Dead Souls

Dead Souls – Nikolai Gogol; tr. David Magarshack,  0140441131

A con man makes his way through remote towns in early nineteenth century Russia. He meets and deals with a variety of grotesque types. Our interest in this novel focuses not on the plot, but on colorful scenes that detail the social and psychological oddness of the characters. Gogol scrutinizes the attitude of peasants and gentry and their favorite activities, such as love and jealousy, intrigue and lawsuits, dirt and squalor, adventure and anguish. It is for readers to decide if his combination of anguish and humor is their cup of tea. I’m always surprised at Gogol’s exuberance, his exasperated caricatures of Russians..

Gogol’s witty and caustic style reveals characters. Smart, sharp and fun, he addresses the reader directly. It’s easy to read, it is hard to understand sometimes whether incidents really further the plot or expose the nefarious plans of the characters, and the trustworthy and not.

The late University of Michigan professor and critic Carl R. Proffer praised Magarshack’s translation as the one that he recommended to his students instead of Constance Garnett's rendering.  Sometimes the high-falutin’ word choices  -- "Good Lord, my dear fellow, what nonsense you talk" --  made me wonder if subsequent translators such as Pevear and Volokhonsky have tried to be more colloquial.

David Magarshack (1899 - 1977) was best known for his translations of Dostoevsky. In fact, Kazuo Ishiguro said in 2005, “I often think I’ve been greatly influenced by the translator, David Magarshack, who was the favourite translator of Russian writers in the 1970s. And often when people ask me who my big influences are, I feel I should say David Magarshack, because I think the rhythm of my own prose is very much like those Russian translations that I read.”

It’s funny how I get interested in people and read things by and about them. I’m from Michigan so Dr. Proffer of the U of M draws my attention. I’m interested in Magarshack because he was born in the city where I lived from 1994 to 1997, Riga, birthplace also of Isaiah Berlin, Sergei Eisenstein, and Cynthia Lynn (born Zinta Valda Zimilis) who played Fraulein Helga on Hogan’s Heroes.