A Family of Noblemen
Gelesen von Expatriate
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
(4,25 Sterne; 6 Bewertungen)
Meet the Golovliovs, the ultimate dysfunctional family. In the difficult transition years before and after the liberation of Russia’s serfs, the Golovliovs are a gentry family ill-equipped to face the adaptations necessary in the new social order. Petty, back-biting, greedy, rigid, ignorant, and cruel, their personalities are captured in the array of nicknames they themselves give each other: The Hag, Little Judas, Simple Simon, Pavel the Sneak, the Orphans, the Blood-Sucker. They hate each other ferociously and utterly despise the peasants around them, who are gradually awakening to the potentialities of their new freedoms. In this most famous of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novels, there is a keen sympathy toward the plight of women caught in the complexities of social change: Anninka and Lubinka, the aristocratic orphans who, seeking independence, recklessly cast themselves into the bohemian life; the matriarch Arina Petrovna, whose desperately vigorous administration of the estate leads to an exhilarating but only temporary stability; the peasant girl Yevpraksia, who is resistlessly taken by the loathsome Porfiry Vladimirych as his mistress. Far from a piece of social propaganda, A Family of Noblemen shows a subtle portraiture of the complex characters and convoluted circumstances of the time. (Expatriate) (11 hr 23 min)
Chapters
Bewertungen
Thank you Expatriate!
zobert
(4 Sterne)
A very long and verbose novel! I found some parts very tedious and fast forwarded through some of the diatribes. Now I have finished the book, I realize the wordiness caused me to live the novel and my frustration with 'the bloodsucker' made it personal. Pretty good writing! An enormous undertaking by Expatriate - THANK YOU!
Depressing
TwinkieToes
(4 Sterne)
Well read by Expatriate - yes. But about as depressing a piece as even Russian literature can produce. No love, no hope, no future. Hypocrisy and hoarding and treachery. I feel like i need to drink myself into a stupor, like many of the characters do.