The History of a Town

In the 1867-1868 Saltykov-Shchedrin stopped working upon the Pompadours and Pompadouresses series of short stories and sketches and started upon a novel, seeing it a kind of a spin-off for the cycle. In January 1869 two first chapters ("The City Inventory" and "A Little Organ") appeared in the No.1 issue of Otechestvennye Zapiski. A pause followed and lasted till the end of the year: the author wr...