Urs Heftrich holds the Chair of Slavic Literatures at the University of Heidelberg. He is the author of four monographs. As an editor and prize-winning translator of Czech and Russian poetry, he has been mediating Slavic Literatures in Germany since 1989.

Acknowledgments
Foreword

Introduction: Of Beauty, Truth, and Evil

Part One: Chichikov's Prehistory

1. Ethos and Epic

2. The Ground Plan of Dead Souls

3. The Ground Plan of Dead Souls Revisited

Part Two: Chichikov's Crime

1. On Truth and Lies in a Moral Sense

2. The Five Faces of Lying

3. In the Shadow Realm of Lies

Part Three: Chichikov's Punishment

1. Judgment and Rumor

2. The Five Acts of the Drama

3. Ethos and Epic: Chichikov's Crime and Punishment

Illustrations

Bibliography

Index