A Desperate Character and Other Stories (Paperback, Main)

Misha Poltyev, a 'desperate character, ' squanders his inheritance, senselessly turns to drink, and lives among the beggars of the highway. Eventually, he returns to his family estate and the graveyard where his parents lie:

"'I want to dig myself a grave ... and to lie here for time everlasting. There's only this spot left for me in the world. Get a spade Oh God Everywhere nothing but injustice, and oppression, and evil-doing ... Everything must go to ruin then, and me too ' "

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These stories demonstrate Turgenev's matchless skill for portraying elemental aspects of Russian life: the melancholic, the nostalgic, and the darkly comic.

Six tales written by Turgenev between 1847 and 1881, in Constance Garnett's classic 1899 translation: A Desperate Character," "A Strange Story," "Punin and Baburin," "Old Portraits," "The Brigadier" "and Pyetushkov. With an introduction by Edward Garnett.