Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol was first
published in 1842, and is one of the most prominent works of 19th-century
Russian literature. Gogol himself saw it as an "epic poem in prose", and within
the book as a "novel in verse". Despite supposedly completing the trilogy's
second part, Gogol destroyed it shortly before his death. Although the novel
ends in mid-sentence (like Sterne's Sentimental Journey), it is usually
regarded as complete in the extant form.
— Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.