A review by abookishtype
The Golovlyov Family: Shchedrin by Shchedrin

2.0

At the end of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin’s biting satire, The Golovlyov Family, the narrator meditates on the random fates of families. Some reverse their declines and rebuild the family fortunes. Others are at the top of fortune’s wheel before precipitously falling to the bottom within generations. Personality has much to do with the rise and fall of fortunes, but there is also an element of luck. At the beginning of The Golovlyov Family, published as a serial between 1875 and 1876 but set some years before serfdom was abolished in 1861, the eponymous family controls a growing estate in the Russian country side. By the end, three generations are ruined and the estate passes to another branch of the family...

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