The Golovlyov Family

This is a socio-psychological novel in which the author studied the symptom of a spiritual disease— “moral ossification,” or “moral anemia.” He notes that “for several generations, three character traits have been passing through the history of a family: unfitness for work, idleness, and drunkenness.” The Golovlevs represent an artistic collective image that generalizes the everyday life and psychology of the life of landowners before and after serfdom was abolished in 1861.

The novel reflects the author’s philosophical thoughts about the fate of society and a person, the problems of interaction between the environment and the individual, social psychology and morality.