Gogol reminds me of Anatole France: He is a relentless caricaturist, but with a kind heart. He presents the panorama of Russian personalities with a wicked grin, not a sneer. There is something of Balzac here, too. What it is, ultimately, is the ability to make sweeping generalizations that appear to be irrefutable. And to make a reader smile, even laugh. That is no small accomplishment, especially when so many writers cannot even bring themselves to try.
In the story, when the townspeople become baffled by the schemes of Chichikov and the rumors are flying: "They decided to meet and air this subject thoroughly, to decide what they should do about him, how they should go about it, what measures they should adopt, and what sort of man he was -- that is, to decide whether he should be arrested as a dangerous felon or whether he was in a position to have them all arrested as dangerous felons."
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