The Story of One City

The chronicle of the city of Glupov, where one mayor has a gadget with recorded scripts instead of a brain, and another has his head stuffed with truffles. Meanwhile, the third is writing a charter "on the non-restriction of mayors... by laws," and the fourth dreams of building identical houses for identical people. Fantasy, you will say? Not quite, rather grotesque. This technique, like a magnifying glass with a built-in flashlight, helps the author highlight — and the reader see — the main point. Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin, who knew life in the capital and the provinces from all sides, did not fantasize but wrote his characters from life. Not only the mayors but also the residents of the city of Glupov. By the way, what are the latter doing while the former are being quirky? You will find out in the book.