: Landowners had to pay taxes on their male serfs (referred to officially as "souls") based on the latest census.
: Because censuses were conducted years apart, landowners kept paying taxes on serfs who had died in the interim. Dead Souls
: A compulsive liar, gambler, and bully who nearly ruins the entire scheme. : Landowners had to pay taxes on their
The premise of the novel hinges on a loophole in the Imperial Russian tax and legal system: Dead Souls