But pity and tolerance are rare in satire, even in clash with it, producing in the result a deep sense of tragic humour.

It is this that makes of Dead Souls a unique work, peculiarly Gogolian, peculiarly Russian, and distinct from its author's Spanish and English masters.
Still more profound are the contradictions to be seen in the author's personal character; and unfortunately they prevented him from completing his work.

The trouble is that he made his art out of life, and when in his final years he carried his struggle, as Tolstoi did later, back into life, he repented of all he had written, and in the frenzy of a wakeful night burned all his manuscripts, including the second part of Dead Souls, only fragments of which were saved.

There was yet a third part to be written.

Indeed, the second part had been written and burned twice.
Accounts differ as to why he had burned it finally.