Nineteenth-century Russian realist writer Nikolai Gogol's 1842 novel "Dead Souls" was never completed and finishes in the middle of a sentence. Gogol's intent in this work was to offer critical commentary on Russian society and the plight of the serfs living in the country at the time. The protagonist of "Dead Souls" is a man named Chichikov who tries to rise in society by buying the "dead souls" of serfs.
