About the Author

Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826-1889) spent most of his life working as a civil servant in various capacities. After the death of poet Nikolay Nekrasov he acted as editor of the well-known Russian magazine, Otechestvenniye Zapiski, until the government banned it in 1884. His best-known work, the novel The Golovlevs, appeared in 1876.

Reviews

'The Apollo choices have been masterful. The list is thought-provoking, eye-opening, inspired and inspiring' * The Big Issue *
Magical... Saltykov's satire attacks the follies that have blighted humans from time immemorial: lust, deceit, violence, tyranny, subservience. Saltykov twists the reader's mind with irony of situation and style... At its delicious denouement, history itself disappears... Simply in terms of the inner logic of the fictional world, it is an ingenious and superbly ironic finale' * The Herald *
A relatively obscure little gem from the unceasingly superb Apollo Classics line offers an equally amusing portrayal of that most complex of nations more than a century ago... a joyfully surreal and playful novel, which manages to be insightful and prescient at the same time' * The Big Issue *