Golovlyov Family (Everyman's Library) - Hardcover

Shchedrin; Duddington, Natalie (Translator)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0460009087 ISBN 13: 9780460009089

Publisher: Heron Books, 1968

Synopsis

The Golovyov Family is a thought-provoking and powerfully written novel. Recognized as a classic since it first publication in Russia in 1880, it recounts the history of a family of landowners through three generations. In a letter written shortly after the book’s publication, the author reflected that "I wrote The Golovyov Family as an attack on the family principal."

As Russian scholar Carl Proffer wrote: "Gogol has been passed from school to school for thirteen decades. Even Bulgakov, who regarded Saltykov-Schhedrin as his teacher, who is the most satirical writer after Saltykov, and whose main works were unpublished until ten years ago, has been written about by representatives of many different critical sects. That Saltykov’s works have not had this kind of appeal is somewhat puzzling…Even a Freudian novice could work Oedipal themes out of the autobiographical elements in The Golovlyov Family, and the Tartu University school could draw complex diagrams to show how The Golovyov Family is that most wonderful of all things, a "unified whole." It is time that Saltykov stopped being the exclusive property of critics whose primary concerns are sociological or historical. As the reader of The Golovlyov Family will see—with considerable pleasure—Saltykov’s prose has much more to offer than not."

About this title

About the Author:

Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826-1889) was born in Moscow in 1826, his first stories, deemed "subversive," were published in 1847, after which he was sentenced to exile for seven years. An eminent figure on the literary scene of 1850s 1880s, Saltkov-Shcherdrin was a major commentator on the social and political conditions of Russia in newspapers and literary journals.

Language Notes:

Text: English, Russian (translation)

About this edition

• Publisher: Heron Books
• Publication date: 1968
• ISBN 10: 0460009087
• ISBN 13: 9780460009089
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336