Rumor that Chichikov planned to abduct the provincial governor’s daughter

The rumor that Chichikov planned to abduct the provincial governor’s daughter turns a speculative accusation into one of N.’s chief public controversies. Originating in the claim that the dead-soul purchases conceal an abduction scheme, it spreads through the town with remarkable speed, gathers contradictory details, and reaches the Governor’s household. Its later repetition by Nozdrev shows how completely public invention has detached itself from Chichikov’s own intentions: when confronted, he can only ask what the accusation means.

Origin and Spread

The accusation begins as a conclusion offered in conversation: the dead-soul transactions are said to be a diversion, and Chichikov’s real object is supposedly to abduct the provincial governor’s daughter. The claim is startling to its listener, but it does not remain a private conjecture. When the Public Prosecutor enters, the two women tell him both about the purchases and about the alleged abduction plan, supplying details as though the charge were already established.

The women then depart in different directions to inform the rest of the town. Less than half an hour is enough for the story to circulate widely and unsettle the officials alongside the other townspeople. The narrative presents rumor not as a single lie passed intact from person to person, but as a rapidly multiplying account whose persuasive force depends on the appearance of detail.

Competing Versions

As the story spreads, it divides into distinct and incompatible explanations. One version claims that Chichikov is already in love with the daughter, that the pair have met by moonlight, and that the Governor might have consented to their marriage because Chichikov is rich. It adds a supposed obstacle: Chichikov has allegedly deserted a wife, whose touching letter to the Governor has supposedly helped prevent the parents from agreeing to the match. The narrator pointedly notes that how the ladies learned of this alleged marriage remains a mystery.

Another version denies that Chichikov has a wife. In its place, it invents a scheme involving the daughter’s mother: Chichikov is said to have first sought her favor, then asked for her daughter’s hand, and finally decided on abduction after the mother refused. As the sensation reaches more distant parts of N., further purported evidence is added. These accounts do not clarify the original charge; their contradictions reveal how readily the town can elaborate a plausible-sounding story without a reliable basis.

The Governor’s Household and the Town’s Factions

The rumor reaches the Governor’s wife, who is offended by the stories. Her sixteen-year-old daughter, though described as innocent, must endure an unpleasant conversation with her mother, and the Swiss footman receives instructions never to admit Chichikov to the house. Thus an unverified public story produces a concrete consequence: it changes the household’s treatment of him and subjects the daughter to the effects of an accusation she did not create.

The women’s faction also tries to persuade the men that the dead souls are merely a cover for the supposed abduction. Some men switch sides, despite being insulted by their former allies as old women and other disparaging names. The disagreement is not simply over what happened. The women concentrate on the alleged abduction, while the men focus on the dead souls and dispute whether the abduction story is credible at all. The competing debates turn the rumor into a spectacle of civic confusion rather than an investigation capable of establishing the truth.

Nozdrev Repeats the Charge

The accusation reaches Chichikov again through Nozdrev, who visits him after being questioned about him by officials. Nozdrev says that he defended Chichikov as an old school acquaintance, though his account is mixed with his characteristic inventions: he claims to have known Chichikov’s father and reports a conversation with a man named Perependev whom, the narrator observes, he has never met. Within this unreliable chatter, Nozdrev presents the abduction scheme as a rumor already current in town.

He says he expected something of the kind because he saw Chichikov and the daughter together at the ball. He even offers to help arrange the supposed wedding, carriage, and horses, provided Chichikov lends him three thousand roubles. His offer treats the rumor as an opportunity for personal advantage, not as a claim requiring verification. Chichikov, by contrast, is astonished and asks how he could possibly carry off the Governor’s daughter. The scene makes the distance between accusation and fact unmistakable: the supposed plan exists in the town’s talk, while Chichikov denies that he understands what Nozdrev is talking about.

Narrative Role and Significance

The rumor’s importance lies in the way it converts uncertainty into competing certainties. The dead-soul transaction already alarms the officials, but the abduction story gives the town another explanation to repeat, embellish, and use to organize its factions. Instead of resolving the question, each round of discussion produces new details, domestic consequences, and confident claims whose origins remain unclear.

The narrative also sets the rumor’s elaborate public versions against Chichikov’s direct bewilderment. The more convincingly the townspeople furnish the alleged romance, marriage obstacle, and failed proposal, the less their story depends on anything he has actually done. Nozdrev’s repetition completes that separation: the accusation has acquired a life of its own, circulating as supposed knowledge even when the man at its center rejects it as incomprehensible.