing wrong in that.

But in what dread­ful weather God has brought you hither! What wind and what rain! You could not help los­ing your way.

“In everything the will of God, madam,” said Chichikov with a sigh. “Against the di­vine wis­dom it is not for us to rebel.

But they are dead souls.”
“Who said they were not? The mere fact of their be­ing dead en­tails upon you a loss as dead as the souls, for you have to con­tinue pay­ing tax upon them, whereas my plan is to re­lieve you both of the tax and of the res­ult­ant trouble. now do you un­der­stand? And I will not only do as I say, but also hand you over fif­teen roubles per soul. Is that clear enough?”