In a series of nine letters, the narrator tells his friend how he introduced Vera Nikolayevna, a married woman who had been forbidden as a child to read fiction and poetry, to the intellectual pleasures of Goethe’s masterpiece. Opening up in front of Vera’s eyes is not only the realm of imagination, but also a world of unbridled feelings and tempes­tuous passions, which can only shatter the comfort and safety of her existence and force her to set off on a journey of spiritual awakening.

This lesser-known novella by one of the great masters of Russian literature, now available to English readers in Hugh Aplin’s lucid translation, is presented here with ‘Yakov Pasynkov’, another poignant story exploring the nature of love and human relations.