City Folk and Country Folk

By Sofia Khvoshchinskaya and Nora Seligman Favorov

“This scathingly funny comedy of manners” by the rediscovered female Russian novelist “will deeply satisfy fans of 19th-century Russian literature” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
 
City Folk and Country Folk is a seemingly gentle yet devastating satire of the aristocratic and pseudo-intellectual elites of 1860s Russia. Translated into English for the first time, the novel weaves a tale of manipulation, infatuation, and female assertiveness that takes place one year after the liberation of the empire's serfs.

Upending Russian literary clichés of female passivity and rural gentry benightedness, Sofia Khvoshchinskaya centers her story on a common-sense, hardworking noblewoman and her self-assured daughter living on their small rural estate. Throwing off the imposed sense of duty toward their "betters", these two women ultimately triumph over the urbanites' financial, amorous, and matrimonial machinations.

Sofia Khvoshchinskaya and her writer sisters closely mirror Britain's Brontës, yet Khvoshchinskaya's work contains more of Jane Austen's wit and social repartee, as well as an intellectual engagement reminiscent of Elizabeth Gaskell's condition-of-England novels. Written by a woman under a male pseudonym, this exploration of gender dynamics in post-emancipation Russian offers a new and vital point of comparison with the better-known classics of nineteenth-century world literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9780231544504

Book preview

Reviews for City Folk and Country Folk

[gbill_7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a wonderful discovery this little gem from Russia’s Golden Age of Literature was. It’s a brilliantly told tale about the clash between various ‘city folks’ and a simple old country woman and her daughter, with fantastic character sketches. A bourgeoisie landowner, a pious “holy” woman, and a bullying matchmaker all look down on the ‘country folks’, yet they themselves are hypocritical and pretentious. Khvoshchinskaya is deft at painting this picture with nuance, she shows insight into human psychology, and her writing is clear and direct. There is also a strong feminist message, as the daughter stands up for herself, and makes quite a hero. Khvoshchinskaya wrote under the pseudonym Ivan Vesenev, and as her sisters Nadezhda and Praskovia wrote as well, it’s hard not to compare them to the Brontë sisters. If this book is any indication, the comparison is apt, and I will have to seek out more of their work. Highly recommended.