Volume 50, Number 12 · July 17, 2003
Among the Savages
By Elizabeth Hardwick
The Golovlyov Family
by Shchedrin, translated from the Russian by Natalie Duddington, with an introduction by James Wood
New York Review Books, 334 pp., $12.95 (paper)
Sketches of Provincial Life
by Saltykov-Shchedrin, translated from the Russian and with notes by Frederic Aston
London: L. Booth, 240 pp. (1861; out of print)
The History of a Town
by Saltykov-Shchedrin, translated from the Russian and edited by Susan Brownsberger
Ardis, 213 pp. (1982; out of print)
The Pompadours: A Satire on the Art of Government
by Saltykov-Shchedrin, translated from the Russian and with an introduction by David Magarshack
Ardis, 277 pp. (1985; out of print)
The Golovlyov Family, a novel from the late 1870s by the Russian writer M.E. Saltykov (pen name Shchedrin), is a curiosity of world literature in its relentless assault on the common sentiments of family life. The Golovlyovs, mother, father, three sons, and a daughter, live on their estate in the provinces. They are indeed a family, bound together by fierce competitiveness, suspicion of the motives of one another, and an alert concentration of the mind of each on money. Their world is a desert of greed, sloth, and drunkenness. They do not have visitors, give balls; the landscape, the seasons, the harvests that come to brilliant light in provincial scenes in Russian fiction are only competition for food among the Golovlyovs, who are more like petty accountants in the city than like landowners. The disrepute of the family is extreme and perhaps in that way it exceeds the bounds of realism. And perhaps not. The imag-ination is stirred by the aesthetic challenge of a story without a sympathetic character. How far will Saltykov go? Very far indeed. Without an undamaged, soulful, or generous character, he creates a vengeful fiction of unique savagery.
Review, 4775 words
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