Dead Souls

by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

Footnotes

1 [ Essays on Russian Novelists. Macmillan.]

2 [ Ideals and Realities in Russian Literature. Duckworth and Co.]

3 [ This is generally referred to in the Russian criticisms of Gogol as a quotation from Jeremiah. It appears upon investigation, however, that it actually occurs only in the Slavonic version from the Greek, and not in the Russian translation made direct from the Hebrew.]

4 [ An urn for brewing honey tea.]

5 [ An urn for brewing ordinary tea.]

6 [ A German dramatist (1761-1819) who also filled sundry posts in the service of the Russian Government.]

7 [ Priest’s wife.]

8 [ In this case the term General refers to a civil grade equivalent to the military rank of the same title.]

9 [ An annual tax upon peasants, payment of which secured to the payer the right of removal.]

10 [ Cabbage soup.]

11 [ Three horses harnessed abreast.]

12 [ A member of the gentry class.]

13 [ Pieces equal in value to twenty-five kopecks (a quarter of a rouble).]

14 [ A Russian general who, in 1812, stoutly opposed Napoleon at the battle of Borodino.]

15 [ The late eighteenth century.]

16 [ Forty Russian pounds.]

17 [ To serve as blotting-paper.]

18 [ A liquor distilled from fermented bread crusts or sour fruit.]

19 [ That is to say, a distinctively Russian name.]

20 [ A jeering appellation which owes its origin to the fact that certain Russians cherish a prejudice against the initial character of the word—namely, the Greek theta, or TH.]

21 [ The great Russian general who, after winning fame in the Seven Years’ War, met with disaster when attempting to assist the Austrians against the French in 1799.]

22 [ A kind of large gnat.]

23 [ A copper coin worth five kopecks.]

24 [ A Russian general who fought against Napoleon, and was mortally wounded at Borodino.]

25 [ Literally, “nursemaid.”]

26 [ Village factor or usurer.]

27 [ Subordinate government officials.]

28 [ Nevertheless Chichikov would appear to have erred, since most people would make the sum amount to twenty-three roubles, forty kopecks. If so, Chichikov cheated himself of one rouble, fifty-six kopecks.]

29 [ The names Kariakin and Volokita might, perhaps, be translated as “Gallant” and “Loafer.”]

30 [ Tradesman or citizen.]

31 [ The game of knucklebones.]

32 [ A sort of low, four-wheeled carriage.]

33 [ The system by which, in annual rotation, two-thirds of a given area are cultivated, while the remaining third is left fallow.]

34 [ Public Prosecutor.]

35 [ To reproduce this story with a raciness worthy of the Russian original is practically impossible. The translator has not attempted the task.]

36 [ One of the mistresses of Louis XIV. of France. In 1680 she wrote a book called Reflexions sur la Misericorde de Dieu, par une Dame Penitente.]

37 [ Four-wheeled open carriage.]

38 [ Silver five kopeck piece.]

39 [ A silver quarter rouble.]

40 [ In the days of serfdom, the rate of forced labour—so many hours or so many days per week—which the serf had to perform for his proprietor.]

41 [ The Elder.]

42 [ The Younger.]

43 [ Secondary School.]

44 [ The desiatin = 2.86 English acres.]

45 [ “One more makes five.”]

46 [ Dried spinal marrow of the sturgeon.]

47 [ Long, belted Tartar blouses.]

48 [ Village commune.]

49 [ Landowner.]

50 [ Here, in the original, a word is missing.]

51 [ Dissenters or Old Believers: i.e. members of the sect which refused to accept the revised version of the Church Service Books promulgated by the Patriarch Nikon in 1665.]

52 [ Fiscal districts.]