The Village of Stepanchikovo
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Village of Stepanchikovo, also known as The Friend of the Family, is a novel written by Fyodor Dostoevsky and first published in 1859. Sergey Alexandrovich, the narrator is summoned from St. Petersburg to the estate of his uncle, Colonel Yegor Ilyich Rostanev, and finds that a middle-aged charlatan named Foma Fomich Opiskin has swindled the nobles around him into believing that he is virtuous despite behavior that is passive-aggressive, selfish, and spiteful. Foma obliges the servants to learn French, and gets furious when they are caught dancing the kamarinskaya.