Pechorin is certainly a dangerous man - Byronic in his wasted gifts, his cynicism, his predatory and flamboyant energy for any kind of action that will stave off boredom. In five linked episodes, Mikhail Lermontov builds up the portrait of a man caught in and expressing the sickness of his times.

Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is a member of Russia's dying aristocracy a man so lazy that he has given up his job in the Civil Service, neglected his books, insulted his friends and found himself in debt. Too apathetic to do anything about his problems, he lives in a grubby, crumbling apartment, waited on by Zakhar, his equally idle servant.

Records Sebastian Knight's, but his erratic and troubled persona remains as elusive as ever. Do they exist or are they an illusion?

Vladimir is a young Russian-American immigrant whose capitalist dreams and desire for a girlfriend lead him off the straight and narrow into uncharted territory.

A novel constructed around the last great poem of a fictional American poet, John Shade, and an account of his death.

Romance follows Ada and Van from their first childhood meeting through eight years of rapture.