“In three years’ time the thin man will not have a single serf left to him that has not been mortgaged; the fat man goes on his quiet way, and ,lo and behold, suddenly at the end of town there appears a house that’s been purchased in his wife’s name, then at the other end of town another house, then near the town a comfortable little country home, then a village and all that goes with it. At length the fat man, having rendered service to God and Tsar, having earned the respect of one and all, leaves his position, transfers his household and becomes a landowner, a glorious Russian lord and master, the soul of hospitality, and he lives, and lives well. After he is gone, his thin little heirs once again, in the time honoured Russian way, gallop through their paternal fortune at full tilt.”
Nikolay Gogol, “Dead Souls”, 1842.
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