A powerful novel from the great Russian satirist: the Golovlev family are ruled by matriarch Anna Petrovna, but her son, Porfiry, plots her downfall. Anna Petrovna rules the ancestral estate of the Golovlev family with an iron hand. Around her swarm her family; her alcoholic sons, dissipated grandchildren and degenerate husband. But, in his darkened study, her son Porfiry - 'Judas the Bloodsucker' - schemes for an overthrow of power. In this powerful novel, the great Russian satirist presents a stark portrait of the Russian gentry sapped by generations of idleness and social irrelevance.
