The Letter

10 April 2012

Creative Writing Tanya Tsishevski

This letter was written by Russian writer Nikolay Gogol to Alexander Pushkin in 1835.

Dear Sasha,

In the summer of 1835 I was travelling to the Ukraine on my visit to my home. During my travels I started to make notes of my observations over last years. You have read my " Petersburg Notes " and you advised me to turn these notes into a novel. You are the famous Russian poet, " the heart of Russian poetry " and I have the greatest respect for your opinion. You said that my "Petersburg Notes " are literary works of art and they will become my future book " Dead Souls". The protagonist of the novel is the purchaser of "dead souls " that is serfs who died since the last census but who remained alive for administrative, fiscal and statistical purposes. His name will be CHICHIKOV who will travel through the Russian countryside and meet different characters. It will be an extremely funny book, it will have satire so the reader is going to laugh. I would like to depict the funny sides of the whole Russia. I write every morning five pages, then I am having a walk in the garden and continue writing in the afternoon. I hope to finish my book " Dead Souls " in the late autumn through I think it will be difficult as I am changing my manuscript all the time.

I have great concern about the censorship. My book does not have a positive hero. It has a great deal of criticism of "honourable men " and I am not sure that the Committee of Censorship will allow the book be published. That is a worry for me.

I plan to create my book "Dead Souls" in three parts, dividing it, like Dante's " Divine Comedy", into hell, purgatory and heaven. Not only the serfs which Chichikov is buying really dead but all the characters in the novel are emotionally and spiritually no longer alive. In my first draft the main protagonist was morally dead too because what he was doing was dishonest and illegal. But I am changing the draft. I want to show the inner conflict between good and the evil in man that is why I want to show the spiritual regeneration of my main character. Chichikov will be reborn a as a man with a true sense of values.

Respectfully yours

Nikolay Gogol