A stranger arrives in a Russian backwater community with a bizarre proposition for the local landowners: cash for their "dead souls," the serfs who have died in their service and for whom they must continue to pay taxes until the next census.

Original title: Mertvye dushi. Translated by D.J. Hogarth. Originally published: 2nd ed. London : J.M. Dent ; New York : E.P. Dutton, 1846. (Everyman's library).