Which Edition

Nikolai Gogol

Dead Souls

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Cover of Dead Souls, translated by Pevear & Volokhonsky
Best for most

Pevear & Volokhonsky · 1996

Pevear and Volokhonsky's is the accessible contemporary Dead Souls — stimulating, readable, and close to Gogol's strange comedy. The easiest modern way in. This is where I'd start.

Cover of Dead Souls, translated by Robert A. Maguire
Best literary

Robert A. Maguire · 2004

Robert Maguire's Penguin translation is the one critics single out for capturing Gogol's voice — A. S. Byatt among its admirers. A touch richer and more literary than P&V; a wonderful read with strong notes.

Cover of Dead Souls, translated by Guerney / Fusso
Nabokov's pick

Guerney / Fusso · 1996

Bernard Guerney's translation — revised by Susanne Fusso for Yale — was Nabokov's favorite: more poetic and archaic, with the humor well caught. The connoisseur's choice.

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