First published in 1870, THE HISTORY OF A TOWN is now regarded as one of the major satirical Russian novels of the 19th century. Shchedrin's farcical history of Glupov (or Stupid Town) follows the bewildered and passive Russian peasants for hundreds of years as they do what they can – in a sluggish way – to live with the violence and lunacy of their tyrannical rulers. A harsh criticism of Tsarist Russia, it is strangely pertinent to today.
