Sergei Terpigorev (better known in his lifetime by his nom de plume, S. Atava) has a place in literature as a chronicler of the way of life of the landed gentry and more specifically of the decline of that class in the years following the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. His literary renown came relatively late in life, however, and only after he had established himself as an investigative journalist specializing in sarcastic and humorous exposés of wrongdoing in Russia's provinces. He was nearly forty before he produced his best-known literary work, a collection of sketches titled Oskudenie (Impoverishment, 1881). These were fictional vignettes, closely based on fact, of the misfortunes and misadventures of landowners trying but failing to cope with the new economic and social realities that prevailed in the years after major reforms in 1860s Russia. Oskudenie was enormously popular in its day, and it...