Hi, yes, as for the Overcoat that’s exactly right. As for the Dead Souls, I just wanted to point out that ‘dead souls’ were actually enslaved peasants, which Gogol doesn’t stress too much. His focus is on describing types of aristocrats. Meanwhile, the ‘dead souls’ they are trading in, are virtually voiceless and faceless. Of course it was quite normal for the 19th century Russia. Most writers had slave peasants (krepostnie), including Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, etc. Yet one needs some background knowledge to realize that from the book.