A quick note on names: According to Russian cultural practice, each character has a first name, a middle patronymic name derived from the name of their father, and a last name. Polite address does not use the last name like in English (so, not Mr. Kirsanov), but instead the first name and patronymic (for instance, Nikolai Petrovich).

The novel opens in May 1859, before Russian peasants became legally free, as noble landowners are adjusting to the threat this looming new reality poses to their economic status.

Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov, a middle-aged man wearing “a dust-covered coat, and no hat” (3) waits for someone at a coach inn, a stop for travelers. He repeatedly asks his servant if there is “any sign of them” (3).

Nikolai calls Marino, his large estate with two hundred peasants, a “farm” to signify his liberal politics and commitment to peasant freedom (3). His father had been a career officer, distinguishing himself in Russia’s 1812-1815 war with Napoleon. His mother lived a life of relative luxury and prestige, and “wore splendid caps and silk dresses that rustled” (4). Nikolai, unlike his father, was “something of a coward,” so he entered the civil service (4). His bureaucratic career took him to the imperial capital of St.