Heinrich Zschokke (1771–1848)

A moral tale of a Swiss soldier who returns from war to find his village sunk in poverty. Written in 1817, see if any of this sounds familiar.
A small number of people have most of the money and assets. These same people also control most of the government. The state finances are a mess due to incompetence and corruption. The education system is underfunded. Credit is hard to come by and people are heavily in debt due to short-term loans with exorbitant interest rates.
This tale is somewhat too religious for my taste, its also quite twee and utopian by the end, or possibly dystopian, as they come up with laws about what clothes people can wear etc. Its also a little bit too specific at times as many utopian novels can be, as the author's show you their perfect plan of how the world could be fixed and explain it in detail.
I also thought it had an over objection to alcohol until i realized the author didn't even consider drinking at home to actually be drinking, his objections being purely against pubs.
Quite interesting and generally fun read, almost sadly relevant today, at least in the broad strokes.… (altro)