Recognized as a classic since its first publication in Russia in 1880, The Golovlyov Family recounts the history of a family of landowners through three generations. In a letter written shortly after the book’s publication, the author reflected that "I wrote The Golovyov Family as an attack on the family principal." As Russian scholar Carl Proffer wrote: "Gogol has been passed from school to school for thirteen decades. Even Bulgakov, who regarded Saltykov-Shchedrin as his teacher, who is the most satirical writer after Saltykov, and whose main works were unpublished until ten years 'go, has been written about by representatives of many different critical sects. That Saltykov’s works have not had this kind of appeal is somewhat puzzling. Even a Freudian novice could work Oedipal themes out of the autobiographical elements in The Golovlyov Family, and the Tartu University school could draw complex diagrams to show how The Golovyov Family is that most wonderful of all things, a 'unified whole.'"