: Enter our protagonist, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov . He travels the countryside offering to "buy" these dead souls on paper.
: The landowners get a tax break, and Chichikov plans to take his massive list of paper serfs to a bank, mortgage them as if they are living property, and buy himself a real estate empire. 🎭 A Gallery of Grotesques Dead Souls
: A giant, bear-like man who is ruthlessly efficient and drives a hard bargain for his deceased property. : Enter our protagonist, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov
: Landowners had to pay taxes on their male serfs (referred to officially as "souls") based on the latest census. : Enter our protagonist
The premise of the novel hinges on a loophole in the Imperial Russian tax and legal system: