Dead Souls

As usual, the narration was excellent---which is astounding considering the great number of grotesques in Dead Souls---and the pronunciation of Russian words seemed authentic. My only quarrels are with the audio edition. It beats me why the translator calls Pavel Chichikov "Paul.' Also, it would have been valuable to include some kind of editorial preface---all editions have them---about Gogol himself and the destruction of part 2, so readers could understand why that part is so fragmented and why the characters in part 2 are largely "types," or paper dolls: Altruist, Intelligent Slavophil Landowner, Frivolous Westernizing Landowner, etc.

I felt like I was getting a great description of life in Russia at the novel period. Part of the reason I love to read, is that I love to travel. And reading transports me to another time and place. For that, I liked the book. However, because it was an "unfinished' work (Author tried to destroy the book) there were some abrupt stoppages where the reader would say "here the manuscript stops" and the ending was quite abrupt and unfinished.