Blobbo

Everything was turned to account and brought into the case: the fact that so-and-so was an illegitimate son, and that so-and-so had a mistress, and whose wife was flirting with whom. Scandals, moral lapses and all sorts of things were so mixed up and intertwined with the story of Tchitchikov and of the dead souls, that it was utterly impossible to make out what was most nonsensical: it all seemed equally absurd.

Dead Souls